Well, I'm not much better at blogging now that I've got extra time, but here's a quick one:
On Saturday morning I left Salisbury, CT with some of my stuff that I'm moving back to Middlebury, VT. I took Rte. 22 to get home, and stopped halfway there in Cambridge, NY, for the Balloon Festival (some big town gathering) which included a road race. I was on the wait list but they gave me a number as soon as I showed up. Money.
It was my first road race ever (only criteriums up to this point) and though I kept telling myself I just wanted to hang in the pack and work hard at the finish, what I really wanted to do was win. So near the end of the first of two 21-mile loops, a break went out and I was in it. We tried to stay away but got caught (pretty quickly actually, I realize now we weren't going very fast) and then it was a pack again.
That was, until about 5 miles from the finish at the one big climb (about one mile, not too bad for 2/3 of a mile and then very steep for the last little bit) when everything got strung out. I was not in very good shape and lost the leaders very quickly, and figured that I was essentially done for. But then I realized that most everyone else was cooked too, and so I found a little extra gas. After I crested the hill (in 12th or 13th place) I started working hard, and managed to pass a great deal of the field to finish 5th.
It was a good first experience with a road race, and I now know that I need to at least be good enough at climbing that I don't put myself out of contention. So yesterday I climbed over the Middlebury gap (HARD for me) and back. Tomorrow I'll go 75-80 miles and over the mountains again. Hard work, but it's made easier by the fact that my prize for finishing 5th was a big jug of recovery drink powder stuff. So now I can't be beat.
More to come - especially this weekend, with races on Saturday and Sunday.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Friday, June 8, 2007
Eek...
Okay, no blogging for quite some time. I'm back though, since school is over, and now I will be biking a good deal, every day.
Now I just have to get rid of the 100+ beers in my apartment that are left over from the year-end faculty party (we thought we'd be drinking a lot more than we actually did). This is like a riddle - I really have no idea what to do with them.
Now I just have to get rid of the 100+ beers in my apartment that are left over from the year-end faculty party (we thought we'd be drinking a lot more than we actually did). This is like a riddle - I really have no idea what to do with them.
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