more than just another bike blog

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Questions for Giana Regarding 3 x 5 minute intervals

Here are my questions about this specific workout:

1. What is the purpose of 5 minute intervals? What energy system am I training? Where should the effort be in relation to LT?

2. How long should my warm-up be? How long is recovey between each effort?

3. What is the preferred terrain? If I can't find a flat stretch to do this without wind, should I do the efforts into a headwind or a tailwind?

4. If I can't maintain target watts, do I modify the workout or abandon the intervals?

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

Dunlap Memorial Time Trial (Winters, CA) – The Race of (Intestinal) Truth

Saturday, June 19th, 2004

Weather: Warm (not hot), clear, slight wind

Course: 35k loop with 11 turns (2 left-hand turns). 21.7 miles? My computer said 21.09 and I’ve seen 21.2 elsewhere. Hmmm. Mostly flat with a couple of rollers. Anyways, I’d analyzed the map and Dawn had given us the low-down on landmarks, wind condition, and road condition based on her pre-ride.

Teammates: Elissa (Jr Girls 10-12), Dawn Neisser, Pat Lakner, Angela Lam (all CAT4)

Morning Weight: 166 (my morning weight on Friday was 168 – my morning weight on Sunday was 161 – Today, 4 days later, I’m still only at 164)

Morning HR: 59 (typically anywhere from 36-42)

Dinner (Friday):
Filet Mignon, Crinkle Fries (because Cox says they’re better than baked potatoes), mushrooms, skim milk, and lots of healthy nibbling throughout the day.

Breakfast:
Iced Coffee with Soy Milk, Banana, Whole Wheat Pasta with Olive Oil, Chicken Breast (don’t go “ew” – it works for me). One bottle of GU2O to counter the coffee. I think I also had a Clif Bar in there somewhere but I can’t remember.

Pre-Race Food:
Water (1 bottle), Orange GU20 (1 bottle), 2 Vanilla GUs. Since I didn’t plan to eat or drink during the race, I had one bottle and the GUs at the line in the ten minutes or so preceding the race.

Pre-race Physical Condition: I’d had a slight pain in my right lower abdomen since Wednesday and knew I was slightly dehydrated. My hypochondriac self had decided I either had appendicitis, a kidney stone, constipation, or something wrong with an ovary. I was feeling off on Saturday morning. Not able to keep food or drink down comfortably. During the warm-up, I had some severe abdominal pain, made several trips to the porta-potty and was burping up a storm. Considered not racing.

Pre-race Mental Condition: My training has been going pretty well lately, but I just wasn’t feeling good about this race. Kept planning to get on my TT bike once a week or so after Kern, but I just didn’t do it. Having only done one previous TT, I haven’t been 100% confident that my fit is the best for me (combination of power and aerodynamics), so Friday night I did some tweaking to put my position more like my road bike. Had planned to do this on the CompuTrainer so I could analyze watts, but didn’t do it. Found a position that seemed to work, although I was still fiddling with saddle height a bit on Saturday morning. But, I like time trials, need an excuse to use my new TT bike, and had persuaded Angela to do this race, so I was committed.


Narrative: I like time trials. There’s something very real about this form of racing and it appeals a lot to a control freak like me. I like time trial bikes. There’s a complete sense of connectedness, of commitment, to being clipped in and down in my TT bars. I remember when I first got clipless pedals and thought that was connected. And I used to do centuries with aerobars. But the TT bike (shifters on the TT bars and brakes on the cowhorn bars) is completely different. And for a commitment-phobe like me, it’s surprising that I like riding my TT bike so much. But I do.

Mentally, a TT is very different for me than a mass-start race like a crit or a road race. No matter what your fitness or skill level, in a TT, you’re out there racing yourself and your own demons. Yes, in the end, it matters how you stack up against other racers. But in the moment, you can feel powerful, strong, and accomplished.

