Pavement and Velodromes: Racing Day 1

Today Jamie and Dan had their team pursuit with Kenny and Roman. I had my scratch race heat. Then Jamie had his scratch race heat.

I managed to sleep in until 11am!! I don't think I've done that since college! It worked out perfectly, though, because I had time to eat breakfast, check some email, respond to some classmates for my online course, and pack up before we headed out the track at 1pm.

Once we arrived, I did some laps on the track, and then relaxed while lots of racing happened. One of the things I hate about the track is trying to time my warm-up, and waiting around while all the other racing goes on. I ended up getting in a longer warm-up than I'd planned, but that's not really a bad thing. We were finally up, and a kind guy was my holder (holders for a mass start?!). It was helpful to have someone who knew what was going on to calmly talk to me, tell me to sit up, and basically help me mentally at the beginning. It was a heat of 13, and the top 8 would advance. I tried to remember all the advice I'd been given - don't work too hard, don't pull at the front, don't chase things, but be sure to follow certain people if they tried to attack. I was doing great, making the stronger people chase things down, sticking with the pack when the pace picked up, and responding when I needed to. But with about 4 laps to go, the pace just picked up and I couldn't hang... it sucked. I feel like a few months ago, I could have made it to the final, but my fitness seems to have faded, unfortunately.

I now know what I need to work on for next year, and maybe that even involves taking a mid-season break in racing. When the road season starts at the end of February, it's hard to peak in October...

Now I don't race again till Sunday, the last day of racing, in the points race. We shall see how that pans out...

Here's Jamie's pursuit team on the podium claiming silver: