South Germantown Cyclocross Sun 9/15

This weekend I had one local race in Germantown MD.
Saturday, I went single speed mountain biking with the boys to open my legs.   Sunday I raced at 1p.

My Mom joined me for this race and drove down with me.

Here were the highlights:  

• 70 degree amazing weather -- was actually hot for racing
• Course was like a grass criterium  (fast, lots of turns - many were hairpin, one set of barriers.)
• There were a ton of bumps throughout the course
• Laps were about 8 min.
• I got the hole shot off the line (10 Cat1 women) up the first of many uphill false flat turny sections.  Made it past the pits before the pressure was building
• 3 women passed within the next 1/2 mile
• Another strong "adventure racer" passed me on lap2.  She created and kept a 5 second gap on me.   While I made attempts to pass her, I was her "carrot" to keep her own hammer down.
• Finished 5th overall, good enough to be on the bottom of the podium steps. 
• Felt like my lower vertebrae had fused together.  Freakin' ouch.

It was a solid training race.   Nothing more nothing less.  It was the best I could do, today.   I came home, unloaded my mobile garage (my Element), showered, and iced my lower back.   Tracy reminded me that I have to be smart about next week before our team's BIG CHARM CITY RACE @ Druid Hill.  I must give this 37-year old bod a tad more time to recover.  I must.  I want to feel like a rocket next weekend.

On to rest and prepping for C3 Charm City Cyclocross.

Thanks for reading.


My metrics from the race:

• Red:  heart attack line, avg 170 beats per minute
• Blue:  speed, avg 12.43 mph (over 9 miles)
• Orange:  elevation profile