Roller Races!

So, I think I wrote before about my one successful attempt riding the rollers after trying several times. It was in my apartment, in a hallway and I needed to return the rollers to their owner the next morning. I'd had them for a couple of weeks and had been intimidated by them. Mostly because I was afraid of falling and damaging my healed shoulder.

I attended the last race of the 2009 season end of January and was fascinated by the spectacle. I decided then that I intended to "race next year". Next year is here and I'd been told these roller races wouldn't be held in the same venue as last year. Finally rec'd news a couple of weeks ago that 2 racers have taken it over and found a new venue.

Now, I don't own rollers, YET. It's been a couple of months since my successful attempt (alone and next to a wall for support). Wednesday arrived and I packed my trainer and bike in the car, my gear in tow as well and drove to Chamberlain Lane.

I lined up my trainer with the others and started warming up. Some brought their rollers to warm up with and I was able to warm up for a few minutes on one set. That helped with my confidence!

11 showed up to compete. There are fixed and geared catergories. Depending upon your age/category you have to maintain a certain chain ring/gear ratio to keep it fair. Some racers even use their disk wheels.

1st everyone raced a 500 meter Time Trial to rank the racers into groups of 4. You race two at a time against those in your group and against the clock (see picture) and the stopwatch twice for 1,000 meters, the top 4 do 1,500 meters. It is a single elimination tournament. I had a spotter, who said I did very well for my first time. If memory serves, most of the 1,000 meter racers times were 1:02 - 1:08 and mine was 1:12. I'll take it! The last 250 meters are tough and the last 100 are HARD. I worked and worked but the cadence kept slowing. I have lots of work to do in that area.

I was the only woman. I have been trying to recruit more women. I will miss the next two and be off my bike for 2 weeks. I will be back for the last 3! My next race will hurt like crazy I'm sure.

I have no delusions of anything but fun and improvement. I used someones rollers last night at the trainer tour during warm up and was feeling good about it. Time to get more educated and then make another purchase. :-)

I leave tomorrow for Warsaw for 2 weeks. I'm going to miss my bike! They are trying to get me into a gym. I will need some form of exercise.