Saturday, February 2, 2008

A pair of 7's



Data from my 2nd race of the day

The blog lives! A new season of bike racing is upon us, which means that the blog can re-invigorate! I was supposed to be in a work retreat all day today...but I managed to escape it after the morning so I would not miss the first crit of the year, our local Mothballs!

My time was very limited today, so I had gone over earlier and registered for my 2 races before work. Then I went to the retreat, and escaped just in time to rush back and get a quick spin on the trainer before my first race, which also happened to be my first 1/2/3 crit as well. I was in such a hurry that I forgot my bike computer, which is all fine and good, but that meant I had no idea what time it was in the race! Oops...I was racing blind, so to speak, until the 5 laps to go came out! I just wish I had the data from that race...it was a blast. Everyone is so smooth, and fast, and knows how to corner, and it was fun. I was kind of sad I missed the key break when a couple girls got off the front, but honestly I'm not sure I would have been able to hand on up there anyway! I ended up finishing in the pack, and having timed my sprint a little wrong (I haven't sprinted since last August....), I wasn't quite there but pulled of a 7th, about 1/2 a bike length back. Oh well....room for improvement! I was pretty pleased with how my legs felt under me. They actually had a little jump when needed, which is good! It was a fun time for sure.
In the interest of good old training, I decided to do the 3/4's race as well. For this race, my tactics were different. I wanted to stay out of trouble, and work hard and get a good workout. So my goal going in was to be a player in this race, not just to sit in and let it happen around me. I spent lots of time up front, put in a few attacks, and chased down everything that got away. I was pretty happy with the way I felt...my legs were getting a little fatigued by the end, but overall I was happy with my race. After being way too far back in the final corner, I worked hard to get up there, but again the sprint timing isn't quite there, and I again finished 7th, this time it was just a field sprint. A pair of 7s. By the 2nd race, I had time to go get the computer, so I have data. What a huge difference between this year's race and last years Mothballs crit! Anyway, it was a fun day. I had lots of fellow Chicken Ranchers in many of the races, so there were lots of folk to cheer for, and I got lots of support when I was racing. It was a very fun day.

Echelon Santa Barbara put on the race, and they did a fantastic job! Congrats everyone!

Ciao!

4 comments:

Itinerant Rick said...

Welcome back to blog land ... and to a new season of racing. Sounds like you are ready to go out and kick some more backside this year. Good job! Hope to see you at Kern, if not before.

dr-nitro said...

I did not know that Goleta was below sea level. That's why the air seemed so hard to push.

chatterbox said...

Sounds like fun! I have a few more weeks to come out of my mothballs. Phew!

Kimberly (aka. DrKim) said...

ok ok...so i guess when you don't calibrate the altitude on your bike computer, Goleta looks to be below sea level :-).

Chatterbox: I'm not saying I was out of my mothballs yet, either! But with Valley of the Sun in 2 weeks...im working at it.