The cross yr in review

What did I do? Am I happy? I suppose.
Good things;
1) didn't get lapped. At all. Not close.
2) actually lapped people in some races. WTF??
3) finished top 50% several times-that was a goal
4) top 25% 1x. That was a surprise!
5) trained better
6) gauged my effort better.
Things to improve on (besides what I mentioned in the previous post)
1) maybe train not as hard once the season starts. There were times my legs just felt tired.
2) go harder at the start.
3) maybe lose a couple more lbs.
Goals for next yr;
1) top 50% unless I DNF...
2) some more top 25%? Possible? I hope.
3) beat Thor :-)
4) a real top 10 in some of the PA races?

Well. It's over my friends...

Last race of the yr, Capital Cross Classic. One of my favorites. I was not able to do this race last yr so I was really looking forward to this. Got a good start on my drive down. Ominous clouds on the way, driving thru some sketchy sections of road and some heavy snow squalls. Yea, baby!
Get there and the park is changed a bit. It is windy as shit and cold; don't mind the cold but I hate the wind. I scramble to get ready and realize it's like 9:27 and my race starts at 10. Although this was better than Mike G (who took my bike to the pits-thx!) who arrived at this time for his 9am race...
I got an OK warm up and headed for a bit of a pre-ride. Not much mud; mostly frozen ground. I line up pretty far back, the whistle is blown and we're off. I pass a bit on the twisted section after the start. Did I mention the wind was brutal? The barriers are a bit clogged up but I get thru OK. A new section twists down past a little stream then a steep section. Bam. My legs feel like lead. I climb like a lead baloon. Get out and head across the lake and up the run up which is longer this yr. Legs feel OK going up this. There is a bottle-neck going up that nasty gravel climb. I biff a bit but keep going. The single track is really dry and hard to come across that nasty off camber left. Thru that, down the hill and thru the twisty flat seection by the start/finish. A bit of mud there so the corners were a bit sketchy. Up some pavement and up a steep climb. This would kill me. If I'd have known this I probably would have swapped out my 40t for my 38. Next yr. Down a sweeping rt hander, thru some trees and up to do it all over again. I got passed a bit on the climbs but did OK on the flats; this race at least allows you to recover a bit. "Lithuainia" kept egging me on; he's a good guy. My left shoe's top latch loosened and I contemplated stopping to fix it but instead rode on; I doubt it affected me much. Bob Perna, who has been riding great, passed me w/ 1 lap to go. I eventually caught him on the s/f line (he got a flat-good for me!) Corey Twyman, who passed me on the 1st lap, was stopped going up the gravel climb. He said he almost lost it there and contemplated bagging it but got back on and finished. I was surprised when I saw the 2 laps to go sign-I figured 3 or 4. 43rd out of 58. Not a great result. Oh well. Also; Thor was ano show-sick all week and didn't want to push it in the arctic conditions. Don't blame him.
Now; Things I've learned this yr to improve on next:
1) gotta get to the races earlier-need a better warm up
2) I need to get some better bike handleing skills
3) Maybe gear down a bit-I rode faster this yr but I would have benefited from a lower climbing gear in some races
4) keep at it-I'm improving. But I thinkI can't say that I don't suck. Yet.

This could be EPIC!

Capital cross classic is tomorrow, Dec 7th. It is currently snowing. Now, they are only calling for "dusting", but this could be interesting. I love it when it's cold and snow is involved. Mud? Not as much. Might be some of that, too. After all, it's CROSS.

AAAAAAAAAACCCCCCKKKKK!!

Last race of the yr on Sunday. That is all.....

So I wussed out.

6:20 am on saturday I wake up to ice hitting the windows. I was going to get up in 30 min or so to get ready for the Mabra championships. I look outside. Ice on our deck. I KNEW that the race would be messy; that's not an issue. It's cross. However, I wasn't sure how the drive down would be. So I decided to bag it. In retrospect, it would have been fine. I was pissed at myself all day because of it. But. Oh well. Happens. I got to spend the day with Sam and the girls so that was good. Now I just have to wait this week until Sunday for Capital Cross.

It's cold. It's snowing. It must be cross!

2 races this weekend. It had snowed thurs night and there was still snow on the ground. I headed to Lancaster for the Wonderland cross race, which was, thankfully, only about a 40 min drive for me, which was nice. I raced this last yr as the PA state championships.
Got there to see Dan K, Mike G, and Gary S go off in the C race. HUP took 2 or3rd, 4th, and 7th. Great showing for our 2 newest members, Dan and Gary (Dan 2nd or 3rd, Gary 7th).
My race was a combined Masters 35+, 45+, and 55+. There were about 16 in my group, so this was by far my smallest race this yr.
It was almost the same course as last yr; lots of off-camber turns and straights, 3! sets of double barriers, and 2 sets of smaller single barriers, 1 up a steep run up. That last one killed me last yr. I got a good start and the legs really felt good. I sucked for the 1st 2 laps in the 180 turns; finally got good lines the last 3 laps. I caught some guys from the 35+ race (started 1 min b/f us) and swapped places with 2 guys from Evolution and 2 other guys. We stayed together for a couple of laps, then the one Evolution rider and another guy pulled away from me as we dropped the other 2. I just couldn't stay with those 2 guys.
Wound up 8th which is my best result so far. I'm happy with it esp considering there were cat 2's and 3's in there.
Sunday was my typical 1 3/4 hr drive to Leesburg. Never did this race before. It LOOKED like it was fast. Man, was I wrong. Pumped up too mush air in my tubies (I had dialed them in perfectly on Sat). Fortunately had time to pre-ride the course. Lots of steep drops and climbs, off-camber turns, and some long climbs with a few sections of hammer time pavement and dirt/gravel.
I got a decent star, lining up near to Dave T from RBR. I made some passes on various short climbs and even on the long climb. I also lost ground to the faster, skinnier guys on that climb. Dave and I wound up trading places for the last 3 laps or so. My legs felt pretty tired from Sat but started to settle in after about 2 laps.
I caught Dave again on the barriers and went flying by him, hoping this would be it. I ran barriers pretty well both days. Unfortunately, Dave is much lighter than me and he passed me up that long climb. I never was able to catch back up.
37th out of 50 finishers. Not my best but still OK with me as the course was really tough and didn't really play to my strengths, which are fast sections.
Fortunately, they had some really good grub and Vitamin H2O there, so that helped a bit.
All in all, a good weekend of cross. Esp now that it's cold and we gots snow!
Fotos courtesy of Dan K.

I just shaved at least 5 min off my race day prep time...

After working at my beloved place of work for over 20 friggin yrs I got to choose a gift. Most were actually quite nice. One that caught my eye; a Krups programmable 12 cup coffee maker. I had a programmable before but like an idjuct I broke the carafe and since it was a POS, I opted just to go out and buy a new one. Never got around to it. So, thanks to 20+ yrs of servitude I gets a new coffee maker (yes, kids, some of us stay at a job THAT LONG). Oh. And don't be giving me any shit about how I should be brewing my joe in a french press. They are a PITA and there's not many things better in this life than waking up to a hot pot of freshly brewed coffee.....