Originally Posted by
mike868y
today was the race that broke me. i've been racing pretty regularly since april and am just friggin tired. signed up for two more cx races but at this point i'm just going through the motions.
nothing like making sure you are REALLY finished off, eh?
i just had my last CX race of the year, and i feel like it was my best one. in some senses i'm sad it is over (weather was unseasonably nice, which helped), but i'm also glad for the change of seasons. i may be racing on skis in 2 weeks.
last saturday came closer than i have all season to beating a racer i respect, and this weekend i caught and passed him after 3 laps into a 7-lap race. he followed me for 3 laps. i could not break him, though. on the final lap i was unable to isolate him on the power section/headwind, and he got around me in the barriers that were 2' from the finish. finished a few seconds behind him. chapeau.
we actually had a really fun battle for 1/2 the race. i exploited my strengths and then went tape to tape to negate his. (nothing unsportsmanlike.) i even went through the internal dialogue when i was deep in the race, lungs burning, legs aching -- reminding myself that that was EXACTLY the time to go even harder.
final lap was the same time as my first lap. i'll get him next year.