I've been riding really well lately and fine tuning my legs for specific racing demands. Last Sunday we raced Rouge Roubaix, a tough 106 mile race with about 25 miles of dirt/gravel roads and some punchy little climbs thrown in to make sure the winner was a strong man, and not just a pretender. If you read my last post, you know I felt strong last weekend but had some bad luck with a flat tire at the very wrong time in the race. The week following the race, I've been training and resting trying to balance my need to continue to get stronger and also recover from over 5 hours of racing on Sunday. I was struggling a little with sleep and feeling like my legs weren't quite coming back as quickly as they should. Saturday, Hunter and I went out for what we call "leg openers"... they're basically sub max efforts designed to "open" up the legs the day before a race. Most people might find this counter-intuitive, thinking rest before a race is the way to prepare. It isn't. Doing some hard race type efforts the day before has a way of waking up the body and helping one feel alert and ready for max efforts the following day. The most important day to rest before an event is two days before. Likewise, typically two days after a hard effort is when you'll feel it's effects the most. During our interval session Saturday morning, the legs weren't feeling progressively better as they typically do with each interval. This concerned me a little, not too much, but enough to let me know I may not be 100% on race day.
After our morning ride, we loaded up the motor home and drove up to Hogeye, Arkansas, a little area south of Fayetteville, where the race is staged in the parking lot of a small, old church. We found a premium spot for the motor home, got set up and prepared our very first dinner on the bus. Spaghetti with ground elk marinara sauce. It was a nice, relaxing and peaceful way to prepare for "Hell" the next morning.
Woke up after a decent nights sleep, made coffee and breakfast and started hosting team mates as they found their way to the bus. Strategy talks began and everyone started to turn on the race attitudes. It's funny how we can have one personality in our daily life but once it's race time, we change completely. We become very focused and not necessarily the sweetest people in the world. We race to win, and it's not always a pretty.
A few of the guys talking race strategy before all HELL broke loose.
OKC Velo came out in a big way for Hell's Kitchen with at least 12 men prepared to race the Masters event. We decided this was overkill and so four of us entered the Cat 3 event instead. Jay Hawkins, Tony and John LaSorsa and yours truly. We warmed up, talked strategy and rode to the start line just in time for roll call.
The course is a 20 mile loop resembling a rectangle and running generally north and south. We were scheduled to ride two and half laps making for three times up the big hill. The race began innocently enough with everyone wanting to conserve energy before the first time up the climb, about 11 miles away. I hung out at the back of the pack and chatted with some old CARVE teammates when a lone attacker when up the road after only about 4 miles into the race. I never saw who it was and frankly wasn't too worried. The wind was picking up and we had 48 miles still and three times to race up the climb, this guy was NOT going anywhere. The closer we got to the climb, the closer I got to the front of the group. There was an intermediate hill about 5 miles before the big one and I went to the front in my big chain ring to warm up my legs a little. I wasn't feeling too sprite this morning and was worried I might not get fully warmed up before we hit the base of the Hell's Kitchen climb. We crested the top of the intermediate hill and caught sight of the guy up the road. It was my teammate John LaSorsa. If there is one thing you can say about Masters racers, they attack, a lot. I guess we've experienced so much in our lives that risking a little leg pain doesn't register in our brains anymore. We caught John just before the big climb and I gave him a pat on the back for a job well done.
The beginning of Hell's Kitchen climb, or "Tomato Rd" as it's known locally, is a short steep'ish ramp that disappears into the trees about a quarter a mile later. After this initial ramp, the road eases a little as it skirts the base of the mountain. Rolling up the climb, my heart rate was unusually high even though we weren't working very hard. I'm sitting in the top 8-10 guys because once we crest the official summit, there remains a false flat and a cross wind which makes it very difficult to catch back on if you're already in the red zone and behind the leaders. The climb continues for another half mile or so and then begins to steepen again until it levels a little and you can see the real part of the climb ahead which looks like a narrow paved wall that you can reach out and touch. This narrow wall is VERY steep and just as you think it can't get steeper, the road turns to the right and gets, well, steeper-er. The steepest section then turns to the left for the final 200 meters to the finish line. I managed to hang on to the lead group over the top, but in all honesty, was completely pegged. I didn't want to look at my computer to see what my heart rate was and didn't need to because I literally had tunnel vision and my arms were numb from oxygen debt. For those of you non-endurance sports people, this is NOT a good sign. I was hurting and it took everything I had to stay with the group over the top.
