Rain, rain, f*%k off!

I've been really hoping to get back on the dirt lately. My focus for the year was to get mostly into dirt racing and shy away from all but a few crits and road races. That surely hasn't been happening with the rainfall pattern of dry for a couple days then rain and repeat for the past couple months. I snuck out last Monday for a couple hours of playing around the north side of Summerset and that's been pretty much it other than an out of town excursion to FDR which happened to be dry enough to ride.

I've been supplementing with plenty of road riding which is great for keeping up fitness, but surely doesn't help much with any technical skill. Eyeing the forecast for this week, I saw the heat and thought for sure we'd dry the trails out in time to do a taco ride tonight. Unless you've got flotation devices and a way to magically avoid mud, that's not gonna happen. I'd venture to say that even if it stays hot and dry, we'll be pushed off the trails until sometime Sunday at the earliest and even then it will be muddy in spots. Maybe this weekend will call for some gravel grinding instead.

I'm working the Hy-Vee tri wheel pit for the shop on Saturday during the elite race which should be pretty cool. I hear that's the gig to have as far as being easy and able to enjoy the racing. Sunday morning I might try to make my way out to the Fuller hill on Grand to help with some heckling/cheering on of the not-so-elite athletes. Good luck to all competing!

Tonight and tomorrow I'll be hanging with the PRC ladies for the Papajohn ride tonight and Race Like a Girl tomorrow night. Both are great events and beginner friendly if you're looking to come out and play for a bit. Beyond that, it looks like the next event on the calendar is the BBQ and Blues weekend in Clear Lake. With my schedule full for the 4th weekend, I won't be able to make the jaunt over to Cedar Rapids for the state crit race.

Green days race recap

In retrospect, I was a bit worried with Pete giving me cornering lessons for the race. However, all went well though with me sitting in roughly 4th wheel the entire race and letting the DMOS guys wear themselves out. Herb from A9Y got a small gap with roughly 5 laps left after a prime and the pack seemed pretty intent on letting him set out there. I had the crazy idea of bridging up and trying to make a two man break stick since he only had one other rider in the pack the same as I surrounded by the DMOS guys out in full force. I hit the gas into the corner and thought I opened it up a bit after the corner and started pulling him back in. Alas, my breakaway horsepower is a bit... lacking. I succeeded in dragging the full pack back up with me, oops.

Pete giving me pointers on where to be and something about staying off the front...

With 1 to go I was still in good position and thought I'd try hammering the corners again as I had noted most everyone was a bit lax in charging into the corners letting me come up the outside, late brake, and get a small lead. I looked great for about a 1/4 of a lap and then had plenty of people with me going into the last corner. I took too wide of a line and had a couple guys all ready in front of me heading towards the finish. As mentioned previously, my sprint is nothing short of mediocre and another 3 guys slipped past before we made the line. 6th place out of 17ish riders at the line. With my crit/road racing experience amounting to last year's Green Days and a couple Race like a girl nights, I was pretty happy with the outcome. Thanks to Pete for yelling out the instructions and the rest of the men in black sticking around to cheer on the 5's.

In comparison to last year, I can definitely tell I'm a much stronger rider. It was relatively easy to stay up front, I "think" I possibly had the power to make a break had I truly hammered it and sprinted up to speed versus sitting and trying to pound out the power in my 1 attempt to bridge up. Last year I sat much further back in the pack just trying to hold on and not get tangled up with anyone. I yo-yoed pretty constantly in that attempt and a late race crash pretty much helped me crack the top 10. I feel like I earned the placing this year rather than circumstance dictating as much. I think I probably left too much on the table in regards to effort as once I finished the last lap I still felt pretty fresh even after sprinting up to the middle of zone 5 (193 bpm for me) at the finish line. In the pack I was sitting pretty much in the middle of zone 4 or a little less and feeling like I wasn't making much of an effort other than spinning it back up out of every corner. I've still got a lot to learn and a lot of work to do on my short term explosive power.

Race like a girl #2

PRC put on the 2nd installment of Race like a girl last night at Union Park. For those of you who have yet to discover this sweet little grass roots fun "race" AKA training crit, make sure you get over to experience at least one of the races this summer. It's a sweet time whether racing or spectating. Lots of great people and kids just enjoying a fun night of racing.

