The green light flashes, the Flags go up!
By sigrid_ziegler | July 20, 2008
That’s right! I’ve been given the green light to start training again. What have I been doing for nearly 4 weeks? Good question. Somehow, it’s been really busy, and of course, like any cyclist, I’m watching the Tour every chance I get. Highlights of my 4 weeks off:
-my unbelievably amazing feedzone skills at the Tour de Terra Cotta (feeding 8 riders from 4 teams)
-Phil and Mark talking about burning matches in Ottawa: “You made me burn a match!” “How many matches were in that box Mark?”
-Phil having some random guy yell “GO!”. He did… which wasn’t the best move, but vowed to use that same strategy on someone in the future.
-watching every cycling movie I could get my hands on
-just relaxing and wishing I was on the bike
It’s really an interesting feeling when you wish you could ride, instead of just doing it. I guess this time was an opportunity to reflect on my season and how I ended up in this position in the first place. I am nearly 100% certain I know how this happened, meaning that at least THIS particular scenario can be changed in the future. It’s never easy to stay away from stress as a racer of any kind, but some things can be eliminated, and I’m in the process of that.
Now it’s time to restart. I’m allowed to “train” but it’s not like I can jump right in to a normal end of July programme. I’m starting off training now like it’s the base period. I am looking forward to a ride where I can push myself, seeing as right now I have to hold back and keep it easy.
Keeping that in mind, I headed over to the Donut ride yesterday and figured I’d hang back in the slower group and have an easy ride. When the pace first started picking up on Highway 7 I was in the thick of it and moving up, but quickly eased off the gas and dropped back to a slower group. I stayed in that group until the Bakery, and cruised home with them after that. There was a brief period of some heavy paceline work where I actualy did push it a little, but the whole ride was fairly easy. The hardest part was holding back. I noticed that while I could hold the pace quite easily, I was sluggish on any accelerations.
I also had a chance to try some cyclocross/mountain biking yesterday! A bunch of us in the peloton had just finished talking about giving those two disciplines a shot, when the pavement ran out due to some construction and we had to off road it. I managed to nearly fishtail into a crash on a sandy patch I hit way too fast, but luckily, I can handly my road back off road WAY better than I can handle a mountain bike anywhere! After 2 more off road adventures, and a minor rain period, I finished my first training session. I hopped in the ice tub, took a nap, and felt great to be back.
I woke up this morning with a lower heart rate than I’ve had in a very long time.
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“If you’re not gonna race, you might as well wear your kit anyway”
By sigrid_ziegler | July 3, 2008
Quote of the day, by Jason Grosse. You never know when they’re gonna do podiums for a race that happened 4 weeks ago. Here I am, winning the Merckx, retrospectively, from Milford.
(Photo by M. MacLennan)
Here I am just plain winning…24 1/2 years earlier.
Surprisingly, the Chin Crit was fun, even from the sidelines. I was the radio person in the S3 Men’s race, and I had my hands full. The race was pretty exciting with lots of breaks though, so I was busy timing gaps and delivering any info that might be useful over the radio. Will got 2nd in the race, so I’d like to think I did a good job on the radio :-) The rest of the day involved going to a Toronto FC game with the tickets given out as prizes in the races. There was also Guitar Hero, Burritos and Ice cream. Podium days are great :-)
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Out of Aces
By sigrid_ziegler | June 28, 2008
Post KW week, I was more than encouraged to see a doc to see “what’s wrong” with me.
The last bunch of weeks haven’t been easy, and although I haven’t really said it, I haven’t felt good on the bike. There’s been some things that really stood out in terms of bad performance, but even on the good days, I wasn’t as good as I normally am.
Anyway, the results are in, and I’m out of aces. The blood test showed iron deficiency, among other things which are indicative of something like overtraining, medically speaking. Until further notice I will be off the bike. It appears I have cycled myself into severe illness, and until I get healthy, I cannot train. I won’t be racing, until further notice, understandably. As of right now I don’t know what the recovery plan is because I am not supposed to worry about it. I was told “First, you have to get healthy.” Then I’ll find out the rest.
