Cantua Creek Road Race, Masters 45+ 4/5, 2/16/2008

One word - Wooohooo!! - or, is that 2 words: Woooo-Hoooo? - it doesn't really matter, as I survived long enough to write this report!

In my previous post, I was wondering if I was ready for this first road race of the 2008 season. My post suggested I was basically ready (except for the fact that I had not lost nearly enough weight!) - but secretly, I was a little worried. I had analyzed the data for this race very carefully, and figured out the race would probably boil down to 2 critical points:

1) The climbs up the 3 stair steps at the mid-way point of the race...

2) Those same climbs of the 3 stair steps at the end of the race!

My big fear was that I would get popped off the back at the first critical point - and if that happened, it was going to be a very long second lap, doing the solo thing - and with a pretty good headwind on the "out" part of the out-and-back (heading towards the north), it would be 12 long miles by myself into that headwind, then a very lonely 12 miles back to the end of the race, and dragging myself up those 3 climbs all by myself, with only the cows over at Harris Ranch cheering me on... :)

However, that's NOT what happened during my race, I'm quite happy to report!

First, let's describe the race course: You start out at the top of a 2.5-mile climb that is really 3 smaller climbs, each separated by a (very) small downhill section. Then you have a relatively flat 9.5-mile section into a headwind that pretty much parallels Hwy 5. In fact, you cross over Hwy 5 at one point, then just before the next overpass that would take you back over Hwy 5, there is a 180-degree turnaround just as the overpass starts to pitch up slightly. Now you head back on that 9.5-mile section, but this time you have a tailwind - and, of course, those last 2.5 miles of the course are those 3 fun stair-step climbs - the first 2 are each about 1/2-mile long, and the last one is the "big" one - about 3/4-mile long. The gradient of each climb is fairly mild - only about 5% to 6%, I'd say. However, even though the gradient is not too steep, when your speed never drops below 15 mph, it can still hurt - a lot! Don't kid yourself...racing, even on "flat" roads, can be hard when the speed is high enough.

But high speeds were not really the order of the day for our race. In fact, my average heartrate for the race was only 135 bpm, a new record low for me (at both the San Ardo RR and Henleyville RR last year, my heartrate averaged about 140 bpm).

I had decided as a pre-race strategy to just sit in the pack, close to the front, for the first lap, and conserve my energy. I had one teammate with me, Gary Griffin - and when we briefly discussed race strategy before the race, it was clear we both had the same exact strategy - just sit in and pray that we are still around at the end of the race to contest the uphill sprint! Gary is a stronger climber than me, so I figured that strategy would work especially well for him, and less so for me. However, I had one advantage for this race - I had been doing a lot of hill repeats in the last month or two - I became a convert to that training technique as I watched the members of Team Bicycle Trip almost winning the Low-Key Hill Climb series at the end of last year - and they do very regular Saturday morning hill repeats.

The concept is pretty simple - try to get one hour's worth of hard climbing in, done as 3 sets of 20 minutes, or 4 sets of 15 minutes, etc. I had the, uh, pleasure of joining Mark Edwards and his band of Merry Climbers for the first time a couple of months ago, when they did 5 sets of 12 minute hill intervals on Rodeo Gulch, one of my favorite places to ride. I had never tried to ride up Rodeo Gulch twice in one day, much less 5 times! Needless to say, I was complete toast at the end of that workout session - but I also noticed that my climbing started to improve considerably after that. Mark encouraged me to start working hill repeats into my training regime, and I took his advice to heart.

In fact, I started working my own set of mini hill repeats into my training rides during the week. Where I work in San Mateo, there are dozens of these short, steep hills - typically about 1/2-mile long, but with gradients averaging anywhere from 9% to 14% - steep! I developed these small courses where I'd do small loops that forced me to climb up various short steep climbs like this - doing anywhere from 3 to 6 of them on any particular day. I wanted to do the steeper hills for two reasons: 1) To help improve my raw leg strength; and 2) As a psychological trick, to make the hills in my races seem easier by comparison - pretty clever, huh?

So the 3 stair-step climbs of Cantua Creek, which were similar in length to the short hills I had been training on, were not nearly as steep - in fact, they were only about half as steep. I think all those mini hill repeats (as well as the Saturday morning longer hill repeats with Mark Edwards and Team Bicycle Trip) really paid off for Cantua Creek - a special "Thank you!" to Mark and all the great climbers on his team...it's quite motivating to be surrounded by all these really good climbers - it helps to make you work just a little harder than you might otherwise do by yourself...

