Belated Cherry Pie Race Recap

Cherry Pie went as expected, if not slightly worse. My total lack of interval training left me flopping around on my bike like a gasping fish after the hammer went down a few times in a row. Plus, I think this was my second race as a Cat IV, and my first race since September 2005. Expectations were low: don't crash, hang on as long as you can.

Actually, that's not entirely true. I envisioned myself riding off and hammering and being comfortable the way I was before I got hurt two years ago, when I felt like I was a really strong 5. I'm just saying it went as expected because it makes it slightly less embarrassing.

I got dropped as we were rounding the finish line the first time through, and I couldn't chase back on. Not that I didn't try for about twenty minutes or so. Then I realized that I was getting farther and farther from my car with no support, so I pulled a u-turn and headed back into the wind toward the warmth of the Volvo. It was discouraging, but it took about two seconds for the rationalizations to kick in: "Don't worry, Thom. If you haven't trained at the high intensities, you can't expect a lot."

* sigh *

The group was huge. Seventy five people, I think? I felt OK in the bunch, though a lot more tense than I would've liked. I, um, have to admit something: I dropped a water bottle. I was wearing super-thick gloves, and when I smacked the nozzle closed against my thigh, the bottle just squirted out. No one went down, so that's good, but I felt completely embarrassed.

So, a big DNF for the first race. Whoopee. 

In terms of my future training plans, I'm kind of torn. I feel I've been doing a pretty good amount of base-riding. I mean, I've been riding at the same chill tempo since, oh, August/September (which was when I first got back on my bike). I took off December, but I've been fairly consistent since the first week of January. So I guess it's just a matter of deciding that, yes, I'm going to rock out to the tempo and interval rides for a while, and try to peak a few races in May/June. Then chill for a week or three, and try to do it again for Eugene Celebration in late September. 

Scientific? No. Not in the least. But you know what I say to that? "Meh." Whatever.