crit advise?

[BikeMomma]

Hey Pink! Great picture - look at you, all smilin' & stuff!!! We need to change your name to CritGoddess, now! I'd love to see & hear more about your racing experiences, and glad I could help you out!

Spazz, you can do it! That training program sounds ok - the main thing is to pay close attention to what your body is telling you. If you feel yourself starting to drag a little, ease up on the intensity or length of your rides/workouts. You don't want to overtrain and push yourself too hard. Build up to it.

I recently picked up Chris Carmichael's book, "The Lance Armstrong Performance Program". Although I'm just too flippin' busy to even hope to read it yet (my college night class is taking up all my reading time!!), it does have what he calls the "7-week Success Plan". Again, the idea is to build slowly. I suggest following this program, from start to finish, including the assessment section at the beginning to see where you are fitness-wise to start. The book also has chapters about cornering, descending, sprinting, etc. that, Pink, you may find helpful, as well. A friend of mine went through Chris's program through the book and highly recommends it, which is why I purchased it. Again, I haven't had a chance to sit down and read it thoroughly, so I don't have personal results as of yet.

Nancy - oops! BikeGoddess (heehee) - I was there at the McClane!!! I watched the crit and some of the road race the next day (my mom watched the kids). I did the century, as well (100k). After I was done with the century, which was about around 2pm I think, I hung around with a biker guy-friend of mine, mainly near the finish line, but I was over by the bbq area for a while too, getting my free lunch (well, we DID make a run over to Starbuck real quick...guilty!!).

I got back from my ride just in time to see the women's race finish, then they had the tots race, then the pros started. What an awesome show, eh?? The McClane Pac. has gotten so huge through the years, it's unbelievable. Now it's the race the teams talk about coming to - they really like the course. It's generally smooth roads, especially down M St where the finish is, and fast. The race has become big with Merced residents, also. I notice much more interest from the average citizen then from years' past (I work in Merced, at City Hall). Whenever I mention to someone that I cycle, a good majority of the time one of the questions I get it is "Do you ride in that race they have downtown??" They forget the name, but remember the event, which is better than nothing. There is actually two race weekends, though, that are held in Merced. The McClane has by far outgrown the other though (Merced Criterium and RR - it was actually the original race in Merced, started in 1988/89).

Atwater is about 7 miles northwest of Merced, and actually, some of the roads used in the century are just north of Atwater. So yes, BG, you were in my neck o' the woods! Most of the time, I drive to Merced for my rides when I meet up with someone or a group. Until I have enough endurance to ride over there and then keep up with them, I'll just load the bike on the rack and drive over. There's a group that meets at the Raley's supermarket Saturday mornings that I ride with. We passed the supermarket on the century too. Also, you would have passed Atwater on Hwy 99 to get to Merced from the Bay Area. Hope you didn't blink! hehe Actually, about 10/12 years ago, Atwater was much more of a bustling town compared to what it is now. The Castle Air Force Base being closed down by the government really was a blow to Atwater's economy, and it's still struggling. We moved here because the price of housing is just a tiny bit cheaper than Merced's. We got more house for our money. I'm hoping some of the benefits of Merced's growth, spawned by the acquisition of the next University of California campus (UC Merced), come Atwater's way.

Sorry for the book, you guys...got kinda wordy!!