Joe Martin and the Rest of My Season

So, I'm only gonna bitch about this one more time then it is over. Don't ask me about how I did or how hard was that race or anything. Pretend I was just a spectator. I'll talk to you about how impressed I was with some of the guys that were down there and a bit disappointed in the arrogance of others, but nothing about me.

Two weeks ago I had high hopes for this weekend. I was on top of the world, feeling strong, healthy and confident. I actually felt fast. Apple Pie went well if you exclude the last mile of the race and I was set to destroy the field on Sunday for Andy H at the Cougar Crit. That never happened. Instead I got sick from some bad pizza. I still love pizza a lot and that will never change, but the folks making better watch out. Cause if this crap happens again I'm not staying home puking and crap'n my brains out, I'm come'n up there for ya. So I loose about another 10 pounds on top of the 5 that I lost from racing earlier that day. No race for Rusty on Sunday. In fact I couldn't even muster up the strength to ride my bike till the Tuesday night crit. I felt weak. Sure I was in the break on Tuesday night, but I could barely turn the cranks to stay in. Training pretty much dropped off from there. I wasn't able to do adequate zone2 workouts let a lone the short high intensity sessions I had planned for race week. Things didn't change on race day. I still had no power for the road race and my stomach was in knots the whole time. I finished well inspite of the scoring which I refuse to even look at. The TT was more of the same. I got a pretty good start, and passed 2 guys. The whole time I couldn't get on top of my pedal stroke. I always felt like I was way behind. I even put in a slower time than last year. SUCK! Crit time. This is always a hard one. Just gotta make the selection to save a little face, getting dropped here would have surely meant the end of the season for me. Downward spiral of depression for sure. I managed to stay in the front group. I pretty much "cheated" up the hill every time by rolling to the front on the flats and small chainring up the hill, then hop onto the end of the train when it came by. No power. All systems were failing and I was barely surviving a weekend that was suppose to be a break through. That's it. No more. It's over. No questions. Nothing. The weekend is behind me and I'm moving on.