in like a lion... out like a lamb

In Like a Lion... Out Like a Lamb...

it is interesting... my racing effort in cyclocross for each race was metaphorical for my cyclocross race season as a whole
each race I attacked hard and then died
this season I attacked hard early... then by the end of the season I was slow like molasses

this is not so much my revisiting the notion that my fitness was dropping off while other riders were ramping up
this is more a personal understanding of my failed approach to racing
my lack of a racing strategy

luckily I ride bikes rather than box in the ring
if I were a boxer I would step into the ring with the same fighting strategy each and
every time
taking a beating every time
never winning... never doing any better... never learning
how many times to I have to get beaten up before I alter my approach
when will I learn?


if I were a sprinter and I ran the hundred yard dash I would be walking the last twenty yards of a hundred yard race
it was not just a matter of fitness
it was a matter of an ignorant effort to have my fastest lap be my first lap
when it would be so much wiser to save that energy for later in the race

each and every time I approached the race with the same notion
ATTACK!
at the sound of the gun I attacked and raced for the leaders in the front
hammering out all I could on my first lap
trying so dang hard to continue to hammer out each following lap

only to have my strength diminish
my speed dropped off and racers rolled past me

at Kelly Acres I had near success or so I thought
at Kelly Acres like all my other races I had the same progression
managed to get a good start
had the leader Jonathan Seibold just a turn or two ahead
got lucky and zipped past two racers who went down on a swooping off camber downhill turn
and this it happened
a fast few early laps then a slow death
racers started to roll past me

I had no fight left to hold them off or to even grab a wheel

how did I not see that this go out and hammer then drift back approach to race was not working?

it was only after my last race of the season that I realized that maybe it would work better to have my last lap be my fast strong lap instead of my first!

there were no actual "race objectives" or "race goals" this season
there was the intention to take things a little more seriously... but even that ended for me early in the season
I did not do a single "cyclocross practice" after September

in fact... I did very few rides that would constitute "training"
while others were RAMPING UP I WAS DROPPING OFF...
my riding did not taper... my riding pretty much stopped
a mixture of a rainy fall and the responsibilities of adult life

somehow cyclocross lost its priority in the framework of my life
go figure.


LED AND SHEEP on youtube
www.youtube.com

I really wanted to give this a read
but it does not look like that is gonna happen

I have no idea if my jumbled thoughts make any sense

funny... as a mountain biker I did far more cyclocross races this season than mountain bike races
which may have to do with an injury in the spring and the proximity of cyclocross races to DC
but it is still funny

Men's Master B 35+
Charm City 18/102
Ed Sanders 15/90
Kelly Acres 16/53
DCCX 35/79
(already dropping back... other people racing every weekend and practicing during the week while I blog and take photographs)
Tacchino 37/75
Rockburn 37/88
Capital Cross Classic 30/69