Candi Murray/Oregon Bicycle Racing Assn
Subject: training on a roller coaster ride
Sunday 16th
Today I got up in the morning to ride rollers before heading off to a crit
in town, only to find my bike was not in the garage. I grabbed the keys and
went to look in the car, because Mirek and I'd been to watch the Tour of
Poland the previous day and I'd done my training ride while there. I opened
up the car to find only a front wheel. I just stood there for a second not
knowing what to do. It was only 7:00AM and no one else was awake. I looked
all around, and figure that we needed to leave for the race by 9:30. I
decided that if Mirek was not awake by 8:00 I would wake him. I thought
maybe he stashed my bike somewhere because I was holding a bracelet of his,
given to him by his mother, for ransom. My other theory was that my bike
was at his Mother's house, because we had been there the previous night.
Still I felt uneasy about the whole thing.
Just before 8:00 Mirek woke up and asked me if I'd ridden rollers yet. I
told him no, that I needed a bike to do that and all I had was a front
wheel. He put his hand to his face and said something like, oh no I must
have left it at my mom's house. So my bike was rescued as I threw my things
together for the race and had breakfast. I soon had my bike in my
possession and was ridding rollers by 8:30. I didn't feel great on the
rollers. I haven't had the greatest last few days. The weather turned very
cold here, and my legs a ceasing from some pretty heavy training.
The conditions for the crit were rain, 10c, four left hand corners,
twenty-four laps, and rough roads. When warming up for the race I couldn't
get my legs to go at all. I had no spark. Nothing really happened when I
stood up to go, and things did not look good. I was racing with the junior
men and I knew I was not going to be able to hide. The gun went off and
bang I was basically dropped from the line. Everything was strung out, so
it must have been pretty fast, but I just sucked. After the first couple
laps I finally started to make some time, and was catching groups of boys.
I think it only took two or three laps before I saw the one other junior
girl come flying backwards. After another few laps I caught a pretty good
sized group
of boys. Just after I caught them we went around a corner. One of the boys
hit some cobbled wrong and slid out. I was right behind him, and went to
ride around him. He however rolled over and I hit him. I tried to save it
and for a second I thought I could, but I flipped over also. I was
perfectly fine, as was my bike so I jumped up and continued to race. I had
been in such an adrenaline rush from catching people that I didn't calculate
everything. I was in such a ruse that I just jumped up and continued to
race, when I should have gone to the pit and taken a lap out. I raced for
two more laps, I think. I never re caught the little group and I was pulled
from the crit, as they were soon after.
The one weird thing was; I felt like I was pushing a good sized gear, if
anything a bit on the big size. After the race Mirek asked me if I could
have put some gears on, because I was pedaling like 140rpms. Maybe, just
because I was tired the gear still felt big, but it was interesting, that's
all.
Races like that are never fun, and my training the last few days has not
been good at all, so I cannot say I am happy right now. Still, somehow, I
am not completely discouraged as I am tempted to be. No one can be a hot
shot everyday. Training goes in waves. If you plateau and are OK every day,
your highs won't actually be that high, so to get up there you have to deal
with the lows as well. If things were easy and everyone felt as I did on
the day of Polish Nationals everyday, then everyone would be a champion and
there would be no glory in it at all. These are the days that make one
strong and weed out the participants from the contenders. Tomorrow I will
rest, and take things from there.
Larssyn
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