![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninevirtuesThe season opener for cyclocross was yesterday in Winston-Salem. I raced Women's B (14 people-- a lot!).
Winston-Salem is about 50 miles from Burlington, and Elon. It's a city of about 175,000. We raced at Reynolda Village, a part of the old RJ Reynolds estate that contains many historic buildings (like a dairy barn, which now houses the bike shop that sponsored yesterday's race). Nearby, there were two historic mansions: The Reynolds house and the Grayson (I think?) house-- built by the people who also started the medical school at Wake Forest. (Both were lovely.
I'm not so sure about the karmic and social consequences of tobacco-driven affluence; oddly enough, the Winchester Mystery House, built with gun money, doesn't bother me-- nor does Hearst Castle, built with a fortune made in yellow journalism. Tobacco money gives me pause.
About the race: Naturally, there was pain and suffering involved. In general, though, courses out here are less technical than Californian courses-- there's more asphalt and grass, and there are fewer off-camber sections with tricky turns. Lessons learned:
1) If your bike seat seems too low, it probably is. Fix it, already. Don't race like that; it sucks power from you if you can't extend your leg all the way.
2) Line. Up. In. Front. Not in the second row. In front. That way, when the starting gun goes off, you are already in contention.
3) Having a coach, whose excellent and carefully crafted instructions and planned workouts I generally ignore, is not working for me. (I feel guilty when I do her workouts, which take time, and feel guilty when I don't do them, because I'm supposed to do them.) Nor will having a coach work for me while 90% of my attention is focused on school.
Winston-Salem is about 50 miles from Burlington, and Elon. It's a city of about 175,000. We raced at Reynolda Village, a part of the old RJ Reynolds estate that contains many historic buildings (like a dairy barn, which now houses the bike shop that sponsored yesterday's race). Nearby, there were two historic mansions: The Reynolds house and the Grayson (I think?) house-- built by the people who also started the medical school at Wake Forest. (Both were lovely.
I'm not so sure about the karmic and social consequences of tobacco-driven affluence; oddly enough, the Winchester Mystery House, built with gun money, doesn't bother me-- nor does Hearst Castle, built with a fortune made in yellow journalism. Tobacco money gives me pause.
About the race: Naturally, there was pain and suffering involved. In general, though, courses out here are less technical than Californian courses-- there's more asphalt and grass, and there are fewer off-camber sections with tricky turns. Lessons learned:
1) If your bike seat seems too low, it probably is. Fix it, already. Don't race like that; it sucks power from you if you can't extend your leg all the way.
2) Line. Up. In. Front. Not in the second row. In front. That way, when the starting gun goes off, you are already in contention.
3) Having a coach, whose excellent and carefully crafted instructions and planned workouts I generally ignore, is not working for me. (I feel guilty when I do her workouts, which take time, and feel guilty when I don't do them, because I'm supposed to do them.) Nor will having a coach work for me while 90% of my attention is focused on school.
