Finally catching up - well done everyone!!! That was brutal this week! @Coach_Theia And you still escaped the dreaded Code 6!!! @laurasibson way to go!!! @Gossimrr you were awesome!! You’re still recovering and you showed up and hung in there and did the goals you set for yourself!!! @vivian.a.workman you are too kind You were a rock star this week! Racing this after 3 brutal days of FRR and still pushing yourself - so awesome!!!
Great work @Covi@janesimmonds !!!
I was happy i could race our D Dev team so i hoped the start wouldn’t be quiet as chaotic - it was a bit of a push but it settled out by the time we hit the first QOM - I just figured steady and pace myself as much as I could to Theia’s pacing info - there was one racer that held my wheel and I thought would catch me on the QOM but I managed to beat her and got the first FAL! I waited to hit the anvil until i was in supertuck on the second half of the downhill and managed to get a gap on her - she had deployed pretty much at the beginning of the downhill - i just kept going, didn’t go for sprints other than i got the FALs and managed to open up a min gap going into the 2nd QOM - i knew this gave me a bit of respite and while she did catch back to about 15s, I was able to hold her off and slowly increased the gap to the finish - i think she did back off after i was again ~25s ahead - i’ve never won a ZRL race or taken all FALs, so that was exciting for me.
I was worried I would bump myself out of Dev but didn’t try to hold back because of that - the racer that took 2nd got the code 6 for zMAP so that actually bumped our team into 1st in the end
Who is racing London today? Scratch race so the goal is finish position. This will be another one of those “yard sales” where the field gets shattered. My strategy here would be the same as last week’s. With the first climb starting just about 1.4km from the pen (about 2 minutes in), you will need a solid warm up so start this with plenty of time. Then make the first QOM banner your “finish line”.
It might be possible to close gaps downhill after the QOM banner this week because the descend is longer so if you get dropped, don’t give up just yet. Keep an eye on your power so you don’t follow ridiculous efforts you know you can’t sustain, but expect to be near threshold for the climb.
If you are in a good position, you may want to save the last Anvil for the 500m finish, which is downhill.
Tips:
I set alarms for 1. when to start sipping on a bottle of electrolytes (1h before warm up), 2. First pre-workout and small snack, 3. second pre-workout and warm up time 45 min before race start.
Well…that was painful. I can’t imagine doing that THREE times! Two was more than enough - lol. It was interesting to me to note that while I was averaging same watts as last week’s race, this felt much harder and I was much further back in the pack. Women who I’d ridden with side by side for most of last week’s race were 38+ secs ahead of me in this week’s race. They broke away during the first KOM and then they were gone.
I did have a fun moment after the second KOM when I used my anvil in conjunction with a supertuck to catch a woman and then, as my avatar was coming out of the supertuck, I gunned it past her and was able to build a gap and she never caught me. At that point, I noted that a woman who’d been 45 secs ahead was only 17 secs ahead after the descent so I focused on closing that gap. I had narrowed it to 3 secs with 1/4 mile to go. I’d planned to sprint and edge her out, but my legs had nothing left.
I finished pretty far back in the pack but I was one of 4 D’s in a field of 37 women, so I’ll be content to feel good about my effort.
I was curious about this too. I used to enter the pen at the 30 mins mark to get a good spot, then leave and do my warm-up and return to the pen just a few mins before race start. But the last two weeks, I’ve done my warmup an hour ahead so it’s finished at the 30 min mark. Then I do some stretching and rolling out and make sure I have my bottles topped off, etc. But I am curious about others’ pre-race rituals/schedules.
The B race was brutal. 3 laps was The women were doing 4.5-6w/kg up that climb! I sure cannot hold that for 6-7 minutes. So half way the first climb I fell off the front group, along with several others. At that point I had the “race within the race”, keeping gaps, picking up others who fell off over the course of the race. I was in a gruppetto with 6-7 others for most of the race and there were 2 groups behind us. With about 3k to the finish, both my legs started cramping. I almost never cramp, ever! I got so mad and started telling my body “AW HELL NO we we NOT cramping right now! I didn’t race 41km to die now!” So I did everything I could to avoid having to stop: stood up, sat down, changed cadence… still managed to do a sprint at half my power and was able to pass 4-5 riders at the end. They were probably as destroyed as I was.
