Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Hopkins Crit

This last weekend was the hopkins crit.  five of my team mates raced. I didn't race because I'm leaving for ragbrai on saturday and I didn't want to risk getting in a wreck and not having a bike for ragbrai.  

I really enjoyed watching the race though. A lot of people from the team came to cheer and I made myself nearly horse yelling at them as they whizzed by.  The race started really fast the first 3 laps (.7 miles)  were about 28 mph then is settled down a bit for the majority of the race then picked back up for the last couple of laps. 

Out of the 5 starters we had had 4 get dropped and one came in dead last. we really are the bad news bears. but you know for three of the guys it was there very first race. So i think we are all such beginners that the results show it.  But huge credit to the guys for going for it. As i have learned taking the risk of racing takes courage and a willingness to accept getting trampled the first few times. I am so glad some more of the guys are starting to race being out there alone was really hard. I think I may have helped some others muster the courage. If joel can do it... shit anyone can. haha. 

We had a couple of very hard group rides in the last week. I'm still toward the back of the pack but I'm hanging on ... not getting dropped,  this is a good thing.  I have so far to go to reach a place where I'm satisfied with my capacity but i continue to make painstakingly slow progress. As alway patience is so very important. there are defiantly time where I am pounding my head against a wall and seemingly getting nowhere. Then all of the sudden a dreaded hill is not so dreadful. 

courage and patience

I am tapering my training in preparation for ragbrai. So I only rode 20 yesterday and today. I will probably stop riding on friday and rest friday and saturday. Then get up sunday morning and it's day one of Ragbrai. WooHooo!

I may try to sneak into libraries or something to file some updates but realistically probably won't be able to say much until I get back.






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