revchuck 

I saw that medal, Sara. You need to post it here too!

sarals 

Chuck, thanks!! I'll do that!!

Heathpack 

Nice racing, @sarals!

sarals 

Thanks, @Heathpack!!!

shovelhd

That's one of your best efforts, Sara. So many good things to reflect on. Things that would have broken you in the past. Looks like you've developed quite the sprint as well. Great race craft and situational awareness. One thing to take away with that medal is to work with Kurt on defending your wheel. My favorite part of your story was when you paced yourself back on after getting spit out the back. That's something that takes everything racing has to offer. Patience, trust, inner strength. Outstanding job.

sarals 

I loved reading this, Shovel!! Yeah, I think you hit it. It's taken a long time to get here, there is so much to this. I made a lot of mistakes in this race, and I did a lot right, too. My increasing experience, and help from people like you and Ex got me through those mistakes.

Interestingly, once again, I was at max heart rate and only about 2/3's power on the sprint, but I was closing. I didn't feel the gravity of the effort until after the line. I had a little more, I just needed more room.

Thank you - thank you, my friend!

sarals 

This is most of my team at yesterdays Championships. Pen Velo Women. We're pretty fast for a bunch of old ladies!

LAJ

Nicely done, @sarals! It seems you did a fine job of turning your season around. Good stuff indeed.

LAJ

Steamboat... For a bike friendly town, I'm very surprised how pissed off the people/drivers were. I consider myself aware, and courteous to a fault, and drivers were just douchy. Of course, it's a tourist town and it's slam packed with people, so I sympathize, to a point.

The races were just tough. The TT, I went out too tame, as I have been fighting proper pacing this whole year. I was even on power, and rode a good race, but I think I left some on the table. It's pretty technical, more than I thought, and almost lost it in one corner. Means I was going fast, right? But unfamiliarity likely cost me some time. Towards the bottom in the 50+123 placings, and I would have won the 50+4 with the same time.

The road race has hills, and I don't do those well. Got dropped near the top of the first long climb, but the field was in sight, and I kept them in sight up the next one, and in reach. Lost some on the descent to the point they were quite a ways away, but TT'd my brains out to the point the wheel truck dropped back behind me. A matter of yards behind the pack, and then it went back uphill. Ah well. Long way to travel to do a hilly 50 mile TT in the wind. Not a suitable course, and going in, I pretty much knew this was going to be an uphill battle to even hang with these guys, and I was right. I can be pretty optimistic, but even I knew a realistic goal would be to hang with the stragglers. By trying to tt back to the group, I dropped them, but hurt myself in the long run, as a couple passed me back after the turn-around.

The crit, I knew it was going to also be tough, as my legs were wiped. The whistle blew, and they took off like no crit I've ever been it. The finish straight has an uphill kick starting about halfway along the straight, and kicks a bit harder after the fist left. The backstretch is downhill, but a headwind was present, making it tougher. So, as said, they took off fast, and did the first lap at warp speed, and I was worried I was going to get dropped in a stinkin' lap! Sanity prevailed, and we caught our breath, sort of. Every lap, someone attacked, and there was little rest. Halfway, there was a time bonus sprint, and they took off. Dropped, but still catchable if they took a small break. They let off a bit, and I was catching them, but the pack was split. The front pack also let off, and that gave the second pack hope, and they took off again. Rode the second half off the back, and my goal then was to not get lapped. They didn't lap me, and that's how my season ended.

Not a huge field (13), top 10 (10th) in GC. Such is life, and this weekend, life was hard.

YogaKat

@LAJ Sounds like a tough weekend, but at least you got out there.
@sarals So happy for you on this race! Well done, well done!!

Heathpack 

Nice racing, @LAJ!

Have fun in the off season. Well-earned.

sarals 

Yeah, I peaked at the wrong time!! Thanks, LAJ!!

sarals 

LAJ, tough weekend! But, you catted up, right? It's harder in upper categories, I totally get that. Hard racing, you didn't cash it in, so great job! As @Heathpack said, you have a well-earned off season coming up for you.

sarals 

Here's that sprint finish from the District crit last Sunday. This is the only photo I've been able to find that shows us getting close to the line. The gal in the yellow kit to the right of me is who I was sprinting against. We were closer at the line.

Katie Truong photo!

