Exercizing the Gear Gremlins LARPD#2

Well by the title I'm sure you can tell how this one came out.

LARPD #2
Teammate: Ron Rel

This time I lined up just behind ol'CX buddy Greg Phipps at the front, Good to see Greg back out there after some phsiology issues got addressed. YA Greg!
The start was typical hurley burley CX start and I was in full gallup headin towards the first turn in about 10 or so for the whole field. I could See Rel got the holeshot, GO RON! around the corner and into the chips, If you can believe it a big guy like me got railed headin across the woodchips but I quickly got back on course after breathing in a woodchip be it a few spots down.

Slight course change from last week, less little Red Riding Hood through the trees, less winding around the grass and an addition of another set of barriers.....YUM! Nice barrier placement as well, the placement forced riders to run up a small bump before remounting. I like this. Oh ya and it rained that morning, not really muddy but at leastthe dust was down.
So onto the grass and MAN is this a power suck! However I am liking how the tubulars arerolling across the grass and bumpy stuff. Last weeks problem with the cut tire was a faulty air gauge I was running probably 15psi not good going across rocks! This time with a good gauge I'm running 40psi. Also I'm race testing a new technique for repairing the Tufo's, a glued in rubber plug. It's holding flawlessly and saved me about $120 for a new Tufo.

The race is settling in I'm catching some of the guys who went out too hard and some are catching me that went out too soft, either way the race is in full swing. I'm now 2 laps in and latched on to a Taleo and unattached riders wheel racing for 9th place sitting in forcing the pace from the back. The unattached eventually falls away and it's me and the Taleo guy for the next half lap. He's beginning to look tired and slowing up a bit. So I figure it's time to take overand make a move. The new barrier section is coming up and a perfect place to take a spot. We get off the bikes over the barriers, up the incline and I hop on the bike just a bit too hard and WHAM! My tire rolls off the rim. SOAB! Luckily the pit is just down the hill and I run the bike over. Unfortunatly the Change didn't go too well, Marianne Bless her heart again was there to help,but I couldn't figure how to get the wheel off. Luckily another Crosser swung over to lend a hand. Turns out the rear Canti and got caught just under the rim causing the wheel not to release.New wheel back on and its out for 2 laps to finish the race. I ended up in 15th even after a not so graceful change on my part. But hey that's what these first few races are for to gauge Fitness (or my lack) and to get the gear sorted out.

Again had a ball, good friends good racing. I'm gonna have to check and see if BBQ's are allowed so we can get some brats and brew going!

Cheers
Jim

Much a'deax about nothing, LARPD#1

Race: Mens 45+ B
Teammates Ron R.& Matt

Always excited for the first race of the season to get started and over with. Us IVCT guys were all lined up and ready to go, Huge turnout for the Mens B's, Me thinkest thar be some Sandbaggin for this first race;)
Pre rode the course to see how the land lays and the course, this race was in a new location across from the usual location at the Rodeo on the grass. Kind of interesting lay-out lots of twisting and turning on a big grass field before it moved over to some dirt trails amungst some scrub trees. I was a bit disappointed in that there was only one sectionof Barriers in the form of logs. then there was a lone log just aroudn the corner. Interesting position for the lone log. It was a choice of either remount just to dismount again or shoulder the bike and run the whole gamut. Seemed like the obvious choice was to run it as the time loss would be less to run. After the wooded area there was a couple of stretches of flat dirt road that if you've got your TT game on, you could make up some time.

So the line up for the race, Always the critical point. Great in theory better if practiced. Me I didn't practice it and should have shoved my way up to the front, Note for next week be agressive and just push my way to the front. They seperated the field into open B's and the ol'fart B's. Fair enough. Whistle goes off and the season is official WAAAAHOOOO! Good start everybody gets off to a safe start. After the first dirt section we are into the Grass I'm about 25 or so back and moving up some side patches. About 3 or 4 turns into the Grass I see Matt stack it up. looks like a little tire washout and he's on the deck. I see Ron Rel just up ahead and the pace is pouring on to get an early dominance. I look across when coming back on the turn Matt went down and he's back on his bike. Good deal!
Still working on some rusty cornering skills I'm loosing a little ground. A quick look at the HRM and WOW 203Bpm. I totally forgotwant a heart buster cx can be. Later I checked my peak and I hit 223! So mystery solved on defective HRM belt, I had replaced last years thinking it was a messed up unit. We're now in the Scrub treed section and headed for the logs.
Over those cleanly and I"m now clear of my bad habit on stomping on my peddle to remount my bike, I'm now officially jumping on to the saddle. For the most part I'm holding my place and not getting passed. I'm pretty happy with that, I see Rel just about 10~15 secs ahead and try to set my target on the Ron-imal. That dude is one tuff cookie, no skirts flapping from under his shorts!
Going past the S/F line and still in decent positionbut those Rocks inbedded in the road are killers. Bike handling skills are good getting through the soft stuff, Note to self go do some work out on Grass, not the medically approved type either!
Going into Lap I think 4, I hit a rock HARD! and cut my tubie. With in about 40' it was flat. Nice thing about Tubulars is that you can ride them flat right to the pit. Unfortunatly the Pit are was about a 1/2 lap into the course. So my race was pretty much over I'm seeing rider after rider go past me,m then finally I see Matt go past and yell to him Flat, good luck!