I approached this race with a little bit of methodology. I’d done some reading about TTs and done the TT at Kern (which I now realize I didn’t race hard enough). Pacing is an interesting question in a time trial. Go all out? Start strong and finish not as strong? Start slower and build as you go? Being methodical, I decided to set my goal at one hour. Who knows why, but last year’s best time was 57:38 and most of the times were 1:00:00 plus, so what the heck! Of course, I had no idea about wind conditions last year, but a girl needs a goal, right. Yeah, it meant I had to average over 21mph. But I’d done a 50-minute TT on Wednesday and was able to average 19.7 (at Pacific Shores Center where you lose time with corners & such). So, from there, I estimated my splits. Now, of course, the completely scientific way to set goals is to use power, but since my PowerTap is Campy and my TT bike is Shimano, that wasn’t going to work. But I could use perceived exertion to try to simulate how I felt during my Wednesday effort. And, of course, I kept an eye on my pace. Just kept trying to push it over 22mph. Sometimes it would drop down below 20mph and I just couldn’t get it any higher. But for the most part, I was pretty darn consistent.

Unlike Dawn, I can’t give you a turn-by-turn narrative. I will say that my start was good. I knew what gear to be in and had practiced some almost standing starts (track stands, basically) on Friday, so I felt good about which leg felt more powerful and exactly where to position my legs. I breathed in on “5” and released the brakes and started pushing at “1.” Yeah, Lorri!

I think I started just a bit slower than I should have. At the beginning of the course, the road is winding enough that I couldn’t see my 30-second man, so I didn’t have a sense of how I was doing. And it’s very strange time-trialing with multiple categories, because the men are flying and I kept looking for women (not many out there). At 15 minutes, I passed some guy and Pat Lakner, who had started a minute before me. I rolled through a turn behind another guy who slowed, got out of his TT bars, and then stood to accelerate through the corner. I stayed in my TT bars, nailed the corner, and then passed him. I got passed by a couple of super-fast guys (but they were cute to look at), with trick bikes, disc wheels, and super-tight skinsuits, and watched them play this game of cat & mouse for a while.

Cornering is an interesting question with the TT bike. Stay in the TT bars? Get into the cowhorns and counter-steer? Stand? Don’t stand? I decided it would be best to stay in my TT bars. I was able to do this for all but two of the corners. My left-hand cornering is weaker, and surprisingly enough, my left-hand corners were much better than my right with the TT bike. But this might have something to do with the fact that I’ve got some right shoulder issues right now (and this shoulder was screaming at me about half way into the race). Anyways, I digress. I think I may have lost some time in my corners staying in the TT bars, but mentally, I wanted to commit to it, and I did.

The rest of the race is a blur. It was damn hard. I baby-puked three times. I spit on myself too many times to count. The sweat was just rolling down my face under the TT helmet. Snot was running out of my nose. I definitely understood the concept of snool that Liz Beneshin had described to us at our time trial training last fall.

There were definitely times when I though I would never finish. But then, at about 40 minutes, I fell into this rhythm. Call it a zone. Whatever. It was almost like being numb. The shoulder pain, the saddle discomfort, everything else just went away. I felt like a very powerful, efficient machine. I quit looking around and just became one with the bike. I remember checking my split at the 30K sign (51 minutes) and thinking “thank god, only about 3 miles to go” and trying to do the math in my head to calculate time but failing miserably. I remember seeing Kim Weins and her husband on the side of the road cheering (thank you Kim and Randy). I remember seeing the last turn and not knowing which way to go (I picked the right direction, thank goodness). And from there I just ramped it up and gave a little more even though I didn’t have much left to give. I remember crossing the line and pulling out my computer to save my stats and then rolling around to cool down, heading back to the line to cheer in Dawn and Angela and Pat and Ted (Dawn’s husband) who would all finish after me.

Race Stats: 21.09 miles – 59:45 – 21.2mph avg -- 27.0mph max -- AVG HR = 167 (zone 5a) – MAX HR = 179 (off the charts). Guess I need to re-test my HR zones. My other thought is that my HR might have been elevated due to the intestinal stress. Oh, and I got 7th place (field size 14).

Splits:
10K – 17 minutes; 20K – 34 minutes; 30K – 51 minutes (damn, I’m consistent if nothing else)

Post-Race Narrative: As soon as my heart rate lowered, the abdominal pain began. I felt like I was going to vomit and lose my bowels all at the same time. I questioned whether or not I’d be able to ride back to where we’d parked our cars. I spent about 30 minutes sitting in the hot porta-potty creating a new liquid form of excrement. Finally, got up, walked about 20 feet across the parking lot, and had to return to my bright blue dungeon. This happened four times before I was confident enough to get in the car to drive home (thank you for driving, Angela). I slept almost non-stop from 5:00pm on Saturday until about 7:00am on Monday. Couldn’t eat or drink anything. Not sure what caused it, but I assume it was some form of food poisoning (I really like rare steak).

