Diagnosing the Problem

In my last post I recanted how much I was disappointed at not doing well at RFK. A personal favorite course for me, and not just because of all the great memories I had of the 3 day all access VIP passes I enjoyed at the ALMS/Speed World Challenge event, The Cadillac Gran Prix of DC back in 2002...






...that the place was built for. It's not often in life a gearhead like myself gets close enough to touch a Le Mans winning race car...



...or hang out near the podium or in the garages...





...or stand 5 feet behind William Shatner with his VPL showing thru his Sparco race suit...






...during the Celebrity Race (His female driving partner wrecked the car on lap 1, effectively canceling celebrity race. He was pissed).

But I digress...

In the two races at RFK I noticed sharp drop offs in performance. Like one moment everything is A-OK and then boom! Nothing. I am chalking this up to a lack of short intervals training. Being fat at RFK is a non-issue. The real issue was not being able to repeatedly go with the accelerations and recover from them.

Monday I took off the bike completely, even though the PPTC Memorial Day Metric from Southern High School was on. I wanted to rest. Tuesday I was one of 3 to show for the D'ville ride. The weather was perfect for a mudder like me. So I had a good z123 ride. I felt great when I was done.

I spent all day Wednesday debating about doing Greenbelt or doing easy laps around BWI airport and taking pictures of airplanes.



I waited and waited for the announcement of the impending cancellation of Greenbelt, but at 3:45, it was ON and I said what the hell. That started another internal debate about doing the B race and suffer or do the C race (which im not really supposed to do) and maybe suffer a little. I made up my mind in the parking lot and signed for the B like the big boy eternal Cat 4 I am.

I lined up with my teammates, pretty nervous about how quick I was gonna be shot out the back. The race started and off we go down the hill. I had a good start and quickly let gravity carry my fat arse from the back to the front of the pack before the corner.

An there I sat for the next 5 laps. Never far from the top 10. At that point I was feeling pretty confident that I had nothing to worry about. Then on lap 6, it all fell apart. As we hit the little steep pitch by the parking lot entrance, it all went away. I went out the back faster than creamed corn thru a goose. It was like someone turned off a light switch in my legs. I decided to not panic and jump back in the next time they came around. Well they came, but it was neutral since the A race caught the B race and I was on the wrong side of the road to jump in. I had to jump on after both races went by and chase like a mofo down the hill to catch the back. Well that's not a good way to start a new set of laps. And 2 laps later, OTB again, only this time I decided to just keep going since there were only 7 left to go. I got caught one more time by the A's at the top of the hill and let them pull me all the way around to the bottom of the hill. I got up the hill and rode till the B's showed up again and got in another lap or two. With two to go I was on the back of the B race and when they surged up the hill, my legs said "no way buddy" and started cramping. I rode the last 2 alone.

I finished 2 laps down, but I was much happier at the end of the race than I was on Sunday at RFK. I don't know why. I guess I didn't expect much at Greenbelt and wasn't as let down by my lack of performance. I went home happy with a renewed sense of purpose and a new set of objectives to remedy the problem.

Every week, just keep going until I cant go. Maybe by early July, I'll have it in the bag.

Cheers,

FGR

The Lost Month

Howdy Ho!

I have not posted a new entry in a while. It's been a very busy and depressing month. The death of a beloved family member will do that. Nothing seems to be very important. However life goes on and things are starting to return to normal. My wife is hating life at her new job, but like a trooper she's hanging in there. Money helps and she's making a pretty decent wage for someone who's never had a real job before. She'll get used to it eventually. As our debts disappear she'll be even more motivated to keep at it.

Allot has happened training wise this month. I have fallen behind schedule on weight loss and the Hunter/Coogan training plan. I'm still hovering around 205 pounds and haven't gone up or down in about 3 weeks. This is because I have stopped tracking my food consumption in the Training Peaks journal. I need to get back to that right away because I am eating too much. Fortunately I'm riding enough to even it out.

Fitness wise, It's been a so so month. Since the last posting about Greenbelt I have done 2 BAR events and did not do well at either event. I have also been sliding backward on the Davidsonville Ride. My tempo pace is increasing, but since I have shirked the training plan, I have not been getting in any quality VO2 max intervals or any sprints. This was painfully obvious at Bike Jam and RFK. It's also comes to play on the D'ville rides too. I cannot respond to the repeated acceleration. I'm OK initially or if I stay to the front. But once the race wicks up, I'm spit out the back.

