I really had a lot of fun at BeaveRun yesterday! It was good to see all of the SCR / Trackwhores guys! As always, I wish there had been more time to BS. The 40 minutes between sessions seems to really fly. I got there and pitted with Pat, Mike and his buddy were close by, Slitherin was on the other side of us, and Ben and Walt were close by as well.
I was hoping to make it until lunch with my rear tire. I had run it at Summit, flipped it, and then run it at Nelson. It made it through the pre-lunch sessions and was still felling good, so I decide to leave it on until it started to move around. I didn't get any lap times until the 3rd session in which I was running mid 1:05's. I was feeling pretty good and decided that I would try to get into the 1:04's in the 4th session. I went out and tried to steadily pick up my pace. Early in the session I was feeling like I was riding well and going quicker than I had in the previous session. I was trying to continuously push back my brake markers for #1 and #10. It seems that for #1 I do most of my braking going up the little hill at the end of the straight and then pretty much let my brakes off at the top of the hill before I turn in. That pause between letting the brakes off and turning in always makes me feel like I started braking too early. About halfway through the session I pushed my brake marker back further than I ever have, and when I grabbed the brake lever my rear wheel came off the track, it felt like it came up pretty high, and my bike started to headshake. I eased up on the bakes, my rear wheel came back down, but I didn't have a prayer of making the turn. I ran off the track at what felt like 90 MPH and had to work the back brake, and the front a little bit, to get her slowed down before the guard rail. The corner worker waived me back on the track and I ran around the track and pitted in. That's the first time I've ever run off a track, and I can't say I'm in a big hurry to do that again. I did manage to run some 1:04.9's and 1:04.8's before my off track excursion (my best ever lap at BeaveRun was a 1:04.53).
My back tire started to move around a bit more in the 5th session and I wasn't able to get back down into the 1:04's. I put on new rear tire and gassed the bike up in between the 5th and 6th sessions (that was a busy break). I was getting a bit fatigued and got caught up behind some traffic in the 6th session but with help from the new rear tire I was able to run my fastest lap of the day - a 1:04.7.
I was pretty beat for the 7th session, but I put the GoPro on and figured I'd pull in early if needed. I got behind two riders right from the start. They were pretty quick (unbeknownst to me at the time I ran a 1:04.3 while I was behind them) but I felt like I could go quicker if I could get past them. When I finally got past I ran 3 laps before I got a hamstring cramp in turn #1 and pulled in. Each of the 3 laps was the fastest lap I had ever run at the time - 1:04.21, 1:04.17, and 1:04.16. Not a bad way to end the day!
http://www.vimeo.com/25011366
. Unfortunately my gopro only recorded the first 1-3 minutes of each session so I have jack for video.
