OK, I wasn’t going to race this summer. Then, I committed to do the Laramie Enduro. Now, I have a training program…
…and part of that program is a couple of hard efforts. I’m tentatively going to do three events before Laramie – not to try to win, but just as venues that will encourage hard efforts to serve as build up for Laramie.
The Chalk Creek race was yesterday. What I found was that because I haven’t been riding much, I don’t have as much work (aerobic) capacity as I have had in summers past. In technical jargon, my VO2 max is not fully trained and is lower than it used to be. Also, after hard efforts, I have far less ability to recover. The good news is that after a winter of weight training and a whole lot of skiing, I am strong, so that for brief anaerobic efforts I am faster than I have ever been.
The race confirmed all this.
In my class of 4 clydesdales, one super fast guy took off at the beginning of the race. 10 minutes later, I caught him on a short anaerobic climb that he walked, but that I easily rode. We reached the top at the same time, whereupon he took off, never to be seen again. I rode the first of 3 laps in second place at a moderate effort, with the third place guy right behind me. I was pushing myself, but not nearly as hard as I have at prior races.
Near the end of the first lap, I rode over a small log, and after, I stood to hammer and get back up to speed. My front wheel hit a root, and I tipped over into a huge bush. I tried to get up before the third place guy saw me (avoid humiliation) and pass me (protect my ego), but I failed – I was still clipped in, on my back, in the middle of a huge bush, and helpless like an upside-down turtle. Mr third place asked if I was OK, I said I was, so he floored it. By the time I got untangled and going again, he was a couple of minutes ahead.
Lap two I upped the pace and started to reel him in. I was closing and was sure I was going to get him, when, at the beginning of the third lap, I flatted. I had trouble fixing the flat (it’s been a long time!) and it took me 20 minutes before I was under way again.
The final result was that the first place fast guy did 1:45, the second place guy did 2:03, and I took third in 2:25. (In previous years I did a 1:55 or so.) One fall, one flat, and I still got the third place hardware, because only three of us in the class finished the race.
Net result: a worthy training ride. Notably, because I viewed it as a training ride, I didn’t have my game face on, and I wasn’t prepared to suffer like real racing requires. Hmmm.
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