Valmont CX

Mid-week update? No thanks. That would suggest something exciting has been going on. But I am a couple days behind on what seems to have become my weekly cyclocross race update. On Saturday they combined a 'cross race with the official groundbreaking ceremony for the Valmont Bike Park. I don't know the full details of the park but it does sound pretty awesome and will have a 'cross course that's there all the time. State of the art. Anyway, because of, well, I have no idea because of what, but because of something, they changed the starting times for the day. Usually Cat 4s don't race until 2:45 but today we were going off at 10. Even though my Friday night was pretty uneventful, it was still tough waking up on Saturday and I considered skipping the race. I can thank the dogs for getting me up though since they had to go outside and once I was up, I was racing.

Since I was slow going in the morning, instead of making something or stopping at Einstein's, I decided to fuel up with some delicious chocolate donuts from the gas station and topped it off with a Gatorade. All nutrition, all the time. I sucked that down on the way up to Boulder and debated how many layers I should wear during the race. It was pretty cold out in the morning and still in the high 40s when I got to the race. After I registered, switched out my wheels and started doing some warm-up laps, the temp started to rise and slowly but surely I took off the leg warmers, arm warmers, and then base layer. Somehow it had gone from 40s to 60s and was still on its way up.

Since I've been a slow starter in the past, I figured I'd start up front so I got to the line early and was in the first row. Then they did call-ups. Or at least the first half. Then they did call-ups for those people that had donated to the bike park. Then they did the rest of call-ups and then I was starting near the back again. At least I tried. The start was good in that it was a straight away for about 300 meters then turning right and going uphill. It broke some things up a little bit but with 70 riders on fresh legs, it took longer than that. The course itself was alright but it wasn't one that I was a big fan of. In fact, I was less a fan of the course than I am of ending sentences with prepositions which explains my previous sentence. But I digress..... The course was very bumpy witha lot of loose dirt that was very bumpy and mainly followed an earthmover's tracks that made it very bumpy. Kind of like parallel singletrack that was rough in between, making it difficult to pass in those sections. The backside was hacked weeds with a narrow singletrack. Again, it was tough to make passes but everyone had to deal with the same conditions. I think those with strong mountain biking backgrounds probably had the better advantage on this course. Hell, those with full suspension would have had the real advantage on this course.

Back to the race. It usually takes a lap to string out the pack and today was no exception. Surprisingly, though, I could feel my heart rate moving up but I wasn't feeling like death immediately. Second lap came and I was moving past a few people. This lap was still feeling good and so was the first half of the third. Only the first half because I was riding steady at the front of a pack and came into a turn that I knew was, you guessed it - bumpy, but you could still take it at speed. This time when I came in, I almost lost it since my back tire hit a couple bumps and I almost went down. Much to the applause of the on-lookers and fellow riders, I was able to stay upright, but it came at the expense of about five spots. Fortunately, I was able bridge the gap later in the lap and decided to sit in behind some of the riders. There were points where I really wanted to pass but decided to stay content just sitting in. And then I got impatient and decided to pass since we were close enough to the next pack that I could put in a little surge and bridge the gap. Since I had been running the barriers well all day I decided to wait until one of those sections to make my move. I could see the next group ahead, thought about running the barriers and putting in a grind on the following flats and catch them by the turn. This all worked out nicely in my head. The problem was that becoming exhausted, combined with being overly anxious doesn't work out so well. As I was dismounting, my foot didn't come out of the pedal and I face planted. Just like I was diving into home plate. I was safe from everything but embarrassment. I'm sure it was comical to watch, and while I didn't get hurt, not only did I not catch the next group, but I also let the following group by me. The good news is that I passed some of those guys back later in the race but the damage was done and I was just happy picking off anyone as I could. By the time the race finished I was pretty much cooked. I had no idea how I placed but figured it was pretty far back given my two bobbles. As it turned out, I was 40 out of 70. Not nearly as bad as I expected, but that also made the 10 or so spots that I lost on the bobbles suck that much more.

I can tell I'm starting to get some of my fitness back and briefly considered testing it again on Sunday, but with the temps getting in the mid-80s I decided it was too warm. Instead I settled for watching a Packers victory. I'm not certain I'll be able to race this coming weekend which just makes me look forward to two weeks from now when I'll be able to get out there again. The fitness will keep coming around and I'm sure my leg strength will keep getting better. And as it does, I'll be hoping for a finish in the top half of the field.

