Been a long time since my last post. Apologies for any interested parties.
Tuesday and Thursday of this week I rode in the Pasadena area Rose Bowl Ride, a fast paced training ride with minimal climbing. It does have a 1-mile long false flat. By itself, not bad, but at 25-26mph, it can tire a person out. I usually do Tuesday or Thursday, so when Saturday morning’s Montrose Ride arrived, I was feeling tired.
On Sunday morning, I’m planning on racing August SoCal Cup Crit Series race. I can enter the Master’s 35+ or the Cat 3 race, or both. I’m trying to lay the groundwork for a good (great?) performance in this year’s El Tour in November, so I’d like to be doing at least 2, but preferably 3 crits in the weekend races. The 3′s are usually easier while the 35+ field will probably hurt, especially if Charon Smith shows. The plan was therefore to sit in and not over-exert myself so I might finally get some rest before Sunday’s race.
My son and I parked at the Rose Bowl (normal) and rode up to Descanso Gardens. I definitely felt tired and fatigued in my legs, as I huffed & puffed more than normal. However, it turns out we were somehow setting a faster-than-normal pace. I set a PR on the climb, 9-secs faster than my previous best 2 weeks prior.
I can usually recover quickly after exerting myself, but not this morning. After arriving at the Gardens, taking a natural break, and chatting a bit, we rolled out pretty normally, but not today. And the restful ride was not to be: I should have taken notice of the fact we were rolling through stops a little faster than normal.
The past couple weeks, I have been able to be at the front of the pack descending from the Gardens. Today I forced myself to stay further back, letting other riders pull through, and trying to stay on-goal. We arrived at Trader Joe’s to a green light, highly unusual, and continued on. The next several miles were uneventful and not overly fast-paced.
As we approached the high school sprint, however, the pace was picking up. Plenty of riders were moving forward while I tried to stay close to the front. We hit our usual red light about a half-mile from the line and I remembered what my purpose was for the day. So I decided to not even try to move up. I followed wheels and maintained my position.
After the sprint, it was a bit mellow until the left on Langden and the merge onto Arrow Highway. It picked up there, the traditional hard zone. I stayed a bit mid-pack, with a few moments near the front. The pack split into long/short routes and we began heading toward Bradbury Hill. The turn past Encanto Park was a bit intense, although I never felt under too much pressure.
The climb up Bradbury was a bit middle of the road for me as I tried to conserve my energy while still getting over in contact with the leaders. However, I ended up with a 51-second time (according to Strava), good for my 8th best time and 6-seconds off my PR.
Down Foothill we flew, hitting a couple red lights, and then the final slog up to Sierra Madre. Again, I would set a personal best on the 1-mile climb, beating last week’s effort by another 3-seconds. (Thanks to Jen, who paced me and provided a rabbit when she finally dropped me.)
At the finish, I was perspiring freely as the moisture-filled air finally let loose. I was tired and a little leary of what would come tomorrow morning, but very happy with my performance in several areas.
The goal for today was to get my regular speed work in, but conserve energy and not expend myself too much. I had a race the next day (Sunday) that I wanted to do well in and wanted to be fresh for. So the general plan was to sit in the pack and stay away from closing gaps, sprinting, attacking or expending any other unnecessary energy.
(Well, I thought it was funny.)