graph

So here's a quick chart I made of my six race season. It progresses chronologically from left to right across the x axis. The y axis is place ratio, which is my attempt to control for the varying field size between races, its just my finishing place divided into the total racers. I don't know what is this is the best way to represent the data, or how I can properly weight each race, as a last place ratio would be 1 but a first place ratio would be asymptotic and possibly not accurately representative. A 5th in a field of 44 would have a much larger ratio than 5th in a field of 63.

The CRC Solon and Chagrin river races were raced with a 7 speed index system on 27inch wheel and riser bars ( using my normal Centurion frame). All other races were with my normal single speed setup.

What does this tell me ?
I was physically unprepared for the season. I most certainly need to dedicate more time to getting race ready. This year I didn't start riding (outside of commuting to work, school and playing bike polo) until mid June, and even then it was inconsistent and lacked interval and heart rate training completely

Also being psychologically prepared, going into the Kirtland park race knowing I can easily finish top ten made a world of difference.

Heart rate training. Just before the chagrin river race I started keeping track of my heart rate when I was exercising. I believe that that over the course of the following four weeks was one of the biggest contributors to the vast difference between my early season and late season races.

Needless to say there is plenty of room for improvement between now and next year.