Doing the Double: After the 10k run: Junk Yard Dog MTB Race( #2 on the day)

This week has been rough. Not only am I tired from the races on the Sunday, I am spent from a couple of runs and a bootcamp that has taken it out of me up until Friday. Pooped out.

It has also been rough because of the beating I have taken on Strava. Because I do not have a license, I raced citizen class. I will buy one for the upcoming CX season, but because I am focusing on so much unning this year, I have decided to wait for the cut rate of $90 for CX. Anyway, back to Strava--I have had trouble justifying this to my cycing buddies, who have called me out after winning sandbagging the citizen class.

Getting Ripped on Strava.

Sandbagging:
To deliberately perform at a lower level than you are capable of. He was sandbagging at practice, but kicked ass at the track meets.

I suppose I routinely perform at a lower level during my practice rides, and crank it up on raceday, putting together sum of all parts of training. Don't we all do that? Push ourselves to the limit? Rarely do I leave it all out there on training rides/runs. My movescount results show that my 5.0 TE days are some of the hardest sessions that I do, and those are usually events/ races.

Running the fastest 10k race I have ever run before, then doing the Junk Yard Dog Race was something that I thought may be a bit of a handicap for me. The tone at the beginning of the week changed from one of support to one of...well, you will see. Which I think is pretty funny. My legs did not think the MTB race was funny, as a lap and a half in, they began to pack up/cramp up. I suffered through the last half of the race, preventing my heel from extending past a 90 degree bend so that I would not point my toe, or drop my heel down and suffer more cramps.

On to the race report. I will keep it short.

DH Pumptrack. Photo: Jeff Hanninen.

Finishing the Sandcastle 10k, I got changed into my Daryl Evans-Sugoi kit at the car and bombed up Oxford to the bike park (by car mind you. I did not bike up Oxford. I did do that last week) in order to get ready for my race at 11 am. As it turned out, the race start needed to be pushed back to 11:15, which was fine by me. I polished off three bottles, a package of Clif Shot bloks, and two gels, along with another dose of Sportlegs for the MTB race. My warmup was low key, as I soft pedaled around the athletic park, rode some of the course and the pavement, anticipating the toll my body would be going through in the coming moments.

The start was quick leading to a bottleneck at the first singletrack-mound climb. Riders were everywhere, stopped, walking their bikes up the short hill, remounting and bombing down the rock wall. The first lap I was caught behind traffic. One of the DE crew's newest members, Jake, was leading me out through the singletrack. On the first double log crossing, Jake went over the bars. I went around him and never looked back, passing many riders, and not getting passed for the rest of the race. One and a half laps in, as I mentioned, my legs packed up. For the last half of the race, I tried to remember what Aaron told me--"slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. It made sense to me at the time. The 29er made things smooth. I thought I would have trouble on the big wheeled bike, but it was a dream to ride, if not a bit heavy to lug around. Taking out the tubes will make for a lighter bike. It was pretty cool to have the kids and Lor there cheering us on.

JYD Data from Movescount.

Other than that, it was a fairly quick ride through the bike park with two races down in one day. No Test of Metal for me this year as it falls on the day of a birthday party. The next 3 years are open for the TOM, and I will most likely make the trip up each June.