looooooong weekend

But wow, was it awesome.

Racing was an absolute blast. Even Saturday's race, not quite in perfect physical condition after the adventures of Friday, but even then on the bike racing I felt transformed. As soon as I crossed the finish line I was back to feeling like crap but what took over racing on Curtis's most awesome course was dramatic.

Suckerbrook was just as much fun racing. I wasn't as excited about the added corners and all esp since I was cornering in a typical gewilli fashion (poorly), and my snap and jump out of the corners wasn't quite where it could be, but despite that, man it was fun. Hard, painful, but fun. I have no idea how many laps we did. No lap cards until 3 to go. But wow, talk about amazing fun. Based on the times relative to the winners, not considering the two days leading up to the race, or the week of crawling over and under the car and not riding, only looking at last year vs this year's times; I improved. I was not DFL this year (bonus). The field was much deeper and faster. The winners times yesterday were slower than last year and my time was faster. Marginally, but last year the winner finished in 40:42, this year 41:36. Last year I was across the line at 46:53, this year 46:25.

I'm focusing on the positives. It was a freaking blast. Despite the week and few days before it would seem maybe there is a tiny bit of improvement. last year IIRC i had been getting into intervals and other stuff before suckerbrook. This year i haven't done one in anger yet. Just lots of sub-threshold stuff and running.

And that waterville race. Oh man was that a perfect course. Could have been a bit longer but man I LOOOOOOVED the running section and how many times we did it. Every time I ran that like it was a 100 meter sprint flying through there. The little dismount up the hill was tough, even for me but man it was fun, a great element (awesome design/concept curtis).

More on that race later- the snow pit for the Elite races was just fun. A token bit of slush, but it added something no one else had. And the venue really was spectacular. And it really isn't that far away.

It was a great weekend of seeing people I haven't seen in a while. Catching up briefly. Seeing the one and only Zanc make his New England return. And while it may not be the best thing to say, his comment after the 3 race was he hadn't raced that hard since the last time he was in New England. Is racing just not quite the same level where he was? That is one of the ways to interpret it. And man, New England has some amazing cyclocross racers, but New England also has depth, many many fast guys and gals. Most race everything, some race just cross. What a great scene we have here. People really do need to make an effort next year to get to waterville.

And yes. I'll write up both later.

Today i rode in as slowly as I could. even barely pushing the pedals up the hill to keep the HR and effort as close to Z1 as I could. What a beautiful morning for it.

heddwch
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