Looking back, I can think of some things that got me here, things that knocked my blood test results out of whack and made me appear like a sick person who shouldn’t be on the bike. There are a lot of things I learned though, the biggest of which is how far I can push myself.
The silver lining: “If you’ve never pushed beyond your limits, you won’t know where they are”
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The stages of Grief of a Cycling race: KW Classic O-Cup #6 and the lead up to it
By sigrid_ziegler | June 27, 2008
The race was on Sunday. I had been trying to manage my downward spiral of feeling really crappy on the bike, and after the last weekend I was feeling ok again. The ride on the new bike, out in the escarpment with Dennis’ guidance helped lift my confidence a little. Tuesday therefore, I went out to the Old Mill for a night of hill repeats. I felt really REALLY good that night. 10 repeats, last 2 at race pace, on my rain bike, and I felt strong. I messed up the first couple, but once I figured out what I had to do to be able to pick it up after the switch back, I did it every time. Finally, I felt good again. Looking back, I should have known better, but I felt ‘on fire’ that night and was looking for more. Thursday was just an easy day because of the weather, and I was feeling antsy because I didn’t get a “real” ride in.
I was feeling a little nervous about the weekend plan of going on the roll out of the Donut ride and taking the short turn back. I thought, there is no way this is going to work…. and although I told Will I wouldn’t go, I couldn’t follow through on my skipping the Donut ride because it was the smart thing to do, and went anyway. Of course, it was way longer than I should have been on the bike that day, but with the exception of somehow getting in a group of 4 who were out to climb all of Keele that day, it wasn’t hard. When the pace picked up earlier on, I was too far back and when a gap started opening I had nobody behind me. It looked like a lot of guys had dropped already, so I had only one choice: chase and get back in. That wasn’t easy considering we were going 57km/h when I got gapped. Luckily, I caught up on a traffic light and went straight to the front and hung out there. The first time I turned around was at the top of all the climbs on Keele, only to see absolutely nobody for the 3km of road I could see. I was in a group of 4, and everyone else had turned somewhere. Shit. I ended up getting dropped from the group and was left to my own devices to find the Donut shop. I made it, to my surprise, just in time for them to leave there. I ended up making it home without too much exertion but was feeling generally pissed off that I had been on the bike that long. I hadn’t seen Will on the ride since before my climbing adventure in the small group on Keele either and wondered how long he had been on the bike.
I did my best to recover and packed for KW. I drove down the night before with Mark and we took a look at the race course. The course was pretty great, and the climb wasn’t nearly what I had heard about. Unfortunately, after tooling around for 2 laps on this course and trying to go at race pace and failing miserably, I figured I was in trouble. I thought there might be a chance I’d be ok by the morning though….
After more night time recovery tactics and a good night rest, I warmed up for 30min on the trainer and prayed we wouldn’t get thunder showered on. I felt like crap in the warm up, but seeing as I usually feel like crap in the warm up, I didn’t think too much of it. I hit the start line calm and ready thinking, I’m going to leave everything I have on the course today. That’s the agreement I made about this race: finish feeling like you couldn’t turn the crank one more time. Of course, when Dennis said this, I didn’t fully understand it until I was on the Donut ride and had a lot of time to think. I figured I knew what to do, but whether I would truly leave EVERYTHING, would take a few races to figure out.
KW ended up being the most difficult race I have ever participated in throughout my entire life, in all sports. Why? I got dropped about 2km into the race, and finished. I can think of countless races I got dropped in and quit while skating. In track, I never got dropped, but as soon as I stopped winning, I quit the sport altogether. Everything I had ever thought was hard, was nothing compared to what I did at KW last weekend. I hadn’t felt great, but I thought that somehow everything would come together. It didn’t, and the very first time up the first little hill, I got gapped. I couldn’t climb with the group, and although I got back in on the downhill, I was going to get gapped and dropped on the hill after the long false flat. I tried to fight it. I was screaming at myself in my head “This is NOT happening. Not now! Just get back in there, you’re still in contact.” Of course, I was long gone.
