TOOTING MY HORN!

     I take having fun on my bicycle seriously.  Like today, I did fifty miles, riding up to Walburg and back.  This was a ride just to get in some miles, enjoy the countryside, get some fresh air.  My average heart rate was a paltry 102, so you know I didn't do much pushing.  But on other days I'm working on getting faster overall, faster in the sprints, faster with my cadence.  I do lots of drills.  This is for serious cycling, that is, racing.  Of course, all of that is on hold at the moment but that doesn't mean I slack off.
     With tongue in cheek, I can give you some stats that sound quite impressive.  For instance, in the last fifteen years I've done 155 races (as a senior, we don't have many per year).  Even counting the first year, where I had no medals, I've podiumed 77% of my races, 29% being gold.  My best races are time trials, 107 races, 36% gold, and only 13% off the podium.  But stats can be deceiving.  Many of those gold medals races had me placing first and last.  Sadly, the race pool is very slim.
     True, I'm a past national silver medalist, so I do ok against actual competition.  But even that comes with an explanation.  Seniors are grouped in five year increments.  Most of my gold comes when I'm the youngest in my group.  As it turns out, I get two years before major competition bumps me to third or worse.
     But there is another type of competition: Strava Segments.  Strava has kindly made age (and weight and sex) categories.  After years of shunning Strava, several years ago I joined.  I pay attention to the 75+ segments, and last year complained vigorously to Strava that on many segments they inserted folks who shouldn't be there.  Their ages ranged from 12 to 56, of those I could verify their ages. But that is water under the bridge, or over the dam, whatever.
     If you go to any of the Great Northern segments, I top most of the 75+ category.  On other rides, where I'm just out riding, I'm near the top mainly because everybody else is doing what I'm doing, just cruising along.  Last year I had a KOM crown on CR 119, mainly because it had just opened and I was one of the first to ride it.  I got to look at the crown when I got home but within a few hours it had been eclipsed.  I still have the 75+ top spot.
     Where is all this going, you might think.  Yesterday I was supposed to do my "hill" ride in the morning, except the drizzle wouldn't stop and I wasn't going to bomb down hills on wet asphalt/concrete.  So I put it off until the afternoon and instead just did some loosening of the legs at Old Settlers Park.  Just an hour of cruising around.  Old Settlers Park only has one Strava segment.  It is like a minus 1% grade (24 feet drop over 3/10 of a mile) and straight, like a drag strip.  As a matter of fact, that's the name of it: Old Settler's Drag.
     I use this section to practice sprints, and for the last year or so have been tied with my friends Dave and Rebekah at 22 seconds.  But I was listed third.  Yesterday, as I was winding up my hour, I thought I'd give it a go.  True, my decision had something to do with a favorable west wind.  In any case, I took the corner at speed, upped my cadence, and gave it my best shot.  After 24 hours it's still there, so maybe I can keep it awhile.