The Subaru Cup/Pro XCT Series was everything it was talked up to be an awesome venue, gnarly course and sick competition. Unfortunately this past weekend was the end of the beginning for me. What do I mean? I'm calling it the end of my first training session, as many of you know the body plateaus and even decreases without proper rest and failure can come awful fast at that point. I reached that point and it came on one of my target weekends.
The weekend had two races, a cross country on Saturday and a short track on Sunday. Saturday's course proved to be difficult even on the best of days. It had punchy climbs, extended climbs, tight single track, rock gardens, and fast descents. This was a course you really had to be on your game. It pounded your legs on the ups and then gave you a rest on the way down but you had to always be alert because with the technicality of it a mistake was always lurking. I had a second row start which I felt good about because there were no call ups. The gun was sounded and it took me all of 3 minutes to figure out that something was not right. I could not draw energy or power out of my body. I stayed with it as long as I could thinking I might come around. That was until the 2nd out of 4 laps and being passed by 15 or so riders when I decided to slow down and see if I could reserve enough for tomorrow's race. This didn't last long, a rider I have met through the series came by me and shouted a word of encouragement and I had to at least attempt a restart. I decided to let him pull me through the next 2 laps and I stuck his wheel for the next hour until the final descent where I washed out and he finished just ahead of me. At this point I was OK with that being it wasn't about a place at that time but about finishing. Losing 2 spots with my fall I finished 27th overall out of 139 in Category 1.
Sundays was approximately a 1 mile loop with a twisty climb, a punchy climb, followed by a fast and soggy track leading back to the hills. We were scheduled for 16 minutes plus 2 laps. I figured if I was feeling good the course should work out into my favor. I was fortunate to get a call up and started 2nd row again. This is extremely important because those of you who have not seen a MTB short track it's all about the start and your race can be over within seconds if you get yo yoed off the lead group. The race is so fast and tight that passing is limited and attacks are tough with the pace being so high for the duration of the race. My start was good but not spectacular. I got spit back to about 15th when the guy in front had a slight slip of the pedal. It didn't matter all that much because I was once again in energy deprivation. This time though I felt slightly better throughout the race and my dad timed my laps and said they got better throughout the race. He even mentioned that after mid way point the gap between me and the leaders stayed the same. I finished 17th overall so this news was good to me. It helped me know with a better start I would have possibly challenged the front group.
Even though the results were not quite what I was looking for on this weekend I'm coming away with some crucial experience. It helped knowing that I had two days of racing and still finished in top 25% both days. The optimist in me can only believe I would be with the top guys if my body was running well. I also took away that the talent pool is huge and that it's going to take a lot of hard work in the next few years to achieve my goals. It was also a good weekend of learning how to race both XC and ST. I have to become more aggressive on the single track and downhill's and I need to have a little bit more fight in me to gain position in the ST.
After a weekend like this my first instinct is to get back on my bike and train harder but if this weekend told me anything it told me I need rest. I'm going to do the hardest thing in my training program this week and that is rest with time off the bike. Maybe a joy ride here or there but I'm forcing mandatory down time. As hard as it is for me I know with a few days rest I can start Chapter 2 of the 2010 race season. Stay tuned, it's going to be a damn good one.
PICTURES TO FOLLOW
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