I did a 44 mile training race tonight. Orders from my coach was to sit in and not do any hard work. Well, the 60 rider pack kept going round and round and after 25 miles the studs still had not got away from the field. I told myself that at 30 miles I was going to pull out of the race if it didn't slow down. I rode very well tonight and was able to accelerate out of the turns and pass riders with relative ease. The 30 mile mark came and still no break and the pace was still high. On a long straight I raised my hand and pulled over to the curb and slowed to let the field pass. Once clear of the pack I looked at my computer and saw that we had averaged 27.2 mph for the 30 miles. I'm entered in a 3 day 4 stage stage race beginning this Friday and will be doing a 5.8 mile TT on Friday AM. I figured it would be a good time to get in a little TT work and went aero while riding the course and held my HR in upper Z4 for the last 7 laps. It took the field all 7 laps to lap me and I almost didn't get lapped on the 2.1 mile course. I hated getting out of a fast and fun race, but I know that I did what is best for the next real race.