Will I ever ride again?

Well, yes. But will I be racing anytime soon, I don't know. Something about back injury and my inability to let my house projects slide for a while. I was going to race at Sequim #2 but decided that Saturday was a perfect day to lay tile in my basement bathroom and new wine cellar (the "cellar" will also dub as a puppy room once I get my puppy. Another story).

Anyway who knew that I could feel so bad after bending, kneeling and lifting heavy objects. I guess I did, but to feel like I did a max lift day and got run over by a truck was more than I had bargained for. Saturday night I cancelled race day. Instead Sunday I did the grout, cleaned up all the tools and random clutter so my drywall guy could walk around today. Tile looks great, I feel somewhat better and will try to sneak out on a ride today.

Did my 1st indoor TT and CycleU. Pretty cool, I kind of suck. But it is really interesting to see why. I go out way too hard and then blowup. A warm up would have been nice too but based on my past TT's it is par for the course as well. Fun to watch my watts. I am a geek when it comes to stats (part of my real job so I guess that is good) My average was low in my opinion 197 my max was 400 up the final climb. Max HR 189 ave 179. This tells me all kinds of stuff that I can work on. I plan on it as soon as I am able to really ride again.

I feel like I have missed so much racing, really it is early but each week my fellow CAT4 are racing and I am not I feel like I am even further behind. Fitness can return but I am supposed to be the Captain and my teammates barely know who I am. I don't care about winning (not that I could right now) I just want to be out there.

Guess I will settle for Seward rides a couple indoor TT's, downloading Polar data and being a number geek no matter how sad those numbers may be.

Winter Training is done

Why if training is done am I not racing? Well injury for one. A dude who drops his cell phone while waiting for the light to turn green rear ends me, my back gets all jacked up... nice. So now I ride the life cycle and sneak out on rides when no one is looking. OK no one really is looking or cares that much but I can't ride hard and I need to heal. Meanwhile Mason Lake #1 went down. As a seasoned Cat4 I could tell by the finish photos that not much happened all 24 miles downhill around the corner and sprint. Not much fo a race, wish I was there.

Always check your equipment...Twice!

So one of my favorite parts of the season are the LWV circuit races. This year I missed the first one while I was in Durango the second was a new coarse that should have suited me pretty well. Before the start I jokingly said better check and make sure nothing is rubbing. Which to my surprise my front break was! I thought I fixed it right before we moved down the hill to start. Apparently I did not. My speedometer was no working I must have bumped it while changing out my back wheel. I didn't realize that I had a problem until it was far too late. We did the neutral roll out which seemed hard, duh! Up the first hill the ladies attacked I was with them but my god was it killing me! We turned the first corner into a head wind and I felt like I was standing still. The lead group road off without me and now just about every other rider was catching me and passing me I couldn't even jump on a wheel of women I usually only see at the start and no more. Shit I am out of shape I was thinking among other things like, damn you suck! I ride around the first lap slightly humiliated to even pass by the corner marshals finally I reach the decent before heading back up the hill, this is when I realize that my break is rubbing I can hear it and I don't accelerate on the decent. I turn the corner and see a teammate on the hill I stopped and asked him to check for me. He does and yes the break is rubbing very nicely he fixes it for me and now the hill aint so bad but my race is long since decided so I am going for a tempo workout all for the bargain price of $20 + gas and time. Oh well got to love it anyway.

Next day after a very fun but late night BBQ w/ a wee bit too much vino I went on a ride w/ my pals. Alki loop. Didn't know we were doing tempo w/ hills. I did great! Only dropped on the long climb and not by much. Just a slight vindication for the previous days performance. Maybe I don't suck all that bad.