Monthly Archives: April 2013

Ideal Market / WFM Criterium #1

Here’s the write-up I sent my coach, Alison Powers after my race:
Tight turns, fast pace right from the start. Stayed with the front group for several laps then fell off the back. The pace was just a bit too high for me to sustain. I felt I might have dug a little too deep early on but I didn’t know what my limit was until I tried it. Then I got in with Valerie, Cathy & one another Rocky Mounts and one other gal. Stopped to help Cathy when she crashed taking a corner (slick) with 4 or so laps to go. Then jumped on the tail of the lead women’s group as they came around to where the crash happened. By that time, Cathy was off to the side so Val and I got back on our bikes and finished with them…no place though. Good race, warm-up probably needs to have more intensity and I felt fine riding in the group, but I found that the line I’d like to take thru the corners is not the same as what some of the other gals wanted, so not sure how to deal with that in the future.
All in all, I was happy with my effort — I made some of the other riders pull, especially Rocky Mounts since they had the numbers and at one point, Cathy pulled in a tail wind stretch but then wanted off the front. I wouldn’t take the lead, and made her stay on the front until she’d pulled the entire lap (like everyone else had done) then I came around and took my turn at the front.
At the end of the race, I held off the other gals in a long sprint for the line. That felt good!

Tight turns, fast pace right from the start. Stayed with the front group for several laps then fell off the back. The pace was just a bit too high for me to sustain. I felt I might have dug a little too deep early on but I didn’t know what my limit was until I tried it. Then I got in with Valerie, Cathy & one another Rocky Mounts and one other gal. Stopped to help Cathy when she crashed taking a corner (slick) with 4 or so laps to go. I had seen the patch of pavement that looked like it had a seal on it and it looked like something to avoid. I’m pretty sure that’s what took Cathy down. Too slick, too fast, too tight a turn. Bad combination.  Anyway, then I jumped on the tail of the lead women’s group as they came around to where the crash happened. By that time, Cathy was off to the side so Val and I got back on our bikes and finished with them…no place though. Good race, warm-up probably needs to have more intensity and I felt fine riding in the group, but I found that the line I’d like to take thru the corners is not the same as what some of the other gals wanted, so not sure how to deal with that in the future. All in all, I was happy with my effort — I made some of the other riders pull, especially Rocky Mounts since they had the numbers and at one point, Cathy pulled in a tail wind stretch but then wanted off the front. I wouldn’t take the lead, and made her stay on the front until she’d pulled the entire lap (like everyone else had done) then I came around and took my turn at the front. At the end of the race, I held off the other gals in a long sprint for the line. That felt good!

The course was made in the parking lot outline with orange cones.

This is a graph of my heart rate, power, mph, etc. The bright pink is my power. During the race, I averages about 200 watts with a max of just over 700 watts!