Post-race Analysis (Lessons Learned):

If I can maintain 21.2mph for an hour, there is no physical reason why I should fall off the pack in a crit. I’ve definitely got to work on my mental game (or maybe just my intervals).

Time Trialing is extremely empowering. Hopefully, I can carry the confidence gained in this race into the rest of my season.

Nutrition and hydration is serious business. This is an important one, so I hope I didn’t lose everyone earlier in the report. Four days later, I’m still four pounds lighter than I should be. This means my glycogen stores are still depleted and I’m not retaining water (glycogen stockpiles water in your muscles). I have very little energy, my HR is still very elevated (at rest and while riding), and my stomach is still very upset every time I try to eat or drink. But, besides the fatigue, my legs feel good, which makes sense since I’m in a pretty good state of recovery. I went out for an hour on the bike today and even though I feel weak, I was climbing very, very fast. However, at the end of my hour, I felt like I’d been rolled over by a truck.

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

50 minute TT -- damn that was hard!

Tuesday, June 15th -- Was supposed to do one hour easy. Coached 10 year old Canaan and right now we're working on sustained efforts with a focus on hills for his upcoming road race. He needs help with pacing (he sprints then dies). We were working at Indian Crossing Road, which is about a 1.3 mile descent and the returning for a 1.3 mile gentle climb with a steeper section at the very end. Of course, it was way too hot (95 degrees) and this is an exposed road, so he only lasted 26 minutes on the bike. I then went out and climbed Alpine (not exposed climb) very easy for the balance of my 60 minutes. When I think back to the first time I climbed Alpine (March 3rd, which was also the 1st day I was on Giana's program) I can see HUGE improvement. I'm able to climb just about anything in a low heart-rate. Hopefully sometime I'll be able to climb just about anything fast!!!

Ride Stats -- 1:01:01 -- 11.5 miles

Wednesday, June 16th -- Today was to be a 50 minute time trial to determine my PT training zones. I had a client booked in the morning who is trying to learn to ride and overcome her fear of traffic. We met in Menlo Park and did about 90 minutes flat & super-easy (we averaged about 9mph). I then rode up to Redwood City to do the tt at Pacific Shores Center.


I picked PSC because it's the only place I could think of that I could do a 50-minute sustained effort on the flats. It's a big loop with one 180 degree turn (which I was able to ride around at about 24mph -- good cornering practice). Headwind, crosswind, tailwind, crosswind. Got caught behind a truck that slowed down early on (only lasted about a minute). I think the next time I do this it will be on a trainer because it was impossible to maintain my goal watts with the changing wind conditions.

I began my effort after riding 2 hours & 10 minutes. Was not fatigued at all -- just warmed up. I kept watching the clock the entire time waiting for it to be over. About ten minutes in, I didn't think I could finish. Lungs felt good but I can tell I don't have enough leg strength. At 6 minutes to go I got a bit loopy, but was able to focus and finish consistently (I actually got just a bit stronger at the end).

Oh, and I recalibrated my PT today and used all the settings Giana suggested. I started an interval when I started the TT, but it doesn't allow you to see average watts for the interval (just for the entire ride), so I had to watch the raw data. My goal was to keep my watts at about 200. Given the wind, I found that it was really hard to get over 160 on the tailwind sections, so I thought I had compensated by riding at about 225 on the headwind sections. My average for the effort was too low (only 155). There appears to be a problem with the HR data from about 5 to 18 minutes -- it dipped way too low. I know my HR leveled out, but not that low, and unfortunately, I didn't start my Polar as backup, so the average HR data is off. If I isolate the last 27 minutes, I get an average HR of 154 (but there are still some low blips in there). Is the PT HR monitor hard to use?

Tomorrow is an active recovery day (I deserve it). I'm going to do it on my TT bike to prep for Davis on Saturday. Wish I had a PT on that bike so I can see if it actually yields any advantages over my road bike.

Oh, and I do feel good about the tt on Saturday. This was a great exercise because it's given me a really good sense of perceived exertion for that effort. I think I should be able to do quite well.

