Wednesday, November 21, 2012

CX'ing in horse country (Lexington) OVCX #10

This passed weekend's event was the OVCX's annual long-haul to Lexington, KY. It's a long way, but a pretty drive; the rolling KY hills and all that horse pasture. Plus a lot of really luxurious barns and (people) houses along the routes. I get the feeling there's a lot of money in Lexington. Every part of the city I've seen looks like Carmel, IN, but more real somehow ("old money?").

Got my new HiVis shoes in finally.
I've only raced here once before and that was last year. It stormed/poured rain all day then, so I can say I came home with a favorable impression. But I want as many solid points/results as I can get for the series; and hey, what else do I have to do on a Sunday? So it's off to Lexington!




The course isn't all that exciting, but it suits me pretty well. It basically just twists around a baseball field a whole bunch. It's not "overly technical," but it's pretty "turny." It doesn't feature much long, opened, flat, straight crap and a lack of that crap tends to suit me better. 




I felt good from the beginning of the day. From when I woke up, through my morning stretching routine, the drive, warm up, etc, I felt really good. But that isn't always a sign of a good race. It's hard for me to know how I'm going to race until I'm actually racing. I don't know if it's like that for everyone, but sometimes when I feel great I do bad, and sometimes when I feel like crap I do well.  

The start is a long uphill drag. But at least it's on pavement.

But this day I felt good and rode good. I got a good start, which I've been doing lately, and rode a solid first lap coming through easily in the top 10, probably more like 5 or 6.  I didn't want to over-do it though. A few guys got around me who I know are faster and I settled in to good hard effort-rhythm that I (assumed) I could maintain for an hour. I rode a pretty much flawless race technically speaking and rode good and hard effort wise. If I had to make a complaint, I would say that their barriers were too far apart and I found myself having to half-step between to get over them. Not a huge thing, but knocks off the flow.



Top 10 is my ~general~ goal fro OVCX races and I never rode worse than 11th here. I was "working" with a guy most of the race and we were trading 10th and 11th spot throughout. But with two to go he crashed and I had to capitalize on his misfortune. I felt legitimately bad for taking advantage because we had ridden together for like 4 laps, and he's a buddy, but that's racing and I wanted that top-10. I held onto it and got 10th. Pretty sure that's my best ever OVCX Elite finish. And I was 2nd on the 35+ podium! Good day.

I'm pretty sure I've managed to sneak a can of Monster into every podium shot I've been in this year

    
So this being Thanksgiving week, there is no race this weekend and as such I'm taking this week "off" of training. The normal: extra day or two off, no hard intervals, etc. And I'm looking forward to a weekend off of travel/racing. Plus I get to hang w/ my Chi-town nieces Thursday. And eat a bunch of protein. You know, to rebuild muscle and what-not.
Happy T-giving all. Too much to be thankful for to list; if I tried you'd all be here reading for hours instead of spending time w/ family.    

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