Decisions, Decisions...
I experienced a bit of angst on today. My first dilemma arose from some random websurfing I did over lunch. Last month I had sent a Facebook posting to the promoter of the Tour of the Catskills asking if they had gearing recommendations for the infamous Devil's Kitchen. They responded by say that a 39X25 is probably the minimum requirement. That's all I have, and all I've ever trained on. Plus, I tackled some pretty nasty hills in NH with this gearing, so until today I was not the slightest bit concerned.
In my lunchtime googling though I unearthed enough evidence to shake my confidence a bit. I think one posting I found said that a recommendation to use a 39X25 as minimum gearing was like Microsoft saying that a Pentium 1 was good enough to run Windows 7. It would work, but it wouldn't be a very good experience. I toyed with the idea of swapping out my gearing for something new, but after a lot of hemming and hawing I decided to stick with what I have rather than try new equipment out for the first time on my A priority race.
Another decision I wrestled with today was whether or not to race at the Rent tonight. I was still pretty sore from this weekends battle with East Hawley Rd, though I felt markedly better than I had yesterday. More rest would be nice, however, I didn't want to let too much of my fitness fad away and enter this weekend rested but atrophied and weak. The deciding factor ended up having nothing to do with my body or my plan -- it turns out that my cheering squad wanted to come out to the Rent, so the matter was resolved.
A family affair
There's no way I'm passing up an opportunity to race with my cheering squad on the sidelines, so I decided to use tonight's B race to get some good hard intervals in, and then rest as much as possible in between. I only had one other teammate in the race, and he had no desire to formulate some sort of plan, so I was free to just do my thing.
Things probably couldn't have worked out better for me tonight. First off, my cheering squad put in a full race effort this evening. I don't think a lap went by without me passing by hearing "Go daddy Go!" I don't know if it started to annoy others in the pack hearing it repeated over and over again, but I never grew tired of it!
With such enthusiastic supporters pouring their hearts into their cheers, I had to put on a good show, and tonight I didn't disappoint! I don't remember exactly how the first Prime played out, but I do remember how I went on to collect the last four Primes! I tried a couple where I launched on turn 3, another where I put in a full lap effort, and then another where I surprisingly waited until just the final straight away to put on the after-burners (I don't know if you can call a 902 W sprint "after burners", can you?).
After collecting each of the Primes, I eased up and started soft pedaling. While I ended up spending a good deal of time off the front (especially earlier in the race), it was surprisingly due to the large gaps I had opened up during the sprints. I suppose if this wasn't just a training race I would have tried to take advantage of the gaps, press the pace, and get away, but I never lost site of the bigger picture. I didn't want to risk being too tired for this weekend's stage race, so I happily let the pack pull me back in each time. On one occasion a former teammate (Vinnie) had bridged up to me and asked if I wanted to work to stay away. I hope he wasn't offended when I declined his request and told him "I'm just doing intervals tonight."
If I was forced to find a blemish in tonight's race with the family, it was that I wasn't able to secure that ever elusive first place finish, which I later learned would have netted me a bottle of Sam Adams. Despite the Prime-winning efforts, I still had gas in the tank, and my confidence level was on the rise after collecting my prime wins.
I was happy when with two to go a few guys started attacking off the front to start to string out the pack. Their efforts helped to assure me there was going to be no bunch sprint to contend with at the end. Even better -- their efforts ended up sending them into the red zone, so it wasn't long before each of them were weeded out as they pulled off and faded to the back.
With a lap to go I got a tap on my back from a buddy on another team. He pointed out a particular rider ahead of me who's won the race a few times in the past (thanks John!). My plan was to mark this rider in yellow until we neared corner 4 on the final lap. The plan was flawed though. The guy ended up blowing up 20 yards before corner 4.
By the time I had pulled around him, yet another rider had opened a gap. I closed most of the gap as we entered the final stretch, but the other guy seemed to be well matched with me for top end sprinting speed (which I'm afraid to say may be an insult for the other guy to be compared to my top end sprint!). I attempted my first ever throw of the bike at the line in an attempt to close the last few feet separating us, but it was a throw that fell just a few inches short. I pretty much knew that I had lost again by a few inches, but I felt it was close enough to at least pose the question to the other rider was we began our cool down.
He confirmed what I had thought. I winced for about a second knowing I needed to wait more time before getting that first win. But the wince quickly turned to a smile though as I realized how much fun of an evening I was having racing in front of the cheering squad. I finished my cool down, changed, packed up the car, and then walked over to the finish line with my oldest daughter to collect all four of the water bottles I had earned through my Prime wins. Four bottles for the four Desmarais family members!
Maybe I don't need to fret about fitness or gearing for this weekend's Tour of the Catskills -- maybe I just need to make sure the cheering squad is in full force?
Final #s
- 0hr 33 min 39 sec (excluding the preliminary 5 lap neutral start)
- 13.17 miles
- 486 kJ
- Norm Power 299
- Avg Power 241
- Max Power 902
- Avg Speed 23.4
- 2nd place (lost by just an inch)
