I did the Tuesday night crits this week in temps nearing 100 degrees at race time. It cooled off a bit for the A race, and then the rain dumped on them. For the B racers (including me) it was just hot.
I didn't expect to hang in very long, so I lined up at the front and played around a bit with taking pulls and small breaks. Once caught I worked on positioning, cornering, etc. Stayed in it for 18 minutes at 24.7 avg mph. before my lungs started yelling at me to back off...so I listened to the old body and bailed out. Happy with what I was able to do, and will continue to work on these things through the remainder of the season (mid-September).
Not having the pressure of trying to accomplish a specific finish order has made the crits much more enjoyable. The more track I race, the more dull a crit gets. But...crits are great training for track endurance events. And vice versa. If you don't have a cheap road fixie or track bike, you're missing a great training tool.
Lesson for the aged cyclist:
Work on technique if you're not in it for position
Make it fun
Bail when you are really cooked
Find the positive and dwell on it
Cyclist to pray for: Michael...all sorts of health issues have his spirits up and down.
DB
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment