Wow what a weekend. It seems like I’ve been having to force it these past few weeks, doing a lot of racing and training either in miserable conditions or on the trainer. When the forecast called for sunny skies and 70 degree temperatures, I didn’t even know what that meant. Riding without warmers just feels weird right now. We even got a little cherry on top when Friday evening’s storm missed us to the south.
The racing was at Bear Mt and Ninigret this weekend. The 3 field filled up quickly at Bear Mt and I missed out. Ninigret was tempting, especially because they had a straight 3 field, but a Sunday afternoon criterium start meant I’d want to take it easy riding all weekend. With the nice forecast? No thanks. Yes, I actually skipped a race because the forecast was good.
Friday night turned into a 2 hour recovery/coffee shop ride with Erica. It was probably too long to truly recover but who cares when it’s that nice out. Need to keep the brain thinking that riding bikes isn’t always painful.
On Saturday morning I met up with Ken in Ipswich for a 3-hour ride. Nothing like riding with a criterium lover to check the snap in your legs. It was full gas right from the start with nothing less than 600W sprints up each of the punchy climbs in the area. With all the hill training I’ve been doing this year I think my legs are forgetting what that feels like. Anyways, we did a nice coastal loop through Gloucester and Rockport. Check it out here:
Guess what? It was nice on Saturday night so when I got home Erica wanted to ride again. Geez, we get her a Scott CR1 last week and now she’s chomping at the bit to ride all the time. 2 hours later I was feeling pretty darn beat.
For some reason I decided to go do Wells Ave the next morning. I guess I was afraid I wouldn’t get a good ride in if I didn’t.
I was feeling especially unmotivated and unwilling to hurt and would have used the excuse that I was waiting until the second half of the race if questioned why I was sitting in so much. About 10 miles or so in, my teammate Justin got tangled up in some monkey business and down he went. Luckily we avoided a pileup but he still got a little chopped up. A few of us stopped to see how we could help before hopping back in with about 10 to go.
There was a lot of traffic and I think that pretty much neutralized any breaks. Not that I was even trying to get into one. I sat in until the final laps and got a semi-decent position for the sprint although a wheel or two further back than I would have liked. When we hit the final straight I had a red carpet that should have easily led me into the top 5, but my legs were junk. I pretty much just sprinted the same speed as everyone else even though I was out of the wind. Max power barely cracked 1,000. I hope I’m not losing my ability to kick it up.
Post-race I was going to just go for 2 hours or so, but Roy and Peter were riding out to Harvard. Stupid Rapha Race training (just kidding). So of course, being nice out, I had to tag along. What a thrashing. I cringed every time Peter would start pulling. There’s nothing like being in over your head to whip your butt into shape.
Of course when I get close to home it’s time to meet up with Erica for another little jaunt. I’m bonking hard for the first time in ages and 200W feels like a heroic effort. Thank goodness she didn’t want to go hard. It would have crushed me. Finally rolled home after just shy of 7 hours of moving time. Then off to Minado for unlimited sushis and we ate till it hurt. So awesome.
What a weekend!
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