US Military Cycling Team Camp: Day 3

Wednesday morning was a beautiful Florida morning.  Temperature was hovering just below 60 with promises of climbing to the mid-70s.  Unlike the rest of week in which there was a possibility of rain, today would not bear such predictions, the sky was perfectly calm. 

After the morning meeting we headed out for what was to be around a century. The pace was pretty calm.  The groups was slit into two again, the elites off in on and Masters / devo in the other.  I got to do a couple of things that I had not done before.  First time I have ever dropped out of a pace line, floated back to a chase vehicle, grabbed food and water and pedaled back up to the group.  Pretty neat experience if you haven’t had the chance to try.

But the bad news for the ride.  Several times last year I got a reoccurring dull pain on the back of my knee.  I have gone in to get a fit several times, but each time, all the measurements look correct.  So the idea of the saddle to far back, cleat positioning, float, etc had been checked out and seemed ok. Typically, I would have the pain for a day or two and go away.  Then the 1^st of January came around.  I went on a fairly lengthy ride with Team Sticky Fingers, nothing like the distance here, but for winter in DC, it was a good ride.  After going out MacArthur, we headed up Anglers.  By the time that I got to the top, the knee started to ache.  So I settled in and just rode for the next 50 miles, thinking that it was the same type of pain as I had last year.  Knowing that I was coming to Tampa in about a month, I backed off for a few weeks.  Unfortunately, Monday, the pain returned. By Tuesday afternoon, it was really bad.  So on Wednesday, I had to bail at the 40-mile marker and ride the chase vehicle back to the hotel.  So embarrassing!!!!

Wednesday night, we all got together, had dinner then another great lecture.  We talked some training and racing psychology.  It helped me refocus and think again about the big picture and not the individual days.  My mantra??  I will win Jeff Cup.  Something that I was going to have to repeat to myself several times the next day.