Race good, train bad

I got all the motivation to race and none to train. I guess it comes with the territory called November. Ive known about cyclo cross since forever, but this is my first season and I love it. But I think with this comes the reality that I have been racing since March when I did the Cat.4 race at Mid-Ohio. My, my , my haven't we come a long way already. March to November and 4 more races to go taking us to mid-December.

That leaves a whopping 3 months to have an off season, rebuild a base and start ot build race fitness!! But, still I want to improve every week in cross much like my drive to improve with every TT last summer. So I guess I still have to train instead of just ride. But its getting harder and harder. For example the week before Spin's race I had a whopping 6.8 hours on the bike. I wont be much better come The Fields.

Add to that I have some issues with my left hip and my sitbones when I am locked into my trainer. Hopefully 2008 I wont be on it for hundreds of hours like 2007, but I probably will. Trainer time sucks, but its damned efficient use of time. An hour to 1.5 on the trainer 3 or 4 days a week is really helpful. But boy do my pieces parts pay for it.

So what to do? Well, just get on the bike and ride. So far, no matter how little I felt like training, once on the bike I am usually motivated. I don't quite know how much longer thats going to last, but once Team Lake Effect is done so am I. Well, at least for 3 or 4 days when I cant wait to get back on my bike again.

Ugly baby!!

We got our low power Miller EconoTIG welder running last night at work. OK, OK, my brother got the TIG welder working and so far no blown breakers. We also have a small mill that we need to get online. Can you guess where I am going with this?? NO?? Well I'll tell ya. I think I am going to try and weld up a frame of my own. Nothing crazy, just something to do for fun and the experience.

The real challenge will of course be that I have dome some MIG and not very much of it and never TIG. It is still going to be a blast and as always I welcome the challenge.

Anyone who wants to try and do the same (and is willing to share some expenses for expendables and maybe some simple jigs) is welcome!! Weve got a fridge that always has some beer in it too. Wait, beer and newbie welding...maybe not!!

It may be days, weeks or even months before I get to it, but it sure will be fun-thats all I know for sure. And the finished product? Something only its mother could love!!

Single Speed World Champs

For the Domonic's and Gormon's of the cycling world..... http://cxmagazine.com/blog/?p=87#more-87

New Blogs and Random Stuff!!

Young and fast Robert Sroka has started a blog about his riding and racing exploits. See my sidebar for a link.

Also Chris McIntosh took some panoramic shots of Todd Field that shows some of what Gary, John, Rick and I blogged about. You can see the severity of the run-up and the suffering in our faces. Also the run around the perimeter as well as the dreaded M as Robert put it and I called it the up and down and up and down area. I think M is better don't you?

Heres Chris' Blog: http://web.mac.com/chrismac456/iWeb/chrismac%20site/blog/blog.html

Also, I ran my Michelin Muds and they worked brilliantly. I was asked what pressure I ran and I don't know, but I took hints from reading others blogs and articles online like race reports and took a little air out every lap of warm-up. By the time the race started I still feel a couple more Pssts of air would have been okay. A Psst is like 0.012 bar and a Pssssst is like 1 bar so be careful....What???

How about you guys? Still sore? My right shoulder is still a bit sore form portaging the bike and my left forearms still a bit raw from using it to brush myself off of the fence one lap in the mud. Outside of that its all good.

I am sure I'll think of more stuff as the day goes on...

Spin Cross my Heart-The Race 8 vs 1

After the shock of the first laps are over and all of the obstacles are cleared I settle in and find that the pace of our group is a tick below what I think I can do. So along the grass perimeter I open it up and go around a couple of the guys. At first I didnt want to lead us around the technical bits, but now I have watched good riders fall and know that I am feeling confident. I dont know when it happens, but our group becomes Zak, Thom and I. Right behind is John and Dave Steiner and up ahead all by himself is Jeremy Grimm.

I am so excited because my wife and daughter, brother and his girlfriend are here and cheering. My brother and I have been racing karts together forever so he gets right down to telling me my place and gaps. He says I am 6th and I am like "HECK YEAH BABY!!-In the top 10!!"

