Stony Creek TT Race Report

Yesterday was the Stony Creek race. Chris decided he didn't feel like racing, so he became my personal photographer. First of all, let me say that I wasn't anywhere near as miserable during this race as I look in all the photos.

I learned a lot during this race. The first thing I learned, which I should have known already, but it's been cemented now, is that I really need to warm up. I'm always afraid of burning myself out by riding too much before the race, but yesterday, as usual, I felt like I could barely move my legs for the first mile or so. After that, I started feeling fine. This always happens, even when I'm just riding. If there's a hill in the beginning, even a very small one, I can barely make it up. Now that I know I can ride 30 or 40 miles (at least) in one race, I should be able to spend some time warming up prior to the race starting without worrying I won't be able to finish.

(Seriously, doesn't this look excruciating?) This course was really bizarre. It started out on grass, then went to gravel two track. Every once in a while, there was a small section of singletrack mixed in. After my initial lethargy, I rebounded and felt pretty good for the next several miles. When I hit the six-mile mark, I looked at my computer and realized that although I wasn't going to break any land speed records, I was on track to finish considerably ahead of my goal time of 1:40.

Famous last words. About a mile later, I hit the longest section of singletrack, considerably harder than anything thus far, and slowed way down. For one reason or another, I found myself getting off the bike a lot and having trouble getting up all the hills. The last challenge was a deep water crossing which I was told not to even try riding through, followed by a long section of mud too deep to ride through.

Finally, I was out on the gravel two track again and I started hitting it hard to make up some time. I still had a little time left to make my goal, but it was rapidly getting away from me. By the time I was going up the last little rise to finish line, I barely had anything left. Chris was there taking my picture and yelling "hammer, hammer!" but I had no hammering in me. I ended up missing my goal by about three minutes.

I came in 11 out of 13 people. I earned one more point than I did at Fort Custer, so I can still throw that one out if I do all the rest of the races. All four of the other women who are in my category in the CPS were there, and I only beat one of them. I'm not sure how many of them will pass me in the standings because the final results are not posted yet and I don't remember what place any of them came in, with the exception of the girl I beat.

There are three more races in the series, so I have some time to redeem myself. I have high hopes for the Maybury race, which is Aug. 23.

Overall, I feel okay about how I did. I just keep chalking these races up to experience, reminding myself that this is a learning year for me and thinking back to the days when I wouldn't have attempted riding three or four miles on the trail, let alone regularly completing mountain bike races.

Weight Report

As a result of the first week of my "drastic, but healthy" measures, I lost 8 pounds! I know that first week is always the best and after that the losing starts to taper off, but losing a bunch in the first week is good motivation to keep going.

I owe my two loyal blog readers a race report from the Stony Creek TT, but I'm still waiting for Chris to process the photos, so I will probably post it tonight.

Race Fever

For the past few weeks it seems like my excitement for racing has started to overshadow my apprehension. Don't get me wrong—I'm still nervous about tomorrow's race at Stony Creek. After all, I'm almost assured of losing my position in the CPS and we decided a couple weeks ago that it was too far away to waste the gas just to preride it. Needless to say, we're both going into it blind since we've never ridden there. However, I find that I'm actually really looking forward to it. Go figure. In fact, I've just been surfing the Internet, looking to see if there are other races I could try to fit into the schedule yet this year. For instance, there's another 6/12 hour race at Pando in August. I really enjoyed the last one, but I've heard Pando is a really tough course. It's starting to feel really good to push myself, though, and I think I want to do more endurance racing next year. I'd like to eventually work up to Lumberjack, although it may be a couple years before I get there.

Of course, I also can't wait for Kisscross season ...

Revelation

Something I finally got through my head in the past couple of weeks is that riding your bike, no matter how much, does not make you skinny. It doesn't even make you healthy or fit. This was a delusion perpetuated by the large amount of thin people I see when I'm at bike races. (Somehow, the hefty ones were just ignored.) I'm not going to belabor this, but the point is that my delusion is over. I've realized, once and for all, that no matter how much I ride my bike, I need to stop eating at the Chinese buffet, at the Mexican buffet, at random fast food joints, etc. And since I don't seem to be able to handle moderation, I've opted to take drastic (but still healthy) measures to get this extra weight off once and for all. I'll post updates occasionally, but don't worry, both of my loyal blog readers. This is not about to become a weight loss blog. It will still be mostly bike stuff.

