Finally did it

Well,
It's been more than a decade in the making. I finally made the podium in the VA state series race.


I am still can't believe it. Do you know how long I have been envious of anyone making it onto the podium?

Ever since I did my first race so long ago in like 1989 or something like that, I've wanted to so bad make it on the podium. Over the years the few times I've done it have been the 2nd place at Canaan that we got in the 5 person open team. But I am not sure if I've ever really done it as an individual competitor.

I did get a 3rd place at the Wolf gap race, but we left before the race awards so that doesn't really count.

This 1st place in the VA State series was a total surprise. I only did 3 races in the Vet sport class. A 5th at the Hoo Ha, a 3rd at Wolf Gap and a 4th at Rowdy Dawg Yesterday.

Oh most def. I had been checking out the points series and seeing who had been doing which races, and who I was racing against, I just didn't want to think about it too much and jinx it. One success I've made this year is to try and not think about results too much and focus only on the moment and what is controllable. but still it is hard to not dream a little.

So at Rowdy Dawg, I so much had wanted to just rail that course. I knew almost every inch of it very well. I did have a pretty good race with a 4th place. But I could tell from the get go that my legs were just not there like there were for the last race. On every section I think I was pushing at least a gear lower, or bogging in the gear that I had ridden in training. If I tried to push too much I knew I would cramp, so I backed off.

I was slightly dehydrated from wine tasting the night before. I forgot how much wine really dehydrates me.

I also totally stacked it on the Beast. I've ridden that think a hundred times and never really rolled it until yesterday. I went over a drop off on the far right side, and my bars clipped a small sapling which totally threw me. Luckily I didn't get hurt too bad, it could have been far worse. John crashed in the same exact spot.

I could just tell that I wasn't able to hold the speed and momentum through sections to really feel like I was going fast.

It's ok cause I still got 4th, but I wanted to break 2:10, I got 2:15 or so and just know that if I was on that I could have easily kept the momentum going and broken 2:10.

Brian and this other local rider were 2nd and 3rd. So inside I really wanted to beat them, but I couldn't hang with Brian's and the other guy John downhilled like a maniac.

But it was a total surprise at the end when they did the Series awards. I had moved to 4th after Wolf gap in the overall series, and with my 4th yesterday, I moved into the series lead because none of the guys ahead of me were there, or I had beat them.

It was a shock. And just so awesome.

I've wanted this for sooooo long.

I got to stand on the podium, and got a sweet plaque that is going to go in my office.

I don't think I am a sandbagger, cause I never smoked anyone in the races and never got better than a 3rd. Nevertheless it was so cool to win it with only 3 races.

I was looking through my old logs, and saw that my overall weekly hours on the bike were like 3-5 hours less per week than what I did years ago. Credit any success to some more maturity on my part and the Dave Morris book Performance Cycling

Performance Cycling

So what now?

I'm going to join the gym today, and start some transition lifting. I need to do 3 weeks but I might shorten it to two. then start into 2 weeks of hypertrophy. Not too much riding during that,

Than try and combine strength phase with some long rides. We'll see how that works out..if the weather holds and my motivation holds.

It's nice to be done with racing though. Puts a lot of general stress on the mind.

I've also got tons of little bike projects I need to work on
-finish rear wheel
-sell Hugi wheel
-swap out to the new wheels
-put old wheels on karen's bike
-return Karen's old wheels to Nashbar
-move cleats back in road and mtn shoes
-set up new mtn shoes
-set up spare road shoes
-measure road bike
-try and change position on cross bike, and/or swap it over to flat bars


lots to keep busy with.

later.