Cyclocross Virgin...No more!

I gave cyclocross a try last weekend. Well Arizona cyclocross anyway. I had a great time, however I don't think that would qualify for me to say that I liked cyclocross. Usually cross racing involves cold weather, which we didn't get. It was 80 by the time we started. The courses usually have a variety of terrair were a cyclocross bike is a most. We race at a park in Phoenix, where it was mostly grass except for the sandy section by the playground. oh and one little paved climb littered with broken glass. Oh and mud, I usually like riding in mud, but yeah, did I mentioned it was 80 and it hasn't rained down here for a few months, so sans mud.

The race:
I lined up in the back of the small field of riders in the open race (again cross races usually attract huge crowds at the starting line). The start was sorta fast but I still managed to stay with the group even with my MTB gearing. We made it to the sandy section which was a run-with-your-bike only. I made a couple attempts during warm ups and didn't even make it half way, so I decided I would run it like everyone else. The dismount was OK but at least I didn't crash. The group split here, so I made a huge effort on the back of the course to get by everyone in my group and bridge up to the next one. And I did, except that by the time I made it to the last guy in the lead group, I was completely maxed out. We hit the first barrier and I am proud to say that I had a smooth dismount and remount but I got gapped. I almost ate it on a little loose hairpin turn onto the paved section but made it through, then there were two other single barriers that I could have bunnyhopped but after a failed attempt during warm ups, I bagged the idea. The thought came back during the first lap as this would have help me bridge to the front group, thankfully I didn't because it could have been bad, unfortunately that mean that I had to ride on no man's land and try to bridge the 20 second gap to the next rider. For the first 4 laps the gap seemed to grow but it never exceeded 40 seconds, then I felt a little better and would reduce the gap on some sections then loose it in others. By the last lap I got it down to less than 10 seconds then I must've ridden over some glass which made a nice cut to my rear Maxxis 310 tire. I had stans in the tube which worked well for goatheads but this hole seemed to be too big for stans to seal it. I rode the hissing tire for the rest of the lap without getting lapped by TJ who won the race. I was the last rider not to get lapped but at the same time I lapped the other 3 guys behind me to finish in 8th place.

No pictures this time. Norma was out of town.
Thanks for Mister Zamora for helping me with hand offs. It was nice to get a sip of water or Cytomax every other lap.

Perhaps next year I could add a cross bike to the list and race the series. It sure was a painful and as fun as everyone had described it.

I am curious how many pounds I would gain by Friday?
Happy Thanksgiving!

Pura Vida!

Saturday Gravel Grind

The plan for Saturday was to get 3.5 hours in Zone 1 with a few 1 minute efforts at race pace in preparation for the cyclocross race on Sunday. I am planning to race on the hardtail, so I figured I'd spend the day getting re-accostumed to it and went for a ride on the different gravel roads around Maricopa.

No matter which direction you go in Maricopa, you are bound to see two things:

1. cows:

2. Cotton fields

I didn't have a planned route, I just pointed my bike south and follow the gravel. Eventually one of the roads lead me to this...You would think this is a perfect cyclocross training opportunity....hum! Nah, I didn't feel like getting muddy, not to mention cross racing in AZ is pretty far from muddy. So I hiked around it and still got my shoes dirty. Oh, never mind the sign, it's open...at least to bicycles.About half way into my ride, I noticed a little trail going up one of the buttes, so I went exploring. You can see part of it on this picture.At the bottom the sand turned to rocks and it got rockier and steeper until I got to this...Time to practice shouldering my bike.Here is the view from the top.

I had to hike down too, then rode back home to make it a gravel grind just shy of 60 miles.
Probably not the recommended pre-ride for my cyclocross debut on Sunday but coach said this is only a test race.

I wonder how am I going to do when I get to hop my first barrier...

Pura Vida!

Jeff

White Tanks Full Recap

Saturday was a return to good old cross country racing. We left the house pretty early so we could make it to White Tanks with plenty of time to warm up properly. We even beat the sun to rise.

Unfortunately, time just flew by, so by the time we both got registered, got dressed and got everything ready, I only had about 30 'til race time. So I rode on the road for a few minutes then did a couple of race pace efforts and headed to the start line. By the time I got there, about 20+ Pro/Expert riders were already lined up at the front. My teammates Zack and Eric were in the front row and offered me to move up and join them but with just a couple of minutes to go, I decided to stay in the back and work my way to the front.

