Not sure exactly what happened today but it was a total blow out.
I woke up pretty tight, did some yoga to loosen up, but my lower back was not happy. Ran into Nick Lando at breakfast and he gave me so RockTape - which I found to be surprisingly helpful at alleviating my lower back pain. I also took a long walk and did more stretching, but the combo seemed to really help.
Can I keep the rocktape on for tomorrows race, or do i need to take it off and refresh it tomorrow?
I was the second to last of approx 60 women called to staging. And that is pretty much where i stayed the entire time I was attempting to race. I had a great warm up, not too much, not too much down time during call ups, stayed in the shade as much as possible. took a center positions and rolled into the group as much as possible during the less than a min to go compression. I felt strong off the start which is a grass rise into a road section that leads into a super dusty climb. For the pro-log we climb to the left, then immediately descend back into the grassy venue area where we zig-zag through a cyclocross style grass section, through the start line again and back onto the asphalt to the first big dusty climb. In the prolog the first climb stirred up so much dust you couldn't see 2 riders ahead. I thought I was wiggling up the sides, cutting the corners and passing people, but somehow they were all passing me back. I felt good on the first climb, but was insanely tense on the first descent. I reminded my self to loosen up, but i was so frantic to catch the next rider ahead that i ended up riding pretty crappy. A few climbs & descents and the mental game started to set in - I found I was telling my self "I'm stronger than this, I can ride better than this" but those words didn't inspire any motivation. Then the "what am i doing here", "why are my legs so heavy", "I don't belong here" started creeping into my head. I shook those thoughts out as best I could and fought back with, "the top women mtb riders IN THE WORLD are here, maybe I'm the bottom of the barrel, but it's the bottom of the very best, just ride your own ride". Second lap felt much better, there was a girl on my tail and i focused on riding smooth to pull away from her. I'd catch glimpses of the next girl ahead and I focused on spinning my legs faster up the climbs, forcing the pedal around. I felt I was climbing better than last year, but it still wasn't as strong as I know I can ride. I kept tensing up and had to keep forcing myself to loosen up. And then I got pulled. Not surprised, I know i was certainly outside the 80%, but 2 laps of 5 is pretty disappointing.
My immediate desire was to scoot back to the hotel room and curl up into a ball, but instead I rolled around a bit and watched a few laps of the race. It was really hot out, lots of girls had ice packs & cooling vests pre-race, and I could see that the heat was catching up with everyone. The leader, Erin Huck had a huge lead and looked really smooth, the top five (pictured above) were spaced out a bit and even Kate Courtney looked like she was absolutely suffering. (course, I later found out she flatted on the first lap! so she was prob really putting down the power to making up time). I started chatting with the some other spectators and was surprised to find I had lost my voice (like I'd been screaming at a concert all night), in fact, once my heart rate & breathing came down I couldn't stop coughing. It must be the dust build up in there. I didn't notice it at all during the race, so I don't think I can pin any blame on it in terms of my performance, but my chest and throat feel incredibly raw & still coughing, now that i'm back at the hotel room. I hope It clears out overnight.
At any rate, the good news is that short track is tomorrow, and I mentally feel like I have nothing to lose. A good a$$-whooping usually helps get my mental game on point. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
There are a few pics of the race venue - couple food trucks, team tents and what not. I find the amount of toilette paper in the bathroom rather hilarious - like the park officials only want to refresh the rolls once a season.
I'm hungry for a better effort tomorrow. Then it's on to Sea Otter for the Enduro, short track & XC - in that order. Thursday - Saturday.
I woke up pretty tight, did some yoga to loosen up, but my lower back was not happy. Ran into Nick Lando at breakfast and he gave me so RockTape - which I found to be surprisingly helpful at alleviating my lower back pain. I also took a long walk and did more stretching, but the combo seemed to really help.
Can I keep the rocktape on for tomorrows race, or do i need to take it off and refresh it tomorrow?
I was the second to last of approx 60 women called to staging. And that is pretty much where i stayed the entire time I was attempting to race. I had a great warm up, not too much, not too much down time during call ups, stayed in the shade as much as possible. took a center positions and rolled into the group as much as possible during the less than a min to go compression. I felt strong off the start which is a grass rise into a road section that leads into a super dusty climb. For the pro-log we climb to the left, then immediately descend back into the grassy venue area where we zig-zag through a cyclocross style grass section, through the start line again and back onto the asphalt to the first big dusty climb. In the prolog the first climb stirred up so much dust you couldn't see 2 riders ahead. I thought I was wiggling up the sides, cutting the corners and passing people, but somehow they were all passing me back. I felt good on the first climb, but was insanely tense on the first descent. I reminded my self to loosen up, but i was so frantic to catch the next rider ahead that i ended up riding pretty crappy. A few climbs & descents and the mental game started to set in - I found I was telling my self "I'm stronger than this, I can ride better than this" but those words didn't inspire any motivation. Then the "what am i doing here", "why are my legs so heavy", "I don't belong here" started creeping into my head. I shook those thoughts out as best I could and fought back with, "the top women mtb riders IN THE WORLD are here, maybe I'm the bottom of the barrel, but it's the bottom of the very best, just ride your own ride". Second lap felt much better, there was a girl on my tail and i focused on riding smooth to pull away from her. I'd catch glimpses of the next girl ahead and I focused on spinning my legs faster up the climbs, forcing the pedal around. I felt I was climbing better than last year, but it still wasn't as strong as I know I can ride. I kept tensing up and had to keep forcing myself to loosen up. And then I got pulled. Not surprised, I know i was certainly outside the 80%, but 2 laps of 5 is pretty disappointing.
My immediate desire was to scoot back to the hotel room and curl up into a ball, but instead I rolled around a bit and watched a few laps of the race. It was really hot out, lots of girls had ice packs & cooling vests pre-race, and I could see that the heat was catching up with everyone. The leader, Erin Huck had a huge lead and looked really smooth, the top five (pictured above) were spaced out a bit and even Kate Courtney looked like she was absolutely suffering. (course, I later found out she flatted on the first lap! so she was prob really putting down the power to making up time). I started chatting with the some other spectators and was surprised to find I had lost my voice (like I'd been screaming at a concert all night), in fact, once my heart rate & breathing came down I couldn't stop coughing. It must be the dust build up in there. I didn't notice it at all during the race, so I don't think I can pin any blame on it in terms of my performance, but my chest and throat feel incredibly raw & still coughing, now that i'm back at the hotel room. I hope It clears out overnight.
At any rate, the good news is that short track is tomorrow, and I mentally feel like I have nothing to lose. A good a$$-whooping usually helps get my mental game on point. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
There are a few pics of the race venue - couple food trucks, team tents and what not. I find the amount of toilette paper in the bathroom rather hilarious - like the park officials only want to refresh the rolls once a season.
I'm hungry for a better effort tomorrow. Then it's on to Sea Otter for the Enduro, short track & XC - in that order. Thursday - Saturday.
