All Feathers, No Fire

I've been meaning to write a race report for Jiminy Peak, but I haven't had the time to do so until now. After my weak ass performance and lack of will to do anything, I've been training hard this week.

5 years ago, when I first started racing, I remember walking into my local bike shop feeling down on myself because I had had my first bad race. I had the good fortune of placing well in the first few that I did. My friend Bob looked at me and asked what was wrong. When I told him, he was very matter of fact and just said "Some days you get chicken, so some days you get feathers." That phrase has stuck with me and I must say that last Saturday was a feathers kind of day.

I couldn't get fired up for Jiminy. I don't know why. My head wasn't in the game and well, it showed. The race itself was not overly difficult. In fact, the first time up the hill actually felt like it was pretty easy. The second lap wasn't so bad. I chatted with KL about Shel Silverstein for a bit and chatted with some other folks I hadn't seen in awhile. When we came around the final corner to go up the hill, I was in a bad spot and had to brake in the corner and when I tried to accelerate out of it, I was in too big a gear and my calf cramped. So, that sucked what little will I had out of me. I've pedaled through much worse. I sprinted through a really really bad calf cramp at Battenkill Roubaix so I have absolutely no excuse. All I can say is that I lacked the fire in the belly to push through the pain.