Posts Tagged ‘Category 4’

It was a fun ride. Time to say good bye.

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

I talked last night on the phone with my coach. We’ve both been pretty busy and this was the first chance we had to get together to talk about the weekend races. I was pleased that he was happy both with my physical and mental performances.

Then he asked the question that has been eating away at me for sometime now. “So, does this change your view on the idea of moving up to Category 3?” He asked the question in one of those ways where you know he is fishing for a particular reply.

I paused. In a few seconds my mind went through the battle all over again. I knew the answer was, “Yes, I have changed my view on upgrading.” However, just because I had changed my view didn’t necessarily mean I was ready to take action.

The last Category 4 race?

Could this have been my last Category 4 race? - Photo by Jimmy Helms

Once again in Spartanburg I was on the podium. That means out of the eleven Category 4 races I have competed in this season, I have finished 3rd or better in seven of them. The other four finishes were 5th, 7th, 19th, and 36th. Those kinds of finishes in the NASCAR Nationwide Series would have the Sprint Cup teams coming and knocking on your door.

However, I have never won a race as a Category 4 racer. I struggle with that because I want to win in the worst way. I know that if I stayed as a four, I would get that win someday. If I upgrade, the chances of winning diminish. Not only that, if I upgrade I’ll be moved into the Masters races where it will not be my job to try to win. Even the bottom level of the podium will be hard to come by.

I’m 42 and this year was the year that I devoted to training. It was my push to accomplish something in racing. I don’t know if I will be able to devote the time necessary to improve within the Masters and Category 3 ranks. My dream for the year was to get a win, upgrade to 3, and then “just race for fun” in 2011.

On the other hand, I am getting embarrassed pulling up to the start line of the Category 4 races. I know the guys around me are thinking, “What on earth is he still doing here?” Ironically (please don’t take this as conceit), I’m tired of 2nd and 3rd place finishes. I can knock off a top five finish anytime I toe the line in a Category 4 race. It isn’t conceit, it is just a fact. These guys are my friends and I don’t want to cause resentment.

It makes not getting that win just that much more miserable. Winning is not easy! But when you are sooooo close time and again, finishing 2nd and 3rd just dosen’t cut it.

I really do find myself drawn back to that challenge that I first felt going into this season. There was the unknown of where I would finish in my first race. That first one was a confidence shaker! However, for the rest of the time till now I raced in that sweet spot of knowing I had the ability to finish well, but never quite convinced of the true level of that ability.

Now, I’m not racing to see how well I can do. I’m racing to meet expectations. I guess you could call that “negative racing.” The sweet spot is gone.

So, last night, I submitted my upgrade request. I imagine that by the next time I race, I’ll have to put down that I’m a Category 3. Wow! Back in February, I would have never thought that by May I would have already accomplished that goal.

I guess I’ll have to reassess my remaining goals. Two of them unchanged — 1) 11:15 up Paris Mountain, and 2) 700 miles in 7 days. The one that will be affected was my goal to finish top five in the French Broad River Classic. I had my heart set on doing the Time Trial, Road Race, and Criterium with the goal of a top five in the Omnium. Now, what seemed very doable suddenly appears out of my reach.

That is the frustration and that is the joy… the unknown.

Coach says I have the numbers to race Category 3. He says I have flashes of the ability to race Category 2. The numbers are there. The question is whether the heart and head will be.

Goodbye, Category 4. It was fun while it lasted. I’ll miss the guys I grew used to having around me. Mostly, I’ll miss Matt and Billy. Come on, guys, it is time to upgrade!

Tags: , ,
Posted in Racing | 2 Comments »

A victim of my own success

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

I’ve always tried to be open with my thoughts here on Low Cadence. That’s what this site is — “Thoughts of a cyclist.” So, I am going to lay out what I’m thinking right now and hopefully my motives won’t be judged too harshly.

Going into this season (which has hardly even started) I envisioned how the year would go. I would have a good Spring Series and come out of it with a few points toward an upgrade to Category 3. There was reason to believe that by the end of the season there would be points enough to complete the upgrade.

Moving up to Category 3 was simply not in my goals. If I thought about it at all it was something like, “Yeah, I’ll get my goals this year and then retire at the end with an upgrade.” Once I got there I would become a sacrificial lamb for my 35+ Masters teammates. Mostly, I just didn’t think about it.

Here is how it works. You get points for each race in which you place. These races are divided into two types: Road Races and Criterium/Circuit Races. The races in which you compete must meet minimum distance standards. The amount of points you get is also determined by the size of the field participating.

The points you earn from placing in these races are compiled by USA Cycling. For a guy, to upgrade from Category 4 to 3 he must have 20 points within a 12 month period. He submits his resume to the regional officials and they decide whether to issue the upgrade. There are some other options for upgrading that are a little more complicated.

However, the upgrade guideline that got my attention was, “30 points in 12 months is an automatic upgrade.” If I’ve calculated correctly, I’m sitting on 28 points. Two more points and I’ll be at 30 points.

People assume you are all set to upgrade when you get the chance. I’ve heard, “Good, now you can upgrade to 3 and join us in the 35+ Masters.” “Welcome to the 3′s!” “Guess you’ll be moving on up now.”

