Well. A break thru of sorts.

Allentown Irving Park Sportsfest. I've done this race 2 x before, as a cat 5. Manned up and did the Masters. Started slow, then about 2 laps in the hammer went down. I was determined to stay in the pack. A few laps later it slowed a bit. This went on for all of the 25 laps. Near the beginning of the race my legs started to scream but I rode thru it. Eventually they felt pretty good. Patrick whats-his-face the track rider rode off the front (as per usual). They stopped calling out the gap at about 50 seconds. But anywho....
I rode strong, pulled the pack at times, jumped on a few breaks, and had a damn good time. I should've jumped coming up the hill after the start/finish line on the last lap but, well, next time (I was climbing as well as anyone and better than most). Wound up 20th out of 24, which ain't great, but i finished pretty strong. And to my anonymous poster; I caused no wrecks; if there's 1 thing I can do is hold a line. Cross tends to help with that.
As and aside, I saw Keith fron HUP in his stylin Blanco kit; I may get me one of those next yr.
Also saw Nick, the guy I sold my K's to. All in all a pretty good day. I'm off now to eat lots of food and drink beer.......

A little ring day.

After killing my legs at the World Cup Sat AM hammerfest, thanks to the testosterone twins, Scotty and Rod, I went out for a nice, easy, flattish (as flat as it gets around here) ride out towards Mechanicsburg. I made the essential ride along McCormick road; essential because it's just plain fun annd beatiful, plus it's good for some good views. Early and you'll likely see someone fly fishing, which, although it's not my cup-o-tea, is sure purdy to see. Later and you may see a young lass in a bikini enjoying the water. I saw neither today. Oh well. IDID, however, see a DeLorean coming the other way. That is certainly something you don't see every day. Rode past a dad and his 2 youngish kids, on full road bikes (looked to be 7-9ish) out for a spin. Just took it easy. Had a great 36 mile ride.

Damned (fat) softball players

Since my encounter with CXstraggler on the road the other day, I've had the jones to get out on the cross bike. Yesterday I got the Gitane swapped around to it's SS cross configuration, now with Tufo tubie clinchers. yea, they suck, but they're the fattest best tread I can get on that thing. And they were cheap. I headed over to Lower Allen park to hit the old trails. Well, things have changed. They put in new soccer fields (ggod for the community-not for me) and a paved path. Since the fields were newly seeded I didn' want to be a dick and ride across them, so I used the paved path. that was OK. However, they're having a softfrigginball tournament there so my ritaul of using the row of trees as a slalom course was out. Bah. Oh well, still got to do a few dismounts/remounts and get a little mud on me and the bike.
Softball. A game where fat chicks and doods can play and drink bad beer later. (As opposed to cross, where fit chicks and doods can race till you puke, and then drink GOOD beer later.)

Wow.

My 1st Masters crit. At the Rodale fitness park. Every one is absolutely right; these guys are FAST. I got kicked out the back about 2 laps in and at that pace I could never catch back up. Got pulled after 5 ish laps. DFL.
Note to self. Try as hard as you possibly can to stay in the pack.
On a positive note, the tubies ride and spin great.

It's been a while.

I've been doing intervals now for 3 weeks. I figured it's probably a good idea since I have a race on Sunday. ....
Anyway. The weather a week ago was absolutely phenomenal. This week? Not so much. Still got some good sessions in. My legs have been feeling fairly good except for today. Tabata intervals are killers. I was lazy and had World Cup glue my tubies; I wouldn't have had time this week and I want them for the race PLUS I wanted the wheels checked out by someone who knows what they're doing.
I hope to at least hang with the pack on Sunday. It's my 1st Masters crit and I know it'll be faster than the 5's were, but hopefully, a bit less sketchy. At least Kevin Breckenmaker will be there; a familiar face. Or ass, depending on where I'll be.....
And some good news, I think/hope. Sarah's new soccer team won't be playing a tournament over Iron Cross weekend PLUS their tournaments are late summer so it shouldn't interfere too much with cross season, although the league games are on Sunday, I think, so we'll have to see. Maybe I'll finally get to do Granogue?

Well. That was BRUTAL.

Fawn Grove Roubaix. 40 miles of undulating roads (not too different than here) and dirt and gravel. My 1st Masters race AND 1st road race. Beautiful day, got there in plenty of time for a change, forgot my pump (no biggie-borrowed one), rode instead of using the trainer to warm up. We lined up next to last group. Went off at a not too insane pace. I kept to the back of the main group, and then we hit the gravel. I rocked it. Too bad I can't climb to save my life. Before long things got strung out. I was in no man's land. Off the back of the main group but in front of the really slow guys. I would make up time on the gravel sections and decents but lose time on the climbs. A bunch of the 4/5's caught me but not a lot, as well as the Pro 1,2,3's who lapped me. No biggie. I have no idea where I finished. Not 1st but not DFL either. Mission accomplished I suppose....
I'll do it again for sure. It was fun in a painful sort of way. My wheels and tires worked great-no flats and my wonderful French bike smoothed out the gravel quite nicely.
I guess I'll find out the placings tomorrow on line. I hope it's not too bad.

Pro. Or no?

So I'm going up my driveway, out to do my hill workout. As I'm going up, I see Amy, the oh so hawt yes she's my age and she puts women 1/2 her age to shame going up the road. She says "Hi". I say "hi" back. Being "Pro", (ha!) I;
1) exchange pleasantries and go on my way to my sufferfest
2) offer to ride with her for a while and THEN do my sufferfest.
Yes, I choose #2. I'm not stoopid, you know. It was nice to ride with someone for a change, especially someone as nice and good looking as Amy. I still got to go out and head up Andersontown road, then continue up Mountain road, up to Roundtop. That is a nice, grinding climb, with a few little breaks. I'm feeling pretty good on the bike right now. I'm about 200+ miles ahead of last year's mileage total, which is good.
I don't know what to expect with the road race coming up in April. 40 miles. Some climbs, and dirt! Yay! And now I'm FINALLY out of cat5, up to cat4 so now I can race the Masters, which I'm sure will kick my ass. At least I'll see some familiar (older) faces; Bob Perna, Gary Kelly, and others I'm sure from cross.
Oh. It's a good thing I looked at my bike after the ride. My rear tire is through to the belt. Put the Kendas on today. It's always good to have spare stuff laying around....