Hi guys,
I had an interesting Saturday last week, I decided to try out my first ever xc race as a training exercise. It was round 2 of the provincial series and it was held at Paul Roos in Stellenbosch.
It was a last minute idea and thus we were running a bit late. We arrived 15 min prior to the start and had no time to waste! As soon as we unloaded we headed to the start and I was a bit confused as I had never done this before.
The race was 7 laps long at 5.4 km per lap. There was 165m of vertical climbing over the course and it had some nice fast downhill sections which I loved! I had no idea of what to expect because I train for a 2-5 min sprint, not a 1.5hr sprint. I knew I was fit but I had no clue of how I would feel running a fast pace for that amount of time. However I just went for it and pinned it for the first half a lap after having no warm up :p My legs took some strain but soon I settled into a good pace and was running around the 12th spot.
After 3 laps I was feeling it and my lower back was in a serious amount of pain due my bike setup being a disaster :) My reach was way too short which made me hunch over and yeah, it was not ideal.
Half way through lap 4 I got a flat right at the start of the downhill section which meant cruising down slowly and loosing so much time that there was no point in continuing. This was a great shame but possibly a blessing in disguise as my back was about to cave in!
So in the end I didn’t finish but it was a good experience and I am happy considering my terrible bike setup. I know now that I am pretty strong even at xc which I don’t train for so I will be sure to try another one soon!
Again thanks to all the great companies behind me, INVESTEC, Morewood, Seattle Coffee Co, Red Bull, Science 2 Sport, Virgin Active, Leatt, Bell, Csixx, Adidas eyewear, Spank, Cycles Africa(ODI/Sun Ringle/Hayes)
Until next time….
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