Athlete Blogs
September 13th, 2009
Race Report: Carolina Cup M35+
Another race report here - and I promise this will be the last one for 2009, this is it, there is nothing of interest left on the calendar.
Carolina cup is a long running race in Greensboro and has a fun, non-technical 1.6mile circuit with a nice longish hill on it. Long fast finish, drag race type sprint (NOT my forte).
I spend a bit of time talking with a client also doing my race, we discussed the mental apsects of racing and how you often know exactly what you should be doing, but the pain causes hesitation and you miss the move or fail to put that big effort in. Well, the pep talk worked, he raced better than I have seen in a long long time. Very happy about that.
My warmup went fine, felt good. I did exactly as I always do, off the line fast, and lead for most of the first lap, setting a hard tempo but on my terms, discouraging any first lap attacks keeping it single file. I always prefer to set a hard tempo to dictate the pace and warmup as opposed to following someone else's attack.
The race was hard, lots of action. I made some full gas, really hard efforts with 4 laps and 2 laps to go that were all out, maximal efforts. Both were to bridge or cover dangerous moves. I made the split second decision that if I did nothing, the race was lost. It might be a wasted effort, but doing nothing would surely result in missing the move. Both efforts were harder than anything I have done in recent weeks - but it felt good to push to the max.
Except for one guy, it came down to a field sprint, which was a bit hairy and not my strength - I ended up top 10 but wasn't really in the mix for the top spots. I was actually more pleased that I dug deep and went all out when the situation required it, instead of sitting back and being too cautious.
Anyhow, this is really the end of the season. It was a fun weekend, beautiful weather but now the focus has to shift to 2010 - the new gear, new bikes, tunnel time, long intervals in the garage in the early AM, all that good stuff.
There is something comforting, satisfying about sliding into a routine of waking up - working out hard, showering, having a busy work day then relaxing, sleeping great then doing it all over again the next day. That is why i like being home so much - the routine is exactly as I like it.
Happy Training,
Pete
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"Pete has already pushed me to power levels I've never seen before.
I'm enjoying his focused workouts, his flexibility to modify training loads when life offers it's bumps, and his refreshing words which boost my
self confidence when needed the most."
~ Dave Linenberg
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