I had the worst riding day of the year. It was completely unexpected. I really hope it wasn’t because of the extreme heat and humid, because there is a lot of that yet to come! The course was pretty interesting. A bar bell shaped course with two short hills. And two technical corners. The field was pretty small, less than 50, but super high quality for a regional race. And, the teams had pretty even distribution and strengths on paper.
I don’t have much to say. Scott Monninger, who is just racing for pleasure it seems, showed up with a bunch of his Big Shark teammates. Scott took off pretty early on the 2nd lap or so. His attacks have always been so subtle and smooth that no one seems to want to go with him. I think a lot of the field didn’t even know it was him or that he was even in the race. Anyway, I made a pretty big effort to “bridge” up to him. It took me the better part of a lap, a couple minutes. From then on I was pretty much useless.
I got a side ache. Something like a runner’s stitch. I don’t usually get those bike racing. My breathing was horrible. I couldn’t catch my breath. The race was only an hour and I suffered the whole time. It was like having a super bad day on a MTB bike. There was nearly no point on any lap that I felt recovered. I have been riding pretty good for a while, so the pain in riding bad seems foreign. Racing bikes when the pedals aren’t going over in any familiar or recognizable way is one of the most humbling and, for me, one of the most uncomfortable things in life. Something I try to avoid like the plague. But, that isn’t the way life works.
So, anyway, we didn’t do very well, which was also surprising. Scott ended up getting away with Alex Welch, Mercy. Then Stefan Roth and Chad Cagle , also from Mercy, rode away. Dan Schmatz, Big Shark, won the field sprint. I ended up 8th. Gassed. Shad Smith was 7th and Chris Hall 10th.
I’m starting the race today with a completely empty stomach. No food for 5-6 hours before the race. Sometimes that works well in these extreme conditions, at least in my experiences in MTB racing. And, that is what yesterday felt like to me.
Bromont watching me suffer. Really suffer.
Pingback: Twitted by EventKansasCity
I saw a turtle just starting to cross the road at a nearby state park. Not much traffic, but I thought ‘Steve Tilford would move that turtle’.
Stopped and moved it to the side of the road it was headed to. It started to pull in its head when I picked it up but then it saw where I was moving it and realized I was a friend. Got on my bike and glanced back and it was GONE.
Hot and humid weather makes it a lot more difficult for the body to transfer heat awaay from itself. Body temp is elevated during exercise, as is relative humidity near the skin, so if there’s a good temperature gradient, then there’s good heat transfer. If there’s leittle or no gradient, (body temp at skin 101F, outside temp 101F, and the relative humidities are roughly the same) then there’s little or no heat transfer. That sets you up for a lot of things, including cramps from dehydration and overheating, and if you’ve ever had asthma, you can kick off an asthma attack, or you can kick off an allergy attack. Interstingly enough, the immune system kicks in big time when your body temp increases (which is the function of fever in combating illness). Allergic reactions are immune system repsonses.