Webster Roubaix

I did a pretty cool race last weekend. It was called Webster Roubaix because it had a dirt road with a washboard surface. The loop was 9 miles and the dirt road was right at 2 miles. The remaining 7 miles were all narrow country roads with not-so-good surface. The start/finish line was about a mile down the dirt road.

It was fast right from the gun. Since I haven't raced in almost 2 years I was a little too tentative and not following wheels as closely as I should. Third time down the dirt road I was in good position near the front but just didn't have the horsepower and ended up in the 2nd group. There were quite a few up the road, 30 maybe, which left 50 behind. I ended up riding hard with a group of 3. We kept catching people and by the beginning of the 6th lap we had 18 in our group. I noticed that I could out ride almost everyone on the dirt road. So every time down it I'd get to the front and force the pace. They had to chase back to me and a couple other guys every time. We let up a little on the final lap. As it turned out we were only about a minute behind a group of 8 who was only a minute behind the lead goup of 10. It was always a fight to get to the dirt road first. With a mile to go I was 3rd wheel. At about 3/4 mile to go I attacked hard and opened up a big gap. 2 guys caught and passed me right at the line. 21st out of 80 isn't too bad for my first race back. I think I'm within about 5% of being competitive but I know that 5% is the hardest to get.

On another not, the "real" Paris/Roubaix is this weekend. I think it will be either-Tom Boonen, or Ballan but I'd like to see Roger Hammond too.

Strawberry Rides Forever

Did the Strawberry "Century" last Sunday with little Bro Jared. It was his first big group ride. There were 800 registered riders plus a few of us bandits. I figure I don't stop at the sags and I don't want the t-shirt so why pay. I pay to ride when I plan on stopping and eating.

It was slow for about the first 10 miles so I got to the front and pumped it up to 25 or so. I got off the front a little but then all of a sudden everyone was ready to ride fast and quickly caught me. Kinda like when you try to pass an old man on the highway. He'll do 50 until you try to pass him and then he'll do 90 to keep you from getting past. By mile 30 the average was up to 24. There was a section where the front group of 60 split in two and Jared and I were in the second group. The gap was widening and I couldn't wait so I jumped across. It took about 2 minutes of a maximum effort. By mile 50 I had to pee super bad. I whipped off the road at a stop light. I was able to get back on the group without too much effort. I had a team-mate, Diego who attacked the group a couple of times but was caught. I gave it a shot with 5 miles to go but was caught and again with 2 miles to go. I would have stayed away if not for a traffic light. The group was down to 12 at this point so I sprinted as soon as the light changed and led out Diego to first with me in second. Jared was first in the 2nd group in the top 20. I was pretty proud of him. Oh yeah, you could smell strawberries almost the entire ride as the course wound through the majority of Florida's strawberry fields.

Commuting

I get to commute to work during daylight savings time, woohoo. It's a 75 mile round trip so it's not real practical to do it every day but this week has worked out pretty good so far. Monday I rode to work and Sharon picked me up. Her cousin flew in to Tampa and we picked her up. Tuesday I drove in and rode my bike home then rode back in this morning. I was noticing that there are a LOT of traffic lights last night so this morning I counted. You won't believe how many there are. 59! That's almost 2 every mile. That's why I cruize at 22 or 23 mph and only have a 20mph average.

There's a race coming up that I'm probably going to do called Webster/Roubaix. They have a 15 kilometer loop with 3 k of narrow winding dirt roads. Sounds pretty cool to me. I don't think I'm up to the 180k Pro race so I will do the 120k masters race. Wish me luck.

Long Day

Had a long day today and I'm a wee bit tired. Got up and took the kids to school. Rushed home and rode the 40 miles to work. There was a pretty good crosswind the whole way but it was from the left so I got a break every time a car passed (about 4000 cars). I worked all day and got off at 6pm and headed towards the house, another 40 miles. I gave Sharon a call and picked me up with a mere 8 miles to go. I wasn't tired, I ran out of daylight. It was cloudy today so the precious daylight left us early.

Here's another pic of me racing.

