Ramblings

Mid-summer, mid-race season, whatever you want to call it... strange time of the year in a lot of ways.

Things are quiet at work, which is good.  Gives me a chance to catch up on some things and also the chance to maybe get ahead on a few things for the fall.

My boss has this odd concept that getting emails from people who have already bought tickets will sell more tickets... I don't agree, it's another case of preaching to the choir.  What we need to do is get new people in the door.  Once you have them, it's a different ballgame.  Sure, emailing folks about concerts won't be a bad thing, but mostly it'll just be a reminder to them to do something they had planned on doing anyway.  People who like the Christmas concert or the jazz concert are not going to suddenly turn in to string quartet fans, so emailing them isn't going to do anything in that regard.  But she doesn't seem to have a good sense of how people look at things...she's stuck in her own little world that isn't totally connected to reality.  But enough about work....

I wasn't going to race last weekend.  I was still feeling fried both mentally and physically from Nationals... but eventually I decided why not.  I got to the race way early...early enough to see Brandon win the Cat 3 race. After the kids races, I jumped on the course and did about 20 minutes of warm up. I wasn't feeling the race and my legs were not happy. It would pass, I told myself.

A lot of the 1/2 team showed up, so my initial plan of more BAR points by racing the smaller field went out the window. Hell, Sarah Caravella showed up. I knew it would be fast, so I made sure I got some efforts in my warm up, but still the legs felt like sand. And it was friggin hot! Seems strange not to be acclimated to the heat by mid-July but it's been cool. Only one race weekend in June was hot. Even in Kentucky the weather was relatively cooperative to my physiology. Gotta get used to the heat so I'm ready for Church Creek in a month.

So they cranked up the speed and I got shelled... didn't take long. And I debated about continuing, but I hoped that maybe when I got lapped I could jump back on. I fought my way forward, passing others who'd gotten shelled after me until I got up to Eva. The two of us worked together until she flatted. Then I was on my own. Later Eva & I hooked up again, a team mate gave her a wheel to swap out for the flatted one.

I definitely wasn't feeling great, but had a few good laps. I went into TT mode in the finish line stretch against the wind. Most frustrating when I was turning 25 into the wind on my own but couldn't close on the field when they were in sight.  Then again I had turned faster than that on Thursday into the wind at HP...maybe I shouldn't have put out such efforts on Thursday....

I stopped sweating on 6 to go, but rationalized continuing because I figured I'd not actually do 6 laps..they'd catch me again. Hefler was driving the tempo with a little gap off the front. But it's not a course for a solo break. A break with 4-6 might work but not solo. Turn 2 was such that if I'd had any doubts about my ability to take it, I'd have withdrawn from the race. But as long as I felt in control, I continued....and at 6 to go, not even 6 miles...not a problem to finish.

Cheryl had a damn good race but popped at 3 to go, so she and Eva and I continued together. We collected up Sheila as well for the bell lap. We urged Eva to cross the line first. I had opted to race 1/2/3 rather than 3 so it didn't matter to me. Only Tracy and I had the guts to register for the 1/2/3...all the other 3s did the 3. I figured it didn't really matter. Of course I could have picked up some BAR points if I'd done the 3. But what the hell, I don't actually care about BAR points or any of that stuff. I just want to go out and race to the best of my ability on any given day.  And on Saturday, that wasn't very good.  I was officially last in the 1/2/3 field, but not last in the full order of finish.  When we picked up Sheila, we were all lapping her.  But I could have been 10th among the 3s instead of 17th in the 1/2/3.

Now the Road Race for this coming Saturday has been canceled.  I was sort of looking forward to it just to get a break from racing with the 1s & 2s, even though I don't like road races.  I've offered to help officiate on a new date in September rather than race it.

I'm hoping the guys doing the TT down in Richmond on Saturday can swing 2 start times for me to make it worth the long drive - it's only a 24km tt.  Otherwise, maybe it's time to go ride on Skyline Drive.  Probably not the best thing the day before the race formerly known as the bunny hop, but maybe it would be a good thing relative to Church Creek.