Road Racing

I wanted to go to Idaho to do a marathon xc race there, but since I had to work Friday and Saturday night I had to settle for a road race in Coalville. It was a 95 mile race, kind of an out-back-out-back course, it ended up good exercise. The roady scene sure is different than the mtn bike scene, seems like people are a little more uptight, just a little. I took a lot of crap for not having cleaned my bike in a while, I guess I rather ride my bike than clean it.

The race was funny, in a way, because as much as I enjoy road races, I always end up frying myself. Now I don't think of myself as stupid, but I have a hard time sittin in the pack and conserving energy and waiting for the right moment. I sit in the pack and my hr is 110, I might as well go for a walk. So I'm out there in the wind, chasing down breakaways etc. not really conserving much. Then I thought I'd do something halfway smart, when I saw 2 guys make a brakeaway and then one faded and came back. The 2nd guy looked pretty strong so I put in an effort to get up to him and thought maybe the 2 of us can do some damage. When I got to him the guy asked me for some water and I was happy to share since I thought he'd be the guy to work with. After I gave him some water he told me he was blown and he couldn't do anything. So I ended up working by myself for a while, but got caught. In the end I blew up pretty bad since for whatever reason they removed the neutral feed zone on the 2nd lap and all I had was about 2 bottles for a 4 hour race. All in all, I got what I wanted which was a good workout. Funny, how the dynamics work sometimes in a road race. Maybe next time I will "conserve" more energy.