CX Hurts....

[madisongrrl]

I look forward to hearing about your races, Renee. Yes, results will totally depend on who shows up. That's why goals based on personal achievement, rather than results, are always good.

Definitely....the fields seem to be much smaller than mt. biking. I was a little bent out of shape after the first two races about my results...but now I'm over it. I have to look at this differently than mountain bike racing.

On saturday the Cat 1/2 and 3 women raced together. I think there were only 12 of us and not too many slow women showed up. While I didn't finish dead last, it was pretty close. I was lapped by 4 women. Getting lapped sucks, but these particular individuals were very, very fast. So I don't feel too terrible about it. The conditions were awful, the absolute worst possible situation. The mud was thick, slow, deep, grinding, awful. The course was not very technical and they mowed the grass the day before. I unhooked my front and back breaks (as did just about everyone) just to be able to pedal my bike. It was cold, rainy...so it was just about survival. It didn't kill me, so hopefully it made me tougher....cause everything after that experience should be easy. My legs hurt so bad that night that I had to pop a few ibprofin.

Sunday's race was much more technical, but very muddy because it snowed the night before then melted. While the mud was really bad, it wasn't deep like Saturday's race. I decided to just go out as hard as I could and I did. I actually led the race for the 1st 1/2 lap or so. I seriously thought I took a wrong turn off the course and had to look behind me because I wasn't sure why there weren't any women passing me. As my teammate came up behind me she told me to quit looking backward and to start pushing (LOL)! My legs gave out on me 1.5 laps in and my quad started to cramp so I pulled out of the race. Too much standing and grinding from the day before. I just wanted to see what was possible. It is now Monday and my legs are so sore....they are burning and weak. So it will be a little bit of rest and back to the trainer tomorrow.

I'm in an interesting situation in one of our local series. I decided to race masters even though all the women in that category kick my butt (many masters national champions in our races). However, I'm able to compare my times with the other categories and the women's start list as a whole, so I can see progress. In the first race, I finished 41st of 53 total women (A,B,C, and masters). This race I finished 36th of 52. Progress, right? Of course, my real benchmark is where I'd finish wth the Cs since I raced Cs the last three seasons. For the past two races, I'd finish 6th in the Cs which makes me happy.
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You live in California, correct? I'll bet you get some pretty tough competition at CX races...since California seems to be such a hotbed for cycling.