Well, I’ve missed writing about a couple weeks of hard training and racing. It’s been going well, despite some weird pains in my knee and so forth. This last couple weeks I’ve really been working on my sprint and today it paid off. But…hold on a second…going back to yesterday.
STUPID KAREY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Patience is Key. And i’ve learned that I need to work on my smarts when it comes to riding a road race – or any race for that matter. The first day of Eugene Celebration: Maxon ROad race – it starts out, we’re pace lining – holding about 25 mph – it’s awesome. We make it through the first lap and I’m feeling great, and my heart rate probably hasn’t gone above 150, even on welder’s hill. Well, the second lap started and rebecka took off up one of the rollers about 2 miles or so from Welder’s hill. I was stupid enough to chase after it. We sprinted up the hill and down and stayed off for the little while. One girl bridged up and we stayed off for a while longer. Then we hit the Welder’s. Rebecka is a great climber, so she was able to stay off and though I was trying pretty hard, I couldn’t hold off the pack, especially since there was an attack from behind that sped up the pace quite a bit. I was engulfed and passed by the field. I couldnt quite hold on, due to lack of energy and the generous amounts of lactic acid that had been building in my legs for the past 5 minutes. I was officially off the back. There were three of us that spent the next while chasing and staying within 20 feet of the field, but unfortunately the relentless wind would not help us any and we fell behind.
I rode the next 20 miles with the other two women – and eventually my knee started throbbing and my back was aching. I was frustrated because I knew I had made a stupid move and that I could have been in the pack if it hadn’t been for me chasing Rebecka down. I was also frustrated because my heart rate was incredibly low by the end of the race – (the last 20 miles), but I couldn’t go harder because of the throbbing in my knee. Anyway, I got first out of the three of us girls – and ended up placing 10th place with 6 minutes back from the leader. Shit.
This morning was the time trial. I had a rough morning and couldn’t eat because of a nervous stomach and just felt like poo from the day before. (Physically and mentally – moreso mentally) Anyway, we got to the TT course and I realized I forgot my TT bars. That really helped my morale. We tried putting Mike’s on but they were for undersized bars, so didn’t fit mine. So, I was left to ride the TT in my drops. I rode hard, but not my hardest. I took it a little easy on the rollers, and just kept a steady pace. I averaged about 24 mph – my usually pace for TT’s – and finished in 5th place. Not too shabby – especially for not having a disc or aerobars or anything really (I had a helmet – so at least I looked a little cool)
We got to the crit and it was raining cats and dogs. Luckily, it stopped right before our crit and so we didn’t have to deal with the rain (though we still had to deal with wet pavement). My goal for the night was to sit in and not chase. There were a couple times I did have to chase because the poplollies were doing some awesome team tactics – but overall I conserved energy pretty well. My goal was to just sprint like mad coming around the last corner. It’s a pretty long sprint from the corner to the finish line, but I knew this was what I had been training for. I positioned myself about 4 back on the last lap, and then hopped on Rebecka’s wheel. She’s not much of a sprinter, but has some good power, so she led me out around the corner, peeled of and I went for it. I sprinted like mad, yelling at myself outloud to not sit down and to keep going. Well, it paid off, and I won! WAHOO!! All the hard work this last week really paid off and I accomplished my goal of not waiting to sprint and to not chicken out and just go all out. It was a fun race!
Tomorrow is wolf creek. Not so much fun. I’m already out of contention for any prize money, but it’s actually some what of a relief to me. I can just go into this race knowing that it’s going to be one that pushes me to the limits – especially in the climbing area – and that’s what I need. No pressure to hold on to any time – but just pressure to push my self as hard as I can go. Fun times!
