sarals 

As you build strength, your weight will come up. How much, genetics knows! Don't worry about weight, worry about strength and endurance. (She said )

Cleave

Benefit(?) of having the flu for 4 days is being under 151 lbs for the first time since September.

Hermes

I thought you got a flu shot.

Cleave

I had one scheduled for one of my trips to Seattle but then it got canceled. I missed the SoCal shots because of business travel.

celticfrost

"You" old farts aren't really getting skinny, you're just getting shorter.

This old fart is at 2.636 lbs p/inch (I'll never be a climber). And since I posted in the forum, I guess I'll have to do at least one race this upcoming season.

LAJ

Getting shorter sucks. Seems my ratio is a tad better than yours, but like you, I'm not a climber. I need to get better, and I need to buckle down and get that ratio to a more positive place.

I look forward to your race report, @celticfrost

celticfrost

Yeah, to be honest, I'm not sure what I'm shooting for weightwise. I don't think I'm the body type that can have an *awesome* power to weight ration even if I do lose a loaf or two off my gut. I just may shoot for raw power, "eat better" than I have been and let the chips fall where they may regarding my weight. 2017 will be half JRA anyway and perhaps I can get more analytical in 2018.

I'm seeing that BRAC has now joined USAC, so for just one race I'll have to pay $95 ($70 USAC, $25 BRAC) + race entry (usaully ~$40). Looks like one day licenses are only available to cat5 -- though the only reason I was ever a 4 is because, at the time, it was the lowest cat in CO. Going to try to see if I can downgrade -- hopefully my DNFs, DFLs and 2nd to last place results will prove I'm not sandbagging by going to Cat5.

GL w/ the weight loss (or height gain ). Looking to this forum as a way of at least keeping some sort of focus for the offseason and next year.

Hermes

Welcome Celtricfrost. Cat 5 races are for beginners to learn how to race in larger fields. It is not about placement. Downgrading to a Cat 5 from a Cat 4 will probably not be understood / allowed by USAC with the primary reason being to circumvent buying a USAC yearly license as a Cat 4. But hey, give them a call. Maybe it will work.

As a side note...Depending on how old you are...there is an advantage to being a Cat4. Cat 5 racers are usually excluded from masters races. You may find that you like racing and want to compete in a particular masters field and cannot do it as a Cat 5.

Raw power is an interesting concept. I have found that generally it works for those times where strength is a competitive advantage such as sprinting or gaining separation in the first 4 pedal strokes. For me, the better weight management I maintain, the better my longer term power - both flat and hillclimb - YMMV.

IMO, weight management is the trifecta of endurance cycling...Lower CdA (smaller frontal area i.e. smaller body), better internal heat management and improved power to weight ratio.

LAJ

Thanks @celticfrost. I started racing right when they made that switch, so I was never a 5 either. For good or bad, it played out the way it played out. As @Hermes said, give Yvonne an email, and see what she says about the whole thing.

Heathpack 

@celticfrost, you could just race flat TTs. Then weight really doesn't matter that much...

@Hermes, interesting comments on "raw power". People sometimes forget or fail to realize that it does take a minimum amount of power to do certain things on the bike. For example, there are some guys I ride with and on the road I can easily drop them on a climb- I obviously have a better power-to-weight ratio than they do and better endurance. But if things get steep enough on the mountain bike, suddenly I'm walking while they're still pedaling. This was confusing to me but then I came to understand that if you can't generate the minimum power necessary to climb that hill, you're just out of luck, being lighter does not help you. Ditto with the separation thing in a group ride. People want to believe its all proportional, smaller people generate less power but they need less, right? Not entirely- when you have lower absolute power and you're riding on flat ground in the draft, your weight is no longer much of an advantage. So you can get away with riding with faster, stronger people if you're crafty about the group riding tactics. But you still get dropped if you don't have the absolute raw power to make the minimum needed to hang when you hit a headwind or a slight uphill grade. Yeah the answer is to train for better power output, but the rate at which you can build muscle may be lower if the reason that you're smaller is because you're a woman and lacking in testosterone relative to men. Sure women can do it. But not all women and it may take way longer than it would for a man and at some point it maybe just becomes more practical to ride in a different way (ie recreationally). So obvious to me that this is what happens with many women in the world of cycling and so interesting how many men just refuse to see this. They think because they used to be dropped when they first started riding that its just a newby thing, its not genuinely more difficult for women. The really curious thing is how invested some people are in the concept that cycling is a meritocracy- if women are slower or can't hang, the issue is that they're not working hard enough or haven't been training long enough or don't have the group riding skills. Sure, some of those things account for it- but there's an important physiologic difference which is just really hard to understand unless you're living it.


