The last few weeks have not been lacking in the excitement department. There was a major database and hardware crash a couple of weeks ago that pretty much had me living off of minimal sleep and loads of caffeine and sugar to keep going.
Last week was fun on many fronts. First there was a large layoff at work, a lot of good people, along with the lot of useless people. Things around the office were rather tense as we had to take up the slack and wonder where on the list we would have been if there were more people let go.
On the non work side, the weather last week leading up to the Norfolk Classic (6/7 - 6/8) was far from friendly. Since most of my training time is relegated to the evening hours, we had several storms during that time. To save money so I can pay for races and the occasional component, I don't run the a/c during the summer and I have no fans. Suffice it to say that trying to spin inside with the temps around 82 and the humidity through the roof, it isn't easily accomplished and I just couldn't go beyond 45 minutes. I'm one of those people who sweat gallons, and if you have no air circulation, it becomes completely excruciating.
Now for the fun part, the Norfolk Classic. I came into this race feeling like crud mentally. I was feeling like this was going to be terrible for myself. How easily I am proven wrong. We rolled out for the 64 mile race and I was starting to feel real good. One of my goals was to tuck into a good position in the pack and hang as long as I could. This was a very hilly course and part of me was dreading that. I can usually do good on a couple of hills, but more than that or repeats I begin to lose it. On the first lap of the 32 mile loop, there were multiple attacks and non of them seemed to take. My positioning must have been good because I didn't mind the surges and I was hanging on without feeling like dying. (Must be a sign of improvement.) After the final turn in the first lap there are about 4 big hills. Attacks were thrown on them. I dropped off halfway up the second hill. I couldn't believe that I couldn't hold on for 1 lap. Then I saw someone else drop off. I was able to catch up with him and we started working it. The wheel truck passed us to catch up to the pack. I'll be damned if I was going to get dropped that easily, so I laid it down. The guy who was helping dropped back and I was alone, so I just started to chase solo. This eventually worked, just after the turn for the start of the second lap I caught back onto the pack.
I should have moved up into the pack because they were still throwing attacks and in the back you end up constantly surging. Ugh, it was starting to kill me. Then there was crash amongst three riders, I slowed down and steered around, and that was my undoing. The pack was pulling away and I couldn't find any more matches. So I worked on keeping a steady TT effort. I could see some other people up ahead who had dropped off too, and I thought I could catch them.
On the next to last turn in the race, things went from bad to worse. Some farm dog started chasing and barking at me. He was looking at my ankle like it was a juicy steak. My legs however, were not wanting to put any more power out. I was begging the dog to bite me and put me out of my misery. However, I had just enough power to get away. Then my legs started cramping. Not just a light little twinge either. If I stopped pedaling, I could literally see the muscles around my knee knot up. I kept going though. Then the balls of my feet were on fire and my toes had gone numb. But I finished the race. Looking at my numbers, this was my best road race to date, and despite the agony I felt real good. Not to mention there were showers available at the end of the race.
Sunday was the criterium. My race wasn't until 2:30 so I watched most of the other races. Even though I came in last, a lot of good things did happen. This was my fastest sustained pace so far. I didn't crash on any of the corners, and I really liked this course. My confidence in criteriums has been lacking since I always seem to go down. This course really helped start the rebuilding process.
I want to thank the Elkhorn Valley Cycling Club for putting on a great race weekend. I'm definitely looking forward to next years. Also congratulations to everyone who won and or completed your events, everyone did great. That's it for now, hopefully things will be smooth for a while and I can write more and relax more.
3 comments:
Cramps totally suck dude! I have been in your shoes my friend. Way to work hard though!!!
there were so many people cramping on Saturday -- tons! One of the Elkhorn Valley guys froze up in the middle of a climb on the last lap and pretty much tipped over after that. ouch.
well done -- those two races weren't easy by any stretch.
You should be pleased to have chased on. That's a hard thing to make oneself do. Much easier to give up. Great job, Kevin!
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