the wall

If I'm honest, I hit the wall for cross a bit this weekend.  I came home last night disappointed. 

Not in my finishes per se (7th at Beacon, 8th at HPCX, though I was definitely up there hoping for better), but disappointed because it felt like there was something left in my legs.  I forgot my pain button a few times.  I felt whiny to myself warming up about pushing it, even.  It took me at least a minute to pull my head back after a crash yesterday and get back on the gas.  Saturday the pain was definitely there on the running sections, but there were a few straightaways back in the woods where I eased up a bit without realizing it until I was in the next turn.  Chatting with one of the elite women yesterday after my race, I felt better knowing that I wasn't the only one who forgets to go hard sometimes.

Last weekend at DCCX, I rolled a tubular (which feels a bit like a rite of passage in cross... it's firmly reglued now).  I managed a reasonable enough chase effort that I cracked on the last lap and was passed by a few other women. Where was that intensity this weekend? Am I mid-season burnt?  Training has taken a lot of mental effort lately, too, even though all I think about is cross.


At least I didn't crash myself this weekend.  Saturday was clean, even with all the running I only overcooked one corner and had to put a foot down.  I wound up in a tangle on Sunday when the wheel I was on went down, but managed not to have big technical mental errors myself.  Even had the best pass of my season near the pits - inside line through a 180 turn, railing the bike. I'll take that positive into a chilly Monday morning.