Quote Originally Posted by ChainsOflove
I was wondering if you hard-core roadie babes could talk me thru this.

There is a training series I'm interested in checking out but I am freaked about being the oldest/fattest/slowest. Not that I'm that ashamed of myself but what happens when a pack of maniacs is lapping you? I don't want to be crushed!!

Should I just show up and try this or maybe just go and watch once or twice?

Its held at a Nascar type track! That's why I want to do it. I am pretty sure there are only about a dozen girl racers in this thing. It doesn't cost much.
GO FOR IT! I find that things are best experienced by jumping in with both feet. Maybe I'm afraid I'll never do it unless I give it 110% - but unless you just go for it - you'll always wonder what it's like. (I must warn you a little though - this is coming from an ex-boxer.)

Great posts - one thing that came to my mind though was the grin factor. I'm an avid grinner - always have been. If you're not smiling then why do it? But lately I've found that smiling may have gotten in the way of being competitive. About a month ago I was at a local road race and found more energy to smile wide for the camera than to climb the second hill at the end of the race. Guess what happened? I was dropped like a bad habit. So since then I've put more thought and energy in focusing on the task at hand, keeping the smiles to a minimum - and raced my race. It seems to be working - I made the break on a local crit recently and although I feel off their insane pace I was still able to grind out my lead on the chase group and pull in a 4th place finish. I remember at one point hearing a friend yell at me - SMILE JEN! to which I thought - stay focused, keep grinding, keep working, two laps to go... and then smiled and laughed about myself after the race. It's nice to have a good balance. Or make pain look like a smile.