Newton Heights VCL Race

[BearPope Recruit]

Ouch

That's all I have to say - I'll let the others report on their race experience.

& thanks for not dropping me on the way home! Enjoy that blizzard Moose Caboose!

and THANKS to Jeremy for cheering & bringing treats again!

[Josh.E]

http://connect.garmin.com/player/30851131

Yeah, ouch. by 10 laps in, I just wanted the pain to end.

A bunch of really fast guys came out to race A tonight. You could tell looking around at the start that it was going to hurt. Bill, in a moment of profound insight, came to the realization that only you are responsible for the pain you put yourself through. After managing to stay with the lead pack for 4 laps, I started yo-yo ing off the back, and then spent two laps trying to get back with them. At that moment, I knew in my heart Bill was wrong. It was their fault for riding away from me. If they hadn't been doing that, I wouldn't have had to try to stay with them.
By lap 6 or so the main group had disappeared from sight and I got caught by Matt from IRC and Jeff in an OBB kit. I jumped on with them and did the rest of the race in that threesome, with Matt doing all the pulling on the flats. We got lapped by the two A leaders who were way out in front and flying, then by the A chase group of 5 or so led by cory wallace who won the last two VCL races, but managed to not get lapped by the A pack, if there was even a pack by that point, for all I know there was only the shattered remains of other guys who got spit off the back all over the course ahead of us.

What I learned:
- don't let the pack get a gap on you on the climb if you've still got enough to stay on. once that gap forms you are done, as you get stuck alone in the wind in no mans land for half a lap every lap. you'll end up better off to hang on as long as you possibly can.
- I need to do more hour long high intensity over/under workouts to have a hope in hell of saying with that pack a little longer. more hours on the bike aint gonna do it if you aren't training for that intensity

[JohnT]

Sounds like I should be thankful for the elementary school musical conflict. Nice post Josh. We (those who didn't race) get the lesson without the pain. Thursday morning intervals anyone?

JT

[Josh.E]

MOOSE!!!

[gav_eaton]

That pic was for you Peter - I was going to text you a bunch of swear words after the race, but I thought I would send out a 'moose salute' instead!

Huge thanks to Bill for keeping me company (and moving forward) waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay off the back. Don't think he was hurting half as much as I was!

[AlW]

After reading numerous race reports from the past, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. Gapped after lap 3, dropped after 4 and a personal TT for the remainder.

I'll have to get Josh to enlighten me regarding those high intensity over/under workouts he plans to do. I think I could use some....

[Josh.E]

You pick a workout time, say 45 minutes or 1 hour, and figure out the maximum average power of effort by heartrate you can maintain for that amount of time, your steady state TT effort. Then you start doing 30 sec-3 minute intervals, at 10% over that effort and 10% under that effort, each for the same amount of time.
The redlining to match accelerations and then recovery while still under effort simulates what happens to you in a race like newton heights. Regular intervals where you rest in between are not the same.

[AlW]

Thanks Josh.

I've done similar workouts on a 1.6km loop that consists of 400m climbing and 1200m of flat/descending (strangely similar to Newton Heights....), with redline then rest/recovery efforts. Will have to give recovery under effort a go.

Here is the loop if anyone is interested: http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=d&source=s ... 33023&z=16

[Josh.E]

Here's a hilly box crit route close to home for a lot of people. 7m less climbing per lap than newton

http://www.bikely.com/maps/bike-path/hi ... t-training