Thursday, December 20, 2012

The (bitter) End: OVCX #a million, Major Taylor Velodrome Indy

This weekend was the finale` of the 2012 OVCX series, which marks the end...of something. That would be the end of my CX season.

check out the mud roost above my head.


And things didn't go as planned. But sometimes they just don't. I don't want to get overly dramatic, or "philosophical" (as they say) about it all, but I have to admit I am disappointed with myself.




I sat in third place in the 35+ Elite men's series overall from the first race. I came into this last race with a slim, but holdable gap to maintain that position. The numbers had been crunched (for me, not by me) and I knew what scenarios had to play out. The person behind me in point, who is a good friend and teammate, had to have a really good race and I had to have a not-so-good race.   

I rode this section in the warm up, but didn't want to mess it up during the race so opted for the safe route (running it)



He had a great race (his highest Elite finish ever) and I had a slightly-worse-than-average-but-not-terrible race. And that was enough to knock me off the final podium. I am glad it was a teammate and not a full on rival, but it still bummed me out. But that's how racing goes. 



It was a good course and it had rained all the day and night before. The course as muddy. The flat sections were heavy wet ground. And the hilly sections were loose, sloppy and difficult. I was fast on the downhill sections, but that constituted about 1minute of the 8-9miunte lap. It wasn't enough to save me. I did all I could and I couldn't have ridden any harder. Sometimes it's just not enough.  



I feel as though my form has been dwindling a bit over the past few weeks. I am probably "overtrained." But it's a hard balance. I've been "at it" for nearly a full year now. This has been a really good season, even though I fell short of the final podium.    

Last finish of the season


I am going to do things a bit different for next year and take some more time off and build slower into (MTB) race form. I have some lingering use/overuse issues that just aren't ever going to get any better if I keep going full blast all the time.
So that's that. The end of sweet CX race posts for this year. I don't have a good idea of how many people actually follow this blog, but thanks. The posts will continue, but probably with a little less frequency and a little less interesting content (if that's possible!) 
Thanks again for reading and following my season. The fact is, I enjoy writing, so keep checking back!
Happy holidays, all.

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