Cross racing trial and error.

I decided to do Woolly cross race up north toward Belingham Washington and pull a double header as I was also planning to race at Arlington the following day. I have been racing cat 3 so I decided to race in the B's (they had A, B, and C,s) and my coice was incorrect. I won the B open with 47 riders without giving 100% effort and lead the race before the end of lap 1. I didn't stay for awards but this picture proves I was there. Next time I race up north, I will do the a's race. 

The course was spread out over some abandoned buildings and grassy hills and was quite a blast!

What goes down..

Must come up!

My friend Jeff on the Starbucks team enjoying his thine on the course.

My friend Adam shot some frames of the old abandoned buildings. 

Hollow even is just a month away after all..

The next day was the cross revolution series opener with a smaller but much more competitive group of riders in the cat 3's and more excellent fall weather. Does a Sunday get better than this? I started off mid pack and fight my way though in my usual style. 

Making a pass though the run section. 

Clip in and hammer down. 

And putting the hurt on myself. My body didn't perform better than expected and I  slowed down a bit and fell of the lead 2 as the race went on and finished a solid 4th. I was pleased with that! What an action packed weekend of racing. This sunshine is nice, but into October our sunny warm days are numbered here in the northwest. I'm definitely trying to make the most of them. 

 

Camano Island century plus cross racing in full effect for Dyna Racing

My ankle problems seem to be behind me now and I'm trying to make the most of the lovely September weather here in western Washington. Some friends from the Snohomish Bicycle shop threw together a century rout around Camano Island, a ride I have always wanted to do and I simply couldn't say no to that even though I was signed up for a cross race the following day. The ride didn't disappoint! 

Camano roads were scenic and not too busy for the most part and the group kept the stops short and infrequent. Other than one flat in the group, the ride went quite smoothly. 

The wether was quite perfect. It was also my first day wearing my new kit for Dyna racing. 

What cyclist can say no to a century on new kit day? Not I!

The next day was MFG #1 at Lake Sammamish. My ankle was sore from the previous day's festivities and this race had 2 sandy running sections per lap. I was a bit worried my ankle might cut my day short but it turned out my equipment would instead. I ended up sitting in the top 20 out of 60 on the second lap when I dropped my chain and lost a good 10 seconds. I was flustered by that and pushing hard to get back toward the top 10, I crashed on a corner and my bike flailed me completely. My chain was off and my wheels would not turn due to my close clearance TRP 8.4 v-brakes. I messed with the springs to center them up and rode another 30 seconds and my front tire blew. I was done for the day. 

The following weekend was MFG #2, South Sound Supervstage at Ft. Steilacoom Park near Tacoma. I felt ready for action on this race day. I gave this race my all and threw down an average of 260 watts for 51 minutes which is the best output my little legs have produced so far this year. I had no major screwups and I cranked up to 184 beats per minute on the climb 7 time in a row. It's nice when my body does what I ask it to! 

I came in 7th out of around 50 in the open 3's feeling very satisfied with my effort and the support from the team was excellent. Fun day of racing!

So far the wether for cross season has been excellent but our luck is bound do change as the season progresses. I say, bring it on, I've been though it all before!

Back in the saddle (again). Cross is here!

As a result of my ankle sprain, August was a very light month at about 500 miles total and no rides over 50 miles. That was not what I had in mind ahead of cross season but I didn't have any choice in the matter. 

This week was the first week that I was able to ride as much as I wanted to and Labor Day weekend was a blast! I started off with a 100 mile ride out to Index Washington, my favorite ride of the summer. I ended up riding 1/3 with the Snowhomish bike group and the rest solo. The usual suspects were resting up for Labor Day events 2 days later. 

Green is back! The last week was wet and everything is green and full of life. The ride ended up giving me a lot of confidence in my abilities on the bike after holding back and resting my ankle all month.

I actually felt so good on the ride I decided to to the Labor Day Cross race two days later. It would be a dress rehearsal for the series races starting September 13th. I was able to test my tire pressure, gearing, and practice my dismounts. 34psi in the rear and 29 in the wider 34cm front did well for me. The 1x10 drivetrain was perfect with the 50t front ring (Wolftooth drop stop) with 11-38t cassette. The Shimano SPD's were much easier to clip into than the egg beaters. I'm a fan. 

