Schmidt Weekly

"The Sprint Finish"

It was a strange week with many surprises. Cole left for 4H camp so Becca and I had a little empty nest syndrome going on. At the last minute we decided to drive up to Lexington so I could race in the Downtown Criterium. I don't like these short, fast, Nascar-like cycling events because there is way too many crashes. But, Becca and I wanted to get out of town, it was a chance to race and to go and get a good meal for just the two of us.

Becca is getting along pretty well in her temporary knee brace and I parked as close to the race finish line as possible. I warmed up and arrived back at the finish line for the final 2-3 laps of the category race before mine. The finish was a 10-12 man field sprint and multiple riders touched wheels with two going down in a huge crash. Bike parts and bodies were flying across the blacktop. I have witnessed this many times before, but Becca had not, so she immediately had a huge knot in her stomach as I kissed her on the cheek, smiled and rode off for a couple of warm up laps before my start. The crash was not the image I wanted to leave her with.

19 men were registered in my event category, one of the smaller fields I have ever raced in. The course was a six corner fairly technical and fast circuit. I had my typical slow start and all the young fast guys took off as if it was a one lap race. I hung on at the very back and about three laps in I found my wind and my legs and all of a sudden I felt great. I honestly felt faster then every guy I was picking off. I wondered for a minute if I was just going out to fast, to early? I hooked up with a couple of other guys and we worked together taking pulls and picking off individuals. As the laps were winding down I knew I had to make some moves. I had never really been in this position before so I went to the front of my 6 man group and pushed the pace out of every corner. One by one they started to pop, until there was only one guy left on my wheel. I put in a huge acceleration on the small uphill and road him off my wheel. I didn't see anyone else so I figured I had done all that I could and would settle for my placing since I was on the final lap. As I came out of the final corner on to the strait-a-way I spotted a rider up the road. He had a sizable gap but had no idea I was behind him. I figured why not? I put my head down and just barrelled down the long finish road, by the time the guy looked back I was on him at top speed, I sprinted out the final meters and got him by a wheel length at the line.

I was so pumped to have been in the action the entire time. I simply felt like I had ridden a great race. The real surprise came when Becca and I went over to the officials table for the posting of the results. I finished in 5th place. WOW, I was so stoked, and was even more excited when the guy said I finish in the prize cut off. For my finish I was awarded a very nice pint glass from the race sponsors. You would have thought they had just handed me an Olympic medal. I was, and still am very pumped.

Becca and I celebrated with dinner at PF Changs. There was no pain on the ride home, just a great euphoric feeling. The rest of the week was filled with thunderstorms and massive rain showers. All of my rides got shortened or didn't even happen. Finally on Saturday a buddy and I decided to go out for a couple of hours. It was so nice out we just kept riding and eventually put in a 65+ mile ride. It was awesome and the wives had an terrific dinner waiting for us with some cold adult beverages. Mmmm.

Thanks for all the support, I was stoked to report this week because I knew my brothers would appreciate the effort.

Sunday: Bike- TM:56:52/DST:14.72/AVG:15.5

Monday: Bike Race (Criterium) 35 minute warm up, Race- TM:40:16/DST:15.28/AVG:22.82

Tuesday: Crossfit. Run- TM:28.02/DST:2.8

Wednesday: Crossfit. Run- 6reps of 3 min. 400 meter runs. (rest if time between intervals)

Thursday: Bike- TM:1:23:07/DST:20.60/AVG:14.8

Friday: Bike- TM:39:33/DST:9.23/AVG:14.0

Saturday: Bike- TM:4:15:50/DST:67.12/AVG:15.7