Stage 1 – Denial: I told myself if I could just hammer, I could catch back up. I thought, if I go all out, they would slow down and I could get back in there. I was angry and embarrassed, and I hammered until I noticed that I could barely turn the crank in the big ring. I lost sight of the pack and I started breathing a little faster. It was during this stage I was telling myself that I didn’t really get dropped, and there was an issue with my chain catching on the climb. I was fully prepared to say that when people ask me after the race what happened. Mostly I didn’t want to have to finish. It was a long race to be alone for. I pretended I was in a break away.
Stage 2 – Anger: I was pissed at myself for getting dropped. I told myself that I fucked up, I wasn’t in the right gear. Fueled by this rage, I kept going. I learned really soon that I wasn’t in the wrong gear on the climb at all, but since there was an attack and they climb a lot better than I do, it always seems like that. I had this happened every time I got passed by another division, and later, my own field lapped me. I wasn’t thinking that much, I was just angry and sometimes yelled out loud on the course. I took the corners as fast as I could, and felt like my heart was going to pop out of my chest. Luckily I wasn’t wearing my HRM so I had no idea what was really happening, but my speedometer told me that I probably shouldn’t be feeling like this, when I’m going this slow. Yikes!
Stage 3 – Bargaining: If I could just have the start back. I could go to the front and hammer up the hill. I kept thinking about how much longer I’d be out here on my own. Every race I had ever quit as a skater was flashing through my head. I thought, maybe I got DQ’d earlier and they’ll pull me off soon (was there anything stupider to think?!). I thought, I could still have a mechanical, and then I won’t have to finish.
Stage 4 – Depression: It was only 5 laps into the race, and I had gone from being angry, to loosing the motivation to be angry, to feeling empty and just sad about my performance. Was I not training hard enough? I just wanted to sit down on the street and get off my bike. In truth, I didn’t want to actually get OFF the bike, I just wanted to be able to ride it like I knew I could. I wanted to know what was going on and why I couldn’t ride that day. I thought, what if I can never ride like that again? How can I get dropped here when I managed to do ok at Effingham?
Stage 5 – Acceptance: The lap counter told me I had 10 to go. I thought, I can do 10 more. I had been on the course for long enough to think every negative and depressing thought I could. Should I even be riding a bike? I knew if I didn’t finish the race I would regret it, and I would never forget it. I have quit so many skating races, and watched the field sprint of my own race thinking “I could have finished that…I didn’t feel that bad”. I never want to have that again. I am never watching the field sprint of my own race again. I wasn’t about to taint my new sport with that behaviour and I knew that if I finished, I could put this race behind me. I have finished last in a lot of races before too, and I can’t think of a single one. I can’t think of most of the races I did well in either. The ones that really stick out, are the ones I DNF’d. Ultimately, I knew I would finish, although it was difficult. At the beginning I was concerned about what certain people would think of me doing so bad in this race. As the laps went on though, I realised that even though I’m not in the pack, and I’m definitely going to be last here, I AM leaving everything I have on this course, including my ego. I didn’t care what anyone else thought. I was the one out here. At least I’m still riding. If I felt myself slowing, I picked it up. I attacked every hill like I was in the pack, and blew around every corner like I was trying to shave milliseconds in a break away. I sprinted out of every corner to reaccelerate and finally, I sprinted into the finish. I had just enough energy to get out of my pedals before getting off the bike, rolled over to my coach and nearly fell over. I was leaning on my bike because I couldn’t stand.
We talked about how to move forward, and things that happened in the race that I can improve on. We didn’t talk about the race negatively, and to my biggest surprise I felt ok. It was finally over, and I finished. Alone for 1:50, just thinking, trying to motivate myself. Trying to trick myself and talking myself out of quitting. It’s hard to imagine what it’s like if you’ve never finished a race after getting dropped right at the start, or anywhere for that matter. Ride like you’re off the front.
