I’m big on reflection. I’ve seen as a classroom teacher and as a staff developer that people learn best once they have time to process and put their learning in a context. That’s what I’m trying to do now, as a cyclist, with this past season.
I went into this season being nervous. I upgrade to Cat 3 after Gateway Cup last year. That meant, for most of my races, I would be competing against Cat 1/2/3 women. I was worried about being sorely out classed. To compound this, I had a dismissal cross season last fall and winter. One more variable in the equation is that I was job hunting at the beginning of the season as well.
In spite of all of that, my season started well. I was holding my own in most races. I won the time trial at Hermann. While I cracked in the crit, I had been expecting that. My Tour of St. Louis and Belleville Crit went great as well. Then came Tour de Grove.
Tour de Grove, Midtown Alley was not my night. I went down hard in the sprint and tore my left side to shreds. In spite of that, I was able to come back and podium at Dutchtown that Sunday. I was feeling good about my racing until late July. That’s when the bottom dropped out.
I am attributing the problem to a dietary change. I cut out all processed refined sugar. However I don’t know if that was the actual culprit. All I know is that I struggled through Edwardsville, the MO State Timetrial and Crit. I was outclassed by the competition and I was hating racing. Fortunately I have a great coach who gave me constructive feedback and worked to keep my head in the game and my fitness where it should be. With some adjusted nutrition, by the time I raced Sedalia and Otterville, I felt like I was back and was looking forward to GWC.
Gateway started out fine. I planned to race all four races, with Monday being my day to shine. Friday night I sat in for most of the race and had a decent sprint for 11th. Saturday started out well. I was sitting in the pack and was moving into place in the final lap when I went down. I’m not sure how or why, I suspect someone hit me. Regardless my left side was again trashed. I managed to race Sunday and Monday, but my performance mimicked Jeff City.
So what have I learned from all of this:
- I can hold with Cat 1 & 2 ladies on any given day.
- Tough Pads work better than Tegaderm for road rash.
- A great manicure can survive a crash at 30mph.
- I will not screw with my nutrition mid season ever again.
- I love my team, my teammates.
- None of this matters if it stops being fun.
So cross begins in three days. I don’t have a lot of high expectations for myself for cx. I want to race. I want to work hard. I want to smile. I want to get muddy. I did upgrade to Cat 3, but not because I think I’m a dirty goddess. I upgraded because I’ve raced two full seasons and I’m no longer a beginner. I know I’ll get lapped. I know there will be races where I’m DFL. I know I will laugh and have good times with my friends. And I hope that the disappointment I’m feeling now will fade and that I will have my head wrapped around the idea of racing hard, fast and aggressive when February gets here.
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