T minus one week and counting, course pre-ride

Well, it's just one week to go until the Boulevard Road Race. I've been training for this race for about 5 months now. I did manage to get in 175 miles this week, inspite of my hectic work schedule lately. Went out a did the course pre-ride this morning with a group from Ranchos and Chip, from NCCC. The course is pretty intense. Lots of downhill for the first 10-12 miles, then uphill until the 22 mile mark for the end of lap one. It will be two laps. I think the strategy for the race will be stay with the front group and conserve energy until the last 2 miles. At that point I will just be ready for anything. Today I kept my heart rate down in the low 170s. On race day, I will just have to do what I have to to stay with the front group. My hr always seems to go up a bit with the anxiety of competitive group rides, so I'm expecting a 5-6 beat per minute jump during race conditions. It doesn't matter that I've done over 5000 miles in the last 5-6 months in preparation for this race. It will be intense, as I've been told from many that have done the race in the past. On the other hand, I have all of that fitness to rely on. Bad day aside, I'm in pretty good shape and should do pretty well. Right now I'm at 182 pounds and feeling great. My training plan has been working well and it's time to put it all to use. Yes, this is my first race and until recently, I thought I might win it. After talking to numerous racers that have done this race, it sounds like it is ultra competitive and I will be happy to finish the race, let alone a top ten finish. Don't get me wrong, I'm an ultra competitive person and I'm not going for a ride next Saturday, I'm going to.........win damn it! I may be wrong, but I've invested too much time to try to do anything less. Good, I'm getting myself phyched up here.

For any of my non-ridinig people reading, the pain involved is unbelievable climbing! The flats, downhills can be exhilarting and fun, but the climbing is harder than anything I've ever done in my life. Nothing even comes close. I'm pretty good at climbs of 3 miles or less and maybe average 7-8%. Anything longer or steeper and gravity starts to wreak havoc on my 182 # frame. 175 #'s sounds good about right now, but all of my family and friends are already telling me I look anorexic (if you saw me with my shirt off you would hardly think so!) I still have some baby fat to lose and until it's gone, I'll keep droping weight.

Anyway, the plan for this week is to take it easy, go for a few good rides with some intervals to keep the intensity up, nothing too dramatic. Hopefully stay off the trainer and get on the road. My schedule this week should allow for it. I may take the rv out on Friday am to Boulevard and do one more lap prior to the race. I'll see how things go this week at work and watch the weather closely. I don't mind riding in the rain, but the race could get dangerous on the descent with rain.

The forecast next Saturday is for possible showers and 40 degrees. That will atleast keep the ice and snow away. Probably won't be too active on the blog this week unless something dramatic happens, so I'll post up results after the race!

Steven