Friday, April 10, 2009

Sonora races 2009

A few weekends ago I did a double header up in Sonora. Ward's ferry was up first. Classic rough velopromo pavement mixed with a punchy climbs, this course had everything except a flat road. I was loving it until my front tire went flat at 38mph. I rolled safely to a stop, got a tube from a teammate and a pump from Robert and was back on my way, only 35 minutes after flatting. I pulled out, sadly.

The next day was Warnerville, a new race for the Norcal calendar, featuring some gently rolling terrain, a 1 mile rough dirt section and the winds from hell. At the starting line, we were under a wind advisory, and it only picked up from there. The field split in the dirt when someone lost control, and unfortunately I got caught behind the split. I chased like crazy, dragging around the winner from Ward's ferry, so the pack wasn't going to let me get anywhere near them. During the fourth lap, my hips started to hurt (I'm old, I guess) so I had to back off a bit from the pace. I ended up 8th out of 18 or so, which is pretty good for me in a flat race. I felt absolutely destroyed and couldn't even eat all of my burrito on the way home. Good stuff.

Due to work, I've done a drop-dead taper for Copperopolis this weekend. It's a C race for me - meaning I just want to survive and am not planning on peaking for it. A bunch of heavy hitters from the international and domestic scene will be racing the P12 race, so it should make for some entertaining racing from someone's point of view.

In other news, we're keeping Kang in an aquarium right now. He doesn't like it, but we think he ate something that's not agreeing with him and the vet recommended this treatment. He's already looking more chipper, but looks really strange pecking at the plastic and in general seems confused. Birds are expensive: his vet bills have totaled over $400 just for diagnostic work (blood, stool samples) so if you're eyeing a parakeet as a cheap pet, think more about getting a cat or something. The upfront cost may be low for a bird, but vet care is really pricey (although talented if you go to the right people.)

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