I can count Race the Lake as my best-ever performance on the bike. Simple as that.
If you’re just looking for the race recap, skip down to “First up was Race the Lake…” down below. What follows here is a short string of thoughts that came together like a spider’s fragile but beautiful web, soon to be blown away in the inevitable breeze.
**
I counted more race days in August than during the rest of the year combined. Between track racing, time trials, a circuit race, and a road race, it almost felt like I was trying to be a professional cyclist again.
That dream came crashing down long ago, but I’ve actually enjoyed cycling more since. I’m glad I had all these races to keep me busy in August, as my life outside of cycling has not been so easy. Some days, I am able to channel that into a power PR, and some days, I cannot turn the pedals.
It’s a balancing act, of course, the line between motivation and burnout. It seems that the harder you push yourself, the more gains you make… The more you focus on cycling, the better you’ll get… If only I eliminated every distraction possible, I would be better.
Better at what? Better at cycling, or better at doing nothing? They say that to be a better cyclist you need to sit around and do nothing, rest and recover, go to bed early, and…dear god don’t even think about having a sip of beer.
It’s true, but only to a certain point. You see, there’s an inflection point between eliminating distractions and missing out on life.
I found that point in Tucson in 2019, when I had been basically living on the road, chasing the dream of being a professional cyclist. I never drank or partied or stayed up late. I was lame. But I thought it would all be worth it.
And it was, in many ways. During that time, I had experiences that I would never take back. I went to cities and states that I would probably have never seen if it weren’t for cycling. The painted hills of central Oregon are one such place. Just a two-hour drive outside of Bend, those are some of the most beautiful roads I have ever seen.
It took me a while to rediscover my passion for cycling, and it seems as though I’ve had to rediscover it again. This summer has not been kind to me, and some days it is hard enough to go on with my day let alone pedal for an hour.
At the same time, exercise is what keeps me going. What do they call that, a double-edged sword? You see, it is the best thing and the worst thing. There are other things in life that are the best of times and the worst of times.
Thankfully, exercise has been good for me these past few months.
**
First up was Race the Lake, an unofficial race with a whole bunch of prize money. I’d never done it before, but I had heard many stories. Most good, and some bad.
The course was a 90-mile loop around Lake Winnebago, hence the race’s name. The first half of the course is pan flat, and I think the biggest “climb” was a bridge that went over the river in Oshkosh. After 45 miles of flatness, the course enters the first and only climb of the day, High Cliff. While the climb has an average gradient of 3.8%, the first half features two steep pitches of around 10%.
There’s also a $500 prime at the top of the climb, which was my main goal of the day.
After 20-some miles of flat roads and rollers, there is another prime with about six miles to go. It’s supposed to be a sprint prime, and it comes at the top of a short but steep roller in front of St. Peter’s Church.
Following the St. Peter’s sprint, there are only a few miles to go and they’re mostly downhill. To summarize the course: lots of flat, one short climb, and two big-money primes. And there was also prize money for the Top 3.
My strategy coming into the race was to be in the early break or keep it together until the climb. I really wanted the $500 prime on the climb, but if a break was up the road, it didn’t matter how hard I attacked from the field – the break would take the prime.
It turned out that getting into the early break was a lot easier than I had thought. Two riders attacked from the gun, and I started to bridge across about 30 seconds later. It still took me two minutes to get there because those riders were hauling. It was also a big effort to do at 5:50 in the morning, but those 5 AM MyWhoosh races have been preparing me for racing at that time.
Once I made it across to the break, we had four riders in total. I had no idea who these riders were, but they were matching my 380w pulls. For the first few minutes.
Shockingly, it didn’t take long before one of my break mates started sitting at the back of our group. Then it was two. And after 45 minutes in the break, everyone stopped working. But I kept rolling through because we were already out of sight – I had no idea what the gap to the field was, but it was surely over a minute, a healthy buffer if we made it to the climb.
After one of my 20-second pulls, I flicked my elbow once, then twice, and then I turned my head around. My break mates were about 30 meters behind me and they weren’t chasing. Well, I thought, I wasn’t going to slow down to wait for them, so I’ll just keep riding.
I put my head down and got nice and aero, my only goal being to make it up and over the climb before the field. I didn’t know what power to target, but 340w felt pretty comfortable. I also knew that there was a long way to go (about 67 miles), but if I could average 27mph, the field would have a hard time catching me.
