Pudding

Is pudding the ultimate post-ride recovery food? Stay tuned...

I just got back from the Tuesday night club ride at Waterford Hills. Tonight turned out to be a time trial night; I didn't know this, but it wouldn't have really changed anything. It's a pretty laid back deal, you just start when you want and time yourself. Fortunately, I brought a bike that had a computer. The TT is 5 laps around the track, about 7 miles total. I did it today in 18:58... about 22mph average. It was a pretty good effort, but I might have gone out just a little too hard on the first lap.

We also did a little 3 lap race on the track. It was pretty cool, but I basically had no idea what I was doing. The first lap was pretty calm, everyone just cruised. I ended up pulling the field for the second lap, which I'm pretty sure was a bad tactic; I just found myself up there after the first lap. After my pull, I didn't drop all the way back, but tucked in about 6 rows deep. I was in the inside lane and still about 6 rows back when things started getting tense. This left me in the fast lane for the first couple corners near the end of the lap, but with very little room to pull out and move ahead. Finally, with about two corners to go, I pulled out and started moving up. It was definitely too early for me to sprint to the finish, but I could see the front of the field moving away and thought I had to do something. I was stuck in the outside lane on the last corner (a long sweeper), but I had moved up to 6th or so. I tried to hang on to the end, but at least one more guy passed me as I started fading. Anyway, it was pretty fun, and riding in the pack like that wasn't as scary as I thought it might be.

This sort of brings me to my next point. I don't seem to have the same cornering issues on the road as I do on the trail. Part of it is that the conditions are much better: I can see through the corner, the surface is predictable, it's wide, etc. The other part of it is probably that I haven't had a real crash on the road. That being said, I've crashed on my mountain bike a bunch of times, and I know, at least intellectually, that it's usually not that big of a deal. I think it comes down to the fact that I generally trust my tires on the road, but I generally don't trust them on the trail.

One other sort of related story. I just about bit it twice tonight in the gravel parking lot. I was riding down the hill from the bathroom and started to make the turn toward the track. The corner was a little sandy, but I really wasn't going that fast, so I didn't think too much of it. As soon as I hit the sand my tires started sliding. Fortunately, I kept the bike up long enough to clip out and get a foot down. Then, I pedaled not more than 10 feet and just about went down again in a second patch of sand. So, I guess I learned that skinny road slicks and sand are not a good combination.

Hmmm... time for pudding...