I car-pooled with my buddy Jeff from SJ to Fairfax, which was great. We had fun chatting on the way up and arrived with time to spare. It was a warm sunny day and the course was fun. A ride up, a run-up, fast sections, technical turns a touch of mud, grass, pavement. It was a great course.
On our way to sign in we spotted Ned Overend. AKA Deadly Nedly, aka The Lung. Multi-time world and national XC mountain bike champion. A living legend of bike racing. I had to stop mid warm-up just so that I could shake his hand. We chatted about the course and then all went back to warming up.
We lined up for the start and I was in the second row. I had a great start, putting myself in about seventh place, one or two back from Deadly Nedly. I was pretty happy about that. I slipped back about two more spots and got on a good wheel. I managed to stay in that spot for about three laps, but on lap four I managed to loose control on the descent and rode off course into some bushes. I didn't crash. But when I got back on track I had lost five or seven places, along with my desire to keep racing. I dropped out a lap later. That is very rare for me.
So after that experience, along with the constant waffling about racing and training for the last few weeks I decided to take today off and skip CCCX #3. We'll see how things go over the next couple weeks.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Surf City #1
Well, it's been a week since this race, so the short version is on order.
I was stoked to be racing a Surf City race for the first time in over a year, especially with this being the first time in three or four years that Surf City is a full series. So the first one was held at Soquel High School, a great location that is always a killer course. Lots of technical turns and lots of fast open sections, a short fast descent and a nice run-up starting with three barriers.
Well, I started in row one, had a decent start, and then proceeded to slip backwards through the pack. My legs just didn't feel strong and I still wasn't feeling mentally strong. Well, it was fun, but I wasn't particularly happy about my race. I finished around 21st or so. My highlight for the race was certainly the run-up. I managed to crush the run-up every lap and it always pleased the crowd that had gathered there. I let the performance slide because it had been my first consistent week of training in four weeks and that always leaves me feeling less than stellar on race day. But this week, well, that's for the next post.
I was stoked to be racing a Surf City race for the first time in over a year, especially with this being the first time in three or four years that Surf City is a full series. So the first one was held at Soquel High School, a great location that is always a killer course. Lots of technical turns and lots of fast open sections, a short fast descent and a nice run-up starting with three barriers.
Well, I started in row one, had a decent start, and then proceeded to slip backwards through the pack. My legs just didn't feel strong and I still wasn't feeling mentally strong. Well, it was fun, but I wasn't particularly happy about my race. I finished around 21st or so. My highlight for the race was certainly the run-up. I managed to crush the run-up every lap and it always pleased the crowd that had gathered there. I let the performance slide because it had been my first consistent week of training in four weeks and that always leaves me feeling less than stellar on race day. But this week, well, that's for the next post.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Bay Area Super Prestige #1
McLaren Park, San Francisco, or Daly City?
Sunday morning, up and ready, packing the car to head up to the first BASP of the season. Bay Area Super Prestige is put on by Tom Simpson and his Pilarcitos crew. These guys are great. They put on fun races with lots of good crowds. They have become the biggest series in the Bay at this point. Part of that went along with the virtual disappearance of the Surf City series, which is now back in action. The first Surf City is next Sunday, so I'll have a write up on that next week.
First, I didn't get out the door as early as I had hoped, so I barely made it to the race with an hour twenty to get ready. I managed to get in maybe 20 or 30 minutes of warm-up, which wasn't quite enough, but worked ok. The course was great! Starting with a short cut directly into a long steep run-up, then a slight climb into a dusty switchback descent, then a short climb, into a bumpy dusty descent, into a hard left hand turn onto a paved climb, hard right back onto dirt, climb, right sweeper, super dusty, soft descent that caused several crashes, short paved riser, right onto dirt, a couple sweepers into a longer sandy straight away, paved descent, grass, barriers, back through the start, right hand U turn, left, sweeping right, hairpin left, and muddy grass into the run-up again. Hard, fast, and fun!
I ended up three rows back at the starting line thanks to some confusion about the start and call ups. At the whistle we launched from the start and I was in a really good race head. I immediately started trying to move up the field. With only 200 meters to the run-up I didn't have much time to do that. I continued to push through the field, grabbing wheels and pushing them out of my way on the run, then remounting and pedaling hard to move up. I even threw a couple elbows to assert my positioning on that first switchback descent. I was having fun and racing with a smile. I managed to move up to somewhere between 10th and 15th place. I was able to race there for a while feeling happy about my position and pedaling hard to keep up my speed. Then, on that super soft and dusty descent at the top of the course, I took a spill. Well, I wasn't hurt enough to notice, but my handle bars got scooted to one side. So I rode with my bars crooked to the pit and straightened them out. Unfortunately, this caused me to drop back a good 15 or more positions. Doh! So I finally jumped back in the race and got to pedaling. I was able to bring back a few guys before getting lapped by the leaders as they finished their final lap.
Overall, I'm happy about the race. I rode hard and had fun. Now I'm motivated again to ride hard and race some more. I'm also really excited to see the return of the Surf City Series. Big ups to SCCCC for getting that up and running again!
Sunday morning, up and ready, packing the car to head up to the first BASP of the season. Bay Area Super Prestige is put on by Tom Simpson and his Pilarcitos crew. These guys are great. They put on fun races with lots of good crowds. They have become the biggest series in the Bay at this point. Part of that went along with the virtual disappearance of the Surf City series, which is now back in action. The first Surf City is next Sunday, so I'll have a write up on that next week.
