Kensington Festival of Pain

Doug subtly made mention of Kensington in a comment which I interpret as a gentle reminder to post up a recap.

I flew in from Dallas the night before and put the finishing touches on James' excellent pack job. We awoke at 4 am to dine on pancakes. Then, the bikes go on top of the car and off we go to Starbucks then the park. We arrived pretty early and parked right by the toilets. After helping move some picnic tables around we unpacked and got geared up. By the time I got James set up my warm up time was gone so it would have to happen on the first lap.

It was fortunate for me that the first lap was really, really slow. It couldn't have worked out better. I was warm and feeling strong. That is until around mile 30 when I had a stabbing pain in my right calf muscle. The riding wasn't particularly hard yet and after only 30 miles I didn't think I could be cramping. As the miles slipped by the pain kept coming back then migrating and manifesting as that unmistakable pain I know so well. This one took me by complete surprise. I suspected they might become a problem but not until much later in the race. I was able to race and jump still but then the death blow came. Around the 40 mile mark after exiting the neutral zone I flatted. At the time I was beginning to think the field might split and I desperately wanted to stay with the front group. I pulled off and Dominic rolled up with my spare wheel. As soon as I got off the bike my quads cramped. Dominic said he would pace me back to the group so I jumped on his bumper and off we went. We were just flying right up until I hit Snot Hill and the wheels came off the whole operation. I began to cramp horribly and by the time I got to the top of the hill I was audibly groaning in pain. I think it was Brian Adams who jumped up and pushed me the last few feet to the top of the hill. If it weren't for him I might have quit right there but I recovered some on the downhill and the next hill by the finish is fairly gentle so I felt better and decided to continue hoping I might catch a break and ride with some dropped riders or get back on because of a boat trailer or something stopping the field. This wasn't going to be the case.

When I approached the neutral zone I kept an eye out for the field so I could measure the time gap. They passed me going the other way and I started counting as I went through. It was roughly a two minute gap. The next lap the gap was roughly the same or slightly longer. I wasn't getting any closer. By the 8th lap, (second to last), I was giving some thought to retiring at the finish so I could watch the sprint finish. I passed up some women and felt pretty good then came Snot Hill and more cramps. The women just walked by me. That was just demoralizing. I rode to the top of the finish hill logged my time for the eighth lap and quit one lap shy of finishing the race.

I rode through more pain than I ever have before and today, (Tuesday), my quads still hurt. There must have been some serious tearing incurred by riding through the cramps. So, my old nemesis is back and it is back to the drawing board to try and learn what I need to do in the future to prevent this. In this case I think there were a number of factors as opposed to a single one. Cramping can be caused by dehydration, over-hydration, electrolyte deficiency, deficient training or perhaps an issue with ATP production.

Thankfully this isn't my full time job! I'll have another go at it this weekend. I've had bad races before and surely will again.