8:20 AM, now that's an early start time.
Yesterday was definitely not satisfying so I opted to give it another go today. I went a bit better but still nothing to write home about.
The Burien CT is is relatively flat with a slight descent on the long finish straight and a slight rise on the back straight. The road is great and the fastest corner was well swept so other than some road turtles and one pothole about 100 m before the finish it's go, go, go.
The Masters Cat 1/2/3 field only lasted 30 minutes today so I did a grand total of 13.5 miles! Seems kind of short but plenty of stuff can happen in that distance so it is kind of misleading.
Of course someone took off from the gun and of course there were plenty of attacks. I tried to get away once with Garage Racing only and that was not happening but then about half way in Keller Rohrback led out Michel H for a prime and it seems Tom W (Garage) and I had the same idea - to counter the move. As it was Mike had such a big lead he coasted across the line and was easily able to hook up with Tom and I so away the three of us went. And that's when I got to experience one of the frustration things about local, amateur bicycle racing.
There are guys in the pack that have NO chance at the finish of a criterium/don't even try to sprint but who insist on killing themselves to close gaps and chase people down. In addition to not having a chance at the end they usually have 1) no teammates either or 2) no plan and are riding on some kind of basal instinct or just out to get in a workout and check the, "I went hard today and am tired now" box. Bottom line is Tom and Mike and I rode pretty well and although we could have gone a little harder on the finish straight at one point we had a 20 second lead and things looked good and then the pack was breathing down our necks. Thanks to the efforts of mostly one person who never sprints and I have no idea why he chases (usually me). This is not an isolated occurrence.
At least the pack did not catch us before Tom won a prime and then I had to start looking around for Greg or Dave to try and help out. With three laps to go I thought they were behind me but then when some guy attacked with 1.5 laps to go I could not see them. I figured it was better to keep the pace high and not let them get swarmed so I jumped and followed the attack and pulled the pack around for half a lap. At which point I got passed but it was okay.
We ended up top-10 so nothing spectacular but I did feel better than the previous day so was able to salvage something from this.
| Sleep | 6 |
| Waking HR | |
| Body Weight | |
| Body Fat | |
| Breakfast | 5:30 AM - cereal, banana |
| Lunch | |
| Dinner | |
| Workout Food | Pre-race - large bottle w/1 tablet Nuun and 2 scoops HEED, Shot Bloks race - water |
| Injuries | |
| Therapy | |
| Time of Day | 8:20 AM |
| Workout Type | race |
| Weather | mid 60s, sunny, dry, fairly calm |
| Course | Burien criterium |
| Distance | 14 miles |
| Time | 30 min |
| Power | |
| Results | 1st prime - 2nd 2nd prime - 3rd finish - back of the pack |
| Equipment | Road Bike 39/53, 12-25 Mad Fiber wheels |
| Clothing | bib shorts, Craft short sleeve undershirt, short sleeve jersey, long finger gloves, cap |
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