Meeting expectations: The Tour of Somerville

Two weeks ago, while in the car on the way home from Bear Mountain, a wise and skilled bike racer suggested to me that winning and losing can become habits. While I don't yet seem to have figured out how to make a habit of winning, per se, I went on a hot streak in May 2008 that extended through the balance of that season, and lasted until about May of the following year. At that point I upgraded to a 2, and have been making a habit of performing poorly ever since.

Needless to say, I'm doing everything I can think of to reverse my fortunes, including, but not limited to, working with a coach, listening to a recording of Arnold Schwartzenager's "Pumping Iron" every night while I sleep, watching videos of pro races, working with energy consultants, training with power and inhaling effervescent blush wine before, during, and after training rides.

My troubles lately have been particularly pronounced in crits, where I not only have been losing, but losing in spectacular fashion that has seen me pulled as early as a quarter of the way into a race, as was the case at the Saratoga spa:crit. Of course, I was tired from promoting that race AND moving the day prior, but you see my point.

Let me bring this whole thing home; I decided that what I needed to do to start feeling better about my shoddy results was to adjust my expectations. It's time, I realized, to come to terms with the facts that I don't have the legs right now to win a race like the Tour of Somerville -- which I raced earlier today -- but not getting dropped should be a reasonable goal.

Such was my mindset when I got in the car this morning with my romantic accomplice in Brooklyn to make the short drive to New Jersey. My romantic accomplice, myself, and my good-for-nothing younger brother Eric spent way too much time unsuccessfully trying to navigate roads in and around Paramus this weekend. After that experience, I wasn't looking forward to making another foray back to the "Garden State," but Somerville turned out to be a nice town.

After a slight delay leaving Brooklyn, we arrived in Somerville with 45 minutes to my race -- or so I thought. Turned out the race was to start about 5 minute after the registration volunteer handed me my number. Panic ensued, but I managed to get myself dressed and the bike put together and to the start line before the race started. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to pee, which made the 25-mile race a tad uncomfortable.

Because of my tardiness, I started on the back row, which is obviously not ideal, but such is life. The course at Somerville is pretty wide, so moving up turned out not to be too much of a challenge.

I spent one lap, early on, at the front, using it as a bit of a warm up, since I'd obviously not had time to warm up prior to the start. In the race with me were my Champion System team mates Roberto and Sergio.

After my one cameo on the front I tucked in near the back, worked on accelerating out of turns, and worked my ass off to not get dropped. Everything went to plan.

Better yet, whereas last week in Wilmington I had the dubious pleasure of watching my teammate Sean Smith win the 2/3 race, this week Sergio took 3rd in the race, and I got to celebrate with him on a cool-down lap that we had both earned (although he earned it a little more than me).

So that was pretty exciting. Plus, my parents came to keep R.A. company during the race, and it was great to have all three of them cheering me on. Also in the category of things that were good today: I lowered the stem on my new bike this week, which did wonders to improving the handling. Whereas the machine felt like a beach cruiser at Wilmington, it felt reasonably similar to a race bike today.

To try and bring this whole thing home once again: by meeting my fairly low goal today, I'm now feeling hungry to go out next weekend and improve. It's time to change my habits, even if I have to do it incrementally, which setting attainable goals for each event.

After the race, R.A. and I settled in for lunch at a sidewalk cafe with a view of the classic race course, where we watched the elite women's race. We took an ambling stroll back to the car and watched a bit of the pro men's race, then hit the road for home, stopping briefly for a dip in Lake Welch. By the way, if you click on the link, beware: in real life, the beach is packed, and no one picks up their trash. It was still really nice to get in the water.

All in all, I'd say it was a pretty solid holiday Monday. This weekend had different types of adventures on Saturday and Sunday, but more on that later.