The gods are conspiring against me...

I got up nice and early to get to Wissaghickon on Sunday, one of my favorite races. Still wasn't too early since it's only a hr and 15 minute drive. Got ready, eat breakfast, and left. Without my helmet. I realized this (fortunately) about 5 miles from home, so I drove to the next turnpike exit, headed home, and got the friggin helmet. I get there OK and there's a line at the reg tent. Get thru that and have to hit the john. Big time. Whatever has been working on me this past week performed it's magic. Yea, I know, you didn't need to hear that. I finally get ready 1/2 hr before the race. Do a quick 15 min warmup and head for the start. It was colder so I decided on the fleece skinny. Good move. (Even tho Kerry frtom HUP claimed I need to get tough.) I got a good start pos in the 3rd row (thanks to Thor) and off we went. 80ish riders. Up the asphalt and into the turns, which, at the 1st 180, turned into a cluster-f%ck. 2nd as well. Got thru that without going down, and off I went. Passed a few, got passed, yada yada yada. I didn't feel great running the barriers but felt pretty strong on the roadie sections. I also rode the sand pretty well. The steep left hannd-downhill turn I ran 4 out of the 5 times. People were yelling "ride it, HUP", so as not to disappoint, I did it on the last lap. Absolutely not advantageous to do so. Corey Twyman from Hub racing was following me the last lap and passed me the last set of barriers. I just didn't have the gass or ambition to go after him at that point. I finished 49th out of 74 finishers with 5 or so DNF's. Not as good as I thought but still better than previous yrs. I actually lapped 1 or 2 riders. I'll use the excuse that I was hurried and not feeling 100%. At least, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The inevitable bites me in the ass.

Almost literally. I get to the race and even tho I didn't pre-reg I was able to get thru pretty quickly. The venue? Breast cancer awareness race in Hagerstown MD. I get my stuff out, get on the bike and dressed remarkably early (for me). No rushing around. Nice. Thor stops by and gives me some shit about primping but I let him know I'm about 5 minutes ahead of schedule. For me. Got good and warmed up and actually had time to pre-ride some of the course. Bumpy as shit, but fast and not too difficult. Sweet. I actually get a call up (ok, they went pretty deep), but a decent start position. The bell goes off and we fly down the gravel/paved start into the grass. I pass a few in the corners and short hills and also get passed. Didn't get to ride yesterday so the legs started screaming right before the barriers. I remounted and almost crushed both nuts; worst remount evar. I recover and get into a groove after a lap or so; I was able to fly down the paved /gravel section. I kept trading places with one of Thor's teammates and Nunzio and another rider. Then I dropped my chain. Got it back on and still felt strong. After 4ish laps or so I passed a few lapped riders. Kept gaining ground on the NVCC guy. Until I dropped my chain. Again. Still I felt pretty good and was going strong with 3 laps to go. I hit my remount after the barriers and the seat felt funny but I kept on going. I blasted thru the sand and hit a big pile of it and it threw me towards the tape. Stop and get my bars out of the tape and my m$therf#cking seat fell off; the saddle separated itself from the rails. Would've been REAL fun had it happened while I was on the bike. So. Since I didn't bring the spare bike, I was finished.
As it turns out, lots of people DNF'd, including Thor. Pinch flat. One of the many.
So, next race, it's the tried and true Selle Italia Pro Link. And my spare bike. The Pave saddle is going back to Fizik.

And so it begins...

1st cross race in HUP kit! Charm City. Got what I thought was an early enough start to head down to Bawlmer. Get there, find a decent parking spot and realize it is quiet a distance to the reg area. D'oh. Ride over and it takes longer than usual to sign in. get back to the car, get the bike on the trainer, get dressed and it's like 9:25 or so. Aaaarggghhhh!
Guess I'll leave more time next time...
So I warm up for about 20 min and head over to staging, deciding not to take the pit wheels along. Since I reg'd earlier this yr I got a decent start position. The gun (ok, whistle) went off and away we went. I got into the "tree" without having to stop this yr and that made a HUGE difference. My legs didn't feel great but after about 2 laps I started feeling better. Stomach was upset a bit, too. Still, I ran the sand pit, which was longer and harder this yr, pretty well, as well as the uphill barriers. Getting off and on the bike is starting to get second nature to me so that's good.
I ended up losing a few places last lap but wound up 55th out of 83 (they didn't have the age breakdown yet) so I am fairly happy with that result; MUCH better than last yr.
I'll get back to intervals this week and I won't go to Hershey park the day before and maybe my legs will feel better at Ed Sander. I would like to see a finish this yr where there are more finishing behind me than ahead of me. I think it's possible.
And I want to beat Thor.
Speaking of which, poor bastid rolled his tubie and had no wheels in the pit. From now on I am taking BOTH bikes and my extra rear wheel to the pit. It would suck MUCHO to have to DNF because of a mechanical.
Hopefully Kevin Dillard will have his pics of the race up soon so I can get a pic on here of me in my HUP kit; WC is so last yr....

