Yay!! No mittens today - just lots of sun. These 2 characters show up on the blog a lot. That's because they're a couple of bad-asses whose athletic ability I truly respect.I left the warmers at home and jumped in with my favorite boys (Josh and Mike) for the Cherry Valley 30K TT on Sunday. It's a race that I've not done before - in fact, I've not done a lot of time trials in my (too) many years of racing - so I was having the usual pre-race anxiety attack. That said, I must admit that music selection on the drive out was choice - Led Zeppelin can always take a bit of the edge off for me, transforming me into only half the paranoid spaz of my typical pre-race persona. My expectation for the day was to just do the best I could without killing myself too horribly since I'm still coughing a bit and still not 100%. I know - that excuse is getting old, isn't it? I just can't seem to completely shake this thing.
The course was out and back with some small rises here and there, a sweet gravel stretch with some sizable potholes, some bad pavement, a few turns and the ubiquitous Midwest wind that seems to always be in your face and/or blasting you from the side. That said, it was an otherwise amazing day as far as weather goes - the sun was warm and the air temp in the upper 60s - maybe even in the 70s away from the puddle (Lake Michigan). It felt almost like spring.
Warm up went well - I changed up my playlist a bit and added some new things to my usual mix including Matthew Sweet, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Smithereens, Peter Yorn, Green Day, Robert Plant, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, some more Rolling Stones, The The and Neil Young. I know, another interesting combination, but it works for me. I was feeling decent after warm up, not stellar but certainly better than last week.
It ended up that I turned in a respectable time and finished as first loser on the day to an athlete I respect a great deal - she's the current 35-39 Masters National Road Race Champion. Somehow I managed to sneak by her last week but she paid me back this week with a strong performance. The guys continued their streak of domination winning the Pro 1/2, 40+ and 50+ categories with impressive efforts. They both did 2 time trials (they always do) which always makes me feel small and weak. Nice job Josh and Mike - again, way to represent. Now shut up and go ride your bike.
Training this coming week is mostly (but not all) low key - bummer too because all of a sudden it's not freaking freezing here. I have a 2 race weekend coming up - a criterium on Saturday in Milwaukee that has an interesting hill that will allow me to convincingly demonstrate my climbing prowess (ugh), and another 30K TT on Sunday. I hope my cough disappears between now and then.
As always, thank you for reading. Now go resume doing something productive, slacker!!
The course was out and back with some small rises here and there, a sweet gravel stretch with some sizable potholes, some bad pavement, a few turns and the ubiquitous Midwest wind that seems to always be in your face and/or blasting you from the side. That said, it was an otherwise amazing day as far as weather goes - the sun was warm and the air temp in the upper 60s - maybe even in the 70s away from the puddle (Lake Michigan). It felt almost like spring.
Warm up went well - I changed up my playlist a bit and added some new things to my usual mix including Matthew Sweet, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, The Smithereens, Peter Yorn, Green Day, Robert Plant, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, some more Rolling Stones, The The and Neil Young. I know, another interesting combination, but it works for me. I was feeling decent after warm up, not stellar but certainly better than last week.
It ended up that I turned in a respectable time and finished as first loser on the day to an athlete I respect a great deal - she's the current 35-39 Masters National Road Race Champion. Somehow I managed to sneak by her last week but she paid me back this week with a strong performance. The guys continued their streak of domination winning the Pro 1/2, 40+ and 50+ categories with impressive efforts. They both did 2 time trials (they always do) which always makes me feel small and weak. Nice job Josh and Mike - again, way to represent. Now shut up and go ride your bike.
Training this coming week is mostly (but not all) low key - bummer too because all of a sudden it's not freaking freezing here. I have a 2 race weekend coming up - a criterium on Saturday in Milwaukee that has an interesting hill that will allow me to convincingly demonstrate my climbing prowess (ugh), and another 30K TT on Sunday. I hope my cough disappears between now and then.
As always, thank you for reading. Now go resume doing something productive, slacker!!
