Last Tuesday I went and picked up the new CAAD 9 frame (in Team Latitude/ABRT livery) and the box of parts in the garage could finally be put to good use. Over the course of a couple of evenings I put the bike together and rode it briefly for the first time on Friday night.
At last I turned up for the Davidsonville ride on Saturday without the Fixie and just about managed to remember how to use the brakes and gears :-) After four months of riding the Fixie it was quite an odd sensation to be able to change gears and it took a while to coast rather than pedal the whole time. I know that a new bike always feels great on the first ride, it's still shiny, the drivetrain is clean but I did feel good and I think riding the Fixie has certainly made me stronger! The real test will come once the weeknight Davidsonville ride starts and the hammer really goes down!
After 80 miles on Saturday I jumped into the B race at Tradezone on Sunday....my first road race since Walkersville last year. As such I wasn't expecting any great fireworks but was just hoping that the surges and accelerations wouldn't spit me out the back. I have always found the surges and accelerations relatively hard to handle as training for the long-distance triathlons I don't have much fast-twitch fibers....slowtwitch yes, fast-twitch no! Now that I have the road bike up and running I plan on trying to incorporate sprints into the workouts to simulate race-specific needs.
Anyway the Tradezone race was a great workout and I bagged a pack finish. No fireworks at all from me but it was good to see Kyle flogging himself to death the whole race and hopefully once I get a few more race miles under my belt I can try and help him out a bit (until he upgrades). Hopefully the weather will corporate next week so I can get into Tradezone again. In fact I might try and do both the B and C race to get some more racing in.
Photo Courtesy of Amy Jones
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