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beth h
VB Team Member
| Joined: | Wed Dec 5th, 2007 |
| Location: | Portland, Oregon USA |
| Posts: | 246 |
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| Frizzle-frazzle: |    |
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Posted: Tue Jun 30th, 2009 02:31 pm |
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mood:  pooped
Tonight’s racing was much, much harder.
I suspect that part of it had to do with an extremely stressful, drama-filled day at work, part had to do with being poorly-slept the last couple of nights and of course the last part had to do with being woefully out of shape – a constant theme so far this summer. I arrived at PIR with a slight headache and a sense of dread about the racing. I really was not in the mood when I got there.
I showed up early enough to stretch some and carefully pre-ride parts of the course. By the end of that pre-ride I was feeling really tired from the effort, and from my day at work, and for about ten minutes I struggled with genuinely not wanting to race. I really just wanted to go home and crawl under the sheets and hide from my stressful day. But I was already there and had paid my race fee. I was afraid that if I left without racing I might feel greater regret; so I stretched a little more and then joined the “clinic” ride for a full lap around the course. The clinic lap helped immensely and by the end of it I felt better emotionally, and ready to, well, ride the course if not actually feel like I could “race” it.
The course tonight had been laid out very differently (over the same terrain; this weekly change-up is a feature of this race series and I knew to expect it). Where last week we had ridden straight through long rows of mini-whoops, tonight we were to ride diagonally through them, and the ‘cross part of the course had many more sharp twisting turns through the stand of trees. I rode the clinic lap once and decided to save my remaining energy for the race, while most of the women took a second practice lap.
The only thing was that the clinicians did not take us out to where the race would begin – way out back on the other side of the moto track, where two rather large berms were set in the middle of a flat, grassy course with several hidden muddy bogs in it.
Tonight we lined up at the edge of a short gravel path on the far side of the moto course. The starter sent us off in the same three waves, a minute or so apart – Beginner Men, Beginner Women and Juniors – and after we cleared the first corner and muddy bog we turned straight into a headwind. Ugh. Ten seconds later, I was off the back. Thirty seconds later, the fastest teenaged boys were passing me. After that I basically just hung on for dear life. Tonight I would be happy with making one complete lap before the time limit. Meanwhile, getting over the two large berms was tough. The dirt berm was oksy, but the second berm -- a giant hill of gravel -- was much harder, and I was forced to run over it with my bike. This turned out to be a ridiculous choice in my BMX sneakers. Once I got into the woods I was feeling a little more sure of myself. But only a little.
The transitional section where the whoops were laid out diagonally (this was actually quite fun to ride):
Two riders coming through the trees (the rider to the right has just ridden over a sizeable log, which had been removed for the Beginners’ race):
(Both of these pictures were taken during the Category Two race, after my race was done.)
The evening was not a total loss, though.
I learned that people on regular bikes and people on singlespeeds approach hills quite differently, and that the worst thing is for a singlespeed rider to get stuck behind someone with gears. Riders with multi-geared bikes take hills much more slowly (because, well, they can) while singlespeed riders have to charge every hill and need both distance and time to do it well. I got stuck behind lots of multi-geared bikes (remember that not so many folks ride singlespeed in the Womens’ Beginners category) and I paid for it with a LOT of run-ups on the biggest berms. Run-ups are exhausting, and somewhat demoralizing when you end up doing ten of them in a race. So the trick for next time is try to get around the geared bikes. That means having some kind of “conditioning”, which I simply do not possess -- and do not expect to have enough of – when I do this again in three weeks (which is the next race I’ve signed up for).
As I made my way through the ‘cross section in the trees, I discovered that my bike handling had not completely abandoned me, and I was happy to hear my name being called out in encouragement by some folks I knew. Then, around a sharp corner, there was Joel, leaning casually against his singlespeed mountain bike and smiling broadly at me as I passed. I could only smile wanly and nod as I muscled up another short, steeply banked corner.
Basically, just getting through one lap of tonight’s course was hell. But I think I managed to do it before time was called. I hope so. I’ll find out when they post the results online tomorrow (I never know where to go to find out results the same night, but since I’m not racing near the front it’s more a matter of curiosity than anything else anyway). I can say with complete confidence that I finished DFL in my category tonight.
The thing that made it sweeter was that afterwards I found Joel hanging out with some members of Team Beer, a local crew that races all disciplines and whose members run the gamut in age and experience. I knew several of them as customers, randonneurs or just bikies from the local scene, so it was nice to hang out and watch some racing with them while my heart rate returned to normal. I spent the rest of the evening hanging out and talking bikes with some nice folks before we all saddled up and rode home.
I am MUCH more tired tonight, and the stress of my job will be where I left it when I get to work tomorrow. And I have to say that my sense of "fun" wasn't quite as high during the racing as it had been last week. But, for reasons I cannot explain, I am still very glad that I went ahead and raced tonight, even if I did finish Dead Effing Last.
At home, the classic “evidence” photo. Tonight is evidence of just how hard it was:
This just in, 6/30/09: As I suspected, I did finish Dead Last. However, to my surprise they credited me for two laps instead of one. I'll have to call Kris (the race organizer) to find out how this works so I know for next time.
Last edited on Tue Jun 30th, 2009 06:16 pm by beth h
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velobella
Administrator
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Posted: Mon Jul 6th, 2009 04:21 pm |
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| those pictures make it look so fun
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beth h
VB Team Member
| Joined: | Wed Dec 5th, 2007 |
| Location: | Portland, Oregon USA |
| Posts: | 246 |
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Posted: Sat Jul 11th, 2009 10:46 pm |
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In spite of how hard it is, it IS super-fun. I'm not signed up to race this week but I'm going out anyway to watch a friend race singlespeed. I may do the pre-ride at a slow speed just for kicks and grins.
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