Blythewood RR

That was really, really tough. I changed my hydration nutrition strategy to try and get rid of the cramps but it didn't work. I started cramping 5 laps in and knew I wasn't going to make it. I did have 1 teammate left and he asked me to try and reel in the break. I tried the best that I could, but maybe only clawed 20s back before I popped. I collected myself and decided to ride the final two laps solo. Soon after, the pro/1/2s lapped me. On my final lap, about 1/3 of the way into it, I got picked up by a mystery rider. I think he was sent out to look for stragglers, but God bless him. He towed me to the line. Now, I had already popped, but I resigned myself to finishing the "race" or at least crossing the line. So when he picks me up, he's riding at a pace that he may have considered moderate—not me. I'm back up to threshold HR. I hand on to his wheel for dear life. We stop to pick up a pro/1/2 guy. He gets on, he's blown off. I feel better about myself, but we are getting ready to hit the 3^rd, hardest hill of the course. I give it everything to stay on, but I can't and I lock up again. It's so frustrating. He slows down at the top, and we have to take it easy going back in. I think that if I had not hooked on, I would be in better shape for tomorrow's race. Granted, tomorrow is the Forrest Acres Crit and it's only 45minutes. I know that if I can stay with the pack, I can beat the pack. I also know that I have to keep pushing myself so that I can get stronger. Today's race was the hardest race I've done thus far. I think it was more due to the fact of the mystery rider forcing me to dig deeper than I knew I could. If I want to do well at RR, I have to figure out what's causing the cramps. To be honest, it could be that I've upgraded too soon—when it comes to road racing. Let's see if the same may be true for crits. I know it's not.

My 1st race of 2010

The race went better than I expected, though I did have to drop out at the last lap due to cramps. I fought them for as long as I could, but they were immobilizing & excruciating. They started to get me on lap 3 and then lap 6 my legs stopped working.
Good things:
-With the increase in aerobic ability, I was able to follow attacks & surges and never felt like I was going to pop. There were times when it hurt, but the only thing that kept me from finishing was the cramping
-During warmup, looks like my threshold power is around 300w
-Really enjoyed mixing it up and being out there racing again

Bad things:
-cramping
-in the 1st 400meters of the race I dented my front wheel by hitting a pothole--not my Zipps thankfully!
-don’t have any power data. When I hit the pothole, my powertap flew off the mount
-I lost my backup bottle going into the 3rd lap (we had to cross rail-road tracks)

This cramping is only an issue with longer events. I may be to static in my position, but I did lose a bottle (electrolytes in it). I don't take an electrolyte tab, but I'm willing to give it a shot if it will help me to complete road races. The truth is, I'm not that concerned about it as my speciality is crits. It's more of a personal challenge than anything.

Stay tuned for next weekend's race report!