Florida Criterium Championship

Downtown West Palm Beach, FL

Saturday, May 18, 2019, 5:20 p.m.

Criterium (40 minutes)

Cat 5 (23 of 31)

 

Course Description

The West Palm Beach Crit course was a 9/10 mile out-and-back course along the downtown waterfront with two 180-degree right turns. It was mostly flat, of course. There was a quartering headwind along the Start-Finish straight so of course, there was a partial tailwind going back the other way. The boulevard wasn’t arrow straight; but the bends were barely enough to form a very soft “S.” The lack of turns got in my head, which I shouldn’t have let happen.

Warm-up/Prep

With yachts and the intercostal behind me, I set up my trainer under a pavilion on the multi-use path across the road from the Start-Finish. For the first time, I had a decent breeze AND shade for my warmup. Note to self: bring a popup for all future races. It’s worth the hassle.  Nutrition and hydration felt on point coming into the race and neither proved to be an issue for me. Earlier in the week, I worked on my clipping-in issues, both physically by doing clip-in repeats and mentally with self-imposed pressure to be fully clipped in by the time I crossed an intersection or reached the next driveway/mailbox. I also worked on not letting the clip-in be my sole focus as we lined up.

 

Overall

I lined up on the front, staying left of center of the field to put myself on the outside for the first turn. On the whistle, I pushed forward with my right foot and then instead of fumbling to get clipped in with the left looking down to find the pedal all the while losing positions, I clipped-in within two pedal rotations, rolled off the front, up-shifted and led the field into the first turn. What I learned from my clip-in session: push easy gears at the start to keep the bike moving forward with ease and do NOT look down to find the pedals. I know where they are and just need to find it, clip in and race. This was a small, confidence-inspiring victory for me at the beginning of a what was my toughest race to date.

I rode well the first 8-10 minutes, for the most part staying in the top 10 and even top 5 as we rotated around the course. Gradually, the bursts coming out of the turnarounds caught up to me, especially because of the slow speeds with which we navigated the U-turns; the fatigue set in and I found myself having to fight to stay on the pack. Each lap, the work growing harder and harder. But before I slipped off the back around minute 17 or 18, I executed what I consider to be Part 2 of my plan (Part 1 being staying on at least 10 minutes) and I put in a tiny attack.

Mind you, this wasn’t a gap-creating, see-who-comes-with-me attack but just my mixing it up a bit just to prove to myself that I could and would do that. Up until my race in Ocala about three weekends ago, my strategy has been to just try to hang on. After successfully doing that in Ocala for ⅔ of the race, I was hungry for more. So going into WPB, I told myself to do some kind of attack if the situation presented itself, which it finally did and I went off the front into the headwind during a time the group was just sitting in resting.

Naturally, there were guys on my wheel immediately and after crossing the Start-Finish and close to the 180-degree turn, I drifted back into the peloton and continued to fight to stay with them until about minute 17/18.

Conclusion

From the field that lined up at the start to the mostly straight course, this was by far the toughest race I’ve done yet. I felt confident and strong going into it and though several things went right for me that usually haven’t my lack of fitness and finesse got the best of me. I started racing this year instead of waiting until “I’m ready” precisely to gain indispensable experience so that once I have the fitness needed I’d kind of know what I’m doing. I feel I am making gains in all areas, albeit slowly, but losing and falling off the group pace always sucks in the end, even if I am having so much fun with these races.

I finished the race with a strong TT effort and was lapped by the group with (about) three laps to go and finished about a half a lap down. My takeaway from the race is gear management.

Just as spinning an easier gear at the start contributed to my faster clip-in, I finally realized that paying attention to my gears going into the turns, downshifting a cog or two before we started the turn would put me in a gear that would burn fewer matches as we accelerated out of those turns. For the most part, I was happy with my cornering because I would slot up the outside 5-10 positions; by going wider I found myself in the draft as the surge began on the turns’ exits. Where I got myself into trouble was having to stand up to accelerate rather than staying seated and spinning: gear management.

Another takeaway is that when I am on the front and decide to stop working, I need to get back into the group within the top 10 or so to avoid the surges and sloppiness that naturally occur deeper into the field. All those little surges add up to wasted energy and added stress. My thought process up until now was that going to the back would provide the most protection from the wind. Instead, I find myself surging more, fatiguing faster and getting flicked off the back.

#ShuttGoesRacing

Ocala Crit

Downtown Ocala, FL
Saturday, May 4, 2019, 2 p.m.
Criterium (40 minutes)
Cat 5 (15 of 26) (with about a dozen Masters 40+ B)

Course Description

The course was about 7/10 of a mile with six 90-degree turns forming an “L.” There are two long stretches on this course, one medium straight and three very short connectors.
The two longer stretches both dipped in the middle and the climb out of them ended at turns.
My favorite part of the course was the three turns in quick succession that brought us back onto the start/finish straight. The left turn was at the end of the second longest straight and climb, then dropped into a right turn that climbed up to the next right and very shallow climb up to start/finish. Each lap was about 16 meters of climbing.

Warm-up/Prep

My “hope” when I reconnoitered the route pre-race was that most of my competitors are from the coast or south Florida and not accustomed to riding rollers.
Being the first race of the day is nice because it’s easiest to pre-ride the course without having to arrive excessively early. I rode the course for about 20 minutes then got on the trainer for my Coach Chuck prescribed 40-minute warmup, which I am more comfortable completing on the trainer than on the road. After the trainer session, I had about 15-20 minutes till go time. I took my wheels to the staging area and rode the course 2-4 more times and then we started. I followed my standard crit nutrition with low-GI oatmeal/fruit/nuts three hours out and half a banana one-hour out. Something I haven’t done until today was take a gel 15 minutes before go time. Following the race, I did my immediate gel then recovery protein within 30 minutes followed by normal eating for the rest of the day.