Whoah! I’m not ready for that! Mentally, I have my season planned out and I have goals that as a Category 4 racer I just MIGHT accomplish. As a Category 3 racer… those goals become very slim. Upgrading now would cause me to reassess all of my goals for the year.

I simply did not expect to be at this level this soon in the season! Plus, I am learning a lot. I’m now at a point where I am actually competitive in the 4′s. Rather than just trying to survive, I’m learning to race. With only six races at this level, I don’t think I’ve come close to learning all I would like to learn.

I asked my coach about it and he said, “It’s up to you unless you reach 30 points, then an official may (I stress ‘may’) push you up automatically.” He then went on to say that we would discuss this further. Wonder what that discussion will be about?

Steve Sperry keeps telling me it is time to move up from high school to college. Yeah, I remember that transition! It was quite the change. He goes on to say that the day would then come when it would be time for me to move from college to grad school — meaning Category 2.

I appreciate the confidence — though sometimes I think he is just teasing me. Watching those guys fly around in the 1/2′s makes me feel like I am in kindergarten! Me? I’ll be Peter Pan. I don’t want to grow up — not yet. What would you do?

Tags: ,
Posted in Life | 2 Comments »

Waiting on the word from my coach

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

My second Functional Threshold Power test occupied my mind yesterday. It was a pretty busy day without it. I was a little nervous going into the event because I knew I was a little more pressured than usual and my schedule wasn’t going as I planned. Still, the time did come and now I’m waiting on my coach for the official results.

At 7:30 AM I was at a budget planning meeting with my two business partners. Actually, it was just one. The second had gotten a bad head cold the night before and joined us later on the telephone.

That meeting lasted until a little after 11 AM. Of course, by that time the Upstate Winter Bicycle League had already started. There would be no pink cat. 4 sprinter’s vest for me.

Then to make matters worse, a toilet in the office building had plugged. There was water gathering in the carpet in one of the programmer rooms on the other side of the wall from the restroom. Since care of the building is one of my responsibilities, it was up to me to get it cleaned up.

That led to a late lunch which then led to a late start on my pre-test ride. That ride was to be a 2:15 ride with a warm up of 15 minutes at under 180 watts, a sustained wattage between 180 – 220, and then a cool down for 15 minutes under 150 watts. It was a little cool out there, but not bad.  I was well layered and only my fingers started getting a little cold by the end.

After getting off the bike and getting myself sorted out with some food, it was time to get back on the bike.  This time I would be on a trainer in my basement. This ride would be different in that I was supposed to work up to giving a solid TT effort and that would determine my Functional Threshold Power.

20 min. FTP effort (Click to enlarge)

20 min. FTP effort (Click to enlarge)

It starts off with a 10 minute warm-up with a nice little push in the last two minutes. After 5 minutes of backing off from that last effort, you start a 20 minute effort maintaining wattage between 220 – 240 watts. Then it is time to spin easy for 10 minutes. Ready? Now it is time for an all out effort for 20 minutes before finally spinning down for a final 10 minutes.

Everything was going according to plan until the first 20 minutes segment. Even though I was in my unfinished basement and the temperature was in the mid-50s, I was really starting to get warm. I knew that would lead to fatigue. So, I got off the bike, opened the door to the outside, and set up a fan. Things started to cool down quickly and I got back at the task at hand.

The meat of the test started with the 20 minute all out effort. Knowing my habit of starting out too early, I tried to start out below what I knew my Functional Threshold Power level to be.  I did this for the first 5 minutes.  My Garmin Edge 500 was telling me that the Quarq CinQo power meter was recording 260 watts. I then shifted down and stood putting out over 300 watts for a couple of minutes.

That effort moved up close to my known 270 FTP. However, I knew I could not sustain that for the next 15+ minutes.  I backed off to recover a little bit until I reached the 10 minute mark.  At that point, I upped the wattage again.  This time the watts went up to 276.  Now it was time to recover slightly for the final push to the end.

I watched as the wattage dropped during those minutes to around 274 watts.  I knew that was better than my previous test, but I was certain it did not represent where I was today. It was time to stand and push to the end. So, with about 4 minutes left, I came out of the saddle, shifted down, and then pushed to the end.

It was worth it! Yes, I felt kind of sick by that last pedal stroke, but looking at my Garmin I saw an average of 279 watts for the 20 minutes.  That is nearly a 10 watt increase over my last FTP test. That final push had raised my average by about 5 watts.  Looking at the graph, I see that it was also the portion of the ride where I put out the most wattage.

I uploaded my data to Trainingpeaks.com and my coach, Jim Cunningham, who has been in California coaching at the Olympic Training Center, will soon let me know if I did everything correctly so the test will be valid. I can’t imagine it won’t be. I will be curious to know if he expected a better performance.

Me? I’m pretty happy with it. I have had a very rough start to my training due to all the physical problems I’ve been having. It has hampered my off the bike training most of all, but has not made training on the bike as profitable as I would like either. To see any increase it encouraging. Now that I am starting to beat this pain, I hope the next segment of my training will be even better.

Who knows what my numbers will be next time? Yes, I realize that an FTP of 279 watts just puts me in the Cat. 4 level, but – hey – that is what I am! I would love to see myself over 300 before all is said and done. You’ve got to start somewhere!

Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Training | 2 Comments »