Wrap it up and eat some pie

Here we are, exiting the eleventh month of the year and nearly at the finish of the racing season, at least for me. This is a good thing, though. As fun as the riding and racing of this year has been, it's time to take a break from riding to train and riding in general. I've reached the point where riding very much at all is making me slower, or so it would seem and feel. The dreaded precipice of over training. The difficult thing about over training in these late months is that it becomes very, very easy to do. When we change the clocks I think the body naturally wants to rest more. Instead, I've been forcing my body to ride with headlamps burning.

Cheshire Cross went well. I'm happy with my result though not fully satisfied. I'm very happy that I finished relatively well in front of the friends that came to cheer us on. A top 50% finish is never horrible. I could have finished better though, but I faded as the race wore on. I was running top ten for a while, but just couldn't hold my pace anymore. The legs just felt more and more tired with each lap. This does, of course, happen every race, though in a different way than when the legs just turn to bricks.

I figured all would be well the next day at Durham though, since I always tend to do better on day 2 of doubleheader race weekends. According to the online preregistration page there were only 5 of us signed up; 3 of which were from our regular group of riding partners. Lee, Taylor and I all figured we could take it easy for a few laps before really racing each other. Things changed as several guys registered the day of the event. The field size was close to fifteen guys. This being the case, the race started as usual; fast and aggressive. I got into a lead group of 5 and was pretty excited. I figured I might have a chance at a win. The pace was high, and the legs hurt; in fact they were feeling that sluggish, made of bricks hurt instead of the "bring it on show me what real pain is, I want more" kind of hurt. I was definitely faster than the others in some places, mostly the turns, and even took the lead at points; but after two and a half laps the legs just couldn't turn an effective gear anymore. I rolled across the finish in 6th. Despite a good finish, the placing was a bit disappointing. I knew if the legs had felt good, or at least some level better, then I could have easily finished in the top 3 or won.

I took advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday to deal with the over training situation. I didn't ride a whole lot the entire week, but I did eat a fair amount of stuffing and pie. I hope the rest allows some snap to return to my legs this coming weekend as I hit up two days of racing at the NBX Gran Prix.

Team Night Ride

With just over a week to go, We have finally put in a night time ride though we did have to wait a little longer than expected for the sun to go down. The team, minus Jake, was all there. The last time I rode in the dark with lights was around the winter to spring transition. In past years, we've been out after dark a few times throughout July. We just didn't get to it this year.

Riding in the dark is always fun, when it's by choice that is. There is something soothing about it to me. Perhaps it's that most of the living world has calmed down and there is a certain quiet serenity floating about. Perhaps it's the idea that my world only exists as the conical beam of light in front of me.

Riding at night presents a special set of challenges. The trails do not always appear the same as they would in daylight. Some small things appear bigger than they are, and some of the big things appear smaller. I have found that a light mounted on the helmet and one mounted on the handlebars works best. The handlebar light can be aimed higher to see things further ahead, while the helmet light allows you to see where you are actually looking which works well in
tight twisty trails.

All in all, a good night and a good ride.

I might also mention that I am hoping to be able to make updates to this blog on a regular basis throughout the 24 hour race.
That's right, real time race reports! I'll throw out some more details in the near future.