While the cat is away...

Yes, I am having fun. Tracy Clarke and I are making the most of the time we have while Annaliisa is away. We have ridden a couple of races, and done a couple of longer rides.

The racing has been a real laugh. I think it was humbling for the guys in A-Grade at the winter series to see not only a tandem racing with them, but a tandem with two girls! We stayed with them for about 14km before we were dropped! Then the next week we tried our luck with the B-Grade. Again the aim was to stay with them, and we did! Well up until the end sprint anyway where we had no chance! It is so tiring increasing speed for small efforts and then breaking and losing all the speed when the bunch slows down! This lagged acceleration and breaking rate also causes a problem for drafting as you cannot stay too close to someones wheel in case they slow down a bit faster then you expect and you do not have time to stop!
But it has been fun and is a bit of a break from the usual base miles.

Our sunday rides have been really beneficial too. Again Trace and I have been trying some new things. Annaliisa sternly warned me before she left not to push anyone into racing and doing hills, but while the cat is away,the mice will play! It helps that Trace is game for anything! These longer rides have been good as they have given Trace and myself a chance to identify what we can change while racing. They also let me talk to Trace about 'girl stuff' I know it sounds odd but as I have been riding with guys since I started, I never really got the chance to talk about girl stuff while riding!

Well everything else has been good. The intense endurance phase I am doing has got me spinning 3 hours a day. This has been inside for 3 days due to the nasty weather! And let me tell you three hours is a looooong time on the windtrainer. I have got it set u in front of the tv to make time go a little faster!

Anyway ciao for now.
Neelu