Now for the race itself: We started out on the 2.5-mile downhill section, with the 2 minor climbs between each of the stair-step sections. Then we hit the flatter section with the headwind from the north. The pace of the pack was pretty tame - I think a lot of people wanted to catch up and chit-chat with each other - since this was probably the first road race of the new season for most of us, it seemed that old acquaintances were just exchanging pleasantries, finding out what they all got for Christmas, how little they had trained during the winter, etc.

Or, in my case, new acquaintances were being formed: Here we are, motoring along at this very pleasant pace early in the race, when this guy rolls up next to me and says, "Hi! I'm William! What's your name?" - of course, I told him who I was - and then he launches into his life story - pretty funny! But he was a nice guy - he had last raced about 10 years ago, and this was his first race in 10 years! But he had raced at Cantua Creek for its first 3 years, from 1996 to 1998 - and he patiently explained to me I shouldn't worry about the first 44.5 miles - the race will only happen in the last 3 miles, he assured me. Of course, I knew that relatively easy courses like Cantua Creek often boil down to a bunch sprint at the end, so I wasn't really surprised - but since he was the voice of experience, I thanked him for his reconnaissance info. He also reminded me not to try and go too hard too soon on the hill, which I had heard about from various race reports I had read earlier.

But I was thinking to myself that I'd be delighted to just be present for the final surge up the 3 hills at the end of the race - I was really concerned about the surge that I knew would happen the first time up those 3 hills, at the midpoint of the race.

On the way out to the first 180-degree turnaround, there were a couple of minor attacks, but I had no trouble keeping my good position in that top third of the 50-person pack. I think I generally hovered between 10th and 15th place the whole time. Every once in awhile, someone would take a solo flyer, but the pack would just let them dangle out there for a mile or two, then reel them back in with no problem. It was clear this was going to probably be a bunch sprint at the end of the race.

I thought our pack was exceptionally well-mannered - there were constant shouts of "Slowing!" or "Gravel!" or "Car Up!", etc. - everyone (at least around me) handled their bikes just fine and didn't do anything dangerous or stupid - maybe it's due to the fact that all of us are over 45 - and nobody wants to go to the hospital at our age, if at all possible... :)

When we did the 180-degree turnaround on that first lap and headed back to the start/finish area of the race, there were one or two attacks with that nice tailwind, and I again had no problem staying right where I wanted to be - near the front. I had not seen Gary more than once or twice for brief moments, so I assumed he was generally positioned just behind me in the pack.

As we approached the 3 climbs near the end of the first lap, my apprehension really grew - this would be THE BIG TEST - either I'd sink or swim with the pack at this point. I had visions of watching the pack disappear up the climb, as I looked across Hwy 5 and took comfort that the cows at Harris Ranch were secretly cheering me on, all alone in my quest to catch back onto the pack again...

But that's not what happened! In fact, as we started up the first of those 3 climbs, I thought there was something wrong with the pack - it felt like we were going very slow - I saw my heartrate rise up close to my time-trial rate (160 bpm), but that was it! The pack wasn't disappearing up the climb in front of me! In fact, I had actually moved up closer to the front - huh? Then, we hit the first small downhill section after that first climb, my heartrate dropped a bit, of course, and we started up the next climb. And the same thing happened - again! My heartrate climbed up to just 159 bpm this time, so it was ever-so-slightly easier than the first climb - and suddenly, we were descending down the second small downhill section. Wow! Two down and just one more to go - I was almost feeling giddy, as I realized I was probably going to be able to hang on to the turnaround spot at the finish line of the race.

But that third climb was THE BIG ONE - a massive, 3/4-mile long hill that gained about 100 feet, instead of those "puny" 1/2-mile bumps in the road we had just negotiated. And of course, the top of a climb is where there is always a strong surge - nobody just coasts their way to the top of a climb - in a race, they always try to sprint over the top, just to shake off all the newbies and 90-pound weaklings - but in this case, you don't go over the top - you go around the cones, doing a 180-degree turn right there at the finish line area of the race.

My heartrate climbed higher this time - up to 165 bpm as we surged to the top of that last climb - but I had managed to work my way to just about the front of the entire pack - in fact, I was about the 4th person to do the turnaround - now how cool is that? Here I was, worried about watching the pack pull away from me on the climb - but it was me who was pulling the pack up the hill - or, so I would like to believe. I suspect the truth is that the really clever guys were hiding their true strength, so they could catch you by surprise at the end of the race.

