So a handful of weekends ago was Gateway Cup in STL; I felt pretty strong coming into it, but Saturday morning I felt the onset of either sinus or head cold issues early and during day one racing simply the energy level tanked quick after 30 minutes (it was weird). So go to sleep that night with a bit of a hack and snort and by morning I felt miserable. Told Dale I would pre-ride, but didn't expect to race. Well, as you know from the last post I did race, finishing spot was solid, but physically I was a wreck.
Not a big deal as I simply moved my recovery week up one thinking in a couple days it would pass and back to grindstone I'd be. By day five I am feeling worse and worse (and that's with total 100% rest) and finally by day ten (that's right 10, which is some folks entire off season) I am back on the bike for some decent riding feeling better, but still nothing of interval status.
So that's two days before Ruts N Guts in Oklahoma which is a decently large attended three day event. I knew this was going to be a 'character builder', but necessary to get back up to speed; I mean if three days in a row is not a jump start what is????
Dale and I load up and head southwest Friday late morning. Show up to the event pretty early and have ample time to survey the course and unwind. Good layout with a nice mix of a lot of various features including elevation change, mud crossing with immediate run up, railroad tie run/ride ups (depending on ability), plenty of turning, and open power pedaling sections. Temps were spot on for cross as I believe mid-50s with quite a breeze.
Warm up and head to the start to see who's lining up in the Masters 40+. Shadd and Bill, a couple other familiar ones, and several faces I'd never seen. Official does the stupidest start leaving half of us still wondering what just happened, but off we go. Pace is decent and I am feeling pretty good until Shadd goes through and breaks up everything with a higher pace and I start suffering... 45 minutes later I was surprised I lasted to the end and nabbed 4th place. Way better than I expected, but also felt the effects of no intensity for the last couple weeks as the punch in the legs were gone and my breathing was super shallow.
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| Podium Friday night; think I photo-bombed this as they announced the top 5 so I thought we were all going to be in the pic - maybe not... |
So we stuck around and watched the other races before heading out. So this is pretty cool: a couple weeks ago I contacted the promoter who hooked us up with a host home in Tulsa. Made contact with the couple and they had a couple open beds waiting for Dale and I. Jeff and Jeannie Moon - awesome family who took wonderful care of us all weekend. We'll be back!Since day 2 didn't start until 4:30pm Dale and I yack'ed it up with Jeff and Jeannie before heading out for a couple errands before going to the venue. Arrived to find a non-technical (but lots of turning) flat grass (and a bit of asphalt) course - this was going to hurt.
Toed the start and found the same guys minus Shadd, but add Jeff Park, a fast (FAST) guy I knew from living in San Antonio who wrecked in the Open race the night before and decided to punish the masters Saturday and Sunday. And that's just what he did...
For the first half of the race the pace was controlled and six of us all rode together. Then Park and Bill, along with Ian Moore (from Texas) whipped up the pace with various attacks and I was out the back. Rode the rest going hard, but not killing it as no one was close behind and 5th was not obtainable - finished 6th. Legs felt better, but still unable to open my lungs fully; anyway I'll take it!
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| Day 2 racing with Jeff Park from San Antonio (right most in pic) who took the win |
Back to the start at 10am and off we go. Maintained a decent spot for the first four laps then started to feel labored and dropped back a bit from Bill and two others (two guys were off the front with a decent gap), but then there was some confusion from the race official. I won't go into the entire thing, but at one point the lap card said 2 (to go) so I upped my effort, bridged on the back of Bill's group and was hoping for the best on the last lap. Well as we came through (for what we figured was the bell lap) the official was standing in front of the lap card telling us 3 to go. I took a quick assessment of my physical status and knew I had to back off the pace a little now as I think the others did also, but Bill was on the attack, burying himself that lap. He went clear and as we rolled though with 2 to go he was pulled off on the side (not riding). I thought maybe he was injured or something, but the race was still on so head down... Couldn't make it up to the couple ahead of me and finished 5th.
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| Trickly little crossing before a set of railroad ties; never got it dialed in comfortably |
Afterwards Bill recounted he thought the race was over and stopped. He got back after 'discussing' it with the official and finished 6th. It was a screwed up Officiating weekend as results and their general lack of 'officialness' was embarrassing. Results took FOREVER Sunday and I felt bad for the promoter but honestly that why you spend a little more money and bring it quality groups like OneToGo and such.
For where I had been the last couple weeks I was happy with how the weekend went and actually finished 4th in the weekend Omnium. The head cold is gone and now am looking forward to a couple good solid weeks of training and racing without coughing and snorting.
Oh, and ride of the weekend was the guy (not sure of name) from Soundpony killing it on a single speed each day in the Open - crazy power! Think he was in the top 5 each day.
Up next is Jingle Cross in Iowa Friday for three more days of goodness. It's a big and super fast race and an awesome course(s). Forecast has it typical Jingle weather = cold, wet, and cold...
On the family front being sick meant good quality time with Deb and the boys on Halloween and the weekend. Did a bunch of fun stuff to include Ian, myself, and Deb's dad (Jim) hitting the walnut trail. Ian wanted some extra spending money, said he would work for it, so we picked walnuts all Sunday morning in a farmer's field outside of Bolivar. By the end we had a small trailer load (one tree we hit the mother-load) and Ian pocketed $55. That was a fun day.
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| That was a good day |
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| Grandpa pitched in to help and had a ball; these guys are great pals |
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| The crew showed up to see the hulling |
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| At the hullers waiting to get paid |
I am coaching Darion's 2nd grade YMCA basketball team and to put it mildly, we are 'skill challenged' as a group and the highlights are probably the snacks after the games, which is perfectly fine. I am a huge believer at this level score and winning are insignificant as long as fundamentals and FUN is obtained every practice and game.
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