King's Valley

Although I have been competing in triathlon for some time, I've never ventured into bike racing. I've always wanted to try, but have always had something else going on or didn't commit early enough, etc. As we have looked to what I need to work on going into IMCDA to have a legitimate shot at qualifying, my bike was the blinking red light. Although I normally in the top 10% of the field for my bike split, in order to get to that next level, I need to be in the top 1-2% of the field. So now that I was starting to feel a little better and starting our proper build into CDA, a challenging bike race made perfect sense. It was a 56 mile race that involved rollers, a hill or two and combined Cat 4 and 5. Here is how it went:

My buddy and I left Wilsonville and made the 1:15 min drive to somewhere between Salem and Corvallis for the start. We registered, changed, etc. Unfortunately we weren't able to get in a proper warm up, more on that later. So, we made our way down to the start of the race and listened to the race director. He discussed the usual stuff and made mention of how tough the finish was, a few times. Going into this race I figured I would be competitive. I mean hell, I race Ironman. Hang with a few roadies for 56 miles, no problem. Race started and instantly I could tell that I was still recovering from my sinus infection. We made it through the first couple rollers and I settled into the peleton and was really enjoying the race. At about 15 or 16 miles we hit the steep hill of the day. I started to drift back a little and then we hit a bench and we started to come together a little bit. As soon as I thought, OK, no problem...the hill picked up again and I couldn't respond to the surges going on ahead. The peleton was now much smaller.

I regrouped and looked around. My buddy Jer was there and we seemed to have a group of 3 or 4. Jer and I started to work together and quickly caught others that had been dropped. Some of them teamed with us and before I knew it we had a chase group of 5 to 6. I could see the peleton just ahead and we were gaining! Unfortunately it was as if none of these dudes had ever formed a pace line before! We just couldn't stay organized and I ended up taking some pulls that lasted WAY too long. But I wanted to catch the peleton. After about 10 miles of chasing, our group started to fragment even more on the second loop (of a 3 loop race). As this happened, the peleton became less visible ahead. As we moved into the 3rd lap we lost my buddy and soon it was just me and a guy that raced for a team out of Portland. We worked together to keep the pace honest, but the winds were absolutely brutal. Every time we hit a hill we both laughed because our legs were just concrete. I had exerted so much energy trying to chase that peleton because we couldn't form a proper pace line...and now I was paying the price.

The race finish was uneventful. Levi (the dude I finished the final lap with) and I rode the 4 miles back to the car. My buddy showed up a little later and we both joked about what a tough day it was out there. So, what did I learn? There appears to be a fairly big difference between Cat 4 and Cat 5. I was surprised by how tough some of these guys were. I also came to the conclusion that it is a very good thing that I have a big bike block coming up because I'm not where I need to be on the bike. I also know that I need more hill work prior to CDA. And finally, I learned - once again - that a proper warm up is a MUST. I was not warmed up and at those races, the pace starts right off the jump. The lactic acid will start very quickly if you aren't warmed up. I believe this is a big reason why I was already mushy legs when the attacks occurred at the end of that first lap.

I will say, I absolutely loved the experience! What a great way to get a solid 60 miles in on the bike. I will do more of these races, just not sure how soon. After racing Saturday, I ran 75 minutes this morning. Jer joined me, and it is fair to say we were both still feeling the race a little. Our run was relatively tough. So, hopefully this weekend I made some good deposits that will help come June! Thanks for reading.

-T