I'm having fun, right?

Well, I figured I fire off a quick post since I'll probably do another one for Walla Walla which is this weekend.  After my last smack-talking post prior to Independence Valley I just wasn't in the mood for another post.

IVRR

When the winning break gets away 5 miles into the race and you're not in it, that's a bummer.  And when you're trying to make moves to get a chase break started and they aren't succeeding that is frustrating.  And then it is just downright not fun when someone else chases you down just to yell at you for riding your bike hard.  Fine, my tactics weren't the best and I really shoulda just tried to form an alliance with Porcella, Soraz and Team O to actually chase that break down.  But I really don't like getting yelled at and that set me in a bad mood for the entire next week.

Rest Week

So yeah, the next week was a rest week and I even chose not to race Vance Creek which I've done well at before.  Sigh.

King's Valley

The week leading up to this my coach decided that I shouldn't have a life besides riding my bike after work and that is what happened sort of.  4 hard days in a row and I nearly fell asleep at my church group just to go do 4 zone 5 hillclimbs afterwards.  But I didn't feel miserable which was strange.  One thing that kinda sounded nice was that my coach also suggested that I just call it a season after Walla Walla which gave me some hope that I may have a life again.  Actually if I had more time, I'm not sure if I'd have a life again since I'd probably sit behind a computer screen and code on personal projects most of the time.

Anyways, I was fairly happy to go down to King's Valley with some teammates.  Dave drove Joe, Mike and I down there.  Our race strategy was to watch out for Rob English and some other guy who I wouldn't have know.  So I stayed at the front a lot and chased down English about 30 times or so. 

Oh wait, before that actually there was a beer prime on lap 1.  At the corner to the finish road most of the pack forgot to turn, but I didn't and took the front of the pack.  A small break of 3 masters got away and then I jumped and passed those guys, but they eventually caught up to me and then like 4 others bridged up too, but it didn't look like there were serious threats.  I maintained a good spot going up the hill and timed my sprint perfectly and picked up that beer prime.  First prize winnings of the year!

 

So yeah, the rest of the race was a lot of chasing down English and then holding back while Joe and Dave both got in breaks.  When the finish hill came I didn't fare too well in all the traffic and was top 20.  Meh.

And onwards

Sunday I did Logie trail intervals and on the 3rd interval there were 5 rabbits with bike gallery kits which really helped me up the wattage!

Today I did PIR, gave Byron a good leadout for a hot spot and then kamikazeed on the final lap with Nate Gibson.

I'm thinking in the races that I don't get yelled at or the course isn't dangerous I generally have a good time, but all this training and not enough sleep sometimes makes my workouts a real chore.  I'm thinking next year I either need a break from all the training of racing or to find workout buddies or some other source of motivation or both.

See y'all at Walla Walla.