Poor training is exactly how to describe my preparation for the Glencoe Grand Prix which occurred on Saturday, August 14th in Glencoe, IL. With one day on the bike between the previous weekend of racing and the Glencoe race, my racing legs were left at home and I paid for it. Entering the race I was pretty amped up to be racing on a new course, very technical with 10 turns and a bit of a hill that took its toll on everyone over the course of the race.
Even while positioning well throughout the race, the ability to hang in there with the massive accelerations on the last was non-existent. There would be no sprint and just leg burning agony of hammering across the line to just finish. Finished 22nd. While being unhappy with the performance, I was able to reflect on the progression of the race and where I may have made some mistakes. First mistake was obviously the lack of preparation the week prior and the second mistake came when trying to bridge a gap to the two in the break. While knowing the legs were in poor shape, I still made the attempt to cover the gap. Should have listened to how my legs felt and just sat in until the sprint. Lesson learned the hard way. But on the bright side, the finishing result of this year was 4 places better than the previous year, so there was some improvement there even while feeling horrible.
Lesson of the week: train and train smart. You have to be on the bike spinning the legs daily to keep them fresh, even on recovery weeks. Definitely won’t make that mistake again.
Next upcoming racing include the WCA finale at Fond du Lac for the Attitude Sport Criterium on Saturday, August 21st followed up by the Race the Lake (Winnebago) on the morning of Sunday, August 22nd.
Even while positioning well throughout the race, the ability to hang in there with the massive accelerations on the last was non-existent. There would be no sprint and just leg burning agony of hammering across the line to just finish. Finished 22nd. While being unhappy with the performance, I was able to reflect on the progression of the race and where I may have made some mistakes. First mistake was obviously the lack of preparation the week prior and the second mistake came when trying to bridge a gap to the two in the break. While knowing the legs were in poor shape, I still made the attempt to cover the gap. Should have listened to how my legs felt and just sat in until the sprint. Lesson learned the hard way. But on the bright side, the finishing result of this year was 4 places better than the previous year, so there was some improvement there even while feeling horrible.
Lesson of the week: train and train smart. You have to be on the bike spinning the legs daily to keep them fresh, even on recovery weeks. Definitely won’t make that mistake again.
Next upcoming racing include the WCA finale at Fond du Lac for the Attitude Sport Criterium on Saturday, August 21st followed up by the Race the Lake (Winnebago) on the morning of Sunday, August 22nd.
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