Joseph Sheehan Memorial Road Race

This weekend I did my first road race in a few years at the Joseph Sheehan Memorial Road Race. I was a cat 4 when I stopped doing road events in 2010, so when I renewed my license last week that is where I remained. I did the cat 4 race and it went pretty well. We started with 50 or so riders and I ended up finishing 11th about 50 yards behind the winner since I didn't have the legs to stand up and sprint at the end. There was a crash behind me about 600 meters from the finish, so that was a little bit unnerving. I learned a lot that I hope can help me as I transition through the summer with an eye on cyclocross. Road races have a pace that is tough to match in training, so the high intensity riding alone should be beneficial. It also reminded me that I should probably start getting some higher intensity intervals involved in my workouts. Since I like to focus on cyclocross my riding throughout the year is basically aimed at being ready for that. As a result, I haven't done much of anything beyond tempo intervals up to now in order to try to build a solid base. Since May is basically here, I think it is safe to start getting more strength endurance activities worked in to my rides. Not only will that continue my progression in my attempt to be strong for cyclocross, but maybe it can help me find my legs at the end of these road races. I'm pretty terrible about planning a racing schedule far in advance, so I'm not entirely sure when my next race will be aside from my last 1/2 marathon on May 11. I'd still really like to run it below 1:40, but we'll see if that is possible with my limited amount of running. In the meantime, Michelle and I are headed to Vegas tomorrow with her parents to spend a few days. I'm not really a gambler so I don't spend much time in casinos, but for some reason I just love going there.