13 years ago...

Holy cow! 13 years ago, I did this race called the "snakebite crit" here in SoCal. I'd done lots of miles prior to this crit in 1995 prior to tothe line in the Pro 1,2 event. My notes from the training diary looked like this:



Nice rest week, huh!?

D'oh!

Well, 13 years later, I toe'd the line today, again, at the ol' "snakebite crit" - only these days it is called the "red trolley" crit and instead of the P 1,2 race, I signed up for the Masters 35+ deal...

Man, going into this race I feel as if I am really far behind where I was last year with my training and bike riding capabilities. Ya see, I took this two week break in mid December to hang out with family (pops and the mrs' family)... So, yeah, that meant that I was on the "fat and shi&$^ program for a bit there! I totally enj0yed the experiences and wouldn't trade it for anything!

I mean, really - cookies and tecate (well, not necessarily in the same sitting...) taste good! Yeah, I'm weak, but this is life, and I'm going to experience it!!! :-)

Anyway, today was not a whole lot fun on the bike... As a matter of fact, it was downright miserable...

Not so much because of how hard everyone was pedalin', but just because it was 50 degrees F and raining. And not just a light mist... It was rainin' like a cow pissin' on a flat rock!!!

There were sheets of rain just 20 minutes prior to the start and I wound up picking road grime out of my teeth after pedalin' around in circles for 45 minutes while watching the second half of the super bowl and enjoying an adult beverage!

Small field and it didn't take long for the race to go up the road. I covered a move on the first lap (since it included an Amgen guy- Joel Stangeland, and a Ca Pools guy). Anyway, I spent my limited supply of fun tickets gettin up there and then the Ca Pools guy takes a pull that just about made me cry...

oh yeah, did I mention it's february 3rd and it was raining and miserable, out??

Yeah, so you can see in the power file screenshot below, the nice warmup I got (I was huddled up shivering against an office building trying not to get wet - dumb move, I should have never gotten out of the cab of my truck).



I spent maybe a lap or two off the front until Joel sat up (and i wasn't comin' around him) and we watched the ca pools guy just ride away... More guys dribbled up the road and I pretty much just followed wheels until I recovered a bit. by that time, I didn't have any idea what the heck was going on in the race - all I knew was that five guys were up the road, and I wasn't there.

We eventually got lapped by Thurlow (who I didn't immediately recognize because he now rides for Amgen - I saw this amgen guy who I told myself "hey he pedals like thurlow" - and yep it was thurlow... Dude is still fast.

I went hard a couple times trying to stay warm and race up more goin' hard time - I need more of that these days. I'm still trying to get back into the swing of things it seems after some time off around xmas/new years.

It's coming around a wee-bit though.

Here's the results:

http://www.scnca.org/schedule2008.asp?category=Masters+35%2B&event=Red+Trolley+Classic&rank=1

I'm signed up to do some more bike racin' this weekend - fiesta island 20k TT sunday morning, then in the afternoon it's the Roger Millikan crit. That day oughta be interesting!

Have fun out there, folks!