carpediemracing 

I'm so inexperienced on the track that I have no idea. I wasn't sick, but the effort was at the end of a long day at the track, and I probably hadn't fueled properly. Thinking in font, I got up 5ish, ate a light breakfast (oatmeal, coffee, probably, since that's what I usually eat), drove 3 hours to the track, rode off and on probably 2-3 hours, and then did the 500m. I think I had one Lara bar? Maybe two Cokes? And water. It was hot, and I went hard enough that someone went and found me a rolled up kit/something to lay my head on. Took me maybe 5 to 10 minutes to catch my breath.

Regardless, now I'm learning that even if I feel like all hope is long gone and I'm going about 3.2 mph, it's still worth it to keep pushing because I vastly underestimate what I'm doing when I think I've blown up. (on the flip side, I vastly over estimate what I'm doing when I go hard, like my starts or my jumps).

I'm also starting to think that I have to approach a track day as sort of a long ride, because I must be getting weaker as the day goes on (right?). If I can level my performance throughout the day that would be a huge "gain" (or a non-loss). Thinking things like chairs so I can put my feet up, shade when it's sunny, cooler with water/Coke/electrolyte stuff?. I raced Sunday, it's Tuesday morning now, and I still feel really depleted. I'm still almost 6 lbs lighter than I was on Sunday morning. And the feeling of depletion isn't that I'm hungry, it's I'm craving some kind of food that I don't know what it is. Water isn't doing it, and I almost never drink electrolyte stuff (my legs seem to cramp pretty quickly when I do, like within 10-15 minutes of riding). But I'm rethinking the electrolyte thing, at least for recovery, because that might be part of what I'm craving. Rambling but it's good to put these things down in font, makes me think about it a bit more clearly.