Sketchy club ride
I rode to the club B ride again today. Lots of new people, some of whom were sketchy in a pack. I stayed near the back until the first small climb. On the descent a guy in front of me crashed. He was at the edge of the road but when he went over the bars his bike bounced off the bank and into the road… right into me. I saw it coming and tried to avoid it but couldn’t. Right before it hit me I got the image of one of those Tour de France pileups and was thinking oh shit, I hope I don’t get hit from behind.
But I stayed up, although it shoved me into the other lane. I stopped and looked back and no one had stopped for the guy. I went back and talked to him. He was up and checking his bike over. I asked if he was ok and he said yes, so I left to try to catch up to the group.
When I caught them at the next regroup I gave them a dressing down on stopping to help people who crash. I know the guy who leads the ride is cool, but he was ahead of the crash and relying on word from people coming up that the guy was ok. But none of them stopped for him so they must have assumed that if he got up he was fine. Thinking about it later I should have spent more time with him and gotten him to take his glasses off so I could see if he was concussed. He said he was going to ride home so I hope he’s ok.
I did some of the ride but when we got up into the mountains (skylonda) it was raining. I didn’t want to descend 84 to the coast on wet roads with these people.
So I split off with one guy who I know from another ride and we did our own ride. It wound up being about 85 miles for me, which is close to what I had been planning on.
2013 Copperopolis Road Race
Copperopolis Road Race
3/29/13
“Oh shit, I have to race now.”
I haven’t raced for 6 months. I was super slow most of the winter. This race course has not been friendly to me in the past. And this last week I have been having unexplained periods of dizziness which caused me to take some days off of riding. But, sad to say, not off work.
So I didn’t have any expectations for Copperopolis, other than to enjoy being in a race for a while. I assumed I’d get dropped on the first big climb like usual, ride with some other guys for the rest of the first lap, then see if I could do something to them on the second lap.
So when I made it to the top of the first climb with the lead group, not even feeling bad, I was surprised. And a bit disheartened, because now instead of a nice even paced but hard ride, I would have to race for real. That would mean a lot more pain, because if I wasn’t hurting then a bunch of other guys weren’t hurting either. The easier I found it now, the more it was going to hurt later.
Copperopolis is a loop with two climbs, one bigger than the other. And a lot of flat to rolling terrain (which I suck on), and a famously extremely bumpy technical descent that I enjoy. Us old and slow racers do two laps.
The flat/rolling part of the first lap was uneventful. Except that the county had recently patched a lot of spots in the road, and since it’s the middle of nowhere they didn’t bother to roll the patches. So if you were riding in the back of the pack to stay out of the wind like I was you got peppered with bits of asphalt. By the end of the race I was speckled with black spots, like someone had sprinkled me with pepper.
As we neared the second climb I moved to the front. I’d been sitting in and thinking that I didn’t have much of a chance if it came down to a sprint with 20 guys. If I could split a small group off the front with me in it, I’d have a better chance of a good placing. I also knew that I can go well down the descent, and ideally I’d be at the front for it.
So when we hit the bottom of the second climb I put in a hard attack. I got a small gap but some guys caught up to me. The guy behind me in the Barclay’s jersey had been looking strong earlier. I thought he’d be a good breakaway partner. I moved over and tried to get him to come around but he wouldn’t, or couldn’t. For the bumpy technical descent I was 3rd or 4th wheel and lose some positions when I slowed because a ranch truck with a stock trailer was coming up, and I slowed a little.
After the start/finish you hit smooth pavement for a couple minutes and that’s the time to grab something to eat. I looked around and we were down to 14 or so. On the next trip up the larger climb I led again to set a pace I could handle, and Barclays attacked. But he didn’t get far, maybe 20 meters at most, and we kept that gap through the climb. Near the top a few of us surged to close the gap and a few more followed. Over the top we had eight guys.
Through the flat/rolling section we weren’t well organized. I ended up on the front a couple times. I’d pull over to let someone else pull, and no one would. No way would I pull the group around, so I’d slow down. This is not a good way to keep a break going. The only reason we weren’t caught was that we were the stronger riders in the race and were still in a group, even if it was not working well. The chasers were in groups of two or three. Even if they did work together it’d be tough for them to catch.
But part way through the flat section someone looked back and saw that the first chase group wasn’t that far back, and organized us into a smoothly rotating group.
