This past weekend Seth, Walker and I hit up the Chilly Cheeks Duathlon, for something different and to test out the legs. At about mile 2 of the run, I was starting to think that doing the race was a really bad idea. Running should be left to criminals and hungry cavemen.
Anyway... the forecast was for a warm day, but given the day before, I figured it would be one of those days that is slow to warm up, and it was. Even starting at 10, I had plenty of clothes on for the start. It was an interesting format, starting riders on the bike ride, in waves of about 10, in no real order, at one minute intervals. Starting in the 13th wave, traffic was sure to be plentiful. But people were pretty good, I didn't really have anyone look over their shoulder and steer left into me, when I yelled, "On your left!". Plus, all the traffic made it feel like I was flying! Good thing too, since it took a good 2 miles before I felt settled-in. And other than a quick pre-ride of about 60% of the course, I hadn't been on this course before. That's part of the reason I missed that damn turn! Not too bad... but definitely lost some time.
Going into the run I knew it would be ugly, and it was. The legs called me all sorts of derogatory names, and really protested with the idea of running after riding the bike. It's been a long time since they have been subjected to such nonsense. Unfortunately my prediction for the run came true; I have been doing pretty much all my running on rough trails, which is awesome for the climbing legs and running on uneven terrain, but really bad for producing speed on a flat open cinder trail. It was easily my slowest timed run ever.
But hey, racing was fun, and doing something different was fun. It was a good way to break into the more serious races that will be coming up soon. I finished 11th out of about 205 racers. Seth was 5th, and Walker I believe was 28th. Even better, the real test (speed on the bike) seemed to go well, as Seth had the fastest bike split, and I had the second fastest split (though apparently I've since been moved down to third, behind the overall winner). It was starting to feel "warmer" after the race, so I looked, and it was all the way up to 39 degrees. Chilly Cheeks for sure.
After a good workout, it's only right to stuff yourself. Jessica and I had reservations along with Jesse and Brittainy to meet up at the Greenbriar for dinner, and take advantage of the 5280 Restaurant Week. I was pretty psyched, since I hadn't been to the Greenbriar, and the menu sounded pretty delicious. The place was cool, and the service was great, but I was pretty unimpressed with the food. They had a 52-page wine menu... and yet only about 6 beers to choose from, only 1.5 that were marginally acceptable to actually drink with food. The highest quality beer was simply Fat Tire. I hate when restaurants do that. Yeah, wine is cool, but a good beer can be paired with food just as well. Anyway... Escargot appetizer was bland, and unexciting. For the main course I had the Chicken Diane, which was cooked very well. But a bit over-done with the mayo-based topping. I went for the Napoleon for dessert, which was delicious, but quite small. It was served with a "green tea gelee" which was comical, because it was a lovely little bit, the size of a dime and consistency of dried tubular cement... almost. It wasn't all bad, I mean the food was pretty good overall, just a bit pretentious and over-thought. I have a feeling that ordering off the non-restaurant week menu would have provided better results.
Sunday was a good day to sleep in, and then I snuck out for a ride. Once again, it wasn't nearly as warm as they had predicted. And even more odd, it was colder at the bottom of the hill, than it was up on Peak-to-Peak. I'm glad I had planned on riding up high!
Did a lovely loop up 4-mile to Gold Hill, then out to Ward, and back through Ned on Peak-to-Peak. A good 20 miles on dirt roads... which wasn't the best idea this time of year. The roads were nice and dry (mostly), they are just all sorts of torn up. But it was a good test for the new chamois - since I was showing off the new team colors;
No comments:
Post a Comment