early, wet, and cold

this moring i woke up to the sound of light rain, well i guess i woke up to my alarms. but with rain in the background. by the time i was done with my oatmeal it was starting to get light out and then rain had ceased. i was hoping the sun would come up and dry the roads real well. got in the car and off to villingen-schwenningen which is about 80 km. when we got there at 6 the roads were dry and the temp. not too bad, a bit chilly, but livable. so we registered late, like many others who i think were seeing if it was going to rain. got back to the car and started changing. and guess what came along! rain! oh boy! and i am sure the temp dropped as well. so after a 15 minute short warm up i was on the start line at 6:55 A.M. absolutley ridiculos. honestly an hour later at least, 7 is just so damn early. then we were off and about 20 seconds after that i was soaked. the course started up a 1.5 or 2 km hill, not that steep, but definatley enough to hurt by the top. once at the top a nice long flat/downhill section for 3 or 4 km, everytime time we were on this section the speed was above 55km/h. then a series of corners in a downhill slope, then a tight corner and a small rise and about 1 km later a 200 meter steep hill. then a 2 turns and that was a lap. around 6.5 km was the actual distance. it was not a super easy course, but not hard. well should not have been. my legs felt like lead right from the get go, i remember counting 3 laps (out of 10). then i lost track. partly cause i was not feeling the best and i was really cold. the only way i know time progessed was because i kept checking the time on my watch hoping that soon id pass the finally warmed up mark. 30 minutes came and went, still sluggish, 56 minutes came, still slugish. at this point i was able to see the lap counter and it was already at 3 to go. other than looking at my watch a few times i have no memory of the middle of the race, other than water water everywhere and thinking i might drown from it. i had gotten to the warmed up phase finally and some spring in my legs. it stayed for all of a lap an a half before the lack of fluid intake took its toll. my legs were just not that good today. but i put it to the back of my mind and noticed a guy in front of me that i have seen sprint in other races. perfect, ill follow him and place high. the plan was working great until the penultimate corner where he took a risk and cut inside real quickly i tried following but got cut off. i have great luck with that happening, in fact i just remembered i nearly got run into a curb today. anyway my plan was foiled and i just sat up and finished somewhere in the middle.
after the race i searched for a water bottle that i threw on the last lap. it is lost in the weeds forever...sad.
race was 78 km,
i think in 1 hour 56
HR avg. 155, max of 184. i think the cold really slows it down.

when i changed into dry clothes my skin was so cold that when i rubbed it or bumbed it with a finger or something it felt like it was getting ripped off. not fun.
took me an hour in a hot car to feel warm again. got home. showered. cleaned bike. a long long nap. and soon it is dinner time. wahoo!

the only plus i have found about all the crappy weather and racing is that i am getting more confident in the wet. other than that it just sucks. at least tomorrow is supposed to be dry, not warm though. anyone know if the gulf stream has shut down recently?


Shit: an update.
well there i was bike nice and clean and all that, and i noticed my seat was not centered. so i go to do that loosen the bolt that holds the clamp, and snap. now i dont have a seat clamp. thus no seat. thus no way to ride my bike, thus no race, or even biking until at least tuesday. but with my luck recently probably not till next year. shit.