I think the hardest part was the beginning, having to come through the start / finish line. At one point I saw some people who were supposed to be racing at the same time as me, standing on the side of the course watching and I felt so happy to be out on the bike. I knew, that as long as finished the race, and I gave everything (which, when you’re alone and chasing, you better do!) I achieved what I came here to do.
A few weeks ago someone said to me “You can’t win, until you can lose.” I didn’t really understand what that meant, because I haven’t won any races in S1/2, so I felt like a pretty experienced loser. I obviously had no idea….
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The weekend rides
By sigrid_ziegler | June 17, 2008
I clocked in at a total of 275km this weekend. I know I know, what the hell am I doing riding that kind of mileage this time of year? The saturday ride was more of a confidence building ride than anything. I lead basically the entire 130km ride, most of which was raining. It was a training ride for some people going on the Conquer Cancer Ride. I did feel better after that, and I felt like I was getting my legs back a bit.
Sunday I was out with the Racer Sportif Club. We headed to Oakville where we met with the other half of the ride, and soon after that I was taken aside by Dennis. In a small group, including 1 other girl and Will, we talked about gearing, climbing and gearing while climbing :-) Essentially, the purpose of the ride was to find out what gear I should be in, AND work on climbing. I was also out on the new bike for the first time that ride, and I felt pretty good. The longest climb of the day, right at the end of course, left me with a small gap by the end, but I was pretty happy I was with the guys that long. They attacked, albeit slowly, but I couldn’t get up, so I kept climbing in the saddle. After that I was pretty dead, and when we played a game of “attack each other over a bunch of rollers” I couldn’t even take my hands off the bars long enough to switch to the drops, I was that shaky. Dennis is yelling “GET IN THE DROPS”, and I was actually worried I might crash if I let go at that speed…. needless to say, we had a discussion about it, and now I’m in the drops all the time ;-)
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The Craziest Ol’ Farts Ride
By sigrid_ziegler | June 13, 2008
Thursday I went to Old Farts alone. Will was caught up with his new bike and I didn’t want to miss the ride, so I left him at the shop and headed to the ride alone. I had no idea how valuable that decision would be when I left, since Will was just planning to chase the roll out on the Queensway. That day, the “roll out” happened at over 50km/h. I sat in at the front all the way to Indian Rd, while people were already disappearing off the back. I managed to last Indian Rd Loops as well, even though I was in brutal pain and the thought that if I got dropped I could slow down (LOL) crossed my mind. With nowhere near getting dropped, I thought it would be best to sprint that last stretch on Indian Rd at the front with the big boys. I was dead after that.
Going up Mississauga Rd I couldn’t even pedal anymore and I was clicking gears every 3s to find something I could turn over, at ANY cadence. I started leaving a gap, in slow motion, and someone came up to give me a small push back in. Thanks to whoever did that. The Collegeway Loop was another hammerfest, and when we approached a red light on Burnhamthorpe and Missisauga I took the opportunity to get a drink, finally! What I didn’t know, was that they would do more repeats! So now, I’m off the back, slamming my bottle into my cage, chasing a pack of guys doing 50km/h. Yeah right!
I was within contact for a few more km before I just couldn’t chase anymore and did the last 15km of the ride alone. I had a great day out though, and it was the first time in long time that I felt like I was actually going somewhere on the bike. That was the last ride on my Tarmac.
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Marsh again, in the rain. What else is new?!
By sigrid_ziegler | June 11, 2008
Tuesday afternoon, Will, Mark and I headed to the Marsh again. I had the afternoon off school and wanted to get some climbing in after Milford. The race left me feeling like I need to work on my rollers and climbs, and I wanted to head to the Marsh. I was out on the Tarmac again because I couldn’t find the confidence to ride my 2576kg Allez after the weekend racing. I needed the carbon apparently, and the idea that THAT bike would make me go faster. It didn’t work. The only thing that bike did was make a sound like it was faster than my clunky Allez, but in my head, I was still just as toast.
