So this past weekend, I got back to racing my bike...and had it not been for an absolute logistical fuck-up of epic proportions, I would have raced Sunday too. But for now, I had to do a 12 lap Criterium knowns as the Mike's Bikes Cat's Hill Classic. The course featured 5 turns - 4 right and 1 left - 1 descent and one very steep 23% grade hill. Ouch.
Now, the thing with Criteriums or 'Crits' is that they are fast. Like. Really. Fast. Like. Faster. Than. I. Eat. Bananas. Get the idea? Good. Essentially, they are a skinny weegans nightmare, especially for the hill climbing type [me!]. Race started off and boom, I'm in the back, totally out of place. At which point, I realize I'm going to have to fight my way back up to the front with probably zero chance of having a go at it. One noticeable thing that is coming around: turning and flying through corners getting MUCH better. I guess it helps to descend at 60 kmph constantly to feel 'easy' going 55 kmph?!?! Anywho, getting back to the race, we race at the start and finally get to Cat's Hill. Bam. All 23% of her is just gruelling. I don't really feel like putting out a lot of energy at lap 1 so I put down 600 watts and lo and behold there are people going harder than that. Silly guys. It's a 12 lap race! And sure enough, the field keeps splitting and splitting. It's like they were waiting for me! And so, by sheer attrition, endurance and because my tarksome* ass is vegan, I manage to squeeze into the top group and then it's all over. Had this race been like the 3's, 20 laps, I woulda been right on up there, no sweat patna. It was good though, the form is coming along and I will be good to go for the weekend.
Sunday, whoa...I absolutely throttled my legs. I put down 2 hours and 45 mins on the bike and averaged 277 watts for the whole ride - not normalized~! Hot diggity damn son! That's almost good enough to stay with the rear of the pack in a P/1/2 race! Sigh. FAIL. So to make up for it, I pretty much took my elated feeling of lactic acid build up out on my stomach where I pretty much pigged out to awesome vegan food all day. Yeah, it's pretty tough to be a gangsta.
*Tarksome = New word I made up! Tall + Dark + Handsome = Tarksome. Conceited? Hmmm prolly not. Then again, my name is Alejandro ;-)
**BIG UPDATE**
yhprunning.com will have 2 TSHIRTS COMING TO TOWN! Yay!
The designs the prestigeous RND team cooked up [Alex with way too much time and after far too many bananas] are:
DESIGN 1) [FRONT] "Vegans Do It Sustainably."
[BACK] "I eat bananas at yhprunning.com"
(WAIT tshirts will be by TSDESIGNS.com. We will get the TSOrganic shirts that have the tshirt information on the sleeves! Check the website and you'll see what i Mean!)
DESIGN 2) [FRONT] Picture of Alex holding two hands of bananas in KOM [King of the Mountains] bib shorts...cheezin!. Caption: "ALEX KNOWS."
[this was actually a design by Nike for Bo Jackson entitled "BO KNOWS." but I wee-ganized it!
[BACK] "How many bananas did you eat today?"
Okay, thoughts!?!?!?!?
288 watt average over 2hrs 45min? Thoughts... wow, good effort man. I rode 55 miles on Sunday, pushed it pretty good. I don't have a power tap yet, but a wattage calculator on the intarwebs says I managed to squeak out a meager 180 watts or so over the course of the ride.
ReplyDeleteI have a plan for the next 14 weeks though, first half focusing on pushing back the old lactate threshold and the second on building power, hopefully it goes well. I'll have to check back in with you.
I kinda like this one better-"Vegans Do It Sustainably."
ReplyDeleteif u were to do design 2, u should do a little cartoon of u (monkey?). jkjk
Haha awesome, love the shirt ideas! Good stuff!
ReplyDelete@GreatNate - Hey man, thanks for the props and the comment. Much 'ppreciated! Nah mate, dont trust those 'online wattage' thingie majiggies. Main reason: They dont account for soft pedalling or when you're descending. They just put a finger to the wind and hope they can hit something.
ReplyDeletePowerTaps, I hear they have a new one out called the joule..definitely hit that one up if you can shell out the dinero.
Let me know how it goes with that 14 week plan, hopefully you've thrown in some ass-hard intervals in there =) Feel free to check back anytime man! Good luck, I know what you're going through and the only thing I can say is: Break to Build.
@Ms. Emily - Word up. Supposing I do make these shirts, would you even buy one?!
and btw...that's a monkey with tan lines. Mmm goi!
@Ryan + Ms. Bethany - Yeah, the other idea I've received would be to have a stormtrooper sitting in a cafeteria asking for some vegan food. Hmmm...
@Alex Tellez I am just going to follow the two 7 week plan in Chris Carmichaels book, the intermediate and advanced. See how it goes.
ReplyDelete@greatnate - Would this be the time crunched cyclist book? Haven't read it but have heard good things. Let me know how it goes mate!
ReplyDeleteAnd while you're throttling yourself daily on the bike, be sure to pick up on of my favorite books on cycling - not that there are many in the first place: Heft on Wheels: a field guide to doing a 180 turn with your life.
Awesome book man, I knocked it out in one day it was so good. Story about a man on a war-path to changing his life to pursue the sport of cycling. I think all cyclists can identify with it in some way or another.
Yes you recommended it to me and I read it in a day as well. I actually have three people reading it right now haha. Sorry maybe I should've identified myself, this is your cousin Nathan in Houston, sorry about that :) You are right about those calculators, when I factor in wind it says 400 watts is needed to maintain 19.5mph, so between wind, no wind, and all the other variables it basically means shit.
ReplyDeleteThe book is titled "The Lance Armstrong Performance Program". It's by Chris Carmichael (Mostly) and Lance armstrong. Depending on what classification you fall under you either do the moderate or advanced 7 week plan. I am on the cusp, so I am going to do both. The first one (intermediate) focuses on a lot of tempo riding and some fast pedal exercises, and the second 7 week set switches to power intervals and fast paced rides with changing speeds.
The Powetap joule looks like a computer. I am planning to get the powertap elite when I get some new wheels, next year I think. I just purchased the Garmin Edge 500, and it is ANT+ so it will work with whatever power tap power meter I get.
Are you on the ole facebook btw?
oh and check this out
http://www.aridewithgeorge.com/