Regarding warm up: I need 45 minutes and I always end my WU about 6-7 min from the start. I don’t want my body to think I am cooling down and done riding. At least that’s what works for me. So I do the last 30 min of my warmup in the pen. I am afraid of going in and exiting to come back again. I have 1 warm-up bottle and 2 race bottles all ready on my bike and table, so no need to go anywhere.
I can’t imagine doing that hill3 times. Though I have to say it wasn’t as bad as I anticipated. Were had most of our team in the front group for most of the race. I hung on to them for most of the race. I started to fall off a couple of times but made it back on.
Thankfully had my anvil for the end and just outsprinted for 4th.
I had a coughing fit afterwards so I think I still have some stuff in my lungs from covid fell asleep quickly but was restless and woke up at midnight.
Paying the price as my Oura gave me a readiness of 36 this morning. Wish I could stay home from work today. I need a nap!
Love your spirit! “Aw hell no!” And well done in that race on a stupid course. There I said it. Stupid course.
As for the stretching – rolling out the quads and hip flexors with a foam roller and then I do the other stretches/movements that you have us do before our workouts (and which I always either forget to do or am running too late to do ) And I’ll throw in a handful of jump squats to keep my legs sparky. I typically only have two bottles, but I think 3 is smart.
Oh, lordy, today’s race on Glasgow Crit Circuit was rough. I don’t know if it was the course (so short, climb and sprint on every lap) or me but I felt a little nauseous and I couldn’t seem to get into a good rhythm.
I am starting to feel like I’d prefer to be racing with D women where I’d feel competitive rather than coming in at the very end of the pack among C’s. I’m trying to focus on my own effort in each race, but it gets a bit demoralizing to come in second to last.
At the same time, it’s not uncommon for me to flip to C after a really hard effort. Do people try to “protect” their category? Like– intentionally try to stay below certain power metrics to maintain a category? And if so, is that considered ethical? It’s hard for me to imagine not giving a race my all just so I can maintain my category.
That course is a tough one because the segments are stacked with very little rest in between. It definitely favors the punchy rider types. And if you are racing at the half to bottom half of your Cat, it was very easy to get dropped right away.
Nausea comes from the body accumulating more waste products from the hard efforts than it can clear, so it wants to purge in every way possible! It could also be exacerbated if you came into the race low on glycogen or didn’t consume enough carbs during.
When did you cat up @laurasibson ? If you flip to a C after a really hard effort, then you belong in C, even if you are at the bottom of that cat. I know it sucks!! I’ve been there many times. Intentionally trying to stay below is what a lot of people do, but that is sandbagging and not good sportsmanship. In the race I catted up this season, I know of at least 2 riders who intentionally stay right below the w/kg - I know this because they were B riders for a long time, and now they never cat up because they consistently produce numbers about 0.1 w/kg below limit. That is way too precise so I suspect they use Strava Sauce to control that. But in all honesty, what kind of feeling of achievement does that produce?
Have you been consistently coming in second to last? Could you look for a C Developmental team?
I am definitely getting beat up in Bs, but that’s expected. In yesterday’s race I knew I was going to get dropped sooner or later, so I decided to go for the first sprint. I did get FAL and FTS on that one, but that cost me a HR of 190 bpms out of the gate. When the HR gets that high there is nothing that can overcome that other than slowing down. So I sealed my fate right there and then for the race! Then I decided to go for the sprints at every lap, even though FTS does not earn points “per rider per lap on every lap”. I used is as a training session and I went ALL OUT for 8 of the 10 sprints. Mind you, my groupetto had only 4 riders so not much draft, but I still got a lot of 1st and 2nd FTS per lap and that was a personal win even if it didn’t add more points. This was my “race within the race” and I got 38 points for the team.
What was cool about it was that me and the sprinter for a rival team both went kamikaze on that first sprint and both got dropped, so we were both in the groupetto contesting the other sprints hahaha!! I had a teammate with me and our rival could not take the heat of so many sprints, she ended up blowing up and getting dropped. When we first noticed she was having a hard time, we picked up the pace right after one of the sprints
I had not done a Crit style race before and wasn’t sure how it would go but thought the route might be ok for my rider type. I am a mid-D rider, so decided I would focus on the Kicker for a few laps and try to stay with the group through the sprint. Worked fairly well and I consciously contested the kicker on laps 4-7. As hard as it felt I was very surprised at how short the race was as I’m hanging over the bike handlebars gasping for breath at the finish! hehe.