IBOHUNT

Last weekends 10 mile Club TT. If I recall I was looking back at the folks making fun of my 34# Specialized Rockhopper "TT" bike that has the 26" wheels with 2" knobbies which are as loud as @sarals work ride at 30+ mph.

Finished in 27:43 - only 3 minutes off the winner and 3:30 off my course PR

Note that I kept the reflectors on. Couldn't get the saddle high enough so I was down on power. Maybe next yer I'll get a 27.5er.

[IMG]<img src="https://i1243.photobucket.com/albums/gg557/ibohunt2/small_red_TT_bike_start_zpsstiwnfi6.jpg" border="0" alt="FCC_red_bike photo small_red_TT_bike_start_zpsstiwnfi6.jpg"/></a>[/IMG]

YogaKat

@sarals That is really close!! Again, great job! So happy to see you with that medal.
@IBOHUNT Well done on 2nd place! (And I bet there are some making fun of my platform pedals... just wait until next year.) lol

Racer Ex 

But you got a nice upgrade gift basket, right?

FWIW right now the 45/50/55 is sitting at the top of the bell curve for depth and talent (and that other thing). More than a few of our combined 45/55 races here have had the highest average speed of any race that day.

Going from the 4/5 to this group means that you need to be very careful and smart about how you use your matchbook, which becomes effectively smaller. Stuff you could get away with before like taking a bit too much wind is punished. Anticipation of surges and things like crosswinds and hills becomes a lot more important because there is almost always someone with a hammer in their pocket waiting to use it.

It'll get easier...sort of. I still get pounded on the long climbs by the skinny folk. TT'ing back on is something I'm all too familiar with.

LAJ

Thank you all!

This season, I honestly have no complaints. The upgrade was a goal, and as always, be careful what one wishes for. Still, it's how it works, and I'm OK with that.

With the upgrade basket came one of those boxing gloves on a spring. Funny. It's like they knew I liked dark chocolate, and I just wanted one little square.... Whammo!! Right in the kisser!

Thank you for the advice, @Racer Ex. As always, when you speak, I listen.

sarals 

Esparto Time Trial, Masters Women 55+ (Reg as 35+), Esparto, CA

16.8 miles, sort of a square course. The course featured a five mile flat leg, then a leg with a lot of rollers, another fairly flat leg, and then a short leg to the finish. Fair pavement, typical California agricultural roads. Warm, not hot, at race time. Light wind out of the north.

52 minutes, dead last. 11 minutes off the winners time, 2 minutes behind the rider in front of me.

I arrived the night before to spend the night, because the drive was three hours from home. Check in for the race was at 0630, and getting up at 0200 to do this race was really not a wise option. I drove the course the previous afternoon. Those of you who have been here a while and know my racing history know that Bariani, the Bariani Road Race (three years ago) was a water shed for me. I was on the verge of quitting racing after that debacle. The Esparto TT course covered part of the Bariani RR course. Goes around comes around?

I arrived in plenty of time to get the bike on the trainer, get my number and start time, say hellos, and then get warmed up on the trainer. I warmed to protocol and I felt pretty good. The dog bite I had on my left calf from the day before was fine, absolutely no factor. My one concern was my head. I wasn't focusing, and I felt fairly fatigued mentally. I wasn't wanting the season to be over, it wasn't race fatigue, it was other factors. This was to be the longest TT I've done to date, and I wasn't sure how to pace it. I had not been doing any TT concentrated training leading up to this race, my focus had been the District Crit. The last TT I did was in early July. My plan, with a lot of unknowns on my mind, was to go out at a lower power than my previous races because this one was so much longer. I also carried a water bottle with Osmo on board, to keep my energy up. And, I had a gel stuffed in the right leg cuff of my skin suit, just in case.

I rolled to the start five minutes before my start time and did a few short loops to keep fresh. The start itself wasn't a held start, and when I rolled off I didn't do a hard jump, because I was concerned about energy. For the first twelve minutes, everything was going to plan, on schedule. My power was where I wanted it, cadence was in the window, and I was hurting appropriately. My two minute passed me seven minutes in, and I expected that, because she was a younger woman and very good TT rider.

At around thirteen minutes, just prior to the right turn on to the "roller leg", my power started to sag. I changed to a lower gear to get the cadence back while I tried to decide if I had a headwind or I was going up a slight grade. No matter, power should remain plus or minus ten percent of the target. I'd get it back up, and it would droop back down. My legs were loading and I was beginning to have difficulty pushing through.

