I’m pretty short on time today, so I’m going to just dump my notes in here.
Things I Forgot:
- HR monitor
- Repair stand
Prerace Thoughts:
- Tighten removable bottle cage or get rid of it; the mount kept spinning when I was trying to remove the cage.
- Wake up 15 minutes earlier to eat breakfast earlier:
- two hard boiled eggs
- banana
Things I Need to Buy:
- Rocky Mount thru axle adapter
- For spare bike
- Chain guide
Post Race Thoughts:
- Might want to switch to dry chain lube because everything sticks to the drivetrain when the grass gets wet
Consider switching to different pedals. The sand started to clog up my pedals and make it hard to clip in, but it wasn’t a deal breaker this time - Given how wet the grass was, should have gone down to 25-26 PSI, but I was too nervous to do it since I didn’t have my low pressure gauge
- Cornering skills were much improved, but I did begin braking a bit too much especially when tired, but overall excellent progress
- Dismounts into sand pit and running form were excellent. Definitely made up time there, but often lost it during the remount
- My result definitely doesn’t tell the whole story, because I lost ~9 spots and a lot of time when I slid out on the down hill off camber. Before that, I think I was slowly catching the guy in from of me.
- I think I lost most of my time in the power sections, but was catching people in the more technical parts, which is a nice change of pace.
- The 40 tooth chainring might have been a little large for my current fitness; I should consider a 38.
- My breakfast seemed to settle nicely
- Drive train made some weird sounds after going through the sand; something might be rubbing, but hopefully the chain guide/new chain/new cassette will take care of that
Action Items for Future Races:
- Pass slower riders immediately. Do not wait for a “good” pass because you will lose too much time. A bad pass will be faster in the long run
- Really push through the middle laps to keep times down. It’s easy to lose focus in the intermediary laps, but you have to stay focused.
Result: 23/43 (15-18 without the slip up in the second lap)