Good Thing For Weekends

Another weekend, another race. And it's a good thing too since I wouldn't have any updates for Rick and Chad (you're welcome) who talked me into starting this in the first place. More than looking forward to racing, after this week I was just looking forward to not having to be at work. Fortunately for me it's a 3-day weekend since good 'ol Christopher Columbus decided to get lost, crash into a continent, call it America and give school kids, government employees and bankers everywhere the day off. I didn't wake up once before 9:30 this weekend unless you count the phone call from my grandparents at about 6:30 this morning.

I was hoping to get back on the wagon and get some solid workouts in during the last week and was off to a good start with the CX race last weekend and a good MTB ride. Monday and Tuesday were both solid and then Wednesday happened and derailed everything. Everyone from the office went out for drinks on Wednesday night and then there was just no motivation for the next couple days. Come Sunday I knew I was in trouble with fitness for the race but it was basically the highlight of the week so I was definitely heading out.

Cross weather has arrived! I'm not sure that's a good thing or not, but it's here. Cold, snowy, slimy conditions that make you question what the hell you're doing out there during the entire warm-up. Usually you're only questioning what you're doing when you're about ready to puke up your lungs from the effort, and now we get to add the conditions to the mix. MMmmmm, Tasty. When I race (usually at 2:45), it's 2 slots behind the Open Men which means I get to watch the guys that are good. And be cold for a while. When they were going down on off camber descents, around slippery turns, etc., I knew it would be an interesting day.

See the smiles and laughing in that picture? It's a good indicator that it's before the race. AJ (my triathlon coach with D3 from two and three seasons ago) and I headed over to the call-ups but guess what.....neither of us got called up as expected so instead I lined up in back. Mainly because I was slow getting over there. I realize this isn't rocket science but I've come to realize just how important the start is. It can really make or break your placement throughout the race. There are guys that finished 10-15 places in front of me that I can ride with, but they either had better starts, or better positions at the start. Something to work on.

Once the gun went off it wasn't long before the first crash happened. I didn't go down but got caught up in the bottleneck and lost a few spots. Surprisingly, though, there weren't as many crashes as I expected. The course was snotty but had a good flow to it where you could recover on a couple sections, hammer it on some others, and just gut it out on a few more. All those sections were well-balanced. On about the third lap I was working my way up to a group of about 5 riders and I knew if I caught them I could pass them. I got within about 2-3 bike lengths and was waiting to make a move. We came down a sweeping righthander. It wasn't a sharp turn but the descent combined with the slippery/muddy conditions kept you honest. Apparently I was most honest when my bike slid out from under me and I ended up on my side. The crash didn't hurt but I lost that group, and while I was getting back on I got passed by another five to seven riders. That sucked. I was able to catch some of them, but definitely not all.

It looks like I'm walking in this picture but I really was trying to run through the barriers. This was the toughest section on the course since it went from this to this:

And then mount the bike and ride back through the sand. By the time you got out the other side you were leaning over the bars trying to suck in any air so you could get ready for the next section.

All said and done I finished 57/80. Throw in a better starting position and not crashing and that's probably 40/80 but that's part of what makes CX so much fun and interesting. A couple bobbles can really cost you. Now it's time to get serious again about my bike fitness and ride with some more strength. I'll be back next weekend and am considering a back to back effort for the weekend. Saturday is the official groundbreaking for the Valmont Bike Park in Boulder that's being brought in with a 'cross race. Should be awesome. Then depending on how I feel, there's a race in Golden on Sunday. Hup hup.

Rubber Side Down

Seems like the pattern the last couple of weeks has been to back up a day of cyclocross racing with a day of mountain biking. It's fun, relaxed, and nice to get out into the foothills for some good riding, especially while the leaves are changing. Perfect riding weather! I went up to Bergen Peak with Brant and Nate and apparently it was cute girl hiking day. I'm all for it, except maybe next time I should try and bring some MTB'ing skills to even mildly impress anyone.

To be honest I felt a bit squirrely on the bike all day. It didn't matter the terrain or speed, I just didn't have it. My legs were a bit fatigued but nothing terrible. There may have been a part of it that was from crashing on my CX bike three times yesterday, but I don't know that that really played into things all that much. The climb to the top was pretty uneventful while passing by plenty of, yes, cute girls hiking. Seriously, who knew?! As got close to the top, around 9300 feet, it started snowing. Not hard, and it didn't really feel all that cold, but it was still coming down.

