Mississippi Grand Prix

Well, yesterday we drove down to Brookhaven, MS. Now that we are here we will be going out for an easy ride this morning and then get ready for the crit tonight. Weather Channel says it might rain. SUCK!. Tight crit with rain equals recipe for disaster. The MS Grand Prix is a crit on Friday, RR and TT on Saturday and then a short circuit on Sunday. I did this race back in 05' but did not have teammates in the race due to a bad crash in the Friday night crit. This year will be different and we will do better. Its time we all get on the podium! We have a great team and now its time to show everyone else.

Results coming soon...

Tuesday Nighter

Well I'm scheduled to be riding the ambulance today and I will be able to take 2.5hours off work to do my training. It's pretty tough to get motivated to go do a hard workout after you've been getting your face kicked all day with some ridiculous 911 calls. that's life and i deal with it. It made my shift go by a little faster or at least it helped.
The crit; well i wish i would have had time to warm up but since my time was limited I just rolled around for about 10min. It was windy again at the race but I like it like that. Races like this actually make you stronger, or so I tell myself. Start of the race Chris decides to get an attack going and then gets reeled in after a lap of suffering. 1 lap later I attack and get off the front for a lap by myself and then Brett comes across. As soon as he did I was praying others would come or they would at least shut us down. I was getting rid of a lot of weakness in my body today. We never really pushed it hard or at least I don't think I did because my legs felt like crap. I only came out to the race to get my leg going for this weekend but I think I did more then that tonight. Brett and I finally started to get a good tempo avg about 27-28mph. That's what Brett said, i forgot my head unit. Again, I'm at work and kind of busy. I couldn't not have asked for a better workout then I got tonight. When you get to the point of thinking of stopping or giving in and you just keep going hard, that is when you know you are getting stronger. I made a mistake by waiting to try and sprint it out on the last lap. I got the cards and played them this way tonight and I'm very pleased. Brett took the win and I got second, again. My week of hard training is over and now I will just be waiting for the hard work to come out for SpeedWeek.
Mississippi Grand Prix this weekend. I raced it back in 05 and had the overall won until the last day when it was a 12 on 1 crit. I lost and was not able to keep the overall. Oh yeah I was out their without any teammates. Maybe it will be different this year, or maybe not. We will just have to wait and see.

SPS #3

I was scheduled to race THE ROCKY MNT STAGE RACE but due to my career getting in the way again. I could not go to this race. I took it easy on my legs to try and recover from the beating I've been giving them. I wanted to race and the only thing I could do was to go to the Track. Last time I was at the track or on my track bike was at Nationals qualifier last year. I was a little perturbed but this is the best mock racing/interval training that will get me ready for the crit racing season. I got to the track about 6pm and got all my stuff ready. I was looking over the bike and made sure everything was tight. I got on the track to make sure I felt comfortable. While I was warming up I started to wonder if I should have taken my wheels to get re glued. The first race of the night was an 8 laps scratch race. A crit on the track for me. Its a sprinters race but since I lack the sprint I decided I wasn't going to let it come down to a sprint. 4.5 laps to go and I counter a move and take a half lap and I'm just trying to drill it and get a lap on the field. I come close and get within 75meters and with 1 to go I just put into cruise control, knowing we still had 2 more races to go, and ride it in easy. Taking the first win. Next race is a points race, I hate because again you have to have a quick punch. This is what I was here for to get work on this. DO WORK! 60laps point race, I come in 3rd. Knowing I'm tied with some MSU guy for 1st, I know I have to win the next race. Unknown distance is the last race and I was being watched very carefully by the MSU guy. He wasn't letting me take a breather at all. Attacks were flying left and right and I made sure I was in every single one. The decisive move came when Matt Stevens attacked and MSU guy went with him. Our break caught them and as soon as it did I countered that attack and went flying solo again. I quickly got a half lap on the break of 5 and was just drilling it! trying to lap the field. I finally got on the same stretch and could not close it. The 5 guys were not having any of it. After 5 laps of almost making it, I finally dug deeper and caught the back of the front group. I was finally up a lap and could sit in comfortably. All I had to do now was follow moves and hope nobody would get away without me being on it. I won the last race and won the Omnium. Made me feel good to get a hard workout and a good result. Finally my work is starting to show

Next race should be Mississippi Grand Prix and then off to Athens, GA.

Local Crit Training

The last couple of weeks I've been doing some hard rides. I've been experimenting with my training to see what actually works. All my rides have been on a watts/kg style. "Pain is weakness leaving the body" type thing. I felt a lot of pain leave my body this last tuesday at the local crit. I have been riding about 2hrs to the crit and then racing. This time it hit me hard. I wanted to animate the race and get the break going. So I must have launched as many as 2 attacks! Ha! it was actually more. A break was established and it was when I was countered that it went. I finally covered another move and 2 of us made the jump. Edgar Ibarra was riding like a beast. He was just drilling it and my legs were tearing from the hip socket. With 5 laps to go I told Edgar, man take it easy! I'm on survival mode. (it was actually in spanish but I'm translating for you) Out of the 7 guys in the break only 2 were not working. I should have been one of them but I wanted to go to that place! That place everyone hears about but only a few get to go. I thought I was there but with 1 lap to go, Edgar again attack at the start/finish line and he hit the break hard. I mean so hard he gapped everyone and we were going 28mph! I ofcourse basically did everything but throw him the finger. He dropped me so hard it felt like I was going the opposite way. Story ends with Edgar taking 3rd letting Bret win and me limping with one of my legs over my shoulder in last from the break in 7th. After the race he said, man I was trying to set you up for the counter. I said, I'm out here for the workout. Well a Hell-O-Workout I got. I got home and cried for the next two days.