First, I didn't get out the door as early as I had hoped, so I barely made it to the race with an hour twenty to get ready. I managed to get in maybe 20 or 30 minutes of warm-up, which wasn't quite enough, but worked ok. The course was great! Starting with a short cut directly into a long steep run-up, then a slight climb into a dusty switchback descent, then a short climb, into a bumpy dusty descent, into a hard left hand turn onto a paved climb, hard right back onto dirt, climb, right sweeper, super dusty, soft descent that caused several crashes, short paved riser, right onto dirt, a couple sweepers into a longer sandy straight away, paved descent, grass, barriers, back through the start, right hand U turn, left, sweeping right, hairpin left, and muddy grass into the run-up again. Hard, fast, and fun!
I ended up three rows back at the starting line thanks to some confusion about the start and call ups. At the whistle we launched from the start and I was in a really good race head. I immediately started trying to move up the field. With only 200 meters to the run-up I didn't have much time to do that. I continued to push through the field, grabbing wheels and pushing them out of my way on the run, then remounting and pedaling hard to move up. I even threw a couple elbows to assert my positioning on that first switchback descent. I was having fun and racing with a smile. I managed to move up to somewhere between 10th and 15th place. I was able to race there for a while feeling happy about my position and pedaling hard to keep up my speed. Then, on that super soft and dusty descent at the top of the course, I took a spill. Well, I wasn't hurt enough to notice, but my handle bars got scooted to one side. So I rode with my bars crooked to the pit and straightened them out. Unfortunately, this caused me to drop back a good 15 or more positions. Doh! So I finally jumped back in the race and got to pedaling. I was able to bring back a few guys before getting lapped by the leaders as they finished their final lap.
Overall, I'm happy about the race. I rode hard and had fun. Now I'm motivated again to ride hard and race some more. I'm also really excited to see the return of the Surf City Series. Big ups to SCCCC for getting that up and running again!
Thursday, October 1, 2009
CCCX #2
Last Sunday was my first of the bigger local series races. Central Coast. This series got started in the late 90's and is a great cross series. They often have fun courses that are well laid out with just the right mix of technical and fast. Last weekend's race was no exception! The Fort Ord East Garrison course is always a good one, and has been one of my favorite local courses since first starting to race cross. It's got some sand, some asphalt, a short climb, a short descent, a good run-up and a couple of logs that are very bunny-hoppable.
I got there much later than I usually would due to a supreme lack of motivation. I had to convince myself to go. I barely had half an hour of warm-up, which for me is about 1/3 as long as I'd like to have. But oh well. I had just enough time to preride the course three or four times, then get to the starting line. I ended up third row at the start. At the whistle we took off, tearing up the short hill to the first set of barriers. I managed to put myself in about ninth place, a pretty good start for me. I was riding near Dave Wyandt and Aaron O'Dell, a couple local strongmen. I felt pretty good about that, knowing that those two usually finish top five.
I had come to the race with the intention of just riding so hard that I was sore on Monday, so I tried to keep pushing myself to pedal hard. After two laps of that I cracked, mentally. I just got to the top of a short ride-up and soft pedaled. What was I doing here? Why had I come? Why did I care? Should I drop out? And then my eyes started burning.
I pulled over and squeezed my eyes shut, realizing that the dust from the course must've gotten into my contacts and was causing my eyes to feel like they were being burned out with a magnifying glass. After my eyes teared up and cleaned out I was able to start riding again. So I did. I started push on the pedals and felt ok. I spotted someone up the road and started chasing. I spent the rest of the race slowly picking people off and moving forward. Coming into the finish I managed to catch up to one more guy. The last set of barriers on the lap was about twenty meters before the finish line, he hit them about a stride before me. I knew he would try to remount, so rather than remount at all, I ran past him and sprinted to the line while he fumbled with his pedals. I felt good about having switched from fighting for motivation to riding and having fun. The more fun I was having, the faster I went. I ended up finishing 18th, which was much further back than I thought I was, but oh well.
Lessons learned: Have more fun and don't wear contacts to dusty races.
I got there much later than I usually would due to a supreme lack of motivation. I had to convince myself to go. I barely had half an hour of warm-up, which for me is about 1/3 as long as I'd like to have. But oh well. I had just enough time to preride the course three or four times, then get to the starting line. I ended up third row at the start. At the whistle we took off, tearing up the short hill to the first set of barriers. I managed to put myself in about ninth place, a pretty good start for me. I was riding near Dave Wyandt and Aaron O'Dell, a couple local strongmen. I felt pretty good about that, knowing that those two usually finish top five.
I had come to the race with the intention of just riding so hard that I was sore on Monday, so I tried to keep pushing myself to pedal hard. After two laps of that I cracked, mentally. I just got to the top of a short ride-up and soft pedaled. What was I doing here? Why had I come? Why did I care? Should I drop out? And then my eyes started burning.
I pulled over and squeezed my eyes shut, realizing that the dust from the course must've gotten into my contacts and was causing my eyes to feel like they were being burned out with a magnifying glass. After my eyes teared up and cleaned out I was able to start riding again. So I did. I started push on the pedals and felt ok. I spotted someone up the road and started chasing. I spent the rest of the race slowly picking people off and moving forward. Coming into the finish I managed to catch up to one more guy. The last set of barriers on the lap was about twenty meters before the finish line, he hit them about a stride before me. I knew he would try to remount, so rather than remount at all, I ran past him and sprinted to the line while he fumbled with his pedals. I felt good about having switched from fighting for motivation to riding and having fun. The more fun I was having, the faster I went. I ended up finishing 18th, which was much further back than I thought I was, but oh well.
Lessons learned: Have more fun and don't wear contacts to dusty races.
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