Coming Along.....

Saturday's race in Madison at the Spin Doctor's Criterium didn't go quite as planned as the wind gusts of 25-35 mph threw everything in to disarray. I watched a few of the earlier races and they pretty much broke apart quickly due to the headwind and the crosswind on the downhill leading up to the right turn into the headwind-impeding finishing straight. My initial plan to test my legs by attacking would have proved pretty fruitless and I would have just wasted myself trying to fight the wind. I changed my plan to basically chase down anything that went away and that way I could stay with the pack and still get to test my power output. 3 different times a rider went away and after letting him get a small gap I went to the front and would tow the whole pack back to him in less than a lap. I got in a good workout this way and it was a good way to test my form without overextending myself. The race was pretty status quo for a Master's 4/5 race as it stayed together until the last lap where I took it upon myself to try to split it up right after the 3rd corner when I took off and tried to get away before we hit the 4th turn in to the finishing straight.....and the brutal headwind. I managed to get a bit of a gap going 31 mph with the crosswind but when I took the 4th turn and hit the headwind my speed dropped to 27 mph and the pack caught me about halfway between the corner and the finish line....and they were sprinting at about 35 mph so I did what I could to hang in and finished 18th. Tony Phillips and a couple of the Team Wisconsin riders placed well as Tony won and I think a teammate of his got 4th. They thanked me after the race for giving them a nice leadout which is basically what I did, but I feel good about it anyways as I didn't resign myself to the sprint as most others do. I accomplished what I wanted to do for this race and got to chase down a few guys, threw in my attack at the end, and all in all I would say it was a good race. My power isn't quite where I'd like it to be right now which somewhat concerns me but I've got time to work on it. I'm not sure anyone could have stayed away from the pack in to that headwind but I'd like to think that at some point this year I should be able to do that. Well, as far as training goes, today is quite the rainy day and it doesn't look like I'll get outside so it appears I'll be doing 2 hours on the rollers at Endurance Pace. Tomorrow is a rest day and then I'll be doing some intervals during the week which I'll obviously tell you about as the week progresses. The next race is Saturday in Whitewater which will be a 1.0 mile loop around the campus that we do for 40 minutes + 2 laps. My plan for that race will be relatively the same as this past weekend, attack a few times and then try for a good result. I'd like a better result this time around as I should be progressing every week that goes by as SuperWeek gets closer. Until next time.....