Robidoux roundup...

Yesterday was not a good day for me...The heat got to me and I had to pull the plug after 2 of 3 laps...I have to admit I was not a happy racer boy for quite a while after the race and even when I got home it was still eating at me for not finishing. I think the main reason is, I was looking at it like I quit the race...and nobody wants to be a quitter. It's a 100% hollow feeling and I DO NOT LIKE IT!!

I was not happy about this, but it's better than going to pieces out on the trail, having real issues with no relief in site. I finally got some perspective from a long time friend I used to race a ton of MTB with and that was, "it could always be worse"...and that's all it took. I wasn't mad anymore, and I put it behind me. After all, I got to race my MTB. It's what I do. Yes it sucked to not finish but in the grand scheme of things, it's not a big deal.

As for the race, I was having an ok day. The first lap was painfully fast, I think I burned a bit too many matches on that one. On lap 2 I finally settle into a manageable rhythm and start a battle with what would eventually be 4th place in my group.

With about 2 miles to go a sport class rider, who was leading his race, comes up and I let him by. He doesn't immediately go by the guy I was racing with and as I watch over his shoulder, my carrot starts to go away...eventually I say to the sport racer, look, you either have to go faster or let me back by because I'm racing with that guy ahead of you. He does the right thing and let me back by. At this point we are back to doing a lot of climbing and I have to put in a huge effort to get back to my racers wheel...this effort is most likely did me in.

During this charge I started to get the chills, so I back it down to try and recover and this didn't do anything...so I spin for a bit and realize that the game is over...SUCK!!!

E

Powertap

It's raining and I'm bored...oh yeah, highly caffeinated to boot!! This will probably be a short post as well.

At the beginning of April the long drawn out process of me getting a powertap wheel finally ended...HOORAY!!! I was a little excited to try this new toy, mostly out of curiosity, but excited nonetheless.

In the past I have trained and raced with heart rate and had gotten pretty good using what I learned from that. Then all of the cool kids started training with power meters...it was about this time I didn't care about what my heart rate was anymore, so to the shelf it went...I started training by saddle time and that worked pretty good!! I rode well and even won a race or two.

Let me back up a bit...Before I totally gave up the heart rate I bought an electronic trainer from cycle-ops. It was their version of a computtrainer. So I combined the heart rate and started training with power in the off season. I'm not sure how much it helped, not having any power numbers from out on the road to reference, but it certainly didn't hurt. This trainer started to die (a bearing started going bad) and all I wanted was to have it repaired or replaced...

Well the fine peeps at cycle-ops say they don't make that model anymore, and won't repair it. GRRRR!!! So they offer me a sweet deal on a wheel...DONE!!!

As of right now, I've been riding it since the beginning of April and training with power for about a month. I will say this, if you want to average a certain number, you have to pedal...all the time!! Kinda obvious, but, it will definitely keep you honest in your workouts.

Have I gotten stronger? I think so, although I still seem to be getting my ass handed to me on the Tuesday ass kickin session...I think a little can be attributed to the time off I took through the winter to let my old ass heal up...anyway...I have notice some improvement.

As for results, I haven't raced since I've had this, but that will change this weekend. Sunday will be the first MTB race in the era of the powertap. Story to follow.

E