Power Up!

The bike racing schedule was, of course, relatively fixed year-to-year. The season started in Rochester, Ithaca, and Binghamton, then went to Auburn and Syracuse before the mid-summer “break”. Between Syracuse and the season-ending races was a vast gulf with one or two races and a whole lot of not much else. That’s where my running took over, and where I felt most comfortable.

Before the season-opener up by Rochester, one of the other local riders had mentioned that he was going to do early races (meaning the local, unofficial races) in a lower gear than he might otherwise to practice high-cadence riding. That was my problem as well, so when the Rochester race rolled around, I told myself that I would keep in the small ring unless it was absolutely necessary.

So it was in my 42" small ring that I rode off the front of the field and dangled for 4 or so laps, feeling great. In the last lap, a half dozen riders caught me, and I settled in for a quarter lap before breaking again. They must have thought I was nuts, but it was all somewhat strategic: I didn’t win sprints, so riding away was what I had. The pack chased me down again, and I accepted something like 10th or 15th (no results seem to exist online).

At the Binghamton Circuit Race a week later, I got my team effort on, and a couple of us combined to get a good placement for one of the team members. I finished 8th overall, which was nice, but as usual the criterium format did not favor my mashing power.

At our local race the following week, I went over sideways on the first climb when the crowd in front of me slowed nearly to a stop; I quickly hopped back on my bike and rode to the front, where four or five of us broke away and crushed the rest of the field. A week later, again near Rochester, I have no recollection of how things played out, but I apparently finished 3rd.

A week after that was the Owasco Stage Race, two events at the time (there’s now a time trial, but I don’t think there was back then). I knew I was going to ride just one of them: there was a run that Sunday that I really wanted to do, and riding a criterium didn’t sound like a great use of my talents.

A teammate, Andrew, was also looking for his Category 3 upgrade, and we’d been riding together quite a bit. The course started on a relatively long descent, turned a corner, and went up a short climb worth a few King of the Mountain (KOM) points toward the stage race win. My teammate was 3rd or 4th, with me on his wheel, as some of the other riders hammered out the climb. Near the top, I pulled in front of him, and he slid in, then blasted by me at the top of the ride to take 3rd (and a KOM point).

That climb was followed by a short drop onto a flat, then a long and grinding climb. With a head of steam, he and I cruised by the climb leaders before realizing we had a gap. There wasn’t much communication, but one of us said something like, “Should we?” To which the other said, “Let’s do it.” And the race was on.

We rode off the front and had a 2-minute gap in 10 miles. At the next two KOM climbs, I pulled Andrew up and let him pass me at the top, where he collected the points. When we rounded the corner for the finish, our lead was down to something like 1:30, and we casually rode across the final mile without worrying about our position. The pack was chasing, sure, but we had plenty left to finish it off. He finished first, I was second, and 30 or 40 seconds later the pack rolled in.

Andrew ended up winning the whole event by staying upright in the crit, and the payout was solid. Turns out you had to start both events to actually get money, and since I decided to go galavanting off to the Highland 1-2-3 instead that Sunday, I didn’t collect anything but a good feeling. Andrew upgraded that week.

The Highland 1-2-3 was one of those races I’d thought of doing in 2003 but hadn’t managed to get in on. The race is a 10-mile trail loop, and it usually featured a good crowd of contenders. Most of the runner opted for the 10-mile; I was no exception. At the time, it was the longest trail race I had ever done, and it seemed like a great opportunity to show off my in-season legs. 

I ran the first 6 or so miles from behind in somewhere around 3rd place. My memory of the race is a little fuzzy, but the last 4 miles featured a set of hills, including the hill leading to the finish line. I clearly beat the runners in front of me on those hills and strode in for a tight win in 1:12:35. That’s not going to set any records, but it gave me a good feeling about the 10-mile distance. I was ready.

After two days of racing, I was beat. It was time to take a short break and gear up for the Syracuse Race Weekend - my time to move up to Category 3.

I felt stronger and faster than I’d ever felt, and my tailored workout (see Sidebar) plus bonus, dislikable pool time was still ramping up.

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The Ultimate Training Plan
This plan assumes a baseline ability to run 5 miles and/or ride 25 miles daily. and targets a race that’s at least 3 months out. Ultimately, you should be able to go through the summer like a beast. 

• Day 1: Day Off - This has always been the hardest day of the week for me.
• Day 2: Sprint Day - On your favorite 2-mile run course, do the course as fast as possible. On the same day, on your favorite 10-mile bike course, do the course as fast as possible. For each of these, be sure to warm up and cool down 10-15 minutes.
• Day 3: Build Day - Extend from your baseline workout (either bike or run, NOT both) by expanding your distance each week, targeting a max pre-race distance of ~70-75% of your desired distance. Ex: If the desired final run distance is a half marathon, the final Build Day run is 10 miles; likewise, peaking at a 100mi bike, the final Friday ride is 70mi.
• Day 4: Race Day - Find a race and do it, or, if no race is available, do the event you didn’t do on Day 3, targeting ¾ of the current Build Day distance and a pace ~10% faster than a normal Build Day.
• Day 5: Optional Race Day - Find another race, or do a combined event of 1-3 hours (depending on your current fitness) at a relatively low pace.
• Day 6: Easy Day - Baseline run and bike times. My 5-mile run would take ~35 minutes, my 25-mile ride ~1:15, so that was what I shot for. Don’t do them together. This was the day of the mountain bike ride, a ride that was just hard enough to get me going but not so hard - thanks to my mountain bike lousiness - that it caused pain the following day.
• Day 7: Challenge Day - Do a shorter run/bike at very fast pace, or do a hill-focused session on alternating weeks. Often, a hill session can be included with one of the Interspersed Events below.
• Interspersed Events: Include 1-3 days a week - Add in 2-3 days of swimming for 30-90 minutes at whatever effort is comfortable. ​​

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The weekend arrived. I knew Category 3 was at my fingertips, and I showed up in Syracuse ready to go and feeling like a mediocre racehorse. I mean, yeah, it was amateur, but I had done a lot in Owasco and wanted to show I could do even more here.

