2,000 other racers who came to test their fitness and technical skills on the challenging course in Austin's Zilker Park.
The fitness was there, but my ability to maintain speed and apply power through the technical sections of the course was sub-par compared to the top racers in my category.
After turning in a poor performance in last year's icy and snow-packed race in Boulder, Colorado my year-long goal was to finish in the top 10 in this year's event.
With that goal in mind, I spent most of the past year focused on training for this year's Nationals, doing base miles, tempo rides and strength training during Feb, March, April and May before transitioning to a structured cyclocross training program in June.
The structured program included many miles of 15-20 minute threshold intervals, trail rides on my CX bike, some running, skill work such as barriers and run-ups, VO2 max efforts and endless miles of hard race simulation laps on a practice course.
Unfortunately, I did not accomplish the top 10 goal, finishing 16th in the Master's 65-69 field of 22 racers.
I was positioned to achieve the top 10 goal, but two critical mistakes during the race coupled with a less than stellar job of keeping the speed up through the technical sections dropped me down a few places.
Although I was staged in the back row of my field since I didn't earn many USAC points during the season (only two races), I moved up to mid pack by the time we hit the first dirt section with my heart rate 'comfortably' just a beat or two over my threshold.
Shortly after that, I made my first mistake by running into a rider who stalled in front of me on a short hill. The resulting dab and loss of speed let several racers pass me.
Later in the race, I completely biffed a right hand off-camber corner and ended up falling into the course marking tape. Again, I lost several places while getting upright and then having to run up the short but steep climb that followed the corner.
My gut feeling is that unless I figure out how to improve my technical skills, I'll need a flat and fast course with the only technical sections being off-the-bike run-ups to crack the top 10 in my age group.
I can also keep racing until I'm in the really old age groups that have less than 10 racers :)
His field started 20 seconds behind my 65-69 group, but by the 2nd lap of the race he had bridged up to my wheel and was telling me to " Go - go- get off the dammed brakes" as we traversed through a section of off-camber turns and steep ups and downs in a ravine.
Axthelm continued to stay right me through laps 3 and 4, rolling faster than me and some other 65+ riders through the technical sections. The only places I could gap him were on the flats and run-ups. He says his normal training partners in Durango are all fast racers in their 50s.
During the Thursday open pre-ride of the course, the weather was sunny and 70 degrees. That changed dramatically Tuesday evening as a cold front ushered in frigid temperatures and a forecast for rain, mud and sleet for the Wednesday through Sunday championship events.
When I started warming up at 7:30 am on the morning of my race the air temp was 23 degrees with a reported 16 degree wind chill. It did not warm up much by the 9:00 start time.
My race kit for the day for the day was double socks with plastic bag over the toes, duct tape over the vents in my cycling shoes, medium tights over thin tights, two long sleeve base layers under the bike jersey, polypro liners inside wind shell gloves and an insulated skull cap under the helmet. During warm-up I also had wind pants over the tights and a down jacket.
The Zilker course was a challenging 3.5 kilometer per lap loop adjacent to Barton Springs pool that includes pavement, rolling sections through rough grass, run-ups over limestone outcroppings and plank barriers, and challenging descents that drop 75-100 feet down the face of the park's ridge line.
The starting stretch was a 400 yard gradual uphill on pavement that veered off onto a bumpy up-and-down grass/dirt section with multiple 90 to 180 degree corners in loose dirt and numerous 'curb ramps' where the course crossed streets.
After reaching the flatter high part of the course, the route headed back down toward the start area
Most corners on the descents had frozen mud ruts and rough washboard areas making bike handling skills and a 'no-fear' attitude important while riding on narrow 35 mm or smaller tires cyclocross tires. Since I lack both great technical skills and the 'no-fear' attitude I lost quite a bit of time through these sections.
There were two longer descents including a rough and rutted dirt downhill and an interesting wooden ramp that bridged down over a 6 foot limestone cliff. Each of the descents terminated in a 180 degree turn back uphill into dismount and run-back-up sections.
There were three dismount/run sections and several more run-ups if riders who failed to stay upright through the rutted off camber corners that preceded short up-hills. Two of the run-ups were over rough natural rock outcroppings that climbed 15 to 25 vertical feet up the ridge with the 3rd section being a double set of 16" high plank barriers situated on an uphill stretch of grass.
One of the things that I've done for many years (in every sport I've competed in) is to do a post-season and post-race analysis to determine what I need to improve on for the next event or next season.
My list is long this year, but there are also a few bright spots such as an improved threshold based on field test heart rates, no crashes this year that resulted in injuries, and no difficulty with steep run-ups.
Here's the 'to do' list that reflects what I need to improve on during the off-season and the strategies I'll use to make those improvements.
1. Improve technical skills on corners and descents: Do more mountain biking, ride my CX bike more on mountain bike trails and (whenever possible) do these rides with other riders who are more skilled than I am.
2. Improve 'no fear' attitude: This is largely related to #1 above since better skills will improve my confidence in sketchy situations, but ... I'm also considering enhancement surgery to see if some bigger 'brass boys' will help :)
3. Improve power on short steep climbs: Do more hill workouts (especially big gear uphill intervals), spend more time in the weight room, and find a practice course that has more difficult uphill power sections.
4. Regain running fitness during the off-season: This one sounds strange, but my best cross seasons happened during a period when I was training for and racing duathlons and running events during the spring, summer and early fall. I'm going to add in more trail running and duathlon workouts (bike/run bricks) this year to see if that results in a higher fitness level and more overall strength and agility.
5. Build a stronger endurance base: This involves all of the above, but I suspect that that increasing my miles and total workout hours during the off season will let me train harder later in the year and - as a side benefit - will help me lose a little more weight. I'm currently around 184 and think that I would race better at about 175. The mileage goal for this year is 5,000 or more.
That's it ... the season is over ... time for a few easy weeks and then time to start training for the 2015-2016 CX season.
Upcoming Events
Jan 17: Trail Running Series 10K, roadlizards.org
Jan 31: Trail Running Series 12K, roadlizards.org
Feb 21: Trail Running Series 15K, roadlizards.org
Feb 21: Funnel Cake 5K, sanangelorodeo.com/events/2015/funnelcake5k
April 11: Castell Grind cycling ride, castellgrind.com/home.html
No comments:
Post a Comment