:: seanlangford ::

Took the dogs for walk and found this fresh beaver fall; this one only about 100′ from the house on the trail near the brook.  The felled tree was nowhere to be found.  Likely dragged into the pond.

This weekend was hard.  The Mount Sunapee race was quite literally a washout.  It was pouring rain and pretty miserable.  Suited up and tried to get a warm up in, but these old muscles weren’t cooperating in the 40F rain.  Less than 30 of the 50-odd registrants showed up at the line for the 35+ race.  I *really* didn’t have my head in this race; I had a bad crash once in the rain at Bow and that had me a bit freaked out.  Anyway, pace was reasonable at first and until we hit the hills.  The strongmen wanted to break it up early because of the downpour.  That didn’t bode well for your humble narrator as I never got warm nor loose and never felt good.  Eventually packed it in before finishing anticipating today’s effort.
Today was alot more fun.  Rode down with good friends JF and RK to checkout Stonington.  Great also to see JH, MB, and JO.  This race is tough also.  Got there a bit late and again with no reasonable warmup.  This race starts at the foot of a climb and is kept neutral by the pace car until the top; the race director did a good job of keeping this first climb civilized.  The next time up the hill though was a different story; the race was definitely ‘on’ in a big way.  Each time the climb shattered the pack until there were small groups scattered around the course.  I was able to get into a small group and reel in quite a few people until we had a group of about 15; one of whom was Silka, the newest JH.org athlete.  We worked in this group and reeled in quite a few people getting shattered from the climb.  Had a respectable finish somewhere in the middle.  Was definitely nice to escape the rain of northern New England and steal some sunshine.
Here is a snip of the p123 race which followed ours.

This is a test up the upgrade to the latest wordpress. yey!

Sterling was tough but fun.  Needed more of a warmup as the first time up the hill was really tough.  Started settling in for climbs 2-5, but lost touch with the group on the last ‘throw down’ lap.  Racing at this new level this year is really tough, but I feel myself getting stronger.  From within the pack I was able to watch strongmen like GP, LD, and TM take care of business at the other end of the race.  These dudes have a different fitness than I do.  Speaking of strongmen, AD took 8th in his race!  Nice.  Also jh.org athleteSilke took 3rd in the pro 123 women’s field.

Here is a picture of the cat 4/5 race neutral rollout start which started soon after our race ended:
 

Sturbridge and Palmer were hard but good for me.  They ‘opened me up’ to the rigors of the season.  They also reminded me that my intensity preparations year to year could use some improvement.  Racing with the 35s is alot of fun.  Better bicycle riders than the 4s.  Hit up the Charlie Baker Time Trial last nite and beat my PR there; wee bit of wind so potential for another PR on a still nite.