Well, I just got back last night from the National Championships at Mammoth. This is my first year of NORBA competition and at the ripe age of 31 I am racing Expert DH. I also qualified for 4x, but decided not to do it because of scheduling and logistics. 
Anyway...
ALTITUDE kills! :nuts:
I broke my arm July 18th and the lack of time on the bike in DH condidions really weakened my fitness levels. By Saturday's race I could barely make it down the mountain without falling over from fatigue. I took 3 runs on Thursday, 2.5 on Friday and 1 on Saturday. It was my plan to progressively slow down the number of runs I took to conserve energy, but I don't think it mattered. My fitness was weak to begin with that by the third day the altitude had taken its toll. Eventhough, I stayed well hydrated and fed, but it didn't help.
Sitting in the start gate my plan was to conserve energy up top and accelerate the course at the bottom on Chainsmoke. In my head I kept saying "Going for a ride, going for a ride, going for a ride..." On the sixth beep I was off. About 75 ft down the course was the only problem section I had with the course, which was technical, but not over the top. I had the most problem with the pumice not the steepness or tightness. Anyway the section that was screwing with me was the run out to the righthand wall ride. I cleaned it fine on the first day of practice, but the last two days of practice I didn't clean it once. But during my race run I cleaned it. Not the best looking effort, but I stayed on the bike and rode it out and I was so stoked going into the bottom section. After Pinball Wizard I rode a little bucking bronc action going into the shoot out onto the ski slope, but I held it together and setup to dropin. I dropped down and was flying acrosss the slope letting my Yeti do the work, when I looked up to see my first pass. At full speed I yelled at the guy that I was going to pass. Much to my suprize he came across the trail form the right to the left and took me out. BOOM! I was tumbling and cartwheeling. I got up and ran back to my bike and of course I had to untangle it from his. I could just feel the course clock ticking away at an accelerated rate. I got back up to speed and headed down to Chainsmoke. Come to find out another race had passed me during all the excitement.
As I dropped into the coffin jumps, I heard someone else yell to pass, so I tried my best to slow down and get over to let him pass in the jumps. As I was dragging the rear wheel and waiting I looked and didn't see anyone, so I got back up to speed and dropped into Chainsmoke. About two turns in I heard him yell again, so I moved over, watched him pass, then watched him wreck in the next corner. I passed him, then I thought to myself he might still be having a good run so I pulled over, stopped and put a foot down. He passed me, when through the tape and DNFed. 
:mumble: Anyway I rolled to a 21st finish with a time of 8:11. It sounds like I lost alot of time due to stopping and crashing, but honestly my lack of fitness is what did me in. I think at best I could have had a 7 minute run, which is still 55 seconds off the winning time.
However, I did have a blast, met a lot of cool people, and I'll do it again next year for sure.
Anyway...ALTITUDE kills! :nuts:
I broke my arm July 18th and the lack of time on the bike in DH condidions really weakened my fitness levels. By Saturday's race I could barely make it down the mountain without falling over from fatigue. I took 3 runs on Thursday, 2.5 on Friday and 1 on Saturday. It was my plan to progressively slow down the number of runs I took to conserve energy, but I don't think it mattered. My fitness was weak to begin with that by the third day the altitude had taken its toll. Eventhough, I stayed well hydrated and fed, but it didn't help.
Sitting in the start gate my plan was to conserve energy up top and accelerate the course at the bottom on Chainsmoke. In my head I kept saying "Going for a ride, going for a ride, going for a ride..." On the sixth beep I was off. About 75 ft down the course was the only problem section I had with the course, which was technical, but not over the top. I had the most problem with the pumice not the steepness or tightness. Anyway the section that was screwing with me was the run out to the righthand wall ride. I cleaned it fine on the first day of practice, but the last two days of practice I didn't clean it once. But during my race run I cleaned it. Not the best looking effort, but I stayed on the bike and rode it out and I was so stoked going into the bottom section. After Pinball Wizard I rode a little bucking bronc action going into the shoot out onto the ski slope, but I held it together and setup to dropin. I dropped down and was flying acrosss the slope letting my Yeti do the work, when I looked up to see my first pass. At full speed I yelled at the guy that I was going to pass. Much to my suprize he came across the trail form the right to the left and took me out. BOOM! I was tumbling and cartwheeling. I got up and ran back to my bike and of course I had to untangle it from his. I could just feel the course clock ticking away at an accelerated rate. I got back up to speed and headed down to Chainsmoke. Come to find out another race had passed me during all the excitement.
As I dropped into the coffin jumps, I heard someone else yell to pass, so I tried my best to slow down and get over to let him pass in the jumps. As I was dragging the rear wheel and waiting I looked and didn't see anyone, so I got back up to speed and dropped into Chainsmoke. About two turns in I heard him yell again, so I moved over, watched him pass, then watched him wreck in the next corner. I passed him, then I thought to myself he might still be having a good run so I pulled over, stopped and put a foot down. He passed me, when through the tape and DNFed. :mumble: Anyway I rolled to a 21st finish with a time of 8:11. It sounds like I lost alot of time due to stopping and crashing, but honestly my lack of fitness is what did me in. I think at best I could have had a 7 minute run, which is still 55 seconds off the winning time.However, I did have a blast, met a lot of cool people, and I'll do it again next year for sure.
Bottom of Kamakaze I had to run with my bike to the finish. In sport dh tho i was able to pump all the bumps and not touch the brakes the whole way down and was able to get the win. My friend got flagged down on the step up jump and was 1 second behind me.
