K-Town Cross Race Report +

Friday  - took it to the pool in the morning. 300 swim, 100 kick, 4 x 50 builds on 15 sec rest, 300 pull. The main workout was 300 pull, 6 x 50 fast on 15 seconds rest, 300 pull on 20 sec rest, 4 x 50 fast on 15 sec rest 2 x 300 pulls on 20 sec rest and 2 x 50 fast on 15 sec rest. Cooldown was 100 backstroke. This felt like a long and tedious workout. I just didn’t feel great swimming. I was hitting about 45 seconds on the 50s. I did a couple faster with Kevin but for the most part that was where it was at today and I wasn’t really happy with it so I finally broke down and decided to call the doctor since it was 3 weeks and I still had the sinus infection. Happily he got me in the same day. Gave me some antibiotics and we’re hoping that the end of it but because of my history with sinus issues. If it doesn’t clear up it is a cat scan and back to the ENT.  He is also sending me for bloodwork (yuck!) since I haven’t had it in years. I was also offered a shot for my knee to just see if that helps to get me over the hump of this long healing process. We’ll see where it is at when I go back in a couple of weeks and he will do it then.  Due to a social commitment on Friday my later day training and my early Saturday morning training didn’t happen.  

Saturday I did a 2 and half hour hip opening workshop. It really did help as I was able to get back in the full lotus position again. It’s been awhile since that was accessible to me.  But I didn’t do any other training because I wanted to try to rest a bit and get ahead of this sinus infection because I wanted to race cross the next day.  Saturday I decided to leave the CrossFit gym I was training out of. That was a stressful decision but I do believe it will be for the best overall.  I felt very stressed there lately and I just don’t need any unnecessary stress in my life.

Sunday I raced cross again! This time a usac sanctioned race so the women’s field was open. Meaning all categories of female riders  from elites to beginners raced together in the same race. It was lot of suffering and really fun which is kind of the cross formula. I got there early so I could pre ride the course and I found they had a log in one section of the course.  I don’t have the skill to bunny hop that kind of stuff yet so I freaked a little but decided to just run it and not take any chances. The rest of the course was lot of tight turns on grassy, muddy, dirty terrain. There were 2 sets of 2 barriers each and they both were really high! Everyone was commenting on how  they were higher than they were supposed to be but I didn’t get too hung up in it because everyone had to get over them. Although I admit they were harder. I didn’t feel like I had a good running flow of them. I felt like I was getting over it then running then getting over it. Not smooth! Gotta work on that! There was a technical section in the back end of the course that was winding around a bunch of trees and roots and it was really torn up from all the riders that had already raced through there. There were itty bitty uphills and downhills. Nothing too serious in that area. I was riding back to the starting line to get ready for my race and my chain got twisted around the front derailleur and completely locked up my pedals. I couldn’t get it out. So I asked another guy to help me. He couldn’t do it either and like an ass I didn’t bring a spare bike because there was no way I was going to ride anything other than my cross bike unless my cross bike broke. So thankfully another guy ran over and flipped my bike over and started kicking my pedals. He said the only way to get it out was to force it. It did work but I was a little nervous heading into the race that it was going to happen again because if it happened on the course I was screwed. I had no spare bike so if the pedals locked up I would have to run the entire course or dnf and I don’t dnf. He said I would be find and it didn’t happen again but I am going to try to get it into the shop sometime soon to have it looked at.  So I wore shorts and just a long sleeve jersey this time and I was still hot! I zipped down my jersey while I was racing just to vent a bit. I must put off a lot of heat or something. I haven’t found the magical bike clothing formula because it’s so cold when your not riding and then when your racing your just full throttle hot. Jay wanted me to wear gloves but I just couldn’t do it. Although after the race my hands were all red and  black and when I went out to ride today they were sore.  I’m going to have to work on having gloves on. I just never liked them. Anyone back to the race.  Since it was an open race they were calling the riders up by name and placing them in the start position. I was in the second row behind the elites.  We started on a grassy uphill that did a hairpin turn into a grassy downhill as the prologue into the actual course. I didn’t get out well. I was blocked out kind of early but I’d have time to try to get back into it. The riders broke up over the first lap of the course pretty quickly.  I felt like my skill level hurt me more on this race than it did on the last. My dismounts were good but my flying mounts were rough. I didn’t have a good efficient flow to them I felt like I really had to muscle my bike after each one to accelerate. I need to practice them more.althought my inner thighs are bruised from hitting off the seat during the flying mounts. I did good through the technical sections. I was fishtailing a bit in the mud around the turns so in the following laps I was trying to ride the tape line when I could just to try to get a bit of better traction. I did slow down a bit through all of the muddy turns because I didn’t want to fall and lose even more time. Some riders actually choose to dismount. I don’t know if was really any more efficient. None of them passed me.

