Bad Idea Training Day 3 and 4

So another weekend of ramped up riding in anticipation of things to come. This time instead of spending Saturday seeing if a bowl of oatmeal could sustain 2 hours of intense effort (three hours later) I went for a more casual 18 mile ride with Stabby and Eric Van Driver.

Sunday it was off to the races. The Pie and Fajita came along to cheer The Boy and I in our pursuit of places that don't get trophies.

The Pie suggested a new warm up program for me using Fajita's musical jump rope.

The interesting thing is that I think it mighta been a good idea had I been a better rope jumper. My heart rate would got through the roof by the third go around, but unfortunately I could never string together more than four jumps.

Fajita had a good time, albeit her pants were a bit too baggy for our level of parental modesty. A little backwoods engineering was in order if we wanted to keep her plumber's crack concealed the rest of the day.

Yes, there was some racing. The Boy dropped the chain on his 1X8 twice on his first lap, relegating him to a tremendous OTB position which forced him to chase from behind to gain back a few places before all was said and done. Next week he'll have a secret weapon to ward off the chain droppage:

Yes, that is a downtube mounted front derailleur with it's limit screws doing some extreme limiting and its derailing function completely disabled . I didn't have one that would fit his seat tube, and it actually backs the chain up a lot more than if I had a properly mounted derailleur. I guess we'll see if it works next week. I knew derailleurs were good for something.

I'd be lying if said I didn't spend way too much time thinking about getting my old (and quite possibly sorta repaired) Thylacine ti bike built up rigid with 6" rotors and a 36X18 drivetrain. I mentally went through the checklist of possible mods to my equipment that would be most beneficial, but easily reversible since I plan on a trip to the mountains next weekend. I instead elected to finish building my road bike, even though I have no immediate plans to go for a road ride in the near future... I just wanted to see it done. I did manage to get my bell and custom number plate holder onto the "yet to be named Zion" in preparation for Sunday's event, thus adding "training weight" and a fun "gling-gling" distraction to keep my mind off the pain.

I decided to line up at the front this time in order to get to the woods closer to the front of the pack. Last week I got behind some feller that thought it would be nice to go really s-l-o-w through the woods, gun it through the open areas, and then go s-l-o-w through the woods again opening up a gap to the riders ahead that I was never able to shut down thus making my race a thirty minute time trial. This week I wanted to at least feel like I was racing.

Into the woods a little closer to the front this time I got stymied behind a rider holding back just a little in the woods. I got a little upset with myself for letting it happen again, mumbled something louder than I wished I woulda out loud, tried a stupid pass, completed a second attempt at a stupid pass (eliciting a comment from the passee), and eventually popped out the woods section only to be passed back by the person I risked life and limb to pass seconds earlier. We conversated and parted ways never to see each other again (except when I stalked him down later to apologize)....

Anyways, I'd like to say I did better than last week's 10th outta 22, but alas I came up short with an 11th of 19 this week (not even meeting my better than midpack goal). I did have a much better time duking it out with more actual "racing action", and still managed to not be lapped by the speedy SS freaks all hopped up on meth and EPO (how else could they go so fast?).

Wind did not play a factor in the overall results, but it did make proper rope jumping difficult to say the least.

Here's the point where I blew my mid-pack dreams:

With three laps to go I put out a hard effort to distance myself from those two guys behind me. For some odd reason I had no second act to follow up with. I knew I was faster in the woods, so I shoulda kept the effort up for a minute longer, but I didn't. I let the gap close, dropped in behind them for the last two laps, and watched them pull away on the final climb to the finish line.

Tactics? I have none. Unfortunately short track racing is a mix of fitness and tactics, and I seem to be lacking in both at the moment. I will probably skip next week as I plan on being a little wrecked after a day in Pisgah. If all goes well from that point on I may just have to take the time to build up something special for the final race in order to eliminate all of my lame excuses (well at least the excuses other than lack of fitness and non-lack of stupidity).

Yayyyy bike race!!!!