Monday, August 08, 2011

Conflict



I was dreading August 6th, the race was to be hard and Amanda made it sound even harder. I was feeling fit and ready though and Lyna returned from Kentucky Wednesday, so Friday we packed up and headed to Grand Targhee. Drew and Ty both bailed, for separate reasons, so it was Boffeli and I doing the 100, Lyna doing the 50 and Jen playing photographer and support.

Friday even the 4 of us rode the Ricks Basin section and had giggly fun. Ate, talked, prepped bikes and fuel, and went to bed.

We stayed at the Sioux Lodge, which was about 100 yards from the start line, which was nice, Lyna and I got the bunk beds, she was on top.

4:30 am came and Shannon and I awoke and ate and headed to the start. The race was 4 25 mile laps (23ish actually) and started with a few mile service road climb, (succesive laps skipped this for single track. I went medium up this and was in the top 2oish, The Mill Creek descent followed and was a blast, I got by a few people on this and hooked up with the eventual 40+ winner. HE put a little gap on me on the pavement climbs, but i would bring him back on the single track descents. Bustle Creek climb was a brute, @4 miles of 18-20% climbing. I came through lap 1 in 2:10, feeling fresh and ahead of pace. I was in the top 20 and excited.

The pavement climbs on lap 2 started the descent of left knee pain and bustle creek on lap 2 put the nail in the coffin. The pain was too great.

Leg muscles - Check
Fuel - Check
Will - Check

Left Knee - fail

I adjusted the saddle, it helped for a bit, but no bueno.

So I bagged it, i had enough time to watch Lyna start the 50, and then watched all those I was racing close to come in to start lap 3. Showered, ate, lay down for a bit, and then went back out to cheer, support others.

Lyna had a great race and finished strong.


Jenelle, 2nd Pro Women. Ellen 6th
Ryan 13th Pro Men.

Brandon (evil) Banks and Gordon Rust both finished at @ 15 hours, we had a large group of fans out their cheering them on and hugging and the like. That made my day. They had the races of the day for the team. That is burley. I am so happy for them.

My knee, i need to see an ortho and get it figured out. Is it overuse or is there damage? I need to know. Under 3 hours and it is fine. XC racing, no problem. I like XC racing, but. I love endurance racing.

I am kinda in a funk about it, or maybe it is the fact that i have no more goal races for the year, except Cyclocross, which is well under 3 hours a race.

I expect i will also be jettig across oceans for work again soon too, so that's great.

3 comments:

Blackdog said...

I think that doctor thing may have legs. MRI if for no other reason than piece of mind. Hope you are not claustrophobic. I am still bummed that I could not make the race.

Nate said...

Knee pain sucks. I had tendonitis for a long time. Finally heeled up. Still flairs up once in awhile. I'd get the MRI as Blackdog says. Just so you know how to get it fixed. Don't feel bad, you're puttin on a killer series and others appreciate all that you do for that as well as the Revo team.

evilbanks said...

Knee pain is a bitch, hopefully you can get it sorted out with a quickness. Thanks for the kind words. Was very cool of you guys to hang around the finish line, made my day man.