Pilarcitos Race#1- Candlestick
Bay Area Super Prestige Series (aka Pilarcitos Series)
Oct 2, 2005, 12pm
Cat A race
field 29
place 23/29
So after last week's suffer-fest, I took it easy on the beers and got a good nites rest this weekend. I was a good boy and actually did a proper "tune-up" on saturday to get my legs and lungs primed for racing on sunday. For those of you not in "the know," a "tune-up" consist of riding for 30-45 at an easy pace and then doing one hard effort (mine is for 7 minutes at my LT HR), then recovering at an easy pace as you roll home. Total time is about 50mins-1hr. I did this religiously during MTB season and let me tell you, this really, really helps prime your system for the intensity of a cross race as well!
I arrived at Candlestick and got registered, dressed out and checked out the course. Typical, Candlestick coure, bumpy sections, sandy section, a few hard turns to force you scrub speed and then have to accelerate, and short run-ups. All in all, the Candlestick races are always screaming fast!
My main goal for this race was not to get lapped by the top A racers. Which I thought was a realistic goal, since I was able to fend of Simon Vickers at one of the early DFL races...ready carefully, by fend off I mean, finishing in the same lap as Simon, not actually battling it out with him ;-)
So we line-up under the inflatable RedBull arch and I'm noticeably more calm about racing in the A's than I was last week. I lined up about 3 rows back and to the right. Dang it, once again I got a bad start. Some guy almost crashed in front of us, which drove me further back into the pack. Unfortunately, the race starts on pavement and quickly funnels onto a narrow dirt road...so although I had the ability in my legs and lungs to accelerate and pass more people, I couldn't because I was stuck in a congo line, thus the field got strung out pretty quickly. N
No sooner had I hit the dirt singletrack and went down the first descent and bamm, my front wheel hit a grassy section and down I went, loosing my chain in the process. It took me about 30 seconds to get my chain back on and I was flaming pissed. I was cussing up a storm as I hopped back on my bike, providing cheap entertainment for the bystanders. I was so angry that I just jumped on my bike and grunted and stomped on my pedals as hard as I could. This was a good use of my rage, as I was able to catch back up to all the guys that past me while I was down.
I quickly settled into a good pace. I have to say, other than my crashes (yes I had another minor one), my skills on the dirt were pretty on this race. I hit all the barriers with a good amount of speed, road up most of the run-ups (they were short) and was able to remount and start pedaling pretty quickly after hoping over barriers!
A few laps into the race I started feeling pretty good and started to accelerate in the appropriate sections. For a while I was kinda riding by myself and then suddenly I started gaining on people. I first caught Rick Hunter and thought, ooh I'm not doing so bad. I battled it out with him for a lap, before putting a bit of a gap on him and chasing down one of the DFL guys(turned out to b Dylan on a fricken singlespeed, damn that boy is fast). I came buy him and he never caught me.
I focus on keeping my upper body relaxed and really taking all corners, dirt or pavement, at speed. I felt this was the first time that I was actually able to convserve speed through the turns! On each flat section I forced my fatigued legs to accelerate, I didn't jump with power, but I did spin faster. Using this tactic in the later laps, eventually allowed my to catch one more of the DFL guys (on a single speed, I think this is the guy the call Duckie).
On top of the excitement of racing, I was extremely grateful to everybody cheering me on. Everytime I came by I could hear people telling me, OK you can get the guy in front of you and almost every lap I came by, I was passing another person! It was a cool racer\spectator interaction! I can vividly remember Meredith exclaiming, yes, you caught another one! Thanks specifically to Meredith for water bottle handoffs, cheering and support and thanks also to Beverly, Paule, Julie, Alise, Lauren and Sabine for cheering me on! Also thanks to everybody else who I couldn't identify for cheering me on as well. It means a lot to hear encouragment, when you are racing your arse off, only to not get lapped by the rest of the elite field!
I finished the last lap, riding with all I had left in me. I still wish I had better power output, but at least my heart rate was consistent. I came in 23/29 and didn't get lapped! That means Justin Robinson, Simon Vickers and Aaron Odell and Larry Hibbard didn't pass me...woohoooo!
Here's the official results:
http://www.pilarcitos.com/results05_1.htm#Elite%20Men
Sorry no pics...I forgot to bust out the camera! Next race I swear I'll get some pics! However, you can check out the race profile from my Polar 720 HRM.
