Disclaimer: this post is mostly not really race report.
So, it is reasonably well-established that losing weight by reducing calorie intake will result in some loss of power as your body adjusts. Certainly surmountable, but takes some time.
Listen, I lost 7 lbs in the last 2 weeks. Generally, it is for the better, but it probably contributed to feeling like I couldn't generate any power today.
It's really a tradeoff. I haven't been under 250 in like 10 months! And I am again! The ball is rolling downhill, ain't no stopping it now.
Also, racing at 2 is tough, I need to eat more in the AM. Probably shouldn't start races already really hungry.
I think it would be really funny to learn to bunny hop the barriers. However, I tend to make up ground on the barriers. Quick feet.
I was thinking today. You guys know about Ferrari's "1kg = 1% over a 10k climb" or whatever the numbers are theory, right? Repeated little grades work the same. Even if it is a "power course," elevation changes (up! up! up!) sap me of energy. Rich and I were briefly talking about physics in the car. I studied physics for a while. I bet I could illustrate the difference.
Let's take an example. Today's runup was called "Hup Hup Hill." Really sucked to run up that thing. Lot of energy used. Let's make up some numbers as a stand in. Say you have a hill 30m long, at a 10% grade. 30m, punchy, right?
How much more energy does it take for me to get up that hill? It is a change of 3 meters. Potential energy is equal to mgh. Assume I am 113kg, and "racer X" is 68kg. (Reasonably accurate. Right now I am 113kg; 68kg is approximately 150lbs. Start at a height of 1 meter. g is a constant.
PE = mgh.
PEx1 = 68*1*g. PEx2 = 68*4*g
PEx1 = 68g. PEx2 = 272g.
PEme1 = 113*1*g. PEme2 = 113*4*g.
PEme1 = 113g. PEme2 = 452g.
Youll notice that racer X requires 204g (remember, g is a constant) of additional energy to climb that height. I require 339g of additional energy to fight gravity (see what I did there?). By weighing 66% more than a 150lb racer, I need to expend (proportionally) 66% more energy to climb the hill. So all the times over the course of the race that we go up those little punchy hills, in the mud, or even those long sloggy climbs, I have to expend more energy. Over and over, and over.
These are numbers to concepts we all already recognized. But think about it - I'm only human. I can only store so much glycogen for ready access.
At the end of the day, it's more motivation to slim down. So I'm working on it (Again. But making progress encourages more progress.). Say hi if you see me out riding in the mornings.
Anyway, Tacchino was fun despite the lack of energy. This year, I did not dislocate my shoulder at Tacchino, which is a victory. Promoteur Jim did a really bang-up job with the race. My teammates are all pretty great, I thought the mud was fun (I feel like I am pretty seriously improving bike handling), there were a lot of people around.
I slipped and fell a couple times while taking warm up laps, and got my shoulder all muddy. I tried those lines, they didn't work, so I went back and figured it out. Then, everybody thought I already had raced. NOPE. JUST CRASHED 3 TURNS INTO MY WARM UP LAP. IN FRONT OF A BUNCH OF PEOPLE. HOPE IT WAS HILARIOUS.
Not enough carbohydrate fuel is consistent with what the race felt like - good good good bonk recover bonk recover truck steadily along as my body switches fuel sources after 30 minutes.
YOU GUYS JUST WAIT, SOON I WILL WEIGH AS MUCH AS I DID LAST YEAR WHEN I WAS ACTUALLY FAST ON MY CX BIKE AT THE END OF OCTOBER
PROBABLY ALSO AT THE END OF OCTOBER
ALSO, DON'T WORK ON YOUR BIKE THE MORNING OF THE RACE, BECAUSE YOU WILL INEVITABLY BREAK SOMETHING (like, your expander plug in your fork).