Well, looks like my season is about over.
Baker City was rough. I got dropped early on on the first stage, when we were rounding a corner, and some cat 4 (all women’s cats race together) yelled “gravel,” causing a bunch of people to grab their brakes. This caused a big gap in the field, and then the front of the group attacked out of the corner. I worked really hard to try and get back, but the pack was too fast. Things really strung out over the first little climb, about 2 miles after the corner. I ended up reeling in a few ladies and working with them before dropping them on the longer climb. I struggled a lot in the long, windy back section of the course by myself and DFLed for my cat. Despite the result, I actually rode pretty well and hit new record 1, 10, 20, 30, and 60 minute power.
Stage 2 was a 1-mile hill climb. Since it was short, I didn’t think I’d have a great chance to do super well but thought I’d probably come in mid pack. Again, I rode well, putting out an average of 225 watts over 6 minutes (4.4 w/kg), but I got second to last in the cat 3s.
Stage 3 was a TT. I don’t have a TT rig, so I just did it full Eddy style. I also rode pretty well, averaging my threshold power for the 30 minutes it took me. It was really windy; my power averaged 30 watts above what I put out the last time I did the course, but my time was 30 seconds slower. I started to have some hip and leg pain, but chalked it up to fatigue and the crappy pavement out there.
Stage 4 was a crit. In a 1/2/3 field, I have no shot, so I figured I’d hang as long as I could and then just ride around to save energy for the next day. Started to have bad hip and knee pain about 15 minutes in, and it got worse and worse. Right leg felt fucked, and I wasn’t pedaling straight at all. I finished up, got off the bike, and was so stiff I limped back to the car. Texted with my PT, and decided not to start stage 5. Super bummer, but probably the smart thing to do.
So, I’m back to seeing my PT this afternoon, but it looks like I’ll need more work before I do any serious hard efforts. I might get out to PIR, and MAYYYYYBE will do the uphill TT in mid July, but I don’t know. At this point, I’d mostly just like to find motivation to keep riding through the summer and try and hold onto a bit of fitness for cross. Getting older is the shits.