Still caffeine and beer free. Yesterday was better and today seems more betterer. Progress. I fell asleep really easily but i still got woken up at 4:30 by a 3 year old tornado who woke up and freaked out because he couldn't find his toy. Once he secured said toy, he was back to sleep instantly while i was left staring at the ceiling. Oh well... i got up easy enough and started working on my new bike's shifting, which i clearly rushed when setting up. I think it's all good now. Then I fit my new shoes with my trusty Ergon TP1 and added some bike fit wedges. All before sunrise.
My plan was to make it through saturday with the no mo beer and no mo coffee thing still going. I think i'll call an audible and Friday will suffice for the beer. My appetite is bigger with no coffee and so hopefully the lack of beer will offset the additional calories. Friday is my 10 year anniversary and I think we're going to ditch the kids and go away for the night. So a few drinks will be had.
Oh hey, I also did a cross race this weekend. Good old Nittany. I always liked this place for whatever reason. Its like the daytona 500 for cross around here. I only did saturday because I'm trying to keep it fresh and fun and my motivation high.
I raced the 35+ masters group which is stacked with real slouches. I mean, old, fat, washed up, ex-elite racers who fell off the wagon. (FYI - I know it usually doesn't translate well on the internet, but that was sarcasm).
I was a day of registration so last row, but there was only 3 or 4 so i was still close enough.
When I was lined up I told myself this was going to be a painful reminder of how poorly i have been feeling the last 2 weeks and to have really low expectations. My only goals were to start hard, and then bury myself for 45 minutes. I would probably finish close to the back of the 20 something racers and i was already making peace with that.
Whistle goes off and the first 20 seconds are ouchy, but then my legs respond surprisingly well. I got caught in traffic in the twisties and before i even got to the straight away I could see the leaders were already halfway down it.
I found myself mid pack and with a group of about 4. Together we rode the first and second lap trading spots here and there but mostly sticking together. Somewhere on the third lap I wiggled my way to the front of this pack and made a move to bridge to the next group of 2 riders.
I think this is where I doomed myself. I don't have a Garmin to look at. My 520 was away for replacement service so i was using a Garmin watch. HR is not easily visible so i didn't even bother trying. Some people may not think there is time to look at numbers during a cross race, but i am in a different camp where i want to know my HR at all times and know how much time in left in the race. My "Race" profile on my garmin has 2 fields.. Time and HR. So without that i was a little lost.
Back to the race, going completely on perceived effort i bridged to the next 2 racers which were probably 7 or 8 bike lengths ahead. Once I connected I recovered and sit in for a bit, but when i saw the first group of riders catching the group i had just bridged to, i got anxious and made a move.
Suddenly i found myself all alone in front of the 2 groups. And this lasted for about 3 seconds until my legs started sputtering and i hit a wall.
I knew I was fucked but i tried to hold on. As each wheel passed me i tried to grab a hold but it was pointless. I had nothing left in the tank with about 1.5 laps to go. Every rider in the second group passed me and eventually left me for dead.
The finish line was a beautiful sight and I thanked god as i went through it. After laying on the ground for a while and drinking half a gallon on water (did i mention it was hot?), i wandered over to check results. I was pretty surprised to see I finished 12th of 22. Which means I was probably riding in 6th for a few seconds, which then made me start thinking of the mistakes I made and what could have been. Thats what racing is all about though. Learning from the mistake and correcting it next time out.
I debated racing the next day but when I floated the idea out there at home, it didnt seem like such a good idea so i skipped.
Next race was going to be town hall, but it being saturday may not work. I may make the trek down to bridgeton, we'll see.
