Charge Pond

I went out to the Charge Pond race today. It was a bit windy and in the 40s. The sun seemed to feel like it had some actual warmth to it which was a welcome break from cloudy wet days or freezing cold days with gale force winds. This was more of a training ride for me because the race part of this happened at lap 4 or 5 when McCormack, Bold, someone from CL Noonan and some of the other unbelievably strong people went up the road. I saw this go and decided that it was too early to go with it - that was a mistake on my part. There were a lot of strong guys here and they were off the front pushing the pace on many occasions - and I mean pushing the pace. I found the place to break away - there are some small hills and false flats on this course. It was possible to gap the field on the second hill after the turn - there are two 'hills' in rapid succession and a lot of folks burned all their matches sprinting up the first one. This race was a lot like a Ninigret - except you could get away and not be seen. Another thing - as riders we need to work on our breakaway and chase tactics. The first thing is not to sprint past the person you are working with, especially if they have just completed a strong pull. It is imperative to also RIDE away from the field, not in the red zone but in the 'orange plus' zone - which a person can maintain for at least a few miles. A lot of folks sprinting off the front (me included), getting off 50 meters and staying there unable to work effectively or unable to convincingly pull away. I'm convinced that getting and staying in the break is a critical part of building Cat. 2 quality fitness - of course this is easier said than done - but it fits into my fitness program I have elected to use this year - "Racing Into Shape."

I'm glad I sat up in the sprint. I was getting pushed off the road and into the sand about 1KM out so I decided to sit up and let the other guys sprint it out. The Olympics are right around the corner so I wouldn't want to get in anyones way in their pursuit of glory. It was a critical sprint...only 10+ guys or so were up the road so 11th was available and from what I hear finishing 11th in the training series at Charge Pond gets you an invitation to the US Olympic Trials and who knows what can happen from there? Good Luck.

Of course, I got sick during the race and could not eat any food until 5PM, which meant I went over my limit and put a solid deposit in the training bank. I did a solid solo hour after this race around the park - this place has to have the most bumpy roads outside of the city of Providence - they were like North Main St. before they paved it. There is also a section in EP right before the golf course (one of my least favorite stretches of road around by the way) which is horrendous and similar to Myles Standish. The terrain in this place is deceptive - it is not flat, nor is it hilly...there are little rises and descents but only very small elevation changes yet it makes for a tough ride after a while. While this might sound nuts, I remember hearing other cyclists talk about 'heavy roads' - this place would qualify for having these 'heavy roads.'

It was nice to come home and walk my dog around my neighborhood wearing only a sweatshirt. Yesterday was the crappiest weather - cold and windy as hell. The weather was crappy because it was sunny which thus enhanced my feelings of guilt about not riding outside. Although I knew that riding in that wind would suck just as bad as riding in a cold rain, actually it would probably suck worse. Oh, and by the way - writing an "S" in orange spraypaint on other peoples fences and walls is not art. Its just not.