State RR - Recon

Tomorrow is the state road race out of Chappell Hill.  Jim reconnoiteured the course today.  He and Doug will race the cat 3's so they will do that 8.4 mile loop 5 times - Jim just did it once today, so he rode 35 miles.  Tomorrow's race is 75 miles.

The course is very undulating.  Very similar to the Saturday shop ride.  Jim thinks the course is actually easier.  Course, he wasn't racing today...

Neat things you can do to breakdown and dissect your ride.  Here we look at only the "loop."

And here we look at the out and back, with the loop removed.

The Garmin gives you up to 8 different things to look at and you get 2 screens.  It is very easy to change what you're looking at, even while riding.  This is Jim's "primary" screen with speed, average, heart rate, power, grade, last lap (will be most useful tomorrow during the race, generally cadence is displayed there,) distance and ride time.

His secondary screen shows more "average" stuff - speed, heart rate, power and "navigational" stuff - altitude, amount of climbing, direction and time of day.  As mentioned this stuff is easy to change on the fly.  A couple of weeks back Jim realized that he had his "lap" counter set to miles, so during the first lap of the driveway crit in Austin changed his "lap" counter to mark at start/finish.

The roads are typical Texas roads.  Nice, narrow, chipseal.  Today Jim had a chance to enjoy the view.  Tomorrow the view will be mostly the wheel ahead.

Lots of cows.  (Remember we are near Brenham, the ice cream capitol of Tx.)

And horses.

Ranches.

And Farms.

This "cowgirl" is getting ready for the Thanksgiving season, riding a Turkey!!  Hey, wait a minute...

Dairy Farm road, since we are near Brenham, of course.

Not sure of the significance of the McCain/Palin sign at the foot of Peculiar Hill, but it interested Jim anyways.

If you have trouble getting your S.O. interested in supporting you at a race, towns like Chappell Hill have lots of crap to look at and shop for for the non-rider...

Of course you will stop at a Chappell Hill Meat Market.  Probably a different kind of meat market than we saw last week in Vegas.

Prerace meal ready.  We'll see how tomorrow pans out!!

Thanx for reading!!