6 Hour Mountain Bike Race

So I haven't been riding much at all, but I did a mountain bike race. I have ridden about 100 miles in the last month but Jeremy from work talked me into doing a team race with him. I borrowed my boss's MTB and rode the trails here in Lakeland last Sunday. It's been about 4 or 5 years since I'd been on a mountain bike butthe skills were still there, albeit a little rusty. Last Thursday I went with Jeremy and rode some of the trails the race would cover so I had a small idea of what it was going to be like.





The team consisted of myself, Jeremy, and Barbara. We'd planned on signing up in the co-ed division but because Barbara is so good they made us race in the advanced division. I had to keep telling myself that we were just out there for the fun of it but I raced as hard as I could anyway.





Barbara took the first lap in a respectable 50 minutes, about 6 minutes slower than her normal lap. I rode a 45 minute first lap and passed 11 people. Jeremy did 49 minutes . Barbara's second lap was about 49 minutes. I felt really good on my second lap and passed 21 people. I did right at 44 minutes but could have gone faster had I not been hung up on so much lap traffic.





It was Barbara's turn again after Jeremy got back from his 2nd lap but since she was doing a road race on Sunday my chivalry shone through and I took her 3rd so she could save her legs. I passed another 11 people.





We ended up 3rd with a respectable 7 laps. No other team did more than 7 but the other 2 teams ahead of us finished their 7 before us.





I was fun especially since I had my 2 younger daughters with me. We played Apples to Apples between my laps and they also got some good pictures.


I got my pick f some swag for a prize so I picked up this beauty for my wifely unit, Sharon. She said I should wear it. Ha ha.

Whining

I hate when I whine. I don't usually but I'm entitled once in a while. I haven't posted in a while because I haven't been riding, running or anything. I thought I was done with symptoms from my little viral friend, cmv, but I guess I was wrong. About 3 weeks ago I started feeling run down and tired all the time, again. I was right back where I was 6 months ago. It all finally caught up with me last week and I just had to stop all activity and get lots of rest. The depressing thing about it is my fitness on the bike was right where I wanted it to be for the amount of training I've been able to put in. I did get on the bike for about 40 miles yesterday and am in better spirits today, but I'm ready for bed and it's only 8pm. I hope this isn't what the rest of my life is going to be like, Doc said it's a possibility.

Sharon and I went to a new ice cream joint nearby called Cold Stone Creamery. They make their own ice cream and mix in stuff you want on a cold stone slab. We got a milk shake a while back called a cake-n-shake. I usually go for a chocolate malt but this cake-n-shake in awesome. It is cake batter ice cream with pieces of yellow cake, and icing all mixed together in a shake. Last night I got a hankerin for one but there like $7 and I'm cheap so I went to the grocery at 5 minutes til 9 and gathered up all the ingredients. French vanilla ice cream, yellow cake, and icing. Got home, baked the cake and then mixed in up in the blender. Quite good. I'd say 85% as good as Cold Stone's version. I couldn't find cake batter ice cream,I'm sure that's the other 15%. As a matter of fact I'm going to make one right now.
PS Sharon was complaining that she's not been able to get her weight down to where she wants and it's my fault. She's probably right ;)

Tagged

I guess I've been tagged by Lisa Jane so here goes:

A — Available or Married? Happily Married
B — Best Friend? Sharon, Chris
C — Cake or Pie? pie
D — Drink of Choice? Coke
E — Essential Item? Bike
F — Favorite Color? Green
G — Gummi Bears or Worms? Worms
H — Hometown? Lake Wales
I — Indulgence? All you can eat Chineese Buffet
J — January or February? February
K — Kids and Names? Savanah, Victoria, Marisa, and stepkids Kara and Alyssa
L — Life is incomplete without? sex
M — Marriage Date? June 10
N — Number of Siblings? 6--5 brothers and 1 sister--I'm the oldest
O — Oranges or Apples? Oranges (tangerines actually)
P — Phobias/Fears? Sharks
Q — Favorite Quote? Do or Do not, there is no try
R— Reason to Smile? I have a great life
S — Season? Autumn
T — Tag 3 People! I’m going to tag Sharon, Jeremy,
U — Unknown Fact About Me: I can ride a unicycle and juggle
V — Vice? going too fast on a motorcycle
W — Worst Habit? Procrastination
X — (My choice ): favourite sex position? 69!
Y — Your favorite food? Popeyes fried chicken, Sharon's meatloaf, my Spagetti
Z — Zodiac? Scorpio