30 seconds improvement over last year (26:50 vs 27:20) - was hoping for at least 60...a few thoughts...

-in light of last year's very, very cold temps, I registered as soon as reg went live this year (earlier reg = later start) and ended up with an 11:06 start time...it was fairly warm by then...starting an hour earlier would've been perfect...

-broke the cardinal rule "don't change your game plan" with 90 seconds to go prior to my start...the "out" is pretty much steady grade up; based upon my experience, I need to take the "out" in the small ring and whatever gear works for a given section of the course and turn a higher cadence - during the "back," i move to the big ring...well, a guy i know from the JJ's ride (big, strong guy) was at the start and asked why i was in my small ring...i told him my plan, but the seed of doubt was planted and i made a quick spin up the trail, shifted to the big ring, and hopped back in the queue with ~45 seconds to start...dumb move...i started out fine, but once i hit the false flat that became a steady rise, i started mashing and my HR shot to 175 (my LT is 168)...i wasn't going to try and shift to the small ring and potentially drop my chain, so i just sucked it up and kept going, knowing some relief would come if i could hang on...while my legs and especially my lungs were saying "just slow down, this is only for fun anyway" i kept pushing as hard as i could...and it hurt...once i hit the turn-around, i knew i'd get some relief once past the little climb from the Paulding line...sure enough, the flat-to-downhill section on the way back allowed me to hit the marks i was hoping to hit (and give my HR some needed recovery!) and when i hit the 200 meters to go sign i gave one final hard-as-i-can-go push...

-my son was sick most of last week and though i didn't get sick, i did start feeling some congestion in my upper chest mid-week...yesterday's lung fest loosened up a fair amount of junk that i've been coughing out today (day after TTT)...did this play a part in the performance? perhaps, but don't think too much...

-prior to this race, i need to do more hill interval work and more flat interval work...the JJ's ride definitely added some leg strength and i think this allowed me to hang on when my lungs/heart were ready to 'splode...the pre-race WU also helped get the buffering engine working...during the past several weeks, i did some flat interval work (via trainer), but no hill work...and hill ints are key to developing the leg strength needed to work the big ring/middle to small gear combos at a cadence that'll translate to more speed and keep HR at or below LT...


not break the cardinal rule...and maybe next year I'll embrace hill repeats as part of my Dec/Jan training plan...

Spin up the SCT to let the legs unwind, HR recover, and quick mental review of my race performance.


breaking the cardinal rule...not being a hardcore roadie...genes...hmmmm...wish I could claim old age, but there were some fast old guys out there...


Jim and the folks at Surge Sports do a good job with this race and the warm temps brought out lots of racers this year. One thing I noticed this year, drafting - 2 packs of 3 racers while I was on the course. Unfortunately the drafters were going the opposite direction, so getting race #'s was impossible. I mentioned something to the Surge folks; hopefully they'll post a few marshalls on the course next year.