Have been racing since March & did my 7th race last week & totally blew up in the 1st lap...

My training rides have been getting faster and I am getting fitter & stronger, climbing & descending faster e.t.c - was first race in nearly 8 weeks ( scene get's quite in height of summer where I live) & I really fancied my chances to place well..

After 3 miles of first lap ! I just hit a wall which lasted until I got into 2nd lap when I was able to pick it up again - I couldn't understand it because I have been going faster for 20 mile training rides on race technical terrain and feeling OK. The distance I am racing is 15 mile.

Only thing I can think of is the adrenaline is affecting me and maybe I am too tense and losing energy this way on race day...anyone else experienced this when they started out ? any tips ?

Also I am now doing road rides - what sort of training do I need to be doing on & off road - any hill training e.tc ?

I love XC racing, the courses are excellent & the atmosphere is great - I suspect also it is one of those things the better you get at it the more enjoyable it becomes.. ?

What kind of warm up did you do? It sounds to me like that could be the problem. The reason I say that is because I have the same type problems. It hit me hard last weekend after six weeks off of racing.

Is it possible you were charging out harder than you thought you were from the gun? I've gotten myself behind the eightball with that before. LowCel, I know you're using a HRM, so you can track things like that afterward; do you have any hard data you can refer to Riles?

I'm looking but can't really find anything that shows what I am refering too. I wish I had a powertap on my mountain bike, that would really show it. On my graph my heart rate stays pretty consistant, what it doesn't show is that my power output actually goes down for a period of time when I am suffering because I didn't warm up properly.

At the start of a race it is pretty normal for my heart rate to go from 80 bpm at the starting line to 180 a minute later when I am trying to be one of the first three into the singletrack. If you don't have a decent warm up prior to this spike your body isn't going to react in a good way. That is why the warm up is so important.

What sucks is that in our series you have to stand around 15 - 20 minutes prior to the start for the racer meeting and the staggered starts. During this time you have some time to cool down.

Thanks.

To be honest my warm up is pretty much ride around a little before the race and stretch, I never work up a sweat. I am concerned about using up too much energy before the actual race, this is one of the reasons I do not do a practice lap on the day because I feel one whole lap will take a lot of energy out..

what sort of warm up's do you do ? and do you do practice laps..

I don't do practice laps, our courses are typically 8 miles long if they are laps or they are 15 miles or so long if they aren't. Doing an entire lap as practice would be too much.

My warm up sucks and is a big reason I am always brides made and never the bride. A good warm up for me would be about half an hour with about five or six 10 - 15 second sprint intervals thrown in as well as a couple of minutes in zone three to get my heart rate up. This is still a very weak warm-up compared to the people that actually know what they are doing.

LowCel, did you run Little Beaver last weekend?

Yes, I did Little Beaver. I did terrible. Worst race I have had in two or three years. Finished 10th place!!! I felt like I had never even been on a mountain bike before. I sucked!!!!!

I did Lake Hope, Ohio yesterday. That course was awesome.

I actually took my road bike and trainer and warmed up on that. What a difference that made. When I try to warm up on my mountain bike I end up stopping and talking to everyone. When I do it on the trainer others stop and talk to me. Much better. However taking the road bike is a hassle. I am ordering a slick mtb tire today and installing it on one of my spare wheelsets (won a wheelset at App Classic, using that one). This way I can just take two rear wheels and switch them out when I am on the trainer. That should work out much better.