Race Coverage

Cooked!

Sunday, 08 June 2014 00:10

By Devon Palmer (palmertri.wordpress.com)

I participated in and successfully completed a sprint (Pigman Sprint) last Sunday. Unfortunately I can’t say much more than that. I got on the bike and realized I was cooked. I’d overstepped a bit in training and didn’t have the firepower I need in a race. This happened many times in 2012 and 2013. It is no fun. I felt kind of dull and wasn’t sharp or excited the day before the race. That should have been a warning sign. Racing when cooked is rough because you just feel silly getting trounced and going slow out there. It was completely self inflicted as well – my coach assigned 2-3 hours or riding the Wednesday before the race which I turned into 100 miles. Looking at the two weeks leading into the race it’s pretty obvious that Wednesday century was ill advised. Anyways, I’ll have to carefully nurture my ego and confidence back to health this week.

Another downside is when you race tired or in a negative mindset it seems bad stuff is more likely to happen. Finishing the ride I somehow managed to take an acrobatic tumble as I...

dismounted. Really it was miraculous because I don’t think my bike got hurt and I wasn’t scraped up. The only thing I managed to damage is my heel. I must have banged it on the ground. I got through the run but an hour after the race I was limping. I can’t really walk on it now and hopefully it is back to normal in a few days. I don’t think that would have happened if I’d been fully focused during the race. READ MORE