short term memory loss

short term memory loss was in full affect in my races at the davis criterium. i raced both the 35+ masters 4 and elite 4s while the e4 have a reputation for craziness it was the 35+ 4s that were not recalling the last lap. it was a combination of solo crashes, pedal scraping and overcooking the turns. somehow i survived that race taking 44th. waited for 2.5 hours for a fast e4 race, full field came in 48th.

odd feeling... i was physically ready

before I show up to the start line with a good feeling that I would last the entire race but most of the time I finish the race but towards back of the pack. The gas tank would just dry up and I be fighting to get that 60th place.

here's how it went on Sunday at the Burlingame Criterium

Memorial Day Criterium announcer tells us that there is a delay due to a crash in the last race, we'll get you guys started as soon as we get the all clear. Since I'm towards the back I take advantage of riding some loops to keep the legs warm, after 10 minutes of that they finally tell us the rules of the road and start the race.

Knowing that the majority of the guys are anxious to get warm, I knew that there would be crashes, yep on lap 2 or 3 we had 2 crashes in the back stretch, one was a solo and the other involved at least 5 guys, after finally being neutralized the pace finally became reasonable. Sitting comfortably towards the back, but still able to see the front of the race waiting for the surge. The surge finally took place with 6 laps to go, I figured okay I'll play along moving myself up to the mid-pack, with 4 laps to go Steven Woo (LGBRC) puts in a huge attack to get himself to the front, I wait for the Synergy train to get organized and hop on board. With 3 laps to go I'm sitting in top 25, as we hit the final lap, I have good position to get my goal on top 30.

As I enter the final turn a Synergy guy bumps into me and proceeds to lean on me for quite some time, I tell him "take it easy - hold your line" and slowly he returns to his original line, afterwards he thanked me for being calm and instructing him how to keep it upright.

Back to the finishing stretch, I get a good draft from some guy, as soon as he starts to fade I go around him to find Mr. Zig Zag, I pass him on his zag and without getting out of the saddle I power through the finish line, knowing that I got my goal of top 30 but now I'm thinking I got top 20.

Place 21
Avg HR: 157
Avg Watts: 202

the fitness is returning

tuesday night's goal was to stay with the B group for every lap, no matter how painful it was going to be. the first few times up the climb were painful as the climbers desperately tried to create the break, about 6 laps into it they did. now that we had 2 guys in the breakaway, i immediately positioned myself up front to block, but this meant i was in the wind possibly jeopardizing my chances. what you do for teammates!

but this week I did it, I lasted all 15 laps with a lot of help from my team mates. i glued myself behind scott, todd and maurice and derrick shouted out encouragements, whew I needed every last letter on the last time up the hill.

i even broke the 1000 watt mark, scoring a 1019 on one of the climbs.

next week, i'm going for the same goal, stay with the pack and perhaps give a few others a chance to block some wind.

if i dont attack look what happens

since that hill normally destroys me, sjbc tuesday night crits, i normally attack and go all out for the first 5 laps, this week i decided to see what would happen if i didn't attack. holy crap, i lasted 12 of 14 laps and if i didn't have to put on the president's hat and speak to someone in the fricking wind, who knows might have lasted the full 14 laps.

next week...

putting on a bike race is tough, try doing two

after six months of planning and worrying about if I had forgotten anything the Mt Hamilton Classic and Memorial Day Criterium happened with great success. The sheer amount of support that I received both from volunteers and sponsors was beyond my wildest hopes. Sure there is registration and results items to be fixed, but now that I know all the aspects on putting this weekend on, I'll be better prepared for 2009.

next year we are thinking about adding a 3rd event and creating a points event, it will be fun...

first race in the books

i slept just fine, had a good breakfast, did everything that i normally did before an event. got to the event with plenty of time to walk the course and cheer on our cat 4s. set up the trainer, started to warm up during the last bit of the 4s race and the w4 races. hydrated and gel-ed up i was ready to race. 5 laps to go i start moving towards the start line, only to hear, we'll be placing the ladies under neutral while the ambulance takes care of the fallen cyclist. so back to the car i go for warm clothing. with not knowing an exact amount of time, i do micro laps in a parking lot.

10 minutes go by and i start to see guys of my race on the course, well by now I'm starting to get a bit dizzy. a few laps around and they were ready to get things going.

finally its my turn to race. all i want to do is clip in. let me clip in and ill worry about gaining ground later. first lap came around and i assume i must have been last when michael announced me and "pulling up the rear jonathan from sjbc". i get back to mid-back of the pack for now, where todd is starting to get closer, i know im not moving up, maybe he's coming back to see how im doing. i ride up to him then get in front of him to bring him back up to the middle. but he tells me that its not his day, i move back to stay near the guys i know when all of a sudden that noise you dread is getting louder, the mad dash to brake. from 30 to 0 in a matter of seconds, as i roll by the start/finish line there is a pile up. this one is gonna take a while to clean up.

after 20 minutes or so we are back on to ride 7 laps. first 1/2 lap was ok then the pace quickly shot up, i was pushing 500+ watts to stay on reaching 650 and 31 mph in the saddle in the last lap, to finish 62nd/100, but upright and ready for more.

a few more months of training and by memorial day i should be back to do multiple races in a day.

then there was outside

decided to test the legs, the bike, the mental game of it all by riding two days before I took a long ride with the Saturday gang.

getting the helmet out of the car was the sure sign that this was real. after so many days riding on the trainer and going absolutely no where it sure felt good when we turned out of the parking lot and headed down towards central expressway. the goal of the two days was to get that lung butter up and boy was it coming out.

saturday's ride - i wanted to be on the bike for as long as i could. decided to ride from my house to the saturday ride, that would get me warmed up and ready to roll. i over estimated the time it would take to get there, so i had to ride around the neighborhood to stay warm. by the time the ride leaders said let's go, i had 13 miles logged.

riding to gilroy was a lot of fun, tailwind, pushing us along with folks attacking and i had a blast chasing them down, by the time i got to the gilroy golf course, i was pushing close to 42 miles. as we started heading north we all got a taste of what we will be riding in for the next 20 miles, fierce headwind. i was immediately dropped, and rode alone for 18 miles. at one point the wind was pushing me sideways, and riding down the cinnabar hill, i was pedaling as hard as i could and only getting 29mph. eventually i made it home, logged 73 miles and 4:36hrs on the bike. it was total bliss.

sunday rode 33 miles and tuesday another 27 miles.

conclusion: flat roads are fun, hills its a sufferfest, though with after work ride team mates, steven and john, they will get me ready for may-sept ncnca races.