But I didn't care - we were at the halfway point of the race, heading back down the 3 stair-steps - and I was now in the lead group. I felt so good about my fortunate state of affairs, I decided to take a flyer off the front when we hit the first little uphill section after speeding down the first hill - I looked back and saw that one other guy decided to launch himself out of the pack and he hooked up with me. Then a third guy flew out of the bunch behind us and suddenly, there were 3 of us, in our own little breakaway!

Hey - this is pretty cool, I thought - but I had no intention of trying to make a break work at that point in the race. In retrospect, it might have been a good tactic to try, since there were 3 of us - but I quickly realized that the other 2 guys had no intention of trying to break away - they simply caught up to me, we exchanged smiles, and then they looked back and sat up. I imagined they were told to go neutralize my "attack" - ha! Little did they know I was doing nothing more than celebrating my good fortune of being with the main pack for the second of our 2 laps - wooohooo!!

So, we settled back into the pack and I reclaimed my spot near the front - about 8 or 9 positions from the front. I had no intention of trying to take any pulls at the front - I felt more than strong enough to do this, like I had done at the Henleyville RR back in September - but I was more than content to just sit in and watch the sparks fly at the end of the race.

We had a few more attacks on the way back out to the turnaround spot of the 2nd lap - and, in fact, there was one guy that actually broke away on a solo attack - he blasted off during that second lap and got a pretty good lead on the pack - maybe 30 seconds or so. But the pack didn't seem too worried about him - and we did reel him back in about a mile before the final attacks on the 3 climbs at the end of the race.

So now we're approaching the end of the race - and just as William had told me, the real race was about to start, just 3 miles from the top of the last hill. Not surprisingly, the first of the 3 climbs was done just a little harder than we had done on the first lap - but my heartrate was still in total control, not rising above 160 bpm. I remembered that no matter what happened, I had to resist from pushing too hard too soon - it's a long way to the top, as William had reminded me. Then, on the second hill, there was a ferocious attack by either 4 or 5 guys that just hammered their way out of the main pack, which was actually disintegrating in front of my eyes - there were guys getting spit out the back like they were old cows, ready to join their siblings across Hwy 5, over at Harris Ranch...

But I wasn't one of them, thankfully! No, I was bound and determined to stay as close to the leaders of our main group - those 4 or 5 mutants that blasted off were going way too fast for me to join them (at least, I think so) - I had visions of rolling past their cold, dead bodies somewhere before we got to the finish line - but, alas, this was not to be the case... :)

However, I was holding my own with the survivors of the main pack - and as what happens in so many road races like this, there were different groups all merging together for the finish - I know we got mixed in with other groups, because we all had numbers in the 700s - and there were other numbers (not in the 700s) floating around me as we buried ourselves in pain to get to the top of the last climb.

Now here's where it gets curious - I hadn't seen Gary for a long time - but I figured he'd just fly by me on one of the last climbs of the race - in fact, I started thinking that maybe he was one of those 4 or 5 mutants that had blasted out of the pack on the second climb...

But about 1/2 way up that last climb, Gary comes rolling by me - he didn't blast past me - just rolled quietly by - I was going to make a joke, but my eyeballs were hanging out of my head and my tongue was all twisted inside my mouth - no jokes today! I figured he'd just keep motoring past me and easily finish ahead of me, at least a few places. But we were both passing people, left and right, as various guys were blowing up on the climb. I felt like I was going to blow up, too - but as Gary got in front of me, he slowed ever so slightly for just a split moment - and I managed to grab onto his rear wheel. I just stared at his wheel and decided I would do whatever I could to hang on for dear life...

Then, after what seemed like several hours (but it was really more like a few seconds), I saw the 200-meter sign. 200 meters to go? That's it? Woohoo! Like a trained race horse that's just been let out of the gate, I knew it was time to 'sprint'. Of course, sprinting up a hill when you're totally maxed out is not an easy thing to do - I saw my heartrate was now essentially redlined - 172 bpm!! My max heartrate is only 175 bpm - so there wasn't much wiggle room left! But I let loose whatever was left in my legs for the sprint and I managed to pull up even with Gary just inches from the finish line - and with one last hard push, I actually nipped Gary at the line, beating him by about 1/2 a tire width! Is that possible? I guess so - and we had managed to come in just ahead of my new racing buddy, William, who thought he had sewn up 12th place - I have absolutely no idea how he could tell what place he had finished in - there was such chaos at the end, with several different groups finishing at about the same time.

We couldn't stick around to see the official results, but it looks like I might have snagged 10th place and Gary 11th place, since William finished just behind Gary.

A possible top-10 place - what a great way to start out the 2008 racing season!