Crit Intervals

The last couple days of riding for me have been out on the road due to all the rain we have been getting in NE the past couple of days. It will probably stay that way to considering it is supposed to be rainy pretty much all week. Hopefully (fingers crossed) it is dry enough to race this weekend. I can't take any more postponed races.

Yesterday I went out on a ride and was planning on doing some intervals in a nice spot were I did some PCL crit practice last year. It's a nice little section in a new development with no traffic and nice new roads. It takes me about 20 minutes to get to the spot and after I got there and started my intervals I knew I wasn't going to last. I just couldn't keep my legs going at a decent pace and my heart rate just wouldn't get up to were I wanted it. So it was a quick change of plans and I went out south of town on some of the country roads to do some exploring for some new training routes.

The day was drizzling on and off and humid which I actually really seem to like when I'm out on my the road bike. I don't know why but I just seem to like those conditions. I had been out for a while and noticed a bit of lightning off in the distance so I decided to head back towards home. On the ride back I saw a group of 3 riders up ahead cross the intersection and I decided to see who it was. They were moving pretty good and I had to put in a good chase effort to catch them. It took me about 4 miles to chase them down which is kind of what I needed to do to get my legs to decide to work with me. After opening up and chasing I felt pretty good and rode with these guys for a while. They told me they usually ride on Sunday mornings and let me know where they meet and the time. I think I might go with them once in a while to work on the my skills in riding in a group fast on the road. I'm still not a 100% comfortable with it.

Today I met up with Ryan back at the my crit loop to do some intervals. Ryan was able to get another one of the BMC demos that the shop has. This was his first experience on a road bike. He had a pretty nice one to learn on. It was a Pro Machine SLC01 with a Campy record group. It's another sweet machine put out by BMC. Ryan looked pretty natural on it and I was surprised at how well he was hitting the turns and riding right through them. I think Ryan is going to get hooked on using a road bike for training. Who knows he might end up being like me and being a mountain biker sneaking into some crit and road races.

We did 2 sets of 10 around the loop with 3 laps of recovery in between. It was real nice to have someone especially a teammate to train with. I probably would have not gone as hard on the second set if he wasn't with me. I was able to practice my drafting skills and work again on riding close to someone. It was a nice way to get some high intensity training in early this week before I start to taper for the race Sat.

Here's a few pics I took from tonight:

FWCT Mountain Bike Squad. Of course we are on Road Bikes?