Ride Stats -- 4:04:41 -- 55.2 miles

Monday, June 14, 2004

Wine Country Criterium Race Report -- June 13th, 2004

A New Toy is a Dangerous Thing………or how I fried my legs for the Wine Country Criterium


So, my lovely PowerTap arrived finally. http://www.cycleops.com/products/powertappro.htm. I’d ordered it in February when I decided to hire Giana as my personal coach. I figured that since so many potential clients were inquiring about training with power, and I didn’t really know enough to train them, it would be a great opportunity to learn while being coached. But apparently PowerTap was having some quality issues, so they didn’t ship, and didn’t ship, and didn’t ship.

Then, one day this big old UPS box appeared on my patio (thank you, UPS man, for putting almost $1,000 worth of bike stuff on my open patio).

So, Josh installed my new PowerTap on Tuesday. It’s just a super-fangled bike computer, really, although it uses a special hub to measure power output. Dang! That hub is heavy. But, I digress.

So, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, I went out and climbed some hills. And rode hard. Since a PowerTap measures power, it’s much more interesting to play with it when you’re riding hard, so I threw my program out the window (with Giana’s blessing) and climbed everything between here and Los Altos. It was actually good for me, because I’ve been feeling really down and frustrated about some stuff and not motivated to ride, so I just went out and pounded out my emotions.

Fast forward to Saturday – Guys Got Skills. Those of you who’ve experienced our clinics know the routine. Lecture, demonstrate, lecture, ride hard, lecture, you get the picture. So, even though I only rode a total of two hours yesterday, my legs were fried. I laid in bed last night feeling the crap in my quads and hamstrings. And a touch of sunburn. And a bit of fever. I remember thinking at one point I should just call Holly because there would be no way I would be able to race today.

4:30am – alarm went off and I forgot how cruddy I’d felt. Sat in the car for too long (did anyone else know that Holly drives like a grandma on Sunday?). And then somehow we were just a bit too casual in Santa Rosa this morning so we did an abbreviated version of the warm-up. Oops.

Rolling up to the line, I was actually really excited, but discouraged that Velo Girls didn’t have a more dominant team presence. This was one of the few races I’ve done with good representation from so many teams, and with the combined CAT3, CAT4, and 35+ fields, there were some very experienced racers out there. Of course, with just Holly, Cayce, Jeanine, and me, I wasn’t feeling as unstoppable as we had in past weeks, but we were going to give it a go and try to get some redemption for yesterday’s race.

We rolled up to the line after most of the other racers, so we plunked the team down on the far left by the judge’s stand in the front line. Janice (“oh yeah, go”) Goodrich was the CR, so I was anticipating an anticlimactic start. It wasn’t until then that I realized she wasn’t going to be able to get off the road and being on the far left, I might just roll over her pretty red manicured toes (I kid you not). So, with a bit further distance to go to get to turn one (right-hand turn), I jumped at the start, missed Janice’s toes, and found myself mid-pack going into turn one. “Okay, I’m good with this.”

As you know from Miss Holly’s race report, I was actually feeling confident enough that I planned to start our lead-out. Me. Yep. Well, after about five laps or so, there was a prime. That strung the pack out a bit, but I was still in contact. But when the effort amped up, I felt my quads and hamstrings burning. Almost cramping, but not really. Just stiff, tired, burning, ouch.

Coming into turn three, I was right behind Jeanine when she and a NorCal Velo racer jigged and then jagged right in front of me. This caused both of them to slow just a bit, which trickled down to me and others behind them. Pop! Off the back yet again within the next lap, although I tried my darndest to get back on.

Interesting note about technical crits. The course was great. We actually rode around it early in the morning and I watched an earlier race from every single corner. There were two corners that really funneled down, so the pack was in an almost constant state of stringiness (ie strung out), which made it challenging to advance position unless you were really smart about when and where to do it. It also made riding at the back of the pack even harder than it is in industrial crits.

So, I’m out there time trailing once again. Since this was a somewhat technical crit, I decided just to keep riding and work on some super-fun cornering and what-not. About ten minutes later, the nice ref on the motorcycle rolls up to me and tells me the pack is approaching. I decide not to make the mistake I made last time I got lapped (in Santa Rosa as well) and I was going to make sure to jump back into the pack. Go Lorri! So, I make sure I’m on the outside or the inside, the pack approaches, I play it cool and let the first couple of women go by and then just ease my way back into the pack. I half expected someone who doesn’t know the rules to yell at me, but no one did. “Hi, I’m back!!!” There’s Holly, there’s Cayce, there’s Jeanine. Okay, maybe I can recover and still help with a lead-out. But by that time, I’m too darn tuckered from my solo effort, and I only last two laps with the pack before popping off the back again.

