TTT

(picture by Jeremy Cook)

First three hour event last week for me. It started out ok but ended bad. For some reason my back just kicked my butt at the end. I'm little worried about that, I hope its just lack of core training and if I work it out better it will feel better. I did do some lower back exercises the prior week and maybe I over did it a little. I also moved my seat a week before to try something new. I think the combination of both might of trigger the pain. Well I hope anyways. I really want to do another 3 hour.

Brandon picked me up early so we can get to the course in plenty of time to relax before the race. Plus since I was doing the 3 hour I had to be there earlier than usual. The race started at 10 instead of the xc version that I normally do that starts at 12. The one thing nice about starting at a different time then Harp was he could help me with bottles for the first two laps. Which helped a lot. Thanks man.

We had about 20 guys in our 3 hour group and lots of fast guys too. As we took off I was about 12th or so going into the single track. I didn't really know how to race an event like this. Should I go hard the first lap or so or should I pace my self and hit it hard at the end. Well in the beginning I got around a few guys going up the first climb and I was one rider behind Craig Smith. I knew he was a strong rider so my goal was to stay on his wheel as long as I can. Well that didn't last long because I had a rider in front of me that I couldn't get around. By the time I got around him Smith was gone. I know I wouldn't last long hanging on his tire but hey it was a goal. It seemed like he went on a slower pace in the beginning and jumped it up as the race went on.

Lap 2 and 3 was about the same. Kind of went back and forth with a few riders and then towards the end of lap 3 the pain in my back started to get rough. At first when I started lap 4 I thought I could handle then pain but when I started climbing it hurt like hell. Slowly guys where catching me and I kept going backwards. I had to start shifting into granny gear to ease the pain on the hills. When I got to the ice rink area I had to get off. I thought maybe that might help a little but it didn't. All I could think was after this hill its all down hill from here. I hate that feeling.

So I pulled over for a break at the end of lap 4. I got off my bike and then both my legs just cramped up like crazy. Something I never experienced before. I thought I was drinking well the last few laps but maybe not. So here I am trying to rub out my cramps but couldn't because my back hurt to much to bend over. So I just down a bunch of water and ate a banana and hope my cramps would go away. They finally did and I still had 30 min to get out for one more lap. After sitting for about 10 min I tried getting on my bike to see how it would feel. Not good. So back in the chair I went. It was killing me to see guys still racing so with about 5 min left of the 3 hours I tried the bike one more time. Again I decided not to go. If it hurt that bad on the level I didn't want to find out what would happen on the course. So that was it only 4 laps in about 2:30 hours. That sucks.

Brandon on the the other hand had a better day. He finished 2nd for his first psycowpath podium of the year. I have a feeling he has a few more coming. Sean raced cat 1 even though he just got over the cold. Rob finally made it back to the race scene. He finished 9th out of 20+.

Now you would think after a race like that I wouldn't want to try another marathon again. Well now I want to end the season on the 3 hour events. Well I might do XC at Stanton because of how far it is but I would like to do marathon for the last two. Plus a 4 hour event in October. Will see I need to ride for longer hours to get my back use to 3 hours.

(picture by Jeremy Cook)