Catching Up and A Race and Foot Report

A little time off, but I'm back. Work has been crazy busy, plus, there was a little trip to Hawaii and a break after Masters Nationals was needed. Man, Hawaii was FUN! And it was a chance to see my Portuguese pals again! I'm already planning next year's trip.

So, after taking most of October off, last weekend I got back on the bike. The plan is to do more base training than last year and less cross racing. Last year I raced pretty much every weekend in the fall/winter, many times, both days, so not much base training got done.

The race team had a recruiting ride a week ago, so that +3 hour ride was the longest ride I'd done since about June. I felt great and on the Sunday, went down near Santa Cruz to maybe do PsychoCross. I went down with 3 teammates, one to race, one to work as an official and the third, to spectate, cheer and give feeds during the races. After pre-riding the course, I decided not to race since the course had some big downhills and I'm not so good on those and I don't think that during a race is the best time to learn how to ride them. So, I drank beer, heckled and had fun. 

The week of 27 October started the real off-season training and I had a good week--training every day. On Saturday I headed out to the park behind Candlestick Park to help build Sunday's cyclocross course (Candlestick Point park). It wasn't raining when we started, but within 30 minutes, it started to rain, and for the next 5 hours while we were building the course and doing some landscaping, it rained. At times, it poured. At least the winds were from the south, so it wasn't that cold. But we were drenched. There was supposed to be a clinic at 3:00 PM after we finished building the course, but about 2:15 PM when we finished, it was just pouring, so Paule sent us home. Home, hot shower, pack for the next day, eat, change clocks, bed.

Sunday I got to the venue early since I gave teammate Hank a ride and he raced in the first race. That was fine since I was in the second race, so I got to check out the course on the bike and see how it was after the big rain. (It had kept raining most of the day/night.) The course started out on the flat on the road, then a left turn and through a big mud puddle (standing water across the entire road/path), up a slight hill and bypassing the first part of the course until the next lap, in order to spread the fields out.

When we were laying out the course, I kept thinking that there were a lot of hills...mostly short, but steep and in the mud. My goals for the race were to (1) actually race and not freak out, (2) ride all of the downhills and (3) attempt the uphills. One thing that happens when you build the course is that you know where all the big holes are and that was actually a little disconcerting since I wanted to stay away from those areas. It might be better to not know.

They called for the Women's C group to line up and the field was about 25 people and Team Roaring Mouse had 6 or 7 women in the race. It was nice to see all of the yellow and black. I lined up in the back since I'd not raced in 5 weeks and on the gun, we were off. The older junior boys started in front of us and the younger junior boys started after us. I took off and rode through the mud/water puddle--fun! Off to the right on the first lap modified course, a left and over to the first set of barriers. I got over them fine and back on the bike, passing a gal on a mountain bike, then she'd pass me back. The second set of barriers and again, got over them OK, then down the sidewalk, passing a couple of people, then off the bike and carry the bike up the steep, muddy hill. The day before, we'd seen how slick this hill was when Brooke went sliding down it on her backside. So, I picked a line up the right side in the grass, but that was still pretty slick. To the top and through the muddy path and I was able to ride the mud OK. 

Though the section of turns and short, steep uphills and downhills and some of the uphills I was able to ride and others, I got partway up and had to get off and run. Through the last downhill and a sweeping right and onto the gravel and to the parking lot and the road. On the road I hammered it and rode like heck and then it was back through the start/finish and back to the mud puddle. All the remaining laps we had a hard left and uphill right after the mud puddle and on the warm-up, I wasn't able to ride the hill, but during the race, I made myself COMMIT and rode up each time. The same thing happened on a couple of the other hills on the front side. 

For the first and second lap, I could hear Paule yelling at Brooke, so I knew she wasn't that far behind me. Plus, mountain bike gal and I kept trading places. She'd get ahead of me on the uphills in the mud and I'd pass her back on the flats. By the last lap, she and I were neck-to-neck about halfway through and she got ahead of me on a really muddy uphill. I was able to pass her back and I heard her husband yelling at her to "Get up there and catch her!" so I powered up the next hill and down and onto the the gravel. I put the hammer down since there was no way that I was going to let her catch me on the road. I got off the gravel and onto the road and put it into the big chain ring and rode as hard as I could. I could see someone just up ahead and right before the gate to the last finishing straight, I got up out of the saddle and rode even harder and caught the person in front of me before the line....Emily Mc! (Sorry Em)  

I ended up 19th out of 22 or 23, and beat mountain bike gal by nearly 2 minutes. I was happy with my race and very happy about riding all the downhills! 

Post-race:  I went for a cool-down ride with Webcor Gail, then changed and got something to eat. I walked out on the course to watch the A men go up the big hill (which by this time had dried out a lot and they were riding right up the hill). There was a mini-party going on out there, so I chatted with everyone and then walked back to the Mouse tent. On the way back, my right foot and a cement sidewalk slab had a very hard head-on collision and I fell down and #*@&@#@!(! that hurt! Damn!!! But, after the initial shock, it didn't feel too bad and I walked around some more and then when the racing was over, I packed up the truck and drove home. I'd planned to go to the BAWC shindig, but after I got the truck unloaded and parked, then showered, my foot/big toe was hurting a lot and I laid on the couch and put it up and iced it, but it was THROBBING!!! A 500 mg. Motrin helped a little, but not a lot. I finally went to bed with the foot propped up and the next morning, it was still hurting a lot. 

A visit to St. Francis Sports Medicine and the hospital and a number of x-rays later, I was in a boot. No fracture, but some serious bruising and sprained. I go back to see the doctor in about a week, so I guess I'll be swimming and riding the trainer. Damn! Just when I was getting back into the swing of training!

I have a race planned in two weeks and I'm thinking positive on being there.