Noon Goon "Race" Report

So here I sit, creating the first entry of my first blog - and I'm
asking myself, "Why would anyone waste their time creating
a blog, knowing full well that virtually nobody will ever read
your awesome insights into all things that constitute your life?"

Okay, so my Mom will probably read my blog - and I'll
probably read it - several times over, just to make sure it is
grammatically correct - but nobody else really cares, right?
I guess this is just one way to record some of the minutia that
consumes your day...maybe my kids will discover this blog
one day, when I'm too old and fragile to communicate with
anyone - and they'll at least get a little glimpse of my life
back in my younger, healthier days!

In my case, that minutia will probably have something to do
with one of my great passions these days, biking! And hence,
you will get to read about the "musings of a cyclotic" - I don't
know what inspired me to think of "cyclotic", but it seemed to
fit, for a variety of reasons.

Today's topic? Gee - could it have anything to do with bikes?
Okay, so one of the things I do these days is train - I got back
into bike racing recently - and it's a total blast! It takes me
back to my college days, when I used to race bikes with a lot of
passion - and some relative success, too!

One of the training rides I do during the weekdays is the Palo Alto
Noon Ride - it leaves from the same spot (Old Page Mill Rd),
at the same time (12:00 Noon), every day during the week,
all year round. I suppose especially nasty weather days might
reduce the number of participants, but most days there will be
anywhere from 10 to 30 cyclists, most of them amateur bike racers
like me, just getting out for a little noon-time training ride - the
rides usually only last about an hour - maybe a little longer on
certain days - but it's a *fast* hour or so. And they are just training
rides, but more often than not, they are really unsanctioned bike
races - and so today, I present to you a typical "race report", so you
can see what consititues one of my typical noon-time training rides...

I'll often refer to my fellow cyclists on these rides as the Noon Goons -
it sounds derogatory, but it's actually an affectionate reference to
a bunch of guys (and gals!) that I truly respect - I think each and
every one of them understands the hard work it takes to reach the
level where you can do one of these rides and survive to the end -
I honestly believe every one of the Noon Goons is a special person,
with that unique understanding of something quite extraordinary -
riding a bike at the extreme physical limits of your abilities. This
blog is probably more a testament to these great cyclists - they're
all winners, in my book - even the ones that inevitably get dropped
at some point during the ride - 'cause you just *know* they're
going to come back again one day - and kick your ass!

==========================================================================
Noon Goon Race - Monday Edition, Palo Alto / Woodside, CA USA, 9/10/2007

Normally, the Monday edition of the Noon Ride out of Palo Alto is
what we like to refer to as a 'recovery ride' - just a bunch of friendly
amateur racers out for a little noon-time spin to help flush out the
lactic acid that built up from the previous weekend's races.

And, in this case, *some* of us had actually raced on the previous
weekend - I, for one, had done the Benicia Town Race just the day
before, on Sunday morning - it was a somewhat hilly crit - not quite
as intense as the Cat's Hill crit, but it did register a respectable
1100 feet of climbing in the 16-mile race - I had done the 35+ 4/5
race, which lasted almost exactly 40 minutes - you can see my race
report here for the gory details:

http://www.santacruzcycling.org/teamsc/2007/racereport/#992007SteveRosen

So the Benicia Town Race was a relatively intense effort for the 40
minutes that it lasted, and Monday's Noon Goon ride *should* have
been a nice, relaxing, 'recovery' ride. And, in fact, that is exactly
how it started out - it wasn't clear that too many people had raced
last weekend - I think only a couple of us had actually raced up at
Benicia - but the Monday ride can go both ways on any given week -
sometimes it's easy and mellow (averaging about 20 mph) - and other
weeks, it gets fast and nasty (averaging more than 22 mph). And you
have to remember, those average speeds include a *very* easy
rollout for the first few miles (down Old Page Mill to Page Mill, then
a right on Arastradero and over to Alpine Rd), as well as a few
'biking stops' at stop signs and signals. In fact, the pack usually rolls
through most of the stop signs in a very responsible manner - and
almost always stops completely at a signal with a red light (though
I've personally witnessed a couple of exceptions - arrgghh!!).

