Sunday, 12/12/2004 - Nationals!
Pre Race:
I got to bed somewhere around 10, I rolled over once at 4:30, and awoke again at 5:00. The body clock is quite amazing, on a work day it’s painful to get up, but today I'm bouncing out and it’s still dark out. I hope the start of RAO feels like this. For racing I like to be just on the cool side of warm, so this time of year that will entail: wool socks, bib tights, bib shorts, arm warmers, a jersey, summer gloves, and a hat. For breakfast I ate one medium bowl of regular oatmeal, and a peach yogurt. After which we threw everything in the mini van and took off, right on schedule 6:09 AM.
While riding up in the back of the van, I slurped down a little coffee. Caffeine has been shown to boost performance. The boost is enhanced by not consuming caffeine regularly, which for the last few months I have been highly guilty of. For RAO I will stop drinking caffeinated tea, coffee etc no later then the end of February. The one real negative side effect of caffeine is it will dehydrate the body. But for an event lasting ~45 minutes, I'm not to worried about hydration, and for RAO, well there is a crew to provide fluid on demand.
Previewing the course:
It was still dark when we arrived at the race course and there was a real strong wind blowing. On our drive north the wind would shake the van around. It wasn't raining, it had been off and on for the last two days, but man was it cold. I threw on a few more layers, polar tech and a jacket, and hopped on the bike to preview the course. I had an hour before the first race, the single speed race, and then another hour before mine. While I was previewing the course, my parents went over to pick up my numbers, and scout out the area.
My race was scheduled to be the second race of the day, but it was on the third and final day of the championships so the whole course was one huge mess of mud ruts. It was so rutted that in many places the only ride able lines were right along the edge of the tape outlining the course. The course had two runups/hills that were two steep to ride up especially with all the mud and a bunch of sections of course that were just too muddy to ride through. After a few preview laps, I knew there was going to be more running in this race then there had been at any of my previous races. I found as I road around, that the lower I deflated my tires the faster I seemed to go through the tricky spots, thank you Tufo.
After the single speeders started, I borrowed a trainer from some Redline guys and continued to warm up for another half hour while my parents helped me loosen my breaks and pin my numbers on. At this point, I shed the jacket and polar tech, consumed the bottle of Heed, and half the bottle of Cytomax. Then off to the restroom and back to the starting line to line up for my race. My parents had saved me a spot, in the second row, so I was going to be starting in great position. The USCF officials came out, we all rolled forward and awaited the whistle.
The Race:
I was a little slow to engaged my pedals, so a few guys slipped around me at the start. For some reason I was a little nervous right at the start, as the pack sped down the opening stretch. There were maybe 15 - 20 guys ahead of me. When on the first corner, three guys collided and went down hard. I went right, and zipped around them, and was up in with the lead group just hitting the first run up. I ran down the other side of the run up till the ground got firm, then hoped on the bike and sped down the remainder of the hill, then around a corner and into the mud.
The next stretch of mud was virtually un-ride able, so I again was off the bike running through the mud. Early in the race I would shoulder the bike here but as the race progressed I would just push the bike as it was seemingly too heavy to shoulder. On the other side of the muddy stretch, the ground got just firm enough to ride on again, up a hill around a corner, and back into the mud again. Off the bike back again on my feet running.
I've never run so much in a cross race, the course then twisted around over firmer ground went down and up a very steep hill (second run up) and back around through the starting line with the wind. I'm fast on the bike, but running is not one of my strengths, and re-starting on the bike is also not a strong point. All that said I by the end of the race I ended up finish a very solid 17th! Not to bad for nationals!
After the race, I felt really sick to my stomach; my dad washed my bike off as I went off to change. A little over an hour later, I felt completely ravenous. As the rest of Portland was just getting up my parents and I stopped in Portland for "second breakfast", after which I still felt famished. I was really glad I'd brought a bottle of Perpetuem, it hit the spot during the drive home.
Well this is the end of the cross season. Now everything is going to be focused towards RAO.
