16:54 of Racing
Durand was today, the first race of the season. I was pretty excited all week. The weather was predicted to be pretty nasty, which it usually is for Durand and Mother Nature held up her end of the bargain. At the start it was 37F with snow on the ground. This was my first Cat 2 race as a Cat 2 and my first race with my new team, Synergy. We were all shivering at the start and anxious to get started. We rolled out with a strong tail wind and the pace was very high. There were several larger teams there, GrandStay, Flanders, ISCorp, and Synergy. The front was well covered. I was feeling ok and following wheels just fine. As we topped the final hill on this section, the pace really picked up on the downside and I found myself in the wind and drifting backwards. I was trying to close a small and gap and having a heck of a time of it. As soon as we made the turn into a bit of a cross wind, I lost the wheels and my body just froze up. My lower back, upper back, arms and neck just felt tired, like I had lifted really heavy weights. I tried to grab onto the wheels of a small group that passed me and I could not even keep those wheels. Lights out, race was done in less than 17 minutes. Not a great way to start the season. I rolled on for 3 laps with the hope to get in all 5 laps and at least claim the last place for the race. However after 3 laps my back was screaming at me to stop so I did.
Totally sucked today. Most of the ride I was just trying to figure out why my back was hurting so bad. It just sucked the power right out of me. My bad knee is also sore today, but who knows why that is. It has not bothered me most of the past few weeks, not sure if the cold had anything to do with it.
When I look back at the week, I can pin point a few potential issues. First, I have not slept great for the past 5 days or so. I had a hard work out on Tuesday, harder than I think I realized, followed by a power lifting session on Wed for 30 minutes. Thursday I did yoga to stretch out the body and Friday I took off. I thought I had enough recovery in the body this week, but that may not have been the case. Let's hope next week is better at the KW RR.