Getting Stoked at the first team meeting.

The Greenville Spinners Racing team had their first team meeting of the year the other night. I was pretty excited to meet some more of the team. We had the meeting in Bob Kramer's Cycling shop and studio below Greenville's Great Escape bicycle shop.

There was about a dozen guys or so, some I had met, others I had not. What was very cool was the breakdown of riders. There was a group of Cat 4 riders (or cat 3 riders who were planning on catting down), a group of Cat 5, 34- (age group) and a group of Cat 5 35+. About four of each. Three little sub-teams within the larger team.

The discussion centered mostly around the upcoming 2010 Greenville Spring Training Series. This series is comprised of 6 races over 3 weekends. One day of each weekend, the races are conducted on Perimeter Road at the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center (this is still referred to as Donaldson in cycling circles, but SCTAC is the current name for the area). The other day of each weekend, is spent at a different location. These locations are the BMW performance center, The Fork Shoals road race course and the River Falls road race course.

At the start of the meeting, I was planning on only racing in two of the 6 races. This was due in part to my recent budgeting efforts that has pinched my wallet a bit lately. However, after the meeting, I went ahead and signed up for all 6 of them.

What got me so stoked up? I think it was a combination of several things. First, just meeting three or four other guys who would also be racing in the same (Cat 5 35+) group as I will. A few of these guys I rode with on our practice day. That's a cool thing to hear everyone talking about how they are interested in working together as a team and learning team tactics.

Some of the guys have real experience with racing, some of the guys are similar to me - that is new to road racing. Most have participated in races of some type - triathlons or marathons, mountain biking or other races. All are very excited about the upcoming season.

The bulk of the meeting was spent talking about strategy. Specifically, strategy on the donaldson course. Randy lead the group with input from several others and lots of questions from those of us who are less experienced.

It was all this talk about racing and racing strategy that got my adrenaline pumping. I'm serious when I say my adrenaline was pumping - I was actually vibrating in my chair. My breath was coming a little short - seriously, I was stoked!

I stayed at the meeting as long as I could. About the time I was leaving, Randy had switched over to the BMW course. It took me a couple hours to come down from that buzz - I'm glad I had French homework to do.

Between translating and summarizing for my homework assignment, I logged on and started checking out the registration for the spring series. When I realized there was a $30 savings if I pre-register for all 6 races, I decided to pull the trigger.

So, I'll do five of the six races (still saving $5 over registering for 5 races). The last race of the series falls on the same day as the clemson off-road triathlon that I had already signed up for. So, there you have it, an adrenaline junkies dream month - 3 consecutive weekends of racing. I'm stoked!