However it wasn’t that smooth. Someone kept complaining that I was going too hard. I didn’t think I was but I was trying to get my pulls over with so perhaps I was. Then Barclays started skipping pulls. I did too, and we were no longer working. But we’d gone fast for long enough to keep the chasers away. Approaching the second climb I moved to the front so I would not get boxed in when someone attacked. At this point I did not want to sprint with seven other guys and was still hoping I could get a smaller group away or drop some guys.
I went hard on the second climb but not too hard. I wanted to save something for the sprint. I could head hard breathing behind me, and I was doing a pace that would drop people on group rides. But these guys were the better guys from the race and I didn’t drop anyone. I did manage to start the descent in second place behind Barclays. I’ve been able to go fast down this descent in the past and drop guys, and hoped I could pull that at the front of a race. But Barclays went slow and I didn’t feel like I could pass safely so I stuck behind him. About 500 meters from the finish I did not hold my position as well as I should have, and that wasn’t helped by my shifters dropping my chain to the small ring. I lost a few places shifting back up.
I started the sprint at the back of the group and managed to pass a couple guys, for 6th.
Considering that it was my first race in six months and I had no expectations I am pretty happy with the result. But I should probably work on my sprints, in case it happens again.
“A” ride
My racing club offers “A” and “B” rides. When I joined the club, after recovering from crashing on the B ride, I tried the A ride a couple times. It turned out to be a little too much for me, not the least because it’s on Sunday and I’m not about to skip riding on Saturday to be fresh for a training ride.
But this weekend I had a family-related thing to do Saturday morning. And recently Karl and Karen told me that the A ride isn’t as fast as it used to be. In the mean time the B ride’s gotten faster, and I’m doing well on that even with riding an extra 16 miles to and from the ride. So I figured I’d try the A ride today. Not many people showed up but we did get my friend Chris who has become very fast, and this other guy. I’ll call him “phenom”. Phenom went from cat 5 (beginner racer) to cat 2 (really fucking fast) in a year. To do that you need to win or place high in a bunch of cat 4 and cat 3 races. Once he reached cat 2 he said that he would need to start riding during the week(!) because he needed more training now- he wasn’t winning all the races he entered. His race reports to the club mailing list were amusing: he’d actually apologize for not winning. Some people are naturally gifted, and then nature or fate or evolution bestows some really super talent on a very few people. This guy is one of them. The last time I saw him his legs didn’t even have visible muscles. Now he has them, and showed up in the kit of a regional P/1/2 team.
So with two known hammer monsters on the ride I was worried that I may be abandoned to the vultures at some point in the ride.
But the ride turned out to be not so bad. It was longer than a B ride, 72 miles (plus another 4 each way to where I parked) vs. 45-50, which may have had something to do with it. I did not try to contest the climbs, figuring that I should save my energy and I wasn’t feeling that hot anyhow. But I wasn’t last on any of them. The double pace line into the wind wasn’t too bad. I even had the energy left to stick with Phenom on the ride back to my car, although I was showing the same watts on my pulls as when I was drafting him, meaning that he was putting out a lot more power when he was taking turns.
Getting back to it
It’s been a while since the last post. I was kind of burnt out after EC and took some time off. I didn’t quit riding, just quit training. Then I had some health problems that made me slow. And I started a new job. But I’ve been doing ok for the last month or so and I am back to training.
Yesterday I did a 70 mile ride that had a 40 mile group ride with my club in the middle. I felt pretty good for the whole ride. On the group ride we went up Old La Honda, which is the iconic climb in the area. At the bottom Kyle told me I should chase down the guys attacking and beat them to the top. I told him that they were too fast but he talked me into it. It took a while but I caught everyone, and to my surprise, dropped them. I finished the climb in 20:02. A 20 minute OLH time is a goal for a lot of people. Pretty much everyone I know who is any good at racing can do it in less than that. I think I could break 20 minutes if I didn’t have a discussion for a couple minutes while riding, and didn’t ride for two hours beforehand. In any case it’s good for the begining of March.
Here’s a story about something really dumb. Last year on the second day of the Death Valley Road stage race I started getting sharp pains in my left butt cheek. Right under the sit bone. Every time I’d stand up and then sit down, 30 second later it was like some gremlin stuck a needle in my sit bone area. It hurt but I was on a good ride so I could ignore it. I thought that maybe my shorts were folding and pinching or I had sat funny the night before. After the race it kept happening on rides. I did a lot of really painful stretching which made the pain duller but didn’t get rid of it. I went to the doctor and chiropracter and did more stretching and got it to where it wasn’t too bad by the time the Everest Challenge rolled around a few months later. It didn’t bother me too much for that race. Then I took a week off the bike.
