It's been a while since I've posted anything about our racing and training.
Per usual Jimmie is doing great. He raced the Pro class at Addison and then the Expert SS class. I raced Pro Women and wished I had raced Expert. There was an Expert Men's 40 to 49 guy yelling at me and Melanie B. Not sure what the jerks name. Anyway he's a used douche.
In between then and now we've replaced the roof on our house and the garage and we've been joining in on some Racing Greyhound training rides. Between the Gravity ride out in Milford, Maybury miles and the Cyclo Cross training I'm hoping to be ready for this last weekend of racing. They have a great group of people to train with and most of their rides are right by the house.
Peak to Peak
We pre-rode the course. We had a hard time finding the course due to lack of signage, but we hooked up with Lako and Jared M who pointed us in the right direction. We had a nice little hail storm during the very end of our pre-ride. Made things interesting.
The day of the race had better weather than expected. The first lap was fast. The single-track was in great shape and the climb at the end wasn't as hard as it was the time I did it in 2009. The single track after the climb is what I remember loving in 2009 - super fun! It makes up for the super flat stuff for miles in the beginning. Lap 2 and 3 semeed to go slower. The tackiness reminded me of iceman's course last year - sucked your speed away. Jimmie had a great race. He finished 11th of 24 which is awesome!
We spent sometime talking to friends after the race. Lise Selle unfortunately broke her chain during the first lap. She's still going to have a great iceman!
We went to the Mackinaw Brewery in TC after the race with Wendy and Todd. I ran into the Devost's from the Greyhounds while there. Both some very fast Greyhounds.
We tried to pre-ride some of the iceman course the next day but somehow got turned around. Not much to really learn though. All I know is I hope they have that shipping container thingy all figured out before the race on Saturday.
The Lowell 50
I raced, if you want to call it that, the 50 mile race in the Spring. That was terrible. The weather was cold with 20 plus mph winds and 22 and up wind gusts. I raced it on my cross bike and absolutely hated it. This time I signed up for the 34 miler, brought the MTB race bike and when I saw the weather forecast I knew that was the right plan. Again we had cold windy weather but this time add some rain just before the race.
During this time of year it's difficult to dress for racing, in my opinion. I had put on our long sleeved jersey and long pants, but still felt quite chilly prior to the race. My hands were by far the coldest. I decided to use a short sleeve jersey as a base layer and I put toe warmers, forgot the hand warmers, inside my winter gloves. My hope was to hang with the faster to fastest group of guys in an effort to pretty much get pulled along that 34 mile windy course. Unfortunately my plan fell through pretty quickly when I quickly started to over heat. I hung on for the first 5 miles or so and then I stared feeling slow. It took me some time to realize what was going on; I think my super sweaty hands were the big indicator. I tried unzipping some of my jerseys to see if that would help. About 45 minutes into the race I reached the top of a hill and stopped. I took my gloves off and both my jerseys off. I tucked my gloves and short sleeve jersey into the pockets of the long sleeved jersey and put it back on. Whew I felt much better already! I worked hard at that point to pass as many people as I could, especially the ones that passed me while I was on that hill. What was funny about this race was the amount of guys I pulled at some points. I wish I had a camera on me so I could take a picture. At first it was just one guy for miles and then over time as people passed and what not it turned into a train of guys. After pulling for miles I finally sat up and told the guy that had been on my wheel from the start that he can take a pull. Unfortunately our average speed went down at that point and people we had passed were passing us back. I couldn't have that so I went back to the front. It amazes me how many times I've been at races like this where no one really wants to work together in a group to try and catch and pass the people. On a course like Lowell you can see your competition most of the time. You can tractor beam them in, but people do not work together. Instead they will let you bust butt for miles until you pop or force them to take a pull. I didn't win, but I think it was good training. It was also fun talking to Jamie G-M and Bonnie V after the race. They both kicked butt.
Jimmie was with the lead group until a couple of cross riders crashed right in front of him at the bottom of a washed out climb. He chased the lead group for 45 miles until deciding it was just too much and eventually riding by himself and/or other guys along the way. Jimmie finished 13th overall and 3rd in his age group.
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