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.