I am lucky to continually have the support of so many people. It is good to know that there are friends and family to house and help in a moments notice. This past week I had to travel back to Findlay in order to wrap up some National Guard duty. Northwest Ohio didn't get the memo that spring had arrived. The temperature only got above 40 degrees one day. I was lucky enough to have a great friend still living in town that was willing to let me stay the entire week. I also got to enjoy some home cooked meals by the mother in law. She spoils me so much when I come to visit. I can't get enough of that Mac & Cheese... Big weakness of mine.
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| Snow at the end of March! Not to mention the temp was below 20 F |
I ended up having a weekend to split duty days so I headed down to the old college stomping grounds to get in some bike racing. Traveling to Athens, OH always lifts the spirits because of seeing old friends and reminiscing about good college times. I can't believe it has already been 2 years since I graduated from Ohio University.
Lake Hope Road Race
Another 10am race start for me. I am really enjoying these late morning starts because it makes planning meals and travel very easy. A nice 0730 wake up followed by my usual breakfast of oatmeal, peanut butter, and honey. I was staying with my good friend Kennedy who decided to tag along and be an unpaid photographer.
We arrived an hour before the start but after registration and bundling up there was about 10 minutes to "warm-up." This wasn't a huge problem because of the length of the race. The race started out very slowly. It was a 2 lap course (so 20 mile lap for the lazy math people). The first lap took over an hour to complete. I probably could have left the pack during the first lap but didn't want to risk blowing up at the end of the second lap. I ended up waiting it out and feeling out the group. It seemed that nobody really wanted to work (mostly deduced from the speed of first lap). Cat 4/5 typically are unorganized anyways so with about 16 miles left there was a climb that I casually attacked at the top. I took an aggressive descent to see if I could get away. I didn't end up getting away at this point and realized that nobody was going to follow my attack. So I slid back in the peloton for a minute or so to recover and then went off the front again. This time I went off hard and didn't look back. I just hit the pedals hard and kept my eye on my power. I made sure to make a strong surge for 4 minutes to gain a gap. I then rode slightly above my FTP for the remainder of the race. There were some climbs and turns in which I could glance back to gauge my gap. Every time I turned around I couldn't see the group. I started to feel that I could win so I continued to hammer it out just to make sure.
Well... it ended up that my effort was enough to get the win. I ended up breaking away with 14 miles left in the race and taking the solo victory.
I just want to say thank you to all the people who helped me out this past week, especially Corey over at Qwik Fix for yet again saving my butt with regards to my bike. I always seem to mess up my bike and he is always there to fix it. Sucks he doesn't live in Asheville...
