My First Road Race

Earlier today I composed the first part, but didn't want to jinx the weather, so held off on posting it until finishing up the race tonight (post race analysis follows)...

Four hours until my first road race. We are, thankfully, riding the course we've been using the whole time for our TT's. I say thankfully, as it takes some of the mystique out of something that I'm doing for the first time. I've ridden this course more times than I can count now, so I know it. The unknown is riding with a pack of people with very little group riding skills, let alone having raced. Yes, there are some experienced chicks riding there tonight and I'm going to try my best to stick up there with them. I say this, and yet I'm not experienced at riding in a pack in a race situation. But I am comfortable riding in a pack in general, so I think that will be helpful.

One thing that is totally amazing for tonight is the weather forecast. No, it's not a beautiful, sunny day - it's kinda cloudy actually. But the wind is only 30 kph!!!!!! I've never ridden a race here yet in such little wind!! And check out the satellite image from the weather webpage:

I'm not sure I've ever looked at the weather page and seen this before. Usually there are many little yellow systems circling about those two land masses we like to call NZ, and there is ALWAYS one big one that circles around and over Welly. Tonight however, it is completely clear!! The universe is in alignment with us here today. I'll post later about how it goes.

Things have been busy here this week. I have so much to blog about, actually, and very little time to sit down and put my thoughts down into a coherent block of something for you to read. I will try my best to get something out this weekend... the operative word is 'try'.

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Post Race Analysis!

All afternoon I had this nervous energy about tonight. So much so that I started to hope that I wouldn't expend too much of my energy on nerves. There were 3 groups in the race tonight. They handicapped it. How this works is that you are placed in a group of similar ability based on your TT results. The slowest group (called Limit) starts first. Their goal is to keep up the pace enough that the groups that follow do not pass them. The next group (called Break) starts 2.5 mins later and their aim is not only to pass the group in front, but to also keep away from the strongest group which is starting 2.5 mins after them (that group is called Scratch). They put an experienced rider in each group to ride and coach and encourage people and keep people moving around in the pack to share the work. It was pretty cool. I was in the Break group. I didn't count the people, but I think we were about a dozen. The wind stayed at bay for the most part. There was a headwind as we started out toward the point where the little lighthouse is (see my last post). It was between 35-40 kph. The calmest wind in which I've done a cycling event in this city - ever!

That said, I started off the front with Jess and our experienced leader, Nick. He's the guy that met up with me last week at the start of the TT and was the reason I even did it (read last post). Into the headwind we were clocking about 27 kph. This is the fastest I think I've ever ridden into a headwind. Ouch. My turns at the front were painful. As we rounded the point at the little lighthouse and got the wind at our backs we picked it up. Actually we cranked it right up into high gear. We were now clocking anywhere between 37 and 40 kph when I looked down at my speedo. I started getting a cramp in my side and I also started to feel like throwing up.

The riders in our pack were strong, but fairly inexperienced with the pack dynamic so they were pretty set on holding their same position as they moved through a rotation, not thinking to move into gaps to keep people together, etc. Since I was hurting enough that I couldn't keep making my way to the front for pulls I started looking for spots opening up between bikes and moved in and out of them, trying to stay in the middle. Nick saw me suffering and falling off at one point and pulled me back in and pointed out a good spot. However, the pace just kept going up and we were now maintaining 40 kph. Wow. I can do 40 kph and up, actually, in a sprint. I can do 40 kph a bit longer with a real good (like 50+ kph) tailwind. But I've never been able to keep a steady pace of 40 kph or higher. This I could not keep up. I'm not there yet. Cramp getting worse. Pain going around into my back now. Throwing up - hmmm. Should I? Yeah, that was a thought. I started falling off. Jess was near the back as I was dropping off and she gave me some really kind words of encouragement and tried to pull me back but I told her to go on, as there was no way I'd be able to hang in. I later found out that she only managed to hang in about 3-4 km longer than I had.

Oh, I failed to mention that by this time we'd passed the slowest group (the Limit group). That was really cool. I felt encouraged when we did that and tried my best to stay in our pack, but just couldn't. Luckily, Robyn (experienced leader of the slow group, former NZ Olympian, and captain of the women's club here) had kind of dropped the slow group as it was just too slow for her I guess. She picked me up - surprisingly I was able to keep up 33-34 kph with a massive cramp in my gut, side, and back. She offered to pull me up to the pack, as they actually weren't that far out of reach as of yet. We tried, but the extra effort was soooo painful. I just couldn't. We rode together up to the hill and she stopped halfway up to wait for the slowpokes that she was mentoring through the race and wished me luck.

The hill f-ing hurt. Small ring. Bummer. I got passed on the hill by some of the fast chicks. I was thinking - 'OMG, they are so f-ing fast. I hope I can get that fast in a couple more seasons.' I gained some speed on the descent. I'm starting to love descents again. :) And I came up on a young girl that I've ridden with before. She was all alone and as I passed I asked if she wanted to grab my wheel. She did and we rode the last 2.5 K together. I pulled the most. When I'd caught her she was suffering and I figured if she rested for the first bit she'd be able to pull near the end when I wanted one. My plan worked. She offered to pull around the start of the last km. When we were within 250 m and could see the finish I pulled out around her and said, "You ready?" And I click-clicked it up 2 gears, stood up, and sprinted the f-ing hell out to the finish. That was F-U-N!!! I love sprinting. Maybe I shouldn't put that in writing.

We had a post-race/end of race series gathering at the community centre down the road afterwards. Jess got most improved female!!! I knew she'd get it. Last week she pretty much blew the thing apart! And I got the 'attendance' award. lol! Yes, I went to every single race. My prize is this little wind vest. It actually came in quite handy, as it got quite chilly tonight and it was dark by the time Jess and I were back in town. It's maybe a bit geeky, but it works. :) And it's actually a cool souvenir of riding and racing here in NZ, as the website it lists at the bottom is: www.gw.govt.nz/cycling . And to think that some people I used to work with back home who've visited this country said to me before I left that there wasn't a lot of cycling in NZ - what do they know???

The ride home was good but my cramp never ended. I have two guesses at the cause: 1) maybe what I ate this arvo? 2) I was anaerobic far too long.

Looking at the data, I've confirmed what I thought when I checked in on my HR during the race. Actually, my guess post-race was that I was full-on anaerobic for around 7 km (my HR was around 198 for quite some time!). Looking now at my data, uploaded to my computer, my HR was in zone 5 (anaerobic) for 14 mins!!! I got my blood lactate test done last month and anything over 191 is anaerobic for me. And my max HR is around 200-202 (I reached 200 in my sprint). So I'm figuring that the most likely cause of my cramp is that I was beyond my limit for a bit too long. Ah well. I figure it's good training right? Gotta push beyond that limit as much as possible in these situations. The other rides are about the other stuff. The endurance and fun. Not that this wasn't. Actually, even with the pain and nausea it was one of the funnest nights of cycling I've had here. And the post event stuff was really great!

So ends my dabbling in racing and finding out what I'm made of on the bike here in NZ. And I expect a new beginning for it when I get back home. :) There is still more cycling to be had before I leave - in fact I got the day off work this Sunday and Jess and I have some plans that include spandex and two wheels. But the time is ticking down on this part of my experience here. I'm really happy that I took the chance back in November and headed out to my first time trial. I've had a lot of fun and made new friends and learned a lot more about myself on the bike. As I rode up the long hill home, I felt the smoothness of my wheels turning, the street was quiet, and the air still (wow!), I thought, "I love my bike".