I haven't had much to say lately -- still hitting the turbo, but not much to say and work stuff has been pretty intense the last couple weeks.
I have noticed that on multi-lap races, particularly those with climbs, my times for lap #2 and any subsequent laps are far slower. I'm charging out and hanging with the lead or 2nd group. I get dropped severely on the climb and never have a large group again where I can hide in the draft. As a result I'm fatiguing badly and can lose minutes on subsequent climbs. Probably a signal I should back off a bit at the start to have more in the tank near the end -- but that's always been damn hard for me.
Looking at the data, my climb times for box hill are consistently improving over time, but the gap from first to second climb has been consistently around 3 minutes. So I made a real effort in Tuesday's race to still ride hard on the first lap, but also maintain a better pace on the second lap, particularly the climb. And I only dropped 1:56 on the second box hill climb. Clearly more work needed here though.
Wed was a shorter race. Can't remember a damn thing about it other than I thought I ought to have been able to go out harder and sustain it better given the shortness. Not sure what happened. Maybe poor sleep due to work stuff keeping me up late.
Thu had multiple laps in watopia. Sadly I didn't focus as well on keeping up a good pace and the lap to lap gaps didn't improve. However, I had good 5, 20 & 60 efforts according to golden cheetah, so I guess it was a better race than I realized.
Fri my legs were pretty beat. First lap was respectable. Drafting with one other rider on the second lap -- he was clearly stronger and took longer pulls. I cooked it too hard and long on one pull and wasn't able to latch on when he past by. Lap #3 hurt and I can safely assume was dog-slow. Lap #4 was an exercise in survival -- I latched onto a random rider just to save some effort to ensure I'd finish.
Will take tomorrow off, or at most tool around for a bit just to get the blood flowing.