Thursday I headed down to Forest Park for cross practice. Jamie, one of my teammates, said she’d meet me there to give me some tutoring on mounting/dismounting. I got there a little early and road around the area a bit, just trying to get use to the bike handling, etc. There were a few guys there already, so I watched them as they went over the barriers. I got a handle on the basic idea of dismounting and tried it a few times, very awkwardly.
While I was waiting for Jamie, Cory showed up. Cory did a great job of walking me through the mechanics of what I needed to do. I started to feel more comfortable with what she was showing me and rode a few complete laps on the course. Carrie and Jamie got there and gave me great tips and advice as well.
Saturday we headed to Hermann for the race. I was excited to race this event because it had an actual beginners’ women’s race. I rode the course three or four times prior to the start, falling on my first time through trying to get my left foot out before the barrier. The course had three technical turns, the first banked high the left. The back straight away was flat and asphalt, and right after the start/finish was a set of concrete stairs.
We were lined up behind the beginner men, I had registered in time to get a front row starting spot. The start line was actually parallel to the finish and added a 180 with a high right bank. The whistle was blown we were off. I fell behind going around the first turn. We got to the stairs, I dismounted without a problem and headed up the stairs. I made up a lot of ground on the
stairs, I remounted and was off. The first and second loops were pretty uneventful. I stayed close to the fourth and fifth place women. On our third lap, the two women in front of me passed the third place woman and got a bit of a gap on me. I looked down at that point and realized how high my HR was. I tried to work on breathing, but couldn’t get it below 180. I stayed right on the fifth place woman through the technical pieces and the barriers. I caught and passed her on the back straight right before the start/finish. I got up the stairs and realized that I had put a pretty good gap on her. There were two laps to go and I wanted to concentrate on getting up with riders three and four. I caught up with them near the barriers and stayed with them until the asphalt section. They got away from me there. On the last lap, I was just behind them going up the stairs. I stayed with them until the last barrier. I dropped my bike when I was jumping over it and they got away from me. I got back on and finished hard. I think I was about 20-30 seconds behind 3rd and 4th place.
I know I need to work on being quick off the start and the remount still.
While I was waiting for Jamie, Cory showed up. Cory did a great job of walking me through the mechanics of what I needed to do. I started to feel more comfortable with what she was showing me and rode a few complete laps on the course. Carrie and Jamie got there and gave me great tips and advice as well.
Saturday we headed to Hermann for the race. I was excited to race this event because it had an actual beginners’ women’s race. I rode the course three or four times prior to the start, falling on my first time through trying to get my left foot out before the barrier. The course had three technical turns, the first banked high the left. The back straight away was flat and asphalt, and right after the start/finish was a set of concrete stairs.
We were lined up behind the beginner men, I had registered in time to get a front row starting spot. The start line was actually parallel to the finish and added a 180 with a high right bank. The whistle was blown we were off. I fell behind going around the first turn. We got to the stairs, I dismounted without a problem and headed up the stairs. I made up a lot of ground on the
stairs, I remounted and was off. The first and second loops were pretty uneventful. I stayed close to the fourth and fifth place women. On our third lap, the two women in front of me passed the third place woman and got a bit of a gap on me. I looked down at that point and realized how high my HR was. I tried to work on breathing, but couldn’t get it below 180. I stayed right on the fifth place woman through the technical pieces and the barriers. I caught and passed her on the back straight right before the start/finish. I got up the stairs and realized that I had put a pretty good gap on her. There were two laps to go and I wanted to concentrate on getting up with riders three and four. I caught up with them near the barriers and stayed with them until the asphalt section. They got away from me there. On the last lap, I was just behind them going up the stairs. I stayed with them until the last barrier. I dropped my bike when I was jumping over it and they got away from me. I got back on and finished hard. I think I was about 20-30 seconds behind 3rd and 4th place.
I know I need to work on being quick off the start and the remount still.
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