I push the pace for awhile and that gets off the front of my group with Thom and Zak now a few seconds behind. But, I go off course behind the utility buildings and Thom calls out to me. How embarrassing!! And now I am back behind Thom instead of in front and I get back to him, but still in front of Zak and John.

The middle of the race sees Thom, Zak and I go back and forth. Now my bike is only 8 speeds of ancient Ultegra bits, but Thom is on a single speed!! I will admit this course is better then some for a single speed, but 8 speeds is still an advantage over one. Just shows what a stud Thom is being today. In fact, its because of Thom that I learn how I am losing time on the course. By pre-shifting to an easier gear approaching hills and starting out of 180's in such easy gears I am losing a few feet where I should be putting down some power. So I start to leave the bike in bigger gears and my speed increases and clearing the slippery ascents also gets easier because I am arriving a few mph faster.

Eventually the order sorts itself out. Zak motors past me by the river and just flies up onto the fields, through the trees and across to the barriers and his gap is cemented as is my gap to Thom. I am now 7th and my brother says I am catching Grimm so I am hoping i can get back 6th. Then Paul martin whom I wrongly assumed was lapping me (so early too) was actually coming from a mechanical to blast through the field goes by. I try to stay on his wheel, but he is gone in no time.

I also watch Zak catch Grimm and I know it might be over for me and as I predicted Jeremy picks up the pace, dropping Zak and increasing the gap to me. But Zak surges again and drops Grimm as I start to make time on him again.

Now I have to say running up the hill was murder. Not only was I slow, but it hurt like a Mo Fo and trying to run and push as hard as I could was definitely faster then walking up, but by the time i got to the top I usually was walking. Just trying to put the bike down soft so as not to drop the chain was hard!! By contrast Thom and Zak could just fly up that hill. When i was with them I could muster the will to stay on there wheels and re-catch them later in the lap, but once they gapped me I think I was going up that hill at a snails pace. It really had m number mentally and physically.

But regardless I am absolutely fried and on one lap I am sprinting through the start finish and thinking about yelling Ring the bell (for the last lap), but I keep my mouth shut. As it turns out my internal clock was right because we ended up racing something like 75 to 80 minutes and I was probably going through the Start Finish about the hour mark!!! My wife commented after the race that it looked like I gave up with two to go and that was about right. I am not quitter, but this was about as close as I came to it. But heres how this unfolded.

With two to go my gap ahead of Thom is solid and Grimm is probably within reach, but it will take a huge effort I am thinking. An effort i am willing to make, but then the wheels come right off the wagon. As we approach the mud trench I step right in it. No harm done, but what a mess. When I do the up and down and up I decide this lap to ride the last down up, but I dont get clipped in and I grind to a stop. This area is fast for Thom and I know it so I run as hard as I can, remount and get going and push my pace really hard. Then we get to the off camber, a corner I have done better in my opinion then even Zak or Thom who often slip or unclip. I keep making it while clipped in, but this lap, the most critical of all the rear tire snaps right out from under me and I dot catch it and I go right down and lose a few seconds getting up because my right foot is clipped in. I get up and get going, but this is right before the steep run-up and Thom is by and gaps me big time up the hill. I try to chase, but when we get to the short hill behind the utility buildings I stall out again!! Race over. With Zak, Paul and Thom going by I have now dropped from 6th to 9th.

I take a look for John and at first he looks really close so I try and keep the pace up, but when I hit the baseball diamond and go through the mud I see hes quite a bit back. I cannot close the gap to Thom who by the way catches and passes a cramping Grimm. Could that have been me without all of the mistakes? Its hard to say, but its possible.

So I decide a clean, if slow last lap is what I need and of course all I am thinking about is running the trees AgAIN and going up that steep run-up AGAIN. Wow, what a mental mind "screw" those two were!! So through the trees again, running up the hill, across the road then of all the $@#%@*# things I blow the downhill 180 and I go DEEP into the 7' tall weeds!! You'd think I'd have had enough of stupid mistakes after such a clean day of technical riding, but apparently when I screw up I screw up All the Way!! The reeds are so damn long that it takes me a long time to get out of them. Thank goodness I had that gap to John or for sure he would have eaten me alive in the sprint to the line. Then on the run to the fallen tree I jump and hit the face of the tree with my foot, but I just take it in stride and sort of drag my foot over it, land and run to the top.

