Rider Up!
That is a statement that I have not said in the 1 month I have been here in NC. There is always a multitude of riders out at the Lake Crabtree of all levels. You have riders on old beat up frames that have been riding for years. They are not the elite type riders with carbon this, or titanium that. They just come out to ride. You have families out riding also. And women! Yeap! Women are out in force hitting up single track. And this stuff ain’t easy. I have seen some women on Racer-X, a Orange Santa Cruz, and Trek Fuel, etc. These are true mtn bikers. You also have the BMXers out there working the pump track in the middle of the course. And you have mostly single-trackers. I have not come really come up on any riders from behind, and almost all of my encounters have been from head-on traffic. The Protocol is the rider climbing has the right of way. All of my encounters have been really good so far, but there was one question mark. I came up on some riders I know (I know who they are, but not friends with them) as it was 2 of them. The guy had gapped the girl, and we met on neutral single-track so we both slowed down. By the time I get to her I’m now climbing and she doesn’t even budge. She just blows down the downhill without even acknowledging the Protocol. That was my only question mark, and it came from a chickenhead poot-butt ass girl I got in a debate in with last year over a race I didn’t come to in NC. She was making it seem like I was scared to come, and I called her out. Man, so many people got involved that the thread got out of hand but someone that everyone respected said “Enough” and everyone got off the keyboard on that issue. From then I have decided to not post on that forum anymore. I do frequent it now that I’m residing here, but only to see if the trails are open. I’m reluctant to put up a post there anymore as most of riders that swear they are experts are riding a Trek 800 Sport with no suspension. I mostly do weather check before I go to ride. The weather is unpredictable compared to Florida. Or maybe this is predictable. Up here if it rains, then they simple shut down the trails, which is an awesome way to preserve it. It pays to have a gym membership and a nice pair of spin shoes.
I was going to do the race in Greenville yesterday, but the rain came in Saturday night, and THANK GOD. I went out to preride the 7.5 mile loop at the Bike Post on Friday, and it just kicked my ass. Since I had moved here I had not gone anaerobic 1 time. It’s because I have done most of my training by myself and it’s been almost all zone training. The temperature was in the 80’s and the course was challenging as I have ever experience. It was just as hard as Razorback. Well, maybe not has hard, but it felt like it. I did a 42 minute lap, and packed it up knowing I was going to get dropped in the first 5 minutes to any locals because they know all those off camber switchbacks like I know the gunrange at Markham.
On Saturday I had a table tennis tournament in town. I come to play the tournament for 2 reasons. My name will attract more players, and to get more t.t. footage for our website. The first tournament I played 13 players came, and once they knew I was in town and playing, this tournament had over 40. Because I just made this guy over $1200.00 I asked him to waive my fee. I won the tournament, and it was only $35.00 for first, so I told him to keep it as we are even now. In the future he is going to have to offer prize money if he wants me to come out and play for 6 hours. I actually lost money that day as I could be coaching for $40.00/hr. It was a good day, as I got a ton of footage that should keep our site buzzing with quality matches for a few weeks.
Since I knew rain was in the forecast for Sunday I decided to go ride at Lake Crabtree since it was 10 miles away from where I was. I have been hitting up Lake Crabtree since I moved here and it has quickly become my choice trail to train at. When I started riding it last month my first full lap was a 29 min lap, and I just knew I could not ride any faster. I have slowly knocked off minutes since then, as I got used to the swooping turns, and staying off the brakes more. I needed to go anaerobic since the race on Sunday would send me over the top in a big way. So the first lap I went off in search of that anaerobic burn in the legs. It was hard to find as the temperature was cooler than Friday, but I was riding much faster.
I quickly got myself down to doing the outside loop in 25-26 minutes. I had dipped below 25 only by a couple of second on 2 occasions, and I was riding much faster than that this day. I was getting faster at ever check point and it reminded me of how Bob Mc rides. He doesn’t really zone out, he keeps pushing to get faster, and that is how I felt. While that is not my choice way to train, it would do for this session. I really thought that I couldn’t go faster than the 25 minute lap, but I came in at 23.58, and kept going. I have this new thing that I always do my training in 10 mile blocks. I think it’s makes you stronger to do 2 laps back to back if you plan to race and that is what I have been doing all year. Actually, in South Florida I was doing it in 12 mile blocks, so the 10 miles is a bit easier. As I approach a race I will mostly like start moving it up to 3 and 4 laps back to back. This second lap I was not fast as before, but I was still way ahead of my 25 minute lap pace. I brought it in at 24.42, and was happy enough with the effort to call it a day. I needed to save some for the race, if the RAIN does not come in. As soon as I got in the car, it started to sprinkle and I laughed. I thought it was a perfect occasion and got the ipod out and loaded the “Here comes the rain again”, and sang along very comically.
