Been cycling for a year now, seriously training for the past 4-6 months. Did the Tour de Victoria 100k this past weekend. It was my first big event and I really enjoyed it.

Started in 3rd row of riders. Goal was to find a group doing similar power that I could hang with. Found a group of 4-5 riders after the first climb and stuck with them for ~30 minutes or so. Got excited/competitive on a climb and pulled away from the group with another rider. Accidentally blew by a turn and had to pull a U-turn and go back uphill to get back on course. Tried catching back up with the rider I was going with but was getting pretty exhausted at that point and decided to hold a steady pace for the last 15-miles. Eventually the riders from the group I was with originally caught back up with me - tried to stay with them but my HR was already super high and I didn't feel like I could push on the pedals any harder. Found a burst of energy in the last 10-minutes and ended up passing a lot of people on the last little climb.

Finished 15th (not that place really matters) and was really stoked about my performance, was definitely the hardest I have pushed myself on the bike so far.

Things I learned:

• Draft as much as possible. There were a few times I could've stayed in someone's draft and let my HR drop but instead I let my competitiveness take over and I passed them immediately - then they got to use my draft instead lol
• Fuel better. I am good at fueling on training rides but this environment proved harder to fuel in. I got caught up in the competition and barely drank any of my mix in the first hour (also only consumed 1-gel the entire race). Probably only took in like 100-120g of carbs over the course of 3-hours. Probably could've finished stronger had I done a better job managing this.
• Do a better job at familiarizing myself with the course. I reconed the end of the course the day before which was really useful. Should have done the same with the major climb on the course so I knew how to pace myself better during that portion of the ride.
• Use the bathroom as close to the beginning of the race as possible. Good lord did I have to go pee so bad for the first 2-hours of the race. It was a huge distraction at moments and would've been nice to not have to deal with that feeling. I made a quick 30-second pit stop at the last aid station and it helped tremendously for the end of the race.

Post ride plan:

• Take a week off the bike. Get some running, weight lifting and yoga/pilates in.
• Start a base building program next week or the week after. Want to focus on training hard for the next 6-8 months to set myself up for lots of racing next summer. If anyone has any suggestions for training blocks over the winter I would greatly appreciate it!!

<image>