Last week's training (and a race)

Monday J19: AM 2:25 cycling- easy with some pickups PM 0:10 core 14km row in ???
Tuesday J20: AM 2:20 cycling- easy PM 14km row in ???
Wednesday J21: AM 2:08 cycling- easy PM 14km row in ???
Thursday J22: AM 2:20 cycling - easy PM 14km row in ??? 0:10 core
Friday J23: AM 1:04 cycling- easy PM 0:16 cycling 0:10 core
Saturday J24: AM 75 min WU- crit ~40 min? 45 min CD PM 45 min WU 16km hilly time trial in 22:29 20 min cd
Sunday J25: AM limited warm-up ~30 min 49 mile race in ?2:30? limited cooldown ~20 min

Comments: This week, I was focused on the Blacksburg Cycling Classic and I was pretty tired from my big weekend of cycling. My totals were 18:00 cycling (not bad for a race week) and 4:00 rowing (which is probably a high). The Blacksburg Cycling Classic when really well for me. It started out a bit rough when I missed the start of my first cat 4 crit and started almost a lap down (I realized that I had missed the start when I saw the leaders coming around the final turn of the .89 mile-lap). I took off and rode the hardest 40 minutes of my life- managing to catch all but the top 7 riders for some much needed omnium points but no cash. The course was great for me (as good a a crit course could be) with a nice big hill and brake-free corners. The weather was a different story (Photo by Dave Cobb of Team Traveller)


The time trial went a little bit more smoothly (I made there on time) but I had tweaked my rear derailleur just before the start and I think that I made it worse. It was find for the (easy) warm-up but when I started to hammer for the TT, it was pretty bad. I managed 3rd place in 22:29.1 0.4 seconds behind second- which is a good lesson to always dig for that extra 1/2 of a second... After the race, I tried to adjust my derailleur and the cable came clean out. Had that happened during the race, I would have been stuck with only my smallest cog? I guess that I was pretty lucky after all.

The road race was not until noon the next day and the theme of the day was the weather (courtesy of Nataliedee).



The cat 4 race was three flattish to rolling laps with a mountain-top finish tacked onto the end. There were minor attacks on the first lap but the peloton mostly stayed together- or so we thought. I breakaway of three riders had gotten away and and the beginning of the second lap, we learned that they were 1:10 up. No one really wanted to organize a chase and so we languished around on the second lap (with me pulling most of the back half). The third lap was just as bad and I pulled for some of it despite really trying not to. Toward the end of the third lap, one of the break away riders had come back but the other two had a pulled a 4:20 lead. I lead the chase group to the bottom of the climb and let it rip. I caught the two riders about 1/2 of the way up the hill and managed to pull off a very luckily timed win! Results can be found here.