Feeling Slow (and riding slow)

2010 Mileage: 5032

Sunday I raced at Bloomer CX and I can confidently say it was my worst race of the year. The legs felt sluggish all week after New York last weekend with no time to really catch up on sleep and no car all week which put the commuting miles at around 200 for the week. Linz and I also had Kelli and Ryan over for dinner the night before the race which was a lot of fun, but 12 beers and two burritos later it was 1am and about 4 hours past the time I should have gone to bed. I woke up Sunday morning knowing I wasn't ready but hoping I could fake it for 45 minutes.

I lined up third row for the start and fell in about mid-pack for the race and that is where I sat for the next 45 minutes. The laps were pretty long at almost two miles and I remember thinking to myself as I finished my first lap that it was gonna be a long race (or at least feel long being it is only 45 minutes). There was a little shuffling around as a few guys passed me from behind and I made up a few spots on other guys. I actually felt good over the barriers and that is where I did most of my passing. I also burped my rear tire on the second lap and spent most of the race with about 20psi in the back and was washing out side to side on the long paved sections (which there were a lot of). The legs managed to keep turning and I pretty much maintained my position. For the last couple laps there were a couple guys within reach but I just didn't have the spring that is normally there to bridge up and make a move around them. I watched the same two guys stay 50 yards ahead of meand it just seemed like there was nothing I could do about it. I would bridge up at times and not quite be able to grab a wheel and then watch them slowly pull away again. I pushed my way across the line at just under 45 minutes for 6 laps and I finished 18th out of 36, dead center of the pack. My first lap was my fastest by far at 7:10 and then I got slower each lap until my last two, my final lap was my second fastest at 7:25. My slowest was 7:37, so I definitely need to work on some consistency.

The course had a couple cool elements with a downhill followed by a really sharp right turn right back up, a couple tight off-camber turns and two sets of barriers. It did have way too much slow back and forth 180 degree turns out on an open grass field that I could've done without though.

It was also Kate and Andrew's first cx race and it was great to see the two of them having so much fun out there in the C race. Ed Ramirez, a regular customer and friend also seemed to be having a great time out racing his bike again. They were all out there on mountain bikes with big smiles on there faces reminding me why I love 'cross.

So what it comes down to is that it was a fun day (isn't every day that I race my bike) but I definitely didn't perform as well as I would've liked. The B race field was definitely fast and the challenge was good for me so hopefully I show up a little more ready to race next time around. I am glad I have made the choice to move to B's because my first four of 6 laps would have put me in 2nd in the C race and that is using some of my slowest lap times. I was in the right race and am looking forward to improving on this result. Next on the schedule (and last race til March, I think) is Michigan CX state championships on December 5th.