I Can Do This....

After the I found that riding could be fun again, I decided to throw myself into the fire. The following Thursday I had the day off so I did my first Driveway crit. The Driveway is a weeknight crit that is held at a local race track and has grown into one of the biggest weeknight crits in the nation. I did the 3/4 race and it easily had 50+ starters. It was hot (100+ degrees) and it was hard from the beginning. I was quickly finding that my recovery wasn't very good but I was hanging on. Then a crash through a corner created a large gap from the field and from that point it was a solo ride. I finished but that was about all I could say for that race. At the same time it felt good to race again.

The following Tuesday I did the local monthly TT put on by All Sports Timing. This is the second one of these I've done and it was blisteringly hot this time. My Garmin recorded a temperature of 104. I'd still been tinkering with my position some so I tried to focus on pacing and good form on the bike and not push to hard in the heat. The result was a decent ride but it was a little slower then normal.

Finally, I played with my road bike position this past weekend after a very strong TT training ride and then decided to do the University Oaks crit Sunday since I was going up to San Antonio for work anyways. I did the 3/4 since it was the first race and quickly went on a break that didn't stay out long due to the strong head wind on the finishing drag. I got back in the field and recovered (haven't done that in a while) was able to attack and go on a second break and then get back into the field after I was reeled in and recovered again (who is this guy?) and finally covered a move by one of the other teams and worked the front of the race for 3 laps leading into the 2nd to last lap. Finally at that point I was cooked and thankfully a teammate attacked and I pulled out of the way and finished behind the field on the last lap. It was the best I've felt in over a year and was very encouraging. I felt no pressure and it was great just racing for fun. Now I'll see if I can keep building this form for State TTs that are coming in about a month.

Yup, I'm pulling a face...