Gila… Epilogue
May 10th, 2007
It is hard for me to be objective because I’ve been pretty sick for the last 5 days. I don’t feel like riding or even thinking about it really…
My performance at Gila was worse than I expected. OK… I know I said I’d be satisfied if I finished and wasn’t last, but I was hoping for better than that. Based on my numbers before the race, my sea level corrected 1hr power was ~4.2W/kg. I thought this should have been good enough to get me to the middle of the pack at least. In fact I have a little chart here that says that 4.2W/kg would put me solidly in the Cat1-2 level!
No way is that chart accurate today! Are riders really that much stronger than they used to be?
Maybe I was overtrained or sick or something… but I sort of doubt that. I was no better relatively, at the beginning compared to the end of the race. If I was overtrained or sick I should have had a good TT at least. It seemed like I was just weak all around… riding at my limit just to hang in, then too fatigued to do much once I got dropped. I can’t even use the altitude as an excuse, since I’m living at 7,300ft now…
In a few days, when I feel better and get my busted crank replaced, I’ll do a few rides and think about this some more. I don’t know if I’ll attempt Gila again unless I have some reason to expect a better outcome.
One thing I do know… having Shiva there was sure nice! Hardly anyone there was accompanied by their wife or significant other, and I felt really lucky, especially since she was so helpful, actually giving me massages a couple times a day. She even made dinner in the room most nights and helped me get ready in the mornings… not to mention feeding me out on the course. Without her I might have just gotten sick and dropped out… I know it wasn’t much of a vacation for her, but I’m very glad she came.
I really liked our hotel room at the Palace… after we moved to the corner room. Noisy… yes… but we just wore earplugs at night to take care of that. The view and the breeze were nice as well. The huge tub was awesome! And the continental breakfast in the upstairs lobby was great too, and a nice place to gather and talk in the mornings. The manager (Leslie) was super friendly and made us feel at home.
