This last Saturday and Sunday were the final Tour of KC races. The KCK Crit and the Overland Park Grand Prix respectively.
There seemed to be a general lack of enthusiasm for these races among the team, myself included. I'm not sure what it was with myself, but I think everyone else was looking forward to Cross season and treating these races as the last gasp of the road season. For me, however, these two races were only my 5th and 6th road races this season (ever actually). So, I can't really say I was "burnt out". Maybe I was drawing from the seeming apathy of my teammates or maybe the cancelling of the Cliff Drive Crit put a damper on the whole series.
Whatever the cause for my lack of enthusiasm I have thoroughly enjoyed the Tour of KC in general. It has been really cool to race in the downtown areas of some of the cities of the KC metro (Lee's Summit, KCMO, KCK and Overland Park) and promote those locations and businesses.
These two races were my first totally Cat 4 races after upgrading last month so I knew I'd have a bit of a learning curve. What was nice to find out though was that my fitness level was good enough to hold my own in both races, not good enough to win, but I felt adequately challenged by the field. The real issues were these:
I need to learn to get up front and stay up front, but not go out by myself. I expend too much energy in both the back of the pack and off the front. In the back there is much more sprinting then braking then sprinting and this wears on you. In the front, well, in the front you're doing all of the work. I have had both these issues this year.
Next I need to work on some speed work. I need to be able to sprint faster for longer. This will allow me to stay up front early on rather than try and make up distance and many times try and make up that gap by myself. This happened on Sunday. I spend 90% of the race essentially doing a time trial while trying to catch up to the lead group stuck in no-man's-land between the lead and the chase groups.
Finally, I need to put these two goals together with better mental work on the course. I know that I need to be in the front of the pack so that I can see what's going on and adjust accordingly, any splits in the pack that happen I need to be in the first group, I need to get to the front early and stay there and I need to have the sprinting ability to get there early and stay there. This also means more and better focus on warming up and getting my heart rate up just before the start of the race as well as getting a good position on the starting line. My first race and the only one I won I was on the line at the start rather than two or more rows back.
I didn't place in the money on either day. For some reason the results from Saturday don't have me listed at all. I finished somewhere around 16th I know, but I am not listed on the results. DanO was listed at 20th and I know I was in front of him at the finish. He went out and got the first prime which cooked him for the rest of the race. He ended up winning a sweat t-shirt for his effort, though!!! Sunday I finished 19th, by myself, in no-man's-land.
All-in-all, I had a good time if a little disappointing, but I have to remind myself that I am new to this road racing thing and I still have a lot to learn and a long way too go.
Cross season, here I come!
Stay Dirty!!
