Velobeatdown

Two things, one takes less 'splaining than the other.

First up, VeloBeats.com. Awesome. Check them out. It's a monthly podcast with about two hours of training music spliced with race soundbytes. It's gotten popular enough that BMC is using it. I found them on Bikeforums.com, and have since downloaded all of their previous mp3s. They are about 170MB, just so you know.

Second up, I'm racing on Sunday. I'm so excited it's not even funny. It's seems like cross season ended about 5 months ago, even though it's only been 9 weeks. I'm stronger than I ever have been before, so hopefully that will allow me to at least hang with the Cat5 pack. Cat5 is the beginner category for road. Cat4 is beginner cross. Cat3 is beginner mountain bike. USAC is 'tarded.

So, to upgrade out of Cat5, you have to have 10 mass start events under your spandex belt. I should be able to do that next year. To upgrade out of the 4's, you have to actually have talent and get enough points to get booted to the 3's. That's not on my calendar at this point.

My goal for Sunday is to not vomit on the hill climb (looks like it's about 150' high, over the course of a mile). My usual hill climb is about 105', but it's over an 1/8th of a mile, so much steeper. Nevertheless, I usually don't climb it 5x at race pace. Should be neat.

The bike is built up, tuned up, lean and mean. I'm ready as I'll ever be. Just gotta take it easy on the ride today and let my legs recover a bit more from the earlier training in the week. My training stress balance is at -16.9, which isn't too bad. Lower is more fatigued, higher is more rested. I'm going to try and take it easy this afternoon, but I don't like to ride easy outside. We'll see.

Enjoy the weather!