As you may recall from my earlier post, I've made the Medio Fondo NJ my late season goal. After a very long season (dating back to December 2011) that included the Rapha Rising Strava Challenge, the Strava Spring Classics Challenge and some personal family issues that kept me off the bike for about 4 weeks, I expected very little other than a festive atmosphere and fun ride with some friends.
Before I go there, let's rewind a bit….and take a look at what I did right, and what I did wrong?
Preparation
The last two weeks of July and first two weeks of August were a barren wasteland of training time for me, mainly due to family issues. With only 3 weeks left to game day, it was time for me to stop writing training plans and start following them. By essentially taking a month off, I knew that I had lost a big chunk of top end climbing ability. I spent much of June building that climbing prowess to a July peak (coincidentally for the GFNJ training ride I wrote about) and had planned to transition into another build/peak that never happened, so I had to try and hit a "mini peak" instead.
With that in mind (and trying to prevent burnout), I spent the three intervening weeks working on climbing, accelerations, and high pedal tension dirt road riding (plus it's just the perfect time of year to hit the unpaved stuff.) I'm fortunate enough to have the two Medio Fondo climbs within 8 miles of my front door, so I had plenty of time to scout and re-scout them several times. I'd ridden them both plenty of times before, but I rarely ever bothered to truly recon them, and it was surprising to see some of the nuances that I had previously missed. With my fitness plan sorted, I needed to start looking at how I would define my goals for this ride.
Tip #1: Vary your training, but keep it within the reach of your goals. If you're going to need a lot of muscular endurance work, find ways to get it other than climbing (like dirt road riding or mountain biking.)
Goals
Having ridden the route in July, I knew what kind of time I was capable of finishing with. I knew the route, I knew the climbs, I knew where to push and gain time and where to limit my losses. The only thing that I was lacking preparation in was the last minute detour that was added to account for a bridge being demolished. Having not scouted that section, I relied upon the GPS route and elevation profile to see me through. This leads me to:
Tip #2: Pre-ride the route if possible. If not, study the elevation profile and GPS map extensively and know what you're up against.
So looking at the terrain and my pre-ride data, I was able to set a goal time of 3:45 (secretly hoping for 3:30, but that would be an exceptional day.) When it came to the two timed climbs, I had an advantage: knowing them inside and out, since they're local climbs that I ride about once a week. I would simply go for a good time on them, maybe hoping for a top 30 placing (370 some odd men entered the Medio.)
Tip #3: Set realistic goals for yourself, and ones that are measurable by your own performance, not reliant on the performance of others (Example: finish in 3:45 is entirely due to your own performance, instead of "finish 3rd overall".)
Friday (2 days to GFNJ)
I picked up my packet Friday evening on the way home from work, since I didn't have to go into the office on Saturday. When I got home and finished prepping our place for company (a good friend of ours, Gerald, was going to be staying with us Saturday night so that he wouldn't have to get up at 2:30AM to drive down to the start) and checked out the packet.
Marty's Reliable Cycle (the organizer of GFNJ) had included a slick top tube sticker with the climbs and distances on it (very pro), a timing chip and wrist band (which ended up tied under my saddle), wrist and bike band for ID purposes, cue sheet, obligatory RoadID coupon and bib number. The only thing they were stingy about were the number of pins: no truly competent number pinner would use less than 6 pins (I prefer 8. They gave me 4. Boo.) The free pint glass was a major plus, and I ensured that it received a christening before the race (which may have been something that I made a mistake with.)
Saturday (1 day to GFNJ)
Having the morning off, I had my normal breakfast and coffee, finished up a few things around the house, finished up a few coaching obligations and headed off to Morristown to meet Gerald, who was coming down to get his packet and do an easy afternoon ride to work the legs out. We met in the parking lot and he proceeded to inform me that another good friend of ours was also registered, but misinterpreted the start time as 8:30 AM. Glen would have to leave the Hudson Valley at 3 in the morning to get down here and line up between 6 and 6:30AM. Like any good cycling buddy, I offered up our sleeper sofa, and he gladly accepted.
Gerald and I headed home, stashed luggage and headed out for a short leg opener ride. This kind of day before ride generally helps my legs feel good. Looking at my power numbers, I didn't see anything out of the ordinary, nor do I feel that I rode too hard. My legs felt good, were throwing out solid wattage numbers and my body felt fluid and relaxed.
We barely made it home before the wicked storms slammed into the area, dropping tons of crap in the roads and washing gravel into turns all over northern NJ. Glen arrived, my wife returned from work and we settled in to dinner (local organic chicken marsala mini-meatballs, local handmade pasta and local organic sautéed veggies.) We all christened our pint glasses with an Octoberfest or DogfishHead Punkin' in (premature) celebration for tomorrow's ride.
Before turning in for the night, we pinned up numbers (after digging out more pins) and chipped our bikes, loading them into vehicles. We all filled bottles, stashed them in the fridge/freezer, set the coffee maker and set an alarm for 4:00AM the next morning. Then we all turned in for the night, right about 10:30.
Tip #4: Prepare as many parts of your bike, gear, bottles, kit etc. the night before your event so you're not scrambling to get things done the morning of your ride. You'll be much calmer and things will go far more smoothly.
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