Crap! Fifteen minutes to go. Each time I pass the start/finish, I smile at Janice (chief ref.) and secretly hope she’ll pull me. Of course, I would never admit this, but my legs were on fire. My quads and hamstrings were just completely fatigued from all my climbing and then the stop/go hard from the clinic. With about 5 laps to go, I look back and see the pack approaching again around turn 6 (just as I’m passing the start/finish). Janice smiles, runs her finger across her neck, and I yelp aloud. Whew! I’m finished. I roll around inside the course and then cheer everyone on at the end of the race.

Was a little concerned about Cayce and Holly. With two to go, they were together at the back of the pack. With one to go, they’d moved up about halfway. On the final lap, I see a glimmer of pink coming around turn six, but it looks like whoever it is is just too far back. Little did I know that Holly has one damn long sprint. She was just getting wound up as she crossed the line, passing other racers the entire time.

Interesting note on placement:

Holly’s number was 8 – she finished 8th overall (6th in the CAT3/4 race)
Cayce’s number was 14 – she finished 14th overall
Jeanine’s number was 19 – she finished 19th overall
My number was 13 – guess it wasn’t my lucky day……..

Oh, and a couple of other thoughts that don’t fit anywhere else:

The master women are very smooth and verbal in a good way. I enjoy racing with them.

That woman in the white jersey on the trek (she was at ICCC as well) is a total dipshit and I seem to get sucked in behind her too much. There should be a rule that squirrelly riders aren’t allowed to be strong enough to ride mid-pack, because they screw everybody else up.

Thank you to Jeanine for having the Moxie (with a capital M) to come join our merry little crew this morning. She hasn’t raced since Sea Otter and she rocked today!!!

Oh, and for those of you who might enjoy the geekiness of it, here’s my PowerTap data. I don’t think it’s completely calibrated right, but it’s definitely interesting to watch and I can already see how training in power zones is much more effective than training in HR zones.


So, this is Wine Country Crit. The gray line is torque, the yellow is power, the blue is speed, the red is heart rate, and the green is cadence. I’ve smoothed it to 25% so I can see the trends instead of every little blip. No real analysis here, but it’s interesting to notice at about 10 minutes when I started falling off, I made one last good effort to stay on and then was out time trailing until about 20 minutes at which point, I caught up with the pack again and pushed again to stay with them. Funny how my cadence is much slower when I’m in the pack. I’ve noticed this before. It’s way too low (80s) because I push a bigger gear than I should because I think it makes me more stable in my corners (wrong). I was pushing a super-high cadence while I was alone today (averaging about 110) probably because my legs were fried and I couldn’t push a harder gear. Every time I tried to slow my cadence, I found myself spinning up again. When my cadence decreases a bit, I actually produce more power, but I just couldn’t sustain it today. My HR settled in right at threshold (high zone 4) for the entire time I was out there alone. Of course, for the first ten minutes when I was in the pack, it was about 25bpms lower.

Stats:
Max Power – 576 watts
Average Power -- 142 watts
Max Torque – 316 in-pounds
Average Torque – 49 in-pounds
Max Speed – 27.2mph
Average Speed – 19.1mph
Max Cadence – 203rpm (I think this is wrong)
Average Cadence – 97rpm
Max HR – 171bpm (zone 5b)
Average HR – 148bpm (high zone 3)
Distance – 11.35 miles
Energy – 303 kilojoules (direct translation to calories)
Time – 35:38
Average Power/HR -- .96
Average Power/Weight – 1.87

The week in Review -- June 7th to 13th, 2004

Been chatting with Giana via email and not blogging (what's new). Definitely having health issues which are leading to motivational issues. Feeling better at week's end, but still not happy. Finally got my PowerTap (fun) so I'm psyched to start training with it. Sometimes I wonder if I'll ever be any good again. Argh!

Weekly Ride Stats:

Number of Rides -- 6
Number of Races -- 1 (Wine Country Crit)
Total Training Time -- 10:45:11
Total Training Miles -- 138.94

Sunday, June 06, 2004

ICC Dash for Cash Race Report

ICCC Dash for Cash
June 5, 2004
Sunny, about 70ish with a slight breeze
Course was a simple 0.9 mile 4 corner crit, totally flat with two longer sides (start/finish on one) and two short sides. Fairly long sprint from corner 4

CAT 4: Shaun, Denise, Norma, Lorri, Cayce, Kim Perez, Holly
CAT 3: Lori and Susan

Other Teams: McGuire (4), Velo Bella (2), Left coast, Village Peddler (solo), Cal, and some other people, but no other teams of 2 or more

Format of race: Each lap the first person across the line got $10,
plus there were some primes for the 2nd person on some laps.




