The competition started Thursday night as I was invited to join some gal pals for a few hours of enjoying the downtown Muscatine night life scene. Luckily, Muscatine night life isn't much of a draw, as thursdays the main event is Karoake. However, this was tempting, in my quest to also fill in some voids in my personal life.
I was asked if staying out late on thursday would really effect my races on sat and sunday... Oh, man... sadly it would. Physically and mentally, I need some focus and to give these events some respect, otherwise I am very much competing at less than 100%. Karoake and sobriety don't mix.
Friday, I tossed and turned, trying to decide whether to enter a 4.65mile running race or a two-bee 50k RR. There were pros and cons to each option. Ultimately, I decided to look at the big picture of my goals for later in the summer and opted to do a time trial without a bike (also known as a running event).
The St. Malachy's Steeple Chase 4.65mile race went well, as I came in third overall and first in my age group. The greatest benefit I get from entering running races is a better mastery of the mental aspects of bike racing. It is important to be able to successfully battle those self-doubting thoughts that enter the mind as we race, and running at your max for 20-30 minutes gives plenty of time to cycle through these thoughts and conquer them one by one.
The greatest detriment that I get from entering these running events instead of bike races is that my leg strength isn't advanced, possibly lessened. Oops, something has to give.
I am on top of the leaderboard for the Muscatine Grand Prix Road Racing (running) Series, so I plan on keeping track of that for incentive purposes.
Saturday I was again asked by a buddy to join him downtown. I again conquered the temptation, set my alarm for 5:19am and waited for the sun to go down so I could start trying to go to sleep (lame, I know).
Sunday was the Rigamortis and the Hare 25k time trial. This course was always rolling either up or down. At one point on a large uphill portion with a head wind, I ran out of gears on my 11-23 cassette and was only going around 14mph. This is painful and the 'self-doubting' kicks in.
After the turn-around the tail wind set things straight, and my average speed started to improve to a more rewarding number. On the aforementioned uphill portion, I was able to spin out my 11tooth to over 44mph going downhill.
The course record of 33:59 was set by 2007 Iowa State TT Champion Paul Deninger, I finished at 34:53, the second fastest time on that course. Micheal Edwards of Two Bee Racing finished second on the day with a time of approxiamtely 38:53.
For some reason, Conn didn't have any 12 packs of Michelob Ultra for the winners, so I grabbed a plate of monster cookies and ate them all on the ride home.
Now, the irony is that I am ready to hang-out, but no one will call, as they are settling in to their sunday pre-work week routine.
For me, a rest day on monday, then gear up again for next weeks racing, most likely the crits in peoria, Il.
2 comments:
Gal pals? So did you get lucky?
So you got first in your age group, so the next question is how many were in your age group :)?
5:19 AM? Why not 5:20, or 5:15? 5:19 just sounds... odd... :)
You need a 54 ring.
...you need to check out a mail order bride :). Or you need to find a second hobby to go along with bike racing, try D&D, or computer games :).
Doug,
No, I opted to go to bed early on thursday as well, so really sort of a pathetic weekend, except for the two events I entered.
Alright, you sort of busted me on that 'first in my age group thing'. There weren't that many in the 30-39 age group because there were only about 50 or 60 total runners.
I think you are right about that 54ring, I will get one next year, maybe one of those FSA's that Fabian C. uses.
Any leads on that mail order bride thing would be appreciated. She has to be competent in pinning up racing numbers and post-race massages.
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