Archive for the ‘Driveway’ Tag
It only takes a millisecond for your brain to quit
Wednesday I spent a whole 10-minutes explaining to my mom that exercise is something like 75% mental. “Your mind gives up before your bodyâ€, “It only takes a millisecond for your brain to quitâ€, etc. I know this is true and I feel it every time I finish a race. I can almost always pinpoint the minute I quit. That doesn’t necessarily mean getting dropped or not putting out power anymore, it’s a thing it your brain that just says “Yeah, I’m pretty content with where I am so I’m not going to burn that matchâ€. After the race though, you almost always know that match was there to be burned.
Last night the plan was good. We knew we didn’t have the numbers but we had a good plan and we knew what to watch for. When Leigh went, I knew it was dangerous. Kate was on the front to chase but I needed to be there too. Julie was out with a flat and Kim was not feeling it. It was just me and Kate. Bombing the downhill somebody got their front wheel tangled in my skewer, derailer or something. I went backwards a ton of spots while I tried to sort out if I had broken spokes or an untrue wheel or something. It was inside of 3-to go and I was about 12-people back with my teammate chasing man-watts; everybody single file. I knew Kim was telling me I had to go help Kate but that’s easier said than done; especially on that course. The championship loop will beat you mentally. You are literally not pedaling for 10% of the course and you’re full gas the other 90%. We were strung out most of the race with nowhere to hide. You have to be willing to take risks and you have to put yourself in the wind to move up on the championship loop. I had 2.5 laps and an unknown number of matches plus the finish to pull off. I used the corners to my advantage and moved up a 2-3 positions each time. *strike*, *burn*, *recover*, repeat. On the last sweeping turn before the up-hill that starts the lead-out I bombed inside and got in front of Kate. There was no pulling or helping and she didn’t need it. She got in front of me, looked back, and went. I grabbed her wheel and suffered. I knew I had suffered like this before and come out with the win so I gritted my teeth and started counting. I screamed to myself those same mantra’s I had just told my mom. I told myself this week there would be no regrets my mind would not win. Coming around the last turn into the chicane, I lost Kate’s wheel. I tried my best to keep pedaling but my legs would not respond. I tried to sprint but had nothing left. Kate held on for 2nd, which is nothing short of amazing.
Looking back, I know I left nothing but I also know I didn’t race the best race I could have. My cadence has been lingering in the too-high zone. My legs ran out of steam because there’s only so long that you can push > LT+25% at 100rpm!! There’s always something to improve and I’m already hungry for my next chance.
Driveway Spring Classic – 6th
22 of us lined up in the rain yesterday for a 50-min race. It was 60-something degrees when we started, by the time we were done it was 53 and dropping. Most of us had not brought warm enough clothes and being soaking wet just made it worse. Many of us tossed our glasses because couldn’t see anything. Over 24-hours later I’m still picking dirt out of my ears and eyes. I got 6th overall and 2nd in the 3s race.
The race today was actually listed as three races; W4, W3, W3/4 40+, and WP12. In the P12 we had Jenny, Kim, and Rhe against Kath and Jen Mix. In the W3 we had Nadia and me against three Think Cash girls, Chelsea, Karla, Suzi, and a few others. We lined up in rainy, wet, and chilly conditions. We didn’t have a pre-race meeting so I wasn’t totally sure what the plan was. From go, Jenny takes off. OMG Jenny! I wish we had video of how long it took everybody to realize what happened!! Given our numbers and the conditions, this was perfect! Jen worked really hard to catch but couldn’t get anybody to work. This was sort of interesting because, regardless of bib #, only the first 5 across the line got any cash. Kim did an amazing job of making sure Jen didn’t get anywhere without her and, of course, she wasn’t going to help. I could tell even on our warm up lap that the rain and the course were going to favor the Austin women; especially coming through the chicane into the sprint.
