Friday, April 18, 2008

Lot has happened this week....

Napa Valley Dirt Classic.
One lap/ 22 miles. *T 01:40:44
Expert SS-- 2nd Place
It has "classic" in the name for a reason. The climb out of Pope Valley, towards the end of the race, is very steep(up to 20%) and unrelenting. I did this race last year, got 3rd and I did a 1:45 time. I struggled on the big climb and was so worked I got cramps--walking. This year was a different story.

There were 12 of us in Expert and 25 in Sport/ Open Single Speed which started as one wave. This was a huge group and the bottleneck to the trail was going to be a challenge. I got the hole shot, was first onto the trail and drilled it till past the airport. Fantastic! I ended up drawing two guys out of the group. Then, on the rolling open section before the single track a few of the geared women who I had passed earlier on the climb came rolling by (with what ended up as the 1st plc SS) tagging along. I was recovering from the start effort and it took me a second to realize the SS guy was in tow. Right before the technical single track he got in front of the now 4 person group of pro/ expert women and I never saw him again. It was so tight, I got by where I could w/o taking any of the other riders out.

I had a good race, never cramped and was able to run the steepest parts of the climb. I had so much traffic in the single track, I'm pretty sure it lost me about a minute. There was a guy on my wheel for a while and I managed to distance myself from him right after I almost took a detour in the wrong direction. So from there I rode my own race and picked guys off til the end. After the finish I noticed that my rear tire was almost flat! (turned out the sealant was all dried up). LUCKY! I shaved 5 minutes from last year and had no cramps even with the 80+ degree temps. If I had been in pro SS-- my time would have been 3rd. Shit Barry Wicks showed up and schooled the field with a time of 1:23!! Hey... only gave up 21 minutes w/ 1 gear LOL...

The Headlands have been treating me well. More Miwok intervals in the near future.

Then Tuesday... and shit hits the fan.....

Long story short. I'm unemployed, not by choice and so its job hunting time. This week has been a blur. I did an EPIC ride on Wednesday. My prescription for stress relief was a Mt. Tam round-trip with the headlands on the way home. About 48 miles--on the single speed. The Tam climb alone is long, I set a new PR for the climb up railroad 45:53--about 3 min faster then 2 months ago. Then I got to enjoy the great weather. I hung out for about 25 minutes or so. It was a special day. See for yourself.....

What a view!!
I call it... PERSPECTIVE.


So here it is Friday. I got out and did a solo Paradise loop on the road bike. Shoot I managed to PR the Camino Alto climb and the TT loop. Kinda surprised myself. In the last 2 weeks I'm feeling stronger and my knee isn't bothering me as much.... It's really let me do some better training. the pic is from today. This picture doesn't seem real. the fountain in the background looks photo-shopped in, but its not.


Sausalito coffee break.

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