Steel City Endurance Racing

Now that we’ve got some racing in our legs and are gelling as a team, I thought it seemed like a good time to share some existential questions and fairy tales -

First, the Existential Question.   This is the question we should all ask ourselves from time to time during the race (I can’t speak to any of your non-racing lives in this regard) and that question is:  ”What am I Doing Here?”   For certain, we have all asked ourselves that question on the start line when it is raining or cold or we are tired.  But it is a fine question to ask yourselves during the race as well.  A related question might be “Am I Racing Purposefully?”   I pose these questions for you to pose to yourself so that you/we can be doing things within the race for a purpose that contributes to each of us and the team as a whole.  And believe me, I ask myself these very same questions all the time !

So, for example:

1.    If you are on the front of the field, hauling along while everyone behind you stays in your draft, resting, ask yourself:  What Am I Doing Here?

You should be able to answer:  i) bringing back a break that does NOT contain my team mate; ii) blocking the field because my team mate IS up the road; iii) leading out the sprinters in the final laps;  or iv) taking 20 pedal strokes then pulling off.  If your answer is anything else – then perhaps it’s time to read some Nitze.

2.  If you are feeling the urge to attack, ask yourself:  What am I Doing and Why am I Attacking NOW??

You should be able to answer:  i)  the group sat up/paused or there was a lull in the action/speed;  ii)  I am sitting in the draft of someone going for a preme and the minute we cross the line and she sits up, I am going to continue to accelerate and GO;  iii)   my team mate attacked and is about to be caught so I am going to accelerate the moment she is caught and GO; iv)  I am sitting near the back or several wheels back from the front and am going to attack from behind, knowing that I’ve been sitting in someone else’s draft; and v) it is 200 -300 meters from the line and I am either going for the win/top 5, or to get a MAR point.

If you DO attack, then make it a 100% effort to get that gap, but if despite your best efforts, when you peak back under your arm and see a wheel or the field, then SIT UP — there is nothing to be gained from continuing the hard effort.

3.       If, despite your best efforts, you find yourself on the front, again, ask yourself:  What Can I Do to Get Off the Front?

Count pedal strokes – once you’ve done 20 or 30, move right, wiggle your elbow, smile sweetly, and soft pedal so you can drift back into the field.  If it seems like everyone wants to do that, well, that often creates a lull which allows you or one of your team mates to attack.

The funny thing about bike racing is that it ISN’T about  who is the fastest or strongest, but who is the smartest.  And, unless you are doing a time trial, you don’t have to race at your limit for the entire race just because it’s a race.  Sometimes you find yourself in a race and just sitting in and hanging on requires being at your limit, but the idea is that it is OK to recover and sit up during the race.  Crits, especially, are about accelerations, recovery, accelerations, recovery, etc.  Typically, the race starts out with a flurry of attacks, then settles down, then towards the end, the speed picks up again.  That means you need to reserve something in the proverbial tank so that you can make those hard efforts in the beginning of the race, while still spending that proverbial currency over the course of the race, not all at the beginning.

The other question to ask yourself before or during the race is:  What do I Want to do in This Race?

The answer might be:  i)  go for MAR points; ii) lead out someone in the last lap; iii) get in break; iv) not get dropped; or v) sit in and just get a hard training effort.  Whatever the question or answer, the idea is to have some purpose for what you are doing in the race.  Whatever it is that you choose to do, be smart about it.  I know from my training and experience that I can make a hard, all out effort for just about 1 lap.  If I try to continue that effort for more than one lap, I am toast.  If I don’t sit up and recover, I will be off the back of the field in a heart beat.  I also know that I can sustain a TT effort for several laps, but even if I could theoretically time trial for a couple of laps, the reality is the field, collectively, is going as fast or faster than me, and the field has a draft, while I am pushing all the air all by my lonesome.  So, I might try to be out there for a couple of laps, but it does me no good to just keep pedaling for the sake of pedaling if it is just a question of time before I am caught and when I am caught, I will be toast and off the back in a heartbeat.

One of the reasons we train is for practice – not only to train your body to handle a particular kind of work but also to develop a sense of what it feels like to sustain a time trial/threshold effort or anaerobic effort or attack or jump or acceleration.  Physically, your body will adopt to the work but also mentally you will be able to say to yourself “OK, I can do this level of effort for XXX meters, or minutes and then I have to sit up and recover” and to listen to that voice in your head/gut. Put another way, you can continue to time trial, or try to bridge up to the break or continue to attack lap after lap, but it you don’t recognize when it is time to ease up or if you wait until you’ve over extended yourself and are not able to recover, you’ll be out of contention.

HOW CADENCE AND GEARS ARE LIKE THE THREE BEARS

Remember that Fairy Tale about Goldilocks and the Three Bears?   Well, it seemed to me the other night, rolling around the oval on my recovery laps between sprints that choosing the proper gear is a little like the three bears.

If you are in too small a gear, with your legs flailing, nearly bouncing on the saddle, just spinning and not pressing on the pedals, it’s like the baby bear’s chair.  It’s ‘too small.’

On the other hand, if you are grunting, pedaling squares instead of circles, turning a cadence of about 80 or less, if you need some body english to keep pedaling, if you have to stand and pull up on the bars to get up hill or over a hump, then it is like the papa bear chair:  the gear is too big.

If your pedaling is efficient, your upper body nice and still, and you are on top of your gears, turning a cadence of 90 – 100 keeping pressure on the pedals without forcing, then it’s like the mama bear chair:  ’just right.’

It’s OK to change gears in a race, too, even at the oval.  Is there a head wind, hill or  little hump right after the turn – then shift into a slightly easier gear just before the turn so that you aren’t bogged down once you head into the wind or the road goes up.  And surprise !   You can actually go faster in an easier gear by turning a higher, more efficient cadence !

OK, enough story time !

Barb G.