Rutgers 2012 (ECCC #1)

Sorry for the lack of posts; since Buzzard's Bay, I did Weschester (Olympic), Mightyman (Sprint), Cycling Training Camp (Borrego Springs, CA), and the Landry's Indoor Time Trial. These were all great but I did not write race reports for them. Depending on how much I need to procrastinate on all my classes, I will try to write at least something short about each of this year's collegiate cycling races, if only to have something by which to remember the courses for next year.

Race Report: Rutgers (ECCC #1)

3/3/12-3/4/12

First race weekend measuring power

This was my first weekend using my new Powertap, which was really exciting albeit not useful for pacing yet (since I don’t really know my power levels). Anyway, one of my goals was to set some new power records over the course of the race weekend (not super hard since I’d only ridden with it for a week). Well, I set the entire power curve ;)

ITT:

This ITT was, as usual, extremely short and rather painful. It was slightly longer than last year, but still only ~2.2 miles. It was pretty cold (~40 degrees) and raining steadily by the time I started, so I was glad it would be over quickly. I had performed a good hour warmup with some sprints/speeds, and did openers the previous morning, so figured I ought to do OK even though my strength really lies in longer time trials. Anyway, I went pretty hard, but maybe not quite as hard as I should have, and ended up in 3^rd in the B’s with a time of 5:41.

Road Race:

52 miles with 4000 feet in elevation on the first weekend of the season – awesome! The course consisted of 4 13-mile laps, with a fair bit of climbing in the first half then some ups and downs. The first lap was really easy; I even pulled some, because I decided that I’d rather be at the front (only putting out <150 watts, though – wouldn’t want to get too tired) in case a hill came and someone (e.g. Katie) started going faster. That way, I could “sag-climb” and hopefully not get dropped; since I know that fast hills are still one of my big weaknesses. It worked for the first few climbs, then I fell off the back during the second lap. A group of 4 of us rotated through for the rest of that lap, then fractured during the third lap so I was either alone or pulling the entire third lap. Going into the fourth lap, I was with one other girl, and I didn’t feel any more tired than I’d felt the previous few laps (yay for endurance & long rides during base training), so I decided I would try to beat her. Then, we caught up to another pair of girls and rode with them for a while. I sat in second wheel and let the front girl pull until I could tell she was getting quite tired, and then I made my move; I “attacked” (not very fast, but hard enough that they couldn’t catch me in their 48-mile-tired state) on a slight uphill right before a turn, and then pounded the last 5 miles, never quite sure if someone might catch me. The other girls were all faster climbers than me, and the finish was on an uphill, so I didn’t want to risk us all making it to the bottom of the hill at the same time. Luckily, they didn’t catch me, and my inner legs (which were about to cramp up horribly) didn’t, and I finished strong. 4^th in B’s, 8^th in A/B’s /25. I guess the front group splintered up a fair bit too, and when I thought I’d fallen “off the back” near the beginning it was more that some girls had gotten off the front. Anyway, set my new power records for everything from 5 minutes to 3 hours. Hah, I guess I should do some hard intervals with the power sometime.

Crit:

This crit was on last year’s points race course, so I was of course rather dreading it; the course consists of a big hill in a .9 mile loop. The race wasn’t until mid-afternoon, by which point I didn’t feel like racing so much as like taking a nap, but I warmed up and ate some caffeine and tried to get psyched up to at least go do a bunch of solitary hill repeats, if it came down to it. Well, I was dropped from the leaders after 3 laps, but after that I had a great race. I kept up a steady pace, confirmed later by viewing my power file; each time up the hill, my power output was either the same or higher than the previous lap, which either means I was very consistent and pacing it perfectly (for an ITT, anyway, maybe not in the spirit of road racing), or that I’d started too easy. I don’t think I started too easy, though, since my heart rate averaged 181 for the 50 minutes. One interesting note is that, while my power stayed constant from lap to lap on the uphill, my heart rate was about 10 bpm higher on the last few than the early-mid laps, at the same power. Anyway, I picked off a girl or two each lap, usually on the uphill (surprisingly), and ended up in 6^th for the B’s, 11^th for A/Bs – not bad for a i) criterium and ii) criterium based on an uphill.