State TT Championship
In 2012 I had had a serious crash, which prompted me to give up mass-start road races and focus on time trials (TTs). In fact, I set a goal of winning the 2013 women's Cat 4 state time trial (TT) championship. After months of dedicated TT training, my efforts paid off!
RAAM
When I joined a four-person women's team to do the 2015 Race Across America (RAAM), I made a weekly training schedule. It started in January and went until the race in June. I was very diligent about sticking to my RAAM training schedule.
PBP
My long-term goal for the last few years has been Paris-Brest-Paris (PBP). I first learned about PBP soon after I began randonneuring in December 2013, but it didn't really pique my interest until my rando buddies starting talking about it a lot in the lead-up to PBP 2015. At the time, I was training for RAAM, and so the thought of preparing for a 1200K brevet seemed a lot less outlandish than when I first started randonneuring. PBP is held only every four years. Thus, when I finished RAAM in 2015, I set my next goal: PBP 2019.
The first step toward PBP was to build up my endurance with longer brevets. I had done my first 400K in February 2015. I needed to do more 400K's and, more importantly, step up to 600Ks.
I did my first 600K in April 2016, the Double Caesar 600K. That was a pretty tough one to start with. It was grueling, but I completed it successfully. In fact, I specifically remember thinking to myself when I finished that I could do a 1200K. A large part of training is mental in addition to physical.
In 2018 I did my second 600K. Not only was this good general training, it also allowed me to preregister for PBP fairly early. PBP is in August, but you can preregister in January. Your sign-up date is based on the longest brevet you completed in the previous year.
You also have to qualify for PBP, which involves completing a 200K, 300K, 400K, and 600K between January and July of the PBP year. When Wayne, our Georgia Regional Brevet Administrator (RBA), was preparing the 2019 Georgia brevet schedule last fall, he was very considerate to include several options for all the PBP qualifying distances, including some earlier ones in 2019. I was able to complete all my qualifying brevets by the end of March.
Conflicting Training Goals
It was a big relief to get my PBP qualifying rides done early this year, but the training isn't over. I've been riding a lot of miles as well as doing a little work on intensity. Tuesday Worlds is one of my best ways to get intensity.
I've also been doing some interval training although not to the extent I would for a regular TT training season. There are almost no TT's on Georgia's racing calendar this year. Amazingly, there's not even a state TT championship scheduled for this year. Road racing in general and TTs in particular have dropped in popularity. From my perspective, at least it's a convenient year for there not to be many TTs because I'm focused on PBP.
Training definitely works, but this is where conflicting training goals come in. It's very difficult to train for both endurance and intensity. This year I just don't have much "pop" because of all my PBP endurance training. I see it when I try to keep up with the A group guys ; i.e., it's not possible. (To be fair, they also seem to get stronger and faster every year!). However, my decline in shorter, more intense efforts has been most abundantly clear in the two shorter gravel races I've done this year.
Gravel Racing
While road racing has been on the downswing, gravel racing is getting a lot bigger. I love riding on dirt roads, and so it's been natural for me to do some gravel racing, particularly two events held right in my backyard: the Fried Green 50 and the Red Clay Ramble.
I've had a lot of fun doing these two events, and I won't deny that part of the fun has been doing well every year I have entered. I have almost always made the podium and often have come in first. But not always...
State of Gravel
This year one of Georgia's few race promoters, seeing the writing on the wall regarding gravel racing, hosted the first State of Gravel. It was billed as Georgia's unofficial gravel state championship. Of course I was in.
The State of Gravel was held Easter weekend in the northern part of the Oconee National Forest near Athens. I had never ridden on these roads, and they were as smooth as you'll ever find for dirt/gravel roads. Also, it drew out some serious road competitors.
I stayed with a small group for almost half the ride. One of the ones who dropped me was my friend Jennifer. Jennifer is 63 and is super talented. Actually, I'm pretty sure she's an alien. I knew I wouldn't be able to catch her. On the other hand, because I didn't know if any other masters women were ahead of me, I kept going with the hope that I still had a shot at the podium.
