Extracting happiness out of suffering

Race Pace 'Cross: Some blinding glimpses of the obvious and other thoughts.

-Fighting a cold makes you suffer & probably slows you down.

-A poor warm-up means before the race means you'll spend the first part of the race warming up (and going backwards).

-A front-row position means you'll get a decent start, but a lot of good that does you when you can't go fast.

-Tufo's are slippery, especially when they are pumped up like road tires. I rode the off-camber turns like I was drunk. I got yelled at a lot on the first lap. The way I was riding I wanted to yell at myself too.

-Fast course with some nice tweaks from last year. Good training for me, but not suited to my limited strengths. It's a fun race and less than 20 minutes from my house so that's a win-win.

-Evan Fader and I had a good battle the last 3 laps. He'd get in front before the technical section (the part that should have been my strength, but which I sucked on) and then he'd sit up as we got to the paved path. I had worked hard to pass and get away from the guy's chasing and I didn't want them catching up so I'd pass him and drill it. He'd sit on my wheel for the rest of the lap and then get in front for the tricky stuff. On the final climb I put in a massively feeble attack to try and shake him to no avail. He jumped me as we crested the hill and held it to the line to take 10th. It was a good battle. I didn't play it right tactically, but I was forced to ride hard late in the race and that's good training. Sometimes the gaps open up and you can get lazy and back off late in the race.

-This was the final race in the growing MABRA series. I did 4 out of the 6 races and ended up 10th in the B's. Next year I want to get on the podium.

-The top B guys are really strong and nice too. I feel no shame in getting kicked in the head by them week after week.

-I need some rest and recovery. Hopefully the training and racing will lead to some better results in the second half of the season. It's funny how some days the power is there and some days it's not.

-Regardless, you just have to stay tough and giv'r whatever you've got. If you do that you can extract the happiness out of the suffering.