Switching the legs to ON

I have learned a lot this summer having TJ as a coach. One thing I just don't understand is how bad I can feel before a race and then as soon as the wheel rolls over the start line my legs just turn on like a light switch! This past week after Chequamegon my legs and mind where just shot. I was sick of riding, sick of training, sick of bikes, sick driving from work, sick of updating the blog...well you get the point. I did a few recovery rides early in the week. Wednesday I hardly got through my intervals and the rest of the ride was in recovery mode. Thursday was supposed to be another hard ride, but my legs and I were fighting so that ended up being a recovery ride. Then friday and saturday I didn't even look at the bike. I didn't really want to race Sunday but figured I needed some point and the team needed points so I went. During the warm up things didn't go any better than during the week. I tried a couple hard pulls and almost fell off the bike. As I was sitting on the start line I decided that I would go out super hard and if the legs didn't come around I was going to sit up and just enjoy the trails or quit.
As Don yelled GOOOOO we all hit the lead out at warp speeds. I don't know if I had any gears left and Phil said he was spun out doing almost 30mph! I hit the single track sitting around 10-12th and the legs felt great! We kept the power on really hard all the way through the first lap and going into the second had a group of about 6. Somewhere on the second lap we dropped Ron S. and at one point Tim D. when down really hard. We were down to Jerry Long, Marko, Nate and I for the last 1.5 laps. Nate and I were taking just monster pulls into the wind. I knew it wasn't the smartest thing to do but if we sat up for any time we would have been caught by the few people we worked to drop. On the last lap Jerry was leading through the first set of single track. I was tight on his wheel with Marko in chase. I knew he was going to attack somewhere in the second set of trails so was trying to stay recovered as much as I could to be ready. Sure enough just after the two way bridge Jerry went hard, I tried to respond but was pretty much maxxed out. Marko came around also and they were gone. I tried to keep them in site and keep Nate out of site. He was closing hard and my legs were shutting down. As we turned onto the gravel hill Nate closed the gap and rode my wheel to the finish shoot. We came through the fence and sprinted for the finish, he had a better kick and got me at the line!
I was really happy to round out the top 10 after feeling that bad. It is just weird how your body turns on for the race and then turns off again once it is done. After the race by body completely shut down. I was freezing cold, then sweating, then cold it wasn't pretty.
Next weekend is Fall Color fest, which I won't be doing. I am going to try and get back on pace with training for two more weeks and finish the season out strong. Sheboygan is never a good race for me just because I am in shut down mode. Hopefully this weekend will motivate me to stay focused and turn a solid finish in what is going to be a TOTALLY STACKED FIELD!!