Philly Phlyer weekend

I'm trying to fall asleep but can't cause I took a nap earlier that energized me a bit, so I decided to take this time to talk about the next race weekend of the ECCC conference.

Race flyer here if anyone is interested in seeing it

On Saturday is the Phoenixville Fury Road Race, weather: showers and wind, high of 50. One loop is about 15 miles long, and since I'm racing Men's D for the start of this season, I will only be doing one lap. From what I understand, it is diverse with some riding in downtown areas (with traffic unfortunately) and then some mountainous riding in rural areas. Some climbing involved, which I always hate (who likes climbing?) and expect to be dropped on the first or second climb because of my loss of fitness from my my car/bike crash. I am going to try my best to stay with the peloton, so that if there are very few leaders who broke away from the peloton, I will try to place top 15, even though only top 9 or so get points for their team. Because I didn't get a chance to go to Rutgers, this will be my first race of the season, and first race since the car/bike crash so even though I expect to be not good or at the same level as the others, I will strive for my best, plus 10%.

Sunday, weather: sunny, in the 40s. There is a Team Time Trial in the morning, but I doubt we will be doing that. I think there could be 3 of us there that morning that are in either Men's Intro or D (John, Nick and myself) that we could do it, but since John and Nick don't have any race experiences yet (except John did some triathlons) I think we'll pass for this weekend and train for the following weekend for time trialing. This reminds me, I need to send an email out asking if anyone would be up for doing the TTT.

Later in the morning is the Circuit race. This race is a 6.2 miles long loop, and Men's D will be doing 2 laps for a total of 12.4 miles. From the description, I'm only reading just one big climb with a lot of flat, straight roads and a short climb before a few corners just before the start/finish line. I'm going to use that to my advantage, try to keep with the peloton before the last climb, try to attack and break away so that when I hit the hills I don't risk getting dropped, and then fight for the finish line. Let me know what you think of that tactic?

Tomorrow I'm doing a 2 hour ride, first hour will be climbing. I'm going to go to Haven to climb this long dragging climb that is probably a mile or two long. Once I get to the top, I will decide whether to go to the downtown of Haven via a straight, steep downhill that should be fun and allow me to hit 40+ mph, or to go back the way I came up towards Landingville, which will be fun as well but I have to be careful with some blind turns. The only danger I run into with the straight downhill is that there is a drop off the side of the road that goes straight down, so if I were to hit a rock or something that would send me over the edge, I'm not going to Philly. Then the last hour or so I will just focus on steady pace and speed around 15 to 20 mph that I would expect to do to be in the peloton this weekend. Thursday I will be doing some sprints for 1 to 2 hours, using the roads around Landingville and Haven that are pretty flat with some tiny inclines. Friday will just be a recovery ride, no more than 12 mph average, for an hour or so before I pack up and get ready to head to school and then to my sister's place which is close to both race days. Post later this week most likely!