2009 March 8 Menlo Park Grand Prix

CTL: 117
TSB: -11

Racing this weekend mainly to get some race practice of team tactics, and boy do I need to practice...It's easier on the track cause there's almost always room to maneuver where you want to when you want to until the last couple of laps versus vying with 95 other racers, even on the long 1.4 mile lap.

Went into this pretty tired from hard days on Friday and Saturday in attempt to make up a little bit for rain days and to simulate next weekend's stage race.

I almost run over Mary Maroon on the way there but she apologizes to me afterwards!

Masters 35+ 3/4
Was number fifteen on the waitlist so had to prepare for both racing and not racing, and I am one of the two people on the waitlist to actually show up so I get in.

No video so words will have to do, it's easy to float in the pack but I have no snap to move up so I stay pretty far back until the last lap, keep moving up until I find some teammates and try to help them move up, then we get to about 250 meters and teammate Steve gets out of the saddle for his final kick so I follow suit and I think we finish about 20th or so.

T: 37:36
D: 26.0 km
C: 97
S: 41.4
pavg: 180
pnorm: 216




E4 race
This race feels smoother only because for some reason we don't brake as much in the chicane - part of it is probably because lots of the riders in the first race had done or were doing multiple races and there were plenty of fresh legs in this race. But it turns out the average speed works out to be almost exactly the same. What's really weird is I can time trial faster and harder than this on my road bike but while I am in the race it feels harder than a time trial so it's one time you really have to ignore what your body is saying.

Float around the middle and back of the pack until two to go and move up behind a teammate and tell him to get on my wheel. I start moving up whenever I see a gap and think it's safe and find myself on the front with one to go, lead the group into turn one, let some guys pass, lead the group out of turn two and look back going into the chicane and don't see anyone I know behind me so I get pretty discouraged and start to soft pedal. On the road I have a relatively strong initial acceleration so that point I dropped my teammate but on the track I have learned to never rely on my sprint so I never worry about dropping anyone during a leadout so I have to do things a little differently on the road, at least while I am still a 4. Roll in mid pack somewhere.

T: 37:23
D: 26.1 km
C: 100
S: 41.7
pavg: 181
pnorm: 212