Thanks for reading!
Cheers,
Isaias
Oct 2, 2005, 12pm
Cat A race
field 29
place 23/29
So after last week's suffer-fest, I took it easy on the beers and got a good nites rest this weekend. I was a good boy and actually did a proper "tune-up" on saturday to get my legs and lungs primed for racing on sunday. For those of you not in "the know," a "tune-up" consist of riding for 30-45 at an easy pace and then doing one hard effort (mine is for 7 minutes at my LT HR), then recovering at an easy pace as you roll home. Total time is about 50mins-1hr. I did this religiously during MTB season and let me tell you, this really, really helps prime your system for the intensity of a cross race as well!
I arrived at Candlestick and got registered, dressed out and checked out the course. Typical, Candlestick coure, bumpy sections, sandy section, a few hard turns to force you scrub speed and then have to accelerate, and short run-ups. All in all, the Candlestick races are always screaming fast!
My main goal for this race was not to get lapped by the top A racers. Which I thought was a realistic goal, since I was able to fend of Simon Vickers at one of the early DFL races...ready carefully, by fend off I mean, finishing in the same lap as Simon, not actually battling it out with him ;-)
So we line-up under the inflatable RedBull arch and I'm noticeably more calm about racing in the A's than I was last week. I lined up about 3 rows back and to the right. Dang it, once again I got a bad start. Some guy almost crashed in front of us, which drove me further back into the pack. Unfortunately, the race starts on pavement and quickly funnels onto a narrow dirt road...so although I had the ability in my legs and lungs to accelerate and pass more people, I couldn't because I was stuck in a congo line, thus the field got strung out pretty quickly. N
No sooner had I hit the dirt singletrack and went down the first descent and bamm, my front wheel hit a grassy section and down I went, loosing my chain in the process. It took me about 30 seconds to get my chain back on and I was flaming pissed. I was cussing up a storm as I hopped back on my bike, providing cheap entertainment for the bystanders. I was so angry that I just jumped on my bike and grunted and stomped on my pedals as hard as I could. This was a good use of my rage, as I was able to catch back up to all the guys that past me while I was down.
I quickly settled into a good pace. I have to say, other than my crashes (yes I had another minor one), my skills on the dirt were pretty on this race. I hit all the barriers with a good amount of speed, road up most of the run-ups (they were short) and was able to remount and start pedaling pretty quickly after hoping over barriers!
A few laps into the race I started feeling pretty good and started to accelerate in the appropriate sections. For a while I was kinda riding by myself and then suddenly I started gaining on people. I first caught Rick Hunter and thought, ooh I'm not doing so bad. I battled it out with him for a lap, before putting a bit of a gap on him and chasing down one of the DFL guys(turned out to b Dylan on a fricken singlespeed, damn that boy is fast). I came buy him and he never caught me.
I focus on keeping my upper body relaxed and really taking all corners, dirt or pavement, at speed. I felt this was the first time that I was actually able to convserve speed through the turns! On each flat section I forced my fatigued legs to accelerate, I didn't jump with power, but I did spin faster. Using this tactic in the later laps, eventually allowed my to catch one more of the DFL guys (on a single speed, I think this is the guy the call Duckie).
On top of the excitement of racing, I was extremely grateful to everybody cheering me on. Everytime I came by I could hear people telling me, OK you can get the guy in front of you and almost every lap I came by, I was passing another person! It was a cool racer\spectator interaction! I can vividly remember Meredith exclaiming, yes, you caught another one! Thanks specifically to Meredith for water bottle handoffs, cheering and support and thanks also to Beverly, Paule, Julie, Alise, Lauren and Sabine for cheering me on! Also thanks to everybody else who I couldn't identify for cheering me on as well. It means a lot to hear encouragment, when you are racing your arse off, only to not get lapped by the rest of the elite field!
I finished the last lap, riding with all I had left in me. I still wish I had better power output, but at least my heart rate was consistent. I came in 23/29 and didn't get lapped! That means Justin Robinson, Simon Vickers and Aaron Odell and Larry Hibbard didn't pass me...woohoooo!
Here's the official results:
http://www.pilarcitos.com/results05_1.htm#Elite%20Men
Sorry no pics...I forgot to bust out the camera! Next race I swear I'll get some pics! However, you can check out the race profile from my Polar 720 HRM.
Thanks for reading!
Cheers,
Isaias
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