Like most riders, I bike because it's fun. Fun to flow on twisty singletrack, fun to roll along scenic roads, fun to travel by bike and enjoy the outdoors. But, would you say it's also fun to meet up in a giant grass field to practice riding around in circles and running with your bike on your shoulder? In the dark? In THE mosquito breeding grounds? Well, Jamie and Glen call it fun, so I wanted to experience the joy and rapture too.
Yeah, it's that time of year again when the cyclocross race calender is looming, and like a patient desperately brushing his or her teeth just before a dentist's visit, hoping to make up for all those times you didn't floss, I'm hoping to start "training."
Jamie concocted a little half-mile loop rolling through the flat fields which winds around a couple of soccer nets, up a little hill, and incorporates a short and a long run. The plan was to do one lap, rest, two laps, rest, three laps, rest, four laps, rest, and on, culminating with a six-lap effort. I had slain some epic singletrack the day prior, so I wasn't going to be able to throw down and teach these sucka's who the boss was. Not this night. Tomorrow looks tough too, maybe sometime in April?
Anyway, I digress. Jamie and Glen were turning in pretty consistent 2:45-2:50ish laps.
Mine went like this:
1. 2:57 (easy, roll through, warm-up)
2. 2:47, 2:52
3. 3:13, 3:11, 3:00
4. 3:21, 3:21, 3:17, 3:12
Hmmmmmm.... lap times got a little longer towards the end, eh? HR was up around the 170's with a peak at 182.
But, really, aside from my sprints, endurance, mounts & dismounts, I'm all set.
Of course, one of the main reasons I like cyclocross races is because it's another opportunity for me to take racing pics, and while I was waiting for my HR to settle down, I shot some pics of the machines that are Glen and Jamie.
All in all, it WAS fun. Sort of. And it was a good prelude to beer & sushi!
1 comment:
You need to take that fitness home and throw some money at it. Which, by the way, is my new favorite saying.
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