Candi Murray/Oregon Bicycle Racing Assn
-----Original Message-----
From: Larssyn Staley [mailto:hyperb-@hotmail.com]
September 22, 2002
Since I last wrote you, I have recovered from the rotten feeling I had in my
legs and training is once again going well. The temperature drastically
dropped here last week. I think that was my biggest problem. I am slowly
adjusting, though it is still hard to get my heat rate up.
Today Mirek and I went to the regional hill climb championships. It was
basically a circuit race on a five k loop; three and a half k up, one and a
half k down. On the last lap, however, we did not complete the loop. We
continued up the climb another three and a half k to the finish. The women
were given a separate race, so it was a field about the size of junior
women?s nationals in the US.
I wasn?t exactly afraid of any of the girls in the race so I figured I?d get
things started right away. I set a strong tempo up the climb the first lap
and by the top there were only four of us left. I let the other girls pull
through for the descent. I applied the same tactic the nest lap and reached
the top with only one other girl. She was 19, so no longer a junior, and
would not be scored in the same race as me. None the less it was a race and
I wanted to drop her. For the next few laps I just played around with her a
bit. I would attack her here and there, or pull up the climb at an ever
increasing pace, but I never got rid of her. I never really went super hard
as my heart rate was only 170-175bpm. That?s basically tempo for me because
my max is 204 bpm, and I time trail at about 195 bpm. Most of the time I
pulled up the hill and she pulled down. While climbing wind isn?t exactly a
factor for drafting so it is better to pull up a climb then on flats or a
descent. Also you set the pace, it allows to make them suffer, or prevent
them from making you suffer which ever way you need it to be. She knew how
to suffer and held on for dear life. I could see it, she fought hard.
With two laps to go I pulled up the climb getting faster and faster as it
progressed. I pulled off about two thirds of the way up and made her work
really hard to get by me. I then backed off her wheel a bit in preparation
to attack her. I went flying by her and had a tiny gap, but still she was
not ready to give in. I went so hard up the climb attempting to pry open
the gap. She was cracking, but not very quickly. By the top I had a pretty
significant. I flew down the hill in a full tuck knowing that when I
reached the bottom solo I just needed to keep a good tempo up the first half
of the climb and I would be free. But she caught me somehow. I must have
lost weight or something, because I don?t get caught on descents by women.
I have never had a woman catch me on a descent. The descent is usually
where I make up my time after getting dropped myself on the hill.
We had one more loop to do before heading up the final climb. Nothing
really exciting happened. I kept a good tempo up the climb and she was
still dying. I really don?t know how she rode at that tempo. The junior
boys started not just after us and they didn?t catch us. They had a pretty
good sized field too. We were catching their stragglers.
As I began to think about the finish I decided that I would ride increasing
the pace until she was dropped. She was always dying by the time we got to
the top of the loop, so I figured that with another three and a half k she
would not be able to make it. If for some reason she was still there I
planned to be going faster and faster so that she could not come by me in
the end.
I did all that just as I planned and she reached deeper inside herself and
came by me. I still don?t believe it. I can?t believe she beat me, she was
dying. She must have wanted it more than I did, because I rode an aggressive
race and she still won. At the finish all her coaches and people with her
were kissing her like she?d just won the World Championships. There must
have been ten of them that came over to me to thank me for coming to the
race. I quickly shook their hands, but was not in a mood to talk. I did not
even speak to my own coach. I had training yet to do. Since we had driven
all the way to the mountains we were going to use them. I put on leg warmers
and a thermal jacket, it must have been less than fifty degrees, and headed
back down the hill. I went up and down, up and down doing power intervals.
I think it was a good time to do them. I had lots of frustration for fuel.
My legs are now cooked and I need to go and think about how I could have won
the race, and what exactly I will do next time.
Take care,
Larssyn
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