Goal 1 And The Rest of the Season

So I just saw the point totals awarded for Spring Prairie and let me tell you, had I known they were going to be that inflated...

1st place was awared 60 upgrade points and then equally distributed down through 30th place.

To put that in perspective: for placing 4th in Vernon Hills, I received 2 points. I could have placed 29th in Spring Prairie to equate that! 29th!

Makes the loss sting all the more.

Typically to upgrade a Cat 3 rider needs to accumulate 25 points over the course of the season. Technically, I only have 3 points, because USACycling only counts USCF races (most of the races I will be doing). ABR, USCF's competitor if you will, sponsored the Monsters of the Midway Criterium, so I won't technically be awarded those points for placing 4th. (And for reference, I keep saying 'technically' because anyone can apply to upgrade at any point regardless of how many points they achieve. When upgrading, a rider can list all the races they've done that didn't show up in rankings, other past results, or other considerations that they deem valuable in considering an upgrade.) I have never met points when upgrading, but am a Cat 3. Why? Because I placed well in pretty much every Cat 4 and Cat 5 race I had done, so I applied and they recognized that I was ready to move on.

But, after seeing the amount of points awarded at Spring Prairie (note Road Races count far more than Criteriums for points, and apparently State Championships double your point totals for the race)...I just want to meet points.

So, I'm 22 points away with 18 races left on my schedule.

Here are the remaining races.

6/28 - Tour of the Dairyland: Downer Avenue (Crit)
7/1 - Soldier Field Criterium 2 (Crit)
7/4 - UWW Road Race (RR)
7/11 - Superweek: Blue Island (Crit)
7/12 - Superweek: Elgin Cycling Classic (RR)
7/15 - Soldier Field Criterium 3 (Crit)
7/18 - Superweek: Schlitz Park Cycling Challenge (Crit)
7/19 - Superweek: Evanston GP (Crit)
7/20 - Superweek: Whitnall Park Road Race (RR)
7/22 - Superweek: Lakefront Road Race (RR)
7/26 - Chicago Criterium (Crit)
7/29 - Soldier Field Criterium 4 (Crit)
8/1 - Tour of Elk Grove (Crit)
8/2 - Tour of Elk Grove (Crit)
8/12 - Soldier Field Criterium 5 (Crit)
8/15 - National Criterium Championships: Downers Grove (Crit)
8/16 - National Criterium Championships: Downers Grove (Crit)
8/23 - Illinois State Championships, Tour of Oak Brook (RR)

Other Possible Races:
7/21 - Cedarburg Cycling Classic (Crit)
8/8 - Grayslake Cycling Classic (Crit)
8/9 - Glencoe Grand Prix (Crit)

Yeah, pretty much a month and a half of all out cycling and it will be a challenge (almost more mentally than anything: see Spring Prairie post). Logically, upgrading will pretty much boil down to placing well (top 3) in a road race or consistently placing well in criteriums: 2 things I feel like I should be able to do. If everything else fails - the last race of the season will be a massive point opportunity as it is a state championship race.

But the bottom line is: just ride hard, win, and the rest will be history.

Anyways, I'll be going to California for 10 days starting this weekend for work. Luckily it sounds like they have excersie bikes at the hotel, so I will be riding everyday to keep fitness (but god do indoor stationary's suck). Also we're located very close to Mount Diablo, a decent sized mountain in California. I may try and rent a bike one morning from a local shop and see what a true hill feels like.

As for this week, I will be doing hard intervals from Tuesday-Thursday. One day will be shorter pyramids and sprints, another day will be mid-range intervals in the range of 3-5 minutes each, and one day will be a 45 minute time trial (my personal best on the course - 43:13).

So we'll see how that goes. I'm hoping to break myself down as much as possible this week and have next week be a rest and recover week. When I come back, that first road race will be more of a fitness gauge/increaser than an actual race. I will approach it similarly to Vernon Hills when I didn't know exactly where my fitness levels were. Hopefully I'll surprise myself again, but who knows what 10 days on a stationary will bring.

Other cycling things on my mind:
- Looking into a Powertap by Saris for training in the fall and next year.
- Tour de France is in one month, getting rather excited
- Sounds like some future DSP L5ers are hitting it hard right now, nice to hear
- I think I'll be doing the Urbanathlon with Andy in October
- I've been looking into some good cycling books, should be placing an order once we move, that 36th floor balcony will have my name written all over it.