After a tire change and Bless Mariannes heart she ran from the S/F line to assist and off I went to finish the race. I have no idea where I placed but I do know one thing. I need a new floor pump. What I thought was about 35 Psi was substancially lower as my gauge was off. Oh well thats what these first races are about, get a feel for your fitness or in my case lack, also to dial in the equipment. Much more critical that the gear get ironed out as Cross if a beast on Gear.

The more important question wasn't where I placed but did I have fun? It's Cross of course I had fun!

Better luck next week.
Jim

Warnerville the un-race report

This will be a short one.I came into the race with questionable fitness after being off the bike for an extended period of time fighting off that real nasty cold, My fitness was in the dumps. My plan for the race if you can call it that was to just sit in and get through the race. If it felt like I couldn't do a Damn thing I'd try to help out in the first or so lap then just grenade it.
So looking back I burned three Matches I didn't own.

> One, Thinking that Rich N was motioning to me to bring him to the front. My bad he didn't
want that.

> Two, Thing that the group was going to power around this hill/corner, I didn't want to be too
far back when we hit the dirt. the surge didn't happen

> Three, Just picked some real bad lines through the dirt section. Moved to the middle and
couldn't get back to the shoulder and just burned up fighting the ruts.

About 100 or so feet from the end of the dirt I just blew up and couldn't close the gap and the wind began to rip the meat from my bones like a great white to a sealion. So I figured I needed the mileage and proceeded to ride the course all the while seeing my group just up the road slowing fading away. But one more lap in the 30Mph wind was all I could take, I pulled off to see how my mates would finish off this race.

After the Race I see my buddy Johnny C and asked him how he did. He pretty much had the same day as I only his was rittled with flats and not poor fitness. Since I'm off for a few days I asked him if he's up for some riding on Monday. He informs me he's racing....Monday?
Johnny C: "Ya Jimmy remember last year after Snelling?"
Oh Ya, that meant some self-loathing and punshment training ride. I'm in!

That's it until next time.

Not the only bag of sand! LARPD 11/22/08

LARPD 11/22/08
Race: Men's C
Field: 40ish
Place: 14th
HR: Avg. 177 Peak 228

So no big expectations here today but I was hoping for a better finish than I did. I was feeling bad as I was "Sand-Bagging", apparently I wasn't the only one there doing the same. At least my excuse was that I had to leave early to take my daughter to her first concert.
I set out thinking I had a chance at a Podium, Guess again! So lining up I pulled up to the front thinking that I'd go for the sprint. Then some clown in a "Ritchey kit" pulls up in front of me. I'm thinking that's pretty ballzy, dude if you're that good upgrade, Whatever!
Off goes the whistle and again I can't clip in worth a darn! I loose about 15 spots just from a bad clip in. Looks like I really need to get out and get those darn clip-ins down or I'll spend the rest of the season catching up to where I should be in the field.
At least this time around I stopped hoping the guys in front of me were actually going to try to chase something down instead of the usual hold on tight and try to get home in one piece. So every chance I got I hauled tailto get past some of the back markers and move up as early as possible.
I finally got to the point where moving up had stopped and the racing began. I'm on this guys tail exchanging pulls every so often and taking advantageof the quick long legs and getting past him every so often over the barriers.Couple of times during the race I had noticed a little chain slap and I'm thinking dang must be that big ol'sandpit Shane has us going though gumming up the works, better be mindful.
We're getting to the final lap and some guy is moving up from behind. Not to worry he's about 10 sec's behind and I'm now looking to make the move on my immediate competitor for a 10th spot. I'm thinking I'll take him on the quint barriers.
We're leaving the corral and into the triple before the little grassy bump. I put or is that drop my bike on to the grass whenI drop my chain.....DAMN! Not to worry I'll throw the chain back on and we're in business.
Stupid me I get back on the bike no momentum thinking I'll get up the hill in good shape when the guy coming up from behind passes me, CRAP! Game over he's gone so is Mr. 10th!