In light of this I have decided to go ahead and volunteer at every BAR race left on the calender as a moto ref and only race at Greenbelt, and hit the D'ville rides for the rest of the season. I can be of more use to ABRT in this capacity since I earn BAR points for officiating. Weight loss needs to be my focus for the rest of the year. Hopefully I can come good for Cross. I really wanna try that! Right now I need to put the miles in and get the weight off once and for all with out the added stress of high intensity training. I should have done this over the winter. But I didn't and so there it is. This winter I will be more motivated to stay on the bike to maintain the fitness.

No point in recapping 2 DNFs at Bike Jam or RFK. Needless to say I raced them both not very smart. Bike Jam more so than RFK.

On a more positive note, I did do well at Greenbelt last night. I remembered my mistake from 2 weeks ago and did my damnedest to stay on the front. My only spot of bother was the prime with 3 to go, but I was able to close that gap on the downhill and get back on the front for the final 2 laps. At the end of the last lap, I sat up. As a Cat 4, I should even be in the C race, so I wont contest anything. I figure another couple of weeks in the C's and my power to weight ratio should be good enough for a right proper suffering in the B race. All in all, I was very satisfied with my ride even thought I am technically sandbagging it. Practically speaking, it still kicked my ass.

Next week I will be back on track with Week In Review.

Cheers

FGR

Fatguy, You Big Dummy!!!

Note to self:

Stay up front.

On a whim and since I had my Jeep and my stuff, I decided to blow outta work at 10 till 5 to beat traffic to G-belt instead of just training local roads and going home. I wanted to get there early enough to see if i could weasel my fat cat 4 ass in to the C race. I was prepared to deal with suffering thru the B until they dropped me. Thanks to the Rt-1 guy who said OK for me to ride the C. I hadn't done a race there since 1999. Back then I suffered badly enough on that stupid hill in the B race (they had stopped doing the C for a couple years and I was Cat 4 anyway) that I lost all desire to wanna race there anymore. This season my training has been pretty good and I have resolved to cast out old demons by entering races that I know I will suck at.

How'd it go?

Well...Not bad. I spent the first 7 laps on the front, staying outta trouble and outta the wind. I was pretty comfortable just staying in the front 10 riders. And I was thinking that maybe, I shoulda signed up for the B race after all. I had 2 teammates in the race, Alex and Mike. Alex is riding really really well this year and he was on the front or near the front the whole race. I pretty much sat on his wheel. It's a weasel thing to do, but I know my limitations. One the 8th lap i started drifting back a few spots to take on some water and found myself getting outta the saddle way too much to maintain the gaps. That's when the wheels fell off. I had blown psychologically as my old demons on the hill came to haunt me and I gave up let myself get gapped off. To tell the truth, my legs were feeling like bags of wet cement. It's not easy hauling 207 lbs up that hill 11 times. On the downhill, I snapped out of it and gave chase to get back on. I knew the pack would coast down the hill, so I actually closed some of the gap to within about 100 feet by the time the bottom of the hill started. I did my best to get up there, but the psychology of that fracking hill just works my head over into a pile of goo. Well there was no coming back for me, but I has passed a whole bunch of guys who came off and guys who were already lapped and I decided to do my best to keep the group in sight. For the next 3 laps I did my best to keep up the tempo and I really did keep the pack in sight right up to the end. My last trip up the hill, I was completely blown, physically and mentally. I kinda just slowly drifted across the line, glad that my odreal was over. But I was very happy that I didnt give up. I managed 16th outta 25+ starters.

When it was all done, I kinda felt pretty good about myself. I never do that well here. But tonight I got a nice moral boost. I can do this race after all. Tonight, the only thing that kept me from staying with the group the whole race was my own stupidity. If they'll let me, I want to ride the C race maybe 2 more times and then move myself to the B race. And let the suffering begin anew.

Shout out to Alex, He managed to win the race. I think it was his first race to boot. He's been training really hard too and looking good at all the D'ville rides lately. It was no surprise to any one on the team that he did well. He'll be in that B race soon enough too.

Just a thought.

Perhaps the rules at Greenbelt can be bent a little to let 200+ (Clydesdale) Cat 4 guys into the C race without question. I think I speak for allot of us when I say, that staying in a race for more than 3 laps is a wonderful morale boost. It makes me really wanna drop the pounds off and get where I should be.

Cheers,

FGR