Seward Park Race In June Heat

It was a hot one for sure. Temps in the 80's, which for the PNW is pretty hot. I even bought a new lightweight jersey, since it's officially too warm to race in thick wool these days. As much as I'd love to rock the retro SiR jersey at the races, I don't want to overheat either. So I bought a generic black/white jersey, which is super lightweight.

Of course, I still felt overheated during the race. Guess we all did..

June 4th Seward Park Race


I've gotten the timing down pretty well for the 12 km ride down to the park. Unlike the last few times, I could relax a bit and keep the heart rate at about 160 bpm (85% of max HR) all the way down, which translated to about 34-36 km/h on the flats. So I got there with 10 minutes to go, just enough time to pay the fee and line up without losing the warm-up I did ont the way down.

The pack had already started lining up by the time I got there, probably about 40 people. I didn't get in the back though, I found a spot in about the middle and squeezed in. For the start, you don't want to be at the very back, it makes for a lot of work a) to move around people who can't clip in and b) move up the pack.

We rolled off and sure enough at least two people had issues starting out, and there was some yelling and swerving, but we all got around it. The course starts on a nice downhill, which makes it pretty easy to keep up initially, and even easier to move up. I find that most people either coasat or soft-pedal on the downhill, so now and then I give an extra push there to move up, through the draft.

Got in the first 10 or so riders of the pack for the first few laps, and stayed there. Not on the front, pulling through the wind, but fairly relaxed in the draft. Exactly where you want to be, unless you want to control the pace of the race.

About 5 laps in out of 15 for the 4/5's, they rang the bell meaning it was a "prime" (pronouned preem, oddly) lap so the first one across the line wins some kind of prize. For the beginners you win a water bottle or some Nuun tablets. Nonetheless, that lap gets pretty competitive and fast, and at least one rider will go sprint for it.

My First Breakaway

And the first rider to go this time was me! It was a little early to go, just at the bottom of the hill before the turn uphill. I was coming up the side of the pack after drafting, and had speed on the peloton. In a split second I decided not to coast on to the front, but to start sprinting right then and there, and give it a go.

My first breakaway. Before I knew it I was climbing by myself, assured that I had at least a little gap since I didn't hear the whoosh/whir of the peloton. Don't want to look back, that just wastes time. Giving it my all, climbing up the hill in probably too big a gear. After about 20 seconds two other riders show up, having chased me down. Still about 100 meters to go to the line, and I feel wasted.

One guy passes me and I fight to get in his draft. He eases up slightly and I think about going around, but I just don't have the energy to spare. Had this been for the finish I would have done something else, but for a prime lap I just gave up. Still, it was a blast! The three of us were ahead of the pack for half a lap, before we sat up and waited for the rest the peloton provides. Looking at the power data after the race, that was the hardest minute I've ever spent on the bike! 480-something watts (6.95 w/kg) avg for that minute.

Recovery During The Race

Even though the pack offers protection from the wind, it doesn't mean I can go from 194 bpm (what my HR hit during the break) back to 180 quickly. So I'm hitting the climb at probably 190 bpm, e.g. about as hard as my little heart can go. Just try not to move back too much on the climb, and I could get back in good position on the flat/downhill.

After a few laps, I felt better and was ready to move up again. But there were only about 4 laps to go, so I had to do it quick. I slowly recovered over the next few laps.

Last Lap

On the last lap I was about in the middle of the pack, and even though we were only at the bottom of the hill, the First Rate Mortgage guy on the yellow bike (who wins these races lately) went. A little early like my attack, but about 10 of us broke from the pack and strung out behind his wheel.

I figured someone would peel off/give up somewhere up the hill and in the next 150m to the line, so I just held my pace. But nobody did, so I ended up at about 9th or 10th overall. I was pretty beat at the end, and didn't have much more left in the tank, but was happy to finish in the top 10 (or close) again out of 40+ racers.

The Ballard Crit should be fun this weekend. (Saturday 4 PM is the Cat 4/5 Men's race - 75 people in the field!)

Race Data

Part 1:

(yellow=power, blue=speed (km/h), orange=elevation, red=heart rate)

(The breakaway is at 1:01 or so)

Part 2:

Breakaway Data

Stats

seward race 6/4/09:
Duration: 28:50
Work: 389 kJ
TSS: 53.2 (intensity factor 1.052)
Norm Power: 300
VI: 1.33
Pw:HR: 15.83%
Pa:HR: -1.82%
Distance: 18.56 km
Elevation Gain: 344 m
Elevation Loss: 357 m
Grade: -0.1 % (-13 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1056 225 watts
Heart Rate: 128 194 174 bpm
Cadence: 20 134 85 rpm
Speed: 6.1 89.7 38.3 kph
Pace 0:40 9:50 1:34 min/km
Altitude: 24 55 40 m
Crank Torque: 0 193.1 22.6 N-m

Entire workout (171 watts): (includes the ride to/from Seward)
Duration: 1:26:22 (1:50:46)
Work: 1002 kJ
TSS: 120.5 (intensity factor 0.915)
Norm Power: 261
VI: 1.35
Pw:HR: 2.01%
Pa:HR: 10.95%
Distance: 44.959 km
Elevation Gain: 674 m
Elevation Loss: 727 m
Grade: -0.1 % (-53 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1056 193 watts
Heart Rate: 101 194 159 bpm
Cadence: 15 134 79 rpm
Speed: 0 175.6 30.7 kph
Pace 0:21 0:00 1:57 min/km
Altitude: 10 173 53 m
Crank Torque: 0 193.1 22.2 N-m

Peak 20min (232 watts):
Duration: 20:00
Work: 282 kJ
TSS: 38.3 (intensity factor 1.072)
Norm Power: 306
VI: 1.3
Pw:HR: 7.68%
Pa:HR: -1.98%
Distance: 12.712 km
Elevation Gain: 241 m
Elevation Loss: 242 m
Grade: -0.0 % (-0 m)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 1040 235 watts
Heart Rate: 157 194 175 bpm
Cadence: 30 134 86 rpm
Speed: 6.1 86.5 37.7 kph
Pace 0:42 9:50 1:35 min/km
Altitude: 26 55 41 m
Crank Torque: 0 193.1 23.5 N-m

No photos from this race, but I think I saw David Longdon from the PI's Velocity Blog there taking video, hopefully he'll post something from this soon.

Edit: Yup, he posted a cool composite video of the 4/5 race here. From looking at the finish at about 3:20, I think I actually ended up about 13th or so. Thanks to David for shooting that vid!