Thursday, June 27, 2013

Week #25: Tri-State 6 Hour Versailles

Okay, so it's Thursday, and for all of my Monday morning blogging commitment, I just couldn't find the right words when I actually had race report to write. After so long without a real race, I felt like I needed to say something really profound about my experience at the Tri-State 6 Hour Series opener at Versailles State Park. Joe managed to. I, however, have been busy and distracted since the race. Perhaps one day I will regale you with a singular tale of adventure and romance and how it played out over Instagram, but at this point it's almost the weekend again, so you're just going to have to be satisfied with a quickie.

So what did I learn? That racing a rigid singlespeed on a trail with several significant rocky sections is really, really slow and hard. I'm not sure how I tricked myself into thinking it wouldn't be. I also fell victim to thoughts of how much longer I had to go, which probably drove me to fatigue sooner than it should have fitness-wise. It was a hard, hard day. Now I know. I only got three laps because I was feeling so beat up and was going so slow that I probably wouldn't have finished a fourth before the time cutoff. So my performance was not nearly what I wanted it to be, but at least now I have a standard for what my 6-hour singlespeed racing looks like. I just need to raise that standard as soon as possible.

Less intense than 'cross tongue, I'm trying out
"6 Hour Crazy Face".

Monkey's first race number

Sarah brought me a tiny bottle of champagne for my women's singlespeed "win".

2 comments:

Jez Andrews said...

Is it wrong if I said I was satisfied with that quickie?

My strange mind aside I'm impressed that you went for it and did this on your single speed. No easy things particularly as some courses will really beat you up on rigid forks. Lets face facts not many others would do it so that just makes you awesome in your own right :)

eric said...

a quickie is better than nothing!

rigid is not something you can just do. It takes several rides to start to feel more comfortable and able to loosen up to soak up the trail. Even then, it can really beat you up.

I have said before, I really think your fork is not helping. There are several other forks that can really make your ride better and the biggest front tire you can put on there.

All that aside, it will be slower on the rough stuff, but you should be able to make up time climbing.

Great job!!