So once more to the off camber and I clear it better then any previous lap (wahoo-one small victory). Every lap I will my hands off the brake levers here as well as down the sandy 180 to the river. Crazy talk right? Funny the inner monologue that goes on all race long. "Get off the brakes, get off the brakes, RELEASE the BRAKES".

So I sort of run up the hill one last time and scream down the hill. I wonder, from a physiological standpoint what makes Zak, Dave Steiner and Thom so different then me that they can run up hills so fast? I know I don't have much in the way of fast twitch so is it that? Or maybe its the way I use my muscles in my pedal stroke that leaves them to loaded up to run? I don't know, but Thom and I talked about it afterwards and hes always been a good runner. But you'd think a lighter bike and 20 less lbs in weight would help me fly up run-ups. Not so it seems.

Again, my daughter ringing her cowbell and my wife and friends cheering me on, my brother giving gaps made this one special race for me. Its a bummer I had such a miserable last two laps, but hey-the race went long and I left it all on the grass, mud, hills and asphalt!! Add to that a great course, wet and cold conditions I went across the line in 9th very happy and very relieved it was over. If I have one regret its that I got beat by a SINGLE SPEED!! Congrats Thom!!

Bring on Cross my Heart and Hope to Die 2008!! But like I told Greg Jackson after the race at the wonderful award ceremony at Willoughby Brewing Company, lets just add a ski lift for the run-up next year!!

Cross My Heart A Race. First lap and Course

Wow-where to begin? I almost feel like starting at the end and working back to the beginning, but maybe thats just too weird. One thing is for certain, this race Could and Should become a classic cross event for Northern Ohio (and the midwest) and I hope Spin and the City of Willoughby see it that way as well. Todd Field was an exceptional venue and the course laid out by the Spin crew could hardly be improved upon. It was long, tough, technical with lots of running and lots of flat, slow corners and a screaming fast downhill, mushy muddy grass, obstacles and slow bits. Weather was cross like too. As Brent told me after the race, welcome to your first real cross race. In other words-it aint cross till theres mud!!

Lets just jump right in shall we? I got a front row starting position as 22 or 23 A racers lined up. At the start I just didnt go hard enough and found myself being passed by guys in the rows behind me. We swept right along the sidewalk, left uphill and right into the first grassy section. Its narrow so I held position and then its 90 degree left sharply up a short hill to a small telephone pole laying on the ground which I dismounted for, then someone crashed bottlenecking us. Once clear of that mess we sprinted in the parking lot then right and left on more pavement to a muddy ditch then a serpentine and hilly up and down through trees. This area turned out to be my undoing on more then one occasion. Dave Steiner came flying by me like I was standing still here.

Only those on mountian bikes were able to ride this section because it was so slippery and steeply pitched. After the first up and down and up some would remount and then do the last down and up, but if you didnt clip in or slipped a wheel, you were better off running it. I can tell you in all honesty that running downhill hoisting the bike was pure agony. Every lap was pure dread for me as we approached this section. Through here I was behiind Greg Jackson, Dave, John Ehrlinger and others.

After clearing that section it was up a wall of about 3 or 4 feet that was pitched very steeply then across the road into a tight, off-camber 180 degree downhill turn. Then left and across a long straightaway of soft wet grass. Right across a parking lot then inot a fun right left on pavement, across another parking lotl and down into a gravely right hander, onto the sidewalk and then a slight uphill to fun downhill decreasing radius sweeper that lead to the baseball fields. A fast run in the grass then into a tight 90 degree right and then on some sand and ruts into a downhill 180 left. This lead down to the creek or river bed. Another flat, but tight 180 right, between two big trees and then to the 2nd dismount. It was 13 to 15 mph into this and then a big felled tree that was pretty big in diameter and suspended off the ground.

I had to jump onto the tree with one foot and jump off. Now was a time to decide to remount or run to get back up to the field. Either way i sucked here and if I did it running or rode it I wasnt fast!! Once back up to the baseball level it was serpentine through some trees and then blast straight across the outfield into the two barriers, remount and another long flat run to a slow left hander by the pits and then another left.

