Energy Awareness week is here. Along with Energy Awareness week is the semi-annual Energy Awareness 40km road race aboard Iwakuni. Before I post this race report, here are my previous attempts at this race:
Oct 29, 2005: 1hr 1min 48sec (dropped by the pack on the second lap)
May 20, 2006: 57min 3sec (eight place overall, no contention for any age bracket)
Pre-race warmup: A few laps around the parking lot, about 5-10 minutes on the rollers to get the lungs moving, a couple semi-sprints, and another 5 minutes on the rollers.
The main threats: Hiroshige Cycling Team. They fielded 4 men and 3 women. In the spring race, two of their men broke away from the pack and finished 4 minutes ahead. No one bridged and we never saw them again.
A large portion Ueki's Club Athlete were there, which was surprising with the 84km Shimanami ride tomorrow. But I was definitely glad to see the turn out. Every extra participant we get means that more insurance the races will continue to occur. Okada-san was definitely a threat on this style racing. He's a fantastic sprinter.
Other racers it was good to see were from the base. There were a little over half-dozen Americans in the field of 40ish riders. This is a better turnout than we saw the last time, and the big lawyer guys were fantastic to have in the peloton for their pulls.
The entire race seemed to go significantly slower than previous events. The downloaded powertap information contradicts this, so I'll take this as a plus up to my fitness. Race format, 4 laps of approximately 10km each. They're actually a little less. The powertap says total length was 37.5km. The previous computer measured it from 37-38.
The first lap was a feeler lap. There weren't a lot of breakaway attempts. Pedden took a good bit of time on the front on his own so I jumped the gap and settled in behind. About a minute and a half after settling on him, the pack crept on the right and I hopped in. There were two or three non-Hiroshige riders that were taking pulls at the front. One on a Kestrel and the other the resulting winner from Cycling Plus. As we rounded the corner on the first lap to start the return trip, I took the pace car in my sights. Ok, ok.. I shouldn't have done this. It's okay though, when I got to about 20 feet off his bumper, he sped up. (You'd think I'd learn my lesson but I went on to try this two more times. Not smart)
On every return leg of every lap, the Hiro team would move two riders to the front to attempt to break away. Only one time did they attempt to block the person that would ultimately bridge their gap - and even that attempt failed. There was a lot of good work by those at the front to keep anyone from getting away.
I did everything I could to stay 3, 4, or 5 riders off the front. For a large portion of the second and third laps, the Hiroshige team seemed obliged to hold the front and rotate three of their people through the pulls. This was fine by those of us behind even when speeds fell below 40kph no one really pushed to get through. Cycling Plus guy and Kestrel guy would pull through every now and then and force the pace back up.
On the fourth lap the Hiro guys seemed to be getting tired. I had slowly slid to the second guy off the front and was in danger of taking a pull in a really bad area for headwinds. As the man in front of me slid off, one of our locals slid up on my right and I hopped in behind him. He paid the price for it later on, but I think all of us at the front were pretty stoked to see a new face on the front.
We rounded our four 90 degree corners that told us we were on the way back. The pace from that point to the finish line averaged 46.7kph. Three of us took off on the front. Hiroshige member, Cycling Plus and myself. I thought we'd have it through to the end. The two others didn't see it that way and as I rotated into the pull they fell off while the peloton moved in on us. I pulled off to the right and slid back into the pack - still a little disappointed. I think we could have held the pack off through the end if we'd worked together.
The pack pace certainly was no joke though. A kilometer and a half from the finish line, one of the Hiro guys put the spurs to it and was off. Seemed a little early to me, but I put the spurs to it and joined suit. This ultimately cost me the race. I put entirely too much energy into chasing this guy and when it came time for the sprint, I just didn't have it left. We found ourselves pushing 58kph going into the last two turns.
When the early sprinter fell off his pace I again found myself out in front. I tried to pull off and get folks around but they weren't having it. And I couldn't lose too much momentum without getting dropped on the sprint. I put the legs to it for a 50kph push going into the last turn. After the last turn, there would be 300 meters to the finish.
I turned that corner with legs that were spent. One rider (Cycling Plus guy) and Okada-san pulled through me on the turn. I put the head down and mashed for all it was worth. I didn't get better than 49kph on the final sprint, but that was enough to hold off anyone behind me. I kept pace with Okada in the last 200 meters and we came across within the same second. The Cycling Plus member came across 2 seconds ahead.
All this was good enough for third place overall with a time of 54min 25sec.
Things I learned from the entire event.
A. first thing was again a re-affirmation that I don't need to feel any obligation to keep the pace up by taking pulls. It's a race. If a team wants to pick up the pace, let them have at it. I just need to be aware of breakaway attempts.
B. Watch the stinking pre-sprint sprints. I expended a lot of energy on the return leg of the last lap. I probably could have converted that to sprint power down the final stretch.
C. Along with B, I need to continue to learn racing strategy to identify feints and breakaways that are real attempts. I'm paranoid that someone else is going to get away. Without having a team to support you, you have to work with other individual racers to prevent good teams from dominating the event. In Japan, that's doubly hard because the other individual racers don't speak English.... and I don't speak Japanese. Hard to communicate who is doing what.
D. Not sure if it's just a difference in heart rate monitors, but the stats for today showed me at a max HR of 192. There's no spiking occurring, so I'm going to have to adjust things based on that. My average HR for the day was 177, and that was previously my bar for LTHR. So, time to do some more testing.
Finally, I have to really work on my short distance power. That's my limiter. I need to be able to get up on the pedals and go. Power tells me one thing right now. I'm not as good as I think I am.
