Sundazed

Today was the Intermountain Cup Sundance race. I never wrote about the Corner Canyon race held on Memorial Day (Monday) because I did not race it, but in some ways I guess it sets the setting for today.

So I was pretty sick last weekend and Sunday I was convinced I would not race on Monday, but the kids wanted to race, so we went over to watch the kids race. Hanging out with everyone made me feel like racing, so I registered, but then I warmed up and realized I still was not better.

Since it had been raining all night, Ed shortened the course to skip all the upper sections which had more mud, and then postponed the start till 12:30 to let things dry out. Kim took advantage of the delay to see if they would let me use my race entry at Sundance, which they did, so I rode home.

As I rode home, the conditions were perfect so every downhill I would start thinking, "hey, I should be racing", but then as soon as I hit a climb it was back to reality.

The rest of week has been kind of like that. Going easy feels OK, but as soon as I accelerate, "Um, where is my acceleration? Oh, I feel tired." Still, it has been a little better every day and I managed a not too bad 5 minute interval yesterday.

With that long introduction, today just did not go right. The kids race was at 8 am, which meant leaving the house about 6:30. It did not seem worth waking the kids at 6, so we decided to skip it. This meant when we did finally leave, we had about the right amount of time to get there and get ready.

As we passed Lehi, I realized I did not have my bike! Dumb. I had loaded all the kids bikes up and forgotten mine. So we turned around, got my bike, and back south again.

We did hit the race on time, and I felt pretty good warming up. The fastest guys were all racing in Ohio, so I felt I had a good opportunity for a top five, maybe even top three.

Most of us climbed in a big group up the bulk of the first climb. The pace was pretty easy and I felt good, but then we got past the leader of our group and accelerated. At that point it became clear I was not going to be fast. Hollow stomach, empty legs, and oh there everyone goes. It never got any better.

At the end of the first lap I was still in this group, led by Burke Swindlehurst.

After that I lost contact and raced by myself in between the front and back halves of the field, never feeling very good.

Remnant of the illness? Not enough breakfast? Poor training? Hard to tell what the problem was today. I thought I was over the virus, so rather than claiming any particular excuse, I am just writing today off as a bad day for whatever reason and working for better speed next time.

So today ended with a disappointing ride, but the weather and the course were great and it was fun to hang out with everyone.