Belgian knee warmers

Today was coolish. 65ish degrees. Wet. I decided to give the Belgian knee warmers a try. While I don't have Sportsbalm or similar, I DO have Tiger balm. Close enough. Slather it all over my quite sore legs. Aaaaaahhhh. Out I went. OMFG! My legs felt great! 3 sets of Tabata intervals and then off to L A park for some plyo excercises. Even running up the hill my legs still felt great. Now, riding home was pretty slow, but that was mostly intentional. Dayum. I need to remember this. And get some Sports balm. Srsly.

T minus 27 days and counting....

Till Charm City! Wha-ho! I started the plyo/intervals session yesterday. Did my 2x20's today; plyo yesterday (w3x6's). Surprisingly, my legs felt not too bad even doing the plyo yesterday. Guess my guesstimate at base plyo was OK. I LOVE fall; cross especially but I also enjoy going to Sarah's soccer games. Her team (like me, I hope) probably won't suck this year.

The 1 (ok, 2) lap rule and the kindness of strangers...

Race avenue crit in Lancaster, PA. I had taken it easy this week as it was rest week; only rode twice, but did a few "jumps" on friday to prep for the race. I should've seen this as an omen but when I got my bike ready to go this morning I found that the front tire was flat. WHY I ever bought Conti Latex tubes is a mystery to me. Went to put the spare on and it doesn't hold air. Finally found a cheap, trusty, Kenda tube and was ready to go. I figured that maybe I should bring my spare front wheel "just in case". I get there in plenty of time and find a great spot at Franklin and Marshall college to park and warm up. 1/2 way into the warmup campus security informs me I can't park there, but is cool enough to let me finish my warm up.
I get done taking a shorter warmup so I can move the car. Get to the start and races are running late. Aaack. We wait about 20 extra minutes and FINALLY line up, me securing a primo front row start position.
And we're off!
2nd friggin lap I hear "pisssssssssssss" and guess what? It's me. Flat. Rear. I'm f*cked.
Fortunately a cat 4 rider sees my plight and lets me use his wheel. Also, fortunately, they "bend" the 1 lap rule and allow me 2 since it's just slightly over 0.6 miles per lap.
I hop on and ride like a madman to catch back on. Why the f%ck I didn't bring a spare REAR tire is beyond me. That'll never happen again.
A nice sized group stays away the entire race and we finish several laps in front of many. I hung on until the last stretch and the legs called it a day. I'm pretty sure I made top 15 so I'm pretty content with where my fitness is, esp since I'll be doing a 3 week killer session before cross starts.
Oh. And who said that roadies were all pricks? Much props to WHOVER it was that loaned me the wheel.

Not sucking as much......

Alaric Gayfer crit in Trexlertown, PA. Cat 5 "move up race". Small field, about 15 starters. This course is a 1 mile track that winds thru the park. A steep little left-hander right past the start/finish down thru a series of S turns then a long left sweeper, twisting back and then up a slight grade to the start finish line. 15 laps, started REALLY slow, then some guys picked up the pace. I stayed around mid pack most of the race but EVERY TIME down thru the turns they'd slow. I KNEW that I was faster than anyone thru that series of turns. The usual attacks occured; I stayed put and in the pack. With about 5 to go I positioned myself towards the front. Right past the start/finish on the last lap I heard "on the left" and 2 guys were making an attack up the hill. I decided it was now or never. Caught them and went flying past them down thru the turns pulling ahead by about 10 legnths by the mid point in the left hand sweeper. Then the cavalry came charging and I gave all that I had left, winding up 10th, my best road finish so far.