2009 North Island XC Cup - Round 3

Well, I guess it was just one of those days..

I woke up at 4am on Sunday morning to hear the sound of rain beating down on the tin shed roof outside. Great, just great. The track had been dry the past couple of weeks so I had only had the chance to practice it in the dry. I knew a few sections which I could ride in the wet, but the rest I was going to have to see about when I got there.

The usual pre-race morning antics: shower, breakfast, drive out to location, registration, etc. By 9:45 it was time to head out on my warm-up ride and I decided to head up on the first climb of the course (to the summit of Mt Vic from the velodrome), then along to check out how muddy some of the singletrack was.

The first clue that things weren't exactly right was when I couldn't do any of my 30 second "hard efforts"/sprints on my warm-up. The legs just wouldn't pedal any faster or harder. Uh oh. I didn't think much of it at the time because sometimes it does take me a while to warm up so I figured they'd come right during the race. Next, I headed up to scope out a new piece of singletrack which looked very mudddy in contrast to the dry dust that it was the day (and week) prior. I watched a couple of guys head down into it and proceeded to hear (and partially see through the trees) one of them crash on the rooty corner that followed. I'd spent Thursday and Friday sessioning that corner and knew I could ride it in the dry, but in the wet, it was going to be a whole different story. I decided to head a bit further and check out another piece of track instead. It was rideable but still quite slippery. Hmmm. This is going to be an interesting race!

I lined up on the start line with the Senior, Masters, and U15 and U17 women. A last minute decision on the line meant that the Masters women got their laps reduced from 3 to 2 - lucky them! We were still stuck with 3 in Senior Women.


The whistle blew, and we were off. A lap around the outside of the velodrome, followed by a lap in. I held my position through but found it hard to keep up the pace. Into the climb and I had to climb up it a gear or two lower than I normally would, but still within striking distance of the two ahead of me. Slowly however, I saw Emma and Ashley ride off into the distance - I was hoping to keep up with them up the hill but it just wasn't going to happen.



To the summit and down the first descent. It wasn't too bad but I couldn't ridden it a lot better. Up the next climb (the Macrocarpa climb) and I was caught by a couple of the women behind me. Urgh. Right Celia, let's try and keep ahead of them. I did a bit of place-swapping with one of them as we proceeded to slide/tripod/crash our way down the new descent (the ski slope/dipper/dipper/pinch climb section), and managed to pass her on very short pinch climb just before another descent (into Charles Plimmer Park). I didn't see her after that, but mainly because I didn't want to look behind me. I'm sure she was pretty close. Into the next climb (dovetail detour) and my legs still hadn't warmed up. The next descent was the one I saw the guy crash on on my warmup lap so I decided to walk down it. I was passed by a Masters Woman who rode down it and I was surprised at how in control she looked down it. Right, I thought, I'll ride it on my next lap. More slipping and sliding and crashing ensued through the rest of the descent, and eventually I made it to the bottom. Up another climb (to the saddle) and again, I was reduced to my little chain ring. I knew I could climb it in middle (I've done it in the past two races on Mt Vic) so it was quite frustrating not having the legs to do so. The rest of the course was fine, being pretty much identical to the race course used last year for the National Champs up Mt Vic and the PNP race held in september last year and I knew my lines through those sections pretty well. The Watertower descent was a bit slippery but I rode down it. A good confidence booster.

So, back to the velodrome for my second lap and I was passed by Cabin who had just finished his second lap! That was a confidence deflator! I've never been lapped in my first lap before!! To be fair, he did start 10 minutes ahead of me, but still. That sucked. Back up again for the second lap and overall, the track was getting a bit drier. I managed to ride the section I was passed by the Masters woman on, so that was cool..


And managed to stay on my bike on a few other sections aswell. So the descending was getting better, but the ascending was still crap. Earlier on on the first lap, I briefly contemplating the idea of pulling the pin - I wasn't having fun out there and grovelling up the uphills where I knew I could do so much better was both mentally and physically draining. But I hung in there - I've never DNFed before and as much as I wasn't enjoying it, I wasn't going to DNF. So I just hung in there and kept going as much as my body would let me.




The third lap was pretty similar to the second. My descending got progressively better (as the track conditions got drier) and I even managed to ride the ski slope section - that was pretty cool! More grovelling on the uphills but it was the final lap and I couldn't wait for it to be over so I kept going. Finally, the "1km to go" sign and I was pretty happy. Not too long to go now! Up the final wee sections and into the velodrome. Managed to change up a couple of gears to get a bit of speed round there, across the line (4th in Senior Women), and it was over. Phew. Thank goodness for that!

I wasn't particularly talkative during and immediately after the race, so apologies to anyone who I didn't reply back to! Thanks for all the support out there - it was great having so many people spectating and the cheering did keep me going when I wasn't in a particularly good headspace.

So. what went wrong?

Quite simply, I think I did a bit too much last week. Monday's 1:30 recovery ride ended up being quite a fast-paced bunch ride, complete with a sprint at the end to the traffic lights at the top of Happy Valley Road. Tuesday 1:30 ride ended up being 2:15 with a lap around the track, sessioning of a couple of bits, plus riding to and from Mt. Vic. I spent Wednesday's "day off" walking around Wellington running a few errands, plus played a couple of games of table tennis at work. By Thursday, my legs were pretty tired and my pre-ride of the track was pretty slow. I probably should've taken Friday off to give my legs some time to recover but I decided to do Friday's ride anyway because I wanted to session a particular part of the track. Saturday - another ride, albeit at quite a sifty pace. Plus we've been spending the week packing and moving/lifting boxes around the house. But come Sunday, my legs were pretty shattered.

Moral of the story I suppose? Stick the the programme. Don't do too much. Learn to listen to my body and take the time to recover if I need it. Don't give in to my competitive streak (it leads to silly things like sprints up Happy Valley Rd, challenges of table tennis against my workmates, oh.. and press up competitions at prizegiving!). Rest days should be exactly that - a day to rest, not to walk around town and up and down that silly hill from the CBD to work (Kelburn campus of Victoria University).

So, I really have noone to blame for Sunday's race but myself. Quite simply, the grovel-fest that it was could've been avoided and I'm feeling rather stupid right now for last week in general. I don't like making excuses for my riding or how I was riding, but I know I could've done a lot better on the course had I not gone so hard throughout the week. But I guess I'll just put this down as a learning experience and hope to not make the same mistake again.