Hang in there @laurasibson you will keep getting stronger and stronger with each race and each workout.
WOW! Coach, this is so inspiring! In retrospect, maybe I should’ve focused on climbs and not worried about the sprints. I’m still not a 100% clear on the points system. I thought that even if I was so far back, if I put forth a really strong effort, I might still get points for the team because my time through segment could be faster than someone else’s time through the segment – even if they were ahead of me. So I tried to work hard in each spring and climb, but then my watts would fall off in the couple minutes between. I didn’t end up getting any points, so maybe I was wrong about how it works. But lots of other women didn’t accrue points either, I noticed.
I’m not sure what a developmental team is - lol. But I had a feeling that it’s not great sportsmanship to “protect” your category. Anyway, I don’t plan to race next ZRL session because of my teaching schedule, so this might be a moot point for a while.
@laurasibson I am at the cusp of D and may someday go into C. I don’t watch my watts during a race. I jsut pray I don’t cat up! I’ve been a middle C which was still fun. I’ve been a back of the pack C where every race seemed like a person iTT. It wasn’t fun. Didn’t have anyone to ride with. If I at least had a group, I’d be happy then you can work on strategy and drafting and all.
I did race last night. Finally on the other side of this horrible sinus infection going around school. Two weeks out with no exercise and horrible phlegm and fatigue. My HR was upto 168 in no time. I did manage to stay with the front pack but it was a struggle. I too think we have sandbaggers in cat D for sure.
If I do cat up, I’m not sure I”d race unless it was a development team as there is no way I can hold the watts of the cat C pack. It’s my VO2 super max and I’d probably vomit.
The Crit race was quite brutal.. even though it was “short” it felt really really hard and I was very close to throwing up at the end… I haven’t had that feeling in a very long time.
My goal was to stay with the front for as long as possible and collect as many FAL points the first half of the race. I got dropped the 3rd time up the kicker… I couldn’t reconnect afterwards and the grupetto was quite far back so I recovered until they caught up to me. Once with the group, it was again hammer time every sprint and every kicker. I didn’t have any carbs during the race and that’s probably why I felt so green at the end and wanted to throw up…
Anyway I was happy with my performance. I finished 42nd but got lots of points for my team just by hanging with the front for almost half of the race.
I think the problem with the ZRL categories is that the ranges are very wide. It’s really good that they added the development cats which kind of splits each category in half but a lot of teams only have enough women for 1 team so people that qualify for development have to race in the regular league. And even some Ds have to race in C to complete a team
There are FAL (Fastest across de line) and FTS (Fastest through segment) points awarded. Everyone gets FAL points and those are based on the position you were at when crossing the end of the segment so if there were 50 people in your race, the first one across gets 50 point and the last one gets 1 point.
What you are describing is FTS but those are only awarded to the 5 fastest times through the segment. The fastest time gets 10 points then 8, 6, 4 an 2. So unless you are at the top of your cat as sprinter/puncheur/climber I would tell you it’s very hard to get FTS points and in my opinion, for the majority of people, it is not not worth going for those.
And you still escaped the dreaded Code 6!!!
You were a rock star this week! Racing this after 3 brutal days of FRR and still pushing yourself - so awesome!!!
I can’t imagine doing that THREE times! Two was more than enough - lol. It was interesting to me to note that while I was averaging same watts as last week’s race, this felt much harder and I was much further back in the pack. Women who I’d ridden with side by side for most of last week’s race were 38+ secs ahead of me in this week’s race. They broke away during the first KOM and then they were gone.
The women were doing 4.5-6w/kg up that climb! I sure cannot hold that for 6-7 minutes. So half way the first climb I fell off the front group, along with several others. At that point I had the “race within the race”, keeping gaps, picking up others who fell off over the course of the race. I was in a gruppetto with 6-7 others for most of the race and there were 2 groups behind us. With about 3k to the finish, both my legs started cramping. I almost never cramp, ever! I got so mad and started telling my body “AW HELL NO we we NOT cramping right now! I didn’t race 41km to die now!” So I did everything I could to avoid having to stop: stood up, sat down, changed cadence… still managed to do a sprint at half my power and was able to pass 4-5 riders at the end. They were probably as destroyed as I was.
) And I’ll throw in a handful of jump squats to keep my legs sparky. I typically only have two bottles, but I think 3 is smart.
