Lost Valley Luau - Marathon

Since I am in training for Leadville I have decided that I will only be racing longer races through Leadville. The Luau was a great way to get things kicked off for racing this year in the Marathon class.

As of right now everything I have done on my bike has been easy riding plus 2 Tuesday crits. And riding only started at the beginning on March. Needless to say I do not have a ton of miles yet so a big ride was needed on Saturday on top of the race. Went out for 4 hours Saturday.

Sunday morning during warm up my legs felt a little sluggish but not bad. Had zero expectations for the race and my only goal was to have fun and get more hours. When the race finally started I took it easy the first couple minutes to see what the pace would be setting at. To my surprise it seemed slow. I rode up to the front of the pack and tried to settle in. Going up the climb the first lap a small group of about 8 to 10 riders got a gap on everyone.

By the time we got to the single track they were pretty much gone. I was now purely focusing on my HR and trying to keep it around 175. This was going to be my first 3 + effort and with the 4 hour ride the day before I knew I was going to have to take it easy early in the race.

By the end of lap 1 I was pretty much going the speed I was going to go. Not super fast. I stopped for another bottle and some more food. Starting up the climb the second lap Zach caught me and told me the brake on his front wheel was rubbing bad. I told him "I know that, I heard you coming up the hill....."

Zach didn't have any tools on him so I dropped a multi tool in his pocket going up the climb as we rode next to each other. "Get that shit fixed and catch back up", I motored on to start the second lap.

I felt pretty good starting the second lap, alone. Flossing the single track while riding by myself was a blast. And the trails were perfect too. Being alone now I could just ride and not think about someone in front of me or behind me. Eventually Zach caught me and we rode together for a long time.

We traded pulls all the way from mid 2nd lap through about mid 4th lap. I started falling off pace and Zach was eventually gone. I did my best to stay with him but I just couldn't do it. Not sure if it was the 4 hour ride the day before or if I didn't eat enough or both.

I finished the 4th lap at about 3:02 into the race in 8th place out of 41 starters. I haven't seen the official time but it was right there. I think I was the first rider done that didn't get 5 laps. Not really upset about the 5th lap either. My legs were pretty tired from 7.5 hours of riding in 2 days.

One more week of easy riding to finish up my March training block. Not sure what the plan for April is yet but I am excited to hear whats in store. I do know that Hillsboro-Roubaix and TOH are a part of the plan. Looking forward to these races.

The season is off to a good start!

Power testing

My training for this year has just started. I have been working out pretty much all winter but most of it has been off the bike. The plan Zach put together for me is as follows for the month of March

8 hours week 1

10 hours week 2

12 hours week 3

14 hours week 4

All these hours will mostly be base/easy miles. The Tuesday crits will be my only intensity for the month of March. I decided that since I have a power tap now that I should go ahead and get some numbers to see progress.

Max watts: 1404
5 sec: 1268
10 min: 304
Weight 170

I plan to get a 5 min and a 20 min this coming week also. The 20 min number is the one I need to focus on as I know this is my weakest link. After those tests im sticking to the plan.

Not sure what to think of these numbers because I have less than 20 hours of riding since Masters Worlds nearly two months ago. If all goes well and I get the 40 + hours this month I would expect to see these numbers increase. Just not sure how much.