Slow Racing

Well, the best way to describe my Deer Valley effort is: I sucked. The bottom line is that I rode slow. The guy (first place in the series) I usually battle with put a huge 10 minutes into me. However, the silver lining is the other guy (second place in the series) I battle with was even slower than me by a couple of minutes. So, I'm still in third place overall in the series and actually made up a few points on second place. All three of us are skipping the North Carolina NMBS race in July, because it's just too hard to get there from the west coast especially if you have to work a real job. The series finals at Snowmass will be very interesting as to whether I can make up the point deficit to move into second. Not likely, but possible.

Neither me nor Coach Thomas are quite sure why I wasn't motoring like usual this weekend. The possible culprits we could identify: (1) altitude, (2) my aching back, or (3) High CNS score (i.e. stress). Everything else was consistent with my normal routine. I'm not sure altitude was the problem, because CAT had me acclimated to 9k feet. My respiration rate was normal and my heart rate was actually lower than normal for a race. Both respiration and heart rate increase when the body is adjusting to altitude. My back, although still hurting pretty bad this week, felt pretty good on Sunday. Plus, the back problem lessens when I'm on the bike and soon thereafter. It's sitting in a chair or a car that really tends to aggravate it. Lastly, stress. I guess I'm under some stress: work issues, family illnesses, dissatisfaction with some things in my life, etc. I didn't really recognize it all until looking back and thinking about everything that is going on. Nevertheless, I'm not sure stress is the culprit, because I was able to put out a fairly solid hill effort yesterday at Tiger and got my HR up to 95% of my max. Again, the enigma that is fitness continues to present puzzles to decipher. The body is an amazing thing.

The following photos are from my pre-ride on the course on Saturday afternoon following the pro men's race. I didn't take too many because there wasn't much time between the ripping descents and the steep climbs. The rest of the weekend went by in a blur and the camera didn't make it out of my bag.

This shot is from the top of the first climb on the course looking down on the race venue and Deer Valley Resort. Even though I was slow, this race had me smiling most of the time because the scenery was so beautiful and the course was really fun.


This one is looking down the Little Stick climb. "Little" is misleading and I'm not sure the picture does it justice. Trust me, it is steep and long.


Well, back to training for Mt. Snow. A few local races and some solid training miles in the Cascades are on the schedule. Hopefully, I get my mojo back ASAP. Also, this back pain stuff needs to go away ASAP as well.

Later,
Blue Star