UCSC Slugfest RR...Race Report?!

So...on Saturday I participated in the UCSC Slugfest Road Race. It wasn't planned and it was completely out of nowhere. My teammate Eric, who had already prepared to race in the Men's D category (as his first race ever!) convinced me to race it when he told me that our Men's A representative, James, decided to do it as well. So I felt like I needed to do it to, and it was hard to back out once I convinced myself because I also knew that a lot of the Cat 4s on Leopard-Sapporo were racing Snelling. For the record, I had already planned a 3-hour ride with some intervals for that Saturday. But after researching the UCSC RR course (when I heard that mostly all of the Men's D riders would race), I saw that it was the same as Velo Promo's University RR, which consisted of a long moderate climb and a descent. Thus, doing it would equate to doing hardcore hill intervals.

I didn't taper or anything for the race--except on Friday when I skipped my recovery ride after my commute--and I had a pretty hard week since I've only just begun interval training. I knew I wouldn't have the legs for a road race with over 4000ft of climbing, and when I woke up on Saturday morning, I really didn't--so it seemed my excitement for SFSU's cycling first full-house race weekend overshadowed whatever common sense I had left in me. (I acted as if I didn't have an uneventful 2012...)

Anyways I arrived at the race and registered for the men's B. I thought it would be a good challenge to race B's because I've actually raced with a few guys I've known before college. I think that was a mistake on my part though and you'll read why in a moment...

We started half an hour late and I felt fine in the first few laps...just like everyone else. The climb was steady and not too bad, and the descent was straightforward. Christian, my teammate from the D's told me he just grabbed a wheel and recovered so I did the same and it worked well, thus I felt fresh for the climb every lap. I don't know how many laps were uneventful as described (because I wasn't paying attention to the lap cards) but maybe about 4 or 5 laps in the first surge commenced and I did my best to respond but my dead legs were quitting on me pretty quickly. I was at the final part of the climb before the descent and I started to cramp up on the right side of my abdomen, and got dropped slowly as I saw the main pack drifting away from me. So much for recovering on the descent! I had to work a bit while descending but the pack was still in my sight so I didn't give up, I chased for about another whole lap and when we made the right turn into the climb toward the start/finish line, I was able to steadily close the gap between the pack and I.

Thank goodness!....or not, because as soon as I got a wheel in the back, the pack surged right at the start/finish line and as I responded in a short amount of time I began to cramp up again and lost them on the final portion of the climb before the descent again. With 8 laps to go, I was completely
dropped with no hope in catching up to the main field. I did pass a few riders who popped off, so that made me feel a little better =p

So for the rest of the race, I rode tempo and climbed the hill the best I could. I knew I had no legs on the climb because my heart rate was low, but my legs weren't shouting, they were just weak and ultimately tired. In a way I guess my whole body was being lazy because when I was riding solo I knew I could've ridden a little more harder but my body just did not want to.

Since it's still February, I let it go--besides I wasn't supposed to be racing this weekend either =p. At one point I felt like dropping out but I've never dropped out of a race and the course made a great workout. I did get lapped by the podium so I had to finish the race on the 14th lap, which means I'll either continue to explore the challenges of the Men's B or do my best to look good in the Men's C. I've been thinking about going down into the Men's C since I could be closer to doing team tactics with teammates, but I'll have to see.

But thanks to all my teammates and the SFSU Triathlon members who came out to watch, support, and cheer for me! It was a great experience being around everyone!

I'm looking forward to Stanford's race in March!

--DB

2013 Race Schedule

And here is my race schedule for 2013! See you at the races :)

It's subject to change--for instance there's a possibly I'd do two races during a weekend, but I only list the one that I prefer to do. And there'll probably be a few races (that aren't listed) where I somehow get convinced to go to..

March

March 9 - WCCC Stanford, RR, 8th
March 10 - WCCC Stanford, Crit18th
March 16 - WCCC Berkeley, RR8th
March 17 - WCCC Berkeley, Crit & CAT3/4 Crit 8th (Collegiate), 18th (3/4s)


April

April 14 - Santa Cruz Classic Criterium Did not do (crash)
April 20 - WCCC Davis RR Did not do (crash)
April 21 - WCCC Davis Criterium Did not do (crash)
April 27 - Wente Vineyards RR 65th

May
May 4 - Mike's Bikes Cat's Hill Classic 6th
May 12 - Berkeley Hills Road Race Did not do (ill)
May 26 - Mt. Hamilton Road Race Did not do (ill)

June

June 2 - Pescadero Coastal Classic Did not do (change of plans)
June 1 - ICCC Dash For Cash Criterium 29th
June 15 - Tri-Valley Criterium Classic 3/4 37th
June 23 - Burlingame Criterium 5th


July

July  6 - Red-Kite Criterium #4
Did not do (change of plans)
July 14 - Foothill Circuit Race
July 21 - Berkeley Bicycle Club Criterium
July 28 - Menlo Park Grand Prix


August

August 17 - Red-Kite Crterium #5
Change of plans
August 18 - University Road Race

August 31 - Red Kite #6


September
September 2 - Giro Di San Francisco
September 14 - Mt. Tam Hill Climb
September 15 - Milpitas Grand Prix
September 22 - Oakland Grand Prix


Visit Northern California's Cycling Association: http://ncnca.org/allevents for a complete list of races across the NorCal district

2013!

