Milton Bike Race Report

I raced the milton bike race this morning. It was a 28 mile road race with rolling hills. I took second in my age group.  the race stats... It took me 1 hour and 31 minutes. I averaged 18.3 miles per hour. 1,203 ft of climbing. avg hr 153 ma 170. Overall I felt good with the way I raced today. I tried to keep hitting it as hard as possible the entire race since it was a shorter course and i felt like i did that. I am also starting to race better tactically. Anytime someone tried to pass me i jumped on his wheel if i couldn't actually ride faster than him. I didn't get passed by any women and i only got passed by a couple of guys. I would basically grab a guys wheel and hang on while i brought my HR down and recovered a bit and then i was off of his wheel if possible and red lining down the road again. I did have to ride some sections by myself while briding gaps between riders and also did some pulling too but overall those little draft "breaks" really helped me out because i was able to maintain a decent speed while recovering and then i was able to really hammer it out again once recovered. It's sooo great to be in someone's slipstream and just pushing the hardest gear on your bike yet feeling like your not pushing the hardest gear on your bike. The course itself was really nice. the biggest climb was cat 5 that was 3 miles long but it had a nice decent down the backside where i passed a bunch of people. The ending in the city was the only really technical riding. The rest of the course was pretty open but I did actually have one blunder where I was screaming down a hill at 43 mph when a huge construction vehicle pulls out in front of me I am hitting my breaks trying not to crash. My bike is shaking pretty good and then the volunteer that let the truck go out in front of me actually says oh your supposed to turn there. Of course at this point I already passed the turn.  So i got a little off course and had to turn myself back around after that. I was kinda pissed off about it at the time. The guys I was riding around with were like wow i thought that truck was going to flattened you. I really just think the ems guys working that corner didn't understand how fast we were going and how hard it is stop and then turn at that kinda speed without some notice.  it probably really only cost me a few seconds. but i missed first by seconds not minutes so i really need to stay on these things. that probably didn't cost me first because i actually didn't see the girl in front of me when i finished. i did see a guy that i was trying to outsprint like a insane person.  he beat me because my legs burned out like 3 times while i was trying to pass him but i haven't really been sprinting my bike.  in hindsight i probably went too soon not knowing how much sprinting distance my legs really have in them bike wise. I should have stayed on his wheel until closer to the line and then gone with not much distance left. beginners mistake but i don't do that kind of bike racing much so i didn't know what a reasonable sprint distance for me not to burn out my legs was.  it was still really fun though! I kept falling off his wheel on that last few turns too so i was semi -sprinting to get back on his wheel too. after we crossed the line he actually thanked me for making him race for it today. Stand along bike races are actually really fun because you don't have to start running when you have no legs!  But the running event is tomorrow and im really hoping i have some legs for it! Trail half-marathon in the morning. I am going to give it my best. I have reasonable thoughts about my time since my run training has been really limited due to the injury. I'll tape up my knees and give it a go and see where it is at. I mostly need this to be an eercise in training my brain to run for IMPM.  I need to tell myself to just keep running. I was tired when i was running at eagleman and i just felt like it got to me. I know there is going to be a lot of suffering tomorrow with this run. during and after but i really want the long run training efforts on my legs to get them ready to do that at pocono.  i've got the ipod ready!