Good week on the bike!

Turned out to be a good week. I ended up getting a new bike - Trek Edmonda ALR and won the last C race @ TNW so I can now move up to Cat 4. I hope that by the end of the summer I will have a chance to move up to Cat 3, but it will take a lot of work. We have a really good team and in a few weeks the guys should be getting into shape to help me out.
I had a good long ride today of 115 miles on the roads. I know that I will need to get a few more long gravel rides in soon. Tour of Hermann (two day gravel race) is end of April, which will be a really good test of my endurance fitness. Dirty Kanza still sort of scares me, since I haven't tackled that long of a race before. I know my fitness has really come along and I am much faster right now than I have ever been. As long as I can stay healthy, I will be fine. My biggest thing is trying to get my nutrition dialed in on the really long rides. I am hoping in early May to do a 10-12 hour ride and see how my body reacts.

Tour of St. Louis Weekend Races

Great weekend of racing in St. Louis. The Tour of St. Louis kicks off the racing season in town. Saturday was the TT in the early morning, then a crit right before lunch. Sunday was a crit in the morning. The TT was 11.5 miles and a little chilly at the start. It was my first ever TT, so I was happy with a 4th place finish. The crit was hard since three guys took off right from the start. Nobody wanted to chase them, so I finally try to bridge the gap. It took me 5 laps, but I caught them. In the sprint I held onto third place. The crit on Sunday was a much tighter pack. The course was shorter and had quite a few turns. I tried to sit in position on the final lap for the last sprint. Once we got going I thought I might be able to get 2nd but ran out of room. I am really happy with the 3 place finishes both days for the crit. I have only one more race as a Cat 5 and I will be able to move up. Looking forward to mixing it up with the B race on Tuesday nights.

A few repeats on Marshall

When you are doing 20 hill repeats, you need an easy way to keep track of how many climbs you have left. It is satisfying to get to pull off a piece of tape from the top tube every time I got to the top of Marshall road. I have only done hill repeats on the road once before and that time I did 10. I thought the other day that I should try to see if I could do 20. The first 12 or so went by easy before I started to get a little tired. Yesterday I rode 90 miles in chilly temperatures with a little snow and my legs felt tired before I left for the ride this morning. After I go rolling things started to feel good. This upcoming week starts off a week of racing. On Tuesday the Tuesday Night Worlds crit series starts and then on the weekend is Tour of St. Louis - TT Saturday morning, crit in the afternoon and Sunday morning. Should be good to see what kind of shape I am in.