Catch up time

It's finally time to catch up on here. I've been riding as much as I can lately with the weather being great. On Monday I rode home from work, dropped my work gear off, & went out even more. I ended up doing about 34 miles that day. My legs felt good, didn't push it that much, just rode at a comfortable pace. On Tuesday I rode with my friend Eddie. We did 30.5 miles at an easy pace. It was a great ride. We talked about all sorts of cycling & non-cycling things. It's rides like that I remember why I love riding my bike again. On Thursday I did the group ride with the Central Georgia Cyclists. There were only about 6 of us that showed up. I guess others thought it was going to rain so they decided to pass. Well it was a great ride. I rode from my house to the start of the group ride so my legs were nice & warm by then. I told eveyone that I was going to push it on the ride & if they wanted to ride easy, I was cool going solo. Well that's exactly what happened. I started out at a comfortable pace for me & before you know it, I'm on my own. I decided to push the pace more. The big hill into Haynesville hurt just like always, but I know I'm getting stronger, because I can recover quicker after getting to the top of it. As I made the turn onto Grovania rode, I put it in the big ring & just setteled into a nice cadence. My legs felt really good the rest of the ride. I ended up waiting for everyone back at the start of the ride before having to ride home. I managed to get in 49.5 miles and my average speed was 19.4 mph. I can't complain about that seeing as I was riding solo the entire time. Well that's a good indication that I'm getting stronger & in the next 2 weeks, I'm going to be training for my next race. My next race is April 1st. It's the Perry-Robaix ride just south of here. There is one long climb I'm going to have to get used to doing, so I guess I'll be riding the race route as much as I can for the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned for more.....

Albany Race Report

The race in Albany was fun. This was my first race in quite awhile. The time trial was fun, but it was cold that morning. The temp was only 42 degrees, but it wasn't raining. My start wasn't the greatest, my bike kept skipping the chain, but once I got to the first flat part of the course I was able to upshift & find a comfortable gear. The course was short, but had quite a few turns in it. My time was 4:08 & I was 42 out of 53 riders in my category. Later that afternoon was the criterium. I didn't know what to expect, but was going to give it my best shot. The official told everyone at the start that if you were passed by the motor marshall, you would be pulled, but would be able to race the road race the next day. If you dropped out on your own, then you couldn't race in the road race. The start was very fast & I was doing my best to hang on. I completed two laps but on the third one I began to fall back with 3 other riders. On the back side of the course we were passed by the motor marshall & our day was done. I cruised back to the start/finish & then had something to eat afer cleaning up a bit. On Sunday morning was the road race. My category was racing for about 32 miles. The wind was a bear from the get go. The start was kind of a pain. One team had a ride go off the front early & they rode across the road blocking for him. The group was having a hard time keeping a steady pace due to the group up front. It was constantly speeding up & then slowing down. Quite a few of the other riders were beginning to get upset. The official finally told the riders up front to quit it & then the pace really picked up. I stayed with the pack as long as I could, but the pace was too high for me. I had to let them go in order to finish the race. I struggled with the wind riding solo, but I was able to pass at least 2-3 other riders. I finished the road race in 75th place. Overall for the stage race weekend I finished 60th out of 103 riders. I'm happy with what happened. I had fun, didn't crash, & didn't finish last in each event. I can only improve from here. I'm looking forward to my next race, so I'll be training harder & smarter know what to expect from now on.