A day on the road.

Had to see how warm my new C-dale winter gloves are. :-) I'm here to say that they are great; even better after they stretched out a bit. Beautiful day for a ride; my legs didn't know what to think; riding on a trainer just isn't the same. Almost went down twice; the old black ice was hiding in shaded corners and hills. As it was, I wound up with 27 miles and a good workout. And a dirty (er) bike.

Ugghh.

My favorite time of yr. Running, weights, and boredom. Start today. Yippee.

Reston and the yr in review. (sorry-long)

   Cold, sunny December day. Got up early to drive the 2 hrs to Reston, VA, for my last race of the yr. It's a tradition and I like the course, although I've never done particularly well, there. As I drive down I see varying amounts of snow on the ground. I LOVE racing in the snow. Reston had about 4-6 inches. I reg, get a decent warm up, and do a few sections of the course. It's mud beneath a lot of the snow. Ugghh. Bob Perna warns "be careful out there". Will do. I get a good start position, IN FRONT OF THOR, mainly because I reg'ed early. Gun goes off and up the road to the snow/grass/mud. My legs are feeling OK at this time. (I raced the day before), we head down a snowy section into a muddy left hand turn, and then up a steep little pitch. Good news is I avoid the guys who stop or go down (not so the case with a lot of my races this yr). Bad news is my legs let me know I'm in for a long race. Feel dead. Through some twisties which are even more interesting in snow, and then up to the steep pitch before we cross the lake. I run. It seems like the fastest way to go through. Across in pretty much single file since there is only a thin line where it isn't icy. Up the steep, long, run up. Legs are screaming. I hear Dream Plus from RBR letting me know he's chasing a competitor (55+) so I let him around.  Up the climb where I actually don't feel bad, and down the gnarly singletrackish section across the off camber left and on to the decent, into a thick muddy right turn. All of the lower section is muddy and slow except for a few stretches. Up the next steep pitch, which most of us were running, and through some tight turns that you had to put  foot down, out and back on icy asphalt/ grass, and start lap 2. We did 4 laps, I believe. I was close to one of my cross nemesis for a while and kept swapping places with a guy until he pulled away with about a lap to go. wasn't sure how I placed but didn't hang around long since i had to be back i the 'burg to go to Chelsea's winter concert. I find out 2 days later they placed me as "DNF"??? WTF?? They said they had my number when I crossed the line. Oh well. AFAIK, I would have been about 54th out of 69 or 70. About par for the course this yr.

  As for this yr I have to say I was disappounted at my results. I came in feeling good; didn't feel burned out at any point (unlike last yr), and had fun. Did more races than any yr before. I started getting better results in the last month, so that was a good sign. I got to races ( with the exception of Wissahickon) early. Did most things "right". I had a bunch of "being at the wrong place at the wrong time" incidents that likely kept my results down. 1 real DNF at DCCX, and lots of muddy races, not my forte, so there's another reason why the poorer results. Probably the bigest reason is my weight. While
"thin" by every day American standards, I am about 4-5 lbs over what I weighed last yr. Ice cream is the culprit. But that's on me. I think that for next yr I'll prep much the same and just try to be more aggressive. Maybe a Red Bull before the start won't hurt :-)

Rockville Bridge Classic

Marysville Pa. The site of my 1st cross race. And the beginning of an addiction. It was nice to have a 1215 start time AND a 20 minute drive. Got there as the snow started to fall. Took entirely too much time talking and genearlly just taking it easy, but it was OK. Plenty of time. It was cold but bearable. Wore my fleece skinny (my favorite) and my old "No fear" knee warmers. Perfect! Rode 1 lap and it was already getting slick. Finally, the start. About 12 or so strong riders, mostly Elites, Dave Baumgardner, Gary Snyder, and myself. I knew my race would be with Dave and Gary. Took off up the gravel/paved road in decent position and rode down the same hill on the grass, once again in decent shape. Negotiated the off camber right hander well and took off for the next turn. Got off and ran up the hill. Way too slippery to ride fast. remounted and rode OK thru the rest of the 1st technical section, ran the barriers well, and headed off the the next technical section. I really didn't ride that section very well until the last lap. Dave and I kept swapping spots; he'd catch me and pass me on that section; I'd catch up and pass him on the section after the start/finish. I ran the section after the steep run up that seemed to gain me time on Dave. We had put a decent amount of room between us and Gary, but not near anyone else. Finally it showed 2 laps but I figured we'd get lapped, and we did, but not until about 1/2 way through. I had a good lead on Dave by this point but lost it when I dropped my chain after a fall. I managed to holdhim off anyway and took 3rd to last, about where I figured. But it was so much fun I didn't care. Great race. I hope it becomes a regualar race in the following seasons. Photo courtousey of my friend Joe Mallis @ smugmug.

A tale of 3 days or a 3 for 1 race post!

Sunday, Nov 22nd. Rockburn. Very different course from last yr. Shorter, more technical. The starts were delayed becuase of an accident on I-95, which, fortunately for me, my GPS routed me around. (Have I mentioned how much I love my Garmin?!)

This meant I had a long time to get ready. That was nice. I was able to help Gary out and pin him up since he was one of the unfortunate ones. Got a good lap in on the course and decided that the file treads were not the way to go. I got my usual horriffic start position and went off up the hill. I managed to squeeze up alongside the curb and grab a few places. I'd fairly quickly lose them as someone stopped in front of me. Again. Had to dismount and run a bit.. Then, later, I dropped my chain. ugghh. Carlo passed me at some point during all of this. I saw him with 2 laps to go and kept getting closer to him. I finally caught up with about 1/2 lap to go and decided to pass him at the end so he couldn't pass me. Bad decision. His MTB skills helped him through the last technical section faster than me, so it was no catching him. Great food and pie afterwards almost made up for it.

Saturday, last, PA State championships in Whitehall. A 1230 start. Nice! Windy as shit though. I expected mud. None. I got there early enough to get 2 laps in before I warmed up. Also nice. Small, strong field. I liked the course a lot; it suited me. long, sweeping turns, power sections, and not too much technical stuff. 1 longish climb on asphalt slowed me down, but i wound up fighting off acouple of guys who tried to pass me. wound up getting lapped by the 1st 3 guys with about 1/3 lap to go, finishing 34 out of 42 finishers. Not great but considering the strength of the field, I wasn't too disappointed. Nice to see Dan K there, cheering me on.

Sunday, Taneytown. A short drive, nice weather. I expected a grass crit. Boy was I wrong. It was a friggin bog in lots of places. Got a good start and didn't get tangled up in the melee going into the 1st muddy section. I decided to run quite a bit of it and that was actually a good move. Thor didn't fare so well. Neither did Dave T. I rode hard but the back side just killed me. I also got my bars stuck in the tape 2x because the line was better near the tape, but that's the risk you take. i dropped my chain (again) with about 2 laps to go after falling on the end of the section I had run on lap. I caught 2 guys on the pavement after the last bog and then proceded to get my bars stuck in the tape, letting the 1st guy pass me. I couldn't catch him. 40th out of 62. My best mud finish, ever.

One more weekend. Maybe I'll get a decent result at Marysville or Reston....(where there is a good chance of snow :-) )