Frisco CX

my frozen wheel

Frisco CX 10/6/12

This Saturday I woke up to sub freezing temperatures, but it had no effect on my excitement to race. I was more excited than I had ever been before to race a cyclocross race. I wanted my first race on my newly-fixed bike to be a win. I also wanted to win my first category three race. It turns out that being way too excited and not having any motivation both make me crash and burn.I needed to be in that magical state where I was completely focused, but instead all I could think about was my bike.
I had a good drive up, and registration went fairly smoothly. I had to give them ten dollars and my drivers permit to rent my timing chip, which is annoying because I always forget to get my permit back. But, soon enough I forgot, and put on just enough clothes to be chilly during my warm up, and warm during the race. I was already ten minutes late by the time I finished putting my number on. I was flustered and now rushing to get on my bike. I left for my warm up and couldn’t find a good road to do my efforts on. I ended up doing them on the busy road that we entered on. I made my way to the start, and shed my jacket to prepare for the start. I wasn’t nervous, but my mind was occupied by all of the things that already went wrong.
The start was way faster than the category four race. Even with the faster start I quickly moved into second. After about half of a lap the leader and I had a big gap on the rest of the field. We came to a technical section, and I followed the leader into a terrible line. I crashed on the rock garden that lead into some deep sand, and lost contact with him. The chase group quickly caught me, and I attacked trying to catch the leader. I made my self a gap of about 15 seconds. I was killing myself trying to bridge the gap, and that’s when I crashed for the second time. Once again the chase group caught me, but this time I couldn’t stay with them. I could feel my power being drained, and shortly after my back spasmed. I made it to the pit zone and collapsed off my bike. I layed there in agony for about five minutes, and finally my back released. I was starting to shiver, so I tried to get up. I got to my feet, but then I felt a sharp pain in my right ankle. I sat back down and took off my shoes, thinking they were too tight. I ripped my shoe off, but that made it worse. My teammate’s dad tried to pinpoint where it hurt. He felt around my ankle, and then found the source of the pain on the top of my foot where it connects to the ankle. My mom finally got there as I tried to get up and walk it off. She saw that I was freezing, and wanted me to go back to the car. I got onto my bike and pedaled with one foot clipped in. I wasn’t far from the car, so it didn’t take long to get back and get into warm clothes.
We immediately went to King Soopers and got Ibuprofen. I took it and then randomly thought about driving, and the fact I always forget my permit at home. Then I realized that I forgot my permit at registration. I told my mom and we drove a few miles back to the race. My mom went to cut the timing chip off my fork and give it back, but it wasn’t there. She asked my step dad to try to find it, but he couldn’t. I finally got tired of waiting and took a look for myself. I couldn’t find it, and then knew why it wasn’t there. We didn’t know what to do, so we went to registration. I told them that it fell off when I crashed, and asked them what I should do. They had no idea, and because I was hurt they gave me back my permit and sat me down to wait for their boss. It took a while and my pain level went up. My mom told me I was going pale, and shivering worse. She asked the ladies at registration for the medic, but by the time she got to me, I was back to normal. I told the medic I was fine, but she insisted to look at my ankle. A few minutes later she told me I had a level one sprain, and not to walk for the next four or five days.
Some people don’t have enough motivation to race, and some people, including me, have way too much. I tend to pump myself up for races until my head is ready to explode. I thought that was the only way to prepare for races. But, what I should be doing is relaxing. One of my coaches says smooth is faster, and now I can see that. Doing two smooth races that lead to good results, and one over zealous race that resulted in a sprained ankle opened my eyes to it. In the end I need start looking for experience first, and the results that I want will follow.