I rode the tape line in some other areas just because my turns were wide.  I passed one girl early on in the course but I couldn’t really catch the rest of the field. But I had a battle the whole time with the rider behind me. She tried to pass me a few times but everytime she went I would match her sprint and stay in front of her. She would drop back everytime. This happened like 3 times. But she stayed on me the rest of the way and it put the pressure on me to try to ride really clean and not make any mistakes. I always wanted a bigger gap so everytime I could I tried to open it up but I really wasn’t building any kind of great lead. I knew going into the last lap that she was going to try to sprint me for the line. So I started riding as hard as I could (which is rough six laps deep) and we sprinted for the line and I was lucky enough to beat her. It was a great challenge to ride this way. I congratulated her on a great race after we crossed the line. She pretty much bitched at me and rode off. Later her teammate came up to me and said something about how I was blocking her and sprinting off everytime she tried to pass me and that as a rider she needs to become more aggressive. I talked to Chris about it because I thought that was weird and he said I didn’t do anything wrong I was just holding my position. I was happy with the way I raced. My avg heart rate was 170 and my max was 180 so the effort was there. I just need more skill work..  This was a 45 minute race and since I started my last lap until the 45 minutes I finished in 52 minutes. So it was a long time to suffer compared to last week’s 30 minute race. Cross brain is funny. In lap 1 your acknowledging your pain. By the middle of the race our accepting it and by the final lap I was thinking I’m so tired I’m going to flip over these bars on some of this shit and the break of lying on the ground for awhile might be nice.  The girl that finished in front of me came up to me as soon as I crossed the line and said she thought I was going to catch her the whole race. I could barely talk to her I was so wound. I didn’t think she was in striking distance, I guess I was too focused on the chic chasing me but she said I basically ate away at her lead until the end when it was closer than I thought. One thing I am really not used to is cross being a no hands up sport. Meaning you can’t eat or drink on the course (not that you have the time to really) . so you can’t take anything with you on the bike and the spectators can’t hand you anything.  I had some serious dry mouth at the end. I’m sure the antibiotics I am on for the sinus infection didn’t help that. They are killing my stomach too. But tomorrow is hopefully my last dose as they seem to be working! I was pretty tired after the race so I stayed to watch the elite men’s race. Even some of them fell over their handlebars on the log. I feel like I need to start really mountain biking so I learn how to ride that kind of terrain better. No cross racing this weekend so I have to wait for 2 weeks to race again!

Monday – felt much better this morning than I did after the race yesterday. Energy level was back. Sometimes I think being out in the cold like that is an energy zapper because I was really tired after the race for only a 52 minute effort. Not really sore but just fatigued. I was ok doing  life stuff but if I had to go out and train again it would have been rough.

Swim – 500 drills, 10 x 50 as distance per stroke. Not a fan. It just makes me swim slower. 3 x 300 moderate hit on 5 minutes exactly. Then 2 x 100 fast hit as 1:30 and 1:29 all over 20 seconds rest. 50 backstroke and 50 breaststroke to cool down. Had a 30 minutes recovery ride on the schedule today so I grabbed king Henry and took it to the terrain!  We came back to work muddy and happy. I didn’t ride  hard but I worked on tight turns and riding in rocks a bunch. Also it is supposed to rain the next few days so I wanted to get out and ride a bit. I am going to switch my training schedule around to try to keep most of my riding outside for as long as possible.

Tuesday – water running – 5 minutes easy, 3 minutes moderate, 2 minutes hard, 7 min moderate, 3 minutes easy, 7 minutes hard, 3 minutes easy, 3 minutes all out! 7 minutes moderate and 5 minutes easy.