I finally made it out for the PCL Tuesday Night Crit that I've been wanting to try for a while. I needed to do this type of training. I need to get out with some other riders that are faster than me and try to keep up.
On the ride out to the spot where it goes down I saw a Midwest Wheelmasters rider and pushed to catch up with him. When I got there we started chatting and he showed me the .6 mile lap that they normally run. Another rider showed up and we got started running the laps. The plan was 10 laps at a time. I was able to keep up with them for 3 of the laps before getting dropped. After that it was just me riding alone and trying to catch back up. After a short while it went from trying to catch up to not getting lapped. Unfortunatly I ended up getting lapped on lap 10. The turns really killed me. I had no confidence hitting the turns at a high speed and they seemed to do it with ease. I also am not used to riding right next to and on the wheel of another rider so I wasn't getting the drafting benefits.
After the first set was done we took a very small amount of time to spin and recover and then it was off again. It was about the same as the first time. I kept up for 3 laps and then was dropped. I did feel a bit more confident on the turns and was feeling better. In the middle of the set 2 riders from team fire showed up and joined in for the finish.
At the start of the third set Troy stayed on my wheel and helped kind of coach me to where to sit and position myself in a group so that I can get a draft. I still feel very uncomfortable riding right next to other riders. I've gotten too used to mountain bike races where we are spread out on singletrack over a 5 mile course. When I did get myself into the right spot I did see feel the benefit of the draft. Again on this set I managed to hang on for only 3 laps before losing the group.
After that people had to leave and I needed to think about getting home to. I headed out with the group chatting and getting to know some the other riders. We took a long way back to town heading through some cool new develepments. When we got into town I peeled off and headed home. I didn't check how many miles I did but I did put in 2 of the best hours training that I've had in a long time. Again I think that I need to keep doing more training rides like this. I really think I acomplished a lot tonight and it did more for me than flat rides on my mountain bike through wilderness. This gets me into a higher heartrate and I really push it harder to keep up with other people than I do when I'm out by myself. But I do love to be in the woods and of course after saying all of this I'm hoping to get my mountain bike back tomorrow and check out the new components and see how they work. My legs are pretty sore after last nights core workout and tonights efforts a light spin on the mtb will be perfect.
Must go for some recovery of sitting on the couch.
Harp
3 comments:
Sounds like a good time for you Harp. Are some of these guys the same ones that ride Wilderness too?
These guys were pretty much hard core roadies.
Glad you made it out for a PCL Crit! I haven't been out there for a few weeks, but hope to be there next week. It's great training for cyclocross.
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