Sunday, March 2, 2008

Fail.

What a diaster... The race started well for me. The start was down a hill, and was fast-fast. The cow sh*t was flying and so was I! I expected to get spit out the back, but to my surprise, I was mid pack going into the single track section. That was the end of the good! There was a a bit of climbing form here. I had zero, nada, zip power in the legs. I blew up. I couldn't get my breathing under control, and I faded off the back. It sucked because there was some FUN single track after the climbs. I just couldn't enjoy it as gassed as I was. I was too busy trying to recover.

The start loop came up a climb back upto the start/finish line. I considered taking a bottle hand-up but passed by. After this is the big climb. I was gassed. I hit the granny gear, but the legs couldn't spin the cadence. Uh-oh. So I dabbed to push and almost fell over. I knew I was in big trouble. As soon as I did the unmistakable symptoms of impending expulsion hit. I felt flush, a splitting headache, and the mouth was salivating. After a brief shouting of my bib number to a marshal, I went to find a quiet place to puke!

I DNF'ed. What a crappy feeling. It was a long drive home. Just me and my thoughts.

Don't misunderstand, I had an incredible fun out there (except for the pain of withdrawing). I'm wanting more. But I'm not going back until I can finish the job.

GETTING MY ACT TOGETHER
I was ill-prepared for the pace. I rode harder than ever before. It's good that I dug for it. But it's bad that I've not seen that level of intensity in any of my training - never. I'm doing enough volume of training but the intensity isn't there. That's the most important lesson of today. I need to recalibrate what a hard-effort really is.

Tomorrow will be a time to reflect on the lessons of today, and plan a path forward. I've got some serious gains to make if I'm going to salvage anything out of the spring season. EK we have work to do!

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