Another Tuesday Night At Runway

The summer crit practices are past the midpoint. Man, the summer is going by sooooo fast! Labor Day will be here before we know it.

We had a late arriving crew last night but good one. I needed to get 2.5 hours in so James and I arrived and hit the road at 530 pm. We rode a series of short and mid-length races. A lot of 5K, 10K and at least on 15K. My goal was to get some muscular endurance intervals and maybe a sprint or two. On the first 5K race I just rode off the front TT style for a five minute interval. I was on the front for four of the five laps before I was swarmed on the last lap. The next race I rode off the front again and a nice little four man break formed. We got up ten seconds or so for several laps but we couldn't hold. It was a a lot of work though moving beyond zone 4 and well into zone 5.

I did get a couple of sprints in. Alex Keomany asked me if I wanted a lead-out and I took him up on it. On the last lap of one of the races I just latched onto his wheel and he spun us up to ludicrous speed. I don't have a computer but we must have been near 30 mph making the final turn. He swerved off and I hit the sprint unchallenged. Unless someone managed to jump on with us there was little hope of catching us. Alex pulled me from near the back all the way off the front at an insanely fast speed that would have probably wrecked anyone trying to speed up to catch on. He lead me out on one more race but this time Lucas ??? jumped on also. I didn't know he was back there though until I looked between my legs in the sprint and noticed a rider pulling up on my left. I dug a little deeper and his closure slowed way down. I had this strange thought at this point. It was like I could sense his gas tank was emptying. I don't know if he was but I knew we were getting to the upper time limit on our ATP/CP system. This helped me psychologically and I beat him by a half wheel length. Now, I didn't win that race because Julie Bellerose and Eric Hinderager were both way up the road on a break.

Alex was late getting into form this year due to school but it appears to me that his form is coming on fast. On the second lead-out he took me up the right gutter. At first I kind of winced thinking, "how are we going to get through", as riders were blocking the path. He found a little opening and exploited it. Look for a strong finish to the season for him.

Let me give special props to the Bikeboy. This was the first practice that he hung with the group for multiple laps! Even when the speed cranked way up there he was five or six riders back. This was kinda hard on ole' dad. He is so small compared to all those grown-ups all around him. I knew he was at his limit and worried about his cornering but he got it done just fine. I heard riders asking who that junior was up front that was doing so well. Jean said one of the new riders, (new to us but he is an experienced cat 1 or 2 rider from Texas Roadhouse), was commenting to some of the riders that the junior that was riding with the group was doing an excellent job holding his line and keeping up. Well done James!