Sunday, April 15, 2012

Catching up for my bestest fan...

So it turns out that I DON'T write anything at all if I don't at the least post race weblahgers.  And here's a dirty little secret.  I don't write for other people.  It's true, like that dude staring at his reflection in the pond and frozen in place, I actually crack myself up and enjoy reading much of my own dribble.  Pathetic, but that means I've made a big gap in time now that I can't come back later and look through and be amused by.  BTW, that previous sentence should go in the stupendously poorly thought out sentence hall of shame.

So...

Laguna Del Sol Cyclocross:  With my cyclocross bike busted I did this one on my mountain bike and that meant a slow ride and a crappy result.  My legs just weren't into it either.  The hilight of the race was being able to jump the barriers without dismounting.  This raised a pleasing crowd response each time.  The best heckle of the year came after one of these barrier hops, "Dude!  You just made the cover of AARP!"  Ah cyclocross.  Sometimes all it takes is bringing your sense of humor and one wise-ass comment to erase the sting of a shitty result.

Early Bird Road Race out of Patterson:  This early season race is a must for me since it's on my local roads.  The pace on the way out to the climb was frustratingly slow since a team that had something like a quarter of the pack decided to block the front and plug along at 15 mph without sending riders off or letting anyone else go either.  That sucked.  But the climb broke it all to heck (as usual).  I survived the climb better than most years, kept my head on the descent and regrouped with one other fellow all the way back to the finish line where he tried to cat and mouse with me.  I said screw this and just sprinted from 400 meters out (which really really hurt, btw) and he didn't have the gas.  Ended up 5th out of 24.  I was really pleased with this result but either this race gets less respect than Rodney Dangerfield or no one cares and the result slipped completely under the radar (and realizing how much that hurt made me feel like Sally Fields in reverse).  Oh well.

CCCX #1 Fort Ord:  Just went out and did this one without really modifying my training week so showed up a bit sluggish.  Had a pretty undramatic race and finished 13th.

TBF MTB Challenge (#2?):  During warmup knew I had spectacular legs for the day and was very excited to unleash them.  But got greedy on the start, hooked my bars into a tree and went down.  By the time I remounted, jumped off and got my chain back on and got going again I was DFL in the field.  Spent the entire race passing passing passing and ended up 6th of 30some riders.  Was dissappointed since the start messed up what would have been a good race but happy to recover that many places.

CCCX #4(?) Toro Park:  I've been working hard on climbing lately but didn't really treat this as a race worth preparing for.  So the legs were up to the multiple climbs but more at a plodding pace.  The first couple of laps the descent didn't go so well and I lost alot of time on the front markers.  Ended up 13th of 20 or so and quite dissatisfied with that result. 

But that's racing.  You can't always have good results or you're sandbagging and not challenging yourself.  And sometimes I wonder if the literally hundreds of ass kickings I've received over 13 seasons of racing in 21 years have just taken my competitive fire away.  Yet there I am training, motivating and entering all over again.  It's a funny hobby.  But I frickin' love it.