After 7 hours of solid sleep, I wake up at 6:00 and do the breakfast thing, and we are out of the house before 7:00. Number pickup is 7:30 so we wanted to be there in time to get everything then get on the course by 8:00. Unlike the local races, they have very strict pre-ride time slots. Today is 8:00-8:20 then 11:20-11:40. They have additional spots later in the day, but these are the 2 we’re looking for. Being 700 miles west but in the same time zone, the sun rises later here. At 7:00, we’re still in the dark.
Number pickup is painless and we’re on the course for 2+ laps. I’m not going to pull punches with this evaluation. I will make it short & sweet. This course is F****** brutal. Strava link of the pre-ride can be found here.
After the pre ride we watch Laura Van Gilder obliterate her field for the National Championship then we watch Stacey do the same in her class. They make the East Coast proud.
After the race we got on for the next open course. I do 2 more laps and nothing has changed. It’s still brutal. I have to say at this point I’m very disappointed in the course. I was fully expecting to come down here and get something that was in-line with Northampton, but this is not remotely close to that. The one thing I kept telling myself was that despite my not really being able to compete in this, the course would be fun, and I would have a good time racing whoever I was racing against. After 4+ laps today I can say that this is not remotely enjoyable. It is what it is and we all race the same thing. But this is a real big letdown.
It doesn’t help matters that I feel like absolute shit today. I don’t know if it’s the series of bad nights of sleep I’ve gotten this week, or I’m still sick, or sick again, or yesterday’s long drive got to me, or what. But as I sit on this couch at 4:30 pm on Thursday afternoon I can tell you that I feel like junk. I’m now regretting having bothered to taper at all because I feel like I’ve wasted ~3 weeks trying to keep myself fresh and not be too tired. But I feel flat and exhausted. And with less volume I’ve probably gained 5 pounds. After riding up these hills today, I guess I should have spent every day riding as much as I could.
There’s also the reality that I’ve been training all fall to ride my bike at 2:00 in the afternoon, so starting the day at 8:00 am was a gut punch for sure. I’m hoping that I get another good night of sleep and the 2:10 race start works out for the best tomorrow. I haven’t been much worried about this day for the past few weeks because it’s mostly a matter of showing up and doing what you do. At this point, you just let the training take over and try not to derail things too much. Beyond that, you can’t really make much more of a difference in how things go.
Spent much of the rest of the day back at the house trying to relax. At this point, I’m just gonna try to enjoy the trip as much as I can and let tomorrow fall where it falls. I just wish I felt physically better than I do. All I want to do right now is lay on the couch then lay in bed then go to sleep early. But I’m going to scrape myself up and go see this State of Cyclocross film and discussion with Adam Myerson & Tim Johnson. Mostly this is because I’ll feel like a loser if all I do is go to Louisville and lay in some Airbnb bed. Plus I paid for it.
Ok, that felt good to vent a little. I’m starting 96th tomorrow, so all I hope to do is come in 95th or better. We’re setting the bar really, really goddamn low on this one.
Traveling Normandy 