Biking overload

It was a biking-filled weekend. I decided that I would try to see what would happen if I went into overload this week. I raced and/or road:

• Thursday: attempted the 6pm Seward race (local, weekday crit). I lasted about 6 laps with the group. I probably did about 25 minutes total racing, but it was a great workout. I likely could have stuck with the 5:30 for longer, but people have scared me so much about that race. I road down but ended up mooching a ride home.
• Friday: pre-season track race! This was awesome: there were 11 women (mostly 3s and 4s) who ended up constituting all participants in the C race. I felt really strong, and I think I got 3rd in the first scratch race. We did a 10-lap tempo next. I played it pretty stupid, and I ended up pulling people around to bridge to a couple breaks, but I was so excited to be racing that it doesn't matter. The last 4x4 went much better, and I got one of the sprints from 1.5 laps to it. It was so much fun to race on the track again, and I felt surprisingly strong. I've decided that I'm going to keep road racing as training for track.
  
• Saturday: road down to Seward for team pictures. Minimal work, but I was still out on the bike. And I made it back to the Montlake cut to watch the last crew race. Then I realized that my rear tire was flat, from a hidden piece of glass that had given me a flat earlier. I had used my spare tube earlier, obviously, so I ended up walking home, about 10 blocks west and 10 blocks north, all 10 of which were uphill. Keep in mind that this was in my cycling shoes, wheeling my bike. At least this spurred me to change my rear tire, as this was the 4/5th flat so far this season.
• Sunday: Longbranch road race. I really didn't want to replay last week, so I made an effort not to do too much work too early (or, I guess, a non-effort). Apparently, this worked, as I stayed with the group all through the race. There were 2 off the front, but we weren't chasing, since they are both crazy-good. On the last two climbs, 3 to 4 of the 15 or so of us made a break both times. But most of us ended up catching them, and I feel I took some good pulls there. I was hurting and making some awful breathing noises, but it was all good in the end. I ended 4th in the field sprint, which meant 6th overall. My team got 3rd, 5th, and 6th, at least, in the top ten. It's great to finally be strong again, in case I haven't said that enough.

Anyway, that's about all I accomplished this weekend, not surprisingly. I've got a week ahead of more writing. I'm going back and forth on the race this coming weekend, as it's 60 miles on Saturday, and I really want to do track the night before. I'm not into length at all. Justify, justify, justify...