“You live you learn. You love you learn. You cry you learn. You lose you learn” – Alanis Morrissette

CCCX #8

I knew how this race was going to be right before it started. Did a longer ride on my SS last week and then added another 100mi of bike commuting to work and 20-30 miles of regular mtb riding.  The group dropped me at the end of the pavement section, not even half a mile into the 20mi+ race – not good.

Legs felt super heavy the whole week. No cramping at all but a nasty burning feeling in my quads every time a tried to push a climb or a bigger gear.

Really no problem spinning fast, but that’s not what mtb racing is all about.

Another fast and dumb course at CCCX, made more interesting by the occasional sand pit and a few high-speed-oh-shit-moments.

Finished 8th (I believe out of 9 riders, but the 9th DNF or something) a good 10′ from the 7th and over 27′ from the lead, averaging 25′ laps: pretty bad.

Now the good. Possibly the best placement at CCCX this year: even knowing my legs were fried I kept on going putting in consistent times (slow, but consistent). I tried not to focus on the fact that I was last, but thinking of a good training session, focusing on improving speed and cornering on the sandy stuff. Had a couple spillages on the sand with no consequences: and it was fun.

In retrospective May has never been a good month for racing, and considering I start racing in Feb, I think it makes sense. I haven’t been following good periodization lately and been pushing a lot.

Joe Friel’s post on overtraining is a good read for me right now even though I don’t think  I am…

Time to go back to the schedule and put things in perspective: or just call it a season and enjoy the summer rides. We’ll see.