The dog. Also the hardest one to hit snooze on. But at least to hit snooze i don't have to get out of bed, i just say "Lucy, let me sleep a few more minutes." She lies back down on the floor by the foot of the bed waiting for a bit. I'll fall back asleep and she'll be quiet until i roll over or something moves or barring that about 15 minutes. Then she gets louder.
Throwing her 75 pounds of muscle against the bed and sticking that nose into my side and then if i don't move she start making quiet noises, that really aren't quiet in a silent house. But is it enough to drag me out of bed, come downstairs, let her out, and then feed her.
Of course now she's curled up on the couch next to me not quite sleeping but relaxed and happy.
Rick Newhouse Memorial Crit was yesterday. And ya know, since i'm enjoying this racing stuff a lot more this spring than ever before esp the flat crits I couldn't pass up going. Well, I should say, if i was able to get a ride down there I wouldn't be missing it.
I sorted out a ride, and headed down with trainer, EZ-up and bike. Once we hit 95 south I had a moment of "oh shit" where's my license. It wasn't in my wallet where it normally is. Last week i had my PI nylon pants on over the cycling stuff and had stuck the license in the back zipper pocket to take to registration. Well, at the last second packing i had stuck those pant in there, and sure enough, when we got down there my license was right where i left it from last week.
The weather wasn't nearly as dire as predicted. Just a misty drizzle and a moderate (10mph or so) northish wind. That meant a headwind on the finishing straight.
The set up was key, the EZ Up was nice, the 4 of us from the team who signed up and made it down had a dry place to warm up, Singmaster's car was the wind block and the tent kept us dry and warm while we spun out on the trainer. I was missing some snap and mental psycho killer gut feeling, but i wasn't feeling dead either. Somewhere not quite overboosting turbo charged but definitely not NA (normally aspirated if you aren't a car person).
This race was going to be different than the Chris Hinds, one the weather, two it was a 3/4 race. I know a handful of the cat 3 people in it and was wondering how that would play out. Gary Aspnes has been doing well (myles standish for example). Marro is always a force, races so intelligently and always has a plan, is always strong as hell, and man he can lay the hurt down for an old dude. Then there is the relative "kid" Scot Glowa, recently moved from CB to Svelte. He is the antithesis of svelte, he's big, he's wicked strong, and like the other two a solid well placing cat 3. I'm sure there were a few other Cat 3s. Gary's team mate (Spike?) was going to figure heavily in the race. CB had a good number of guys in the race and I was expecting them to be more active.
So we line up, and "GO" we head off and start making rounds. One the fist lap i noticed the wheel spray, but by the time we went around the second time it didn't even register. I wore glasses and a cycling cap and had no issues with the water except the grit in my teeth, and hell that's like getting a belgian tan line (a black line at the top of your sock).
The nice thing about that course is there is grip galore. Even when wet. Now sure, if you are an idiot and put 150 psi in your tires or even 130 psi in some 23s and you aren't a 300 pounder, well chances are you can slip out and lose grip. And yeah, I ran the fatboys, 28s with 90 psi in them. Or as marro asked "Are you running those 700x41s?"
A handful of guys were not comfy, looking tense and anxious in the rain. But man ya know? despite having to hit the bakes a few times to avoid running up someone's rear in a corner it was a smooth race.
So we roll off. And almost immediately attacks start. One, then another, the Horst boys were in every one it seemed, or if they weren't they brought it back. My plan was to hang out in the back, get a feel for it, stay comfortable, try to move up when i could ride around up near the front, and then see about saving something for the end.
7 minutes into the race (according to Cronoman) the decisive attack got away. Glowa and Aspnes got clear. And they built a gap. And no one really organized a hard chase to bring them back. That was 3 minutes earlier than the cronoman planned to do anything.
So the pack would string out fast on the back stretch with the tail wind, fly into the front stretch but then into the wind it would get pretty fat, mushroomed out as no one wanted to work into the wind.
No one except Gary and Scott. And every lap they would get a couple seconds through the start finish. Gary's team mate was doing an awesome job of disrupting any sort of chase. Brier went off the front with a few people now and then, cronoman did a few times, a couple others did, heck a lot of the field had gone to the front at one time or the other to lift the pace, but nothing was organized or sustained and the two in the break away kept adding seconds per lap.
At one point it was really slow after that first gentle turn and I had momentum, rolled to the front and said, ah hell why not and took off. And got clear. With maybe Tommy Goguen (small junior in the CF kit) on my wheel. Well clear of the field and flying around I flicked the elbow to see if there was anyone else, nope, just the two of us. And we hit the wind and I tried to sit in for a second but man, there is NO draft behind that kid and sort of sensing the futility of our jump i eased off and let the field (all strung out for the first time in the front stretch) come past, and sat in and recovered for a bit. I wish a better draft had jumped with me, that would have been fun.
It got pretty heavy and hot for a while, and I didn't really move up soon enough and was left too far back on the last lap. At Chris Hinds I sprinted from the back of the pack and passed 30 people. At Rick Newhouse I did the same thing and passed two. Oops.
It was fun, extra confidence builder, I didn't race spectacularly, and I still haven't done a single interval workout outside of a race (I really don't want to be tired of intervals when cross season rolls around - this is unstructured fun training/riding time of year). But hey, I was never ever in danger of getting spit out of the back of the pack. There were a pair of guys who did get spit out, one unfortunate mechanical when a rider got pinched to the outside but refused to bail to the grass and the rear QR from the guy ahead of him who was being pushed outside went into the spokes on his deep dish carbon rim wheel and ripped a few out (ride the grass if you need to was the lesson). I don't know if anyone else got shuttled out the back or not. But just being able to hang on to the race the whole time, never getting gapped off the back, never really being in danger of being dropped or OTB, AND adding a flier in the second half of the race was a success for me.
And riding around with next two biggest guys on the team was a hell of a lot of fun. Next time I think we'll need to work up a team plan.
Man I am sore today. I think next week I may as well go hit turtle pond with G-ride and see what happens, why not? 4 weekends in a row of racing can't be a bad thing right? Toss in the Tuesday Night Smack down (we had a good 12 this past week - it has been a great ride and a good turnout) and there's some solid intensity happening. And I'm having fun. Lots of it. Good for the mental outlook.
Today might be a bit crazy. Hopefully i can at least get on the trainer for 15 minutes or so to work out this stiffness.
I've still got a few shots from last weeks race to get into the web log, maybe i'll get around to doing that this week before they get forgotten.
Peidiwch da
G
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