Mid-season break comes to an end

One week 'til the second half of the season. Four races at Chickasaw in January, then four races in Knoxville in February. It's going to be a long slog to the end. I've been doing an unholy amount of lunges and other mind-numbing exercises, spent many hours on the trainer watching Arrested Development/hockey/MNF, and worked on my remounts when I was able. I've worked on starts, cornering, shouldering, suitcasing. I've raced when I was sick, I've drawn blood, and I've given a little, too. I've crashed in practice countless times this season, for the first time ever. I've even used a heart-rate monitor (and pushed 190 bpm). I've cut out fries and limited my beer intake. I ate reasonably at Thanksgiving and Christmas, boy that was difficult. I tried embrocation, even. That stuff works. The only thing I haven't practiced is my victory salute - I'll have to save that for next season.

Results so far:

Mud, Sweat & Gears #1 : 25th
Mud, Sweat & Gears #2 : 20th
USGP Louisville #1 : 58th
USGP Louisville #2 : 64th
Tennessee State Championships : 18th (lapped)
Beat the Freak #3 : 10th
Georgia 'Cross #7 : 42nd

There we have it - only twice have I gotten anywhere near the top half of the field - USGP #1 and Georgia.

So now I've done all I can for the first half of the season. The weather is supposed to be in the 40's next weekend, sunny, and a bit windy - skinsuit weather. I hope the race organizers lay out a slow, twisty, hilly course. If there is mud, I will be pleased. If it is flat and fast, I will be screwed.

On a totally separate note, Santa cobbled together these sweet wellies for me for Christmas:
http://www.piperlime.com/browse/product.do?cid=4016&pid=608871&scid=608871002

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but Santa knows I have narrow feet. And Santa knows I can rock them.

Holiday Training and Untraining

Happy Holidays!

The last time I raced 'Cross was December 7. It was a pretty good race, I felt really good, considering I was sick. So I've had some time off since then. I've tried to keep up with training, but work has been pretty brutal lately. Between that and the holidays, my plan to get ahead of the competition has fallen to pieces. I went out to our little practice course today, and after two hot laps, I was done. So I need to get back on it. Nothing but grains and vegetables and trainer work for me, 'til after New Year. Eyes on the prize!

I picked up a new handlebar, the Salsa Bell Lap, size 42. I had been riding a Moto Ace in a 44cm, it was way too wide. I really like the bar, the difference in size is really noticeable.

While we're on the topic of equipment, this is what I've been riding this year, with a few component highlights. She comes in just over 18 lbs:




52cm Empella Bonfire SL with Carbonfire fork (the death shimmy fork...)
Ultegra brifters, crank, BB, hubs, derailleur
Avid Shorty 6 brakes (if you have these and think they suck, check into the Salsa brake hanger)
Single-ring setup w/42t chainring
Crank Bros. Eggbeater SL pedals
Bell Lap bars
WCS stem
Terry Zero saddle
Ritchey SpeedMax pro tires mounted to Mavic Open Pro rims
*race wheels - Dura Ace w/Mavic Reflex and Vittoria XG tires

This is the steed I will ride to glorious cyclocross victory one day. Or at least to the top 50%.

Dirty Santa

This has nothing to do with 'Cross, but it does have to do with Karma, and the belief that good things really do come back to you. We had our office Christmas party tonight, and, as always, we did the Dirty Santa gift exchange. I took home what was arguably the best gift ever - a Bedazzler. Yeah, check it out: www.mybedazzler.com

I do believe my office is getting hats for Christmas. And our Dirty Spokes 12-hour team (www.dirtyspokes.com) is getting some sweet team socks. Sweet Sweet Jesse, Jermajesty and Bobby?! will be rocking some Bedazzled socks for sure. It will more than make up for our poor race performance.

Results are in!

I had a pretty good day Sunday. The course in Paudling, Georgia was great. Pretty twisty, a little mud, hilly, with a fair amount of pavement. The temperature was hovering at about freezing, maybe a little below. The course definitely worked to my advantage, with a lot of quick acceleration then quick deceleration. There was never much of a chance to really go all out, which is always good for me. I started the day feeling bad, very congested, but figured with a little bit of cheering, tootin' the big plastic horn, ringing some cowbells, I'd get to feeling better.

