The real races happen on Tuesday nights. According to some people, anyway. Regardless, contact races are fun, and its great mass start practice. I was supposed to do some threshold work, and luckily the race was being run up on the flats, where race pace is really near threshold pace. Its always more fun if you can actually race people instead of having to hold back with the lame excuse of "training".
I felt like I had a target on my back, I heard "ooh, theres Alex" from more than one master who I've probably beaten without knowing it and created a lifelong grudge... people kept encouraging me to move further and further forwards, despite me telling them they'd just pass me back, and then I realized, they wanted to pass me. Of course! So, I slotted in beind Colin, knowing I wouldn't finish anywhere near there, but everyone seemed to want me up front. Maybe its an effort to apologize for the past two years of getting stepped on and skied over by guys who didn't want to get girled...
We start on a downhill, and I see Blazar go down in a heap, looked like he poled between his legs. I think he took out a couple innocent bystanders, so I was glad to be away from that. Soon thereafter, he passed me back pulling a line of guys, all pumped up from mass starting, and I let them go until I got up on the flats, where I could really push the pace without burying myself. Jamie went by, and I figured I should go with him, since hes a smooth skier (thats what you get, for being a coach), and provides a great draft. His skis were running pretty quickly - sometimes, refusing to wax your skis for a training race just bites you - but being able to get in a lower tuck meant I didn't get dropped too hard on the downhills. He made contact with Blazar's group soon after, and I didn't, but then I saw Marv Wang faltering on the flats off the back of that group, so put my head down to try and get him. Unfortunately, I ran out of course, as they ran a pretty short race, but next time, Marvin, I will catch you...
Tuesday night race #1, done! I won't be there for the next couple weeks, but these things are getting more and more fun, maybe I'll give up on real racing and focus my season on my overall standings at the Weston sprints...
3 comments:
Can you honestly do the whole thing at threshold? I would get too competitive and be in race mode.
Course I think my threshold heart rates are lower than yours and it doesn't take much for me to get too high.
You have no idea (well, maybe you do have an idea) how flat Weston actually is, especially when they run the race on "the flats". so yes, it was honestly all at threshold, but my threshold is only six beats below my max, so that helps...
Yeah ok so my threshold is a good 30 beats below my max the way I figure it (threshold 176 max 206)!
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