SERC XC Race - Winder, Georgia.

Well after my initial impression of the course being super boring I found it to be a little more entertaining since they shortened the lap a little which gave it a bit more flow. Race was going good until I got some major stomach crampage 1/2 way through. I was pretty much reduced to keeping my heartrate below 150 BPM and couldn't flow anything because every bump hurt like hell. Now this was the first time such a thing has ever happened to me in a race so now begins the analysis of why I sucked so bad. Actually the analysis started while I was still "racing" as I tried to figure out what could have caused this. I'm not one for excuses, more like I want to figure out what happened so I can try and keep it from happening again. So here's a short list of routine irregularities that I came up with.

Early morning start / lack of sleep - I found out last night the race started at 9:30am, not the 11:30am start that I thought it was. So I packed up the car right away and got ready last night but still didn't get to bed until 11:30pm. I had to get up at 5:30am to get there in time.

Caffeinated gels - I used 2x caffeine PowerGels. Now this is not a change from what I regularly use but being this was only the 2nd race of the year perhaps my body couldn't handle them. Unlikely but still a possibility.

Lack of sustained intensity in training - I have been doing lots of LSD rides and intervals but nothing really sustained for a longer period of time. Maybe this is why I was good for an hour 15min before it happened.

Conclusion - Pretty much I think it was a combo of all three. The major player being a lack of sustained intensity. So I plan to hit up some club rides and weekly race series in the next couple weeks to build this back up. I'm also going to use some of the caffeinated gels when I do this to make sure that I get used to them. I am also going back to a more reasonable sleep schedule because believe it or not I have to go back to work soon lol. I guess there is a 4th possibility, I'm getting old :-(

I think I'll still be good to go for the important races.
Benno