If multisport has taught me only one thing, it's definitely taught me pacing. Sunday I found myself racing with an approach that resulted in beating my previous personal record by 38 seconds. 38 seconds may not sound like a lot of time, but it's huge on a 20k course. My official finish time was 31:00. I was so excited to see it when I came across the line. It's not world record shattering or anything but it certainly proved to me that going at this time trial not at full blast 100% of the time was beneficial. In essence, slower was indeed faster! My legs felt fabulous the next day and even on race day it was my cardio that burned and not my legs which was proof I was holding a higher cadence, working less per pedal stroke, and going faster. Now I know I can push a little more next time and get my legs burning with lactic acid which will drop my heartrate a bit and I should eventually find a happy medium where I'm as efficient on the bike as I can be for the time being. Once I can get the technique down fully, then I can look at other things.
This evening I'm going out to ride with a local racer group. I don't know anyone there but they meet up at Jax in downtown Claremont (I hate the "concept" store but need a challenge on the road bike). From what I understand the group is made up of old pros and CAT 1, 2, 3...and so on. Don seems to think I'd be happy with one of the middle groups that splinters off the lead pack. I think I'll hang in the back and stick with the back group my first time out and see how things go first. If I'm not getting enough work, then I can always try and bridge the gap with the group ahead and see what happens. I know I'll get smoked by the top end of the group but we'll see how I fit in elsewhere.
No comments:
Post a Comment