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07-12-16, 03:21 PM

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F16F22

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Join Date: Feb 2014

Location: Ohio

Posts: 30

Bikes: Cannondale CAAD 12

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Decision Time

Ran headlong into reality this weekend and man, did it hurt. Going to leave a mark too… Dropped after 9 minutes of a 45 minute crit, pulled after 20 when the field lapped me. Got one more race planned this year (besidesTT’s) and then this Fall and Winter will be spent in deep contemplation about my racing future. Never make a decision when you’re emotional, and right now I’m pretty raw.

Even though the course doesn’t suit me (eight 90-deg turns) I signed up for the Indy crit in downtown Indianapolis Saturday for two reasons. One, I had a rare chance to race both my age and category (they have a 50+ Cat 4/5 race this year) and because videos of previous years show that the turns are fast and wide, meaning you can pedal through all of them even at speed with minimal accordion effect. I’m still working on fighting for and keeping position toward the front and the constant slow-down/speed up of most crits just kills me.

I lined up mid-field in the 53-man pack for the start, but after they called up the first 20 pre-regs I was left standing in the last row. Doh! Plenty of opportunities to move up after the start though. But when the gun went off I got caught behind “can’t-clip-in” guy who decided to stop pedaling completely and I was immediately gapped. Several matches burnt there.

The pace was fast, and the corners as advertised. I was able to make up a few spots by going around the outside of turn eight but for most of my short race even though I could see opportunities to move up I didn’t have the legs or lung capacity to do anything about it. There was a 10-man crash about 5 minutes into the race as the guys on the front led the field right over the one man-hole cover on the course that was not flush with the road surface. I didn’t see it, but it most likely twisted someone’s front wheel, or threw their hands off the bars, and down they went. That made me burn a few matches to get back on, but after 9 minutes of what felt like all-out sprinting I was off the back. Twice I tried to sit on the wheel of fellow stragglers but couldn’t even do that and as the field was bearing down on me at the 20 minute mark the officials pulled me out.

The good news is that I know exactly what my problem is; I’m not in good enough shape. In order to just survive a flat non-technical crit, I’ve learned I need 7-8 hours a week, and this season I'm averaging maybe 5.5 since January. I do not have a solid base of aerobic conditioning to carry me and no amount of wind management is going to make up for it.

So, I’ve got some thinking to do. I figure I can:

Quit racing
Get used to driving 2 hours each way and paying 40 bucks for 9 minutes of racing
Make time to train more.

“1” would really suck. I’d probably quit riding my bike if I couldn’t race. I’m not the type who can just go tool around on the bike for no reason. Plus, I really enjoy being part of something unique and feeling like an athlete again. Having something like that is important to me.

I don’t want “2”, but it may be reality. I have come to accept that I’ll never accumulate any points toward an upgrade to Cat 3, but I’d at least like to finish the flat races still in sight of the main field.

So, “3” it is for now. I’ve got four weeks to try to find some fitness before the final race ofthe season. I finished with the field there last year and I think 4 weeks is enough to get me back to that point again. I know what I need to do to train, just have to get after it.

One of y’all posted here on Bike Forums something like “Normal people have no idea how hard you have to work to be a mediocre bike racer”. My wife, who is a normal person, said to me when I told her about this weekend’s fiasco “I don’t understand this whole racing thing. How can you do so poorly when you work so hard?” I chuckled and quoted the above line, telling her “I don’t train nearly as hard as I think I do. 6 hours a week isn’t hard. It’s not even barely enough”.

But saying that and knowing it in your heart and head are two completely different things. This week brought it all home. Next step is to see if I want to do what it takes to fix it. I think maybe I do.

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