I'll stick to the Cat B 45+ at least those guys are honest about their skills. Except for this guy Chris Stastny, When I was leaving that guy had a good minute lead within the first 2 or 3 laps. Time for that guy to upgrade with speed like that.

Which brings me to the whole Categorization thing. Man they really need to start using a system. The whole self placement thing " C's are for those trying Cross for the first time" blah blah blah, at what point does one move up? I find the B's race to be less intense than the C. And then there are some in the B's just annihilate the field......what's up with that?

Humm what next GG park Cross race, More training and save it for the CCCP race this year. I'm drooling at the thought of that race! It's more like the Euro CX races that I invision.

Later

Sacra-mental CX #4 of the NCNCA series

Mens B 45+
Field: 60+ 25ish for the 45+ group
Pace: Didn't you get the message the 1st time? IT'S CROSS!
HR Avg. 173 Peak 186
Place: 12th

Course: Combination of tight Grass, Asphalt bike paths, and Mud.
Set of 5 barriers Hoppible, set of 2 tall barriers, and set of 3 moderate.
Somehow they like putting the barriers right after a tight 180 turn.

Not wanting to get up at 5 am to drive down the mountain for the 9:30 start. Dave K and I opted to enter the Mens B 45+ race for 2700 seconds of suffering. This worked out well for my Family that lived in Sac. My Dad all 80 yrs of him who used to take me to all my BMX races as a kid was in attendance, and my brotherditched work to come Cheer me on. What a rush! I was more excited about them being there to watch, than the race. Hell I had to pee one more time before the race cuz my dad was there and gave me a hug 10min before line up, Geez I'm nervous NOW!

Lining up at the start we were under the impression that they'd stagger start the Age groups. 35+, 45+, 55+ no such luck and we're in the back. DAMN IT! Luckily I was able to get a decent clip in and gunned it into the top 25 of the field, GAME ON!
Around the first 180 and down a bit we hit the set of 5 barriers and already a rider stacks it up in front of me. Thanks Mom, Dad and grandpa for these long legs.... I hop around the carnage of about 3 riders and move up the field. Heading down aforementioned bike path we hit the second set just a peddle stroke past the 180, quick right we hit the snotty mud going under the bridge. What the heck is everybody stopping for it's like you never seen mud in a cross race!?!?!
Moving again we're under the bridge and onto a long stretch of grass. The field is stringing out again and the separations are beginning to happen, faster riders getting away, slower riders falling back, other riders being caught behind slower riders. The usual thing that happens in a CX race when you don't line up right or have the fitness to run with the bulls. I end up in a group of 10ish which pick up a 11th from further up the road. Real steady group pace was strong but no one willing to really push up the pace or make any moves.
A few tried but didn’t succeed. About 20 minutes into the race is when the weakness begins to show. I didn't want to get caught behind any of that I moved up on the barriers when I could usually picking up a spot or two every time we hit them. I began to appreciate the barriers right after the 180 turns. I was doing well on the Barriers just before the bridge where you could capitalize on your position gained. Some guys just kept riding around the 180 hoping they could dismount quick before the barriers then waited right after the turn.
This course really paid off if you could deal with Barriers.

With 4 Laps to go a particular member of our small group of 6 who were strong enough to keep with the group but not strong enough to contribute kept insisting on getting on the front. This without mentioning slowed us down. How do I know this? My legs weren't going molten, so a few of us at the back could see riders coming up from behind started barking out to get off the front or speed the hell up.
It felt like a scene from Indiana Jones with the big ball rolling up from behind. We ended up collecting another 5 riders from behind in the back 3/4 of the course. I'm thinking get the hell up to the front these guys are probably tired from the chase and will turn to mush on the next set of Barriers. I gased it up to about 4th Position just before my favorite set of barriers when pokie stacks it on the corner just before the hard 180. Some quick foot, work two others and I hop around the pile up to get clear of the some 8 riders yelling and groveling behind us to get up and back into the race.

So there we are 3 strong working hard to get clear of the 8 and by the time we hit the S/F line we've got a comfortable 20 secs on what’s left of that group.
I keep hearing cheeringor GO JIM! from all sorts of people. Had I just become one of the known few? Nope turnsout there was another Jim in this group of three. Also turned out I was actually racing against these two guys as they were 45 plus'rs.