I thought for sure that would fix it- all I needed was rest, which I had not been doing. But no, it was still there. In fact it was getting worse again. I did more stretching and read more on the internet. Was it Piriformis syndrome or something else? Why only on one side? I’m pretty symmetrical. I was stumped and it still hurt.
I started a new job the beginning of January. About a week later I realized that I was sitting with my left leg crossed over my right. Every time I sat down. I’m a software architect (a fancy-pants high-end programmer) which means I sit at my computer a lot. With my left leg crossed over my right. All day. Hmm, I said to myself, I wonder if that’s bad for me? Maybe I should stop doing that.
I found out that it’s a hard habit to break. But a couple days later I realized I no longer had those sharp pains in the butt. Duh. Only took me six months to figure it out.
Crap I eat during the off season
EC was my last race, and it was last weekend. I took this week off the bike. Even if I’d wanted to, the raw spots on my butt would have kept me from riding. I’m nearly healed so I’ll be riding soon.
Since it’s the off season I can eat all the crap junk food that I try to stay away from during the season. Here’s a partial list:
- ice cream
- Cheeze-its
- Wheat Thins
- peanuts
When Laura and I went out for breakfast, I had pancakes and put on all the syrup I wanted. I normally avoid sugary stuff because if I eat too much I’ll get an insulin reaction and then bonk on my ride. When I have pancakes I use the minimum amount of syrup needed to make them palatable. But I wasn’t doing a ride and didn’t care, so I poured it on.
I was buzzing hard for a couple hours and then had a nice nap on the couch.
2012 Everest Challenge day 2
9/30/12
At sign in Sunday morning the Saturday results were all messed up. The time they had for me was about three hours slow. Ken’s time and placing were wrong as well. Ken and I discussed the results with the organizer and got them more or less straightened out, although the results showed someone four seconds ahead of me while I don’t remember seeing anyone at all. But I had been feeling pretty bad so maybe I missed him.
Sunday’s race started out a little easier than Saturday but I still let a bunch of riders go up the road, following my plan again. But I kept my pace up, trying to catch some guys that weren’t too far up the road. I’d almost made contact with a small group at the turnaround. I went fast on the descent and soon had passed all of them. This descent is fast (I hit 52 mph) and has a big drop off on one side… what rock climbers call “exposure”. The first couple times I did this race, the descent down Glacier Lodge freaked me out, and I’m pretty comfortable on mountain roads. But this time I was so focused on catching Claudio that I didn’t even see the drop off.
My back and arms hurt after a few minutes of being tucked in but I told myself that I only had one more descent to do after this one and I could handle a little pain. I caught a few more guys from my field on the descent.
When we got to where the road leveled out some I could see some guys on my wheel. It turned out to be a group of six or so. I hadn’t dropped them like I’d hoped, or caught Claudio, but at least I’d done a fast descent. We worked together on the few flat miles back to the start and the start of the next climb. Ken told me that now he knew how I’d gotten away on the second descent on Saturday- I was a fast descender. In some past ECs I’ve been slow on descents so I was pleased to hear that.
I timed things so I’d be at the front when we went past the car so I could get bottles and food from Laura without getting dropped from the group. But when I got to the car, parked on the wrong side of the road, she wasn’t there. She was standing on the right side of the road but now the group was between us so I had to wait for them all to pass. Then it took a while to get my stuff and I dithered about what food I wanted so by the time I got going there was a 200 meter gap to the group.
I didn’t want to burn a match getting back to them so I tried to gradually close the gap. I got about halfway and caught a guy in a black jersey who’d also dropped off. He sat in, which was fine. But when I moved over and wiggled my elbow to ask him to come through and work, he sat there. I tried a couple times and he was determined to sit on my wheel. This was annoying but didn’t really hurt me since we were climbing a shallow grade and there wasn’t much wind.
But I still didn’t want to give this guy a free ride. I put in a little effort and he stuck with me, and when I slowed he decided to surge to bridge the gap to the group. I wised up and let him go so I could stay at tempo but I was pissed.