But I totally agree that being lighter is better in so many ways. Not that losing weight is easy but its such a huge bang for the buck in cycling that its ridiculous. Its almost cheating how much you get for relatively little effort compared to training.

celticfrost

Thx for the welcome.

I'm not too concerned about getting squashed or not in a race. Just that if I do get squashed, I don't want to pay about $135 to do it (if I only do a single race, which could be likely), thus my reasoning for trying to go cat5. Good point about the potentially being locked out of other races though. Once the flyers start coming out for next years races, I may get a better idea of what to try -- entirely not expecting to get downgraded, so whatever happens, happens.

Yes, I mentioned raw power because I'm relatively less sucky at things like sprinting or disrupting the pack w/ a mini-breakaway (if only to get another team to burn a match chasing me down) -- I kind of like the idea of doing that and, who knows, maybe someday it'll turn into a real breakaway. I'm about 99.9% positive that the weight loss will come, just fairly doubtful it will happen and strength will continue to increase and I'd me much of a factor in a hilly race. Hopefully I can find the tipping point this year, then fine tune optimal power and weight further down the road.

Your new fangled, mumbo-jumbo about CdA, internal heat management, etc. is lost on me as I don't shave even shave my legs and still ride steel half the time. I thought this place was for old retrogrouches types, guess I'll have to change w/ the times.

valygrl

Curmudgeons are over in the regular 50+ forum, we are the cool geriatric crowd. Titanium hips and carbon bikes and such. Arthritis is just a good excuse to get a DI2 upgrade.

Welcome!

celticfrost

Thx, but I've been titanium plate & rod free since 2012 and looking to stay that way.

EPS will be the upgrade for when & if. If I'm not allowed to be curmudgeony, then I should at least be able to be snobby.

revchuck 

Where I live, even Athena is considered snobbish.

celticfrost

Well, I'm down to a svelte 2.619 lbs p/inch, but obviously need to get way svelteier.

I also went to USAC to check out renewal options and it's defaulting me to Cat5. I'm guessing it's doing that cause I have less than 10 mass starts and haven't held a license in 5+ years.

Goals for the year are to somehow do better than I did in the past:
-RR 43/43 DFL
-TTT 8/9 2nd to DFL
-CRIT 39/39 DFL
-TT 12/15 4th to DFL (got me 9 points as scoring was 20 deep )
-RR 26/27 2nd to DFL

Looks like TTing is my "strength".

LAJ

I missed this somehow.

Well said, @valygrl!

Di2 is a good excuse to get Di2, but I'll go with arthritis also.

thehammerdog

OK, 5'10" and sadly 220lbs...Fit fat. Weight room plus a few extra pounds...Goal is 190 - 200.
Strong on flats climb not so much....😶

Racer Ex 

I am not skinny.

Heathpack 

I am very disappointed because I have been on a diet for 24 hours now and have not lost any weight.

valygrl

me neither

echappist

but are you zaftig?

Hermes

I think you are on to something.

Heathpack 

Aw I love this pic.


Little known fact: Shortly before this pic was taken, Ex lent me his machete because mine was getting a little dull from so much hacking. One of those things that made all the difference in the world.

Racer Ex 

Base layers make me look fat...

Weight thing: Skiing and lifting I put on some upper body over the past few months. I have given up doing the skinny climber thing. At this point in the age curve muscle good. And you can't throw people in the Madison with Froome arms.

Last few weeks I've been knocking off the fat I gained over my break period. 8 pounds down. Really I'm less looking at the scale than the pinch test. Folks miss that you can have a static needle but be shifting from fat to muscle. Thighs are definitely changing shape, so I figure I'm on the right track here.

sarals 

I'm pleased to see and say that I'm on my way down with my weight, as well. Below where I was in October right now. No, I won't get carried away this time!