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ninevirtuesCyclocross again! Goals for today, since I have been feeling sucked dry of energy and suspect I'm fighting off the same flu everyone else is: Finish entire course successfully (ie NO CRASHING). Have fun, work hard, gain confidence, gain technical experience. Stretch goal: Finish in top half of pack.
I prerode a lap and a half. It's been raining, so there was mud everywhere... not big soup pits, but muddy ruts, a big mud puddle, mud that made you think carefully about your best line to take through it, mud that you peeled off your bike and shoes in big chunks afterward. The mud sucked at your wheels and demanded that you power through it-- not one of my strengths. Back to the weight room for me. Ah, cyclocross.
Result:
4 laps
9th of 12
Finish entire course successfully: Check
Have fun, work hard: Check (More on this in a minute)
Gain confidence and technical experience: Check
More about the hard work part: As part of coaching myself, I've decided to get far more conscientious about wearing a heart rate monitor, so I wore it today. The typical formula you see to determine your max HR is 220-age, so my calculated max would be 185. If you take the women's formula I've sometimes seen floating around, 226-age, you get 191 for a 35 year old woman. That is supposedly my maximum heart rate, and my heart rate for a 30 minute time trial (ie today) is 85% of that, or 157 and 162 BPM respectively.
Not to put too fine a point on it... wrong. We think my lactate threshold (race pace) is 172. Au contraire. I hit 180 beats a minute off the starting line, stayed there for two laps, and then settled in at 175 BPM. During the finishing uphill sprint, I hit 190. When the race ended, I rolled off the side of the course, dismounted, and stood there, bent over, holding onto my bike and gasping for air, for several minutes.
Ah, cyclocross.
Conclusion #1: My true lactate threshold is probably closer to 175.
Conclusion #2: Power is built in the weight room and by sprinting in workouts. I need power. Therefore I will do these things.
I prerode a lap and a half. It's been raining, so there was mud everywhere... not big soup pits, but muddy ruts, a big mud puddle, mud that made you think carefully about your best line to take through it, mud that you peeled off your bike and shoes in big chunks afterward. The mud sucked at your wheels and demanded that you power through it-- not one of my strengths. Back to the weight room for me. Ah, cyclocross.
Result:
4 laps
9th of 12
Finish entire course successfully: Check
Have fun, work hard: Check (More on this in a minute)
Gain confidence and technical experience: Check
More about the hard work part: As part of coaching myself, I've decided to get far more conscientious about wearing a heart rate monitor, so I wore it today. The typical formula you see to determine your max HR is 220-age, so my calculated max would be 185. If you take the women's formula I've sometimes seen floating around, 226-age, you get 191 for a 35 year old woman. That is supposedly my maximum heart rate, and my heart rate for a 30 minute time trial (ie today) is 85% of that, or 157 and 162 BPM respectively.
Not to put too fine a point on it... wrong. We think my lactate threshold (race pace) is 172. Au contraire. I hit 180 beats a minute off the starting line, stayed there for two laps, and then settled in at 175 BPM. During the finishing uphill sprint, I hit 190. When the race ended, I rolled off the side of the course, dismounted, and stood there, bent over, holding onto my bike and gasping for air, for several minutes.
Ah, cyclocross.
Conclusion #1: My true lactate threshold is probably closer to 175.
Conclusion #2: Power is built in the weight room and by sprinting in workouts. I need power. Therefore I will do these things.
