Personal Goals

Given what I’ve seen the other riders on the team do, even just during training rides, I think I’m going to have to set my sights a little lower than upgrading to a three by the end of next season. Especially since I get my ass handed to me on nearly every training ride.

To start of I’d like to focus on just finishing every race with the pack. From there I’d like to look at getting top tens, especially in criteriums. I’m likely to be spit off the back in hilly road races, and Northern California is not without hills. So I’ll have to see how I fare on the open road before I can estimate my ability over longer distances.

I don’t expect to podium any time soon, but I feel pretty confident about greatly improving in criterium racing and doing relatively well in rolling road races. I can’t say that I have the kind of power for either pancake flat or hilly road races, but I’m able to do well on the kind of swooping rollers you see doing Paradise Loop or heading back down Panoramic toward Shoreline from Pan Toll Station.

Training Plans

I expect my schedule to remain relatively stable through next semester. I’ll probably have time for four or five serious rides throughout the week (including a race), the rest of the days filled in with recovery/commute rides to keep the legs loose. To cover all of the bases I’d like to incorporate at least one of each of these kinds of work into four or five rides a week:

• Sprints
• Anaerobic intervals (flats or hills)
• Aerobic tempo
• Hill climbs
• Endurance

Given that I plan to be racing almost every week a criterium would probably cover the anaerobic intervals and a road race could be endurance, though it’s likely to include a little bit of everything.

I’d also like to continue to supplement the riding with one day of strength training and/or running (stairs and trails), either in place of or in addition to one of the above rides.

Challenges & Weaknesses

Climbing. Everyone always says climbing, even good climbers. That’s because climbing is hard. So, specifically I’m looking for quicker recovery after hill accelerations. I definitely move faster upward if I put in short hard efforts, recover, and repeat rather than looking at my bars waiting for it to be over. So if I can recover faster I can hammer longer and more often. I’d like to shave five minutes off my Mt. Tam Hill Climb time.

Skill Development

I’m still at the stage where I consider myself lucky to stay in the entire race. However the things that I have learned have definitely improved my chances. I’d like to see what else I can learn to improve from here on out. The Early Birds and the upcoming road clinic will be a good place to start.

Key Races

With only a handful of races under my belt it’s hard to tell which races I’d like to focus on. However, I’d definitely like to take the few crits I started off with and turn them from simply learning experiences to opportunities to do well. Here’s just a few thoughts on a couple of races I’ll definitely be doing again. I’ll be posting a calendar of the many races I plan on doing as soon as the NCNCA road calendar comes out.

Lafayette Criterium

Not only was this my first race I think it is a hard race in general because of the sharp turns and the uphill finish, it is extremely easy to mash and waste energy. I’m not looking to do well, just to finish and learn some more here.

Albany Criterium

Standard four corner crit, good pavement, two flat sides, one slightly up, one slightly down. I think this is the crit everyone thinks they can win. I don’t expect to win it but I see top ten as a possibility.

Benicia Town Race

Similar to Albany, but the up is a little more up and the down a little more down, and throw in some wind for good measure. This was a fun race and the first race I did relatively well in, just looking to improve on last time.

Team Role

By any measure I’m still a very new racer, so mostly I’m in it to learn from experience and from the more experienced racers. This means doing what needs to be done to get black and yellow across the line first. In races where we have a team favorite to win I’d like to do what I can to protect that racer’s prospects, be it blocking, chasing down breaks, or providing a leadout, given I can keep up with the pack in the first place.

Bonus

Track! The track was fun. I’d really like to see how I do in a race and what kind of track race I can do well in. However, I’m not looking to focus on track racing or take it more seriously than road racing, but it is definitely a lot of fun.