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