Bike Weather/Bike Race

Yesterday the thermometer hit 61 degrees (this is mid-February in Worcester, mind you) and I went for a bike ride. Of course right now, again, this being New England, the mercury (well, digital number) is approaching freezing. It was great to be on the bike cruising around, especially knowing that the next opportunity to do so may well be in two months, but I got to thinking about something I blogged about on my other site: the George Street Challenge For Major Taylor. This is a crushing 500 foot sprint up George Street, which has an average grade of 18 pct. During my ride I was thinking about training techniques. I discussed this with my friend Phil, who is mentioned in the blog post, and we both came to the same conclusion - the best training for the race is...to sprint up George Street! Of course, nutrition, weights, conditioning and other things play a part, but I guess that is what I will have to do. Phil also is considering entering the race (it will be in July) and is probably going to ride a fixie. My own mountain bike is not really geared (chuckle, chuckle) for this sort of thing but I am mostly interested in honorably competing rather than breaking records or winning my age group. More on this when (if?) the weather warms up...