“Where hacks come to spew nonsense” - B2B
Sometimes you gots it and sometimes you ain’t.
5 souls headed west for the Tuff Ride last night but as soon as we hit Wayzata ScottERob wheeled around. I asked him what was up and he said "not feelin’ it tonight." He read my mind.
We had a leisurely ride back home. Upon my arrival I was delighted to find that I was home in time to tuck the little boy into bed. Then I ate an entire pizza.
All the favorites were there except B2B.
Either the pace was slower or I am gaining a slight amount of fitness. My moving average was faster than any other Tuff Ride so far this year, so I chose to think that I am gaining some fitness. So step off suckers.
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Checkbook and I went out and turned a few laps. The new portable barriers worked great.
Both races sucked for me and the last race, pretty much the sole reason that I went up there tonight, got rained out.
I think I am done with track racing for 2008.
All your favorites showed up plus more. P-Max, Pedikins, BillyD, ScottERob, EPno, TeamScrew, plus MeanDawg, NiceDawg, BadDawg, Classic and the Gut Buster.
I don’t really know who all these people are but they were riding really fast and I got my ass dropped again. I took a little detour and picked up the ride again after the real hard guys decided to peel off. So at that point it was just the semi-hard and hard guys left along with soft and doughy Smithers.
Classic did a ton of work earlier in the ride so he was no help later in the ride. The semi-hard guys went up the road so I made the rotation along with Pedikins, ScottERob and BillyD. It was some good work.
I forgot to mention that the crowd went wild when I beat P-Max for 3rd place at the Wayzata sprint. Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and he helped me spank P-Max’s monkey ass.
Cyclists please note, there is a big new yellow sign on the run in to Wayzata that says "CYCLISTS - the rules of the road are strictly enforced!" I guess for motorists they are only sorta enforced.
Tomorrow I commute to and from work because my car is at the shop. I’ll have a full report.
Ped set up a good course. Off camber sections, fast road sections, 4 barriers and a sand trap.The longer I rode the worse I felt so I tried to concentrate on smooth transitions.
I forgot how hard this sport is…
Cyclocross is hard. The better your technique gets, the fitter you get, the faster you go…but it is still hard. Way hard. The only real “good part” of a cross race is that it does not last more than 60 minutes. Short. Not short like track race short, but short enough. Although it does not feel short when you are out there slogging along.
I have not raced cross since 1997. I remember how hard it was and I am nervous about being ready for racing this fall. I don’t have much of any history riding off road so bike handing might be a problem for me. I do have a history of bodily injury when I dismount. I don’t have a lot of time to work on bike handling, all I can do is go out once or twice a week and work on intensity. So that’s what I did tonight.
I have a 3+ minute loop in my neighborhood with a climb. I switch off running the climb and riding the climb each lap. Three minutes is enough time to recover a bit before hitting the climb again.
It’s hard. But I seem to a bit more tolerant to the pain than I was 11 years ago. I am very curious to see how I will feel in my first cross race this season. Hopefully I don’t fall off and kill myself.
| Lap (#) | Time (m:s) | Distance (mi ) | M Spd (mph) | Avg HR | Max HR | Energy (Cal) |
| 1 | 3:22 | 0.94 | 23.5 | 168 | 183 | 63 |
| 2 | 3:16 | 0.90 | 23.7 | 177 | 189 | 67 |
| 3 | 3:21 | 0.91 | 22.8 | 177 | 186 | 56 |
| 4 | 3:28 | 0.91 | 23.5 | 178 | 187 | 58 |
| 5 | 3:22 | 0.92 | 23.7 | 179 | 187 | 55 |
| 6 | 3:21 | 0.91 | 23.5 | 182 | 191 | 54 |
| 7 | 3:24 | 0.92 | 23.7 | 180 | 189 | 50 |
| 8 | 3:27 | 0.92 | 23.9 | 181 | 189 | 59 |
| 9 | 3:24 | 0.92 | 23.3 | 182 | 189 | 60 |
| 10 | 3:24 | 0.91 | 23.7 | 183 | 190 | 53 |
| 11 | 3:33 | 0.92 | 24.2 | 182 | 190 | 59 |
| 12 | 3:28 | 0.92 | 22.4 | 180 | 189 | 58 |
| 13 | 3:23 | 0.91 | 23.0 | 180 | 189 | 55 |
| 14 | 3:26 | 0.91 | 23.0 | 181 | 190 | 62 |
When technology fails only mankind is to blame. Specifically, Der Kruser can take the blame…just because.
I would have uploaded data from the race last night but Motion Based is back to choking on all the way points on top of each other so I am about to give up on trying to use the Garmin at the track.
Racing last night was really hard but I seem to be going a little better.
Was up towards the front for most of the 10 lap scratch race until the fast guys decided to take over. I was under geared and just spun out on the last lap.
I made it past half way in the miss and out but was then suffering from over gearing. I decided to change the front ring from 50t to 51t and see how it felt. When the pace was high it felt fine but it was still a bit to big for me to get on top of quickly when I needed to make a jump and stay in the race. I was able to get The Man in Black out of the race so that was somewhat satisfying.
The 60 lap points race was tres hard as usual but it was faster than any race I had been involved with out there so far this year. That being said I was able to put in some good efforts and still stay even on laps thanks to Bergman nearly lapping the field. He came around me and I pretty much just sucked his wheel until I blew.
I stopped at Kolwasky’s on the way home and picked up a heat-n-eat turkey dinner with stuffing and mashed potatoes, watched the E True Hollywood Story of Jenna Jameson and then went to sleep. I would like to say that I had nice dreams but I was too tired for dreaming.
Felt like hell, as usual. Rolled out from the Uptown Punch at 17:35 with 14 souls.
I was feeling OK for the Wayzata sprint and stayed towards the front wasting all kinds of valuable energy, but I did not contest the sprint itself. Picked up S1 on the run out to Lake Independence. The rotations started in earnest and most everyone took part, except me. I pulled through once and paid for it big time when we made the easterly turn around Baker. I tried to keep the pedals turning but all I could do is watch the group ride away. Dehydrated again, my right hamstring was starting to lock up.
ScottERob and Ped were kind enough to wait for Checkbook and I but we never saw the group again until we passed the Wayzata Caribou. I was starting to feel better and when we hit the gravel path in Minnetonka I thought I would be the funny guy and take off. Things started to go pear shaped by the time I came off the path at 17th Avenue. I waited a few moment for the group to catch up and it was right about then that my left hamstring cramped up so bad that I was almost in tears. I watched the group turn onto 4th Street but all I could do was get off the bike and stretch out for 10 minutes until things got better. Three different people rode or drove by asking if I was ok. I assured them that, despite appearances, I was not having a heart attack. Once things loosened up I rode home, humbled once again.
Sometimes bike riding can be so dumb.
