Mental Crack at Westlake #2

A huge group turned out for Westlake #2. The "A" field had nearly 50 riders. The "B" field probably had 20. The sky was perfectly blue, and there was a light headwind on the back stretch out of the east north east. The temperature was about 60 degrees at the start.

I was feeling pretty confident after last week's successful mission, but a little weary after a couple of hard rides over the weekend, so my goal was just to finish with the group.

The pace of the race was faster than last week. We hit 30+ mph on almost every lap through the start finish area. I actually felt pretty good most of the time, but ended up at the back of the field on a regular basis. The large group made it difficult to move up, and even when I managed to move up five or six ranks in the field, I didn't manage to hold position. However, the accordian effect wasn't really that bad.

On the 13th of 19 laps, I just ran out of gas. I sprinted out of the corner onto Ranney parkway like normal, caught the field, like normal, but just wasn't able to muster the energy to crank up the speed when an attack went off the front and the field accelerated, so I just rolled around to the parking lot and cruised home early.

It will take a few more outings to build up the muscular endurance to ride at that pace for longer than an hour. But I think my aerobic fitness is pretty good. I'll also cut the volume down on the Sunday rides so I'm fresh for the race.