I could see that I was slowly catching the group, and after a while I found that they were slowing very slightly, so I could ease off and still catch them. It took a half hour or so but I finally made it back. Black jersey was struggling a bit at the back so instead of slowing down and sitting in I went to the front and did the same power I’d been doing to catch the group. I wanted to make sure black jersey was good and dropped to pay him back for fucking around with me.
It worked but I also found that I’d gapped the group. I kept going- it was a pace that wasn’t too hard. The turn around was farther up than it was supposed to be. I was still feeling good when I hit it and saw that two guys from the group were about half a minute behind me.
I did a fast descent again. Around one blind turn there was a private support car whose driver had stupidly decided to turn around in the middle of the road. Fortunately his car was small and there was just enough room to shoot by, but I said a couple bad words. This particular car, a small red Fiat, was a problem all weekend, repeatedly getting in the way. I wish they’d enforce the no private support car rules more strictly. We always follow the rules so we’re not in the way of the race.
The last 6000′ climb has a long section at the beginning that goes up a steep climb with endless 9-12% rollers. There’s never more than 30 meters without a grade change, making it difficult to get into a rhythm. This time it was also really hot. I started fading on this climb. By the 6000′ aid station I was hurting, literally- besides being low on power my right foot hurt. I stopped for a moment to fish some Endurolytes out of my jersey, as I didn’t think I could do it on the climb and not fall over.
Not long after Ken and another guy passed me. I knew I couldn’t match their pace but I thought I was still in the top 10. When I got to where Laura was parked I had to climb into the van to sit down while I took my right shoe off to rearrange my sock and get some blood back into my foot. I got some food and water and set of for the last push to the top.
I was still slow though. People were passing me rather than the other way around. A guy from the 45s with a camelback and a girl from UCSD. I stopped again after she dropped me. I felt totally dead and discouraged. I wanted to stop so bad. But I pressed on. Then a guy from my field caught me. He looked terrible- all over his bike, struggling to turn the pedals over, and when he sat down he just collapsed on to the saddle. I thought to myself that I must really be awful if someone who looks that cooked can drop me.
But something about seeing this guy struggling so hard fired me up. Or maybe something I ate kicked in. But I found I could make some power after all. I passed him and started feeling a little better.
By this time were were into the brutal final kms of the White Mountains climb which has a lot of pitches over 10%. I was wishing for a gear lower than 34×30 but now that I was feeling a little better I was able to turn the pedals at more than 50 rpm, which helped.
I rounded the “I’m going to make it” corner where the grade gets just a little easier, and thought that I could probably finish.
A couple km from the finish I caught my friend Leslie. I tried to say something to her but nothing came out. About 500m from the finish she caught me and said “let’s finish strong” and stepped up the pace. I tried but couldn’t stick with her.
At the finish I nearly fell off but I turned around so I could make sure the officials recorded me. I didn’t want all that effort to be wasted.
At the finish line aid station my teammate Kevin was sitting in a chair. I rolled up and he told me I looked terrible, then took my bike from me and helped me to a chair and got me some water.
My hamstrings were so beat that it really hurt to sit down.
After a while I felt a little less bad and was contemplating riding down but didn’t think I could make the small climbs on the way. I spotted Kim, who was doing photography for the race, and who had a rack on her car, and begged a ride. Ken, who’d broke a spoke at the finish, also got a ride.
On the way down Laura passed us driving up. She didn’t see me in the car so poor Kim had to drive back up to the finish to unload me. Then when we were driving down we saw Ken’s support van coming up, so she had to do the same thing for him.
In the end I finished 8th again for 8th over all. My goal was a top 10 so I’m pleased but I could have done better- I figure I lost at least 15 minutes each day. With the changes in the course (day 1 is run backwards now, skipping one trip across the valley) it’s hard to compare times, but I feel that I have done significantly better in the past.
So what went wrong?
I just didn’t eat enough. I had a food plan for day 1 and got behind in my eating, mostly because food became unpalatable after a while.
I’m going to have to figure out a better way to get calories for next year.
2012 Everest Challenge day 1
9/29/12
Cat 4
8th of 30
You don’t start a normal road race planning on getting dropped in the first mile. But EC isn’t a normal road race.
After a 2 mile neutral section we started on the first 6000′ climb of the day and I bid the pack goodbye. I was following the “ride your own pace” plan. Rather than trying to stay with the leaders on the first climb and then going slower and slower for the rest of the race, I was going to try to pace myself so I’d do a faster over all time. Sort of like a time trial except I’d work with other riders in my field. That’d mean that I would let the pack go and pick off riders as the race continued.
