Good Friday and training camp

And so it begins another race season with the Hamilton Cycling Club Good Friday Road race this coming Friday.  I truly cannot believe it’s already here.  This winter has been an unusual winter for training.  I have been able to get outside most weekends for my long rides and only having to train indoors during the week after work because of the light factor.  Since I have been able to put in the time outside and I won’t have to go through the normal get to know my bike again outside aka balance and placement on the road.  To help my balance on the bike this winter I added rollers to my training.  At first it was a shear battle of wits of saying to myself that they were not going to beat me that I have to figure this out and I did.  I can drink out of my water bottle, take a jersey off if I need too, stand and ride no hands.  It’s the best feeling of conquering a fear of the rollers.  It just clicked one day and I was fine from there on in.

My outdoor season usually starts with a little bit of riding outside and then head down south for some warmer weather riding but this year I was able to go down south with a lot more mileage in my legs which was great.  I headed off to training camp down in my home away from home Rome Georgia.  I was there for only 10 days this year but put in some amazing time in the saddle.  The weather was cool to start with but much better than the previous weekend at home where the temps was only -5C and in GA the temp was about 10 or so C.  The camp spanned over 2 weekends with the first having a road race in Dalton, GA.  It was a great race to get my first race pre-race jitters out of the way.  The rest of the time was spent riding with different groups of people that I have ridden with before and then other days were spent riding with my husband and our friend, Stephan, who we stay with every year that we have been down well with him and his family.  This year the three of us went to Lookout Mtn and rode over it a couple of times now that was a fun warm day in the saddle.  Took in a nice total of 25hrs in the saddle in the south this year thankfully when we came back home we came home to warmer than normal weather thankfully to ride in.

So enough about the weather and lets get on with the race season.

Can't wait to see all my fellow racer friends this week.

Shell :-)

Calabogie Race Report

First race in Ontario was last weekend in Calabogie.  Six hour drive to north of Kingston to race the Calabogie Classic on the road race track that people get to race there lovely expensive cars on so much fun but made it really had to figure out the wind pattern on the track.  Kept on hitting a brick wall into the headwind and I especially loved the wind going into the finish line, which made for a very slow sprint finish.  At the starting line we were having a mix of sun and rain.  We also had some sleet during the race wow that hurt a lot but then the sun finally came out and then finally the finish.  I am very happy I went to this race to be able to see some competition that I would not normally had seen in southern Ontario.  For the most part the field staid together with only a little break trying to get away more towards the end of the race but it got reeled back in.  In the end for the sprint finish my brain didn't tell my legs to sprint but for once I was in the group and I was there and I felt strong. 

As for results I finished 3^rd with a funny story to go with that.  My husband checked the results and it said I was forth so we were ready to go home so we packed up and headed on our way after this weekend in the north.  It was not until we got home and finally settled after putting everything away after the long trip that my husband again looked at the results on the Canadian Cyclist forum and it said I was third hmmmm.  With a question to the promoter of the race he found out that somebody was placed in the wrong category, which moved me into 3^rd.  So yes I was happy with the result I was also happy with the 4th place placing it didn't matter the factor that I did the race and stayed upright I was happy.

Stayed at a nice hotel with a kitchenette so we were able to eat our own food and not have to go out to a restaurant the night before the race.  There was some hope that we were going to get out onto some of the local roads to shake the cobwebs out of the legs but in the end I had to ride the trainer in the hotel room.  Not too bad opened the windows and watch some much music or whatever was on the tv frankly it doesn’t matter anymore cause I don’t watch much of it.  The weather was not see nice and kept us indoors yes it’s April right it was snowing out.  Yes it was snowing could not believe.

Until next race which is local Good Friday Road Race put on by my club, Hamilton Cycling Club, so at least I’ll know the course like the back of my hand.

Shell :-)