Flat Rock and duathalon

Early this spring the directeur sportif spoke to me about my training and racing plans. “I have no plans besides cross in the fall. Maybe learning how to swim so I can do a proper tri and getting my running pace up.” “Tri is for sissy,” he replies. Lacking a witty comment I remain mute. He glares at me for a minute and he then says “You will do all your tri things on Saturdays and you will race bicycles on Sundays. This will erase any non-sense about tri. Sissy boy race.”
“What bicycle racing will you do this spring and summer?”
“I want to do some mountain bike racing and some time trials.”
“More sissy stuff time trial. Real men road race road bicycles 120 miles and have strong sprint at end. You never achieve this doing time trials.”
“Here are the races I will do. Camp Thunder mountain bike and Flat Rock, Heck everything but end of June when I will be riding for a week in Colorado.”
“Colorado, on a road bike? How far”
“400 plus miles in the cool and heat.” I replied.
“That is manly riding. Why you not do this more?” he asks.
“OK, here is the plan. 10K trail run and then Camp Thunder MTB race. Duathalon and Flat Rock MTB. Xtera Tri and Fort Yargo MTB. 46 mile TT and 4 man 12 hour MTB race same day. That will be a good start.” It seems that his goal is to break me of my Saturday racing.

Flash forward three months. Camp Thunder weekend hurt. Flat Rock oddly not so bad. Xtera and Fort Yargo we shall see. May 1 weekend may be the deal breaker.

Duathalon report. I trotted. I rode. It took me a good few minutes to get upright after rideand I finished trotting. My friends were faster.

Blow by blow of Flat Rock. I forgot I had raced there before. Once I saw some of the course I remember this epic half pipe that launched people on the far side. They chopped that far side down so it was not quite the launcher but a fellow did break his Santa Cruz about 4 inches from the bottom bracket in that section. Oh I digressed. I looked and looked at map suggested routes to Columbus. Going I20, 285, 85, 185 seemed too sterile so I did Hgwy. 36 to Columbus. I left the house a bit late but arrive an hour before race time without any fast driving. Pleasant route. As I was riding around failing to get motivated for a race my legs felt dead. My left quad where it attaches to the interior side of the knee felt strained. Attempts to do those warm up sprints did nothing to calm my fears. Lining up at the back of the pack David calls the Grand Masters up to head out about fourth instead of last. I line up towards the left and get bumped even farther over to the left by some clown. Race starts and I do a half hearted hole shot and am in third place. Well that did not last long as my dead legs did their non-thing. Riding through the meadow I was noticing the wild flowers in bloom. The course had a half pipe section where you went up one side and back down at least 4 times. Kind of a weave. That was clearly marked. What was not clearly marked were the rest of the half pipe sections I chose to do but I guess I should have skipped as they were not clearly flagged. Well none of the guys behind me passed me so ok for that. Dink back into the woods for a bit heading over to the rock garden. In the garden there is a 180 that I was going to dab a foot as part of the turn. I screwed up and fell off my bike to the low side of that off camber turn rolling downhill. When I stopped rolling and ran back to retrieve my bike I saw a few guys also goofing up. Coming out of the rock garden I ran the last 50 feet as it was a bit too challenging for me. Off through the meadows again. The trail had a clearly marked line and for some reason I tried to take a line to the left. It had a 2 foot drop off. Panic brakes and I backed up to get on the safe course. Dr. Dan pulled away from me in a big way there never to be seen again. In and out of the woods. More half pipes taken as straight in and outs. Across road bridge, over flat rocks and climb a rock. First lap I goofed up totally and went off course before that rack. Not a big deal but a few feet shorter. Back into the woods and twisting about. 1/8 mile straight away and back into the woods for some incredibly twisty stuff. Second lap was much less dramatic. I felt a pebble in my right shoe. Part of the lap some woman I have seen at other races was in front of me showing me lines. She tried to wave me past but I was doing better having a leader. We cleared the rock ok but I goofed up not carrying enough speed. So that pebble worked its way to the bottom of my shoe so I stopped to empty my shoe. I caught back up to the lady but not enough to pass her. At the 1/8 mile straight way I pulled off and was chasing some guy in a yellow jersey, different class. He pulled away as he was taking the turns much better than I, until I saw him in a heap after missing a turn. He was ok so I did not slow down. One of my class mates was nearby so I was trying to increase my gap.

No drama after the first goof ups. My dead legs quit whining after the first ½ mile. Of course they never put out anything but they just stopped complaining. After the race I thought I saw that if I had gone 2 minutes faster I would have been in the top half of the class instead of scraping the bottom three. Every time I went by the C Town Bike pit I reviewed the leader board. Whoever was recording forgot to put racer numbers or times for any of the racers. First lap I had no clue where I was and riding a course fast is hard when you do not know it. Second lap was better as no one was hot on my wheel and I did get to follow that woman through some of the tricky stuff. I was passed by a good number of racers who started after me in younger classes. Not so sure if any of the experts passed me but I think not.
Contusions of lower right leg from first roll off bike. Right jaw is sore so I must have clunked myself. Probably some other sore spots my masseuse has not found yet, if I only had one.

Funny to me video by Dan's child? Not sure and I was clueless to ask. Look at the back and forth ahlf pipe stuff. Kind of fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcCNJnU6-OI

I am not so sure about the sportif’s plans but I will continue double races for another few weeks to see if I can come around. Now the search for a loaner wet suit for Saturday starts.