And of course since the only real reason we ride up is to ride down, that's when the fun usually begins. Usually because this time going down didn't just mean going down the hill, it also included two more crashes. The first one was a non-event. My rear derailleur got caught up on a rock while going around a corner and I went down. The second one, however, was definitely a spectacle. I was coming up to a technical part just before a switchback that Brant and Nate had already cleared and were on the path just below me heading the other way, but waiting for me. Somewhere in the middle of the technical section I realized I wasn't going to make it through so I put my foot down, which slid out from underneath me since it was on a slope. Then I completely lost my footing and somehow rolled but was bringing my bike with me because my other foot was still clipped in. As I was rolling I was headed straight for Brant who was perfectly in the way of this disaster. When the bike started coming over top of me and almost into him, he was able to grab it and chuck it over his shoulder, but not without getting knocked down and tumbling down the hill himself. Nate had the best seat in the house and watched it all happen and was laughing after he realized we were both okay. I would have laughed too but my left hand hurt too damn bad! It took a while (as in hours) before it started feeling normal again, but I think it's just bruised and no torn ligaments. I also have a few nice cherries on my legs, but they're in places that I'm pretty sure would be inappropriate to post on here. Most importantly of all of this, aside from nothing being broken and the bike being okay, is that it didn't happen in front of any of the cute girls hiking!

After the crash we rode the rest of the way down and were still able to salvage a pretty good day of bike riding. So now with five crashes in two days, I'm hoping that's all out of my system for a while. And even if it's not I'll still be back on the bike before too long. If I start crashing while I'm on my trainer though, I may have to reconsider!

Cyclocrash

Headed up to Frisco to race Day 1 of the two day Frisco-X races. My races with the Cat 4s aren't until around 2:40 or 2:45 all season so normally I get to sleep in a bit, eat breakfast while watching GameDay, get some things done and then head to the race. However, I rode up with Adam and Yvonne and their 2.5 y/o Lenora Grace, and since Adam races earlier, we were out the door at 8.

The weather in the mountains was pretty much perfect all day long as it warmed up to about 50*. Maybe a little higher. Only a little wind and some clouds that were off and on. All in all, a great day to be in the mountains, a great day to race, and one more thing that's just great about living in Colorado in general.

Adam raced in the SM35+ Cat 4s and did really well finishing around 11th or 12th. While we hung out for the few hours in between his race and mine, we watched the Open Men race which included some guys that simply stated, are ridiculously good. Jake Wells, who finished 12th at CrossVegas, took 1st and did it without looking like he ever got tired.

I pre-rode the course a few times and realized that the tubeless wheelset I was running wasn't going to work so I switched it up and put tubes in and was ready to roll. It was a good course with an uphill right out of the start that was followed up by a winding descent with some tight turns, all of it being over woodchips. A few more tight turns led to a straight section that spit you at a technical downhill into a righthander and then a hairpin lefthander. The next tough part was a tight left hand turn on gravel that was pretty dug out and made things tricky. Then it was over some barriers, up and around the frontside, over some more barriers and a place to actually breathe before heading back up the hill. All in all, I thought this would be a good course for me. All in all, it probably would be if I had my cycling fitness from two months ago!

There were around 60 people starting and I got stuck near mid-back; not where I wanted to be. Nothing really changed going uphill and the first lap was pretty tight, but without incident. Feeling like you can't breathe deeply enough isn't enough of an incident to mention while racing since that's how everyone felt. Since most of the laps blurred together, here's what happened at some point. First, coming into the gravel-rutted lefthander, there was another rider that didn't make it through clean and when I came in carrying speed, I slammed my brakes, hit the rut and went straight over the handlebars. No biggie - get up and race. I was more pissed that two guys got past me than anything. On the next lap coming down the technical descent into the right hand turn, my wheels slid out and I landed on my side. Two laps later who knows what happened but my bike ended up being caught by a pine tree and I was on the ground about five feet in front of it. Again, two more riders got by me. Aside from that, I was lacking the leg strength needed to ride like I felt I should have. I was running the barriers well and re-mounting the bike well. That was probably the highlight since I was able to pass some guys there. The laps came and went and at the finish I think I was somewhere around 40 out of 60. Not my best day but it was still fun to be out there.

I think I'll round out the weekend with a good mountain bike ride tomorrow, and then hitting the trainer pretty hard during the week so I can start to get some of that cycling strength and fitness back!