The first half of the race saw attacks from Jen but not much else. The second half the three’s were more active. Between Chelsea, Karla, Suzi, and TC there was a lot to watch. Nadia did a great job of staying on things and making sure we were covered. This is where I feel like the race sort of fell apart. Being my first race with a real team and being so familiar with the Driveway I actually ended up being in the way. My mind was more on the cat 3 race than the overall and this was a mistake. Throughout the race there was talk of “our†race and “your†race but really there was just the race for cash (something I didn’t think about until after). Kim spent energy trying to reign in my energy and keep me from doing something stupid (both for the overall and the cat3 race) and missed Jen’s move on the last lap. It came together but Kim had to work hard for position and couldn’t make up all the ground.
Looking back, we should have thrown the categories out and focused only on nabbing as many of the top spots as possible with our top women. This is all that should have mattered because the prizes for the other races sucked (and subsequently, I have some Core Power to share with you ladies).Â
It was really awesome to see Kim, Rhe, and Nadia work together and I know I have to work to be a better teammate. Kim pointed out a few times my position was not good relative to the team and I realized I’m not used to, or good, at thinking this way yet. Rhe also pointed out that I didn’t have a good sense of where my teammates are and this is critical to being a good teammate. This is definitely something I plan on working on.
In the end, Jenny pulled off a stellar 1st place and Kim came in 4th. I pulled out a 6th overall but feel that should have been a 5th. Kim probably would have had a better finish also if she hadn’t been watching out for me.
Overall, I feel great about the race. Don’t take my criticisms of myself to harshly. I came here to learn and I’m happy for the advice. Great job everybody!!
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First Race of a Second Life, Done!
Well I can now call myself a racer again. I was nervous all day, though I don’t really know what for. I know that I’m very competitive and I think I was worried that I might fall lower on the list of finishers than I had expected. As fate would have it, my white whale showed up tonight. I really shouldn’t have anything against this girl except that she was probably the most competitive non-AFWC out there, she wears a vanderkitten kit that matches her bike, and she sat-on and out sprinted me at ToA last year. Ok, I have beef. So when I saw her, I knew I would be disappointed if I didn’t beat her.
I lined up next to the regular AFWC girls. When we saw how few non-AFWC women there were we decided to just constantly attack to make the race interesting. It got off to a very odd start when a few of the 10-14y boys decided to start in front of us. We finally got passed them and really started moving. Kim was the first to attack and I got on the train. It was hard but not killer. Then one of the juniors attacked and Kim came towards the back with me. This is when things started to get odd. One of the kids up front was treating this like a 100m dash and when he blew, he blew! He was totally in our way going around one of the turns and I just wasn’t willing to risk it. A gap had already formed and this kid just made it worse. I tried to use Kim and Meredith to bridge but when they caught one of the juniors attacked and I couldn’t hold it.
I settled into my race at a pace that was sustainable for the next 25 min. That’s right, I got dropped 5-min into the race. My only goal at this point was not letting VK catch me. Well she did and I could tell she was just sitting on m wheel. At one point I purposely slowed and she came around. At that point the game was on. I knew from ToA that her game was to sit in and then sprint. I knew she wasn’t strong on hills but that she would also be saving her energy for the sprint. I attacked her up the hill a few times but not consistently enough that she would be able to predict what I was going to do. I kept testing her to see where she would break.  I knew it would have to be a hard attack on the hill and that would hurt me too. I wasn’t sure if I should do it on the last lap or the second to last lap. I was worried that if I did it on the last lap I would be too tired to sprint. I thought if I did it on the second to last lap it might tire her out. In the end, I opted for the last lap. She seemed to be recovering just fine over the course of the lap.
We rolled up to the finish line with one to go and I knew we both knew the game. She knew I was going to attack up the hill and I knew she was going to sprint hard. I had let her come up the hill in front of me on that lap because I wanted to gauge how badly the hill was hurting her so she was still in front of me coming up to the finish line. We were about 10-ft away when the leaders passed us and crossed the finish line just in front of us. Our race was done and without even knowing it she had beat me. It was tough to take but I was very proud of my effort. I already can’t wait until next time.