No race for me this past weekend

Worked on the Litespeed Pisgah on Saturday in preparation for the weekend's race, was hoping to put disc brakes on it with this clamp-on disc tab, but ATA Cycles couldn't seem to figure-out how to ask Litespeed to to do 2-day shipping (come-on now boys! - that's what i get for cheating on Jamie at Western Cycle - burned!) and the part didn't arrive on Friday as it should have. But that aside, equipment was ready for the Sunday race. Unfortunately, my mind and legs weren't. Just wasn't pumped for it when i woke-up on Sunday... haven't been home on a weekend in over a month. When Jenn's sister called to say she, Chris, and the dogs were coming to Boston, decided to hang home for some quality time (and a quality ride, of course).

Legs were a bit tired when i opened them up 15-20mins into the road ride. Perfect weather, 70 degrees, modest sunshine. In the 2nd tempo piece I pushed at 95% and saw HRM go to 188 for the 3mins, which was good as i'm guessing i had another gear to drop into if i was pedaling for my life, but also a little lower than expected. I didn't recover super-well after each of the first 3 tempo pieces, making me further believe bailing on the race was a good decision as my legs were really tired and heavy for 10mins or so after each effort vs the expected 2-4mins. After about an hour on the road, decided it wasn't where i wanted to be, so swung home, grabbed the race-ready mtbike and hit the Fells for 90-100 mins of steady, up-tempo riding. The HRmonitor showed an average of about 150 for both rides (160mins), which is 5-10beats below where it have been in a race, but a good simulation without bringing the reserves down to zero.

The legs were really golden before the backpacking trip and have been heavy since, but i've also been keeping on them, 2days medium to hard intensity, decent amount of duration, followed by medium-easy day - hoping to let 'em loose this weekend at the VT50 with a taper... We'll see. I've brought them up and down 2-3times this year, not sure if they'll come back again or not. How many times can I push hard for an "A" endurance race, drop-back for a week, then build again for the next "A" race 6weeks later? This will be the third and final time this season... unless something else comes-up that looks inviting... maybe if they don't breakthrough this weekend, they'll be ready for the Foliage 400 - and a solo effort there. Was planning on doing a team effort, but might need one last endurance fix before the end of the racing season...