Napa Grand Prix.....Greyhound racing!

Races
35+ 3/4
45+3/4

This isn't so much a Race report as a Journal entry into the twisted workings of me and racing.
So I decided to go ahead and sign up for this race hoping to do well in front of the home crowd. See I grew up in Napa and still have family there, So I figure the only way to get them out there to see a race is if it was on their front door.
I've been going over the course in my head quite a bit and couldn't quite get my head around it. So once I arrive all I could think was AWE CRAP! This sucker was short and the P turn they were boasting about was a down right Turd in a punch bowl, A real Party spoiler. All I could think was all that extra mileage I've been doing over the past month and a half wasn't going to do squat for me here today. Should have been doing intervals and only the Greyhounds have a fighting chance today.
Heck even my brother in law who barely gets in 40 miles a month could see that you had a sprint every lap, and the lap times were 60 seconds or less. Fact is the course was so short that if the leaders were coming through turn 4 and you were crossing the S/F line they pulled you. so Imagine 4 small town blocks and your race is over! that's basically 120 yards.

So line up for the first race 35+ 3/4 it's about 94 degrees and rising, we get read the race rules whistle blows I foul my clip in and the first thing that crosses my mind is race over! I'm already 50 back in a field of 75, yep just over 10 minutes and I was pulled.
It took a heroic effort just to stay at the tail end of this beast.
Second race is at 12:15 Mom shows up yeah! Hope I don't foul this one up! there's only 25 guys signed up. Rules read, whistle blows.......Oh wait its 104 degrees.....and rising! In fact my Polar read a peak of 109. Must have been that Blast furnace heading west on 3rd st into the wind!
So Off I go, much better this time around smaller group easier through the turns but still that massing sprint coming out of the P turn. That thing was like slow to 5~10 then Hit it as hard as you can coming out of it....EVERY FREAKIN LAP! I was fine holding on to the group until I got caught behind a crash. Just made it over the guys rear wheel but the damage was done! it was solo time and every rider that was gapped by that wasn't thinking straight enough to regroup and make a concentrated effort to chase back. So Lap after Lap, gulp after gulp of Hot water from my bottle. I was really starting to feel the heat. So much so that I was getting Chills.......Not good I should really pull out. But too freaking stubborn to do that. Heck Mom's watching. I finally made a small group of three and we start sharing pulls just to survive this thing. Then heading back across the S/F line I feel like my front wheel is getting soft. Through turn one I'm now getting that sinking feeling. Then the tire just let go and I did a Zabel two toe skid into a bale of hay at turn 2. Humm how should I respond to this? Rats? Darn? Naaaaaa THANK GAWD!
You gotta love fellow Racers. I had guys in Turn 2 throwing wheels at me. I was No really No thank you. It was a mercy killing. So that ended race 2 and my first jump into the 45's, good group of guys and I'm looking forward to the next time I can get in with them. Just not on a interval course! and not in 100+ degree heat!

so for you stat junkies.

35+ 3/4
Place 44 (Field=66)
Avg speed. 20.7, Max 26.3
Avg, Bpm 181, Max 207
temp. avg 87 max 92
time in race 9;57

45+ 3/4
Place 16th (Field= 27 )
Avg speed. 19.4, Max 26.9
Avg, Bpm 178, Max 195
temp. avg 104 max 109 (felt like the surface of the sun!)
time in race 23;36

I checked my downloads from my Polar and the race was so quick that the read-out just don't show the severity of this race. This race was so tough that a day later I still have track hack.

Jim

Feeding the monster,Position and Intensity

Livermore Crit
Field: 38
Teammates: Xeno, Rich
Avg Mph 22.9, Max 34.3
BPM Avg.165 Max 205
Place 12th (Correction 10th)

Weather was warm, And the wind was picking up. After a good warm up and discussion about what we were going to do for the race we lined up and headed out for our race. Pace started out pretty good as the first laps were more to gauge the course. After that there were the usual attacks and sprints for the primes. Plan for me was to stay in the pack and wait for the finish. I was noticing that I need to do some more intensity work outs depth is pretty good with all the commuter miles I've been doing lately.
Couple of times I caught myself at the back dealing with the usual suspects and their poor handling skills. So I at about lap 3 I made a huge effort and jetted to the front. Well it was actually a lap too late as it was 2 lasp to go. So I was hoping that I could recover quick enough for the Finale. The unfortunate part was I couldn't respond to the top end riders surge and slid back to about 20th. Xeno saw I was in trouble and gave me a wheel to get up to further in the group by turn two and dropped me off wiht a "Don't Give up Jim" so I worked up a bit more in the group but still not enough. We're through turn 3 and the group is moving out, Damn I've got to puch hard and no wheel to follow. I just to another wheel before turn 4 but still not enough speed. I jump again gear up, dang too many gears up I'm mashing hard! Muscle it hard, GO! I'm moving up still not enough space/time to get further up in the placings.
So in the end I moved somewhere from 22~20 to finish it at 12th.

Lesson learned.
>Stop with the self doubt, in the beginning of the race I'm finding it takes me to about the
20~25 minute mark before the engine is warmed up wait until after that point to access my
fitness for the day.

>Stick with the plan and stay in the top 1/4 of the pack. You get too freaked out about the bad
pack skills in the back of the group.

>Get your positioning right need to be in the top five for the sprint. I'm finding that I've got a
deep sprint and have lost a little of my jump not doing sprint intervals over the past month.

That's it
Jim