Enjoy, ride a fat tire
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Here’s my race report as a first timer at BRX. It’s long, so I bolded a few key points.
For context, my goal for 2024 is to just be consistent and methodical in my training and really maintain that at 10 hours per week. I’m typically a 3 to 3.5 W/kg rider so I’m not going to podium even my age group; I just am doing my best.
I was doing the 36 mile. I chose wave 4 (of 6) thinking that I was going to be about 50th percentile of racers and not wanting to be tempted to go way too hard at the beginning and blow up, which I tend to do.
Jan and Feb my training was going great, I reached my highest FTP in years (235). Then I had a week family vacation, followed by two woods of sickness, then as I was feeling better a week of work travel. My March and April were shot. So heading into BRX I had low expectations.
I did one relatively hard ride the weekend prior, 2h with a NP of 182W. The intervals.icu CP model was estimating 190 W FTP. I checked TR AI FTP and it gave me 236 W, a 1 W increase despite having the below fitness trend. I thought that was bonkers, so I set my Wahoo to an FTP of 190W.
I started in second row of 4th wave. The start was easier than I anticipated, so I stayed at the front and ended up being ~5th wheel heading out of town then catching a lot of people from wave 3 before 3 sisters. A few people from my wave passed me there since I was pacing myself on the hills.
I then proceeded to spend almost the whole race passing people. I was never more than 300’ behind someone and most of the time I was within 40’ of someone. I was amazed at how many people were just riding right smack in the middle of the road despite it being an open course and there being signs on every decent hill telling people to keep far right. Thankfully things were strung out enough that I had little trouble passing, I just often had to pass on the right. 
I got pretty lucky that the traffic was fairly light at Sager and most people were successfully riding it. One guy near the middle did fall into the guy in front of me, but I squeaked by. I made it through Sager without putting a foot down, which was a goal of mine.
After Sager there started to be several people that I would pass on the flats that would pass me again on the hills only for me to drop them on the downhill. Suddenly I cramped bad in my left hamstring and despite trying to stretch on the bike it was getting worse. I had to stop and stretch for 40 seconds, during which several of those people passed me again. I made a mental note of those riders and made it my mission to beat them.
The rest of the race was just trying to keep my pace up to the finish without fading. I succeeded but didn’t have any ability to sprint at the end (no surprise at all given my lack of recent training). I was able to beat everyone I identified on the course as a benchmark. I finished in 2:10, which was slower than my original plan in January to finish sub 2 hours, but I am very happy with considering my poor training.
Now here’s the weird part. All race long I kept racing by feel but glancing at my computer to see if I was pushing too hard. I figured I had better check the power and consider slowing down a bit if my IF was too high (I was shooting for 0.85). But every time it was well above 100% FTP. Yet I felt good, too good for my FTP to be set right. So I figured I will just keep going by feel.
At the finish my Wahoo was showing an IF of 1.25 for 2:10. So yeah, slightly underestimated my FTP. Based on the race data, Intervals.icu CP model now estimates a 231W FTP, very close to the 236W that TR AI FTP came to with using very little recent training data and right what I had tested at weeks before 
.
I just can’t believe how great my legs were that day. Part of it was the cold weather which I dressed perfectly for, keeping me cool despite riding so intense. Part of it was having so many rabbits (other riders) to chase, which always motivates me. And certainly being fresh helped, but I thought my legs would be garbage due to de-training.
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Did you actually have at least 3 max or near max efforts between 3 minutes and 20-30 minutes? Say 3 minutes, 8 minutes, 12 minutes, and 20 minutes? Or just training indoors doing interval work?
I did in February. I purposely did various max efforts to really feed the models… Leading up to the race it was a few outdoors rides, but not max efforts. I knew the CP model would struggle to model my FTP given that.
I’m just amazed that A) TR AIFTP got it right, B) my FTP hasn’t gone down the drain. I only had a total of 305 TSS across the 4 weeks before the race.
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That’s how I felt too. I think the temperatures and road conditions were just perfect. Plus you are never alone on that ride. There is always someone to chase or chasing
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I would suggest you try your next race without much computer data, it can really get in your head. Most races I only have the mph, and distance showing.
If you were doing a longer race, power data might be worth showing but for a crit or something under 50 miles, I’d try it without.
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When trained, I have a fairly high anaerobic capacity relative to my FTP. My higher power zones are at a higher %FTP than the classic Coggan zones.
So I have a hard time feeling when I’m over doing it, especially early in a ride/race. I was trying to use power as a sense check. Regardless my over riding governor was RPE, which I have been trying to get attuned to.
I feel like I raced about as good as possible given my fitness level.
