So...on Saturday I participated in the UCSC Slugfest Road Race. It wasn't planned and it was completely out of nowhere. My teammate Eric, who had already prepared to race in the Men's D category (as his first race ever!) convinced me to race it when he told me that our Men's A representative, James, decided to do it as well. So I felt like I needed to do it to, and it was hard to back out once I convinced myself because I also knew that a lot of the Cat 4s on Leopard-Sapporo were racing Snelling. For the record, I had already planned a 3-hour ride with some intervals for that Saturday. But after researching the UCSC RR course (when I heard that mostly all of the Men's D riders would race), I saw that it was the same as Velo Promo's University RR, which consisted of a long moderate climb and a descent. Thus, doing it would equate to doing hardcore hill intervals.
I didn't taper or anything for the race--except on Friday when I skipped my recovery ride after my commute--and I had a pretty hard week since I've only just begun interval training. I knew I wouldn't have the legs for a road race with over 4000ft of climbing, and when I woke up on Saturday morning, I really didn't--so it seemed my excitement for SFSU's cycling first full-house race weekend overshadowed whatever common sense I had left in me. (I acted as if I didn't have an uneventful 2012...)
Anyways I arrived at the race and registered for the men's B. I thought it would be a good challenge to race B's because I've actually raced with a few guys I've known before college. I think that was a mistake on my part though and you'll read why in a moment...
We started half an hour late and I felt fine in the first few laps...just like everyone else. The climb was steady and not too bad, and the descent was straightforward. Christian, my teammate from the D's told me he just grabbed a wheel and recovered so I did the same and it worked well, thus I felt fresh for the climb every lap. I don't know how many laps were uneventful as described (because I wasn't paying attention to the lap cards) but maybe about 4 or 5 laps in the first surge commenced and I did my best to respond but my dead legs were quitting on me pretty quickly. I was at the final part of the climb before the descent and I started to cramp up on the right side of my abdomen, and got dropped slowly as I saw the main pack drifting away from me. So much for recovering on the descent! I had to work a bit while descending but the pack was still in my sight so I didn't give up, I chased for about another whole lap and when we made the right turn into the climb toward the start/finish line, I was able to steadily close the gap between the pack and I.
Thank goodness!....or not, because as soon as I got a wheel in the back, the pack surged right at the start/finish line and as I responded in a short amount of time I began to cramp up again and lost them on the final portion of the climb before the descent again. With 8 laps to go, I was completely
dropped with no hope in catching up to the main field. I did pass a few riders who popped off, so that made me feel a little better =p
So for the rest of the race, I rode tempo and climbed the hill the best I could. I knew I had no legs on the climb because my heart rate was low, but my legs weren't shouting, they were just weak and ultimately tired. In a way I guess my whole body was being lazy because when I was riding solo I knew I could've ridden a little more harder but my body just did not want to.
Since it's still February, I let it go--besides I wasn't supposed to be racing this weekend either =p. At one point I felt like dropping out but I've never dropped out of a race and the course made a great workout. I did get lapped by the podium so I had to finish the race on the 14th lap, which means I'll either continue to explore the challenges of the Men's B or do my best to look good in the Men's C. I've been thinking about going down into the Men's C since I could be closer to doing team tactics with teammates, but I'll have to see.
But thanks to all my teammates and the SFSU Triathlon members who came out to watch, support, and cheer for me! It was a great experience being around everyone!
I'm looking forward to Stanford's race in March!
--DB
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