Mountain Biking - disappointing finish at the race yesterday

Well, I raced for the second time in my life yesterday. I was in the beginners 20-29 class. There were tornado warnings on Saturday night, so I didn't pre-register, and was just going to on Sunday morning. I had planned on getting there early, and took off in plenty of time, but, my truck broke down, and wouldn't start at all. A cop stopped and had me try to start it for awhile, then made me push it off the shoulder on another road. After the cop left, I called and woke my in-laws up, who brought me an extra Suburban they had. I loaded the bikes and stuff into this vehicle, left my truck there, then hauled ass to the race, and still showed up 20 minutes after registration was supposed to be closed. Once again I floored it to the starting line, which was about 15 miles away on some twisty roads. I get there about 10 minutes before starting, put on my stuff, stretched for a minute, went to check in, came back to the truck, and my wife was halfway finished installing my new computer although I had decided there was no time. By the time it was finished, I missed the start of the race. I had not had time to warm up whatsoever, so I was totally worn out within about 30 seconds with my heart beating uncontrollably fast. I got on a slight downhill, and tried to calm down and regulate my breathing, while warming up my legs, and let my heart rate drop down to normal levels. After about 5 or 10 minutes, I started feeling great. I started riding fast, and felt like I was in a groove. Unfortunatley, the second heat showed up behind me, and all of them started passing me. I couldn't understand this, as I had been practicing this as much as my office job allowed me to during the summer, and I just couldn't keep up. I mean, not only was I going as fast as I physically could without totally burning up too quick, I couldn't stay in control. There was a major storm with lots of rain overnight, and there were tree roots galore just covered with sloppy mud. I was slipping and sliding everywhere, being thrown left and right by parallel roots, and the perpendicular roots would nearly stop me in my tracks. I'm normally good about unweighting over roots, but there were just too many, you just had to blast through them, and my hardtail and my 7 year old Indy XC fork didn't like that too much. Anyway, the faster guys left, and there were a few of us slower guys left behind, so I decided to just make the race between me and them. I was doing good, but my bike kept messing up and I was making racing mistakes, so I'd pass a guy or two or three, then something would happen and I'd be off my bike and all of them would pass me. Some of the bike mess-ups were my fault, while some of them I'm still mad about because I don't understand them. My chain fell off the chain ring three times, fell off the rear cogs and got stuck 4 times, got clogged in mud and just froze 3 times, my rear brake didn't work worth a flip once I got in the mud, I flew over the handlebars once on a steep dropoff, one of the faster guys passed me on a steep hill and immediately cut in front of me which made me hit the side of his rear tire then lose momentum and fall, then I missed a turn off once due to not seeing the one and only very small trail marker which turned off immediately after the water ended in a creek crossing. Last but not least, on about mile 16 of the total 19 miles, both my thighs locked up in horrible cramps which made me get off the bike and just squat down for awhile, while I watched about 7 people pass me. I ended up only beating one guy, but I think he was in the 30-39 age group whose heat started after mine.

Anyway, mucho disappointio. Just had to vent...

I hope this doesn't stop you in the future. It sounds like there was a lot against you in this race. Live and learn :D...

Cheers to at least trying.

Given all that happened before you even started, I wouldn't be too upset about anything that happened during the race. Nice show of perserverance on your part to even finish.

That said, people who race regularly are usually a significant level above even fit occasional riders. Racers, even in the Cat 5 or beginner classes, sacrifice other areas in their lives to make training a regular part of their schedule

You might be quite happy to enter occasional races based on your existing fitness, just to see how you do. If you really want to improve, though, you're going to want to focus on your fitness, technique, and alas, quite possibly, your equipment.

I'm looking, at the age of 38, to start as a Cat 5 roadie next year. I've gotten quite a bit of value out of -- Friel, The Cyclist's Training Bible: A Complete Training Guide for the Competitive Road Cyclist. The same author offers a mountain biking counterpart, which you might be interested in. Both books are available on Amazon, though I picked mine up at my LBS.

Friel outlines theories of periodized workouts to increase fitness, and offers a lot of good tips about scheduling varied workouts in a logical way to build toward peaking for important races. Friel's book has done more to improve my riding than any improvement I could have made to my bike for $17. You might want to give it a look.

P.S. If you want to improve your fitness, try to use your bike on your commute if at all possible. You can get a lot of your annual training hours in that way, assuming the nature of your job and the intervening route permits it.

At least you finished. Alot of racers DNF for differant reasons. Overcoming adversity and finishing is some thing to be proud of.
It is all apart of racing.

Slainte:beer:

Originally posted by dirtbikedude
At least you finished.

That is the key.

You had a rough day - battled the odds, and finished the race. That's what it's all about. Good job! :)

Thanks for the inspiration guys, I appreciate it. I'm about to trade vehicles, and am thinking seriously about getting out extra money to buy a Specialized Epic. I figured that would inspire me to train all winter and be at least somewhat competitive in the beginners class this spring.

What an awesome day you had! What a story! What adversity to have to push through. Perhaps the greatest learning day in your biking carrer! An inspiring story for one who is about to do his first beginner race!

Dang, I totally forgot about these forums! I just got an alert from that last reply so I checked it out. Re-read my original post... damn I really sucked back then! :D :D :D Apparently my bike sucked too. Now I've got both a 2004 Haro Werx XLS and a 2004 Kona Stab... no more 7 year old POS forks for me. But yeah, my biggest lesson lesson of that day was that you should either come prepared, or don't come at all. That truck breakdown did screw me up real bad though. Now I'm pimpin' at the trailheads in a newer style Grand Cherokee, so hopefully I won't have any more really bad mechanical problems for a long time.

Corndoggy- Man, you did 10 times better than I would! I think you did a great job. Don't be hard on yourself. Did you have a great time? How about learning something? Any expierience that we encounter and learn from, whether they be good or bad is all we can ask for. I have been at work for 30 years in the same trade and I STILL learn something everyday. I ask my apprentices every day if they learned anything. Not one has ever said no. Keep up the enthusiasm! wfin2004

Dang, I totally forgot about these forums! I just got an alert from that last reply so I checked it out. Re-read my original post... damn I really sucked back then! :D :D :D Apparently my bike sucked too. Now I've got both a 2004 Haro Werx XLS and a 2004 Kona Stab... no more 7 year old POS forks for me. But yeah, my biggest lesson lesson of that day was that you should either come prepared, or don't come at all. That truck breakdown did screw me up real bad though. Now I'm pimpin' at the trailheads in a newer style Grand Cherokee, so hopefully I won't have any more really bad mechanical problems for a long time.

Wow! Great story! I'm glad it resurfaced after two years so I got a chance to read it. Sounds like you had a great race! :beer:

Why is this bumped, jeeze.

Why is this bumped, jeeze.

Someone actually used the "Search" function and it must have come up.

L8R

Holy crap I didn't even notice the age...I have been on THAT long...holy crap. I had only been on my bike like 6 months at this point hahaha oh my the memories