The all to common hyphen followed by greater than sign version of PMBAR 2010.
Black Mountain -> Maxwell -> Clawhammer -> Buckhorn Gap -> South Mills River -> 476 -> 1206 ->Pilot Mountain -> Pilot Mountain Connector -> Checkpoint -> Laurel Mountain -> 1206 -> 5000 -> Checkpoint at Spencer Gap -> 5000 -> 1206 -> 5015 -> Bradley Creek -> Checkpoint at Bradley Fields -> Bradley Creek -> Squirrel Gap -> Checkpoint at Cantrell Creek -> Squirrel Gap -> Horse Cove -> Give up on 5 -> 476 -> South Mills River -> Buckhorn Gap -> Clawhammer ->Maxwell -> Black Mountain -> Finish with a flat.
Had a tough day on the bike. Timed something wrong, maybe work on the road had the legs feeling dead, who knows. Maybe there's no way to predict a good day, no system of rest and effort before hand that reliably creates good legs. I've done plenty of 5 and 6 hour rides this spring, all of which I felt strong on throughout. XC race strong, and then could have settled in to the effort was body has gotten used to. I was fighting at hour 3 this time around.
I'm somewhere between mildly and grossly disappointed, and sitting at the airport to head off to work again. Actually this post has been written in two airports. This could be the post race depression my friends have spoke of, but at this point, unless I can get to a bike regularly (i.e. change jobs) the racing life may be set aside for a bit in favor of riding for fun, mixing in some climbing, and even exploring all those black trails on the Pisgah map.
The springs been fun hiking with Kara and Bella, meeting riders and showing them around Pisgah, and reintroducing myself to the ropes on Looking Glass. Compared to the satisfaction of those three, the death march back up 1206 to Yellow Gap doesn't quite fall in place.
Or I'll feel better next time, and love racing again. Two weeks will tell.
riding, climbing, and eating.
4 comments:
Good seeing you out there. Drop me a line if you ever want to check out one of those black trails.
Hold your head up, post-PMBAR Monday mortem will eventually go away. We all have bad days no matter how hard we work at it.
Show up for WNDC when you can, it puts the "fun" back into riding.
nice work Robb! Good seeing you, and yes, you'll feel better. I definitely know those post-race blues but you definitely kicked some ass out there.
This is how I felt about the two Snake Creek Gap TTs I did this year. Good luck.
Post a Comment