Salisbury, Cat 3/4
The first thing I tell everyone who asks me for advice about a race is to stay in the front of the pack. So when I pulled out of the start line in 65th position out of 69, I was not in for a fun day.
To make matters even more fun, it was a Category 3 and 4 race, so I was racing people who were a good bit faster than me and this race was on very narrow roads with a "no crossing the yellow line" rule, so it was going to be really hard to move up.
It was a 32 mile race, doing 5 laps of 6.3 miles over a very hilly course and with about 16 mph winds blowing across the fields of Lancaster County.
I was constantly reminded of why the back of the pack sucks. I had to jam on my brakes HARD several times just to avoid running over the people in front of me, who had suddenly slowed from 22 to 15 mph. As soon as I slowed, the pace jumped back to 24 mph. Repeat about 20 times in the first lap (about 22 minutes) and you get an idea of how my day was going.
The reason is that the front of the pack hits a hill or a stiff headwind and they slow down. There is a slight delay for each person, and suddenly those in the back have to jam on their brakes. Highway traffic can be like that too.
One of the later ones came at the base of a steep climb and several of us had to veer onto the grass to avoid hitting those in front of us. I sprinted as hard as I could, just to hit the bottom of the next hill and get left behind in time to complete the first lap. Great....
So, for the next five laps I tried to get another pack together. Several other people had fallen off the back and I tried to organize them. Unfortunately, they kept quitting. I'd just get onto someone's wheel and open my mouth to say that we could work together, and they'd pull into the parking lot at the start/finish line. I got to watch 8 people quit that way. So, I just rolled along alone.
Since I'm racing again tomorrow, I didn't go TOO hard. I just held it at a hard tempo pace (about 85% of threshold power). With the headwinds and hills, sometimes that meant about 9 mph.
Other than starting in the back, another major mistake that I made was pedaling too slowly. When the pack accelerated, I had a much harder time responding because I was in a gear that was too hard to pedal.
The real kicker is that I spent my last three races at the front while pedaling an easy gear, so I knew better.
Now it's time to rest, recovery, and refuel for tomorrow's 40-mile perfectly flat race!
A few numbers:
Morning weight: 181.6 lbs
Total Race Time: 1:38:06
Avg Speed: 19.4 mph
Avg Power: 206 watts (260 normalized)
Avg speed with the pack: 22.7 mph
Avg speed alone: 18.7 mph
Avg Heart Rate: 158 bpm (174 max)
Total climbing: 1587 feet
Total calories burned: 1204