6 Hours of Triumph!

Well, I made it through the 6 Hours of Ithaca. This is how it played out:

During the first lap I was the absolute dead last person on the course. I felt like I was going in slow motion and was very tentative. However, when I got to the end and could see the pit area, I couldn't believe the lap was over already. For a minute I was scared I might have accidentally skipped part of the course. For some reason, the fact that the end came sooner than I expected it energized me. Or maybe it was just that I was starting to get warmed up. At any rate, I started my second lap right away, without stopping at all, which I wasn't expecting to do.

I felt a lot better on the second lap, but I started to get a headache and my back was getting sore, so I stopped briefly after that lap to take some Vitamin I. I felt pretty good the next couple of laps and with each lap I completed, my confidence was increasing.

After the fifth lap, I was so excited that I was close to my goal and it looked like I could actually do it, so I took my longest break of the day—about 25 minutes. I felt rested enough after that to complete three more laps. When I completed my eighth lap, it was about 5:50, so I could have gone out for another lap, but I was pretty gassed and decided what I really wanted to do was be done, particularly with another race coming up in a week.

My goal for the race was to do seven laps, so to get eight was above and beyond. There were five solo women in the six-hour race. I ended up coming in fourth. Another lap wouldn't have helped much. The third place woman had 13 laps.

Chris also met his goal, which was 10 laps, so it was a successful day for the Davis household. All in all, I feel pretty pleased with our first six-hour race.

Waffling

Well, the big race is tomorrow. I have to go into work until noon (love those half day summer Fridays) and then I need to start getting my fuel and my bike ready for the race. According to Chris' training plan, we're supposed to ride for an hour today. Before yesterday, I was thinking I would just ride something easy like the River Trail. But I'm starting to reconsider even riding today at all. I've put a lot more time on the bike in the last few weeks than I'm used to and I think it might be catching up with me. I have felt somewhat lethargic since Saturday when I did my hard ride and my legs are sore when riding and even when going up the stairs. It seems to me another day of rest before the race would do me more good than riding for an hour.




I'm also having trouble deciding what to do about food. I've been reading a lot online and the consensus is that there isn't one. It seems to be that everyone likes something different and different things work well for different people. As an avid reader of Alaska Jill's blog, I've witnessed her struggles with food during long and epic rides. I actually wish I would have spent some time testing different products and food items during training to see how my body would react to them. It's a little late for that now, though, so I guess I'll just have to wing it. Right now I'm leaning toward endurance drink, PB & J, fig newtons and shot blocks. I don't usually have a problem eating one way or the other, so I guess I shouldn't be too concerned.



I still haven't decided what I want my goal to be, either. I guess I'm having trouble making up my mind about a lot of things.



Nerves have just started to set in. I should be good for one frantic post tomorrow morning before we hit the road. I'm sure I'll be awake way before I need to be.

Dodging the Bullet

I was expecting to be knocked out of first place in the CPS as soon as the Boyne race was over. I don't think I specifically talked about it on my blog, but Chris and I had decided early on not to do the race at Boyne for a number of reasons. The most important was that we really just had no interest in riding it. I have never ridden at Boyne personally, but I have been to the 24-hour race there and I have walked on that trail. It didn't look like anything I wanted to ride. We will probably do all the other races in the series, though we only need five to qualify. I'm thinking it would be good to have more chances to throw out the first two races when I did so poorly, or at least Fort Custer.



That being said, I was sure some of my close competitors (none of whom have done as many races as I have, hence the reason I'm in first place) would race Boyne and quickly fly past me in the standings. I had mixed feelings when I saw the results the other day. There was only one competitor in my age group, and she is not registered for the CPS. That meant I could hold on to my fragile, ill-fated first place ranking until the end of this month when the Stony Creek TT takes place. Of course, I also thought, if I would have gone and raced,the worst I could have placed would be second, and I could have had 27 more points, which I could have used to replace the pathetic 11 points I earned at Fort Custer. I could also have DNFd.



Today's a rest day and I'll ride for an hour tomorrow, most likely on the River Trail. Saturday is the big six-hour race and I'm busy scheming about what to bring and trying not to freak out.