Thursday evening rolled around quickly this week and it was a quick reminder of being 1 day closer to the weekend, but also of race #3 of the cyclocross Thrilla' series. I was hoping that since we had some precip last weekend, the course would be packed down a little better and there would be less moondust in the air to clog up the lungs.
As it turned out, the moondust was as bad as ever and the first lap was particularly heinous as the stampede of riders from the group ahead of us kicked up a serious moondust cloud. Midway into my first lap I could feel my mouth drying up like a prune. It was nasty...I tried to alternate breathing through my nose & mouth until the heart rate kicked up enough to force the gasping through the biggest hole to take air in....After that it was all over and the moondust inhaling began in earnest! I tried to salivate to create some moisture in the mouth but then gave up as that just made for a moondust mud flavor.
As we went through the first 1/2 lap, things started to clear up a wee bit (relatively speaking). It was another fun race of red-lining the heart rate for about 30 minutes and trying to hold on until the finish. The HR stayed in the 160's again throughout the race and also visited into the 170's for moments. Chart below shows the HR consistently in the 160's for the entire race (middle section of the graph).
The legs felt tired all week and the moondust imbibement from the prior week's Thrilla' race still seemed to linger. The lungs and legs were tight so it was bound to be an internal dialogue battle royale of sucking it up (literally) and trying to work out the lead (as in anchors) in the legs.
I had a couple of snafu's while trying to mount and could not figure out if that was from being tired and making mistakes or from watching some 'how to cyclocross' vids that planted the seed of a different technique mounting/dismounting. It was probably a combination of both....nothing like learning on the fly, eh? The new techniques (more like proper) were quickly discarded as I was botching them up and only causing myself strife...so back to the inefficient and naive riding it was...I managed to finish without too much further turmoil and there is 1 more race to go next week.
I have thrilla' lung this morning and am trying to work out all the moondust....with a little luck we will get some precip to pack that course down a little more.
Props to Webcyclery who have done a bang up job of providing a great opportunity to learn about this new sport.
As it turned out, the moondust was as bad as ever and the first lap was particularly heinous as the stampede of riders from the group ahead of us kicked up a serious moondust cloud. Midway into my first lap I could feel my mouth drying up like a prune. It was nasty...I tried to alternate breathing through my nose & mouth until the heart rate kicked up enough to force the gasping through the biggest hole to take air in....After that it was all over and the moondust inhaling began in earnest! I tried to salivate to create some moisture in the mouth but then gave up as that just made for a moondust mud flavor.
As we went through the first 1/2 lap, things started to clear up a wee bit (relatively speaking). It was another fun race of red-lining the heart rate for about 30 minutes and trying to hold on until the finish. The HR stayed in the 160's again throughout the race and also visited into the 170's for moments. Chart below shows the HR consistently in the 160's for the entire race (middle section of the graph).
The legs felt tired all week and the moondust imbibement from the prior week's Thrilla' race still seemed to linger. The lungs and legs were tight so it was bound to be an internal dialogue battle royale of sucking it up (literally) and trying to work out the lead (as in anchors) in the legs.
I had a couple of snafu's while trying to mount and could not figure out if that was from being tired and making mistakes or from watching some 'how to cyclocross' vids that planted the seed of a different technique mounting/dismounting. It was probably a combination of both....nothing like learning on the fly, eh? The new techniques (more like proper) were quickly discarded as I was botching them up and only causing myself strife...so back to the inefficient and naive riding it was...I managed to finish without too much further turmoil and there is 1 more race to go next week.
I have thrilla' lung this morning and am trying to work out all the moondust....with a little luck we will get some precip to pack that course down a little more.
Props to Webcyclery who have done a bang up job of providing a great opportunity to learn about this new sport.
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