I have to admit to questioning the plan when nearly everyone rode away from me, trying to follow some 16 year old kid in a skinsuit. I caught a few in the next couple miles but for the rest of the climb I only caught riders from other fields. But right before the top I spotted a group of my guys up ahead. I bombed the technical top part of the descent and passed a couple, then caught some more where it flattened out enough to require pedalling.
I ended up in a group with three other guys- Claudio, Josh and Ken. We worked together on the descent and on the flat part to the next climb. I put in some long pulls on the flat part but was only doing about 180 watts. I thought I’d be able to drop them on the next small 3000′ climb but they came back after a while. We hit the turnaround together. I spotted another guy (Jamy) from our field there getting food. He did well at Fremont peak and I wanted to put time on him if I could, so I put my head down for another fast descent and got to the bottom of the climb alone.
At the bottom of the final 6000′ climb I got a handoff from Laura and she told me there were only four riders in front of me. I didn’t believe her. I thought I might be barely in the top 10 but I didn’t get a good count at the beginning and hadn’t been counting riders I’d caught. I choked down most of the Coke I got from Laura (soda is way too sweet for me) and went to work on the last climb. I could see the three chasers a couple switchbacks below me, maybe 5-6 minutes back. I put in a good tempo effort to continue opening the gap.
It all went to plan until the last 2000′ of the final climb where I ran out of gas. Everything hurt- legs, butt, even my arms, and I wasn’t making any power. I felt so bad that I stopped for a moment to rest. Some of the riders I’d passed recently passed me back. Then one by one the three chasers from my field passed me, and I felt too bad to do anything about it.
I crawled across the finish in what I thought was a terrible time. I felt like crap and the finish line feed zone didn’t have much that I could eat. The Recoverite I mixed up and drank had to be the nastiest thing I have eaten all year. Yuck. When I have been riding for a long time nothing tastes good but this was actively bad.
I got my winter jacket out of the backpack and rode down to where Laura could pick me up, my bike shimmying all the way down due to the jacket sleeves flapping.
Everest Challenge
Yes, I’m racing it this year. Looks like the weather will be good. Race wheels and gearing are on the bike and tested. I’m packing all my cycling clothes just in case.
I’m not quite as light as I’d like to be for this race. Maybe the extra body fat will keep me from cracking.
Death Valley Road Stage Race
Death Valley Road Stage race, cat 4 3rd of 10
DVRSR is billed as the most climbing per mile of any two day race in North America. It goes though some spectacular scenery in the Death Valley National Park and eastern Sierras. I’ve done it twice and not been happy with either ride, so I had to come back and try it again.
Stage 1
This is a 45 mile race with two big climbs- 3800′ and 4400′. It’s all climbing or descending. It goes from Big Pine east into Death Valley National Park (but not into Death Valley itself- that’s another valley over). The second climb is quite steep in the lower section and eases up about halfway up.
The race started out mellower than in the past and slowly ramped up as we got up the climb and it got steeper. Not long into the race Jon Budinoff started attacking. We’d cover it and he’d back off then try it again a couple minutes later. After six or eight of these the group was down to six guys. Then five, then four. I hung in for a while but noticed that I was breathing harder than the others. Eventually it was my turn. I soloed the second half of the big climb (into the wind), the gradual descent on the other side, and the steep descent (max speed 46.5). Nearing the turnaround I spotted the lead group, now down to two, with one not far behind.
On the next climb I could see third place (Michael Kerrigan) up the road. I timed the gap by watching when he passed a rock or bush. In the desert you can see a long ways. Three minutes, then 2:15, then 1:45, then 1 minute. I caught him in the middle of the steep climb and he didn’t even try to get on my wheel. The second half of the climb is less steep than the first half, but into a head wind. I was miserable by this point. My whole body hurt, especially my triceps. It must have been from the descent but it was bothering me on the climb. I just couldn’t get comfortable. The last mile kicks up again and my legs started cramping. It turns out that I can ride through cramps if I grit my teeth hard enough. I finished third, about 20 minutes behind Budinoff and about 7 behind Maksim Gusev. Kerrigan was only 1:25 behind, with 5th (Michael Piccirilli) 10 minutes back.
Looking at the data, my power really dropped off on the second half of the last climb. I’d have been faster had I not gone quite as hard trying to match Budinoff’s attacks and saved more for the second climb.
