I'm so tired of this...

Tired, I tell you. Literally.

No, not of bike racing...not a chance of that! Last night's Matteson crits brought my total of races for the year up to 12. I've already registered for 5 more in July, plus the Downer's Grove crit in August. And there will be others.

What I am tired of is what I am calling "post-race insomnia," for lack of a better or more technical phrase. Here's the situation...

I have raced the Tuesday night crits at Matteson three times this year. All three times I have been home by 9:30 (yeah, I live pretty far away), and in bed by 10:00. And all three times, despite being shattered and exhausted from 50 or 60 kilometers of hard racing, I have laid in bed, wide awake, until almost midnight. And even once I do manage to fall asleep, I wake up repeatedly (last night / this morning it was at 2:00, 4:00, 5:00, and awake for good at 5:20).

Some internet research has confirmed that vigourous exercise a few hours before bed can make it difficult to fall asleep...the theory is that the excercise causes a release of endorphins, which give a person energy, thus making sleep elusive. I'm not about to stop racing on Tuesdays, but I really don't like this side effect. Has anyone else out there experienced this? Has anyone found a way to beat the system?

But how was the racing, you ask? Crazy fast! The weather was cloudy, cool, and breezy...a marked contrast to last week's sweat-fest. About 25 riders, rolled to the line for the "A" races. We did the usual...15k, 30k, and 15k. Kev and I were the only WFR representatives, along with a huge contingent of South Chicago Wheelmen riders. Despite the more favorable weather, I never felt all that good. I had gotten in a decent warm-up (nine laps around the course), but certainly didn't feel all that warmed up in the first race. With little more than rubbery legs, a high heart rate, and the determination not to get dropped, I managed to stick with the front of the field until just about the end. When the sprint came, Brian (from SCW) and I let the field surge past and rode on in.

The legs started to come around during the 2nd race. A group of about 8 riders got away early on, and stayed away until mid-way through the race. I helped to reel them back in, but unfortunately my turns at the front of the chase group always seemed to come right after we turned into the rather stiff headwind. I expended a lot of energy doing this. We finally caught them after 15 laps. But the pace didn't come down for so much as a second, because lap 15 had been designated a "sprint lap." Again, I managed to stay near the front for the remainder of the race, working with a rotating cast of SCW riders (one of whom also rides a Rock Lobster). On the final lap, the 3 SCW riders at the front jumped, and although I was sitting in 4th position I had no gas in the tank they easily rode away from me. A few other riders surged around me at the end, and I had to hang on and content myself with about 10th.

The third race was sheer misery. A small group made a move early on...Kev came around my right side, encouraging me to jump on. I just shook my head and uttered a meek "[expletive deleted] no!" Still, a few seconds later I was able to "dig deep into my suitcase of courage." I grabbed a wheel and bridged up to the lead group. I remember seeing the lap cards showing only 7 to go and thinking "almost done, almost done, almost done" like a mantra. At 5 to go, the rubber band snapped. A group of 7-8 riders jumped, and all Kev and I could do was watch. They dangled in front of us, just out of reach. I stood up and mashed on the pedals a few times, hoping to be able to bridge up and pull Kev along with me. My hope was that when they turned into the tailwind they would use that time to relax...all I was hoping for was a decrease of 2-3 mph. Had they done that, we could have caught back on. But no...each time there was a faint glimmer of hope, that hope was dashed by an attack in the lead group, causing them to distance themselves even further.

With about 3 to go I looked back and realized that I had ridden Kev off of my wheel. Now I was totally alone, but for the "B" group who were now cooling down on the course...their races end 2 laps earlier than our "A" races. I gritted my teeth and kept pushing as hard as possible for the remaining laps.

All told, I got in 36.5 miles of solid, albeit disappointing, racing. And I burned close to 2,200 calories in the process, so I definitely earned my post-race fig bars! I won't be able to make next week's Tuesday crits, so my next race will be the Masters 30+ 4/5 Blue Island Superweek criterium.