Overall

My plan, as suggested by Coach Chuck, was to expend whatever effort necessary to stay connected to the lead pack for the first 10 minutes. The reasoning: because typically after that point, things tend to settle and be less intense. I ended up staying with the lead pack up until 30-32 minutes into the 40-minute race. In hindsight, I should have fought harder to stay with my group. So even though I won the physical battle for the first 10-30 minutes, I eventually lost the mental war.
Overall, I think the course suited me from the wide sweeping turns and full use of all the road to the short punchy climbs and descents. For the most part, I was able to recover downhill and carry my speed uphill. It certainly seemed that the other racers weren’t accustomed to hills as it was very easy for me to coast up to the outside, inside or right through the middle to be in the top five of the peloton as we headed into the turns.

I did hurt myself on these descents though because there was a headwind on the first descent after the start/finish and while I used that to recover my legs, I’d lose contact with the group even though I’d easily catch and pass them up the hill. In hindsight, I should have stayed in that damn draft and recovered going uphill, knowing that they just weren’t pushing the pace at that point. I think that would have made a huge difference in my perceived fatigue.

My cornering was mostly smooth and predictable and that contributed to my overall performance. At one point I led my group around the course for a single lap, intentionally not putting in a hard effort and just waited for them to come around, which they eventually did. In hindsight, because I had achieved my plan of still being with the peloton after the first 10 minutes of the race, I think it might have been fun and certainly challenging had I put in some kind of attack to see what happened. Would they chase me? Would they even care or notice? Were they just as tired as I was?

Conclusion

This was my fifth criterium to date. My first was in February, so obviously a steep learning curve and if I wasn’t seeing continuous improvement in different areas with each new race, I’d probably hang up my timing chip and just enjoy riding my bike for fun again. Ocala is my third favorite course but because I did (relatively speaking) so well here, I want to move it up to Number 1.

My biggest takeaway from this race is that plans are just a starting point for a race. We all know that as soon as the starting gun fires, plans often go out the window. So, we know that we have to adapt and overcome at that point.

But what about when the plan is achieved? Once I knew I was past that initial 10-, 15-, 20- or 25-minutes and was still in the fight, I should have evaluated myself: How do I feel? What do I have left? And then I should have formulated a new plan to finish the race. That’s where planning an attack or planning to fight to CONTINUE to hang on would have made the difference from a very good day to a PERFECT race.

#ShuttGoesRacing

This report is seeming to be a little harder to write, after all, it was basically a training ride for me. When we were planning out my DK training plan I was looking for a few events that I could use to test and validate strategy, pace, logistics, and fitness. This race, in its second year, was a great opportunity to test much of this. In addition, it was an opportunity to connect with several teammates who would be out at DK with me. So what about the race?

Grassroots I think sums up the event pretty well. Very low key but well laid out and fun course. The overall goal was to simply push a faster-sustained pace for the duration, and thanks to a little help I was able to do so, and have fun at the same time. Nestled west of Columbia South Carolina we camped out at a small baseball field. We pre-rode a little of the course and enjoyed some great food. We woke up in plenty of time for the 1000 start where about 200 people circled around the start line.

Quietly I heard a “go” and next thing I know we were off on a slight downhill pavement section. 30 mins in we were sprinting to stay on with the lead group and shortly loose touch. Just then the second wave comes blowing by and we settle in picking up stragglers and forming a third group. My legs were screaming and I am was looking for a little recovery as I look at my IF and realize that we were pretty much-maintaining threshold for the first full hour.

We settled in and roll up to the first aid station, realizing we were good on nutrition we just roll by and stay on the gas. Working with Keith we start doing public math and established our goals for the race (better late than never?). We quickly realize that we were in a good spot and set our 40 and 50-mile goals knowing the last 18 would be easy to push through. The theme Saturday was that this race was more Roubaix then gravel, as we rolled through mile 40 we realized that this wasn’t truly the case. We worked together to get to the second aid station and roll in prepared to fill the bottles and go. In under two minutes, we were back on track and heading for the 50-mile mark. We knew to hit 4 hrs we had to stay on track and keep a constant pace. At this time though we were happy to see breaks in the gravel. Getting on pavement provided just enough relief to recover and maintain the grind.

Coming into that last 18 we were caught by a small group and we start working with them. My legs were sore, but Keith pushed me to stay connected and rolled fast for about five miles catching another couple of riders. As I am looking around, I realize I now have three competitors with us while Keith didn’t have any. We were taking pulls and I pulled Keith off after a minute and follow suit. As I got to the back we made a strategy to break the group. We hit the second to last gravel section and as we pulled through we hit a right-hand turn about four miles out.

I was on Keith’s wheel and the leaders pull out, Keith goes into the turn and cranks it up. Quickly there is confusion, I didn’t even know what was going on. I jumped back on his wheel and said too soon. Right then we both look back and realize no one else followed suit so we buried our heads down and went. The rest of the race was uneventful, we didn’t see anyone else and came in under four hours. We were both fairly gassed but feeling good about the effort we put out on the day.

The goal was to push a pace faster than Nationals and check out some new gear. Keith flew in the day before from South Africa and had pretty bad jet lag. All of this concluded in a great race in a small town pushing ourselves and testing the limits. Thank you so much to Keith for staying with me through the event. Thanks to Christina for riding shotgun and spending that quality windshield time with me. KyleCoaching for the continued guidance and mentorship, and of course all the teammates and new friends for the hospitality and fun. I feel confident and ready to tackle my first Dirty Kanza in less than four weeks.

#DKorBust