First Road Race - Ozarks Hellbender

I have registered for my first race and I am a little nervous about the whole deal. The race is the Ozark's Hellbender and it is a 70 mile race consisting of two laps of 35-miles each. I think that this type of race is well suited to my riding style...A lot of hills and the opportunity to power pedal up those hills.

The nerve-racking part is that I will probably be going to the race solo. Most of the people in the racing group I joined like to do local races vs. travel for 6 hours.

I plan on riding the C-dale Lampre Caffita. The one pictured below almost identical to the one I'll be riding.Wish me luck!

Last Evening's Weather

While I was looking out my window at work (from the 42nd floor) downtown, a violent stormfront was bearing down on my route home for work. I quickly donned my cycling gear and tried to out ride the storm. As soon as I exited my office building, very large and very cold raindrops collided with my head. I figured I had better get to riding before the conditions got worse...hmmm, that was a BAD idea.

As I began west on Madison Street (the start of my ride), small pea-sized hail began to fall. As I approached LaSalle Avenue (about two blocks west) dime sized hail began to fall. The bugger of the situation is that the hail was just the right size to pass through the vents in my helmet and explode against my skull. I endured the wicked weather for about four miles before it abated. The weather for the remaining four miles consisted of heavy rain. When I arrived home, I was covered in welts from the hail and was in desperate need of a hot shower.

Would I do it again? Maybe, it was quite a rush! I can imagine all of the drivers at the time thought I was an imbecile and I am sure readers of this post will consider the same.

Polar Cycling Computer

I just downloaded this data from my cycling computer/heart rate monitor for my ride home from work today.

This is a pretty neat way to measure performance.