By the time the 'C' race staging began, I was still feeling pretty bad, so I lined up in the second row. I figured maybe 25 racers would line up, and that would put me starting mid-pack. After a couple minutes, there were six rows behind me. What a field! Not wanting to hold up a bunch of guys who were most certainly faster than me, I sheepishly excused myself from the second row and moved to the back. I usually like to start in a mid-pack position, this gives me a chance to test my bunch start skills, without causing too much trouble for anyone else. But this time, I just knew I'd have problems, and the cold air was really starting to get to me.

While I was standing there, waiting for the whistle, I decided I was going to give it a good, hard effort at the start, ride at my limit for a lap or two, then ease up. Maybe this way I could still get a little workout and some more race experience, without making myself more sick. We had a somewhat confusing start, and I barrelled up through the ranks, maybe getting to about 35th before we transitioned to the dirt. We swung up through the trees and snaked our way down to a sweet little run-up with a pair of barriers. I was pretty quick and fluid up the run-up, and quickly discovered it was way faster to run to the top, rather than try to remount and ride it. I lost a few spots as always, as the initial flurry of activity wore off, and settled into a rhythm. At this point, I was really feeling good. Surprisingly good, actually. We came into another little twisty section with a lot of pavement transitions. Great opportunity for pinch flats all through this section. I rode it pretty much in full-gas mode, and for the first couple laps was able to confidently bunny hop onto the pavement. This was followed by a set of stairs (which I took two-at-a-time on every lap!) leading into a short paved climb, back onto the grass, before dropping onto what was arguably the most fun part - the twisty downhill into the ditch crossing leading up to the start/finish line.

I rode with pretty much the same guys for a couple laps, particularly one tall dude in a Russian jersey, then dramatically fell off the pace on the third lap. I started wheezing and hacking, which was exceptionally gross, to the point that I was really self-conscious of it. I was a little afraid that an official would pull me, thinking I was having some kind of respiratory attack, and I really had to ease up. I soft-pedaled for about a half-lap and lost a bunch of places, but then it cleared up. I was a little into the fourth lap when I suddenly felt a lot better, so I gunned it as best I could, picked off a few of the guys who'd passed me earlier, and finished in a sprint. I wasn't really sprinting for anything, I really just did it to show the spectators that even 42nd can go hard for the line...

All in all, it was a great day of racing. For the first time this season, I put a lot of trust in my tubulars and I just stuck it in every turn. I did a lot of stuff right. I picked the right lines, I passed in the right spots, sat in when I needed, went all out when I was able, and my legs felt great. I finished 42 out of 60, and I was a little disappointed when it was over - I feel like I could have moved up a couple more spots if we’d had another lap. I ran 27/30 in the tires, and it was perfect.

Now it's time for a mid-season "break". I've got a lot of training to do to get where I want to be, but I think I can do it. Next race is the Chickasaw Series in January, put on by Columbia Cycling Club. I think this will be the 14th year? This is the series where I get to race against guys I know, and it will be interesting to see what happens. I'm aiming to place in the top half. In the meantime, I'll be practicing remounts, doing a little running, but mainly just working on the trainer and trying to get faster. I'm getting to the point where going "as hard as I can" doesn't hurt as much, but I don't seem to be any faster, so maybe I've reached a training plateau. Time to step it up a notch, maybe.

Not Feeling Good...

After a crazy good Thanksgiving, a busy week at work, and lots of training, here it is: the final race before holiday break. And I'm sick. The plan was to use the first half of the season as "base", train like the dickens through New Year, then get back into the racing stronger than ever. I still think I can do it, and I'm still aiming for a top-half finish, but it will likely not be tomorrow.

Tomorrow will be about limiting loss, which is also good training. I may not win, but I can sure as hell sprint for 21st!!! As cruddy as I feel, I'm looking forward to it. It will be fun to try a new course, a new series, and see how the folks in Georgia do it. I went out today in Peachtree City, and rode the paved trails around there. I found a little church with a couple of railroad ties and a sandy volleyball court perched on a little hill - perfect for run-ups into sand! And perfect going the other way - sand into a downhill remount... actually I'm terrified of the downhill remount, but that's for another post.

Speaking of remounts, I've been practicing them too. Like, a lot. But I can't seem to get rid of the stutter-step. Something about jumping back on the saddle still frightens me, not that I've ever had anything go wrong. I'm good at a slow jog, but anything faster and my self-preservation "put-a-foot-down reflex" kicks in. It's another thing to work on during my mini-break.