Pretty interesting racing in the B's some get it some don't and I hit the Jackpot. Neither one of these guys understood that it was going to come down to a sprint (or so I thought) and didn't rotate...... AT ALL!
So in that case I was content to just sit on and test these guys strength to see how and when I was going to take them. I'd sprint it out of the corners to see how they'd respond or if they would. They could move, but were getting sluggish. At Lap two I just sat in acting sluggish out of the corners....who's kidding who here, My legs HURT!
Just about to head under the bridge I thought man I must be turning to jelly the back end of my bike is getting sloppy.
Oh Man, no, NO00000! My tire is getting soft, Crap these are my Tubies, I love these things! Sure enough my rear tire is going flat.
I see Johnny warming up on the road next to the course and think, should I yell out to get my wheel ready? Knowing these guys will hear that and maybe hit it. I yell "I've got a flat, have my wheel ready!" Johnny confirms he'll be ready.
I see Dave K just up the course entering my favorite barriers and just about to be lapped by us. I yell to him I'm coming up and he graciously move to the side. I tell him I'm flatting he offers up his bike but unfortunately we use different peddles. Still on the second guys wheel and easing through the corners keeping my weight on the front wheel I make it to the Pit by the S/F line. I figure the tire is glued on tight and I'll probably loose more time with a wheel change than just going for it.

I go past John in the Pit yelling I'm going for it! He's yells back something like You Animal!, Dog, mouse, cat or something heroic. So now how do I handle this? Back end wants to come around in the corners, I'm on soft grass for the most part. Hum ease the corners, and gas it on the straights that just might work.
So by the time we hit the first set of 5 barriers the tires is pan flat, nothing! I figure I've got to keep what I can by running as fast as I can over the Barriers, Long Legs! Ease the corners, and go as fast as I can on the straights.
By the time we hit the last 1/2 of the course it's apparent that I'll finish behind these guys and go into maintenance mode and save my position. I ended up finishing 12th in the 45's just 3 or 4 seconds behind my breakaway group.

Silver lining is that I feel comfortable in my fitness to get back in with the "B" again and be competitive. I think I finished somewhere in the top 20 of the overall B group.
The Icing on the cake is that I gave Dad and Bro a good thrill for the day. Dad was really excited and mentioned the memories of going to BMX races, Bro was thrilled to see me suffer for a change instead of him.

Sorry for the long read, it's been a while and I need to work on thinning out the dialog.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Back At it!

So it's been a while since my last entry. Remodeled the bathroom took about 5 weeks no training and I decided to go in and start my CX season Cold. Lets just say thatday was a huge failure in that I sprained my ankle and spent 2 weeks off the bikethen another 3 weeks trying to get some resemblance of fitness.

My toe dipping in the waters was at LARPD on Oct 25th which wasn't a huge effort on my part as I wanted to see just how out of shape. I really wasn't in that bad of shape and just enjoyed getting my skillz back. not really sure where I placed but it's not worth mentioning I'm sure. NCNCA Series #3 & #4 So back at it! John C, David K and I decided to make a weekend of CX racing and decided to do #3 & #4 of the NCNCA cross series.
Friday we head up to Kings Beach to Stay at Daves parentscabin to make easy of travel that weekend. First up was Reno "Sagebrush" series which was NCNCA #3 of the Series. Having been off the bike for awhile and working my butt off trying to get something back of my fitness after a delayed period due to remodeling and eventual sprain. I decided to see if I had anything and entered Mens CatC and find out if those Spin classes were helping.


Mens C
Field 20ish
Pace: Cyclocross, IT'S HARD BABY!
Avg HR 169 Peak 213!
Place 5th

So having resolved to the fact that I don't have fitness I just decided to having some fun with this so I signed up in the C race. Interesting course mixture of desert sand, sagebrush, lawn, and volleyball pits. There was a killer run-up with high barriers and set on the grass section. The Grass was pretty deep and a real leg sapper.

