Monday, December 24, 2012

Winter 2012

I hit the road hard in January, stopped running altogether, and logged more hours in the saddle than any month from 2011.  This was partly motivation to build a decent base on a shorter scale than the previous year's 12 weeks but also because I started going off the schedule and enjoying some longer days in the saddle.  I did alot of hill work and, by the last week of the month, was already doing anaerobic work.  All this was supposed to be leading to an early Road Race season assault with a February to April racing period.

Jan 21, 2012:  Early Bird Road Race from Patterson:
 This is one of those races that I almost never evade.  I know the course very well, it's a short drive from home and I happen to like this type of race that breaks up and leaves finishers coming in small groups instead of a big dumb steaming pack.  I actually had a pretty good race.  I put up with some stupid tactics on the way out, held my own and rode conservatively on the climb and then nailed it back to Patterson.  I outsprinted my one partner on the road and finished 5th of 21.  I was pretty happy with this result but a couple things left a bad taste in my mouth.  First was the general roadie douchebaggery from the race itself.  Without getting into too much detail I'll just say grown men who are supposed to be smart can be really childish and stupid sometimes.  And the ones that choose to race/ride road bikes seem to be on a completely different level of selfish stupidity -in general- than the ones you find on mtb, cx or the track.  The second was the reaction from my team which was mostly apathetic and what response existed was others self promoting their own mid-pack performances or even cutting down or poo-pooing mine.  OK I've just exposed that I'm an insecure little girl that needs a little external ego boost now and then (when it is EARNED, dammit) but there it is.


BUT then February came and I got sick.  It didn't seem too bad at first but a vague lung burn and dry cough persisted and my riding hours were cut to half of January's. And as I was getting healthy again I lost my motivation to road race altogether.  Traveling longish distances to get outsprinted or dropped or otherwise spanked by people with shitty attitudes on bikes worth more than my car suddenly lost ALL its appeal.  My re-focus was firmly on a dirtier path for the year.  And none of this was helped by Ray mentioning he was going to do the Whiskey 50 in my old hometown of Prescott, AZ in the end of April...

February 4, 2012 CCCX mtb cx #1 Fort Ord:  I should have skipped this race but the motivation was stronger than the intelligence and I raced with the early symptoms of a flu coming on.  I had a pretty unremarkable race and finished 13th of 24. 

February 19, 2012 TBF mtb Challenge:  I must have had full health back and the rest in the legs was good because this was probably my single strongest race day of the year.  But I had a horrible start.  I knew I had good legs from my warmup and I got a little cocky on the start.  I took a little excursion from the main trail on the start to get around early traffic and hooked a tree with my handlebars within the first two minutes.  I was slow to get going again since I had to get my chain back on and straighten my bars and by the time I was back on track I was dead frickin' last on the trail.  But I had a good mental game that day too and just dug into the race and passed and passed and passed and even passed one last guy in a sprint in the last 50 meters to finish 6th.  That was fun having great legs on a race day but there was a distinct aftertaste of "if only..."

In March I got back on track and started logging some longer days again along with regular speedwork.  I didn't do any racing but I was enjoying some long days on the bike in preparation for my first 50-mile mountain bike race coming up in Arizona.  I did a TON of climbing (for me) during this period and began a streak of five weeks straight of climbing 11 to 13 thousand feet per week!  To put that into perspective for my usual climbing load, I only had TWO other weeks the ENTIRE YEAR where I climbed more than 11,000 feet.  But I was super motivated to do well in Prescott!

Friday, December 14, 2012

2012 recap begins... with a 2011 recap?

Dear weblog,
Remember me?

I've thought to capture some 2012 hilights month by month but a little 2011 recap may be a good place to start.  2011 ended with a trip to the cold eastern lands of my old haunts to visit moms and pops at their places.  It was a good trip and a nice break from the bike.  I don't know if it's smell, weather or what but sometimes when you suddenly find yourself in your old stomping grounds the memories (not something I am usually good about retaining) kind of come flooding in around the corners.  Usually that's a good reminder of where you've been and, despite the weather, I really have nothing but fondness for my days living in the Mid-Atlantic.

The end of 2011 was a bit frustrating bike-racer wise.  I really enjoyed some excellent fitness and training seemed to be spot on.  I did notch one good result in a cross race but mid-pack seemed to be the standard result.  I did nail my peak but then was unlucky with the bike on that day and that was a huge bummer.  Luckily I found the high ground with myself and decided that it was really a very good year where I finally got the hang of self-coaching.  I ended 2010 as a guy who rode alot but haphazardly and a year later I was able to fine tune all that riding, be more efficient and be able to make my body do what I wanted it to do when I wanted it.  For the most part.

So that made 2012 an encouraging future of applying my newly learned coaching to myself and building on what I learned in 2011.  In theory...