RR: Merco Road Race

Women's 3/4 field. Probably 40-50 women, about 50:50 split between the Cats. Goal for the Mouse was to win the race. We had 7 Mice in the race and it was 2 laps, 24 miles each. Two groups of big rollers and then the rest pretty flat, some wind. Women's race went last--start was about 11:40 AM. Overcast and threat of rain. It actually started sprinkling on us and then rained some, but quit. 

Didn't really get in a good enough warm up. Probably should have ridden longer than I did but I wasn't feeling very good (felt sick most of yesterday afternoon and last night). We lined up and we rolled out and I stuck with the pack through the first set of rollers but when we hit the big hill, I got off the back and the speed of the pack was fast and I couldn't get back on. So as they were riding down the road, I just started riding at a hard effort, and then it started to rain so I put on my Jens Voigt face and made it a hard training ride. A guy from So Cal whose wife was racing finally caught me on one of the long stretches and told me that he'd been chasing for quite awhile and I was moving at a pretty good clip. He and I rode side-by-side pretty much the rest of the way back.  About 1:10 is my hard limit right now, so when we got to the bumpy road with the rollers, I got a little tired, but then turning back onto the Snelling route in the last few miles, I felt better and picked it up again to the finish. Got to the finish line and told them I was out. One hard lap and only the third time riding outdoors since the crash. Pretty happy with my efforts over the weekend.

Looking forward to getting back to more normal training. I did try a little running today, but there is one spot in my hip that is still pretty painful when running. The good news is that the pain in my back that I'd had when riding the hills, is now gone.

Great weekend! A win today, and a number of top 5 finishes. Matt and Kristy would be proud.