I came into this race after having a not-so-great week (physically and emotionally) and after getting popped at Memorial Day (where I expected to hang) my confidence was flagging. When I awoke, I actually considered not racing. Between my breathing issues and my now almost full-body joint pain, I’d barely been on the bike all week. But, Kim Perez’ voice rang true in my head (“just start”), so I finished loading the car and headed for beautiful Pleasanton.

As a coach, I was thrilled with our team for the day. Shaun was primed and mentally ready to win this race. We’d been preparing for this race for a while now, and the team was ready to support her. As I checked in with all the racers in the morning, everyone seemed to be feeling good and ready to work for the team. I knew if the team raced smart that Shaun would win.

As we did our warm-up, I felt good (most warm-ups I don’t feel ready) and the team energy was very exciting.

At the start, I jumped and found a good position into turn one, but I need to be more assertive to stay in good position. Pulled at the front on a couple of occasions, but also drifted back into a position I don’t like too many times. At one point, Jen Whatley (mentor from LGBRC) was near me and I said to her “I’m in exactly the position I hate” and she said “then move up.” So I did, but after riding in the back with women who have no skills I had lost my confidence in the corners.

So much of crit racing is mental for me. I’ve been nestled nicely in the pack, in the front, at the back, off the back, and my confidence is definitely affected by who else is there. And I’m a bit intimidated about being at the front because I don’t feel like my skills are as good as some racers and I don’t think it’s fair for me to be up front and screw up other racers’ lines. Whenever I’m up front or near the front, I hear one of my teammate’s voice in my head. She frequently criticizes other racers for their lack of cornering skills and I realize that she’s criticizing me as well. And, of course, the more I think about this, the worse my skills get. The mind is a powerful thing, isn’t it?

Anyways, after spending probably 2/3 of the race near the back of the pack (where you work so much harder to stick with the pack), I was feeling pretty wasted for the finish. With about 3 to go, I saw the little McGuire train moving up on the right and hollered out for all to hear. I moved up and positioned myself between their two lead riders and the other two and then slowed a bit at the corner in an attempt to break them up a bit. It worked and they moved back in the pack to regroup. With two to go, I could see almost the entire Velo Girls team at the front and the Velo Girls train moving into position. And then McGuire hopped on the back of the train and in my mind I was pissed to think they might screw us by sitting on our leadout.

The pace on the last two laps really picked up, and after turn two on the last lap, the pack was totally stringing out with the Velo Girls train still chugging along at the front opening up a bit of a gap. Yippee! My max for the day was 26.9mph and I assume it was at the point I popped off the pack – way to go girls!!!

You know a leadout is effective when the pace picks up enough to keep everyone else away. So, this was a textbook leadout – congratulations! As I rounded the final turn, it was clear that I had nothing left so I just sat up and waited for Cayce (who started that beautiful train) so we could ride across the line together.

Lessons learned:

1. The longer I sit at the back of the pack, the more intimidated I am about being at the front. Sounds kinda Yogi Bara, but what I mean is that I feel good about my skills until I sit at the back where other racers are breaking, taking crappy lines, and swerving across the road in their corners. Because I have to respond to this, when I then move to the front, I still find myself responding and losing ground in the corners.

2. I have a stupid habit of shifting into a harder gear before entering a turn. I think it’s because it feels more stable pedaling through the corner with more resistance, but this also slows me down. Need to shift into an easier gear so I can spin at a higher cadence and maintain my position through the corner.

3. As a teammate (racer) without a lot to contribute to the team at this point, I definitely feel bittersweet when the contributors on the team talk about a race being a total team effort. I can only imagine there are others on the team who feel the way I do, so this is something I (coach) need to be aware of when working with those women.


Race Stats: 0:43:34 (included about 4 minutes of cool-down) -- 15.5 miles -- 21.5mph average -- 26.9mph max -- avg hr = 188 -- max hr = 238 (Not knowing how long my max was picking up someone/thing else, I certainly don't think this average is correct either).