lessons learned
Well, the alarm came early, and I still felt woozy. I thought about not showing up. I was scheduled to instruct again, and I knew that was likely a bad idea. The easiest way to avoid the whole thing would be to avoid the whole thing. But after reading "The War of Art" some more last night, the chapter on how a pro shows up got to me. So I would show up. Hopefully a bit wiser than yesterday. So a shower, some dramamine, and I was on my way.
The 14 freeway was shut down *again* for some reason. So another circuitous route around some ficticious construction. I arrived a bit before 8, and it was already hot. I went to Marty who is the chief driving instructor and asked if he had extra instructors could I beg off my assignment as I was still feeling lousy from the day before. Luckily there were extra instructors and I got a reprieve. I still felt like a loser, but this was strictly survival mode. I knew that riding passenger would make me ill for sure. At this point I thought that even driving might send me hurling. But I am a pro...I had to show up.
First session I went out. We were running clockwise with the bowl again. I've never done this with POC before (they ran it back in April when I missed two events due to my back going out...another long story). And it is fast down the back straight. You come out of the bowl (increasing radius so you can get on the throttle early), then head downhill into a chicane that you can pretty much straight line through. BUT, you need to kink left, then head further downhill into a 90 degree off camber left hand turn. If you carry too much speed you won't make the kink, and if you don't get the kink right, you'll mess up the 90 degree turn, screwing up the approach to the skidpad. That's one of the things about racing...messing up one corner isn't just about one corner, its about the ones that come afterwards too.
Anywho, I decided to abandon the nomex suit, opting instead for levis and a long sleeve t-shirt (legal for STS). This was hot, but not as brutally oppressive as the driving suit. Made it through the first session and felt OK. Not great. Not sharp. But OK. Did the second session and was feeling a bit better...except for the 4-wheel off after the left kink. I was in a little too hot. Oh well, to find your limits you have to surpass them sometimes.
I have a new nemesis in IP class...a nice guy named Richard who also has his car done at TRE. He wasn't here yesterday, and unfortunatley suffered the same fate today that I did yesterday...overheated and got sick. He managed to finish the 2nd session, but decided to pack it in. Turns out I was faster than him by 0.2 sec, so I think I won IP today (I won on Saturday too). So good for the point battle, as I'm way behind. But not good for the service points, as I really needed to instruct to get those, as you need a minimum number of service points for the TT championship. Gonna be a busy last half of the season trying to get those.
Oh well...as long as the car keeps running and I stay healthy I can't complain. And I learned a few things about the heat and what I can and can't do. A man's gotta learn his limitations...