ain't feeling it

too many other quality race reports out there and I just ain't feeling like writing much right now...

rode in in the rain but hey, that's nothing unusual. Other than it was my day to drive, but with the rain suddenly showing up my wife decided to drive, so I did a quick change out of street clothes and into the funny bike racer clothing.

and... yeah...

that's about it... came in the same way this morning as yesterday... mellow, just chilling today in the cool drizzle, nice to get some off road sketchyness under the tires occasionally. And now that everyone has file treads, maybe I can hope that we're inundated with Pac NW style precipitation from here until December 8th reducing their advantage.

Itching to get a box from someone with fancy stuff in them... itching to sniff some Mastik.

Was planning on doing a timing belt on the Golf tomorrow (actually one of the biggest pain in the ass timing belts to do on any car, but I think it is fun and really not that hard once ya figure it out) but the tensioner didn't show up in the box with the belt. So maybe waiting to spend 4 hours being over and under and in and over and under and leaning and wrenching in my wicked dirty orange suit (yes i have two of them and if you think the race day suit is dirty, ya should check the second one out) a few days before NoHo isn't a bad thing. I'll just work on wrecking my legs today and tomorrow and letting them recover, not the rest of me being wrecked.

This weekend is catching up. I guess I sort of did a great glen this weekend. Little to no sleep Saturday night. And yes it is caught up with me. Maybe that's where the lack of motivation to get topical and write something is coming from. Fatigue.

Wrentham was fun though. I will say this first. It is a great training race course because it is relentless and hard and challenges me in many ways. And for those same reasons it is so hard to race (for me). I went out hard. Way too hard. My 21st start position wasn't bad. Started next to Jorge. I wanted the inside line. All that practice and I knew i didn't want to line up in the middle. But it is okay. I battled for a wheel, sprinting around people I shouldn't have been just to get in line to follow Foley's wheel. And then it didn't feel too bad. But I was already hot. I hate racing cross in hot weather. The first couple races are one thing. But it should be cold now. Ya know? Not one race yet where long sleeves were needed. Canton arguably but even that race I was perfect in short sleeves. Too damn hot.

Need cold. Like Sven's interview, I prefer his temp range for racing. It may be purely mental, but let me tell you: based on numbers my results are held back more from mental than physical challenges. I should have been okay. But some how gaps grew in certain spots where I just couldn't hold them. There was a good bit of wind and I was doing the pack slide pretty well. Heck it took me 5.5 laps to slide back to Eric who had start number 122 (i was 121). Man if I'd just started with him and moved up. Who knows. But then Maybe i'd just have finished 34th instead of 35th.

More than the course I like hanging with and seeing the folks around the MRC gang. They are good folks. And the rest of the crowd. JTferraro, man that guy has a freaking motor mouth after the race. The juice he was amped on certainly give his mouth a massive motor, red-lining. It was bottom line a very tough and demanding course. I didn't feel like i was railing the corners as hard as I should, I wasn't pussyfooting through them, but I wasn't charging into them as hard as I should. That set up at the top just after the second wheel pit had me befuddled the whole fucking race. Never could figure that out. Mental issues maybe because the rest of the course was the same, that was just changed. I also ran the hill after the small barriers everytime (maybe tried to pedal onces). I found that with sticking in the 46 ring, running the hill was easier than trying to muscle it up to speed in the 46-27. But I know those first two and a half laps I burned 4 laps worth of matches trying to keep contact with the Great One. But as Colin so aptly demonstrated there isn't really anywhere to do a graceful slide on that course. Canton, G-ster: nice graceful wide open areas to settle in.

Settling in is a much better term than "pack sliding" no? So you may have a primo start position, but if you settle in well that gives you and advantage over those who didn't get a nice start position. Settling in is a way to have a good race. Esp if you are a mid-pack fodder racer. (okay fine I'm a back of the middle of the A masters race around here). Considering that Frank and Mark show up somewhat regularly. And the guys that finish behind them or around them are wicked strong "old" guys, the old slow race is really one of the fastest races here in New England. And it is stacked racing. Fun racing too. Guys with skills and power. The challenge is amazing. I relish it. And it gives me a drive to actually get some regular training in (at least to this point in the season, after NoHo I might just say fahk it).

9 races into the season... not counting the 3-4 training races at wrentham. That's a good amount of racing. My cross results numbers are going down because I had some better numbers last year but they are, as much as I wish I could find fault in them, they are a damn good reflection on my status here in new england. Sort of Slow. But NoHo was one of my favorite courses last year. I am just looking forward to having fun and seeing where my name fills in the results sheet...

well hey, this has been sitting here since lunch...

best to hit publish and proof read later

heddwch
g

(i hope i came to at least a gewilli kind of ending and it isn't left mid thought - not that there isn't a whole lot of difference between the two)