Frozen Flatlands

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet, and the Frozen Flatlands by any other name would be just as miserable, awful, long and not flat.

How was my Frozen Flatland's experience? Not as bad as Uncle Larry's (who's woe will be detailed shortly), but let me just say that I am glad that I think of my role with Team Two Wheel as that of an ambassador for the shop, and not a racer. Which is good, because I would be in serious risk of losing my contract otherwise.

Shall we focus on my poor preparation or my rookie mistakes in discussing my experiences over these three days? Let's start with poor preparation. First, I wasn't fit enough for a 47 mile race that is made up primarily of rollers with one "wall"-style climb about 40 miles into the course. And if I wasn't fit enough for that endeavor by itself, I definitely wasn't fit enough for a 12.1 mile time trial on the same day, much less one that involved gale-force winds. To compound my inadequate fitness, I spent the week before the race traveling on spring break and without my bike. Instead I took a couple of hour-long runs and got in an hour-long swimming workout. Maybe the right stuff for a triathlete, but those were runs number 6 & 7 of 2010 and my first swimming workout in about 35 years. Let's just say that I was not as cycle-ready as I could have been, shall we?

Just to draw out the interest of the faithful readers of our blog, I will give you a brief overview of my three races, followed later by an update on Uncle Larry and then the full list of rookie mistakes I made (and one made by a teammate).

Saturday Time Trial - Lousy, followed by poor finish, accented with horrible weather.

Saturday Long Road Race - Lousy, followed by not finishing, accented with miserable, horrible, no-good, rotten weather.

Sunday Short Road Race - Okay, followed by dropping out of the pack with three miles to go because I lacked the legs to contest the field sprint and the heart to torture myself over the last set of rollers.

Did I mention that I am "ambassador" for Two Wheel Transit and not a racer?