Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Today my panties were inside out...

which is better than them being in a wad, I suppose. I figured it out when I got to work, but decided to embrace it rather than strip down out of my dress pants and flip the suckers around. Funny how I don't typically give much thought to my undergarments, but that today, all I could think of was how they were on the wrong way. I came thisclose to divulging the little secret to my co-worker Chris, but when I got to his cube he was on the phone and then I was distracted by his candy dish, so the secret remained safe. I should have told him, he would have appreciated it.

I've been struggling with which direction I should go with my cycling this year and I keep coming back to not feeling ready for, and truthfully, not having the desire to suffer through Mulholland and Heartbreak Double Centuries. I was hesitant to back out of them because I set these goals and really wanted to stick to it. I had no idea that I would jump into racing, that I would be so excited about it, and that the different training required for racing would throw a wrench in my well laid plans to climb, climb, climb this month. I needed to take a step back and look at it as revising my goals instead of looking at it as quitting. I emailed Planet Ultra this morning to see if I could switch my registration to the century versions that I did last year and I I immediately felt like a weight had been lifted. The Triple Crown will be there next year and many other years if I choose to chase after it again.

Since my first criterium earlier this month, I've been out at Eldo every week. El Dorado Twilight Series is a Tuesday night race that runs from March through August. When I started talking to people about racing, hands down this was the recommendation for gaining pack riding skills. I'm racing with the 40+ men and honestly didn't expect to be able to hang for the whole hour the first week out there. I surprised myself and finished strong with the pack. The following week had a bigger field with some faster laps and there were times I thought I was going to pop. We either slowed, or I recovered...perhaps both...but I managed to stay in again! Last night there was a crash in our field and caught behind it, I sat out a lap on the suggestion of a Major Motion racer, since the field took off. I felt good out there though and am learning a lot about pack riding.

This week I have a 60 miler planned on Friday since I get off work at noon, then I'll climb out at GMR on Saturday. The following weekend is San Dimas Stage Race!

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Dash for Cash Criterium

It looks as though I'm up to my old tricks again, and not blogging regularly. You would think that having raced my first criterium, that I would be eager to talk about it! Here's the scoop...

I did the Dash for Cash crit on Sunday March 2, 2008.

I'll preface it by saying I was SO nervous and anxious. We were there at 7:00 a.m. to watch the Cat V race and my race didn't start until 11:31.

Seeing this (Keith is a BF member) from the Cat IV race didn't help the nerves.






I was able to get a good 45 minute warmup in, along with a pep talk from my 7 year old daughter.





I was feeling pretty good and stayed mid or front pack most of the race. With less than 1.5 laps to go I'm feeling great and our race gets neutralized on the slight incline for the elite women to pass. The race promoter who was riding with us tells everyone to stop pedaling, but only half of the field listens so I go from 4th or 5th wheel to mid-back of the pack coming up on the turn. Totally confusing and I had no idea when he was going to tell us to go again, but by that time there were women ready to take off when he called it at the line with one lap to go. Pretty strung out after the first corner but I managed to latch on to the back of the lead group, definitely lost steam on the incline before the last turn though. There were some STRONG women out there!

Official results...18th out of 30.

Anyway...I didn't get dropped! I never felt like I was going to get dropped! Two good things.

I definitely learned a lot today...mainly...
I need more intensity work!
I need to get some better group riding skills so I'm more confident staying on a wheel...spent way too much time in the wind on the outside.

Avg speed w/o cool down lap: 22.29 mph
Max speed: 30.42

After initially being disappointed, I got over myself and remembered that I didn't plan to start racing until June when all of my ultra-distance events for the season were done and I could train specifically for intensity. I made a last minute decision last week to register for this race because I wanted to get at least one crit under my belt before San Dimas at the end of March. So...not too bad and I think that with some work, I could do better.