Not-Racing Race Report

As I may have mentioned, I have been grounded on the weekend racing front since my epic failure at Poolesville. Well, it now looks like I will make a return to the sport on June 26, at the RGS Title/Prosperity Mortgage Reston Town Center Grand Prix. This intermission in my racing schedule has put a crimp in my grand "race into fitness" scheme (but given the damage meted out in the killing fields of Baltimore and New Jersey of late, maybe it was somewhat providential as well).  Regardless, matters were made worse when my dependable midweek fitness crunch, the Wednesday evening Greenbelt Park Training Series race, was cancelled this week as a result of radical overestimation by the weather forecasting services of the likelihood of rain.  And the next several weekends are chock a block full of things like memorial tree planting ceremonies, birthday parties, and overdue household obligations, none of which I am in a position to skip in favor of a decent training ride. So like it or not, I am not exactly busting the TSS bank during this little unscheduled racing interregnum either.

How will the downturn in training affect my racing when I return late June? How long can I maintain physiological ripeness at half of my preferred training regimen before I shift irrevocably from just very-well-rested into atrophied? These are the questions that vex my soul as I slide into sleep at night.

The answer is self evident of course: cram as much riding as possible into the limits of the day and as "specifically" as possible for the coming event. Intervals, good; aimless and haphazard pedaling, bad. Time to dredge up the hill repetitions and microbursts I love to hate. So look for me on the road at 6am tomorrow. I'll be the lunatic flailing up the same damned hill as many times as I can manage in an hour. Maybe you will be doing the same.