Thursday, August 13, 2009

Dropped, Bumpy and Lost

The title of this post kind of explains how the last couple of days have gone for me.

Last night I headed out for the PCL crits for my weekly dose of punishment. Last night was pretty fast and I'm not sure what was going on with me but I had this queasy feeling all night and just didn't have any power and I ended up getting dropped on every set when I knew that I could have at least held on. I know I wouldn't have been winning the sprints but most of the time I wasn't even making it to the bell lap and spent most of the night riding alone waiting for the group to come back around to pick me up and then when I was in the group I wasn't comfortable at all. I was surprised when I checked out Corey's blog and he got a picture when I was actually with the group.


Tonight I had no one at home since the wife and kids where out of town so after I got off work I loaded up the car and headed out to Branched Oak to ride area 7 which is where I have a race coming up in a month. At the last race in area 1 at Branched Oak I liked having the home field advantage and plan on having the same thing in this area. Most of this trail is new and it is really rough and bumpy. It's going to be great when it gets ridden more and smooths out a bit but right now it is just really bumpy and I was just always losing momentum and power. This course is definitely not ideal for a hard tail. This is one of those coursed when I wish I had a XC full suspension in the stable to pull out. Maybe sometime soon. I did get in 4 + laps which was nice but I had to stop several times to let a group of about 19 horses through who were riding the course in the wrong direction.

When I finished up riding tonight and I got back to my car I realized that I no longer had my cell phone with me which meant that I had lost it somewhere over the 4.5 miles of singletrack. By this time it was starting to get pretty dark but I headed back out slow to try to find it. I had one area where I thought it might have come out where I almost went down and ended up having to kind of take a couple of steps off the bike as it slid out from underneath me but it wasn't there and I checked a couple other spots where I had stopped and was pulling food out of my pockets but had no luck. I rode the trails until it got too dark to see. I'm a little bummed that I'm going to have to get a new phone but I kind of needed one anyways but I was hoping to wait but now I guess I have no choice and I'm definitely not going to get anything that is expensive like I was planning to since I'm now freaked out about loosing it. I am surprised still since I have never lost anything out of my pockets before.

Here's a few pics I got from tonight's ride:

my favorite climb in the trail. a little technical and steep


overlooking the lake at dusk

2 comments:

Cornbread said...

The PCL crit this last week was really tough. I sat up a couple of times because it was too much for me to handle. It's punishing, but it'll make you a faster rider by increasing your anaerobic threshold. Just in time for cyclocross season!

I'll see you next Tuesday night!

Judi said...

that totally sucks about your phone. you should have gone and borrowed someone else's phone and went back to the trail. then call your phone and listen for it to ring. i had to do that once when i lost mine in the woods w/ the dog. i have a panic attack if i lose my phone!

good luck racing!