This is a bit of a recurring theme, but I didn't ride two days early in the week, Tuesday and Wednesday, and I think this may be putting my training back a little bit. I had Thursday off from work so I actually did two rides. In the morning around 11 I rode over to the BTR course and did the full 50 minutes, which is what the Cat 3/4 race will be in length this next Saturday. It felt good but the wind was brutal so I was a bit slower than I would have liked, but confidence is high ahead of the weekend.
Last Monday, Memorial Day, I drove over to the east side of the state to race at Waterford Speedway and it was very cool. It was a race track for cars and it was a 'street' course so it had a lot of sweeping turns which made for a very fast race. There was a brutal little climb before we turned onto the back side of the track and that split up a lot of the race. Just about from the beginning there was a break of about 7 or 8 and it stuck the entire time. After this race, I decided I needed to start watching breaks more, whenever more than one or two guys go, I need to follow. I finished that race with the main pack, I was second wheel in the main group coming around the final turn but my sprint let me down a bit and I finished 13th in the Cat 4/5 race out of 38 riders.
Pedal's Thursday Night Ride was a little cagey, lets just say when I'm in the front doing the work and I pull off, I'll never try to get back in the pace line until I'm at the back. I don't really want to talk about this one more. Some guy chewed me out pretty good and I'm just glad that didn't affect my racing this weekend.
Took the night off Friday, nervous about the Lawton race on Sunday as that race is not a crit and I believe is 50 miles. I know I can ride 50 miles, I'm not sure if I can race 50 miles. Not super high hopes for Race for Wishes, but we will see what happens; fake confidence is key in most situations!
Went for a nice recovery ride on Saturday, trying to keep my heart rate at or below 120. I did that most of the time but opened up the legs for the 'Campus Climb', in which yours truly is the new KOM!!
Sunday! Drove the 3 hours to Kankakee, Illinois where I raced the Cat 4/5 Cobb Park Crit. It was a beautiful park, but I couldn't help but notice the dismal towns and living conditions on the way down there once I got off the highway. South of Chicago is not doing very well right now, and it was odd to see just about an entire city abandoned.
This race preparation finally fell perfectly into place! Found a place to park, checked-in, and set up my trainer next to my car so I could see the races going on as well. I think this might be my new strategy, warming up on my trainer instead of riding around. I feel like riding on the trainer I can focus more on what kind of warm up or what exercise I'm doing; whether that is spinning real fast or mashing the pedals or standing up and pretending to climb, its all is easier to focus on, on the trainer!
It was really very windy on the Kankakee river today, so no breaks were able to stick or even start to form. I did come around the last corner about the middle of the race and kinda made a move. I looked behind me and I had a sizable gap but I knew I couldn't race solo and get any sort of result; other than burning all my matches far too early. I really only did this because the announcer was announcing the name of the leader for each lap, and I wanted him to say my name! Never heard him say it though so maybe this was a bit wasteful. While I was out in front, another guy rode up from behind me and as he was going past me he told me to grab his wheel, which I couldn't quite do. A teammate of his came past me next and I grabbed his wheel but we were never able to catch the guy in front to form a break so the entire field came back together again.
Another guy during the race yelled at me for taking a wrong line, which I admit I did but I see people do it all the time, like what is the big deal dude? Anyway probably not going to try to do that again, try to pass people on a turn; it is ill-advised. The whole field was together on the last lap, I was sitting about mid-pack and all of a sudden the race turned up a couple notches. We sprinted out of every corner the entire race and coming down the back stretch and into the final sweeping turn we were really cookin'. The speed was so fast and I was caught unawares, positioning kind of got away from me and I settled for 18th out of 36. Again, the entire field was together at the end and the leader only finished 2 seconds ahead of me.
What I can take from today's race is that my fitness is good. I am fast and now we just need to learn how to win. I should have been more towards the front on the last couple laps, especially coming around the second to last turn on the last lap before the very fast, downhill back stretch before the final turn. If I could have positioned myself better, I believe my result would have been much better as well.
Information overload today, but things are looking up for this next weekend. I'm racing tomorrow at Martin, then all eyes are on the Kalamazoo Race Weekend. Only working Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, that will be nice as well. I am going to Uncle Dave and Gail's wedding on Friday, and the key will be not drinking very much, if at all! I hope all my 'fans' can make it out to next weeks race at Western Michigan University's Technology and Research park on Saturday. Contact me somewhere if you want more information, it would mean a lot to me to have people cheering me on, that is what is missing at these races so far, people cheering for me. This is the race I have been focusing on and I hope hope hope it is a very good result for me.
4/14 Eagle Creek Crit, Indianapolis, IN 12th Cat 4/5 (29)
4/22 Notre Dame Crit, South Bend, IN 12th Cat 4/5 (29)
4/29 Ann Arbor Spring Training Series Ann Arbor, MI 22nd Cat 4/5 (40)
5/6 Kalamazoo Half Marathon Kalamazoo, MI 13th (27) AG (M 19-24) / 249th (1392) Overall
5/7 131 Racing Series, Martin, MI 1st "B race" (9)
5/12 Tiger Lane Crit, Memphis, TN DNF Cat 3/4
5/20 Ann Arbor Spring Training Series Ann Arbor, MI 6th Cat 4/5 (25)
5/28 Waterford Hills Circuit Race, Clarkston, MI 13th Cat 4/5 (38)
6/3 Cobb Park Crit, Kankakee, IL 18th Cat 4/5 (36)
6/4 131 Racing Series, Matin, MI
6/9 BTR Crit, Kalamazoo, MI
6/10 Race for Wishes, Lawton, MI
6/15 Zeeland Crit, Zeeland, MI
7/15 Corktown Crit, Detroit, MI
Thank you for following my adventures so far this year, it means a lot to me that so many people have read my unorganized, often typo-strewn posts!
Ha! Almost forgot, have a date planned for later this week with a pretty rad gal, very much looking forward to that and hope it can take my mind off of bikes and racing and all this nervous energy and anxiety that is building up ahead of next weekend.
Cheers! CE
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