Shelled at Ruby

Last weekend was my first race of the year, and it was pretty rough...

Sarah and I dropped off our daughter and dog at Grandma's on Saturday and drove out to Ruby Campground. We planned to ride Saturday, camp there Saturday night, and then at least I would race on Sunday.

Sarah and I were both pretty impressed with the campground itself. In particular, I thought the bathrooms and showers were some of the cleaner ones I've seen at a campground. There were lots of families (and bike racers) there, so things quieted down pretty quickly after dark. I would definitely go back. Anyway, on to the riding...

The Saturday ride with Sarah was OK, but she struggled on the trail. It was a bit more difficult than either of us expected. About halfway through the first lap, there was a narrow bit of sidehill (downhill) trail; at the end, you had to squeeze through a tight pair of trees, and then you dropped into a steep left hand turn. I went through and watched while Sarah came down. "Wow", I thought, "she's going really fast down that hill." Then I saw her go straight through the turn and go flying over the handlebars... uh oh. She wasn't hurt, just a few scrapes, but that was the end of her ride.

I finished that lap and did another one by myself. I mostly enjoyed the trails there, but I also recognized it wasn't the type of trail that suited me. It looked like if you knew the trail well, you could probably go pretty fast, and I definitely wasn't there. It would have been nice to get a ride in at Bloomer last week to help prepare, but I didn't manage to get out there.

Sunday was a beautiful day for the race. The details of my race weren't particularly interesting. I was basically slow everywhere except on the climbs and when we were running (the water crossings and some of the climbs). I didn't have any big problems, but I didn't feel very fit and I thought I rode below my technical ability. I ended up finishing 7th of 8, and not particularly competitive in terms of lap times either... ouch.

(Photo by Jeff Borisen)

After the race, Sarah commented that I didn't have the same intense look on my face that other racers did (I guess I shouldn't have smiled at her when I saw her at the side of the trail). It's hard to be really focused when you know you're getting crushed, but I think it's still a valid comment.

Two things I've noticed:

1. When I'm racing well, I'm able to keep riding at a very uncomfortable pace. I can push even harder when the trail allows, and recover a little when it gets tight. When I'm not racing well, I can't tolerate the discomfort for very long, and I don't feel like I can push when things open up. I'm not sure how much of this is physical (fitness) and how much is mental. Surely, it's some mix of the two.

2. I don't think I have the same sense of urgency in a mountain bike race that I do in a cyclocross race. Because a cyclocross race is short and, relatively speaking, there aren't too many corners and obstacles, I think it's much more obvious that you can't waste time. The same is really also true in a mountain bike race. It's not hard to imagine picking up a couple minutes over the course of a 1.5 hour race just by being a little more efficient.