Chad's spot for various thoughts, musings, poetry, ideas and whatnot

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

Receiving a Whipping

Wow, what a race at Hawkes' Creek! I got my behind kicked by the course and the competition on Sunday but what an epic ride. During the course of the day four riders got "free" ambulance rides and I expect over 40% of those who started DNF'ed. It was hot, dusty, technical, rooty and just plain evil.

I knew it was going to be a rough day when I rolled up to the start line and I was waiting with 70 of my new closest friends. It's insane to have 70 guys all going for the start down a gravel road with a couple of left hand turns and barbed wire. Standing there I knew my heart wasn't in it and that I was in real trouble. What I didn't know was why but I decided to start easy and see if with a little help I could coax my body into it. As I rolled off I got to eat a lot of other guy's dust but I did get a start and going into the field I shifted up to the big ring to stay with the group. When we hit the singletrack everything got really hard. I was struggling to hold my group up the climbs but gaining back the time on the flats. I was having to brake hard into the corners and I had a hard time acclerating out of them. About three quarters of the ay inot the course we hit a hill and had to shift down. I felt like a slacker going into my granny gear but I told myself you gotta do what ya gotta to do to finish. When I finished the climb I shifted back up and realized it didn't feel right. I looked down and saw that I was in my big ring! No wonder the course seemed so hard and felt like I sucked, I had ridden most of first lap in the big ring. That's great for the pros but I had blown my legs completely.

By lap 3 they were cooked drier than a 7-11 hotdog in the "tanning bed" on a slow day. The roots had hammered my back (it's still sore two days later) and I had worked on my "falling down" skills a couple of times. Due to spending the first lap at a heart rate over 180 I was dizzy, dehydrated and exhausted and I still had riding to due. It was the first time I had decided to stop racing and just try to finish. The course was as hard and unforgiving as a spurned mistress and seemed to enjoy kicking me around like a soccer ball in one Mia Hamm's Nike commercials. Still I decided I had to race a couple of guys for the finish over the last mile and nearly passed out as I crossed the finish line. The race felt exactly like the Conyers Twilight race last year except that I finished 25th this time instead of fifth.

What I determined is that I'm overtrained, badly. This sort of thing can happen in endurance sports so I need to back off a bunch. This week is all really easy stuff with the weekend off for a road trip. After that I'll start building up for the next GAP race in Helen. I'm told the course is technically a good bit easier and there are lots and lots of climbs. Perfect for me and the Man o' War. Lightweight bike, good power-to-weight ratio and plenty of time to rest and prepare.

Thanks for reading.

The Physicist   Link Me    |