Race Report: Plainville

With the holiday weekend and all, it took me a bit longer to post this than I'd hoped.  So, rather than delay it any longer - and have it be the inspirational and profoundly moving post I'd planned - I'll just give you the basics.  I'll save my eloquence (at least any I might actually possess) for next week's race . . .

I'd gotten to the end of last week just recovering from a bad cold and was looking forward to starting my race season, but dreading it at the same time.  I only raced twice last year after my spring crash, so I wasn't at all sure how I'd do or if I'd feel comfortable in the pack again.  I was fairly well-rested though.  And the only workout I did on Friday was to hit the rollers for 30 minutes (all the better to boost bike-handling confidence).

Saturday morning dawned early, dark and cold.  I'd promised to do the 9am Cat4/5 race with friends Shawn, Esteban & Jess and the 10am Cat3/4 race with my team.  Don't ask me what I was thinking when I made THAT plan.  It was clear that I was ready to bail at the last moment - I hadn't even pre-reg'd.

After (literally) forcing down some oatmeal and a banana, the L&T and I loaded up the truck and off we went to Plainville.  It was a beautiful morning, but VERY cold.  Of course, all the way I was asking myself - "why am I doing this?"

Other than the freezing cold wait to register/pay (my penance for not pre-reg'ing), my nervousness melted away with the performing of my usual routine and ritual.  I'd read somewhere once (maybe in the context of playing golf, of all things) that routine is key to helping you do what you need to do.  It removes the over-thinking you'd otherwise be prone to.

Of course it helped that I was running a little late.  No time to overthink ANYthing.  Just get the bike off the truck fast (so I could ride over to the port-o-let for the umpteenth time) and get ready to race.  The trainer stayed in the truck and I opted to join Shawn & Jess for some warmup laps - the only good thing about doing the first race of the day.

** Tip for those of you racing back-to-back races: Pin your second number on first and your first-race number on last.  And be sure you have scissors so your wife/girlfriend/draftee can cut off the top number between races.  But don't carry the scissors in your pocket.  Trust me on this.

As always seems to happen, once I got on the bike and started riding, all remaining nervousness evaporated and I just concentrated on riding.  And on trying to stay warm.

The race started off as a typical crit - fast first laps, but then it settled down.  I felt comfortable and only went near the redline a couple of times.  Mostly, it was a tempo ride for me.  Surprising - but I guess the training is paying off.  I was even able to chat with Esteban, Jess and Shawn a little during the race.  Though our "race plan" of me attacking after the final prime - and having those guys bridge up and work a breakaway - didn't materialize.  I was feeling ok, but I didn't have THAT much to dig into.  Besides, I had the 3/4 race to do right after - and I'd never raced against Cat3s before.

This is Shawn and I at some point during the race.  I look a little stiff - or maybe I was just frozen at this point . . .

As we got down to the last couple of laps, I was glad I was still in the front 3rd.  Then I saw Shawn move up on the right and with 1/2 a lap to go, he took off!!  It looked like Esteban and Jess were near the front already and got on as Shawn came by.  I did my best to get there and fortunately made it by the final corner.

I didn't want to contest the sprint - frankly, I was afraid if I did I'd be totally fried for my next race.  So I never got out of the saddle, but spun up as high as I could.

Here's a video of the finish:

I ended up in 6th place - enough for a point in the series, and 5 bucks!  Not huge in the grand scheme of things I know, but highly symbolic, at least to me.  It was a great first race of the season.

But I had to get back to the start/finish and let Debby cut off my number.  The 3/4 race was beginning to line up.

**Another tip for back-to-back races: Have a GU or something you can eat quick in between.  My choice was Espresso Love - I hadn't had my morning coffee and figured the caffiene would give me an extra boost.  I figured it couldn't hurt.

Me and my teammates - I'm the one looking at the camera (of course), Bruce is on my right, Cat3 Joe is on my left, Dillon is in front of him and Gregg is behind Dillon.

My first race with Cat3s started out as I expected - screaming fast.  I haven't reviewed the Garmin data yet, but we HAD to have been going a million miles an hour for those first few laps - or thereabouts.  It was a good thing that my 'mates had let me onto the start line with them.  If I'd been at the back, I would have been OTB during the first lap.  In fact, I heard one account of a friend that just had a little trouble clipping in off the line - and watched the peleton disappear around the first corner.  I dunno how long it took him to chase back on.

I had set very low  realistic expectations for this race.  I figured I would stay with the group as long as possible, and not be ashamed if I had to bail out at some point before the finish.  The nice thing about the first races of the season is that you usually have nowhere to go but up from there.

But even that expectation was starting to feel unreasonable.  All during the first 3 laps, I kept telling myself "this pace has GOT to calm down - is this how Cat3s ALWAYS race?!"  Thankfully, it did finally settle down and I concentrated on sitting in somewhere in the front half of the pack (occasionally looking over my shoulder to be sure there were still racers behind me and that I hadn't actually ridden OTB).

At one point, I saw a guy with a Cannondale team Liquigas bike - sure enough, I'd spotted SprinterDellaCasa - the first time I'd ever had the opportunity to race with him.  We chatted for a sec or two, and then all-of-a-sudden, he was up the road.