The course was very flat and fast. Less than 500 feet of vertical for the entire 5 laps and 47 minutes. Some good technical corners with some fast gravel roads up to 24mph. Not an ideal course for me but I made the best of it and ended up finishing in the top half of the cat 3 open. Fun! 

This was my last race wearing blue and Orange for Fischer Plumbing. Next week I should get my new charcole, pink, and blue Dyna kit which will match my new neon pink fame color scheme. Should stand out in a crowd! 

New Team, cross season prep, and injury recovery

A new development for my upcoming race season is that I will no longer be racing with the orange and blue of Fiscer Plumbing. I will be in pink, blue, and charcole for Dyna Racing, a race oriented spin off of the very large and somewhat casual Fischer team. I'm excited to be on a more racing oriented team which will quickly build a reputation for fierce competition across the racing disciplines in categories from 4 on up to 1. I'm not big on hot pink as a primary team color but it's in style and it's a great team so I'll embrace it. I began work re-coloring my cross bike with hot pink vinyl and bar tape to match my new kit, which will arrive around the first of September in time for cross season:

I have made some changes to prepare for cross season. I scaled back mileage slightly and began adding a lot more high intensity training and intervals to become a faster short distance rider since cross races are only 45 minutes. This is also a good change to avoid training burnout. I must say, I feel the difference and I can actually compete with the faster riders around my hood on climbs and sprints again as a result of not being highly fatigued from the mileage. 

The other change I made was to start running. My second run of 3 miles on gravel ended up causing a sprained ankle. It seemed fairly minor as I didn't even notice it for an hour or two after the run. My ankle was just a bit un comfortable the whole time. Guess now I know it that happens again it just means I just have to quit 20 strides into my workout. This running is nothing like cycling. I took some ibuprfin but preceded to train as usual on the bike. I had one missed clip in on that side starting off from a stop light and my pedal rolled under that foot under pressure with a sudden jolt. Ouch! Well, the next few days I stuck to the road thinking that would be safe enough but it was not. One week and 200 hard fast miles out, i have a very swollen and painful ankle and walking/standing is a painful chore. Looks like if off the bike completely for a while. 2 days off and I'm still in a lot of pain. Ugg, so frustrating. I hope I can still race a full cross season. At this point, I don't know how long recovery will take. Hopefully I can get back on the bike soon but high intensity training is going to be out for probably at least two weeks.  

MFG Nine 2 Five Race Report

I raced the MFG Nine 2 Five this weekend solo, having no idea what the trails were like out at Gig Harbor 360 park across the sound from Tocoma Wa. My team had a solid group of 4 men competing Solo and one man on a mixed 3 man team. 

With a 9 am start, it was quite easy to make the 1.5 hour drive in the morning of the event. Having run a 5k 2 days before for the first time in 8 years and my legs still had a dull ache. I hoped 2 days rest would be enough but it wasn't. I well, race day is here, time to ride! 

There were only about 10 solo staters as most riders were racing on teams. I accidentally got the hole shot at the start as I simply ramped my heart rate to what I expected to hold for the day as the other riders held off on intensity for the first of many 7 mile 800 foot elevation laps. 

The nature of the rout was tight singletrack with short power climbs and loose sandy corners/descents due to the dry summer we have had. This type of terrain lends it's self to big and powerful riders that can carry momentum and power up the quick kicker climbs. Not my style at all, and especially not today with less than snappy legs. 

About 4 hours in, I was lapped by the leader of the solo riders. At my average of 42 minutes a lap, I was nearly an hour off the top pace. That was a bit deflating. I well, bad body day, push on! 

I had hoped to complete at least 10 laps but I was really suffering and sitting in last place. At the end of 9 laps, I called it a day and became a spectator. I'm not used to being this slow but it had been a perfect storm of sorts for me. O well, win some, loose some. It was still a fun day of racing and great to see my team makes tear it up with Dodi winning the 45 and over and Chris placing 2nd in open. Way to go guys! 

Hopefully this is my worst result of the season. Till next time, enjoy the ride! 

Training Plateau

I have reached a major plateau in my fitness. My short term goal is to increase my leg strength and power ahead of cyclocross racing season but after the last 3 weeks I have noticed significant loss in my leg muscle and my power has decreased to match. Perhaps I have logged too much volume for too long and my diet has not been able to keep up with my energy requirements. I feel like I'm trained to handle the volume, but I need to increase my consumption to match. 