This particular Monday looked like it was going to be one of those
'nice' Mondays - a true recovery ride, with no hard efforts or any
attempts to simulate a real race. It was a fairly large pack, too -
probably about 30 cyclists (normally, Mondays will only have 15 to
20 show up). People were calmly chatting as we rolled down
Old Page Mill to Page Mill, then turned right onto Arastradero
and climbed easily up the Arastradero hills, on our way over to
Alpine Rd.

Sometimes, you can get a hint of things to come, based on how the
Arastradero hills are climbed - and today, it was very mellow, which
I now realize was the calm before the storm!

As we turned onto Alpine Rd, a couple of guys broke off the front
and started hammering their way up to Portola Rd. Now, when this
happens, the pack usually reacts right away and the breakaway gets
chased down within moments - it's very rare - almost never the case -
for a breakaway to take off and stay away for the rest of the ride.
When these two guys broke off the front, the pack just smiled and
said, "Goodbye! - see you next week!" - and continued to roll easily
up Alpine Rd - ah yes, this was going to be a very 'nice' day, indeed!
The pack was saying they didn't care if a couple of hammer-heads
wanted to impress themselves for the next hour or so.

But then something happened - a half dozen others near the front
decided after another mile or so to go for the breakaway duo, who
by now had already turned the corner and were speeding down
Portola Rd - and these 6 or 7 guys *really* put on the hurt,
pushing *very* hard in that last 1/2 mile before you turn right
at Portola Rd.

So, this seemed to be the official beginning of "the race" - it looks
like the first 4 miles from the start area was just a little promenade
zone - we could have had a race motorcycle out in front, keeping us
under control until that decisive moment on Alpine Rd.

Now, it looks like there were 2 camps in the crowd - one camp (like
me) wanted a nice, 'easy' day - and the other camp said, "Race time!
- Let's go!" ... and since I happened to be up near the front of the
pack when this all erupted, I got swept up in the "race" camp - and
we were off! My heartrate quickly shot up to time-trial pace (about
160 bpm) - and then it went into the dreaded "red zone" - about
167 bpm, which I can do for short distances, but not for the next
hour straight!

As we approached the turn at Portola Rd, I saw Yukie Nakamura
of team Tibco blast off from the front - she was going to bridge up to
the breakaway group of 6 or 7 that had already decided to go after
the "dynamic duo" that were well down Portola Rd by that time.
Yukie is a fairly regular participant in the Noon Goon rides - she's a
very strong woman, who mostly does the Cat 1/2/3 women's races
and has been racing for a long time - just check out her racing
palmares:

http://www.usacycling.org/results/index.php?compid=179928&all=1

Yukie can easily beat me on a hill - she's light and strong - an
excellent strength-to-weight ratio - typical of those little mountain
goats - but she can bridge gaps, too - and she had just blasted off
to catch the group that was chasing the lead duo.

At this point, I had to make a decision - do I fade back and just
hang with the "Let's go easy today" camp - or do I join the race?

Well, before I had made up my mind, my legs made an instantaneous
decision - maybe I just wanted to play a little game and see if I
could bridge up to Yukie, who was well on her way to bridging up
to those 6 or 7 guys that were trying to reel in the initial breakaway.

And suddenly, here I was, sprinting like a madman to catch up to
Yukie, which I did - and then we worked together to latch onto the
main group of 6 or 7 - and then all of us worked real hard (including
me!) to reel in the original breakaway - we were *flying* down
Portola Rd - and when we got those 2 guys in sight, they were dead
ducks - we caught them just before you hit the Portola Rd / Sandhill
Rd split - and as we split off to the left to stay on Portola Rd, we
were all together - about 10 or 12 of us, since another couple of guys
had decided to bridge up to Yukie and I as we joined the 6 or 7 that
we were initially chasing on Portola Rd.

The pace relaxed a little bit as we continued on Portola Rd, past
the Mtn Home split and then over towards Hwy 84 (Woodside Rd) -
I decided to pull the pack up to Woodside Rd and upped the pace
quite a bit as we headed over towards Tripp Rd. Somewhere on
Woodside Rd, before we got to Tripp, a few other guys took over
duties and continued to push a strong pace, right onto Tripp, heading
towards Kings Mtn Rd.