The next section I have to say I was extremely pleased not only with myself but with my CSK bike. It was a slow rhythm section, which I think all courses should incorporate. It gives the legs and lungs a brief break while still demanding skill and control. We rode, constantly pedaling right and left almost like through a deeply convoluted slalom course then out accelerating hard around the perimeter of the baseball field, then we followed the outline of Todd Field with fast sweeping corners where the ground was a bit soft and muddy at he apexes.

I followed John Ehrlinger through here for the first lap as we moved out to the center of the outfield again then we made the run to this monster of a hill. but first we ride to the base, up a sharp, soft muddy hill into a right and then a tough off camber 180 right. Very reminiscent of Fairport Harbor only very wet and slippery on the exit. Someone at the front fell again bottlenecking us. This was unfortunate because this combined with the previous bottleneck let the top 6 leaders go straight away. Out of this into a fast downhill left, across the field again around a light pole and then to the uphill monster!! At the base of this hill was a barrier, but i dismounted well before it and would run to the barrier, step over then try to run up the hill, which had to be pitched at over 20º grade and of course it was grassy, wet and slippery. How long of a hill? I dont know, but it was nasty. Look at the pics to see what I mean. Notice John at the barrier and then look at the field and rider below!

At the top was the 180, set the bike down, remount and then drop down the hill. Just flying, applying some brakes to make sure you could slow for the 180 in the mud at the bottom. Now are you thinking like I am-when is this description of this first lap gonna end? I am gettting TIRED!!! But wait, theres more!! After the 180 it was a short run behind some utility buildings, across the landing of some steps, into soft mud and tightly between a trash can and I think a fence up a another short, very steep and rutted slippery hill, a downhill right hander and inot a big sweeper to the right, around the perimeter of another baseball field then into the baseball diamonds which was now pure mud, but not too deep with a 90 degree right and a 180 left, under the pavilion where loud music was playing and yes-finally onto the start finish sidewalk where mud would fly off your tires pelting you in the face and sometimes right in the eyes. Ahhh-finally a 1.7 mile lap was complete.



Great pics courtesy of Gray Burkholder are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gburkhol/sets/72157603070203756/

Weight Weenie my Ride...on a budget!!

So I got some e-bay specials and some parts from Bike Authority like the Cannondale Fire stem to lighten my CSK cross bike. What???? An OEM stem thats Weight Weenie?? Yup-the Dale stems are 117 grams on a 110mm and 135 grams on the 120 version I use and cheap. I picked up a new Easton EA70 42cm bar for $28 last week too. About 235 grams, so not too light, but still 30 grams less then what i took off and a better fit for my hands as well. I took off the heavy left Ultegra brifter (circa 1992) and replaced it with a 105 brake lever (circa 1990??). Saved almost an ounce just from replacing the aluminum headset spacers with carbon fiber ones too!! So for a modest expenditure I lost around 200 grams all in the bars!!

Next I will cut the steerer to length (but not till a few more races to make sure I dont want to make some changes). The seat post has at least 6" of post inside the frame so theres 30 or 40 grams to lose there too (like how I bounce from metric to english??). I still sometimes say my months in french too!?!?!??!

Now onto what should matter the most, rotating mass!! I am running Micheline Muds which I am lead to believe are the shit and I have no reason to doubt it, but they are 380 to 400 gram tires. Oink. There are some tires that have aggressive, deep and wide spaced blocks at 280 grams. But they are easily punctured as a loss in weight has to come from somewhere!! So race day only tires!! Now I am also researching converting to Stans No Tube with the goo. My calculations show a theoretical weight savings if I do lighter tires, no tubes and Stans of about 400 grams!! But the great thing is the weight savings is just the frosting, this change would be done for lowering rolling resistance and increased comfort and handling, especially in crappy conditions. Or just go with the Muds and save the weight of the heavy butyl tubes!!

It is important for me to state that no one is approving the use of Stans No Tube with anything but a tubeless tire so beware!!

Whats left? Well if I were to convert my bike to a SRAM Rival and take off the 8 speed ultegra brifter, cassette and derr. I think there would be a further 150 grams. A 750 gram crank and BB set-up would save a further 145 grams.

But for now I'll take my budget 200 gram savings to the start line this Saturday!!