On the roller leg, I went ten percent over on power and dropped to the small ring. Power was steady for a time and then my legs started to really load up and my cadence fell. I hit a short downhill section and used that for recovery. I should have used it to make some time, but the legs just weren't cooperating! On top of that, the pavement became very washboard rough, and every time I'd hit a rough section my power would drop even more.

Just before the turn onto the "base leg", I started to feel that darned saddle sore that I thought had healed up. I had used a liberal amount of creme to prevent troubles, and yet - here we go.

The base leg was almost a struggle. I had long moments of riding well and power being where it should have been, and then I'd have to back down because the sore would overcome me.

When I turned on to the final leg, I went at a moderate pace, cleared my head, and told myself to go out of the season with some pride. Punch it! The last mile I turned it up and gave it would I could.

It was interesting to see when I checked the data afterwards that I had absolutely crushed the Bariani Road Race sections over what I had done three years ago. That was positive note. Other than that, I was not on form today.

I might go out ride a cross race tomorrow. I have the energy!!

Heathpack 

@sarals, tough race. Congrats on getting it done!

sarals 

@Heathpack, thanks! And thanks for the push on the dog bite. I learned a LOT from that episode.

sarals 

I went out today for a training ride and entered a cross race instead.

CCCX #4 Cyclocross, Manzanita Park, Prunedale, CA
MW 55+

On the training docett today was a cyclocross specific workout. I knew there was a local cross race today, USAC sanctioned, and I was feeling pretty good after yesterday's TT, so I decided to "hey, why not". Ex jumps into races ad hoc, so I reasoned he wouldn't mind if I did this one.

My plan was to get a good training ride, a good workout, see where the rust had collected on the CX skills, work on that, and have fun. If I got too tired or too hot, I would pull the plug.

I did a hill repeat warmup. In the past, I tended to overwarm for cross races, and that would leave me short of matches for the race itself. I combined the hill repeats with a scouting/preride lap of the course. The course itself was in a county park, and it wound it's way in and around some baseball diamonds and outfields, as well as using short sections of fire roads. There was one section of barriers, on three of those, and there were no runup sections. The surface was dry and dusty, and except for the fire roads and some roots under some of the trees, it was relatively smooth as cross courses go.

The entire field, A's, B's, C's and masters was perhaps 20 strong. I was far and away the master of the masters. We rolled at the whistle for four laps, on a slight uphill on pavement. I let the younger rabbits take off, I wasn't going to contest a holeshot just to burn a bunch of needed matches and get trounced later on anyway. The course was fairly technical, and I found out pretty quickly the skills were still there, so I threaded my way through several much younger riders who were having skills difficulties. Ha! By the time the first lap was completed, I had passed six riders (wahooo, cross, baby!!).

I did the barrier section almost as if I'd done it a thousand times. My dismount was smooth, one move to dismount and lift the bike, one step to the barrier, over it, and on to the next two. My "flying W" remount was respectable, and I got going quickly. Surprisingly, the saddle sore did not present itself, so my plant onto the saddle in the remount must have been pretty good! The rougher downhill sections I was a little cautious on, but took them at a nice clip. The file tread tires (Ellie May Cross) were working VERY well, and I was quite comfortable with the bike's handling.

That was the first lap.

On the second lap I started to feel the heat. Everything started to slow, and I noticed that efforts were generating a lot of heat in my body that seemed to be staying there and building. Shades of the Memorial Day Crit. I had drained the only water bottle I had (as well as two others in the warmup and preride), so I knew this lap would be the end. It was too hot and too risky for me to go any further.

I stopped as I crossed the line at the second lap, in fact I was pulled, I was pretty wobbly. The RD (Keith D) poured water over me, sat me in a chair and got me cooled down.

The OAT was 100 degrees.

Yikes....

So, my first foray into cross this season, with a long TT in my legs, went okay. I was pleased with my skills, I was having fun, and I was passing people!

shovelhd

Sara, hey you did it. Did you have fun? That's what matters.

revchuck 

Sara, two tough days! Cross sounds promising this year.

There's a saying in the military along the lines of "You can't have too much ammo...unless you're swimming." Somewhere there's an equivalent saying for cycling and water.

YogaKat

A lot of racing in two days Sara! Nice on finding some redemption on Bariani portions of the TT and it sounds like you are on a good start for Cross season.