BikeRacingForDays

BikeRacingForDays

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Going Hunting



      This past weekend was the opening race in my Arizona mountain bike race series. I was super stoked to go shred my home course against my coach and at least 5 other fast pros. It's pretty early in the season to be full on racing, so I am using these first few races at training with little to no recovery for them. It's defiantly mentally and physically hard to race in January and February without your top end speeds your used to having in full on race season. I started the morning off beautifully with my almost perfected carmel white chocolate mocha. While I had a few weeks off the bike as well as these past few weeks of longer miles, I decided to explore a little further into my hobby of being a Barista. Coffee has always been a must have before a hard ride and with a month of full on practice and a few overdoses on coffee, I almost reached perfection.

           For the start of the race I got a fairly solid warm up in as well as some important stretching. I got to the start a tad late and was on the second row. I knew this had to change, so I worked my small self up into the front row with two guys elbows right in my face. Not ideal, but I'll take it. Off the gun I got the whole shot and led for about a mile eventually letting my coach and another pro go up front to set the pace. Before I knew it, there was only 5 of us hammering away. I was super stoked on how the race was going. I was third wheels and totally riding within myself.

 About 30 minutes into the race we hit a rocky climb were I managed to do the impossible and flat going up hill. I was so mad as I jumped of my bike to fix the flat while I was getting hit in the face with tubeless sealant. Once I was back on the bike I was about 4-5 minutes down due to my slow flat fixing. Who would of thought that a flat that would take me a minute to change in the garage took me 5 minutes while racing, go figure. From here I spent the rest of the race hunting down the lead. Not the ideal way to race, but probably good steady intensity for training in January. I finished the race in fifth place overall, but of course not before I ran into a cactus a mile before the finish. Spending the last 100 yards pedaling with one foot is never prefered. Overall I was thrilled on the race and can't wait for the next one. I've got a few more local stuff to prepare me for what awaits me in March. Let the gnarly training begin!

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