Butler at Muscatatuck

The collegiate mountain season kicked off this weekend with a cross country hosted by Butler U. at Muscatatuck Park in So. Indy. Rolling into the park early Saturday my legs were feeling decent, but my ego was still a little battered from the preceding weekends beat down. Chatting and pre-riding with fellow St.Louie-ian ZHaf motivated me a bit, but the delayed race start and squadron of Wilson riders cracked back.

Rolling off the line, we jumped into the woods at 0.5 past light speed vying for position before hitting the tech single track descent. Led by a couple of junior pro elite supremos we covered the 5.2 mile lap somewhere just over the 20 minute mark; not a sustainable pace. Coming through the feed on lap 1 I was somewhere in the top 10, lap 2 outside the top 10, and lap three back in due to the extreme pace setting jerks pulling out.

About a mile into lap 4 I caught a pedal on a hidden log while descending and went down hard on my left knee. Catching my wind, dusting myself off, and straightening the skewed bits on the stumpjumper, I attempted to turn the pedals over and grunt back up the hill hoping to recoup lost time. No shirts, no shoes, no dice; I was done. The knee was throbbing and destroying myself over a 10th place finish for 2 more laps seemed hardly worthwhile. I hiked out of the woods, threw my bike like a good sportsman, and iced my shit.

Two DNFs in two weekends has me pretty beaten down. This elite racing thing is for real. I am going get a little experimental and try switching up my training and nutrition routine for the next week or two. We'll see. Seeking coaching or training advice if you've got some.

Perhaps I will travel to Wisconsin next weekend.