I’m signed up for a low-key 56-mile gravel “race” tomorrow in south central MN and the forecast is <50 F, 14mph wind, and 70-80% chance of rain. Anyone have any tips on dressing for those conditions? The race is probably at least 3 hours long, potentially longer in bad conditions, so hypothermia seems like a definite concern.
I have not ruled out bailing on the race.
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Anybody done Chicago Grit (formerly Intelligentsia)? My wife, after some convincing, agreed to a 1 week vacation in Chicago sort of based around the race series. But I wouldn’t be doing all the races. I’ll probably do 4 or 5 at most. My question is: what races would you do? The first 2 are out, possibly the first three. So I have seven to pick from, maybe eight if that first Sunday (Winfield) is really worth it. What would be the top 4 races I need to do?
Lake Bluff is a big race in the series….pretty tight, technical course. Narrow corners and off-camber turns give you a good pucker sometimes.
Mundelein is also a good course and worth doing.
(Both of these are local to me, so I am biased 
)
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My initial plan was Mundelein and Lombard Mon/Tues. Then take Wed/Thurs off to sightsee and do stuff with my wife. Then race Elgin Friday and Lake Bluff Saturday so I can stick around and watch the Pro ACC race.
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Anyone doing Black Fork this weekend? I should be able to improve my time from last year as long as I can hold off the back pain as long as possible.
Race report from the Granny’s Gravel Grinder out of Princeton, MN this last weekend:
It rained overnight and was raining right up until the 10 AM start of the 54 mile race. The course was mostly typical MN farmland gravel roads, pancake flat, with a few stretches of pavement and some state highway crossings, going mostly north for the first half and south for the second half. There was a slight wind out of the NE and temps were upper 40s at the start.
The first 5-10 miles were a grind in a very literal sense. With the overnight rain, the course was very wet and drivetrains and brakes were very grindy and loud. The race largely stayed together for this section, owing to the headwind and the difficult conditions. At some point, I went to the front to try and ride my own lines more efficiently and I put in a dig on a small downhill. I looked back after the next right turn and there was a front group of 8 that had formed with me. We hit pavement shortly after and started rotating to maintain the gap, albeit in a somewhat surging, inefficient manner.
This group stayed together for the next 12 miles or so until we hit a section of forest road which was very soft. Riding my own pace, I again found myself in front and again I attacked to push the pace. This section lasted for about 2 miles and the group was whittled down to 5 at the end of it.
The 5 of us rolled together for the next 15 miles. I put in one dig at the start of a pavement section, but in hindsight, the speed was too high for it really to stick. The placement of the highway crossings on route also meant that attacks needed to be planned with the crossings in mind, since having to wait for traffic could easily wipe away any gap gained. I tried attacking again as we transitioned from pavement to gravel, but again the speeds were too high and no gap was gained.
We essentially soft-pedaled for the next 6 miles. On another very soft section around mile 41, I found myself in front so I attacked AGAIN and this time I got a 15-20 second gap. The course here had 90 degree turns every 1-2 miles, so I didn’t ever get out of sight. We did manage to drop 2 riders, though, so I was chased by just 2 others until mile 49 when I was finally caught. From there, it was more soft-pedaling because no one else wanted to lead. There were 1 or 2 attacks but no one got more than a few bike lengths before we regrouped.
We came into the last 1.5 miles and on the final hill, I made my last ditch effort. The stronger of the two other riders outweighed me by probably 75 pounds, so I figured the hill was my best chance. I got a 5-10 second gap on the short uphill and stayed on the gas over the top and down. The last half mile was in a literal farm field, so it was extremely bumpy and unpleasant, like racing cross with 10psi too much in your tires. Fortunately for me, the field made it very difficult to close gaps and I crossed the line first at just under 3 hours!
Owing to the long easy sections, my normalized and average powers were relatively low, only 84% and 75% of FTP. IF for the race was 0.84, and average and max HRs were 80% and 93% of max. I consumed about 110g carbs per hour which worked great as I didn’t cramp at all and I was still able to spike over 900w for 15s twice during the final few miles.
Overall, a solid training race with a very unexpected result at the end. Now I just need to repeat this all on Saturday for the 60 mile Hungry Bear race, which will be a larger field, tougher terrain, and likely more much competitive. I’m just hoping for less rain leading up to it, as I’m STILL trying to get my Force AXS levers to return normally.
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Congrats!
Who all is going to Le Grand du Nord this weekend? Looking to be another wet one…
Congrats on the win here! Great report and incredible result … there is nothing like crossing the line first 
I would just like to share RayGun’s take on what Midwest is. Generally I would agree with this, as I don’t consider ‘Great Plains’ or ‘Great Lakes’ to be a region. I could be convinced that Ohio belongs in the Northeast.
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There is nothing northeast about Ohio. Lol.
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The 4 most western states in that image are definitely NOT the Midwest. 
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