At Kings Mtn, we turned right (as usual) and started to pick up the
pace again as we headed into "The Maze", which is just a few little
country roads (Manuella, Albion, and Olive Hill) that allow you to
wind your way over to Canada Rd without seeing too many cars or
people.

"The Maze" is always an interesting part of the Noon Goon ride, as
there is a traditional sprint up the Albion hill, to where it meets
Olive Hill Rd - this is the first of two traditional sprints on the
regular Noon Goon Monday ride - the other one being the end of
the ride, on Foothill, just before we get back to Page Mill Rd.

As usual, a big surge happened in "The Maze" and everyone sprinted
like wild dogs up Albion - I decided to conserve a little energy and not
contest the sprint - I just followed Yukie up the hill - there were
several guys that were much stronger sprinters on an uphill than
either of us!

The 12 of us (not sure of the exact count, but it was something
like that) were clearly far away from the rest of the pack, who
had obviously decided not to chase us down - or if they were, they
weren't succeeding! Actually, they might have been trying - but
we were pushing a pretty strong pace for most of our ride.

When we got down to Canada Rd and Woodside Rd (where the
infamous Roberts Market is located), we made a rolling 'stop' and
headed up to Whiskey Hill Rd, where the pace stayed fairly mellow -
everyone knew to conserve a little energy for the Sandhill climb -
it's just a 1/2 mile or so - and not very steep - but if you are climbing
it at 18 to 21 mph, it can feel pretty tough! And today was no
exception - the climb up Sandhill started out pretty mellow, but the
pace intensified quite a bit as we got closer to the top (typical in a
race - the surge over the top of a climb).

This is where I experienced something truly fun - I was climbing
okay, but had let a small gap open up as we pushed the speed up to
a 20 mph pace on the hill - I just can't climb quite that strong -
at least not for very long! But suddenly, a "hand of god" came
swooping down from out of the skies and I felt this sudden new
source of energy pushing me up the hill - it was a friendly Cat 1
guy (I'm guessing at his category - I just know he was a lot stronger
than me!) that was shoving me along to close down the gap! What
a rush! I said "Thanks!" and proceeded to quickly close down the
small gap, dragging the Cat 1 guy (and those behind him) with me...
what fun! And what a nice thing to do, too! I suppose he realized
that I was in a little over my head with this group - and he saw that
I had been doing my fair share of the work earlier - so he was just
making sure I stayed in contact with our breakaway group as we
crested Sandhill and started the fun plunge down towards Juniper
Serra.

As we descended down towards Juniper Serra, I had recovered
well enough to lead the group for the last 1/2 mile and into the right
turn onto Alpine Rd (but only for a 1/2 block, since you then turn
left onto Juniper Serra).

When we got onto Juniper Serra, the pace quickly picked up strong
again - and we motored along towards Foothill. At one point, we
had to stop for a red light, which we all did - and then went right
back into "race" mode as we headed for the final sprint, just before
you get to Page Mill Rd.

As we approached the last couple of hundred meters, everyone went
into "sprint" mode, but I decided to just ease up and coast on in -
it had been a fun day, and I was truly toast! No sprint for me today...

And, about 3 or 4 minutes later, the rest of the pack came sprinting
down Foothill - it was fun realizing that I had participated in a
true breakaway group that succeeded to the end of the ride - a rare
thing for the Noon Goon rides! What fun!

Here are some general stats for my ride today:

22.1 mph - Average speed (including our easy rollout and stops)
46.6 mph - Maximum speed (now *that* is pretty darn fast!)
147 bpm - Average heartrate (zone 4.4 for me)
20.24 mi - Distance
1328 ft - Total climbing
54:58 - Total time for the ride - a new record!

Normally, a Monday Noon Goon ride is about 1 hour long - and the
average speed is usually about 20 mph or so. This was a full 5
minutes faster - pretty fast for a Monday ride!

If you want to see just how hard this "race" was today, just check
out my recording of the ride:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3918684

In retrospect, although my legs were asking for a 'recovery' ride,
I'm glad I decided to torture them and go for the 'race' instead -
it was good training, both physically - and mentally!