Too Old to Race Bicycles?: January 2005

Sunday, January 30, 2005

My 1st Big Race

It’s been 10 months since I restarted training on my bike. In those 10 months, I’ve logged 4,132 miles, lost 18 pounds, and completed two time trial races. 6 months ago I got the idea to start racing time trails and 4 months ago I decided to get my racing license again and compete in “mass start” road races. But all this has been mentioned in previous posts at this site. So on January 29, I competed in my first road race in almost 20 years. At the age of 48, I got my first road race under my belt. Here’s the story…

Nelson Landing Stage Race, Las Vegas Nevada, January 28, 29, and 30. Nelson Landing is a stage race (see posts below for a complete description of the different types of bicycle races) so I had a time trial to complete on Friday, January 28, and a road race on Saturday. There is a criterium race on Sunday but I couldn’t stay to compete in that event.

My wife and I drove the 3.5 hours from Lancaster to Vegas on Thursday, spending the night at the Stratosphere Hotel. Friday morning I went to Pro Cyclery, the bike shop hosting the event to pick up my race packet. My start for the time trial would be that same day at 3:18 in the afternoon. My start in the road race would be 9:15 am the next day. Right after I picked up my packet I decided to drive out to the road race venue and check out tomorrow’s course. It took about an hour to drive toward Boulder City and then South to the road that leads to the little community of Nelson where the road race would be contested. I drove the whole 36 miles of the road race course; 9 miles up a 4% grade to a pass, then 9 miles down to Lake Mead to the turn around. Now it was another 9 miles back to the pass on what looked like a 4 – 8% grade – ouch. I was now starting to think that the 12-23 cassette I put on my rear wheel was not going to be much better than the 11-21 cassette it replaced. I may have lost 18 pounds in 10 months but I still weigh 192 lbs, a lot for a road racer, and too much for a hill climber. Oh well, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, yada, yada. Time to get back to the hotel and get ready for my time trial at 3:18.

I like to arrive at least 1.5 hours before my race start so I pulled up to the time trail venue at around 1:45 or so. This allows me to fiddle with equipment for about 0.5 hours and then start a one-hour warm-up before my race. And I like to talk to other racers and hear where they came in from and their thoughts on the upcoming race. It is also neat to see so many fit people in one place, with not a cigarette smoker in sight. I start my warm-up on my stationary trainer. I put in 20 minutes of easy pedaling on my Felt S22 Time Trial bike. Drink a lot of water and sport drinks then I put in another 20 minutes with race pace pedaling and sprints. Drink some more water, go to the bathroom for the 5^th time, take my bike off the trainer and start doing light “pick-ups” on the road. I got in line for my race with about 5 minutes to spare and wait for the start – Just in time for the rain to arrive.

A 2005 Felt S22 Time Trial Bike

The starter started his count down; 20 seconds, 10 seconds, 5 seconds and I’m off. This is my 3^rd time trail race but the first on my new 2005 Felt bike. The bike is beautiful and only weighs 19.5lbs. I’ve put a Renn 5-7-5 disc on the back, with a Spinergy PBO spoke front wheel. The Felt, and me, blast off the line. The first kilometer or two of this 20 K TT is slightly down hill. I accelerate to 32 miles per hour and I noticed my heart rate is at 164, four notches over my “lactate threshold (LT).” But that’s acceptable. The problem with downhill or down wind starts in a time trial is that the rider tends to loose focus and forget that what goes down must go up, as most or all TTs have a turn around. So a rider may start to relax with the easy going at the start. I was determined not to make this mistake so I pressed the start from the beginning and never let my heart rate drop from about 105% LT. I could barely see the rider that started 1 minute ahead of me. In this race, a rider starts every 30 seconds but the rider that was supposed to start just ahead of me didn’t show, so I had a “ghost rider” in front of me. I like to focus on the rider in front and try to catch him but now I had a whole minute to make up instead of 30 seconds.

Spinergy wheels in action

A Renn disk wheel in action

But I realized I was gaining on my “minute-man.” The course leveled out and my speed dropped to around 24-26 mph. There was no wind but the rain was coming down harder and I could imagine how much time I was loosing to the wet asphalt – nothing I could do about that. The man in front of me made the turn around with me only a few hundred meters back – I knew I would catch him. I completed the turn around and saw the man behind me, with the same idea as mine, much too close – he was going to catch me! But that’s how TTs work; you bust ass to compete against the clock and you can’t let a faster rider demoralize you when he or she flies past you. I catch up to my minute-man and shoot past him on his left but a few minutes later I’m passed on my left. I passed by Ron Skarin who ends up beating me by 37 seconds. I’m impressed with Ron who tells me, when we are both cooling down after the race, that he competed in the ’72 and ’76 Olympics for the U.S. pursuit bicycle team. He’s now an old guy like me, in fact he’s a few years older than me but it sure didn’t stop him from flying past me.

