Thursday 24 July 2014

Kalamunda 50/50 - Losing my mojo and adjusting expectations


I went into July with one goal, a podium finish in the Kalamunda 50/50. I haven't done a lot of racing in Perth and wanted to stamp my authority in the Masters 40+ category in the lead up to bigger races in September and October. This was going to be a test to see how I was tracking and where work needed to be done.

 
Winter in Perth isn't too bad if you are putting in big miles week on week. It doesn't rain all that often and Jack Frost never visits. It is however cold and humid enough to encourage colds and sniffles to  linger. In late June I got a cold. I had just come off a training block of three 400km weeks and was building steadily towards my goal. By the time mid July rolled around I hadn't fully shaken the cold and had only covered in three weeks what I would normally do in one.

 

I got my bike back from the bike shop 4 days before race day, it had been in the there since 27th May so I had not been off-road since I raced in Alice Springs in May. Getting sick, missing training, missing critical skills sessions off road, the stars were not aligning and I didn't see it.

 
Race day, 20th July, rolled around and I was pumped. In the start gate I took my position near the front of the pack of 400, looked around to see some familiar faces, exchanged a few pleasantries and focussed. We were away and my heart rate immediately took off. All that nervous energy looking for something to do. We started with a 4km uphill drag on the tarmac to sort everyone out. I jostled for position and got myself in the front 15 riders leading into the first singletrack section and got after it. After about a kilometre I realised the guy in front of me was being gapped and couldn’t keep up with the riders in front. There was no room for me to get past, despite several attempts down the inside line. Once the track opened up to firetrail I put the foot down to try and catch the leaders. I went into the red zone on the next climb determined to catch them but it was too late, they were long gone. As I rode the trails, weaving and jumping through the forest I would catch glimpses of riders ahead but I just couldn’t catch them, not matter how hard I tried. At the half way point I started to get over taken by riders I expected to easily beat. I found myself starting to drift. I slammed some energy gels looking for a kick in energy and alertness but it never came. I sucked hard on the electrolytes in my Camelbak but that didn’t help either. I could feel my legs starting to tighten and my back beginning to ache. I couldn’t figure out what was going on. My losses started to accumulate where more and more people were over taking me, I couldn’t hold anyone’s wheel or focus on the job at hand. With 15km to go as I was away in lala land I stuffed up a simple jump and went over the handle bars. Luckily I wasn’t going so fast and landed without hurting myself. As I tried to stand up my leg locked – cramp. Bugger I thought. I took a moment to regain some composure, let the cramp release and got on my bike. The crash was just what I needed. I got my mojo back and took off, picking off riders every few minutes. On the downhills I would overtake 4 or 5 in a few hundred metres, it felt good to be in the groove again. The last 5km of track was firetrail and relatively flat and I managed to pick up a few more places. When I rolled across the finish line I was pissed off. Never had I lost my mojo in a race like that before. The drive home gave me time to reflect on the day and where I thought it had all gone horribly wrong.

“where it had all gone horribly wrong”, that was all I could think about for days. I had expectations of a podium finish, expectations that hadn’t been adjusted given my lead up to the race. Getting sick, not being able to train on the MTB, not being able to train on the road, the cold still lingering in my system. I didn’t adjust my race plan, I was trying to race as if none of those things had happened. Last year I finished 121st on GC and 62nd in my category and I was happy with that. This time I  finished 43rd on GC and 8th in my category and I certainly was not happy with that. Now, on reflection, I am ok with it.

 
Moving forward I have  a little over a month until the Dwellingup 100 and two months until the Cape to Cape. If I can stay healthy and get the training in that I need I should be heading into the races in good shape. If one or two of those things don’t go according to plan I will readjust my expectations.





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