The false flat getting out to Wonderland is always what kills me, and the first set of serious rollers going north, left me nearly puking on the side of the street. My legs had nothing in them. It was odd. Every time I got out of the saddle I had to sit back down immediately because I thought my legs would just buckle out from under me. It was scary and frustrating, and all I could do was use the rage that was building to hammer down the hills.
We had to stop off for water somewhere after 70km because all 3 of us had used up everything we had. We had gone through 2 major downpours at that point, with another still to come. The rollers going south were a little better for me, but all in all I just felt extremely useless on the bike that day.
I did some serious recovery that night and on Wednesday morning and started to feel a little better after that. I guess I will go try my luck at Old Farts on Thursday night!
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Milford O-Cup ITT and RR
By sigrid_ziegler | June 9, 2008
The week before Milford was my sick week. I barely rode at all, with the only significant training session being on Thursday night practicing for my Merckx Individual Time Trial. Will and I went to the CNE, in the rain (of course, when isn’t it raining?!) and rode ITT style for an hour. I started to feel ok on the bike and thought it would work out better on the Road bike than on a TT bike I had never really trained on.
I don’t think I was wrong in saying that, but it did not go alright :-) There was a 40km/h head wind in the ITT and I couldn’t get aero at all. Not even a little bit. There was a headwind for 75% of the race, which is a fact none of us could really figure out. Most people I talked to made the same mistake as me, going too hard into the wind (head/cross wind) in the first 5km, only to be so dead for the next 5km (total head wind) with a false flat, that it used up what was left of me. At the turn around, having a tail wind for 5km, I couldn’t even keep it at 45km/h, and when I turned the corner into yet another head wind, I was so finished, I could barely go 30km/h. It would have been useful if that wasn’t my first ever ITT, but not much. The guys on full TT rigs definitely had an advantage into that wind, never mind that obvious fact that TT bikes just DO give you a huge advantage, wind or not. I did manage to have the fastest Merckx time but that’s a small consolation prize considering how bad I felt out there.
Waiting in the TT line. In a few seconds a commissaire is going to come up to me and say “Umm, you’re on a road bike!”. OMG! No way! Thank god he told me that, because here I thought I was about to start this race on a full TT rig!
Being held in a shaky fashion under the TT start tent.
The Road Race wasn’t much better. If I thought the TT was slow the day before, I was in for a real surprise in the Road Race. 95km was cut down to 75km when they saw the size of our extremely small Elite Women’s category. Most teams were away at the Tour of PEI, leaving only 7 Elite women in Ontario. Nice! Did that ever bring back memories of my skating days LOL! The race was like a club ride with the occasional attack, and the peloton being chased by a small dog once. After an interesting run in with another rider in the pack I was unable to finish in the peloton and came in 2min behind the field.
Sitting in after the climb.
Sprinting up the hill on the second last lap.
I would have liked to have attacked on the rollers on this course, and the idea of breaking into the headwind IF I was stronger crossed my mind many times while I was out on the slowest race ever. It gave me a lot of time to think about the mistakes I make in racing and the sheer fact that I am just not strong enough to pull moves like that. I got caught in the wrong gear twice during an attack on a climb, once too easy and once too hard and got gapped. Luckily the race was basically at 30km/h and all I had to do was go hard for a bit to get back in, but it was a very valuable lesson. There is lots of work for me coming up. Not that there wouldn’t be, but this race left a big dent in my confidence, not because of the result but because of how I felt on the road. The next week two weeks before KW are going to be full on, and likely I will train right through KW with Nationals looming….
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New News
By sigrid_ziegler | June 6, 2008
Apologies for the lack of news lately, there have been/are some technical difficulties with this website. My ever so brilliant volunteer site keeper will post my most recent updates as he is able to do so.
Brief update: As of Milford, I am racing for a new team, Aquila Racing/Racer Sportif. I am looking forward to working hard with this team and having a great season in 2009. Thank you to Dukes/Lapdogs for all your support.
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Down, but not out!
By sigrid_ziegler | May 31, 2008
So what’s been going on since the 53×11 ride?
