Yesterday's criterium race
Mar. 6th, 2005 06:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ninevirtuesThirty minutes, ten laps or so around a one-mile course, one quarter-mile of which was uphill with a headwind.
Ouch. Dear God, that hurt. I tried to go very fast and stick with the fast guys. Uh, no. You let those guys out of their basements after a winter on their bike trainers, and they act like crazed bears in springtime-- fastest guy gets the contents of the beehive. Zoooooooooooooooom!
The good news:
1) I won the women's race.
2) I did not end up in a bloody heap in a crashed-out pile of aggro cat 5 men. (This is rare, but it happens, especially in crowded CA training races.) In fact, the scene was pretty mellow.
The bad news:
1) There was only one other woman in the race.
2) And, when trying to hang with the fast cat 4-5 men, I got dropped pretty quickly and lapped sometime after that. And, specifically and especially, the 1-2 punch of the hill and headwind got me.
The denouement:
(Can jocks really use that word? I guess so! ;-)
1) The circuit race (Same deal, but 2-3 mile course) is today.
2) I am going.
3) And my challenges today are: (a) Arrive early, damn it and (b) keep a high heart rate and a positive attitude the whole time, even when-- as will inevitably happen-- I get dropped. Oh and (c) Try not to get lapped.
Okay... on goes the aggro, cunning, and scrappy mindset, like a mental helmet. It's race day.
Ouch. Dear God, that hurt. I tried to go very fast and stick with the fast guys. Uh, no. You let those guys out of their basements after a winter on their bike trainers, and they act like crazed bears in springtime-- fastest guy gets the contents of the beehive. Zoooooooooooooooom!
The good news:
1) I won the women's race.
2) I did not end up in a bloody heap in a crashed-out pile of aggro cat 5 men. (This is rare, but it happens, especially in crowded CA training races.) In fact, the scene was pretty mellow.
The bad news:
1) There was only one other woman in the race.
2) And, when trying to hang with the fast cat 4-5 men, I got dropped pretty quickly and lapped sometime after that. And, specifically and especially, the 1-2 punch of the hill and headwind got me.
The denouement:
(Can jocks really use that word? I guess so! ;-)
1) The circuit race (Same deal, but 2-3 mile course) is today.
2) I am going.
3) And my challenges today are: (a) Arrive early, damn it and (b) keep a high heart rate and a positive attitude the whole time, even when-- as will inevitably happen-- I get dropped. Oh and (c) Try not to get lapped.
Okay... on goes the aggro, cunning, and scrappy mindset, like a mental helmet. It's race day.