Stage 2
This day is 13 miles but has 5200′ of climbing. It goes up Onion Valley which has the steepest 10 miles in North America according to the Climb By Bike book. I couldn’t let Kerrigan (4th place) get too far up the road if I wanted to stay on the podium.
We started gradually and Kerrigan ramped up the pace on the less steep early couple of miles. About 2.5 miles in Budinoff attacked hard. I didn’t have the legs to follow but the other three of the top five guys did. I could see that other than Budinoff and eventally Gusev, they wern’t continuing to put time into me. I caught Kerrigan after a mile or so but Piccirilli was up the road. I stuck about a minute behind him for half an hour. I could see he was feeling over geared and starting to struggle after miles of 10%. (I don’t understand why guys don’t run low enough gearing for this event, but he wasn’t the only one). I started feeling better and ramped up my pace to catch him. I finished in 3rd in just over 1:30, about three minutes down on Gusev. Budinoff was another two minutes ahead.
It hurt but it wasn’t as bad as the day before. This time I used power and HR readings to pace myself. I was close to my target average power even though power output fell off as we got to altitude (the finish is at 9200′). Two 3rd place finishes put me in 3rd for the GC.
Unfortunately someone stole the garmin 500 off my bike while I was waiting around for the results.
Sea Otter RR
4/20/12
Masters 45+ cat 4
10th of 48?
I am behind on my race reports. Must be this not working thing- my slack fills the time available to it. Unfortunately it comes to an end in a few weeks when I go back to work. Anyhow, to the race-
Sea Otter’s a huge cycling festival held at Laguna Seca raceway. It’s mostly for mountain bikers but they allow the road racers some racing too. We get to use the racecourse itself and the empty roads in the old Fort Ord around it. Back in the day when For Ord was still operational we got to race on it. I remember getting lost once on the way to registration and driving past a lot of “caution tank crossing” and “unexploded ordinance” signs. It took me forever to find reg because I was too scared to make a u-turn or go over the speed limit.
Fort Ord’s decommissioned now but the roads are still there, only no one drives on them. Making them excellent for racing. Our race was neutralized down Barloy Canyon, six laps of a circuit with one four minute hill, a smaller hill at the feed zone, and assorted rolling hills, then back up Barloy.
It was nice and warm at our 8am start. I didn’t need anything but shorts and jersey, a first for the year. On the neutralized start I hung back as the motoref was going slow and the field was accordioning back and forth. We immediately hit the 4 minute hill but the pace was manageable for me. My plan was to stick with the field and see what I could do on the climb up Barloy. I didn’t want to put out any effort that I didn’t have to, and the best way to do that is to have good position in the pack. But for most of the first lap I hung out in the back and hoped that no one would leave a gap.
A couple laps in I got gapped off the back over the feed zone hill when someone in front left a gap but when I realized that the pack wasn’t getting away I left it to other riders to close it. But after that I stayed farther in front. I found that I could move up on the descents with ease, because we had all the road and I was a little faster than many of the riders. Maybe its my new wheels or just not touching the brakes.
By the 5th lap the field was noticeably smaller and it was getting warm. I’d brought some nice bottles and didn’t want to lose one so I didn’t take a feed, but I could tell that I was going to be out of water a little early.
On the last lap we got a little anxious as we swung right instead of left and headed up the canyon. The climb up Barloy isn’t that long- maybe two miles- and a lot of is is gradual. I tried to stay near the front but not on it, so I could get the benefit of some draft. When we got to the 1km to go sign the road finally got steeper. I was already near my limit though, so I hung on as best I could as some riders gradually moved away. Some of them came back and I passed them, but not enough. My hamstrings had that about to cramp feeling when I was seated and I couldn’t get enough air. Nearing the 200m sign I could hear a guy behind me so I sprinted and held on for 10th.
Afterwards I stopped and spent a few minutes hunched over the bike trying to regain my breath.
While I didn’t finish as well as I’d like, I’m happy that the race went to my plan and I didn’t make any mistakes, except maybe I could have drunk more water. It was 86 degrees at the finish and I’m not heat acclimated yet. I did a VAM of about 1200 for the final 5 minutes. That’s not that great, I did 1700 for 5 minutes in a race a couple years ago. I think it’s due to the lack of short intervals this year.
After the race I wandered around the expo, but I was so brain dead that I couldn’t really look at anything, and I was irritating people behind me by walking slow up the stairs, so I left.