Walkersville RR Is Tommorrow..

...And I am really nervous about it

I haven't done a proper yellow line rule road race in at least 8 years. It's been all crits, circuits and TTs for this fat dood. Even when i was a strong rider, I've always avoided road races because they all seem to have some little hill that kills me. The old Hump Race was brutal on me and the old Tuckahoe race was downright dangerous. To make it worse, I've never fared well in Poolesville either. It was always the humps that did me in. Give me a road race on the board flat Maryland Eastern Shore (like Tuckahoe, but safer) and I'm there. Trouble is that there are none. This year is gonna be different. I am going to HTFU and embrace my fear and make it my beayatch, so to speak. So I will do as many road races as possible. Maybe just maybe, I'll do well as my power goes up and my burdensome weight goes down. Any way, back to Walkersville. I pre-rode the course last week and did a couple two, three laps of tempo for my troubles. I like the course and feel my chances here of not getting dropped are as high as 50/50. It'll all come down to wind direction and how fast the others in the Masters 35+ 4/5 field will be jamming up the bumps on Ramsburger Road. If the planets align just right and my training up to now has been good, I see myself getting to the very end, where maybe i can make a decent sprint for it. I have no aspirations of being a world beater here. It's my first race of the year and its a C priority one at that. My peak races aren't until July for the MABRA Crit and TT championships. I need races that will help me upgrade outta of Cat 4. Masters 35+ 4/5 i don't think will qualify. You'd think that as a USA Cycling official I'd know the answer to my own question.

Going into tomorrows race I am about 2 lbs lighter and my bike will be about 5 lbs lighter than the one I used to pre-ride the course. On the downside I will not be getting any power numbers for the race. This might not be a bad thing. I really don't want the distraction and I feel more comfortable and faster on my race bike. It also climbs better too. I'll take any edge I can get, even if it means not acquiring some really choice data.

I've had two really good workouts this week to finish off week 3 of my Base 2 period. I'm looking forward to some forced time off the bike next week. I'll probably use the time to work my ass off at the grind and spend some quality time with my wife. We've been like ships in the night lately. I might get some work done around the house too.

I've got some good power numbers for this week too. During Wednesday's Sub Threshold workout I earned increases in the following areas. 30s, 1m, 2m, 5m and 10m. The big surprise was the increase in my 10 min. power. My jump put me close to 300 watts. While doing the interval I kept thinking that I could go longer at the pace I was working. My guesstimate of my FTP now would be in the 275 watt range. Up 25 watts from when I tested it 3 weeks ago. I've gone down about 10 lbs in that time frame too. That bodes well for the all important power to weight ratio. Checking the Power Profile Chart, I've see that moves me from being barely a Cat 5 to a middle of the road Cat 5/ sucky Cat 4.

Perfect!

Cheers!

FGR