After Poolesville update.

We'll it's about time I update my blog.

Since Carl Dolan, I haven't done any racing. Good thing because from the stories about Poolesville, it was pretty sketchy. Bottles flying all over the place, crashes left and right, poison ivy... you know all of the things you don't want to be a part of. I was really thinking of going, however, I acted responsibly and stayed home with the kids. I don't think I would have made the race and back before my daughter's appointment. If I crashed... well, who knows... all hell would have broken loose. My wife would have been in a panic as she was out of town in NYC playing with her friend. My kids would probably not know where I was as I would have brought them to the race.
Well to say the least, it wouldn't be something I wanted to experience, so I didn't go. I was e-mailing a fellow rider, providing him tips on who to watch, what to watch for, and so on. He apparently finished the 40+/50+ race and placed decently. Attrition was big in the races. 75 racers start and only 25 finish? Well, I have to say something about the 50+ riders. They sure are tough. It was a pretty equal split of the to 10 finishers 5 were 50+ riders and 5 were 40+.

I've been riding to and from work about 3 times a week. It's about a 10 mile ride each way. It keeps me in shape to a certain degree, however it doesn't provide the longer 30-40 mile ride which will help me in keep my endurance up for the longer races. I ride the hill ride on Wednesday about half the time. I've actually gotten to memorize the route now. It is a decent ride, with several individuals sprinting up the hills and taking the KOM. Is that good for training? I don't really know. I've been feeling that I need a bit of change in my routine so this evening I did the horrible drive from Arlington to Greenbelt. I got there with a decent amount of time before the race started, thankfully. The ride was pretty smooth with several individuals attacking early on, however the pack was ready and gave chase everytime. I even got away for a very brief period going up the hill, however again, the pack didn't want to let us go. Finally after a hard attack by one of the Harley riders, several of us also jumped to try to chase him down, a second group attacked at the top of the hill and rode away. I was recovering and didn't have the legs to react to the attack. I thought we would reel them in after several laps, which we almost did, however for some reason, after about 5 laps the pack finally gave up and slowed and allowed them to go out of sight. Well I knew that that was it as there was Dave Osborne and Joe Baremore and a Harley rider and probably a couple more strong riders away. All I could hope for now was having enough energy for the final sprint. I apparently did and passed a few at the end to finish up 2nd on the group finish. I exerted so much that I felt dizzy and felt like tossing my cookies. I had to do some quick and deep breaths to feel better 30 seconds later. Tonight was a good training race as it helped me work on the speed work a slight bit with all of the chasing I did. I'll have to go down to Hains Point soon and work on my intervals as all I've been doing is a bit of the hills.
I'm going to Ft. Ritchie this Saturday and I hope be competitive. It's been sometime since I did a crit. This course seems pretty technical and I hope it will be fun. I'll want to stay out of any crashes.

Oh, BTW on that thought, I noticed how there were lots of B racers tonight and made a remark that there would be a crash today. Sure enough there was. There were an awful lot of racers tonight and it was good to see that many participants. Hopefully those who crashed are all right and will heal quickly. This brings me to the next comment: One of my teammates crashed out at Poolesville. "RayMan" as most know him, separated his shoulder, had stitches internally on the kneecap and externally on the skin covering his knee. Ray, I hope things look up for you and you heal quickly, cause I know how much you love the trainer. 4 hours a day on it, that's ridiculous!

Anyway, as you can see my training regiment is probably lacking. Work will be really busy with trips out of town for the next few weeks, so I will get even less riding. Kids and wife things of course will be the priority, so that leaves little time for riding and racing this month and probably for the first few weeks in June. Then it's vacation time for them and I will have more time, however I don't know what work will be like.