Thursday night I went on Ol Farts. It was a good ride, until I had a mishap at an intersection. Before Effingham we tightened my pedals to make sure I don’t come out on the climb. They’re so tight though that I can barely get in them. I jammed down to get into the pedal, wasn’t lined up properly, hit my shoe on the pavement instead and broke the toe of my cleat. Needless to say, at 50+ km/h at Ol Farts, that was the end of the peloton for me. I hung a left at Mississauga and hoped that if I went straight instead of doing the College Way loop, I’d catch the pack again. I hammered, saw nothing. I picked up Dr. Chong and another rider, and we hammered on Burnhamthorpe. I was in the 53×11 again, remembering the ride of the previous day, and hammered some more. We got to the meeting spot back in the city, and nobody was there! I thought “WTF, how far back could I have been??!?!” 20min later, Will rolls up. What? How is he just getting here? Turns out, they did 3 Indian Rd Loops, and I had been on a break away the whole time…
Friday I had the MTB fiasco. No need to say anything else about that :-)
Saturday I went on the Donut ride. It was my first Donut ride actually. I hadn’t been feeling very confident and I was worried I might get dropped. There was a slow roll out and all I could think about was how much I had to pee. Eventually after Highway 7 it picked up. I was told to be at the front “when the shit hits the fan” so I went up there. We started hitting the rollers going north at a pretty good clip, and it was do or die. Don’t loose ground, hammer all the time, and never look back. On a descent, a few guys screamed “TURN RIGHT!” and Will and Phil, along with a few others did. Then I heard “NO! GO STRAIGHT!” So I went straight. Good thing. I was still at the front (front being top 20 of 130 riders, fyi), and made sure to work hard going over the rollers. After a while, Will rolled up again, having chased down the group after the “wrong” turn, went to the front front, and I followed. We hit the front right as we climbed another roller and Will got out of the seat sprinting, me with him. I looked back, and nobody was there. I was thinking “Oh great…now I’m just attacking on the Donut Ride.” Eventually a few bridged and we kept going for more. The first 70km of the ride were pretty good for me like that. We turned to start heading east, into a wind. I started to fall back a few spots over every roller, but I wasn’t that worried seeing as I was at the front and there are 130 riders. I dropped back about 20-30 people when all of the sudden….I’m in last!!??!? Where the hell did everyone go? I got gapped and lead a bunch of guys the next 10km to the Bakery pit stop. We took turns leading to keep the pace high and we arrived at the Bakery just barely 5 min after the main group. Before pulling in someone came up next to me and said “Can I ask you a question?”, of course I said yes. “Who the F*** are you??”, I say “Excuse me?”, he says “You’re so strong and I’ve never seen you before…Who the F*** are you?” I told him.
After the Bakery there was an option to go on the extended version of the ride, where all the S1/2 men go, and the normal short version. Of course Will said we’re doing the extended ride. Was there any question that we wouldn’t? I ended up struggling on this section. The road was really rough and there were still rollers, and a wind. I wasn’t able to hang on so Phil, Will and I rode in our own paceline. First though there was the usual arguement of “Come on!” “I can’t” “Don’t say you can’t” “Don’t accelerate so fast” “Don’t lead” “F U”….interspersed with way more swearing. I calmed down and got in a rhythm and Will told me to stay off the bike all next week. I said it wasn’t necessary and that I was only struggling because we were never going slower than 45km/h! We ended up catching the group again and just rode back to the city at an easy pace together. We rode 150km in 4 hours.
The next day was the Brampton Cycling Club Road Race, just a fun, not serious, race. We were supposed to go just try stuff, have the less experienced riders on our team try stuff. When we got there though, there were way too many Senior 1/2 guys, and not enough of our team had shown up. I just sat in the pack the whole race, struggled on the climbs, and made sure not to fall back too far.
That was the last time I rode a bike until last night.
