Another race, another whooping.

Two weeks ago the Jiminey Peak road race gave me some confidence back after the quabbin debacle. I was able to barely hang on to the back of the pack after almost popping on the first major climb. So, in an attempt to keep the good mojo going I registered for the Sunapee Lake road race. Forty five miles with about seventeen hundred feet of climbing didn't look too bad on the computer. In fact, the topo maps all seemed to indicate long slow climbs with no real steep pitches.

That was not the case. There were two major climbs (for me), one about six or seven miles in and the other about eighteen miles in on the twenty two mile laps. The first lap I felt pretty good, no one was attacking but the pace was still high on the climbs, about 4 watts/kg. If it kept up this way I could definitely have another pack finish. On start of the second lap the 35+ guys caught us and some panic insued when a few of our field latched onto the back of them as they passed; totally illegeal. The directors had to stop both fields, start the 35+ with a minute or two lead and let us on our way. Basically a five minute rest in the middle of a road race, pretty odd. It did give me a chance to eat my cliff bar though.

After that, the pace went up significantly. The first lap had a NP of 230, so I was feeling like I had been working but was doing ok, but soon the attacks started and the hills seemed suddenly steeper and longer. I lost contact on the first big climb, anticipating catching up on the descent but left too big of a gap. Instead I wheelsucked a guy who dragged me back to the pack. From there I hung on for dear life as I wasn't able to move up on the descent and filter back on the climbs anymore. The inevitable happened and I was dropped again on the second climb, I could see the field about fifty yards ahead but just couldn't close the gap no matter how hard I tried. There was a nasty headwind and the field was chasing a solo flier as I went off the back. I finally gave up and time trialed it in, an awful feeling.

This race further confirmed my lack of climbing ability. I need to lose 10 pounds (160 right now), and gain 20 watts to my FTP to have any kind of sucess on these kinds of races. With an FTP of 265, and ten fewer pounds this race would have been much more contentious for me. Those ten pounds also mean my other power numbers would go up, independent of gains from training.

The biggest complicating factor is there are mainly crits remaining for the rest of the season, with a hilly stage race in September. I think I'll continue to concentrate my training on FTP, make an actual concious effort to lose ten pounds and race the Tuesday night practice criteriums to keep my anaerobic systems working.

Today and yesterday are rest days, I've had big TSS scores the past few weeks and my legs need a break longer than one day. I should be feeling fresh tomorrow for a 50 mile SST ride, have field work on Wednesday and Thursday will be 20 minute intervals if my legs are up for it.