Athlete Blogs
March 21st, 2009Race Report: Out like a lion road race, masters 35+
Nice sized field today, all the usual suspects with carolina masters having a big contingent out there. The course was a really tight, up and down, twisty 6.5 mile loop which was alot of fun. Our race was 6 laps and things started out pretty fast. My #1 goal for the race was to be super aggressive, something I have been working on. I attacked, was part of every move that went up the road, and finally initiated the break that stuck, with something like 4 or 4.5 laps left. In the initial forming up of the break when things are really hard, guys are blowing up, etc - I unknowingly dropped one my athletes from the break! Sorry about that mike! Probably a good thing for me though, because he can sprint very well.The break rolled along well for a while, then with 2 laps to go we started attacking each other. The odds certainly were not in my favor, I didn't let anything get away, but I couldn't get away either - so we rode to the finish together. While Charlie Brown and I were eyeing each other, some other rider jumped early and managed to hold us off, just barely but a well deserved win for him. I'm pretty sure I got charlie at the line for 2nd.
Overall a really fun day, nice weather and I'm very happy to have gone out on the attack and ridden aggressively.
A race like today's, where the result is not super important is a great opportunity to go outside of your comfort zone, take risks and try new things. Now being aggressive is not new for me - but being REALLY aggressive and making darn sure that I am in the winning move is something that I need to work on more and really focus on. My wife Kristy actually told me before the race that there was no reason whatsoever that a break should go w/out me in it. So I thought of that every time there was an attack - I immediately reacted w/out second guessing myself or delaying - so everything was covered. The other part of this is making the break stick - really going super hard, hard enough to get away from the field and force a selection and I got that done today as well.
At the end of the day it's all about having fun and today was alot of fun. Riding well is fun, executing a plan well is fun and so is taking risks. If you spend all this time training, spending money and time getting to a race, why not make it the best experience possible, instead of just another ho-hum field finish.
Now - time for some basketball!
