Training is NOT Overrated

On a whim Wednesday evening, I entered myself in a bike race. Now, spring here in Beantown hasn't really been conducive to riding, at least not for a foul-weather wuss like me. In my defense, I have been traveling somewhat for work but really, that's no excuse.

But I digress. A few details about the race. It was a road race and for my division (Cat 4 Women) one lap of a 23 mile circuit that had 1300 feet of climbing. Now that's really not so bad. It actually should make the race interesting given that it was fairly rolling with maybe only two good climbs. But when one hasn't been training all winter and others have been (see, I really did have no excuse) one gets smoked in the hills.

The race had a controlled downhill start. And for the first 4 miles or so, I was feeling good! (Uh oh...bad things happen when I "feel good!". Boston Marathon 1989, for example.) I was sitting about 3 or so back, center of a pack of 25 riders. The course at this point was flat and the pack was rolling along around 20 mph or so. I was happy! I was like Lance! I was surrounded by my 6 other teammates! And suddenly, some lame-o who wasn't on my team was leaning into my shoulder and bars. Fortunately, we held it together and didn't go down (which most likely would have taken 3/4 of the pack down with us.)

After that near fiasco, we hit the first hill around 7 miles. It was a two mile climb. I held my position for the first mile and then it felt like someone hooked a ball and chain to my seat post. I was summarily swallowed up by the pack and then excreted out the back. Yes, it was that ugly. Ugh.

The next 15 miles are nothing to write home about. I thought I was dead last. Did I mention the head wind? Constant and strong enough to blow me around on the bike. I rode head down, cursing my stupidity for entering a race I had no business being in and thinking about S finishing Putney (70 mile road race) in tears as they closed down the finish line. The least I could do was finish. Stop whining. At least I'm not like 90% of America laying on the couch devouring junk food. Ick. It was grey, 45, hilly and windy but at least it wasn't raining.

Turns out I was wrong about being last. A teammate came up from behind. We hung together for the rest of the race and ended up passing two other riders. So we finished. It wasn't pretty but it was done. First race of 2006 cycling season for me is in the books. And it's pretty obvious I need to do some training. Duh. But that's what summer sabbaticals are for.