First Weekend of Racing

After spending the winter fighting to find good riding weather between long stretches riding the sofa, it is time to find out if this very specialized training plan worked out. This weekend I signed up for two races on Saturday and one on Sunday. Nothing like finding the speed by fire.

Saturdays races were part of the Syn-Fit Races in Chantilly, VA. The course was shaped like an almost flat sloppy capital D with two 90 degree corners. My first race was a 20 mile cat 4 race at 10:15am with an at field limit 100 racers. I got there with enough time to sign in and get twenty minutes of riding in before the race. I'm not one to do big elaborate warm ups. I don't have a large amount of base miles or fitness for that matter so a good warm up could burn all of my energy before the race even starts. My main concern for the races for the weekend was just surviving the starting speed off the line. I lined up toward the back which is not good for me to do especially in my first race. It started out pretty calm off the line, that allowed me to move up a bit so I could stay protected in the heart of the group. It really was interesting how these guys would not let themselves just carry their speed through the corner instead of feathering the brakes. As the pace picked up toward the end of the race the repeated accelerations off the corners started to take their toll on me. My legs began to feel the strain of speed. Knowing I had another race later in the day, I decided not to dig to deep to hold on to the group so I pulled the plug with 6 laps to go. I was happy to hold on for as long as I did in my first race of the season.
The second race of the day was a 20 mile 35+ cat4/5 race at 2:15pm. This is my favorite category to race, old slow guys who have to go to work in the morning. Much smoother and safer races. I started this race at the front which makes it easier to take the corners at full speed. I had fun going with little breakaways and doing my normal of finding the big guys to hide behind for protection. In the last couple laps I was hanging out in the back watching teams setting up their sprint trains. Yes even cat 4/5's watch the Tour and are able to set up Mario Chipo type lead out trains. I heard a guy talking to his lead out so a asked him him if he was a good sprinter. He said yes. I told him ok I'm going to follow him and get second place in the sprint. He said hang on if you can. We started to make are way back up to the front. With half a lap to go the speed really picked up and big surprise, I couldn't hold on to the train. The guy I was talking to won the race. It was nice to see them have a plan and be able to pull it off. Good for them.

Sundays race was at 9:15am. I had to drive like a bat out of hell to get there in time. I'm glad I'm not one for warm ups because I got a 10 minute warm up. The race was The Carl Dolan Memorial Classic. I raced the 27 mile cat 3/4 race. I have raced this race for the last three years. I've had some pretty good results here in the past. The only concern for me this year is the small hill right before the finish line. I am not lite at all this year. The winter weight never had a chance this year. Too much sofa time. This course is a long round circuit of about 2 miles. The first lap I fought to hang on up the hill. So I decided to make my way toward the front before the hill comes back around again. I did just that and of course on the way up the hill this time I started to slide back til I was spit out the back on the second lap. Now I'm thinking 'crap I just paid $15 a lap to race'. I was passed by a guy at the top of the hill who wanted to continue. I caught up to him and we gathered up two more guys and the four of us rode together for the next five laps until we good lapped. $6 a lap was much easier to stomach.

All in all I am very happy with my racing for my first race of the season with really on speed work at all.

A Great Birthday

A birthday to me is my day. I do not do anything to celebrate. I have only worked on my birthday once in the past 20 years. I think it should be a national holiday. Not my birthday but everyones birthday. I always find something fun to do. In the past I've gone camping, bungee jumping, glider riding, mountain biking in Moab, and many other bike rides all for my birthday. Today I found a group of accountants who were celebrating the end of tax season with a 70 mile ride starting in Taneytown, Md. After the soaking rain we have been getting for the past week, the sun was so welcome today. At was not the warmest day but good all the same. Knee warmers and long sleeve jersey was the order of the day.
The six of us started out at a very relaxed pass. Really nice to start easy when you know your doing a hilly 70 miles. These guys have been sitting behind a desk for 60 hours a day since January doing taxes. They were not into any kind of stress at all today. Perfect for me. The route is flat for the first 20 miles then climb up South Mountain in PA and roll around the rolling hills for a bit followed by 20 miles of flat back to Taneytown. The climb was long and hard but the scenery was beautiful. Somewhere in the middle we were to eat lunch. The problem was all the planned lunch stops were closed for business, a sign of a bad economy, until we arrived in Emmitsburg at 55 miles. By this time I've been out of water for quite a while. Must have water and eat now. At this point I would eat darn near anything. We ate at Pizza Hut. As pizza goes, Pizza Hut does not really qualify. I ate it anyway. We finished up with an easy 15 miles back to the parking lot.

A great day!