I will race tomorrow in Dallas, Georgia, and probably get it handed to me again. But, phlegm and all, I'm still holding out hope. Maybe the course will be a twisty, muddy, slow slog, and work against the roadies. If so, I really believe I have a shot at 50%. Wish me luck!

"Beat the Freak"

I raced the "Beat the Freak" CX race last Saturday. I didn't do so well, but as always, I managed to have fun. I ate right, I dressed right, and I was well hydrated. I definitely ran the right tire pressure - 40 in the back, 37 up front. The course was mainly cold hard grass and pavement, and it was pretty dry. I finished 10 out of 13, but I could have sworn I DFL'd.

The race was held at a high school in Fayetteville, Tennessee. The course started with a nice flat, paved area, dropped into a slight grassy downhill, ran into a sweeping right turn, then up again onto a paved circuit around a football field. The paved portion around the ball field was deceptively steep, and by the fourth lap, was pretty punishing. Then the course ran through some more grass, over a pair of log barriers, then more grass, up a triple set of three or four stairs, more grass, a "death spiral" (seems to be prevalent this season), some grass, a pair of barriers leading to a run-up, and more grass. So, yeah, a lot of grass and pretty fast, overall a pretty good course.

We rode three laps before they told us we had another three to go. I was staying with a couple guys pretty well, and really felt like I was doing well. When we got the 3-laps-to-go count, I decided to ease up for a lap, then I was going to really lay down the law on the last two laps. The plan, of course, was to conserve a little energy, then blow it all in the final two laps. I believed at the time this was a good move, but it turned out to be a big tactical mistake for a couple of reasons, and one I will likely not make again. The officials miscounted the laps-to-go. At the end of the fourth lap, they said two laps to go and I went as hard as I could. I was doing my best to close the gap, but then they called the race after 5 laps. I couldn't have caught him anyway, but I gave it everything I had.

So what did I do wrong? One, I trusted the lap count. Two, I should have kept even pressure on the guy in front of me - I think easing up made it that much harder to get it going again. And when he looked back and saw I was easing up, it gave him the boost he needed to keep going hard.

Next weekend I'm going to Dallas, Georgia for the final race in their series. If luck is on my side, it will be wet and muddy and cold, and the course will be slow and soggy, not grassy and fast. I tend to do better in the slow slogs than the fast courses, so here's hoping. I've been doing a lot of working out off the bike, running, lunges, etc to try and get a little more endurance, we'll see how that pans out!

Bottom Feeder 'Cross!!!

So I've decided to enter the "blogosphere". Must be all the talking heads on the news, or that Twix advertisement where the guy invites the girl up to his place, to, uh, blog.

Anyway, I'm really into all things Cyclocross. Yeah, with a capital 'C'. 'Cross, as they say, is really about overcoming barriers. I hope to learn a few more things, overcome a few more barriers, maybe move up a couple spots over the season, not break anything, and share a little bit of it with you.

I'd also like to try and change up my routine during this, my third, season. I'm racing on tubulars this year, which I think has helped a little. I've been experimenting with tire pressure more, sometimes for the better, sometimes not. I'll be sharing that some, too.

I raced the Tennessee State Championship this weekend. It was pretty much disastrous. But that's okay, I learned some things. I didn't eat my usual breakfast (Cheerios), I ate1/2-hour later than usual, and I cramped on the first lap. I had a cruddy start. But I dressed perfectly for the weather. I bumped up the tire pressure pretty substantially - 40 psi in the back, and 36 in the front, and that felt pretty good for the relatively dry, grassy course. Anything softer and I would have been fighting the tire too much. The course was pretty decent, with a couple good little climbs (one deceptively steep - I ran it once), a run-up with railroad ties, and two sets of barriers. It was a compact little course, the spectators were into it, all while they played that Kenny Loggins song, "Danger Zone". That really got my blood pumpin', Goose.

I rode two easy, crampy laps, then let loose with a pretty full-on effort for the last three. On my fifth, I got lapped and pulled, for the first time in a couple of seasons. That hurt, and I was pretty disappointed about it. But...

That said, I had wicked great fun. I raced the state championship, and gave it everything I had, with a bunch of guys who are way faster than me, not the guys I normally "compete" with. My running is getting better, and I'm smoother over barriers. I've ALMOST eliminated the stutter step. So close.

This weekend we've got two races in Fayetteville, the "Beat the Freak" races. I'd like to place in the top half, at least on one day. I suspect it will be pretty grassy and dry again, and probably low-40's by the time I race. We'll see how it goes.