But it's...

...cold outside and I don't want to ride. But I have to. I need to keep my legs open for racing this weekend. I also need to stretch. Maybe I should do that now while I'm watching the Tour of Missouri and typing. I got a massage after the crit on Sunday by the Athletes by Design traveling masseuse and she said that my hip flexors were really tight and my flexibility is terrible. Okay so that was my interpretation of what she said, but she did say I need to stretch a lot more. Any stretching is "more" for me. So I think I'll do some "more" now.

Fall Fling Cat 4 Crit #1 (40min +2) 65 person field

Okay position at the start, but got stalled as a rider in front of me didn't get clipped in on the first try. Field swarmed and relegated to the near rear of the field. Found the spots to move up in turn 3 and 4, but then would get pinched in turn 1. Tried some different lines but the field was too big to get the best lines and move up at the same time. On the bell lap I was 15 wheels back and the rider in front of me sat up and exploded. I was instantly swarmed. I yelled at him to move up as a big gap was being formed and I was unable to move myself as I was now boxed in. Finally was able to get around him after turn 2, but lost too much ground. Rolled in for 41st.
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Disappointing weekend. I was looking for a lot better results, but that’s racing. There were a lot of team tactics (imagine that in a Cat 4 Race!) as the big Chicago area teams showed up. WDT, XXX, Chicago Cutting Crew, Illinois Tech, Tati, etc., and they were working the field over.

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Can't sulk over it. Saturday is the TT, which I have not had the opportunity to do yet - so I'm not expecting much there, but Sunday is the day. The day I will do well in the last crit of the season. GC hopes are gone, but the crit is in my sights now.

Fall Fling Road Race

Just a quick race report for race #1 of the Fall Fling Series. Today was the road race. 40 some odd miles of flat to rolling, tight, narrow roads with the center line rule loosely enforced. This caused some mayhem on the last lap with a couple miles to go. About 15 riders decided they needed a better position for the sprint and not only crossed the center line by a little bit, they were on the opposite shoulder of the roadway. The official on the motor was all over it, causing the race to slow roll the last 1/2 mile before 200m. Ridiculous. No one was DQ'd out of it and my position suffered dearly. Ended up 26th for the day of about 50+ riders. Not too bad, but could have easily had a top ten if there was room to move up in the field, but the roads did not allow it. Will be looking for a better day tomorrow at the crit which is a few blocks from the hotel. I'll be taking a nap here shortly, hitting the hot tub and then eatin' some grub... yummy.

Here's to tomorrow!

Ka-blewy

Blew up on today's OBC training ride. But it was my fault. I haven't had any moderate to hard training rides the past few weeks due to lacking motivation and then toying with Cat 2 Beans and Barley racer Eric Loberg, boom - done! Stuck my head up into the wind too many times when the pace lagged and a few too many attacks on small hills and false flats to string things out did me in.

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Chalk it up to another learning experience. And it's to sit just sit in and not attack!

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A big congrats to Jeramey from WCBC for hanging in on the whole ride! WOW! Finished in the top 3! Send him some papers for Team Extreme!!

Rain

Well we are finally getting some much needed rain here. But it squashed plans for a team ride early this morning (well at least for me it did). It sucks because a Washington County Bike Club member expressed interest in racing next year and wanted to ride with us this morning to get a feel for the team and pick brains about racing. Guess it'll have to wait until next weekend.

Time for more coffee, breakfast and the trainer (100% chance of rain all freakin' day).

Lacking Motivation

I had it, but now it's gone. Not sure what happened. Maybe too hard Labor Day weekend? Two long days with lots of spirited efforts and tough climbs. I took five days off the bike. I felt flat, fat and lethargic. Even though the scale said I weighed the same, I felt like a big lump. I went out for a couple hour slow spin yesterday as my comeback. It felt good to be out, but I had to force myself to do it. Now today it is crappy outside and I just cleaned my ride. Gonna put on the HDTV and watch some nat geo and spin for a bit. I have to keep on trucking. I'm gunning for the Fall Fling Series coming up and I want to be in top 10 overall for the four races. Ugh. Some one kick me in the arse!

Oh and I found Stage 4 of the Tour of Ireland. Versus condensed Stage 4 and 5 into one hour long segment. Boo.

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I also decided to take an updated picture of The Brocket - with torn bar tape, scraped saddle and my new full size K-Force crankset. A nice upgrade from the SLK compact I had earlier this season.