OK, I don't have everything done on this, but I wanted to get started on it....more later.
Part of my territory is the Northeast, so when this year's
'Cross Nats came up I thought I'd schedule a business trip and take the
Ritchey Ti
BreakAway Cross bike and give it a go.
Donny Frey was going to fly out to meet me and be
da man for support for me, Brent Evans &
Brett Davis. The Killer B's (Brent & Brett) drove out and arrived to
pre ride the
course b/f I made it back from my appointment. The course was in excellent shape and was going to be really fast...I did a 10:44
pre-ride lap and kept asking the killer
Bs what kind of times the race was going to have......."uh, fast." Great, just great.....I found out later that Steve
Tilford was in my age grouping. He was pretty cool at the
pre-reg that night and even gave some advise to the killer
Bs & I about the best line for the start. After
pre-reg, Donny & I just relaxed with the Killer
Bs at a fine Bistro and then called it a night.
Race Day:
Well, let's just say that the 100 or so field that signed up was about 2-3 times larger than I had ever ridden. The start of the race was like the final 200 meter bunched sprint at the Tuesday night
crit....damn.
I started the race fine and was doing well, not losing too many places and not feeling too bad; the second lap I spent most of the time trying to find out what had happened to my legs and wondering if I was riding in reverse. The rest of the race I tried to get my groove back on and get back up a few places; I fell twice after the final run up at the top of the hill but was able to keep in the same group of guys. The course was a gas to ride; picking lines,
coming through the barriers with the cow bells ringing and people cheering. The runs ups started feeling like crawl ups.
I recovered enough to start thinking about the last laps. Not good; Steve
Tilford caught my group of five guys and the race was over. Oh, not that I was looking at it much, but my Edge 305 decided that I didn't need no
stink'n heart rate or any information while I was racing....twice I looked down at it to see if I was suffering from a heart attack and the damn thing was blank.....unreal, I at least wanted to see the specs on race - you know how bad it got from one lap to the next and if I had been able to gear back up after the second lap. Well, 81st was not where I wanted to
finish; I'll do better in KC in '07. I took photos and film of The Killer
Bs race's along with cheering on the locals guys from October Lake Effect, Rudy and Bill whom I thought was going to come after me during the race while I was "encouraging him" to grab pain by the hand and ride hard,
Ernesto Marenchin and Jimmy
& Shawn from Alan. Brett, Don & I hung out in the beer garden the rest of the day and
I introduced everyone to my little friend Jack Daniels; which had Donny speaking in tongues after a bit. So after that first day.....Donny & I looked all over for a good place to eat and down a couple of adult beverages while Brett was going to hang out with an old college buddy and see how polluted he could get in one night.
The next day was way more relaxed watching; I rooted for the local boy wonder, Tony from October Lake Effect; Brett finally showed up...having ridden his bike like 20 miles (?) to the race and was on like 2 hours of sleep and looking like something the cat had drug in. Then we all watched the really fast ones (Tree Farm ruled) making the course look like a paved track. After that, we headed out looking for trouble - it's all Brett's fault, that's it, Brett's fault! Well, we found it at an Irish Pub with live music and plenty of drunk people, not that the
copious amount of Guinness we were drinking was affecting us at all. Brett & I agreed that the 35+ race was going to be a "fun" race and that he would wear his jeans (like he had done b/f showing up to a race with no time to change) and I in my Kilt.
With over 200+ in the race and almost in the very last row, my head screaming, people muttering around me something about not wanting to get beat by someone in a skirt...we were off! I was going no-tech for this race, no Edge 305, no heart rate monitor.....just riding hard. I rode hard, but enjoyed the ride as well this time; focusing on picking good lines out, dis-mounts & re-mounts (?), not falling or losing any places (easy to do when you start in back).
A good time in general and I am looking towards being in better shape and finishing better at KC in '07.
Thanks for reading.
OK, I had my boy with me this weekend and I didn't feel like doing the rollers, so we went skiing/snowboarding Sunday for 2+ hours which was big fun. That night, Anna, Gary & I went night x-c skiing with my new skis for 45 minutes that Anna had bought me. Picture shows my old skis (left) and the new babies on the right. Was on the rollers for 60+ minutes on Monday and then X-C'd again on Tuesday w/Anna for 1:45 and the went to a spin class last night for 90 minutes. Heck, that 4 hours and counting for this week. Taking a break tonight and hanging with my boy and then put some more hours under my belt.
Just won an ebay auction for a Minoura E-RDA-1050R-PM trainer and hopefully will be getting that within a week. This will give me a nice option for the rollers and a better work out, plus I'll be able to take it to races to warm up on. I'm embarrassed to say that I have only used a trainer to warm up b/f a race at the Cyclocross Nats. I'm also looking at a spin bike; that way I can have it setup correctly for me and make it easier to get in more workouts w/o having to drive all over the place. Looks like I may actually try to start this season in good shape and weight.
