Training Log Archive: kgeisen

Earlier in the week I tried convincing friends to ride the COC or Sapling route with me today but got no takers because of Mother's Day. Thank goodness! Of course by the end (or midpoint) of CCX I had no desire to ride today. But Chuck had brought his bike and guilted me into riding this morning. Easy spin to Mokane, took down race marking tape, saved a turtle, checked out an old jail, used a bathroom that still had toilet paper...good times.

Event: Cedar Cross 112 Mile Gravel Event
 

Time noted is moving time. Elapsed time was 11:15:59. My Garmin died with just a couple miles to go, so total time and mileage were a little longer.

Rode with Mickey, plan was to work on race pace and pushing my pace. That didn't go so well. Strong start, but I couldn't maintain that and really struggled in the heat. I wore my camelbak because I was worried about having enough water the first 45 miles, but it made my back hurt and added to the heat factor. Didn't stay on top of food and was bonking by Boydsville bag drop. Shaun was there too, also in bad shape, and rolled out with us.

Dropped off CB at bag drop, stuffed shirt with ice, and began eating everything I could as we rode off. Singletrack was SO MUCH MORE RIDEABLE than last year. I'm not sure if it was the ice, the food, or the fact that Shaun was in worse shape than I was, but I felt way better. We kind of took turns feeling worse, and after the hot dog stand he told Mickey to stop waiting on him.

Hams Prairie to nuclear plant was OK, downhill to Katy was a blast. I didn't really take advantage of Mickey's wheel and the flat Katy when I could, and then I really struggled on the hills of the last section from Mokane back to Tebbets. I don't think I walked any gravel/road hills before then, but I walked a lot of the ones on the last section. With just a few miles to go Mickey told me that Yvonne was about 3 minutes ahead of me and we should chase her down, but at that point it was all I could do to keep pedaling. Fun downhill finish.

Hard to compare performance from year to year with such different conditions and big change in course this year, but on the strava segments that are the same as previous years, I had zero best times. I know the heat really affects me, so again it's hard to know what all the difference was, but I've got more miles on me and more big hills ridden by this point this year than any year before and I'm doing (feeling) not awesome on rides.

One of my strengths has been starting out at a more conservative pace and then staying consistent or getting stronger throughout the day. One of my weaknesses is being overly conservative. So the question is, am I going out too hard with Mickey pushing me (not in a negative way) to race and then blowing up? Or am I feeling like crap because I'm pushing instead of chilling when I ride? Or some combination.

I was pretty disappointed in how I rode/felt. Christine came up afterwards and told me that all the work I've done over the past few years has really paid off in my improvement. I told her basically what I said here and she said she felt good all day and only finished about 30 min ahead of me, so if I did how I did feeling terrible, that was pretty good. That made me feel better, but not as better as having what feels like a strong race.

C • good job! 2

Felt strong, but doing this later than usual and on no breakfast had me pretty shaky, so I quit about halfway through.

Chill couple laps at CCP with Chuck. So fun.