Remember this jacket?

I wore it for the first time since March.  Yes, ladies, as a vest, with a sleek black Under Armour base layer.  And sorry men, that smile is patented.  It's loose fitting - like inches all around.  Must have stretched in the closet.  Sorry, the paparazzi weren't out on the trails tonight to snap a picture.

This picture got me thinking about this race - my first race - and my goals for Winter training.  I looked into some cyclocross races, but the few I looked into were closed (I waited too long to register).  Some guys at work are organizing group rides, and I may find something to sign up for or convince the family to go to Moab or something (long shot).  Otherwise, my goal is next year's Barry Roubaix race.

I took the time to analyze last year's results, including my placement, and set a preliminary goal for next year.

Of course, I made a graph.  It's kind of hard to see the plot text so here's a summary:

• It's a histogram - showing race Elapsed Time (E.T.) along the x-axis, an number of riders (finishing around a particular E.T.) on the y-axis.
• I finished at 1 hour, 53 minutes, and 53 seconds, (the text on the plot off to the right) about 9 minutes behind...
• average time of 12.1 mph
• ...the Median time (about 1:45)
• average time of 13.2 mph
• more people finished ahead of me than behind me
• My goal is to finish about 18 minutes ahead of last year's Median time (about 1:35)
• average time of 14.4 mph, about 20% faster than last year
• more people finish behind me, than ahead of me

Do I think this is a reasonable goal?  These days I'm riding about 5 days a week, with a plan, and feel 20% faster.  I'm almost 15% lighter, so far.  Finally, and what I expect will make the biggest impact, I got some new carbon-fiber handle-bars that shave 120 grams off my bike's weight (approx. 1% of bike's weight, approx 0.1% of bike + rider weight).  (I bought those bars because they let me move my brake & shifter controls inboard).