Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Now What?

Race season is over for me... Rich may talk me into a cross race though. There are no hill repeats, zone interval, or spin up workouts in my near future. Instead I will focus on areas other than riding to improve my performance on the bike.

One thing is to drop some weight. At one point in the season I was down to 188 my weight went up to 196.

I am running now. I running 2mi 3days a week and so far I ran Monday and today. I like riding much better.

Weights? I need to start that soon.

I am sure there are many more off bike activities that will make me faster on the bike.

Monday, September 21, 2009

State RR

I finished off the season with the State Road Race this past weekend. I had no expectations for this race. I thought if I could hang with the pack to the end, I would have a chance for a respectable finish. I did feel confident with my sprint on a flat finish.

Also, I was worried about hanging on the group for "the hill", the one right after the turn to Liebers Point. There were KOM points every time up the hill so I knew I would be struggling to stay on each time up.

The first couple of laps were mellow. The Cat IVs caught up and were just behind us so the group consensus was to speed up a bit. I am not proud of it but I did a lot of wheel sucking even when the pace was slow.

There were times I was completely spent another hill or surge I would have surely been dropped. That didn't happen. After surviving "the hill" on the last lap, I was just happy to be there.

Last 10 miles: Tim Farham is off the front about 2 minutes ahead... there is no catching him. Shim(Midwest cycle) makes a break and shortly after Lucas(The Lucus) bridges up to him. Ian (Cyclismo) starts the effor to chase the two escapees just ahead. Feeling guilty about sucking wheel and good about just being there I thought I would help in the effort to catch the break. I was making some progress but could not do it on my own. Still nobody came around. I was on the front for a good 3miles until we turned into Liebers point. Lucky for me the group started to come around and I was able to rest. I felt good about my chances for a bunch sprint.

The group started to speed up the last hill before the final corner. I was on the inside of a line of about 7 riders. Had to slow down a bit for the corner but sprinted to catch the group. They were just out of reach and one guy on my wheel got me to the line. I regret letting him pass me. Again, I was just happy to be there for the sprint.