I rode by myself for a good while, which became my downfall. I didn't go as hard as I could have. Eventually, here came my teammate Tina! I've got to give her credit for clawing back on after getting dropped fairly early in the race.
Tina and I stayed together for most of the rest of the race. I knew that I could out-climb her, and so every time we got to a hill, I pulled ahead. She always caught up, though. Back and forth, back and forth until one last kicker about three miles from the end. My bike quit shifting when I got to the top of that last hill. Tina pulled ahead, and I never caught her again. I'd like to blame it on my bike, but it was really me not keeping my head in the race the whole time. Tina still might have beat me that day, but I couldn't quit kicking myself for not giving it my best. By the way, Tina came in 3rd, and I came in 4th.
Red Clay Ramble
My next race - and the last one before PBP, thank goodness - was yesterday's Red Clay Ramble. I've been pretty worked up about it for the past week. I felt like I needed to redeem myself from the State of Gravel. To complicate things, after riding nearly 300 miles last weekend and battling a cold this past week, I wasn't in peak form for the Red Clay Ramble. I talked to myself all week, first, trying to get sufficiently over my cold and second, telling myself simply to do my best and let the chips fall where they may.
About 170 racers (nearly double last year's entries!) lined up behind the starting line. I was close to the front. As I expected, lots of racers passed me in the first mile. Most of them were guys, but there was also Tina! I knew she would be one of my toughest competitors. I didn't worry about it, though. I knew I couldn't go that hard that early, and so I focused on riding as hard a steady pace as I could.
I rode much of it by myself. I made a concerted effort to keep my head in it. I did, but I also realized mid-race what's so different for me this year. I've been so focused on long, steady efforts - crucial for PBP - that even during a race I can't summon those quick, intense efforts. You just have to have those to race, at least on the relatively shorter races (50-60 miles like this). When I have that pop, I can expend a little extra energy to hop on the back of a group and then recover a little as I draft off the back. Right now, I can't do that very easily.
For about the last third of the race, I rode with my friend Angie. We both seemed to be going hard but didn't want to absolutely kill ourselves. I could out-climb her, but I didn't want to make a real effort to drop her because I figured she would just catch me. Why burn matches unnecessarily?
In the last couple of miles, Angie asked me if I was racing masters or open class. I said masters. She was racing masters, too. Tina was ahead, of course, but I didn't know if there were any other masters women ahead of us. Angie and I agreed not to make a sprint finish at the end. I was OK with that because I didn't feel like I had it in me anyway. Between the lack of pop and lingering congestion, I had felt rougher than usual during this race. Additionally, I thought Angie already had a few seconds on me because she had been a lot farther than me behind the start line; your time doesn't start until the electronic timer records your chip as you roll across the line.
We did pick up our pace a little during the final stretch. We might have ridden side by side, but I was tired and drafted right behind Angie instead.
I missed the podium by 1 second...
Dumbest mistake I ever made in a race.
Perspective
OK, lesson one: the rules of racing are different from group ride etiquette! I should have dug deeper and tried to out-sprint Angie at the finish. Maybe I'm too nice to be a great racer. I want to win, but I really don't have the a$$hole instinct a la Lance Armstrong.
Second, Angie is a very nice person, and if someone's going to beat me, she's a good choice. I really do want to be happy for my friends like Angie, Jennifer, and Tina - even if I also want to beat them!
Third, I can't forget that I did very well at my longer gravel races this year, the Middle Georgia Epic and the Fried Clay. Both of those were 200K events. In fact, I won both! I shouldn't be greedy about these shorter events where I didn't podium.
Fourth, and probably most important, my real goal this year is PBP. I've worked hard to get to this point, and I have to keep it up through the event in August. I wouldn't trade wins or even podiums at the State of Gravel or the Red Clay Ramble for successfully completing PBP.
So, here's to keeping my head in the game through PBP!
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