Recovery, who needs recovery?

Ok I do. At least for the first part of the week. After the Cohutta I was smoked for the first part of the week. The only day I started to actually feel like myself on a bike was Saturday...yesterday. I was going to back out of my local H2H race at Wawayanda State park but a talk with the coach advised me otherwise as it would be a great way to judge my recovery. So I prereg'd and went for it. The conditions would not be favorable for most, but for myself I kind of like the grimy stuff. It was surely not going to disappoint. The rain came down and made the rocks slick and the roots slicker. It was going to be a battle.

Got to the line and put myself at the back as I had this written off as a hard workout. It was my first interaction with the 30-39 group which I knew was pretty stout so as the gun went off I just wanted to hang with the group. On each hill I stayed pretty consistent and gained a few positions here or there. So then I knew I actually had some legs so I put it down. I put a few serious efforts in and found myself sitting in 5th or 6th. The first lap was a blast actually feeling good and blasting it.

2nd lap I stayed on it and started to feel the power taper off but was still doing well and just settled in. 1 or 2 guys passed me, of which I wasn't sure who was in my class, so I figure I sat in about 7th. The 3rd lap I definitely felt last week's 100 miler and the pace started to get a little stale. I knew I had enough of a gap on the rest of the riders where it shouldn't hurt me too badly. Then two racers caught up to me. One I let slide through and the other was my teammate. My teammate wanted me to pull him through the techy stuff and then he would return the favor and pull me on the smooth stuff. It was a great theory till he slipped on a techy section and dinged his derailleur which made him shift into his wheel. His mere presence made me go faster though. I jumped onto the final fireroad section and the guy that had previously got through me pulled over working on his back. Gotcha...I thought as I big ringed and took off on the downhill immediately after his break. So now I sat in 8th postion with one hill left to go where I got skanked by a familiar face with a full head of steam. I saw him coming and just couldn't hold the pace and let him go. He got a couple of seconds on me at the line and I finished 9th of 22 or so with a time of 2:56. I was hoping to finish mid pack and getting a top 10 is ever better.

Now I guess I can actually get my recovery in and prepare for the next 100 miler coming up at the end of May. Progress is progress though. Happy to be having a good day on the bike, mudpit or not.