It's bike racing time. February and March recap and humbling admissions.

It's been a while since we last chatted. Sorry, I've been very busy, and when not very busy, I've been very out of town or very tired.

As far as bike racing is concerned, I'm not tired from more exotic training camps (see Oahu blog) or awesome training. Whatever, you do what you can. For me, during March it's meant six hours of commuting during the week, one hour with short intervals on Saturday and four hours with longer intervals on Sunday. I've been hoping that would translate into some good fitness and top 5 or top 10 results. I figure the best way to be honest with myself and track this stuff in real time is to share it with you. Maybe you can help! Here's a short summary after three races:

Training begins: Ride fix gear to work a lot and for weekend rides

Race 1, Cherry Pie (February): 20th place, lame. Comment: Felt pretty good, but did a futile attempt a bridging to a doomed breakaway late in the game and cooked myself for the finish.

Post-race strategy: Skip most March races and train hard, but then take unstrategic but awesome 10 day trip.

Race 2, Independence Valley (Late March): DNF, lame. Comment: Hard course with rollers and one real climb. Stayed in top ten first time over the climb, although hurting. Sure, let's say I could have done well. But I flatted and had no wheels in the wheel car and that was it.

Post-race strategy: Change tires to something I know and trust. East. Rest.

Race 3, Piece of Cake (Next Day): Midpack, lame. Comment: Flat course with tons of wind. I definitely did not have the same flatland big power that a number of guys had. I've been working on it, but I see that I'm not there yet. And my hamstrings were twinging as we came towards the finish - new position feels better on the quads, but hamstrings are still not stretched or fully adapted. And there were at least 40 or so guys left in a messy pack sprint which makes me nervous and give up spots and then give up. That said, in the past this course was raced pretty negatively by the 3's. Not so this year. Lots of time spent being lined out in the wind chasing while teams threw down at the front. Kudos to Ironclad and to Portland Velo for actually trying to make the race and racing like teams. Half Fast also did what they could with less numbers, and Team Oregon was there some of the time.

Post-race strategy: Leaving for five days next Friday, so I hope I can ride enough to call it a rest week. Stretch every day, especially the days I'm gone. Hope for the best when I come back and Kings Valley is a few days later!

That's my report. Now that I'm back in the swing I'll be a bit better about letting you know what is going on.

Joshua/Cyclosportif