Once over the climb, the road turns back to the north for a mostly downhill run of about 7 miles. The wind was out of the south at about 10-15 mph and so the pace was quick along this section. We descended the mountain and with very little effort topped 52 mph as my max speed. Some of the bigger guys were hitting over 55 I'm sure. We continued to push hard, essentially closing the door on anyone who had been dropped on the climb. I was slowly recovering when we turned west, hitting the crosswinds again. The first loop had been completed and I'm already in the hurt locker after only about 21 miles. I'm not feeling confident about the next time up the hill which will definitely come too soon. Luckily, John LaSorsa decided to attack, again, and this time took about 4 guys with him up the road. Enough teams were represented that we were now in blocking mode, which Jay Hawkins and I were obligated and happy to do. There were a lot of attacks from guys wanting to bridge up to the break but those 5 had over two minutes on us and were out of sight and out of reach.
How do you make a twenty mile loop go by quickly? You throw a really hard hill a little over halfway into it and call it "Hell's Kitchen." If you really dread something, it's guaranteed to happen much sooner than you'd like it to. Damn that hill came too soon. We started the climb for the 2nd time and I was with the front group halfway up but the signs weren't good. Jay Hawkins rides past me with a little sage advice to manage my effort. The first time up the hill, my heart rate was really high, and even though I felt bad, I could at least utilize my full aerobic abilities to claw my way into the lead pack. This second time I couldn't get my heart rate up, which is much worse and a sure sign that I was fatigued. Regardless, the race is still happening and I needed to find a way to get to the top with the leaders. We hit the second steep'ish section of the big climb and I came off the back of the lead group. I decided to allow myself some breathing room on the steepest section of the hill and ride my own pace (as if I really had a choice at this point) and hope that some of the guys would slow down as the hill got steeper. The pressure was on though and once we hit the wall, I was getting gapped further. I teamed up with Andrew Moffitt and one other guy I didn't know, Ronnie, I think is his name, and started our chase with the lead group just up the road. We were working well together and kept the group from increasing their lead on us, but we never made much of a dent in the gap. As we rounded the course and back into the headwind, my legs began to shut down. By the time we hit the intermediate hill for the third time, I was done. I sat up deciding it was better to roll in easily and do less damage to my form than try and race for 17th place and dig a deeper hole to try and recover from.
One last time up the hill and slowly across the finish line greeted by teammates. I was happy to have this race over. This was a very poor performance on my part and while I understand why I rode the way I did, I was still not very happy with it. It's such an awful feeling to race this way but I know the legs will recover and I'll have much better days ahead. I guess my biggest disappointment is selecting this event as an A race and not riding well. Failure is never an easy pill to swallow... in fact, its a downright horse choker.
John LaSorsa stayed away in his break and was rewarded with 3rd place. Jay Hawkins managed to contest the final hill with the pack but not sure his final placing in our Cat 3 group. Hunter and Frank Jakofcich finished 2nd and 3rd in the Masters race for OKC Velo. Hunter ended up 1st and Frank 2nd in the 40+ category. Most impressive of all was Evan East's 2nd place finish in the Men's Cat 4 race. Evan (15) put himself in a break of 6 riders and rode brilliantly to place 2nd just behind another wunderkind 16 year old... sorry, I don't have his name but my guess is we'll all know it very soon. Arkansas has some incredible junior talent right now. Look out world, we may be sending a few guys to the Tour de France in a few years.
Time to eat, rest and get ready for the next race which should be the Northwest Arkansas Classic, again in the Fayetteville area in two weeks.