I woke up Sunday, and the race was a BUST, for me, at least. Pacer “Does not do RAIN”. I will ride in it if I’m caught, but I will not pack up anything if it’s already raining. And the way the rain was hitting the window I know it was awful, so I just slept.
At 10am I could not sleep any longer, and the weather had improved dramatically. So I decided to meet up with the “Cyclist of Wilson” ride. It’s a Sunday ride that starts from the Starbucks on 58 and they normally do between 25-40 miles. The pace is moderate to fast, and they normally avg between 21-22mph. Now, I know that is not a lot to anyone riding in South Florida, but there is not a 1 mile stretch that is flat so you are on false flats, or you are out of the saddle climbing up over an overpass. So it is challenging to the legs. I had only done this ride once before, and been on my mtn bike almost every ride I have done in the last month. But when I ride the mtn bike so much I actually ride better on the road bike. There are only about 17 riders in this core group, and 5 showed up. I was the strongest rider in the group, but wanted to get a workout without shattering the flow. Since we had 6 riders, and were taking 3min pulls, it was not enough of a workout for me so my 3mins had to be anaerobic. I was 4th in line to pull, and once I got to the front we hit a crosswind and I took it out of the gutter to give everyone room to find the slipstream. I slowly ramp it up to 24mph and after 1 minute the group had broken up as we reached a light. Once we got back going I took another hard pull for 1 minute, and 1 rider had gotten dropped. So, I waited for him, and pushed him all the way back to the group. That was another 2 mins of riding anaerobic. Things tamed down a bit as it took me another 15 minutes to take a pull, and I went hard but this time I was directly into a headwind. But the time I got it up to 26mph, the group was gone, and John (A tri-athlete) bridged up to me and I held that pace for another minute, then backed off. OK, I’m finished. No more hard work for me today, so I got in the back and anchored the group. At some point I realized we were heading back, and was not expecting things to pick up again. But about 3 miles from the end John went off the front with another rider on his wheel. I was thinking the guys would regroup, organize and walk it down, but they just waved for me to go, so I did. OK, one more hard effort, Pacer. I put my head down and completely bury myself in the “Acid Bath”. It takes me about 1 minute to catch them going 28-30mph. John keeps pulling, and I my HR drops back down and I’m completely recovered by the time the other guy(Sorry, I forgot his name) takes a pull. But he is waiting for me to sprint, and after about 45 seconds he pulls through. I don’t sprint, but instead I do a really hard surge to get John off my wheel, then I bury myself again and walk away. By the time I got back to 58 I had 100 meter on him. Then I decided to take it all the way back to Starbucks with this effort since I was feeling good and I surged again. I could see that John was still in pursuit, so I decided to close the door on that. He is on a Time Trial Cervelo, so he has better technology, so I keep the pedals going under as much wattage I could do without blowing it. I got to Airport road I had increased my distance to about 300 meters, but I hit a light and gave up about 20 seconds, and John was still charging as he was within 100 meters of me. I put the wattage down again, and was able to get my distance back and more, and by the time I got to Starbucks I had about 25 seconds on him.
The rest of the group came back in, and we sat and talked for about 45minutes and it was nice. Normally, I’m always in a rush as I have something to do, but not this day. I had nothing on the agenda besides riding and sleeping. So I went home and took a power nap.
I had 3 anaerobic days in a row, so Monday is a rest day for sure. I’m not sure when I’m going to race next, but I’ll keep training as if. I know that Greenville is a great course to train on, so since I have no clients on Wednesday, that is my course to train at since it is like Markham in sending you into anaerobic even if you don’t want to.
This week I will spend most of my time on the mtn bike, and will jump in some spin classes if the rain comes. This weekend I’m off to VA to do a table tennis clinic. I won’t tell you how much I will make, but I will be getting a power meter, and some Cane Creek training wheels for my mtn bike, you do the math.
Until then, I’ll holla
Pacer
posted by Brian Pace at 8:45 AM
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