At about 11 miles or so, I hit the upgrade that had previously allowed me to travel at 32 mph at the start of the race - but now I'm heading up not down. I’ve got 2 plus miles to go in the TT and I’m slowing down a lot. My legs are feeling the pain of completing a race on an uphill grade – my heart rate monitor shows that I’m at about 110% LT and I’m getting close to exploding. Just need to hang on for a couple more klicks. Finally the finish is there and I cross at 31:55 a new personal record (PR) for me. I’ve nearly knocked 1 minute off my previous best of 32:48. I’m really pleased. The new bike and wheels had to help, and in the driving rain no less. But this is a stage race so I head back to the hotel to rest up for the road race tomorrow.

The Road Race - Nelson Landing

The Next Day

Saturday, January 29 and it’s time for the 36 mile road race. Normally, 36 miles is a short course. Most road races will be around 60 – 70 miles in length but it is still early in the race season and the 4 to 8% grade will make up for the shorter course.

Esmeralda and I arrive at the site at about 7:30. I’m due to start with the other 20 Masters 45+ racers at 9:15. I do the same routine I used for the TT and get in line with the rest of the “old guys” at around 9:05. I watch the younger racers take off, the pros, the Cat 1 and 2, the 3s, the Cat 4/5 and now it’s our turn. We get our start, and immediately begin to climb a 4% grade. I’m thankful for the easy pace the leaders set for the first couple of miles but I know that we have 9 miles to get to the top of the grade where the steep downhill will start and my 192 lbs of weight will actually be an advantage – but I must stay with the group for this advantage to mean anything. Everyone is talking about how glad they are to have a 26 toothed cog lower gear, I nervously look down at my 23 toothed cog and realize I’m going to have to be very strong to finish this race any where in the hunt. The pace increases and the first break away is attempted. We all jump and increase our cadence and meet the challenge of this first attempt. A few minutes later there is another break, and another…each time I’ve made the grade and stayed with the group. I look back and see 4 riders or so dropping off the back. Another break is made and this time I can’t make it, I drop off the back and realize I’m in “no mans’ land.” I’m between the lead and successful break-away riders, and the group that dropped off before this latest attempt. I actually imagine the scene from “Animal House” where the little devil appears on your left shoulder and a little angel version of yourself appears on your right. The devil on my left shoulder says, “You still have 4 miles of uphill riding to go before you hit the top of the grade, this is real hard, look at your heart rate monitor. Just turn around and go back.” At that moment, some rider in front of me does just that; he turns around and quits the course. I now listen to the angel on my right that says, “You came all this way, you can’t quit now.” I pay attention to the angel and decide to gut it out, and both the devil and the angel leave. I put my head down and drive for the summit, I need to keep that lead group in sight and hope I can catch them on the long 9 mile, 8% down-grade. I try not to think about the fact that I have to turn around and go right back up that 9 mile 8% grade.

I finally crest the pass and scream down the grade at around 50 mph, aware that the road is slick with last night's rain and the drizzle that is still falling every few minutes or so. I watch all the riders that left before our group passing me in the other direction as they wrestle with the uphill version of the hill I’m descending. They don’t look like they’re having a lot of fun as they struggle with the 8% grade. I actually close on my lead group at the turn around. It’s now time to struggle up the 9 miles back to the pass. For some reason I feel stronger, the long down hill at speed has rejuvenated me. I’m actually passing slower riders that are having trouble with the uphill battle - none however, are in my group though. I do catch a couple of stragglers from my group that got away from me on the other side of the pass but realize I’ll never catch the top dozen or so riders from my group – they are just riding up the hill too good. I catch up to a cat 4 rider, who like me is a pilot. We talk about flying airplanes for about 5 minutes and I look at my heart rate monitor and see my pulse has finally lowered to 153 beats, 7 beats below my LT. It’s time to go. I thank the cat 4 rider for the conversation and pick up the pace and leave him behind. I struggle over the pass with the encouragement of a race fan at the side of the road. He screams, “Keep it up, just over that hill, it’s right in front of you.” I crest the hill with another Cat 4 rider and him and me set up a rotating pace line at 31 mph all the way down to the finish. With 200 meters to go I say, “let’s go for it.” But my legs are tired and the cat 4 rider pulls away and crosses the line 10 meters ahead of me. I’ve lost the sprint but “won the race” as the Cat 4 started the race 10 minutes before I did, so I know I have a better time than him.

