Well, a couple days have passed, and I have had time to digest the result of my first race back. I can't say I am dissapointed in my performance, but I am a little frusterated with the final result.
Besides the fitness and speed you lose when away from racing, I feel that I also lost my head a little. I forgot exactly how to race. Despite certain people telling me, "look for the break" I still decided to sit back and hope things would come together. When I did take the chance to chase an attack, it was a complete waste as the whole group was on me instantly and in truth, the rider who attacked couldn't have gotten far anyways. Basically I wasted a lot of energy where I shouldn't have, and I saved a lot when I should have been chasing. In hindsight it seems so simple, but in the moment I remember being very frusterated and almost panicked with the situation. It's probably the first race I have been in that I wished I could have had another 20 miles!
Its funny because I was just going over race tactics with Lucy the other day, and it seemed to come to me so quickly and I felt I had an answer for every situation. I guess its easy to see from the outside, but when all the blood is in your legs, and your brain is working on the bare minimum of oxygen, you can't see quite as clear.
Its funny because the kid who won the time trial, and I had taken the leader jersey from, attacked me about 4 times in the first two laps. Each time I was forced to chase and due to my terrible positioning, I was almost always boxed in when he went. Each time I brought him back using a huge amount of energy. Then as thing calmed down and the dangerous break actually went I didn't seem to care. Then this kid comes back to me a lap later and explains that we need to do something to pull the break back. I agreed, and we both went to the front to work. After about 2 rotations the kid falls back into the group and leaves me to work. I realized later he was playing on my stupidity! Unfortunately for him, he was not able to follow when I did go, which knocked him completely out of the top 10, but the fact that he was able to manipulate me like that is something that still bothers me. Once again, my brain has to learn to race again!
I did realize that I love Hammer Heed drink mix while I was down here. Very little taste, but much better than plain water...I like!
The monday after the race, I went out for about 50 miles. The legs felt heavy and my motivation was a little low after the dissapointment from the day before. I got home just after noon and proceeded to sleep and eat.
Today I felt a little better and went out for a long ride. Rode out through Tucson mtn park and over gates pass, then through tucson and up to the top of Mt Lemmon. It ended up as a 112 mile day and I felt great at the end. Head held a little higher today, but its funny how even a small race like this can mess with your head.
I have two more days of long training down here before I head back to Boulder. We may stop in silver city on the way home to check out at least one of the major Gila climbs.
Thats it for now.
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