Menonomee Park Criterium
So, I get out to the race course, it was a perfect day to race, very sunny and about 55 degrees. My goal was to stay right in the top 10-15 riders (out of 66 total), just keep my head out of the wind and go with any potential breaks. As it turned out, the field wasn't letting anything go, so I didn't have to worry about that. I kept checking my heart rate and it was VERY HIGH for me, it stayed between 178 and 186 bpm for the entire race (my max HR is 192). This was annoying me for a couple of reasons: first: I cannot sustain that high of a heart rate for very long, so something had to give; second: my legs felt perfectly fine, I would have rated my level of perceived exertion at about a 7 out of 10. Unfortunately my heart was rating my exertion at about a 9.2 out of 10. Anyway, we came around the starting area and they rang the bell signaling that we were entering our final lap. I was in perfect position, about 4th wheel. I couldn't believe it was already the bell lap, I hadn't even felt like I was racing. I turned to the guy next to me and said "is this seriously the last lap already?" Well, the course was about 1.3 miles long, with no hills. The only tough part of the course was a straightaway on the back stretch that had a fairly strong head/side wind coming at you. As the pace picked up on the last lap, one guy went zipping up past us to put some room on the group, so I picked up his wheel and went with him. We zigged and zagged through the initial turns with the rest of the field not far behind us. We came out onto the back stretch (with the wind) and he started to slow down a tiny bit (understandably), at this point a line of riders started to move up on our right and go past us. I got out of the saddle to accelerate... and that was where the race ended for me. I simply couldn't make the pedals go. I pedaled as hard as I could, but I felt like I was riding my bike in mud. I watched as the main pack rode away from me and into the final corners of the course. Overall I rode a near perfect race, right up until the last half mile. After I lost contact with the group, I just sat up and cruised in to the finish. I am not sure where I ended up, the results come out this week. But I will say that the course was great. I will miss Wisconsin in the spring and summers.
I got home from the race, still a little frustrated with how it ended up, so I decided to take Dirk for a run. We ended up running along the wooded trails adjacent to the Menonomee River Parkway, near our house. We did and out and back run, turning around at the train tracks/little red store in downtown 'Tosa. When we got to mile 8, with only 1 more mile to go before we were home, Dirk pulled me off in to the grass where he proceeded to throw up a few times. It was actually really sad. I kept apologizing to him for making him run with me. It wasn't him who had the bad race after all! We had a nice slow trot back to the house where he walked right into the kitchen and plopped down on the floor. I kept checking to make sure he was still breathing. Fortunately he recovered.
I've got a couple more races scheduled over the next few weeks, so we'll see how it goes. I am pretty sure I used up all my athletic talent when I was 17-18 years old. Oh well, it's still fun to try... kind of.
2 comments:
I think you're doing pretty good for an old man like yourself. Just think when Kyle is your age he'll have been in law school for a couple of years and he'll probably get slow. Ahh the joys of aging :)
Crits are tricky. A lot of luck and good timing (the kind you can't plan) come into play. You'll have a race come your way soon. You should be pretty excited that you sustained that heart rate for so long. PS: looking at my HR during a race always psyches me out.
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