Coming home from Ol Farts on Thursday I had an accident. It was me and my bike versus Toyota Pick Up truck at an intersection. Thanks to my reflexes I managed to get most of myself out of the way, but I didn’t avoid getting hit. I was in the middle of the intersection when the truck hit the gas, and it was like I heard my heart rate revv up with the engine. I looked over, saw headlights, and knew I had to make a move. I was only clipped in on one side but I bunny hopped the bike to turn it 90 degrees so I wouldn’t get T-boned. It worked, but my shoulder got hit with the mirror, I got jerked around, and although I didn’t crash, I pulled my piriformis muscle which I causing me unbelievable amounts of sciatic nerve pain, and my chest is really bruised. It completely knocked the wind out of me. I kept playing the accident over and over in my head. The truck was on my right standing at the intersection, not going. I waited and waited, and eventually went. If I hadn’t waited, I think I would have been ok. If I had never stopped to grab a jacket so I wouldn’t freeze, I wouldn’t have even been there at that time.
I rode right out of the intersection and told myself it never happened. I was pretty shaken up but I had almost forgotten about it until I woke up the next morning unable to walk. My sciatic nerve compression was so bothersome that my leg buckled out everytime I put weight on it. I struggled through school, iced it and tried to rest. The more I moved the better it felt so I thought I should ride my bike. Riding definitely made it feel better. I went on the Donut ride like that, I went to Brampton like that. It hurt everytime I got out of the saddle. Pain is something I can deal with. But everytime I close my eyes I see the headlights of that white truck heading for me.
The universe was really trying to tell me something, when I got sick that weekend. A few of my teammates and classmates had been sick and I managed to get off clean. This week I wasn’t so lucky. I took Monday off to rest and Tuesday I was feeling sick. Not wanting to make it worse I took Tuesday off as well, and I was feeling ok, just like I had a cold. I took Wednesday off too, I thought I felt fine, but everyone around me noticed I wasn’t. I managed to get out for about 20min of riding on Thursday, just enough to know I shouldn’t be out there. Will and I rode down to the crit course, did a lap and went home.
Friday rolled around and it was hard to stay on top of myself. I hadn’t been on the bike, and when I was I’ve been feeling like crap. I tried to stay positive but it was so hard when it started to rain during the day and my classmates started asking questions like “Do you race if it’s raining? Wouldn’t you crash?”…. I couldn’t keep my mind straight anymore so I walked out of anatomy and went downstairs for fresh air. I was listening to music, ignoring everyone who came by. Dr Dave picked me up, and he, Will and I went to my house for some last minute wheel and tire changes. I put together an extra set of wheels for the crit and we headed down…
I was in my “pre-race mood” and I noticed so was Will. We weren’t really talking anymore, just rushing and breathing. I know what was going on in my head, and I can only guess it was the same for him. I changed, threw my bike on the trainer, got my headphones on and rode for an hour.
I had the best intentions going into the race. I was in a good position, I had a good warm up, but my body just wasn’t cooperating. I was sitting in the peloton thinking “This is good, I’m feeling good, pace is good….” just trying to relax myself. I couldn’t fool myself though and soon I was struggling. My front wheel kept wobbling to put the icing on the cake. I fell back more and more and all the Lapdogs guys came by me. I didn’t know they were behind me. I was riding hard on the inside, but it wasn’t coming out. I just couldn’t do it. I got off the track, got in the Duke’s tent and sat there trying to figure out what the hell just happened. I was coughing everything up. Cranwell came over to calm me down. I just felt helpless. I did everything right, and I couldn’t ride. I was in pain, I couldn’t breathe, but I just wanted to go out there again. I just wanted to wash the race off me and go home.
I don’t know what in the world made me check my front wheels, but it WAS loose and I tightened it. 20min later Mark came running down the course with a mechanical, his chain flew off. I hobbled over to the tent, grabbed my bike and threw it over the fence at him. All I knew was that he and I use the same pedals. Mark got used to the bike quickly and got 5th. Way to go Tiagra Allez! And no Mark, you can’t have it!
Topics: Cycling, Injury, Photos, Racing, Training | No Comments »
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