I got to bed somewhere around 10, I rolled over once at 4:30, and awoke again at 5:00. The body clock is quite amazing, on a work day it’s painful to get up, but today I'm bouncing out and it’s still dark out. I hope the start of RAO feels like this. For racing I like to be just on the cool side of warm, so this time of year that will entail: wool socks, bib tights, bib shorts, arm warmers, a jersey, summer gloves, and a hat. For breakfast I ate one medium bowl of regular oatmeal, and a peach yogurt. After which we threw everything in the mini van and took off, right on schedule 6:09 AM.
While riding up in the back of the van, I slurped down a little coffee. Caffeine has been shown to boost performance. The boost is enhanced by not consuming caffeine regularly, which for the last few months I have been highly guilty of. For RAO I will stop drinking caffeinated tea, coffee etc no later then the end of February. The one real negative side effect of caffeine is it will dehydrate the body. But for an event lasting ~45 minutes, I'm not to worried about hydration, and for RAO, well there is a crew to provide fluid on demand.
Previewing the course:
It was still dark when we arrived at the race course and there was a real strong wind blowing. On our drive north the wind would shake the van around. It wasn't raining, it had been off and on for the last two days, but man was it cold. I threw on a few more layers, polar tech and a jacket, and hopped on the bike to preview the course. I had an hour before the first race, the single speed race, and then another hour before mine. While I was previewing the course, my parents went over to pick up my numbers, and scout out the area.
My race was scheduled to be the second race of the day, but it was on the third and final day of the championships so the whole course was one huge mess of mud ruts. It was so rutted that in many places the only ride able lines were right along the edge of the tape outlining the course. The course had two runups/hills that were two steep to ride up especially with all the mud and a bunch of sections of course that were just too muddy to ride through. After a few preview laps, I knew there was going to be more running in this race then there had been at any of my previous races. I found as I road around, that the lower I deflated my tires the faster I seemed to go through the tricky spots, thank you Tufo.
After the single speeders started, I borrowed a trainer from some Redline guys and continued to warm up for another half hour while my parents helped me loosen my breaks and pin my numbers on. At this point, I shed the jacket and polar tech, consumed the bottle of Heed, and half the bottle of Cytomax. Then off to the restroom and back to the starting line to line up for my race. My parents had saved me a spot, in the second row, so I was going to be starting in great position. The USCF officials came out, we all rolled forward and awaited the whistle.
The Race:
I was a little slow to engaged my pedals, so a few guys slipped around me at the start. For some reason I was a little nervous right at the start, as the pack sped down the opening stretch. There were maybe 15 - 20 guys ahead of me. When on the first corner, three guys collided and went down hard. I went right, and zipped around them, and was up in with the lead group just hitting the first run up. I ran down the other side of the run up till the ground got firm, then hoped on the bike and sped down the remainder of the hill, then around a corner and into the mud.
The next stretch of mud was virtually un-ride able, so I again was off the bike running through the mud. Early in the race I would shoulder the bike here but as the race progressed I would just push the bike as it was seemingly too heavy to shoulder. On the other side of the muddy stretch, the ground got just firm enough to ride on again, up a hill around a corner, and back into the mud again. Off the bike back again on my feet running.
I've never run so much in a cross race, the course then twisted around over firmer ground went down and up a very steep hill (second run up) and back around through the starting line with the wind. I'm fast on the bike, but running is not one of my strengths, and re-starting on the bike is also not a strong point. All that said I by the end of the race I ended up finish a very solid 17th! Not to bad for nationals!
After the race, I felt really sick to my stomach; my dad washed my bike off as I went off to change. A little over an hour later, I felt completely ravenous. As the rest of Portland was just getting up my parents and I stopped in Portland for "second breakfast", after which I still felt famished. I was really glad I'd brought a bottle of Perpetuem, it hit the spot during the drive home.
Well this is the end of the cross season. Now everything is going to be focused towards RAO.
Labels: Cyclocross
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