The rains of Friday had me wondering what the conditions would be like in Seaside/Marina for CCCX #3. That, combined with anticipation of doing both the B's and a singlespeed race, had me loading the car with enough gear for an Antarctic crossing. The weather turned out beautiful and I only did the B race...but it never hurts to be reminded of how much bike stuff I already own.
I woke up late and cranky and only got to the course with enough time to do a half-practice lap. There could've been more time, but with the start and finish separated by 5 minutes' riding, it was hard to tell. The course was mostly (a) long road sections, with a good bit of uphill to make lungs burn, and (b) tacky singletrack through the chaparral. A couple of runs, one with barriers, one because of the loose sand--I didn't know the right-hand line people were riding to get around it, so just loped through as best I could. Also, a set of barriers on a slight downhill that you could carry crazy speed into--fast-twitch muscles required to take those at full speed!
The singletrack was fun and seemingly innocuous in practice, and finally provided some of the "soft, loamy ground" I was pining for last week. At race speed, though, cornering became a whole new game. First lap, I lost the line on a zig, then lost it completely on the next zag, and came to a complete halt to safely extract myself from a bush as most of the field passed me by (again!). On the bright side, that's the closest I came to crashing today--no lost skin!
On lap 3, Hernando watching from the sidelines noticed that I had picked up nicely, so I had probably done enough to warm up by then, and there was a group of 3-4 I was trying to keep with. I blew soon after, though--not good in what was a 7?-lap race. I ended up 16/22, and I know I was behind several guys I beat last week.
In the aftermath, I felt spent. Both that and the result are signs of dwindling fitness on my part. I need to remember that for three months, I'm a cyclist who happens to have a day job, and should train appropriately! It took doing the singlespeed race out of my plan, so I hung out, played retriever for Hernando as he did hand-ups for the women's race (a good battle), tried and failed to get some decent race photos, and enjoyed the fine weather.
using the power of the internet to spout off into the void
4 comments:
Sounds like a good day all told. Thanks for the telling.
i didn't realize you were helping with our feeds
or i woulda thanked you earlier!!
have I ever mentioned it would have been pretty cool if you were into bikes say.... 15 years ago?
dt: I hope that provided a little bit of escapist relief.
xb: Master of Hand-ups will teach Grasshopper well. There is much to learn...
jake: we probably could've got into a lot of trouble...I'm trying to imagine: I probably would've needed a regular job after school to pay for bike gear. Sound familiar?
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