Well I've been a CAT4 for a year now and it doesn't seem I'll be a CAT3 anytime this season. There's a good reason why but it's also due to the mishaps in the beginning months of the year. I brought that up because last year was the first time I did a Criterium as a CAT4 and it was at the very same race - the Burlingame Criterium. So for this year, I decided that I would target it as an A-race. I sacrificed a lot of hill climbing time to work on my sprint, speed, and anaerobic endurance.
However, last week I was planning to do one more criterium to sharpen me up one final time, but I woke up with a sore throat and didn't take any chances to make it worse. Unfortunately, it got worse because my mom was already sick and I must've caught it from her. I ended up with a chest cold and was out the whole week prior to Burlingame. I knew that losing time off the bike from sickness had more of an impact on fitness compared to losing time off the bike due to another reason.
I was right- I felt ready to ride on Saturday again but definitely did not feel 100%. My legs felt terrible and my heart rate was high and recovery was slow. I wasn't even sure if I would be able to race the following day, because I still had some congestion in my chest.
So I gave it a night's rest and on the morning of Burlingame I felt pretty good, way better than Saturday. I got to the race at 6AM and got ready. It took me a while to get ready, I got on my bike at 6:42 and my race started at 7:00. So I just warmed up on the course, and I was feeling pretty good and even threw in a hard effort to see how my breathing was and it wasn't bad.
The race started off steadily, it took us nearly 2 minutes for the first lap. The race really started when the first prime was announced, and this is when I began to notice it was harder to breathe then usual. But a lap after the prime I was able to catch my breath, and I noticed that became a pattern and the change in pace and effort was pretty obvious - at least to my legs.
But at around 16 minutes I was ready to drop out because of my breathing dilemma, which at that time was a prime lap. So I decided to give it one more lap - the 'recovery' lap after the prime, and I ended up staying the whole race. As far as positioning goes, I tried to stay at the top third and held positions or gained them by going on the outside of the corners (which I recently learned from a previous Crit).
I was looking forward to the final surge, even though I had worse-than-labored breathing. In the end I finished in the pack of about 46 guys in 30th place. I was happy at that, I mean, I would've been happy with last place as long as I finished with in the pack.
Hopefully next year I can avoid a mishap like this and perform at my fullest. I'm looking forward to becoming more serious next season.
--D
