Race day has come and gone, and it didn’t exactly go as I had planned… and that is all I have to say about that. Okay, you obviously want more details than that.
I came into this final week feeling really good. I hung out in North Carolina for a couple days, mainly to do a couple rides at altitude, as well as get a little climbing training in. There’s this road that leads up to a ski resort, and the road ascends over 2000ft in just under 3 miles. On Thursday I decided that I wanted to attempt the climb on my road bike. While I faired pretty well climbing it, in hindsight I maybe shouldn’t have attempted it that close to a race. Live and learn.
Anyway, Friday I did another ride, but this one was definitely low-key. I was still feeling good, and I was pumped for the race. My enthusiasm did have a little water thrown on it, as it started raining Friday night, and continued on thru Sat. It was messy enough on Saturday that I decided not to do a pre-ride. I wanted to save my bike for the race. No use subjecting the drivetrain to all that mud. The forecast called for rain on and off all through the night, which was gonna suck for my 9:30am start time.
Upon arriving at the Ocoee Whitewater Center (home of the Tanasi trail network), I ran into a guy I know from Pensacola, and he was just coming off a lap on the course, and he affirmed what I already suspected…it was nasty out there. As I was signing in I got some good news. My wave would be going at 11:30am…YES! A couple extra hours for the ground to dry would certainly help. Things are looking up.
After a great meal at the Toccoa Riverside Restaurant, which I can highly recommend (the garlic seafood delight pasta is awesome, but I can’t say a lot about the live bluegrass music that was being played. I detest bluegrass, but your mileage may vary), it was time to head back to the motel and chill out for the evening.
Sunday arrived and things were looking better and better. It never did rain during the evening, so the ground had 8-9hrs to dry out. Once I got water bottles filled and number plate on, and the numerous miniscule pre-race details to attend to, I grabbed the road bike to get some warm-up time in. This is an area that I need to be more mindful of. With the longer races, and higher intensity efforts, I really need a solid 45 min with some intensity. I think the lack of a good warm-up affected me a little today. On the flip side, I finally managed to get to the starting area early enough to get a front row position. How many races did it take me to finally make it?
As the various classes are getting called up I notice that I have a HUGE case of pre-race jitters… we’re talking epic here. My HR was pounding away at 133bpm! This is something else that hurt me, and I mean HURT. My threshold is around 177-179BPM, and I’m standing still on the start line with a HR of 133, and within less than 200yards the course was going to go skyward. You do the math. I was probably at my threshold before I hit the singletrack. I’ve GOT to get into my zone, relax, and get that HR down, at least to low 100’s.
The race starts, and sure enough, the hurt comes fast. With so much climbing ahead, I don’t concern myself too much with positioning. 7 or 8 riders get ahead of me going into the singletrack, but almost immediately their pace starts slowing. I pick off a rider here and there, and then an incident happens that will ultimately affect the outcome of my race. Two of us are going to pass a slower rider, and I guess the guy got flustered and he veered off the good line, straight into some roots and then he stops… except that he doesn’t just stop, he stops and then falls over. The fella in front of me got by cleanly, but I wasn’t so fortunate. Now, I’m still not 100% sure how this happened, but when that guy fell over, his handlebar jabbed me right in the knee (the muscle on the top of the knee to be exact). Of course, it momentarily stopped me as well. Let me tell you, trying to get moving again on an incline is not easy or fun.
At the time the sensation in that muscle was nothing more than a minor irritation to me, but as the race went on it started affecting my pace. I still managed to pass a couple of people, even passed a couple of women experts and some guys from the 19-29 Sport class. Around 35 min or so into the race is when I knew I was in trouble. I had a couple of guys just in front of me, and I knew I was stronger, but I couldn’t generate the force to get around them. Adam Craig calls it “riding like a small child”. I know what he means by that now.
To add insult to injury, I wiped out on one of two bridges. The bridges were slick with mud and did a little too much lean, and down I went. So, in addition to my bruised knee I have a nice selection of scrapes and cuts on my left side. I’m wondering if I lost some concentration from focusing too much on my bruised muscle.
The last section of the course follows the highway that runs along the river, and I was in full on hurt mode. Originally I figured I could make up some time or put some time into my opponents on the paved part of the course. As you’ve read on here, I have a decent threshold power, and I was gonna use that to drop the hammer. Alas, no dropping the hammer today. I had to resort to drafting off another guy for a respite, and even that didn’t help much.
I came thru the Start/Finish line for the second lap, and as I approached the feed zone I did something I never ever thought I would have to do. I stopped and called it quits. As much as it pained me to stop, there was no way I could’ve maintained a race pace for a second lap. As it was, the moment I stepped off the bike and straightened my leg out, it started throbbing. I quite literally limped over to the timekeeper booth and told them I was out. DNF!
I don’t know if anyone has any idea how peeved I was/am. Quitting goes against my personality. Getting a DNF just sticks in my gut.
Despite today’s outcome, I’m still in good spirits. This coming week will be a transition phase, where I won’t have any specific workout goals. When my workouts do start again, I’ll be working on V02 max and anaerobic capacity, in addition to formulating a solid warm-up routine. Overall, I felt good about my fitness/strength/form, there’s just a few details that need some fine tuning.
Once I'm back home I'll post a couple pics from Saturday, when I walked part of the course.
As I write this my leg is still quite sore, so I'm going to hit the sack and see if it'll start feeling better tomorrow.