     Like I said in my previous post regarding what was left of 2012, I had to postpone three weeks of training which was actually a significant loss especially because it's so early in the season. My Base 1 began on November 19 so I had a good month of base miles and a whole lot of cadence/pedalling economy work. When I got back, it felt like as if I had never trained as I suffered from really inefficient pedalling especially on steady climbs. That was alright though, because when I got back on the second week of January, I scheduled the following three weeks in the Base 2 period and did enough Tempo rides and Cadence Drills to get me to where I left off before I left After 3 make-up weeks of Base 2, I finally moved into Base 3 where I introduced more Hill Work and began doing short and steady sub-LT repeats. Before I had moved to Base 3 (towards the end of Base 2) I had noticed I was able to climb with less fatigue than usual. So as I started my hill/force workouts, I noticed I was able to hold speeds (I don't have a power meter yet) 10 or more BPM than usual! That being said, I need to re-do my LTHR test to re-establish my training zones. Furthermore, when I did my coastal/Pescader/Tunitas Creek ride, I climbed King's Mountain, OLH, and Tunitas Creek, faster but at 10-20 BPM lower than the last time I had done the ride! Hopefully I can continue to improve my climbing and force since 1) it's quite early in the season and  2) I haven't even began threshold or supertempo workouts on hills yet.

Anyways, that's where I stand this very day.

I should now mention the big change for this season--me joining a new team. If you've seen seen the side of my blog and the new color theme, then you probably can already tell that I'm a part of the new Leopard-Sapporo team! I'm excited to be racing on a team with such focused and motivated individuals. As a result, that has led to becoming more determined to achieving my goals and becoming a stronger rider overall. Stay tuned for more news with Leopard-Sapporo because I won't be racing with them until March!

Also, I'll be clear that I am still quite a straight edge, meaning I don't drink alcohol or do drugs or any of that stuff. So that includes beer. But I have no problem racing for a beer brand. My more mature and responsible teammates say that it's good stuff :)

--DB

2012 - A Confusing Year

Before I begin with 2013, let me quickly try to summarize 2012...

The Bad-

• Low miles and low hours
• My Junior teammates from PV went to college/universities
• Lost motivation to race because of the lack of "team focus" and because of school...and I guess weather.
• Lots of Sick days
• Bad Diet
• New Cars...
• 3 Weeks Off in the Summer & 3 in the Winter for Philippines

The Good-

• I got a new bike; Cannondale CAAD10
• SFSU Cycling Team Commenced 

Despite all the bads, life goes on. When it was time to start planning for the 2013 Season, I assessed myself with those assessments in Joe Friel's "The Cyclist's Training Bible" and noticed I scored terribly lower than both 2010 and 2011. So I decided it was definitely time to get more serious and focused because I also started noticing that I couldn't drop my teammates from SFSU on the climbs anymore (which isn't a bad thing--for them at least =p); in fact they're now able to drop me! Due to this, I knew I had lost a lot of the skills I had trained for in 2011, so it was time to get them back and ultimately improve them.

After all the planning, the 2013 training season started around the beginning of November with base miles and low-key speed work. I was skipping workouts especially in inclement weather. Every time I would skip a workout or hours I would write in red sharpie: IMPROVE on my Weekly Training Plans. I guess it worked because I haven't skipped workouts ever since...unless there was an emergency or I just didn't see something like a family commitment coming.

Speaking of family commitment, my grandfather was getting old and we decided to visit him in the Philippines during July. I'm glad we were able to, because in December he passed away and we went back there on Christmas Day and attended his funeral there as well. I completely disregarded all my training and it was a totally legitimate reason to postpone everything. 

I think that's the important things to say. I only did about less than 5 races in 2012. I really lost motivation because there was really nothing motivating me until my teammates started kicking me in the butt. That's why, for 2013, I came in with a lot of motivation, but there are other factors which fueled my motivation even more...

--DB

Let's Get This Rolling! (Again)

Ahhh, here I go again, neglecting this poor blog and resurrecting it out of nowhere again. Here's to another attempt at constantly updating this blog for this upcoming (and already initiated) 2013 Racing Season.

In the next few days where I am either not riding, studying, or washing my family's cars, I will post/add the following:

• Announce plans for this season
• Introduce Collegiate Cycling plans
• Change list of active sponsors
• Post my own 2013 Racing Season Calendar
• Post what happened during the 2012 Season
• Post whatever else comes to my head.

One thing I can say is that I have a lot more motivation than I did in 2012 so I pushed my goals a bit. Hopefully I can constantly update this because I enjoy looking back at my old posts from 2 years ago =).

--DB