And I got a cold reminder of how quickly you can go backwards in a corner if you're not paying attention.

While my first race was a great confidence booster, having no crashes, the Cat3/4 race had two.  The first happed right near the start/finish.  I didn't see it happen, but saw this guy lying in the road and everybody swerving to miss him.  Must've been a touched wheel or something - fortunately, it looked like only he went down.

The second crash was a little later going into corner #1.  One guy - about 5 guys ahead of me - had a blowout right at the apex of the turn and starts swerving, and then he lost it.  Thankfully, I was on the inside as he was going out - taking another guy with him to the curb where they both crashed.  SDC later mentioned that the blowout guy had face-planted into the curb, but I guess the injuries weren't that serious.  There was no ambulance that I saw, fortunately.

Other than that drama (and never something I wanna see, but that's crit racing), the race was pretty straightforward - faster, of course, than the earlier race but not too bad.  Helps to just be sitting in in a huge pack.

And the packs were pretty large - at least by Plainville standards.  41 in the Cat4/5 race and 56 entrants in the 3/4s.  The consensus was that since Bethel had been canceled the previous week, and wasn't racing on Easter, everybody decided to race Plainville.

The large peleton made it easier for me to stay sheltered and to recover if I ever did find myself in the wind - which didn't happen any more than absolutely necessary, as long as I could do anything about it.

As the race entered the final few laps, I actually still felt pretty good.  I'd already done better than I expected I would.  I figured I could last a few more laps.  Of course, the pace picked right back up and even if I had enough zip left to jump and get toward the front, the pace was high enough to make it really really hurt to do that.

And I didn't feel like hurting that much.

So, like in my first race, I decided not to kill myself, but to keep ramping up the speed along with the pack - and perhaps just a little bit faster - and see where I'd end up.  Unlike my first race though, I wasn't able to sneak into the top 10.  Or the top 20 for that matter.

I ended up a proud 25th out of 56 in my first Cat3/4 race having raced already that morning and while not working too too hard.

Here's a video of the finish:

 

Teammate Joe K  is shown clearly in this (way too short) clip - I think Mrs. Suitcase was thinking - or at least hoping - that it was me.  But one of the best things about racing for a team is that you can share in a teammate's great result, even if yours wasn't so great.  Joe got 5th place (and has been racing Cat3 less than a year) - and he wasn't sitting in either.  He also won one of the primes.  Congratulations Joe!

And as if things couldn't get any better, friend Mickey showed up for HIS first race in over 15 years - the 11am 4/5s.  As I mentioned last week, I'm stoked that he's getting back into it.  And he brought a former teammate with him - a great guy named Dave that I just met, even though he and I have been going to the same church for over 6 yrs now.  And Dave and Mickey used to race with Aki.  Sure is a small world.  I was even able to see new-friend Kim race a bit.

With good friends and teammates at the races, there's little to be nervous about - we can just concentrate on getting out with each other and having some fun riding our bikes as fast as possible. 

It's going to be a great season.

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For those of you interested in such things, here are some of the stats from the races.  I'll try and post links to the Garmin at some point later.  The map & profile wouldn't be too interesting though - we just went 'round and 'round a flat course . . .

Plainville Cat4/5 race 3/22/08

• 6th place (41 entrants)
• 23 mph average
• 4 minutes at 127-145 bpm
• 35 min @ 146-162 bpm (Tempo)
• 7.5 min @ 163-180 bpm (Threshold)
• 154 HR average

Plainville Cat3/4 race 3/22/08

• 25th place (56 entrants)
• 24.3+ mph average (including 2 cool down laps)
• 4.5 min @ <126 bpm
• 1.5 min @ 127-145 bpm
• 27 min @ 146-162 (Tempo)
• 25.5 min @ 163-180 (Threshold)
• 157 HR average (177 max)

Comments

[Jesse G]

Great race recap. Hope to run into you at one of these races.

Best of luck this season - Jesse (thebell-lap.com).

[Kim]

Nice job in both races, Chris. How cool that you even got a finish video!

[Jim Smith II]

Great race report and races! Points in one of them and a top half finish with the 3's. That's a seriously good start to the season!

[josh]

Hey, nice racing with ya even if neither of us knew it. I'll keep an eye out for ya in the future. Also, cool video. Are the pictures online anywhere?
Josh (skinny kid in a targetraining kit in the 3/4 race)

[aki]

Interesting HR info. I avg 156, peak 173, for the whole day (1.5 hours - I lasted 30 min in the p123 and I got 50 min of data for the 3-4 race). Very similar to your HR info.

I don't have any more info than that since it was on my Timex HR watch. Numbers include about 10 min of chatting after the p123 race (which account for the extra 10 min of time).

During the races I don't think I dropped below 160. Takes me a minute to get to 120, then a bit more to get down to 90-100, so those 10 minutes of talking probably dropped my average drastically.

Someone pointed out I got 21st in the 3-4 race, but if you look at your finish line vid, you can sort of see me going really, really slow on the left side of the picture. I'm pretty sure I got about 50th or whatever "almost last" was. I distinctly recall beating a couple people to the line. Or they were warming up.