Addison Oaks Fall Classic

Sunday marked the one year anniversary of my first mountain bike race as I was entered to start my fourth race ever on the trails.  In the weeks leading up to this race I tried to do my best to make a few trips to visit the trail and learn it.  I think those trips really helped out race day.  The weather and the trail was perfect for a race.  All I had to do was bring my A game and I was fairly confident I could win my sport division.  Like last year the course contains a mix of single track, double track and open grass over 7 miles done 3 laps.  The previous year I had melted down on this trail, for some reason the off and on power and climbs really wore me out.  Given my lack of conditioning this year I was a bit worried about how I would hold up.  This race would be a big gauge on how I need to alter my training leading up to Iceman.  It also will serve as a gauge on if I am ready to race expert.  If I had the fitness I had last year paired with the skills I have now I would say yes in a heartbeat.  However my endurance is still somewhat lagging coming back from my tendon injury.  Hopefully by Iceman I should be 100% ready.

Before the race I had thought long and hard about strategy, however there was a few factors I didn't consider.  Anyways the plan was to start calm, weather the opening storm and sit in.  My second lap of three was when I would plan to attack.  The only downside would be what if a rider got away off the front, then I would have to catch up. 

Well throw all that out the window.  From the start line I missed my pedal clip in, actually this didn't turn out to be a big deal.  I still sprinted to easily slot into second going into the single track.  Now comes the factor I didn't account for, lots and I mean lots of slow traffic.  No offense to the juniors and high school kids, but get out of the way!  Before I knew it my pack was in a mess of junior and slower single speed riders who had gone out before our wave.  I tried to be a nice as possible passing, but this really messed up my rhythm.  About 3 miles in I knew there was a wide open double track section.  I made an audible and decided this area will be my point of attack.  Shock and Awe, Go big or go home.  If I was going to make this my race I decided I needed to do it there.

So I got myself ready, drank some fluid.  When the trail opened, I hesitated for a second...then drove it like I was racing a road time trial.  My open trail speed was to much for anyone, a gift road racers have.  I quickly opened a gap while passing something like 12 people ahead of me.  By the time I made it to the single track again I had made the selection and was safely in the clear.  I still caught up to a few more juniors, but without much impact got around them.  At the end of the first lap I was in the clear with one rider still chasing hard about 15 seconds behind me.  Now all that was left was for me to keep it together and time trial to the end, easy enough right?

Bonk, the same thing I was victim of last year quickly set in on the second lap.   I am still not sure if this was a byproduct of going too hard on the opening lap, or bad diet and poor recovery in the days prior to the race.  My guess would be the later.   However I had an open trail and used this to increase my lead and do what I could to conserve and try to get lots of my energy drink mix down.  At the end of the second lap I even tried to eat an energy bar, but I could only get about 25% of it down.  So that left me going into the last lap with one of the worst energy bonk pain caves I have ever endured.  This is where I needed to prove I was mentally tough,  I keep trying to egg myself on.  The miles slowly went by and the hills got harder and harder.  My form faded badly and my decents were just plain out of control.  The pump track like sections I miss timed everything and got the back of the bike way in the air.  I even hit a tree on one of the fastest descents.  I had brushed the same tree the previous two laps, but this time I nailed it hard with my right elbow.  The last few climbs really hurt, I couldn't even stand.  My legs and arms were fried, the last time I had this feeling was at Cherry Roubaix last year.  I knew I still had the lead so I just gutted it out turning myself inside out.  I made it out of the trail and into the finish chute.   I crossed the line and fell over, I had won my div by 1:44.  Being only my second ever win I don't have much to base this on, but it was the hardest I have ever had to gut out at the end of a race. 



Looking forward I have much to improve on.  During the race, first I bonked, I never got in my own rhythm and wasted lots of energy because I was in a bad rhythm.  In retro spec I am not ready for expert yet.  I am close though.  Without the bonk my lap times would have been good, but I need to build my endurance and work on the small things.   Smoother lines and better cornering will lower my workload, efficiency I need to race at the next level.  I also need to not let surrounding factors ruin my rhythm. Looking forward though I have 3 more MTB races and 7 weeks to prep for Iceman.  I have a lot to work on but plan on doing it one step at a time.

The end of the road racing season

This past Monday the road racing season finally ended for me.   My last two criteriums were somewhat bittersweet, but gave me a lot to feel good about going into next year.   I will start first with the previous weekend where I raced in downtown Birmingham for the first time.   This event was new for 2011 and set up on a 6 turn .52 mile loop.    I don't normally have fun in crits, but this course was technical, fun and fast.  For a change the weather was in the 70's and perfect.    My race was scheduled to run for about 45 minutes.  Which ended up being 34 laps.   The only downside of the race was the Cat 3 field was to race with the Cat 4 field.  I thought this would be a bad thing, but to be honest the course was such it weeded out the weak links in the first few laps.  

Off the line I didn't feel great, I hadn't raced on the road in some time.  The first 15 minutes I had to fight hard to stay with it.  The only thing that kept me in it was my ability to rail corners, a new confidence that has grown recently with all my trail riding.   After I finally settled down I took to taking it easy riding near the back.  I knew I could use the corners to my advantage to move up later in the race.  With four to go things started to get a bit more serious and the pace picked up.  With one to go I started to push up hard on the outside to gain spots.  Unfortunately that was where the only crash would be going down the front stretch.   I had absolutely no where to go but lockup the brakes and wait to go around...race over.   Despite that part the event was awesome and for a rare turn I actually felt good in a race.

This past Monday was the season finale in Auburn Hills.  Dabaets Devos had a new course layout, making it a giant long loop at 1.5 miles long.    Unfortunately the weather was crappy, 56° with a little mist and a lot of wind.  I wasn't really to motivated to race, mentally the road season had already ended for me and the focus was on the trails.   Once the race got going though I perked up.  Throughout the race I took a few pokes at making a break or going for a prime.  With the conditions though it was going to come down to a sprint.  I tried to focus a lot on positioning after the last races debacle.  With 4 laps to go I had a solid spot in the front, however holding that was another thing.   The windy back stretch left the race wide open.  Sure enough any move I made was countered by another line of riders coming back to the front.  With one to go I found my side of the pack was failing so I went to the back to make a surge up the other side.  This move allowed my to get back to mid pack, about where I wanted to be for the sprint.  Unfortunately once again I got hosed, the guy in front of me with two corners just kind of took the corner half pace.  The other 3 lines surged up my inside and instantly 10 spots where gone.  To make matters worse I had to start my sprint early to get back in the swarm going to the line.  That little bit was enough to kill me and I couldn't make up spots and crossed 21st.  

Still though it was another solid race for me, next year once I get the leg back to 100% and can train like normal again things will be much better.  Just being competitive with the lack of training I was doing is great.   Next up a couple days of rest and a change of focus.  I've got 2 months to prep for Iceman, this year I will do it by doing 4-5 MTB races instead of one.  Also since I am not burned out like last year I got a little bit more motivation to train hard and get revenge on the grudge I hold with Iceman.  Should be fun.