#104: MV racing clinic
Most of my weekend was taken up by a clinic on training. My racing club, Memphis Velo invited Todd Nodemeyer (a cycling coach) to give a presentation on training with power (and somewhat with heart rate) and then we did some on the road rides as a group. Saturday was a wet day and we pretty much just rode around getting flats with the exception of a very spirited rip down N. Watkins at 35+ mph….
On Sunday, we started out from RB’s cyclery and road out northeast of Arlington to the Long Road loop. It is a 5 mile loop were we did 3 mock races. The rules of the race required two team members (we split into two sides) had to bridge up the other team and tag them out… and in the end had to finish with two from your team. We divided up into team by just alternating off, but it ended up that my team was pretty much the Cat3 team along with Todd. The other team was all the rest (Cat 4).
[bike stand]
The first race played out with Matt and Scott starting out ahead… Jarret and I bridged up to them…and then the group came together more or less. Late in the race, there was a long hill that ended up causing it to come down to Matt, Scott, Todd, and I. Todd and I took that one.
The second race saw some more attacks… but they all came back. There was a small group of us on the hill near the end including John (moved to the other team), Matt, Scott, Jarret, and I. Matt & John attacked away and I had to let them go (although I don’t know that I would have been able to counter if solo) since I needed Jarret with me… They took that race…
[John, Todd, Frogge, Tim, and Scott]
The last race dissolved the teams and it was everyone for themselves. There were attacks, etc…but the hill proved to be the decider again. Jarret had started to roll off the front and got a 100 ft lead or so. I pushed hard up the hill to chase him down and Matt came with me. We caught Jarret about 1/2 mile from the end. Matt lead into the sprint and I could do nothing but watch him walk away with it…
[John]
The results of this don’t really matter, but it was a good fun exercise and I gives us a chance to see how our team is doing this time of year…
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Next race for me is the Ride to Live race near Birmingham, AL.