I'm definitely frustrated by my shrinking weak legs. I have been doing strength specific workouts including high gear power starts and weight lifting but the results have been opposite of my goals: estimated 25% decrease in size and power. I don't have any data to back that up, just my best guess but not the profess I wanted. I have been eating a lot of health made from scratch food and nearly no junk food/fast food/soda and obviously I'm falling short on my consumption. Time to use My Fittnes Pal to try and get an understanding of my consumption. 

I have taken the plunge and bought running shoes followed by my first running workout in probably 8 years. I ran a 5k in about 30 minutes. It was brutal! My legs need to toughen up a lot to haddle the riggers of running but over the past 2 years I have noticed one thing in common with the most powerful and dominate cyclist I have met and that is, they run. My main motivation is to become efficient for running sections in cyclocross races. 

I have much to learn. How do you bring water on a run? The sloshing of s bottle in hand is not ideal. 

Seattle to Portland 2015, 204 miles, one day at 20 mph!

My riding friends in Snohomish were training up for riding STP in one day and they had already bought bibs and made shuttle arrangements. We had a group of 6 or 7 very strong riders to paceline together and a Ford Excursion with a 3rd party driving available to shuttle 6 bikes and 6 riders back home. The whole ride was planned out with a red carpet laid out for me so I figured it was time to make it happen! I bought my a number second hand off someone on Criegslist 3 days before the big ride and I was set to go.

One of the biggest challenges of the ride was getting to the 4:45 am start. I slept over at my friend Chads house who was also riding to make the morning faster and less stressfull. 

Anticipation building, 4:40 am!

The start was really crazy. Lots of inexperienced riders bunched up and riding close together with low lighting and lots of city road features to avoid including mini roundabouts and curbed medians. The one close call I had was for an old guy trying to point out an obstruction and in doing so cutting a corner to tight and squeezing out the rider in front of me. Mind your front wheel, first and foremost!

We quickly settled into a paceline of our group plus some stray riders totaling about 20 or so in all. We were cooking along around 24 mph after the first little hill climb. We didn't make any of the stops durring the first 50 miles to get ahead of the masses. 10,000 riders on one rout is a lot! One of our crew got a flat and I was too concerned about safety and time to pull off so I just kept goining with one other guy from our crew I had never met. We rode through to the 50 mile mark which was the Air Force base and it was obvious we were the first to arrive. I waited for 15 minutes for my crew but they did not arrive so I continued on with some other strong riders.

I didn't make this photo op, but this was the crew. 

At about 75 miles I picked up a tack on a rural stretch of road which someone went to the trouble of scattering thumb tacks over several miles in hopes of spoiling our fun. As a result I lost the paceline I was on to repair my flat. Now I was solo. 

I was pushing hard to keep my average over 20 mph and then I missed a turn. I got 3 miles off course before I ralized I had missed a turn. I backtracked to find a course marshal at an intersection but no markings at all. He wasn't there 30 minuted prior..

I continued on solo to the rest stop at 87 miles in and took in serious calories. I was starting to feel a bit under the weather.. Which is funny because after that, it started raining for the first time in about a month! 

This picture was taken at about 90 miles in. I was feeling a bit cold, saturated, and alone at that point. Boo. 

I took another solid feed at the 100 mile mark and hung out for about 30 minutes. I had completed the first 100 in just over 5 hours but at this point the ride hadn't been all that much fun.  I was wet, cold, and getting a tired.  I was hopping it would take a turn.. And it did! As I was rolling out, Chad and the crew were rolling in (got a text on my phone) so I turned back and waited for they guys to re-fuel before we continued on. 

From that point on we road in a solid well matched group rotating though the paceline like clockwork. Solid riding at a fast pace, and the weather improved to be quite pleasant. We rode fast and stopped often. 

The last part of the ride in Oregon along the Columbia River was scenic but heavily traveled. 

The bridge, and Portland! What a sight! We all felt quite strong and snappy, despite the previous 190 hard miles. No ride is complete without a sprint finish! 

Ride done in about 13.5 hours including stops. Not bad considering my previous distance record was 150 miles in 12 hours. What a great ride and a great accomplishment for us all.

Thanks Chad and company for making this ride possible!