JP, Karen and myself headed out to Colorado on the 9th of July to prepare for nationals. We had a hooked up place to stay in Evergreen after a night in Denver with JP's friend, Matt Henry and a night in Keystone with my buddy Chris Proctor. JP and Karen went to Aspen on Sunday the 11th to race Blast the Mass while I hung out in Keystone, not feeling good enough to race at altitude yet. We got in some good rides in Keystone, tons of singletrack and good elevation. We arrived in Evergeen and met up with Ashley, fellow SKCer and her boyfriend Jeff. She hooked us up with a place to stay for the week, her parents house was amazing! It backed up to a creek and National Forest and had miles of singletrack within a few minutes drive. We took it easy all week riding on our own pre race schedules. The race was in Granby, CO which we test rode on my birthday the 14th. The course was hard and high up. It starts at 8500 ft and literally climbs straight up the mountain then starts some singletrack. All in all a ~40 min of climbing and 20 min of descending per lap. I did a lap in an hour for the preride, all good but not a race situation. Now its race day, we got there early and did our warm ups. The start was rowdy with spectators lining the hill climb, the whistle blows and my age group(25-29) takes off. I felt good and decided to push it and keep up with the Colorado dudes, which was all good until we made it to the top of the first big hill and I was on the verge of blowing up. I kept going, keeping my 5th place spot but was really hurting. We came out of the singletrack onto a fire road at about 25 minutes and that was it, I was done. I tried to slow down and breath but I was past the point of no return, oxygen debt. I had to stop riding and lay down on the side of the trail to try and regain my breath and motor skills. After a few minutes I tried to ride again but to no avail, I literally couldn't peddle my bike and had to lay down for almost 30 minutes before I could ride again. I had pushed myself entirely too hard at too high of elevation. If I could have calmed down and ridden at my own pace I would have been golden, but I blew my self up. Anybody riding behind me before I stopped could probably see a mushroom cloud coming out of the top of my head as I fumbled down the trail imploding as I went. It was a good learning experience and a new threshold of pain. Now I know to pace myself at altitude because you can't get your breath or legs back as fast as you can in the flatlands. I am back to Kansas and really feeling the back-from-altitude blues, heavy legs and humid air makes for tougher feeling rides. I will miss Kansas State Championships and Croc Rock for vacations over the next two weekends but can't wait for cyclocross season!