I finish the 36-mile race in 2 hours and 15 minutes. I’m 13^th overall for the Masters 45+ race. There are only 17 of us so it’s not the greatest finish in the world but I’m not a hill climber and this was a hill climber’s race. Remember Ron Skarin, past member of the ’72 and ’76 Olympics? He finished with the lead group, with a time of 2:03, so I’m not that far from the front. I also look at the Cat 4/5 guys and see that I would have taken 27^th place out of about 50 guys if I would have rode in that category. I leave the course feeling pretty happy. Ron’s 15-year old son competed with the Cat 5 group and took 3^rd place with a great time of 1:56:14! Ron is pretty proud that his young son kicked his butt.

Look for complete race results via Pro Cyclery’s web site.

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Too Old?

Don’t want to take my word for it that you’re not too old to race? Read what Coach Carl has to say on his web site. Here is an excerpt from Coach Carl’s page:

I get this question all the time: "Am I too old to start racing?" What I want to do is help you to analyze bike racing and age, and then let you answer that question for yourself. First, we know that the average person loses approximately one percent of their muscle mass by the time they are about 50 years of age which means that they don't have more than about 99% of their maximum strength potential of when they were in their early to mid 20's. That is on the negative side. On the positive side, we know that you can keep increasing your aerobic development long into life depending on when you get close to your top aerobic potential.

Read the full story…

My Racing Schedule 2005

I live in the Antelope Valley of Los Angeles County. This kind of puts me in the very top half of Southern California and the very bottom half of Central California. This makes it easier for me to race in both Northern and Southern California. It makes training tougher though...the Antelope Valley is in the high desert or Mojave Desert. It's butt ass cold in the winter and searing hot in the summer...what doesn't kill you makes you stronger-yada, yada.

Here is my tentative schedule of racing for the 2005. I'll add more races, especially later in the season as more race information comes on line. See my links on finding a race in a post below.

Date / Race
1/23 Tom’s Farm 10 mile time trial
1/28 Nelson’s Landing Stage Race in Las Vegas
2/07 Piru TT
2/18 Valley of the Sun Stage Race in Arizona
2/25 Vuelta a Valencia
3/18 Pomona Valley Stage Race (not confirmed)
4/15 Sea Otter Classic in Monterey
4/25 Devil’s Punch Bowl
5/29 Sisquoc (Santa Maria) (not confirmed)
6/05 Vandenburg Road Race (not confirmed)
6/19 State Time Trial
9/04 San Ardo Road Race (not confirmed)

It is still very early in season so most sites don't have their 2005 race information up yet. I'll update my list as they do. Happy racing!

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

A Typical Training Week

So what is a typical week for this 48 year-old guy like on a bicycle – how do I train?

I try to put in anywhere from 7 to 11 hours a week on my bike. It really depends on if I’m in a base period or a build period – more on base/build periods in a future post. This posting is just to give you an idea of a typical week, so let’s go.

Because of job commitments I save my long rides for the weekend. I try to ride a minimum of 2.5 to 3 hours on both days. Depending on the terrain, this could be anywhere from 45 to 55 miles. Now that I’m getting closer to my racing season, I’ll start bumping these long rides up to 50 – 70 miles.

I train six days per week and usually take Friday off (TGIF with my co-workers.) Monday and Wednesday is usually a weight lifting workout; these run about an hour. Sometimes I’ll do an easy 23-mile ride on one of those days instead. On Tuesday, I usually do either hill repeats; 4 X 90 seconds up a 6-8% incline. I stay in the saddle (my seat) for 60 seconds than gear down and stand up for the last 30 seconds. I take a 3 minute break, riding easily then do it again. Or I do sprint intervals; 4 X 2:00 minutes at high speed with a 3 minute break after the speed workout. Both of these workouts usually run about 1 hour and can cover anywhere from 18 to 20 miles.

On Thursday I usually do a 23-mile ride that has some mixed terrain in it. I tend to ride it fast, usually covering the distance with an average speed of 19-21 mph.

How much ground does this week cover? About 90 – 200 miles. In the summer, with the long days and the fact that I’m a high school teacher (don’t work in the summer) I would put in closer to 200 miles. In the winter, like now, I have to teach, and it gets dark so early, so I only put in 90 to 140 miles/week.

Of course, family life, weather, etc. can play havoc with this schedule and you have to be flexible. I have a Blackburn Trackstand Mag Trainer, a device that turns my road bike into a stationary bike. This is good when the weather goes to hell and there is no way I’m going to get my bike on the road. But I hate these workouts and just try to gut out anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes on the trainer.

So there you go. I actually use a coaching service that I access via the Internet. This will make for a future post too - so I'll write about this service, I use TrainingPeaks, in a later article. For now, just get on your bike and start putting in mileage - you'll be ready for intervals and hill repeats in no time.