First Crit Practice

First Tuesday after the ToK which means it is once again time to hammer away at Runway Plaza. This is the AAVC criterium practice which, I believe, is the very best workiout in my training year. It really has it all. Muscular endurance, anaerobic capacity, sprints and racing tactics.

I forgot my jersey at home so I sat out the first couple races. They were of the shorter variety. I love to watch bike racing. That incredible hum that twenty or more bikes make as they fly by. My job is to get liabilty releases signed and filed so I did that and counted laps for the racers.

The first race I jumped into was a seven lapper. I won the field sprint on this one but it really wasn't fair since the other racers already had two field sprints under their belts.

In subsequent races, I spent a lot of time out front getting in some muscular endurance intervals. I tried a long escape with Peter. We eventually got caught but it was a great training interval.

This is the way it goes. You chase down riders and go anaerobic then go back to the group and recover or you jump off the front and settle into a TT pace and just hope it is good enough to stay away. Golden opportunities to experiment to see what works.

It is always great fun just to hang out with the other riders and catch up on their lives. Some started families over the winter which has changed their lives.