Well, after winning my first two races I suppose I had this coming. The Cow Country classic road race was last weekend and I sucked it up: couldn't hang on the first hill, gave it everything trying to catch back up for 20+ miles solo, didn't eat or drink enough, and was done with 15 miles left. I think I ended up 4th, but it wasn't even a race.
Like any good racer, I have an excuse: I went on a big hike the week before and did some trail running, which my legs are just not used to. Could barely walk for two days and while I was feeling better at the race I just wasn't 100%. Going up the first hill the legs wouldn't do what I expected of them, and I watched the break, which contained one other cat 5, pull away from me. Then another 5 passed me before the top. Shit.
Over the crest I was in catch back up time trail mode and rode really hard on my own for almost an hour. Unfortunately all I did was temporarily catch one guy while blowing out what was left of my legs.. Another guy (master a) caught us and we worked together on the hills on highway 200, then one more 5 caught up and they dropped me on another hill at about mile 30 (out of 50). By then I had not eaten anything or even finished my first bottle. Not good. Three more guys in other categories caught up soon after and we worked together most of the way to the finish. Thankfully no one else passed me.
I was feeling really bad by the end and had to lay down in my back seat for awhile before I drove home. I'm giving myself a few days off this weekend and hope to be back in good form for the state championship race in phillipsburg. So far I'm not there. Yesterday I did a pretty hard ride with a teammate and I had nothing on the hills and sprints.
On the other hand, I can't be too hard on myself or expect too much because of how new I am to this. I've only been riding seriously for two years and have not done any structured training, so I have a long way to go. I picked up a good book yesterday -the cyclist's training bible- and I'm already feeling better about myself after a few chapters. It takes 7-10 years of real training to reach your full potential, while I had started to worry that I wasn't going to get much faster. I'm looking forward to starting a real training program and picking up some new helpful gadgets down the line.
Here's the strava, which I was surprised by. Until I get power and heart rate monitors it's about the best training tool I have since while riding all I can do is go by feel.