So that was the plan: 27mph or bust. Head down, legs churning, eating and drinking every 20-30 minutes. And that’s how it stayed for the next two and a half hours. I went over the climb in the lead, thinking that the field was breathing down my neck. Little did I know that I already had seven minutes.
Following the climb, the course turned south, which meant that I had a nice tailwind for the next 10 miles. I averaged 30mph during this section, which built my confidence as it would be almost impossible for the field to make up a significant amount of time.
I had been feeling good so far, but my lower back was starting to kill me since I was hunched so low in the aero position. The worst pain came with about 15 miles to go as I turned into the final crosswind section of the course. My speed fell from 30mph to 24mph as I tried my best to keep my power to about 330w. My lower back was destroyed at this point, sore from the aero position, and the fact that I’ve only been riding outside once per week this summer.
As I came through St. Peter’s prime, I thought there was still a chance I could be caught. With six miles to go, the field could come out of nowhere. But as I entered the final few miles, I felt a rush of energy wash over me. I came into the finish with no one in sight, winning Race the Lake in a time of 3 hours 18 minutes, and 12 seconds, setting the unofficial course record with an average speed of 27.3mph.
In total, I spent 99.5% of the race in the breakaway and two and a half hours solo. I averaged 330w for the entire effort, with a peak 90-minute power of 340w when I first went solo.
I didn’t know I could do that.
During my cycling career, I’ve done all kinds of power tests from 5 seconds to 20 minutes and everything in between. I’ve even done a few one-hour power tests to truly measure my FTP. But never before had I done what was effectively a three-hour power and speed test.
The hardest part was not the actual pedaling, it was staying aero for over three hours. Of course, if I was a “real” pro cyclist, I would ride outside a lot more and my back wouldn’t hurt as much.
**
A few days later, with my back still healing, I lined up for the final round of the Zwift Classics series for an individual time trial (ITT) in Bologna. I had raced this course many times before, sometimes in an ITT and sometimes in a normal Zwift race. It had been a few months since my last effort in Bologna, but I knew that the climb would be the crux of the race.
The Bologna TT course is made up of two (slightly uneven) halves. First, you have eight minutes on fairly flat roads. There are a few bumps along the way, but nothing steep or longer than a few seconds. The second half of the course is where all the action happens.
It’s 2km at 9.6%, with a long middle section at 16%. In other words, the second half of the Bologna route is a ridiculous climb.
As a TT specialist and data nerd, I was confident in my pacing strategy of turning this course into one big Over/Under. I would ride the first half of the course under threshold (385w) to conserve energy and prevent lactate buildup. Then, I would aim for 470w on the climb, going well over threshold, but just below my 5-minute power.
The hardest part of this strategy was going out “easy.” At the start of the TT, everyone’s legs feel good. You are completely fresh – of course they feel good. But I knew that much more time could be made up on the climb than on the flats.
For example, a 20w increase on the flats might get you an extra eight seconds, while 20 more watts on the climb could get you 30-35 seconds.
So I went out at 350-360w and watched as the riders slowly drifted past me. By the time we got to the climb, I was in 15th place and more than 20 seconds down on the leaders. But one by one, I began catching riders that were doing 6.1-6.2w/kg on the climb whereas I was holding 6.7w/kg. I actually caught the front group with 1km to go, and then there was only one rider left out front. I kept my effort in check and slowly began catching him with 600m to go.
For the final minute, thanks to my pacing strategy, I had enough left in the tank to put out 580w up the final 10% ramp. I won the TT by four seconds, averaging 416w (5.9w/kg) for 14 minutes and 21 seconds. It was my best-ever performance for that type of effort, and I had even gone for a run that morning.
As the Zwift Premier League approaches, the only thing left to work on is my sprint. I can’t do 17w/kg like the rest of my teammates, but I can hold 14.5w/kg for about 20 seconds. We are eagerly awaiting the race details for the Zwift Premier Division. And when they are released, you can guess that I will rewrite my entire training plan.
Thanks again to Alex Coh who keeps me on track and accountable each and every week. Without his help, I couldn’t have dreamed of executing a breakaway performance like I did at Race the Lake.
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Up next:
Zwift Racing League: begins September 13th
Zwift Premier League: begins September 23rd
Fabulous read!!!!!!!!!! Hope your days continue to get better off the bike as well.