Recon

The day before a race I always try to ride. It's my "blood volume" ride, and it seems to actually work. Basically, by riding I tell my body to maintain or increase its blood volume, rather than allowing it to drop. These increases and drops happen within a span of 24 hours, so without riding I would lose blood volume before the race. That has ll kinds of negative impacts on my racing form, so it's best to just ride the day before.

With that in mind, I decided to combine my BV ride with a little bit of reconnaissance. I checked out another of the GVCC race courses (actually, the course for next week). I rode for about 2 hours 15 minutes, for a total of almost 35 miles. Headwind all the way out there, tailwind all the way back. I don't think it's ever NOT windy in this place. Anyway, like the other one, this course is mostly flat to rolling with a couple of little bumps that I can power over easily. It'll be great for me. Any course that doesn't involve real climbing (real climbing = sustained for 1 mile or more) should work to my advantage. So far the two courses I've seen look like Cherry Pie, without the uphill finish. Note: Before that uphill finish I was in 5th or 6th place at Cherry Pie.

I realize that by saying all of this in a public forum, although not read by very many people, I will almost certainly get a severely bruised ego after racing these courses. But that's okay, I can handle some bruising, as long as it's dished out by women that are actually faster and stronger than me. Tomorrow is the first test. I've got a ride to the race, done all the training I could, and hopefully will not make a fool of myself. If only I were better at cornering...