​The course was two laps of 30 miles. We spent the first 15 miles together, then watched as a few of the riders took off at the top of one of the hills. One of them was Jason, whom I had spent quite a bit of time riding with and talking to during our Cat 4 careers, and I knew he was a quietly strong rider who could pull the trio away if he had a little help.

The pack seemed lackadaisical about the prospect of racing for 4th, but I was a little more determined. I kept finding myself near the front and pushing the pace a little more before drifting into the pack and watching our pace fall again. Nobody was working together. We caught one of the breakaway riders about 5 miles after they broke, then caught another 5 miles later. The only holdout now was Jason, and with the two breakers back in our midst, there seemed to be a little more urgency in the group.

Finally, we caught sight of the leader and let him dangle out there for a while, just 20 or 30 seconds ahead of the pack, as we cruised through the 35th mile. At last, he gave up, and we were all in the running for first.

Remember how I mentioned not being a sprinter? I didn’t want this to devolve into a crushing sprint finish that I knew would put me top-10 but probably not in the top 3. It was time to talk deals, and Jason was a good guy to talk with.

We cruised in the pack, fending off occasional attacks from other riders. Sitting comfortably in 4th or 5th position with 20 miles left, I rolled up next to him. 

“I thought you were going to stay away,” I told him, knowing he would know that I didn’t think that at all.

He smiled. “I’m sure you did.”

“Maybe you just went a little early. Now seems more like it.”

I let the comment sink in, then attacked softly to get to the lead position, and attacked hard to break the group. We were on a flat near the base of a rise, and I didn’t even think about it. 

Jason broke with a couple other riders behind me, but we had shattered the peloton. I blazed up the rise, then hammered across the next flat, down the next hill, and ripped up the following climb, building a solid 30-second gap in about 5 miles. I continued to press the pace up the mid-course major climb, and the lead car’s spotter yelled out my 45-second lead as I crested the rise. That second-place rider was Jason; the pack was another 45 seconds behind.

I ducked into a TT position and crushed the rest of the course. Now used to my weekly 10-mile assault ride on Thursday, I figured this could be done in something like 25 minutes, since it was a slightly downhill ride until the finishing climb. 

When I rode into that hill, I could see the pack far behind and could spot the trailing two or three riders several hundred meters back. I stood on my pedals, pressed up the climb, and crossed the line comfortably in 1st place.

The following day was the criterium. I had never been good at these, and Jason and I discussed our strategies for the race. I told him there was no way I could win in the pack, because I’m simply not a sprinter. 

“So what do you plan on doing?” he asked.

“Not a sprint,” I told him. 

We were riding for different teams but speaking a common language here. 

At the race start, the announcer pointed out my number as the race leader, presumably figuring that everyone would key in and shut down whatever I might try to do. Lap 1 of 20 went through without incident, but on Lap 2, I decided it was time to move. On the backside descent, I pushed up from the middle of the pack around the outside; passing Jason’s position, he latched onto my wheel, and we blasted off the front like we were shot from a cannon. 

We didn’t talk, just rode hard and rode away. For a half dozen laps, our lead grew, until we were over a minute ahead -- the pack on the back half of the course while we were crossing the line. It went like that for 45 minutes, and when the last lap bell rang, we took it very seriously. We pacelined the lap, swapping leads every 5 seconds or so, until the final 400 meters. I was in the lead, and I stood up to give one last effort to drop him. He stayed with, and 100 meters from the finish, he started a smooth and easy sprint to take the prize. I crossed in 2nd, and we rode a cool-down while the race finished up.

I upgraded the following week.

Ah, but this is a running book! What am I doing talking about all these cycling exploits?

A couple weeks later, I signed up for the Jordan Alpine Classic, a race whose course did not necessarily justify the “alpine” monicker, unless you consider “alpine” to refer to anything that traverses a region in which the fauna might be found in an alpine setting, in which case said definition allows any user to say anything is “alpine” without fear of being called incorrect. A local racer, whose name I don’t remember but who did attend enough events that I recognized him, showed up wearing a kilt and no shirt. I, as is my friendly nature, ribbed him about his attire, and his response was radically different from what I expected: he popped his trunk and offered me a kilt for the race. 

Yes! Yes yes yes! A thousand times yes! 

Okay, maybe not that exciting.

I threw my shorts in my car, pulled on the kilt, and proceeded to win the race. Somewhere out there is a video of my Jordan Alpine Classic race win in a kilt, but it seems to have been removed from the internet, at least in any searchable form. Be that as it may, this 8k-ish race gave me a wonderful glimpse into a new world of running. Alas, I do not own a kilt, so the lesson of the win has been lost to time.

Next up: Falling down.

Mash out. Spin on.