Nancy

Young friend, Stella and me messin' around before the races on August 10, 2009

National Senior Games

 

I’m home from the adventure called, “National Senior Games”.  The Hard Case bike box worked great to take my bike on the plane and required only 30 min. to put it together upon arrival at our host house in San Francisco.  My daughter and her GPS unit and the rental car worked wondrously well to get us to the registration site on the Stanford University Campus and to the race site on Canada Road in Redwood City, CA. 

The Saris Power Tap was indispensable for the warm up and the races.  I am not good at evaluating “Perceived Exertion” yet.  My warm up for the 5K was:

 

20 min easy, endurance paced warm up spin in the small ring

10 min at tempo pace in the big ring building to LT in the final minute

3-5 min easy spin

5 min at LT pace

5 min easy

1 min at Vo2 pace with a high cadence

3-5 min easy

 

After the race, I felt I had really pushed myself.  It was so dry and hot and I kept coughing.  I should have found some cough drops or candy to suck on.

No matter how big and important the race, there can always be an electronic failure.  They had my time down as 40+ min.!!! Three of us in a row, the gal ahead of me, me and the gal behind, all had skewed times.  Diane, the gal ahead of me and myself spent 30 or 40 min. in a 120F trailer with the head guy trying to come up with an accurate time.  He finally asked if we thought we had placed, and of course we said yes, and I said Diane was really fast and I was right behind her.  Well, he finally came up with a guesstimate: 9:18. They gave Diane 6^th and me 7^th. When I got home and uploaded the power tap information, my trainer read the following information:

2.964 Miles

198    Watts Av.

157    HR Av.

88      RPM

20.5   MPH A.

And the kicker!!!!!!!!!! TIME 8:38:00 That time would have put me in 4^th!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I placed 7^th in the 10K also, without any time clinches, so I am not complaining.  I did give an especially hard effort on the 5K, and surely may have been 4^th.

The Power Tap made all the difference in the world.  I could not have done as well with out it.  I don’t think I could have raced at all. What a fabulous tool the Power Tap is.  I am recommending it to all I visit with.  Numbers for the 10K off the PT:

6.32    Miles

186   Watts

151   HR

84     RPM

18.9  MPH

20.22 Time

OK, enough with the TT bike. I am off of the LeMond and on to my Trek Cyclcross bike later today.  YEA!!!!

A Couple of Firsts

 

As a “woman with responsibilities” just as all of you women out there are, finding time to train on my bike is a constant challenge.  Take today for example.  I am to do a practice 3 mile at wide open speed and I am so tired (maybe even weary) that I am going to enjoy my granddaughter’s SECOND birthday party instead of ride.  There is also a heat index of 96F outside also.  That may have something to do with my attitude.

However, I have been training hard, at least for me, and have a couple of firsts to report. Number one has to do with my Watt and Heart Rate output.

9 min.

Watt av. 193

HR  av.  149

Cadence   81

Mph av.    21

This was a personal best for me. It was a hilly course with a stiff breeze.

Come Monday, August 10, I will be on a flat course on Canada Road in Redwood City, CA at the National Senior Games and hopefully up my speed a bit.  I will keep an eye on my Saris cpu and keep the watts and heart rate up. Hopefully my heart, lungs and legs will all work together.  My goal is to be in the top five in a field of 23 for the 5K and 20 for the 10K

The number two first was changing an unexpected flat 9 miles from my car last Saturday. I had my body down in “aero” position on my TT bike.  I saw the rubble on the road, but could not escape it in time.  My little CO2 cartridge worked just fine to pump up the new front inner tube and I was soon back doing intervals.

I am ready for the two Time Trials in CA to be over.  I am eager to get on my Cyclcross bike and “tear up some grass”!  Well, as much as an “older woman with responsibilities” can tear up grass!!

Ya’ll hang in there! Get up on your bike and peddle, peddle, peddle!!