Race Night! -- Log

Ahh..another Thursday, which means another race night at the track!

It started with a 25 lap scratch race, nothing too exciting happened for me, i don't even recall many of the details! Hung in with the group, *might* have been lapped in the final few..not sure. Came in a healthy 6th. Felt pretty good, haven't run for a while, so the legs were pretty fresh.

Next up was a 42 lap points race... These are often funny ones: sometimes someone bolts off the front at the very beginning, other times we just stick together.. Tonite was the latter, and so off the top i just set a decent pace, not too hard, and slowly rolled off the front.. Within' a lap or so, i had about a third of a lap lead. No one in the pack seemed too concerned about it, pretty funny feeling being out there all alone!

So, i just hung out there ahead of the peloton! Come the fifth lap (bell/points lap every six) Mike busted off from the group and quickly caught up to me, and we both booked it for the lap! He ended up a hair in front of me, when we got to the line, but neither of us were really trying, and i'm sure he'd have it if we were, his sprint training seems to have done its job!

I'd like to mention that this is a fairly momentus experience for me - first completely 'earned' point in an A Points race! And fair strategy employment at that...

The pack quickly caught us, but since they'd all just sprinted as well, i was feeling pretty good and noodled off the front again...and put myself in the same position!

I seem to spend a lot of time in races fighting the wind solo...at least this time i was off the front for a change. =)

So i repeated my tactic, but couldn't quite hold them off for the second bell, and i believe Matt and Vinko sped by me, leaving me happily with two points for third.

By then, i'd was fairly spent..i'd basically pulled solo for most of the past 12 laps. I caught on with the bunch, and then Kevin took off! I tried to pursue, but the gap between us grew and grew..

Talking to him after the race, he said he'd slowed down the pack while i was out and about..nice guy. =)

He also said he was looking back, but i was too close to the pack to wait for, and he'd lose his advantage...so i'm glad he kept going...which is what he did. Stayed a good 1/2 lap ahead of the rest of the pack for the rest of the race, well done, as it got him 1st place, by one point!

I hung in with the pack...made a few small attacks and attempts to get ahead, but no one was playing along...and there's no way i could pull off another solo run.

Come the last few laps, i was running out of gas, and ended up at the back of the pack, digging.. Kevin (and two others that'd been lapped) were in hot pursuit! Luckily, they didn't catch until after the bell had rung, which means i didn't lose 20 points for being lapped. Woot!

So that left me with 5 hard-earned points, and that plopped me in 5th place for my first fairly solid placement in a race. I'm pretty happy with myself. =)

I'd also heard something pretty funny afterwards - when i was up in front of the pack, several of the guys kept saying 'come on! Let's get him!' but no one actually pursued... I guess that'll be the last time that happens...hehe

Not sure what i'll do next race... Maybe sit-in and break off the front later in the race? Seemed to work very well for Kevin.. Just don't know if i've got what it takes to pull that off yet..i seem to have more energy at the beginning of a race. Things seem promising tho!

This week has been a fairly good training week so far. The only thing i did since Sat was ride with Andy on Tuesday - we went to the Observatory and did hill repeats. I did five, just over 8mins each time, low cadence efforts. Felt fantastic!

You may recall i blew the rim on my road bike on Saturday...turns out the new rim is coming from Montreal, so it won't be ready until next week. So i'm on my old mountain bike for now..

Which is actually not too bad, since i'm really focusing on these hill repeats.... It's funny to note that i don't have a big ring on it, so i'm riding a 32 tooth cog...and so i've got basically three gears to use while riding on the road, and doing these repeats! If it were any less steep, i wouldn't have a big enough gear..heh.. VEGAN POWER! ;)

I'll prolly take tomorrow off (tho helping with the track in the evening), and do more Ob repeats on Saturday. Sunday, i'm planning on hitting the Goose (local trail system) out to the Sooke Potholes, for a nice 100km round-trip adventure..just ride out and back. Need to do some cardio work, and this'd be perfect for it. Kevin might come along as well.

Then it's sprints on Monday, more hills Tuesday, racing Thursday, etc.. Hopefully the wheel will be built before that weekend, they said they'd do it as soon as it arrives.

I guess i gotta fit some runs in there too.. Sucks, because i'm enjoying riding so much! If i'm gonna go out, i wanna go on the bike!

Ahh well... I'll keep you posted. ;)