Pictures to follow.
VW
Oct 29, 2005: 1hr 1min 48sec (dropped by the pack on the second lap)
May 20, 2006: 57min 3sec (eight place overall, no contention for any age bracket)
Pre-race warmup: A few laps around the parking lot, about 5-10 minutes on the rollers to get the lungs moving, a couple semi-sprints, and another 5 minutes on the rollers.
The main threats: Hiroshige Cycling Team. They fielded 4 men and 3 women. In the spring race, two of their men broke away from the pack and finished 4 minutes ahead. No one bridged and we never saw them again.
A large portion Ueki's Club Athlete were there, which was surprising with the 84km Shimanami ride tomorrow. But I was definitely glad to see the turn out. Every extra participant we get means that more insurance the races will continue to occur. Okada-san was definitely a threat on this style racing. He's a fantastic sprinter.
Other racers it was good to see were from the base. There were a little over half-dozen Americans in the field of 40ish riders. This is a better turnout than we saw the last time, and the big lawyer guys were fantastic to have in the peloton for their pulls.
The entire race seemed to go significantly slower than previous events. The downloaded powertap information contradicts this, so I'll take this as a plus up to my fitness. Race format, 4 laps of approximately 10km each. They're actually a little less. The powertap says total length was 37.5km. The previous computer measured it from 37-38.
The first lap was a feeler lap. There weren't a lot of breakaway attempts. Pedden took a good bit of time on the front on his own so I jumped the gap and settled in behind. About a minute and a half after settling on him, the pack crept on the right and I hopped in. There were two or three non-Hiroshige riders that were taking pulls at the front. One on a Kestrel and the other the resulting winner from Cycling Plus. As we rounded the corner on the first lap to start the return trip, I took the pace car in my sights. Ok, ok.. I shouldn't have done this. It's okay though, when I got to about 20 feet off his bumper, he sped up. (You'd think I'd learn my lesson but I went on to try this two more times. Not smart)
On every return leg of every lap, the Hiro team would move two riders to the front to attempt to break away. Only one time did they attempt to block the person that would ultimately bridge their gap - and even that attempt failed. There was a lot of good work by those at the front to keep anyone from getting away.
I did everything I could to stay 3, 4, or 5 riders off the front. For a large portion of the second and third laps, the Hiroshige team seemed obliged to hold the front and rotate three of their people through the pulls. This was fine by those of us behind even when speeds fell below 40kph no one really pushed to get through. Cycling Plus guy and Kestrel guy would pull through every now and then and force the pace back up.
On the fourth lap the Hiro guys seemed to be getting tired. I had slowly slid to the second guy off the front and was in danger of taking a pull in a really bad area for headwinds. As the man in front of me slid off, one of our locals slid up on my right and I hopped in behind him. He paid the price for it later on, but I think all of us at the front were pretty stoked to see a new face on the front.
We rounded our four 90 degree corners that told us we were on the way back. The pace from that point to the finish line averaged 46.7kph. Three of us took off on the front. Hiroshige member, Cycling Plus and myself. I thought we'd have it through to the end. The two others didn't see it that way and as I rotated into the pull they fell off while the peloton moved in on us. I pulled off to the right and slid back into the pack - still a little disappointed. I think we could have held the pack off through the end if we'd worked together.
The pack pace certainly was no joke though. A kilometer and a half from the finish line, one of the Hiro guys put the spurs to it and was off. Seemed a little early to me, but I put the spurs to it and joined suit. This ultimately cost me the race. I put entirely too much energy into chasing this guy and when it came time for the sprint, I just didn't have it left. We found ourselves pushing 58kph going into the last two turns.
When the early sprinter fell off his pace I again found myself out in front. I tried to pull off and get folks around but they weren't having it. And I couldn't lose too much momentum without getting dropped on the sprint. I put the legs to it for a 50kph push going into the last turn. After the last turn, there would be 300 meters to the finish.
I turned that corner with legs that were spent. One rider (Cycling Plus guy) and Okada-san pulled through me on the turn. I put the head down and mashed for all it was worth. I didn't get better than 49kph on the final sprint, but that was enough to hold off anyone behind me. I kept pace with Okada in the last 200 meters and we came across within the same second. The Cycling Plus member came across 2 seconds ahead.
All this was good enough for third place overall with a time of 54min 25sec.
Things I learned from the entire event.
A. first thing was again a re-affirmation that I don't need to feel any obligation to keep the pace up by taking pulls. It's a race. If a team wants to pick up the pace, let them have at it. I just need to be aware of breakaway attempts.
B. Watch the stinking pre-sprint sprints. I expended a lot of energy on the return leg of the last lap. I probably could have converted that to sprint power down the final stretch.
C. Along with B, I need to continue to learn racing strategy to identify feints and breakaways that are real attempts. I'm paranoid that someone else is going to get away. Without having a team to support you, you have to work with other individual racers to prevent good teams from dominating the event. In Japan, that's doubly hard because the other individual racers don't speak English.... and I don't speak Japanese. Hard to communicate who is doing what.
D. Not sure if it's just a difference in heart rate monitors, but the stats for today showed me at a max HR of 192. There's no spiking occurring, so I'm going to have to adjust things based on that. My average HR for the day was 177, and that was previously my bar for LTHR. So, time to do some more testing.
Finally, I have to really work on my short distance power. That's my limiter. I need to be able to get up on the pedals and go. Power tells me one thing right now. I'm not as good as I think I am.
Pictures to follow.
VW