Racing Good and Bad

Another week of racing with varied results.  Participated in a Crit on Tuesday and a RR on Saturday.  My results have not been where I expected them to be this year, especially with how well I rode at training camp.  Am I over trained, under trained, etc, etc.  The thoughts just stay in my mind.  So anyway I rode the PowerTap for both races.  The results:

Tuesday LSC Crit (3rd of around 40 Cat 4's):  Took off Sunday and Monday right before the race to see if it was fatigue and I felt great.  This is a points race so you score points on laps 3, 6, and double points on the 9th (final). A teammate and I decided he would go for the first sprint, I would go for the second, and then see what happens for the final.  I stomped on it for the lap 6 points and was able to get a big gap and clearly take it.  Unfortunately I put a little too much out that I did not have that last little bit for the final sprint.  As a team we did try and do a lead out the only problem was the order was a little off, but oh well.  All in all I felt good, which has not been the case.  After the race Cobra and I did 3-4 30sec hill repeats.  With warm-up and everything I ended up with 90 min of work.

Training (Wed and Fri):  Put a solid 90 min in Wednesday of SS at 80% of threshold with 10 sec jumps every 4 min.  Off Thursday.  Friday race warm-up.

Saturday RR (10th of 43 - Cat 4):  This race was put on by my team so I ended up doing race registration, which sucks, but luckily Kermando came and took my spot so I could warm up.  I did not get to do my normal pre-race eating routine, but I do not think that was the issue.  Warm up went okay and Bob gave me the race strategy download, which was good.  The race started with GP (local team) doing all the work at the front, but I ended up doing a little more work than I should have.  Short version is I did not stay with the lead group on a hill during the 2nd lap, but ended up chasing back on to the group which left me with not a lot in the tank for the sprint.  Big thanks to my teammates Bob and Freddie for helping me during the race.

Sunday: Rode with Matt for about 50mi with some decent tempo work and some hill accelerations.

I was surprised to see how low my power was when I thought I was on the limit.  Since I am starting a new job this week, I decided to take some time off the bike during the week.  I want to make sure I am not over doing it!!!!  Or should I be pushing harder?

Sorry for the ramblings!!

Jeff