Won a beginner race, bumped up to sport
Sorry everyone for not being around that much. I have been busy at work and then riding or lifting weights. When I get home at night I am usually worn out.
3 weeks ago I raced in the first race since April. In the April beginner race I finished 5th in my age group. The race 3 weeks ago was at place called Fort Duffield. People in this area call it Fort Tuffield because of all of the logs, rocks and climbing. The beginner field was much smaller than the April race partly because Duffield scares a lot of beginners off.
The race started with a 1/2 mile ride down a road and then you enter double track trail with a short climb. I started in the back because if everyone sprinted I wasn't going to. I knew a sprint would wear me out too quickly. To my surprise no one sprinted. So I started passing people and by the time we got to the double track I had passed everyone. I never saw another rider for the whole 9 mile race. I won by 6 minutes. I felt like I would do well in this race because my bike handling skills have improved so much over the last couple of months. One of the people I ride with had even told me that I had a big advantage on this course because of large number of big logs that were on the course. A year even a few months ago I would not have expected to hear that about my riding. I just wasn't confident in my endurance. Prior to that race I had been doing some road riding maybe about 60 miles a week, but nothing to brag about really.
Because I had opened my big mouth about moving up to sport if I won a beginner race and at the finish line of the Duffield race I had several people remind of what I said about moving up to sport, I went ahead and started racing sport. I really had hoped that I could stay up with pack in sport, but so far that is not what has happened. In my first sport race I finished second to last and this past week I finished in last place, 35 minutes behind first. I am not discouraged though, I know that I am riding better than I ever have. The extra mileage and the better riders are helping me push my self harder than I have ever pushed my self at anything. I have been lapped by some of the expert riders. Seeing them pass me like I am sitting still on some of the bigger climbs has been inspiring.
I have up my road riding. This week I have close to 130 miles in on the road. I plan to try and keep at the level. Some of the guys that race sport have over 3000 miles on the road. I have a lot of catching up to do. I know is late in the season to be training and I realize it may negatively impact my performance at first but I guess it will be better for me in the long run.
__________________
...
|
Linear Mode
