Norfolk Criterium - State Championships

After Durango, I was feeling pretty good on the bike (especially after coming back down to Nebraska elevation) and the next weekend was the Norfolk State Championship Road Event, I had to work on Saturday, so I figured that I would do the criterium on Sunday and see how it went. After doing this race two years ago and getting shelled off the back when I should have been able to hang on for awhile, I decided on the following race strategy: Get close to the front early to avoid the accordian effect at the back and also to get well within the draft. A good warmup was also very important so I was ready to put forth hard efforts right away.
I executed my plan perfectly. I warmed up for 40 min on the trainer and tapped into all HR zones, then when the race started I got a good start and was positioned perfectly in the front 1/3 of the pack. From here, my conditioning shown through like a shining light, or more appropriately a black hole. There were 8 turns per lap and on the acceleration out of each one of them I was losing a spot or two and by turn 7 I found myself at the back of the pack... Lap two, I thought one more effort and I can get back on, but that was wishful thinking, my HR was already in the red and I was maxed out.

So from here on out I was doing a Time Trial effort and just hoping to minimize the number of times I got lapped. I ended up getting lapped twice which guaranteed me last place. While I had hoped I would do better than this there were a few positives for the day. For starters, I have not lost my mental toughness, never once did I even consider quitting or any sort of thoughts along those lines. Second, it was a good training day and I would not have been able to duplicate that effort on my own.

Really, when I consider how much riding I did this past winter: "What the heck did I expect?" I raced as well as I trained, maybe even better! Lastly, the result today was irrelevant, doing this race was still fun and gives me a big taste of the excitement and passion I have for cycling. This year, my comeback journey will be completed, It's game on!