Come 3 o'clock yesterday I was thinking the weatherman had pulled another trick on us with the cool and overcast skies. Amazingly by 4 the clouds had parted and it was miraculously sunny and much warmer. The usual suspects made their appearances to get the roads blockaded and the equipment set up so we'd be ready for hopefully a glut of racers. As luck would have it, there was no shortage of men, women, or kids ready to race.

Plenty of action early on in the Men's A races with a decently stacked field. The Men's B (including me) had a pretty decent sized group of 14 or so racers as well. I was hoping I'd learned a little bit from the last time out where I spent most of my time leading the group around only to be gassed when it came time to make it count. The first race was a 7 lap race winner take all. I managed to stay in the pack until 1/2 way through the last lap and gave it a go. We;d spit most of the riders off by this time with just 3 or 4 of us within striking distance of each other. At the top of the little rise, one rider got past me and I ended up in 2nd. Definitely a better showing thus far.

The 2nd set of races was a miss and out race. They pulled the last 2 riders each lap until we were down to 5 and then pulled 1 rider a lap. I'm not sure how many laps we did, but I managed to keep myself in the top 3 or 4 for most of the laps until it was finally down to Matt Gumm from A9Y and I. He'd been off the front for most of the race and had soft pedalled back to us for the last lap or two. I trailed him to the top of the rise and then hit it on the outside. I'm not very sure that he gave me a true run, but regardless I pulled out in front and won my first "race". Woohoo! After that we did a 2 lap race with a neutral lap followed by a sprint lap where I just kept up and then let off at the end knowing I didn't want to give it a full go for a single lap that I really couldn't contend for anyway with my lack of sprint skills.

The final race was a 7 lap point race with points given on the odd numbered laps-1, 3, 5, and 7 points respectively. Person with the most points at the end wins. I was hoping to maybe contest for laps 3 and 5 thinking those would be the best to get points and sneak in another W. I was about 6" shy of taking lap 3, but pretty well gassed myself in the process. A small attack from a couple of DMOS riders got away at for the 5th lap and got the points leaving the rest of us gapped and trying to bridge over the 6th lap. I took a hard pull trying to reel them in, but didn't have enough left. I did however get quite the adrenaline shock though as we rounded the rise for the final time. I was out of gas and getting passed on both sides towards the top of the rise. I didn't hold my line and drifted left directly into the rear wheel of Steve Doughty. I heard the distinctive buzzing noise of front tire to back tire and then came off his wheel a split second later. Luckily it just ended with a speed bobble that I kept under control without dumping the bike. It must have shocked Randy as well though since he was slightly behind and saw it happen and threw out a choice expletive that I was thinking.

All in all a great night of racing and a lot of fun.

One of me looking all speedy and stuff.


Sterling and I wistfully pondering a great night of racing.

Johnston Green Days Crit

Ahh, my first crit... Well, it was pretty much what I expected in that I suffered and assumed I might blow chunks my the end of the race. I had fun in a sadistic and twisted sort of way. In reality, I could've done a lot worse and possibly marginally better. I managed to run out of gas on the final lap and dropped a couple spots at that point. I finished 9th out of 21 starters so I felt pretty decent about that.

The course really was pretty simple with only two 180 degree turns at the ends. Nobody really seemed to be hammering the turns in our race. Well, with the exception of Keith who hammered the turn a little too hard in the wet and had his bike slide out from under him. For the most part, if you played it right you could close up any gaps at the turn by breaking late and hard and then diving into the turn as most of the guys were braking early and often. I'm pretty sure I went harder through the turns on a few practice laps than we did during the race.

I'll shoot some pictures up later as I still have to upload them to Flickr. I definitely didn't leave much out on the course with stats from the ride being 183 avg hart rate, 193 max heart rate, 22.6 avg speed, and 99 avg cadence. I hit my highest heart rate as I crossed the line for the finish so at least I timed that right. I did take one small flier just to say I led a lap, but other than that it was all about hanging onto the pack and making sure I didn't fall too far back.