While I cannot say that I am satisfied with my performance at FRG (25th in the Masters 4/5), I am happy I did the race. With each race that I do, I learn a little more about where I need to improve. Add climbing skills to that long list.

I came into this race with a little nervous anticipation. I had heard about the hill, it's 14% grade and all. I've gone up hills like this before, sometimes with good power. But, I have not done it every 3 minutes, eight or ten times in a row, nonstop. Each time I hit it, I thought, "the end is getting nearer, don't give up." I don't think I ever suffered so much in only 20 minutes, 8+ miles. It sounds ridiculously short, but that was a tough 20 minutes, 8+ miles.

Before the race, I read Luke's report on how to approach this race and thought that sounded like a good plan. Halfway up the hill on lap one, I realized that plan was overly ambitious for me. This race was going to be all about survival and recovery. That first trip up the hill went okay, I was in the front half of the field and the front guys were still in sight as I crested the hill. The screaming downhill was taken tentatively the first lap. I heard someone yell at me, "get off the brakes" in a not so nice tone. It took me a couple of laps before I realized you could take the corners without braking at all. I should have pre-rode the course. Who knows, maybe I could have finished 24th.

That lap and every subsequent lap following would follow this same pattern: after the start/finish line, drop down to the small chainring, turn left to begin the climb. Begin shifing to easier gears in the back until you run out of gears which always happened way too quickly. Halfway up the climb think to yourself, "Why??? Someone stop the suffering". Pull yourself to the top at a near heart-exploding bpm. Turn the corner at the top and make a pathetic attempt to build up some speed for the descent that lasts the entire time you're not climbing. Then, think to yourself, "easy does it buddy, you're going to have to hit that hill again in like one minute, recover" Get the heartrate down to a reasonable 165bpm or so by the start/finish line an do it all over again.

It was fun. It was a valuable learning experience. I'll be back.

Thanks to the xXx cheerleaders on the hill, notably Tamara. It took your mind off how much suffering you were doing right at a critical point on the hill.