Delish
Well-Known Member
Medi-Okra
I wrote a race report for Nittany. You can read it over on Can I get a Freakin Race Report. As @seanrunette implies, maybe I set the bar too low for myself in terms of mediocrity. A few things to note though.
1: Nittany fields seemed weaker this year.
2: I do well at grass crits—no real long power sections at Nittany
3: Pokemon Go watts in full effect. Free watts are up for grabs all over a course like this…little tiny fractions of a second in every turn.
4: @Norm points out that I am fresh. I’m also in the right head space. Pushing hard feels good. Fact: I hit my highest heart rate in years on the last lap yesterday. 191. I can only do that when I break through some psychological limits.
On Masters Racing
I am stoked to see @The Heckler stepping up and racing Elites this year. From the looks of things he is going to crush it but as he has written, it’s a different game.
This year I decided to race M35+ instead of the Elite field for a couple reason including but not limited to start time & lack of any real structured training, but mostly because racing for over an hour is the suck if you haven’t been training much. There’s always a gut-punch-moment after 20 minutes or racing and your hear Joe Sailing announce 8 laps to go. It’s demoralizing. 45 minute races practically are over before you know what hit you.
There are some similarities between M35+ and the Elite field. Strictly on the basis of lap times, the pointy end of the M35+ would be easy lead-lap UCI finishers, with a few of the guys possibly being in contention for UCI points every now and then. But that’s about where it ends.
As @The Heckler says, the first lap of the Elite race is straight up bananas. Every corner is contested and every corner is 2, 3, or 4 dudes wide. If you are in the UCI scrub zone, you burn so many matches in the first lap or two just dog fighting for position. And the crashes. Always the crashes. While most of the guys are generally solid bike handlers, there is just way too much humanity, testosterone and carbon fiber not to have mass carnage. UCI races are relentless, cruel and unforgiving. One mistake towards the start of the race and you may lose 5-10 spots. And they never let up. If you make it through the first lap alive you have 9 or 10 more to look forward to and they are just ast fast as the first. All go, all the time.
M35+ starts, on the other hand, are much more Scandinavian. The starts are efficient, orderly, and almost civil. They are quick but typically the group just sort of chills the ‘eff out for a lap or two—not slow by any means but typically the attacks don’t start right away. The top guys percolate to their perches, the squishy center squishes to the center and the danglers dangle. Guys sort of know there place. Then after a lap or three the fireworks start. The selection takes place and the lead group starts to dwindle.
The fast masters all know each other, they know each others' styles, strengths, weaknesses. And there is more of a mental game going on than just GO HARD ALL THE TIME. Masters racing is fun—I find it to be a little more tactical than just cranking it up to eleven until your legs cramp.
Masters racing is demoralizing in a different way. In past years, I would have considered a top 10 in a big M35+ MAC field an accomplishment—all those guy would generally be lead-lap UCI racers. Super Meh. Pulling off a W in that field will probably be something that never happens for me. You don’t race masters if you like winning. The same couple dudes seem to win just about every race. There’s no glory in it. Nobody takes photos or posts cool Instagram edits of masters fields--the wives and children were bored of it years ago. You don’t get your name on cyclingnews.com when they happen to publish the full UCI results. You don’t get to say your raced against [insert random Euro Pro poaching some easy UCI points]. But the racing is still amazingly fun and even a mediocre squirrel finds a half-eaten moldy nut every once in a while.
This picture makes me think my saddle is too low.
I wrote a race report for Nittany. You can read it over on Can I get a Freakin Race Report. As @seanrunette implies, maybe I set the bar too low for myself in terms of mediocrity. A few things to note though.
1: Nittany fields seemed weaker this year.
2: I do well at grass crits—no real long power sections at Nittany
3: Pokemon Go watts in full effect. Free watts are up for grabs all over a course like this…little tiny fractions of a second in every turn.
4: @Norm points out that I am fresh. I’m also in the right head space. Pushing hard feels good. Fact: I hit my highest heart rate in years on the last lap yesterday. 191. I can only do that when I break through some psychological limits.
On Masters Racing
I am stoked to see @The Heckler stepping up and racing Elites this year. From the looks of things he is going to crush it but as he has written, it’s a different game.
This year I decided to race M35+ instead of the Elite field for a couple reason including but not limited to start time & lack of any real structured training, but mostly because racing for over an hour is the suck if you haven’t been training much. There’s always a gut-punch-moment after 20 minutes or racing and your hear Joe Sailing announce 8 laps to go. It’s demoralizing. 45 minute races practically are over before you know what hit you.
There are some similarities between M35+ and the Elite field. Strictly on the basis of lap times, the pointy end of the M35+ would be easy lead-lap UCI finishers, with a few of the guys possibly being in contention for UCI points every now and then. But that’s about where it ends.
As @The Heckler says, the first lap of the Elite race is straight up bananas. Every corner is contested and every corner is 2, 3, or 4 dudes wide. If you are in the UCI scrub zone, you burn so many matches in the first lap or two just dog fighting for position. And the crashes. Always the crashes. While most of the guys are generally solid bike handlers, there is just way too much humanity, testosterone and carbon fiber not to have mass carnage. UCI races are relentless, cruel and unforgiving. One mistake towards the start of the race and you may lose 5-10 spots. And they never let up. If you make it through the first lap alive you have 9 or 10 more to look forward to and they are just ast fast as the first. All go, all the time.
M35+ starts, on the other hand, are much more Scandinavian. The starts are efficient, orderly, and almost civil. They are quick but typically the group just sort of chills the ‘eff out for a lap or two—not slow by any means but typically the attacks don’t start right away. The top guys percolate to their perches, the squishy center squishes to the center and the danglers dangle. Guys sort of know there place. Then after a lap or three the fireworks start. The selection takes place and the lead group starts to dwindle.
The fast masters all know each other, they know each others' styles, strengths, weaknesses. And there is more of a mental game going on than just GO HARD ALL THE TIME. Masters racing is fun—I find it to be a little more tactical than just cranking it up to eleven until your legs cramp.
Masters racing is demoralizing in a different way. In past years, I would have considered a top 10 in a big M35+ MAC field an accomplishment—all those guy would generally be lead-lap UCI racers. Super Meh. Pulling off a W in that field will probably be something that never happens for me. You don’t race masters if you like winning. The same couple dudes seem to win just about every race. There’s no glory in it. Nobody takes photos or posts cool Instagram edits of masters fields--the wives and children were bored of it years ago. You don’t get your name on cyclingnews.com when they happen to publish the full UCI results. You don’t get to say your raced against [insert random Euro Pro poaching some easy UCI points]. But the racing is still amazingly fun and even a mediocre squirrel finds a half-eaten moldy nut every once in a while.
This picture makes me think my saddle is too low.
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