Archive for May, 2007
Monday, May 21st, 2007
Updates, Notes, Races in May.
I’m way behind on blog posts about races. mostly because I’ve been trying to put together a birth story about Graham’s arrival, and haven’t gotten beyond just jotting down notes.
Mrs. H just did 3 posts on the subject. Have at them here
Did the New Bethelhem criterium 2 weekends ago. Shat the bed in the last lap. took 16th out of maybe 31-32 starters.
This past weekend I raced two times in East Earl, PA. Here is an account I wrote for some friends on sunday:
Race #1: 40 Cat 5 starters. maybe 10 juniors. 5 of whom did only 4 laps. They factor heavily into this story.
Had 4 solid laps in but not on the front. End of lap is a gradual climb to the finish. halfway up in the 4th lap, the one where the juniors are sprinting for their final, a pack of them go and there is a crash, taking out the guy who I was watching the whole time…because he took second at the Bethlehem crit, I figured he was a good wheel to have and I was close to him, although far enough to get clear from the wreck.
So he goes down, and as he goes down, I look up the hill and see a pack of 5 going, including the junior from my squad. I assumed incorrectly that at least 2 of the guys there were non junior cat 5s. So I went hard after them up the hill. and totally shot my wad.
Since then I have heard conflicting reports on whether or not there were non junior cat 5s up there. Either way it was a colossally boneheaded thing to do.
So much so that the pack I had been comfortably sitting in with before, caught me and blew by me. as did many others.
I kept going. A guy from my squad who is often off the back caught up to me and kept me going. I followed him to the climb to the finish and since I knew that he wasn’t going to race the second race even if he got top 25 so I sprinted thru him up the hill.
I was pretty sure that I didn’t make top 25. But lo and behold, the other guy from my squad got 26 and I got 25. So I got to do round two.
Side note: the guy who drove me also got blown off the back and thought he didn’t make top 25 either. He had already put on his street clothes when they put up the heats results. So I went and found him and was like ‘Put your shit back on, we’re going back in…’
round #2: Should have been 50 guys. Only 30 ponied up the extra 20 and went for another race. The pacing was pretty manageable. There was one big hill that I had no problem with. The bigger problem was finding a place to hide in the wind. But I did fine with that too. My heart race was pretty low in laps 2 and 3. I kept the work to a minimum.
I scoped out the place where I figured an attack might work. There was a curve right, then left, then over a bridge, then a straightaway to another right, and then the long slow climb to the finish. I was thinking ‘thats the place I would go if I had sack…
So out of that curve, this older guy with a big mustache attacks hard from the back of the pack. Busts a gap initially. and like an idiot, I went after him hard. I should have held back and let others chase him. But I didn’t. I think I held the guy behind him’s wheel for a hundred meters maybe, just beyond the bridge. Then I popped. and everyone passed me.
It sucked. I only redeemed myself by digging in and charging up the hill and passing at least one, maybe two guys who had passed me and faded.
I maxed out my heart rate…was making those awful high pitched noises…all that shit.
All to take 14th out of 30.
The 17-18 junior who raced with us, he waited. He got 7th. The guy who drove me, he sat up front alot longer then me, but was smart enough to not chase down the mustache. He took 10th.
The mustache won. not sure by how much.
Lesson: It pays to do no work. and let others chase breaks. I mean my instincts were good on where an attack would probably go, and that that guy was fast. but I should have let others go after him and conserved some energy.
loosing == learning. learning how to be patient.
Saturday, May 5th, 2007
Further Adventures in Vino Velo
I wrote back in January about a ride that I do on Saturday mornings. Folks meet up at the fountain behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art at 8:45am and head out at 9am. The ride goes out to Ambler and back. The pace is fast. The terrain is rolling.
Time after time, I got shelled on this ride. Dropped in Glenside. Droped in Ambler. Dropped in Whitemarsh. Thanks to this ride, there is nary a town in all of Montgomery County where I haven’t cracked on my bike, and watched as the mass of cyclists I started out with pulled away. Taking with them the security of numbers, shelter from the wind, and not inconsequential amounts of my ego.
No longer.
Two weeks straight, I have done this ride. I have jumped in with a pack of fast guys that broke away from the main pack, and not been dumped. This week was a bit more brutal then last, with me getting dumped once in Manayunk and having to work hard to hop back on. but still. better to get dropped with 85% of the ride completed, then be dumped out in the middle of nowhere.
Today’s ride finished at 11:16am. Which was the earliest I have ever returned to the Art Museum. This was also helpful, as I told Mrs. H over and over this morning before I left, ‘I will definitely be home by noon. please believe me. No really, its less then 50 miles total…’
Saturday, May 5th, 2007
More on Being Observant while going 20+ MPH
list of sighted animals on the Valley Forge bike trail on a ride one morning last week, in no particular order:
- Rabbit
- ground hog
- Cardinal. (male)
- Blue Jay
- Monking Bird
- Wren
- starling
- Red Tail Hawk
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007