April 3rd- Plainville Spring Series

With the inspiration of a leader's jersey to defend, I headed to the Plainville Spring Series this morning to support my team-mate, Pete, in the 4/5 race. I meet Pete for the first time as we're prepping, and I greet my friend Chris, a Uconn team-mate, who will be flying Colavita colors for the day.

I ask Pete what he wants from me for the day. He asks me to go for the primes to take the pressure off him. Done-I have my orders for the day.

As the dew burns off, we wait for 10 minutes on the line, waiting for 9:00 to tick over. In the meantime, we receive several tips from the series coordinator, ranging from race tactics to race nutrition.

Uconn/Colavita Chris

We start and as I move up a few places down the middle, I begin to turn, while my neighbor doesn't. We tap handlebars, and I get yelled at by a couple people. Kinda my fault, but I felt like I was holding the correct line through the turn. Whatever.

So, here's my HR log for the race. Steady red and green lines are respective averages for the race.

First spike is from a cash prime, I hit my max speed of the day there. A few spikes responding to attacks and prime #2 (got boxed in, Stefano, #2 overall, managed second), followed by...

That long, horizontal steady line on the HR register? That's a 5 lap, 3 then 4 man breakaway. The pic above was the beginning of said breakaway. For the duration of the breakaway, I posted an average HR of 190 (Lactate Threshold is 176), and was becoming severely cooked.

The whole reason of the breakaway was actually a points prime, which my team-mate Dan O thought was at 15 to go, rather than 10 go to. So, with a Cheshire guy, Chris, and myself away, we were joined by Stefano, placed #2 in the overall.

In any case, we did stay away, and I held Stefano off for top points to limit his gains on Pete.

After re-integrating into the field, I surprised myself for feeling so good after our 4 man effort. Recovered well all towards 5 to go, and then pulled up to the front, with Pete on my wheel.

Lucky we picked then to move. As we moved up the left, there's a pile-up to the right side. Chris gets caught, but stays upright, but Dan O (pre-mature prime sprinter) goes down and bangs his knee. Get well soon, Dan.

After a rider organized neutral lap, we start burning into the final four laps. On the bell lap, I put in as hard an effort as I can, and though I have no pictures from the front, I'm happy to say Pete managed 2nd place after getting knocked off his line in the sprint.

All in all, an excellent, rewarding day. Totals for the race, as well as HR zone percentages, posted below.

Zone 1- Endurance

Zone 2- Lactate Threshold

Zone 3- Over Lactate Threshold