HE'S HEATING UP!!

I've had two days to sit and dwell on the terrible experience that was Balloon Festival. As mentioned in the previous post, the weather was hot. Like 80+ degrees at 9:30am hot. My personal race was over rather quick. The race got underway and I was feeling fine. With three quarters of the first lap done, we came to the one major climb/feedzone of the course. There was an acceleration and I was hanging right there with the front group. My legs felt great, so I figured it was time to cover some attacks. BAD MOVE. Regardless of how my legs felt, my heart rate higher than I've seen it in a long time. For a few minutes, I sat on a break only to realize this would not work. I faded away from the break and was caught quickly by the field. But, my backward progress didn't end there. I slid through the pack until the only person left was RKelly who sounded like he just sat in a burning cigarette factory for a few hours. My legs were good. My lungs/heart were not so good. My race ended there. One hundered yards away, RKelly was popped at the same time. To my dismay, he did not hear my yelling for him to wait for me. So, I rode the rest of the lap on my own and DNF'd at the start/finish. YAYYYY.

The other guys were doing great. Rudy was in a break for a long time but was eventually caught midway through the last lap. Isaac was riding well but suffered an umtimely flat (all flats are untimely, but this was more so than others). Rossman thought about DNF'ing at one point. But, RKELLY, still riding with other stubborn/pyschotic riders, convinced him to continue. They all finished the race. I sat in the car and ate a brownie.

This is a race I'd rather forget. However, there were some fun moments. For the first 20 minutes, we were able to talk a lot about Big Slams, Elios pizzas and NBA Jam. Also, when I was exploding, I tried to yell "He's heating up!". But, with the lack of lung power, it was more a whisper than a yell.


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Yesterday, RKelly and I decided we need to train in the heat to force our bodies to cope with 90+ temps. So, we did a 5+ hour ride up through Maine to Kennebunkport then down the seacoast to Portsmouth. It was a great ride and we eventually met up with the Polish Hammer. My legs felt great and the heat was not bad. But, we also weren't riding at 25+mph. So, I capped off the weekend with a 90+ mile ride, an iced lemonade at BNG and some gnarly tan lines.

This weekend is Housatonic. Weather looks to be cooler, thankfully. Anyone want to carpool??????