short track madness....
Round #2 of the Short Track - ding...ding...
Funny how even tho I know what is coming - i'm still never really ready for it...
Basically it goes in 4 phases -
Phase 1 -
I got a decent start - 4th back out of ~13 girls. The #1 girl took off like a bat-out-of-hell and crushed the field. I later learned the #1 girl was, Rachel Couch, a Cat 1/2 road racer.
I wanted to go hard from the beginning so I made a couple of aggressive passes on the #2 and #3 girls. I heard them protest as I did - but i thought to myself - "that's racing -sisters..." and they were *clean* passes. However, since i put out such a hard effort in Phase 1 - I was struggling to maintain the pace.
Phase 2
I kept fighting to keep the 2 girls i passed behind me but they were on my tail. This course had 3 longish big chain-ring sections. I kept expecting them to pass on these 'big ring' sections - Dave said that's where they made up time on me - but he also said I never really let up and was spinning as fast as i could.
One girl(in a blue sky kit) finally passed me and the next person behind me(also in a Blue Sky kit) was on my tail. She ended up cutting corner on the course big-time to pass me. She told me later 'it's legal to cut the course as long as there aren't flags in the way'. ?? I mean she was definitely faster than me but that's the first I ever heard of that rule. But she if she hadn't cut that corner she would have had to worked harder for a bit longer to pass me. Without a doubt I'm sure she would've passed me -but it would have taken her a bit more energy. After ward I was too wiped out after the race to even ask if that was true. And by the time the #3 girl passed me - I was heading quickly into Phase 3
Phase 3
Yeah - i didn't even really care anymore - I was hurting - i was breathing extremely hard and I let up a bit to recover. I figured if I maintained a decent pace I would maintain my position - which at this point was good enough for me.
The #2 and #3 girls were ~10 seconds ahead but I didn't seem to have the legs/cardio to bridge the gap. i slowly let them get further ahead and was just riding to maintain my place in the field...that is until Dave said the rider behind me was closing the gap and was 10 seconds back. One of those riders being Sasha.
Phase 4
I definitely didn't want to lose my 4th place position so let me tell ya - I put the hammer down. I rallied and really pushed my limits on the 4th lap. Dave said I ended greatly increased my gap on the girls that were behind and finished a strong 4th place.
Aftermath
Man - I was GLAD when that was over. I was hurting bigtime and tried to spit out a lugie and it ended up landing on my arm. super gross!
However - overall - I'm super happy with my race...this course was "big ring friendly" and by the fact I kept pedaling the whole time I feel like I did pretty good for being the oldest person in the race. AND the only person racing on a SingleSpeed. yay for the old people! ;)
I was *so* hungry after the race and Dave left afterward as he had promised to help Alicia move - so I decided to hit Protos for a nice glass of wine and dinner. I ate a bunch and had a really nice conversation with a couple sitting next to me at the bar. fun stuff...
Man - my life is so friggin ' awesome - I'm a *very* lucky girl. :D
Funny how even tho I know what is coming - i'm still never really ready for it...
Basically it goes in 4 phases -
- Phase 1 - 'oh this isn't so bad'
- Phase 2 - 'yeah this hurts - whose *great* idea was this to line up??'
- Phase 3 - 'nevermind - i don't even care how i finish - I just want to be done'
- Phase 4 - 'crap - i need to hold my position and go all out - yeech!!!'
Phase 1 -
I got a decent start - 4th back out of ~13 girls. The #1 girl took off like a bat-out-of-hell and crushed the field. I later learned the #1 girl was, Rachel Couch, a Cat 1/2 road racer.
I wanted to go hard from the beginning so I made a couple of aggressive passes on the #2 and #3 girls. I heard them protest as I did - but i thought to myself - "that's racing -sisters..." and they were *clean* passes. However, since i put out such a hard effort in Phase 1 - I was struggling to maintain the pace.
Phase 2
I kept fighting to keep the 2 girls i passed behind me but they were on my tail. This course had 3 longish big chain-ring sections. I kept expecting them to pass on these 'big ring' sections - Dave said that's where they made up time on me - but he also said I never really let up and was spinning as fast as i could.
One girl(in a blue sky kit) finally passed me and the next person behind me(also in a Blue Sky kit) was on my tail. She ended up cutting corner on the course big-time to pass me. She told me later 'it's legal to cut the course as long as there aren't flags in the way'. ?? I mean she was definitely faster than me but that's the first I ever heard of that rule. But she if she hadn't cut that corner she would have had to worked harder for a bit longer to pass me. Without a doubt I'm sure she would've passed me -but it would have taken her a bit more energy. After ward I was too wiped out after the race to even ask if that was true. And by the time the #3 girl passed me - I was heading quickly into Phase 3
Phase 3
Yeah - i didn't even really care anymore - I was hurting - i was breathing extremely hard and I let up a bit to recover. I figured if I maintained a decent pace I would maintain my position - which at this point was good enough for me.
The #2 and #3 girls were ~10 seconds ahead but I didn't seem to have the legs/cardio to bridge the gap. i slowly let them get further ahead and was just riding to maintain my place in the field...that is until Dave said the rider behind me was closing the gap and was 10 seconds back. One of those riders being Sasha.
Phase 4
I definitely didn't want to lose my 4th place position so let me tell ya - I put the hammer down. I rallied and really pushed my limits on the 4th lap. Dave said I ended greatly increased my gap on the girls that were behind and finished a strong 4th place.
Aftermath
Man - I was GLAD when that was over. I was hurting bigtime and tried to spit out a lugie and it ended up landing on my arm. super gross!
However - overall - I'm super happy with my race...this course was "big ring friendly" and by the fact I kept pedaling the whole time I feel like I did pretty good for being the oldest person in the race. AND the only person racing on a SingleSpeed. yay for the old people! ;)
I was *so* hungry after the race and Dave left afterward as he had promised to help Alicia move - so I decided to hit Protos for a nice glass of wine and dinner. I ate a bunch and had a really nice conversation with a couple sitting next to me at the bar. fun stuff...
Man - my life is so friggin ' awesome - I'm a *very* lucky girl. :D
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