Cycling-Mixed Terrain 5:21:39 [3] +98ft
ahr:160 max:183
the race went ok... I got 2nd, and stoked on that for sure, but a bit of a rough day. I just had nothing from the get go. super flat and sluggish legs... i didn't let that stop me though. I kinda faked it and just sucked it up but I never felt good. It's mind blowing how much better I felt at the last race after doing intervals on weds & thrus, riding 100 miles on friday, and then racing. I had all the power in the world that day and could easily shut anything down. Today I did my best and still kind of controlled the race but didn't have what it took to get the win.
at about 50' in we were already down to 15 so I attacked and split things up and we were down to 6. Shortly after a guy on the front lead us of course briefly and group was back up to 10. Just after the mile 25 aid station I started to feel worse so I downed a bunch of cals and got back in the game. A few miles later i was on the front on a climb and slowly increased my effort and cracked the group. We were now down to 4. We worked together well for the next 10+ miles. At mile 45 we started a 20 mile climb. It was pretty mellow with some good kickers. One guy wasn't doing his fair share of the work and was getting gapped on the steeper parts of the climb. So I was fourth wheel and saw him starting to get gapped I attacked and blew him off the back. We were down to 3. Around mile 55 the eventual winner (a strong dude that got 16th at DK a in 2016) put in a hard steady effort. I latched on and barely was hanging on. At the last race this guy was a non factor me. I could gap him or bring him back at will. Not today. I just didn't have the legs. He went hard around mile 65 over the top of the climb and got a little gap on me and then he took some gnarly chances on the twisty, steep descent. I held back a bit and he got a minute on my on the 3 mile descent.... He was still riding hard and i chased... for the next 30 rolling miles into a strong headwind.... and he beat me by less that 2'. I just couldn't bring him back... nothing extra in the legs but still stoked to hang on for the 2nd.
why i was flat today? my TSB was 17 this morning. I think my steady state/ftp is rock solid and it was today... i just didn't have the VO2 efforts in me like usual.