Time to Pin on a Number

Sunday at Oracle, AZ is the first 'real' race of the season. …  U of A Bioblast Weekend - Oracle RR . Sure we did Dawn2Dusk in Dec and last week we did a little TT, but Sunday is 'show time'.

No matter how many years you do something, there is 'opening jitters'.   When I played at Texas A&M we always opened with LSU at Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge.  It was the same year after year.   I was always nervous…….by the 3rd game, ice water was running through my veins.

This is one of the reasons, I like to race early and race often.   A person really needs to race in order to race at optimum.   I have had team mates fold under the pressure of races and it is sometimes due to the fact that they have had long layoffs.   If you go a year or two without doing something that is intense, can you expect to be anything but nervous?

The good thing about getting out Sunday, is it will be 'opening day' for many of the racers.   The course is hard as heck but actually quite safe.

Christina will be racing Cat 4 (likely her last as she has more than enough points to cat up) along with Masters Women and Collegiate ladies.   She is likely looking at peleton of 40.   The course has such a large amount of climbing that it will give her a nice advantage.  I am racing combined 55+ and 65+ and the numbers will be about the same.   There are just a lot of fast old guys out here.

We race 2 laps around 20 mile course.   After 10 pretty easy miles downhill, we face 10 miles going uphill.  I look for races of attrition.   We are both in good fitness for this time of the year and the only negative is a couple of pounds, over race weight, that each of us is carrying.   The jeans are fitting tight!

The TT last week was a confidence builder…….I will report back next week!

Modry Evergreen Comes to Tucson

Masters racing is big in North Carolina and this week, we were very fortunate in Tucson to play host to members of Modry Evergreen Racing Team from Charlotte, NC.

Chris Steele, one of the horses and a top sprinter, has been here for about a month.   His family accompanied him for the first 2 weeks and then they headed back for school.

Chris retired in 2013 and underwent a hip replacement on September 18.   He was on the stationary trainer in 10 days and this trip was staged to bring him back.

I follow Chris on Strava and let me tell you, he is back.   He is logging hundreds of K's out here and he is strong.  Here, he is pictured in his helmet with his team mates, KC, David and Chris.   They had just survived the Shootout when they posed for this pic.

Christina, Roger and I had dinner with them last night at Bluefin in Casas Adobes, an excellent restaurant, and chased them up Gates Pass (both ways) this morning.   Their kits look great from the back!

Having raced against these dudes, I knew they were good.   They have always raced with class as well.   They know how to 'make a race'.   Meeting them was cool and the fact, that they were great guys off the bike, was no surprise.

They are talking about doing a camp next year out here.   We would love it…….

Tucson Warm Riders

When something is a good idea, putting it into action is pretty easy.   Several of us 'old guys' (and girls) have been setting around griping about getting up early in the winter to make the group rides.

These rides include the Shootout, the DOGS rides and Tim Carolan's Thursday morning ride.  THESE ARE SOME GREAT RIDES!!  WITH GREAT PEOPLE!!  These rides make Tucson a great place to ride and train.  Some of us are retired though, and it is not the time of day, it is the cold in Jan/Feb that inhibits us.   It is hard to go out in the high 30's when you know in 2 hours it will be in the low 60's.

Sunshine and warm weather is why we are here in the first place……..so, we got off our buttsky's and started Tucson Warm Riders.   This is an inclusive vs. an exclusive group.  We are men and women who are very fit and the main requirement to ride with us is being able to 'keep up'.  Some of us race and some don't.

Now if this sounds to you like a group of people wandering around in circles and going for coffee, forget it.   We don't wear the same kits.   We are not a team and some of us are on racing teams.  However, we are COMMITTED.  We are committed to good, hard, safe riding.  In each ride, we are committed to maintaining this for our fellow ride mates.  We are committed to communicate and encourage the members of the group through our use of Strava.  When I look at he group, the main commitment the members have is to cycling in general.

Teenie and I had a great run with TEAM headstrong but the team virtually fell apart in 2013.  As time progressed, most of the members moved on to other things than cycling.   Cycling virtually became less important for most of them.   This a not a bad thing for each person individually but it was devastating for the team effort.  The people have not ceased to be nice people, they collectively just ceased to be a team.

The encouraging thing is that cycling is VERY important to the people on our Strava list for TWR.   It may not be the biggest thing in our lives (and should not be) but we are not casual about it.  It ain't something that is tenth on the pecking order.

So, if you think you'd like to saddle up from time to time with some of us??  or you know someone who would, contact me:  rmaddox@headstrongusa.com