Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Race Calendar

Although the season is young and there remains many miles to race, one third of the one day road races are behind us.   Check this out. If you categorize "road races" as one day only races that are not criteriums, there are only 14 road races on the calendar. Most are in March, i.e., more than one third of all road races in Washington are in March By month, the breakdown is as follows:

March:
Sequims #1 and #2
Mason Lake #1 and #2
IVRR

April:
Olympic View
Longbranch

May:
Ravensdale
Vance Creek

July:
LWV#1


August:
Glennwood
Boston Harbor
LWV #2 and #3

It is true that there are road races within stage races or omniums but I did not count those.


I used to wonder why in the world there are so many races in March and none in September - in my opinion the best month to ride a bicycle. I gave up complaining because the calendar is the calendar. Lately, I kinda dig it. Let's face it, there is nothing else to do in March on crappy weather weekends.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Cervelo S3

The most difficult thing about splurging and buying a S3 is not the guilt that comes after.  It is the snow and wind that comes late in February and keeps you off of it. 


Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Ultramarathon

I ran my first ultramarathon on Saturday, the so called "Pigtails 50K".  For cross training, I ran the Portland Marathon and Seattle Marathon this year.  A real runner, Mike Lynes, horse traded with me and I agreed to try an ultra.  In return, he agreed to do a bike race this year.  Mike, of course, won the 50K, beating the course record by 4 minutes.  Anyone who knows Mike will not be surprised that he held the course record from the previous year. 


The ultra crowd is cool.  Far fewer people are interested in running a distance greater than 26.2 miles.  Those who do show up have low resting heart rates, protruding cheek bones and carry their water with them.  The pace is slower.  I have no idea but maybe all ultras are on trails?  This one was.  It was a glorious day but muddy from Friday's rain.  The tempo was deliberate.  


I noticed that fellow runners seemed encouraging and not competitive.  The competition was with the body, not other runners.  


I ran just fine.  My body rebelled several times but I beat it into submission.  Hill after hill took it toll.  My calves cramped over and over.  Then the stomach complained. I forced it to take gu, blocks and even a brownie ever ten miles. I drank three full water bottles at ten miles each and finished the race dehydrated.  Just as the pain started to get the best of me, I looked up.  The sun was out.  The trail at the point was cut through the woods and light flickered all around me.  I have not seen the sun for awhile and I was happy to have it along.  The sun is a very good athlete.  It never talks too much on runs and I am always sad to see it go. 


It turned out that this was enough.  I commented to the forest that I thought it was glorious and trudged along in my trance.  26.2 miles came and went and I didn't care.  


When I got home, I found this video on youtube about ultramarathons.  These dudes are different than bike racers but I kinda dig 'em.  




Saturday, January 15, 2011

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Sunday's Training Ride