Changing Directions.

Well I thought this next blog was going to be about Calvins Challenge and the lessons I learned from that race, but a 1" bobble at less than 15 mph changed my trajectory for the moment and for most of the summer.

First I will cover Calvins Challenge by highlighting the 3 things that I relearned at Calvins Challenge. Nutrition, Pace, and Perseverance.

Nutrition isn't a race day or race weekend thing. Its an all week thing. I came into Calvins after a week of eating poorly and drinking too much. Which meant that by race day I was 5 lbs over my target weight. I pretty much did my prerace and race day nutrition exactly as was needed, but carrying that extra weight contributed to my not winning.

I went into Calvins Challenge with a goal of winning the Race and setting the course record which meant keeping an average of better than 22 mph. I knew that we needed to keep pushing the pace and get the first lap in around 2:10 and follow with it with laps of around 2:15, 2:20, 2:25 if we were going to have a chance. We hit the target on the first lap of 2:09, but we had too few workers and too many riders. I pushed myself too much during that section and the next 15 miles of the 2nd lap so that when the HPV came around us and started pulling into the wind at 21 I could no longer hold with the group. So, persuing my time goal guaranteed I would not win the race. This should have been learned from my experience at Sebring but I'm evidently a slow learner.

I also relearned that perseverance pays. I went off the back at 68 miles into the race which left a pack of an HPV, 2 bents and 3 diamond frames in front. I knew that I could no longer win the race, but I also knew that I was probably the strongest person riding on the course (J.S and Bryce probably don't agree) and that if I kept pushing I would come back. I did keep pushing into the ugly head wind and was able to come back to finish ahead of everyone except John Schlitter and Bryce Walsh - HPV's don't count :).

After a long trip back from Ohio that involved 12 hours of driving through storms, changing flats and watching lots of flood waters, I was ready to get back to my training and nutrition plan and put into practice what I had learned and resolved to do.

Tuesday was my day to swim in the morning and do an upperbody workout in the afternoon with my son, Allen. We finished up the lifting session and went out for an easy spin on our bikes along with Ralph. We rode out to Hurricane Creek to check out how flooded everything was and were on our way back to the house. We played bike tag and were generally messing around as we rode.

I had ridden up to Allen and we were talking when suddenly we were too close. Not a problem. I had taught Allen how to ride shoulder to shoulder on MTB's. Problem - we weren't on MTB's. Allen was on his road bike in the areo bars and I was on my bike-polo bike with supper narrow bars. I'm not sure exactly what happened, just remember my bike stopping and me flying.

Being an ex-wrestler and MTB'er, I've become very good at rolling thru crashes - this is probably the reason I don't have a broken collar bone right now. What I do have is a messed up shoulder.

I was able to get out and do a century ride on Friday and keep my streak of at least 1 double a week alive on Saturday, so the pain is something I can ride with, but it has caused me to make some changes in my plans for the summer. All of which will probably lead to a much happier and stress free me.

I have decided to remove RAW from my competition plans. I'm going to need to modify my training plans to take into consideration rehab time for the shoulder. If I'm not training to win the race, I'm not going to spend the $5,000+ plus it takes, plus jump thru all of the hoops that Raw requires just to ride 800 miles. I can do that for next to free any time I want.

When you combine that with the fact that Allen, my 13 year old, wants to go hiking the Rockies this summer you can see where I would much rather allocate my time.

Not training for RAW will also allow me to do Texas Rando Stampede as a much more leisurely and laid back ride. I think these changes will make life much more enjoyable for both Trish and I.

Happy Mother's Day, Trisha Bear.