Lining up I heard the locals saying this was the biggest turnout they had seen, obviously benefiting from being part of a series. Young 20 something lining up next to me tells me it's his first CX race ever. Found that hard to believe after his start bang he was gone while I was struggling to clip in. Damn there goes that.
So the usual sorting out at the beginning of the race. I moved up into the top 1/3of the group. Dang I forgot how freaking aerobic CX is! I'm in the top 8 moving upinto the top 6. The "Kid' was gone never to be seen, a couple of locals not far behindhim so I was left to my devices with what would be the 4 & 6th place guys. Some how I blew out a bit 3rd time up the run up and lost the 4th place guy and was left fighting for 5th. The guy I was racing 5th for was looking strong on the rolly section, but trouble with his gravitational allotment on the run up.
So after dicing with him on the second to last lap. I decided to gas it going up and over the run up and didn't let off. At that point the knife was twisted in his gut and looked as though he decided to hold his 6th position.
All the while mister 6th and I were battling I kept my eye up the road at Mr. 4th. He just seemed to keep out of range of Me. Every time I put on some pressure and just get in reach, he'd speed up to remain out of reach. Good move on his part as the effort to try and catch him left me in a slump when I got to him. I finished 7 sec behind 4th and 12secs behind 3rd.
Shoulda woulda coulda.
The start really sucked as I missed my clip in for the full on gallop. But hey that's racing and I've got to work on all the skills.

Napa Grand Prix.....Greyhound racing!

Races
35+ 3/4
45+3/4

This isn't so much a Race report as a Journal entry into the twisted workings of me and racing.
So I decided to go ahead and sign up for this race hoping to do well in front of the home crowd. See I grew up in Napa and still have family there, So I figure the only way to get them out there to see a race is if it was on their front door.
I've been going over the course in my head quite a bit and couldn't quite get my head around it. So once I arrive all I could think was AWE CRAP! This sucker was short and the P turn they were boasting about was a down right Turd in a punch bowl, A real Party spoiler. All I could think was all that extra mileage I've been doing over the past month and a half wasn't going to do squat for me here today. Should have been doing intervals and only the Greyhounds have a fighting chance today.
Heck even my brother in law who barely gets in 40 miles a month could see that you had a sprint every lap, and the lap times were 60 seconds or less. Fact is the course was so short that if the leaders were coming through turn 4 and you were crossing the S/F line they pulled you. so Imagine 4 small town blocks and your race is over! that's basically 120 yards.

So line up for the first race 35+ 3/4 it's about 94 degrees and rising, we get read the race rules whistle blows I foul my clip in and the first thing that crosses my mind is race over! I'm already 50 back in a field of 75, yep just over 10 minutes and I was pulled.
It took a heroic effort just to stay at the tail end of this beast.
Second race is at 12:15 Mom shows up yeah! Hope I don't foul this one up! there's only 25 guys signed up. Rules read, whistle blows.......Oh wait its 104 degrees.....and rising! In fact my Polar read a peak of 109. Must have been that Blast furnace heading west on 3rd st into the wind!
So Off I go, much better this time around smaller group easier through the turns but still that massing sprint coming out of the P turn. That thing was like slow to 5~10 then Hit it as hard as you can coming out of it....EVERY FREAKIN LAP! I was fine holding on to the group until I got caught behind a crash. Just made it over the guys rear wheel but the damage was done! it was solo time and every rider that was gapped by that wasn't thinking straight enough to regroup and make a concentrated effort to chase back. So Lap after Lap, gulp after gulp of Hot water from my bottle. I was really starting to feel the heat. So much so that I was getting Chills.......Not good I should really pull out. But too freaking stubborn to do that. Heck Mom's watching. I finally made a small group of three and we start sharing pulls just to survive this thing. Then heading back across the S/F line I feel like my front wheel is getting soft. Through turn one I'm now getting that sinking feeling. Then the tire just let go and I did a Zabel two toe skid into a bale of hay at turn 2. Humm how should I respond to this? Rats? Darn? Naaaaaa THANK GAWD!
You gotta love fellow Racers. I had guys in Turn 2 throwing wheels at me. I was No really No thank you. It was a mercy killing. So that ended race 2 and my first jump into the 45's, good group of guys and I'm looking forward to the next time I can get in with them. Just not on a interval course! and not in 100+ degree heat!

so for you stat junkies.

35+ 3/4
Place 44 (Field=66)
Avg speed. 20.7, Max 26.3
Avg, Bpm 181, Max 207
temp. avg 87 max 92
time in race 9;57

45+ 3/4
Place 16th (Field= 27 )
Avg speed. 19.4, Max 26.9
Avg, Bpm 178, Max 195
temp. avg 104 max 109 (felt like the surface of the sun!)
time in race 23;36

I checked my downloads from my Polar and the race was so quick that the read-out just don't show the severity of this race. This race was so tough that a day later I still have track hack.

Jim