Benji for DCB Adventures blew the air horn and we were on our way. I tried moving through traffic but got by only 5 or 6 guys. I could see Zack and Eric at the front and they quickly strung out the field. Once we were all single filed, I did two big efforts to get to the front. On the first one, I made it to the top ten, recovered for a few seconds then went all out again just before the first wash and made it to 4th. By now Zack was on the lead with a Tazer guy, while another guy and I dangled off about 10 seconds back. By the time we made it to the first tech section, Zack had gapped the Tazer guy so I just marked their wheels and let Zack build his lead. Eventually we caught the Tazer guy and another guy joined us before the end of the lap. This train of 4 stayed together until the first tech section when the Tazer guy attacked. I went with him and stayed on his wheel until almost the end of the second lap. At that point I figured Zack had a good gap, so I was going to secure second but I didn't want to bring the Tazer guy with me, so I put another huge effort to gap him then put in cruise control for the remaining two laps. I saw Zack on my third lap and he had a 2-3 minute lead and I couldn't see anyone else behind me, so I kept it steady for the rest of the lap, then half way through our last lap I found Zack on the side of the trail with a broken crankset. One of the bolts on his big ring had fallen off and the rest broke from his torque. He also bent his middle ring, so that left him with a granny gear. I stopped and tried to help him for a couple of minutes and even rode with him but his chain wouldn't stay on his granny ring while the other two were missing. Suddenly we saw the Tazer guy coming, and we decided to at least have one of us in the lead, so I took off and kept it together for the win. Zack walked his bike for the remaining of the course finishing almost 30 minutes later but didn't DNF. Way to go man! You really were the strongest rider out there!Norma also got to stand on the top spot. She finished third overall in her group and beat over a dozen beginner guys. Way to go!!!

On Sunday I experienced the results of the previous day effort. I went for a ride and could barely bring my heart rate to Zone 1. Eventually I felt like I was going all out just to be above 131, so after an hour of this I decided to call it a day and crawled home.

Up next is Cyclocross racing. I am planning to dab into this, until now for me unexplored version of cycling. I will be riding Norma's hardtail Giant with some skinny tires, however the purpose of racing is mostly to have fun, get some experience and of course get those 55 minutes of intensive riding. We'll see how it goes. So far the biggest concern is the dismounts and the remounts. I seem to keep doing the little hops before commiting to jumping back on the saddle. I am sure this will be very time costly during the race. As for the dismounts, I can do them, just not sure how I will do in traffic and at race pace. We'll find out on Sunday.

Until then...Pura Vida!

I got to order dessert today!

That's right! A long time ago Norma and I had talked about a "stimulus package" that would consist of me having the opportunity to order to dessert after winning a race.
Today I endulged with a Blodie from Ruby Tuesday's after winning the Pro/Semi/Expert race #3 in the Dust Devils Series at White Tanks.

It was quite a shock to the system to race again. I really don't remember the last time I hit 199BPMs, so needless to say I am a little tired.
Norma continued her winning streak by claiming the top spot of her age group in the beginner female race and 3rd overall. So today we got two 1st places in the household. Sweeet!

I'll post some pictures and a full race recap in the next couple of days.

Pura Vida!

Weekend Review

This was a busy weekend. Lots of things going on in all different fronts.

Things started really well on Friday, when I came home to this.

Genuine Innovations came through for us one more time. I hope I won't need any of those during races, but based on previous history we all know I will. It's good to get this kind of support from a local company. Thank You! Genuine Innovations.

On Saturday we drove up to McDowell to watch the start of the 12 and 24 Hours of Fury. Lots of team members participating in the race. Results are not posted yet, and I haven't had a chance to talk to any of them but the 24 Hour Team was battling out with a Bicycle Haus team up until we left. While we were there, Norma and I rode up to Pemberton and completed a lap and little more, then we rode the service road to different sections of the trail to cheer on riders. At first it was odd not to be racing, but again, it also felt good to leave just after dark, grab some Sushi then sleep on our own bed.

Look at all the Adrenaline, red, white and black at the start of the 12 Hour race.

Sunday, I was scheduled to do 3 hours and the plan was to head to White Tanks and pre-ride, however with the wind advisory, we decide to keep it local. Not to mention, we would have to drive near Avondale and deal with the NASCAR traffic leaving the PIR.My 3 hours felt like two completely different rides. The first 1:45 was slow, low visibility, dusty and with a head wind with gusts up to 20MPH. The other 1:15 was all big ring action with an awesome tail wind.

Once I got home, I decided to do some cooking. Sweet Plantains and Empanadas were the afternoon project. It all turned out really good, but I am biased.

Then it was on to the next project of the weekend...

Hairy Legs...

No More...

No shaving here. Haven't shaved my legs for over two years. Waxing seems to work a lot better for me. It takes a little longer but it also lasts longer. A little painful the first time but it's worth it. Again, thanks to my wife for taking care of me.

Racing is back this week with the White Tanks race on Saturday.

Ciao!

Halloween, Bike Fit and Dust Devils #2

So last Friday I rode my bike to work like any other day. As I get through the front door, one of security guards at the front desk asks me "How can I help you?" I politely replied " just getting to work" while I showed him the badge that I had dug out of my jersey pocket. I continued walking and as I am scanning my badge over the access sensor, he says: "That's an interesting costume!"  "I know, I wear it almost everyday! I said and went on with my day.

 

Anyway, I later discovered that he was a new guard at our location, so he had never seen me come in to work wearing spandex and a helmet. It was also Halloween, which means that throughout the day, he had seen quite a few other people wearing stuff much different than what's normal for a Friday, so I guess he's excused but it sure was funny!

 

Other than riding a lot, including a 4-hour road ride on my mountain bike, I have been working with Coach on my bike fit. I have never really devoted too much time to my position on the bike, nor am I meticulous about my saddle height. In fact, I've been known for lowering or raising my saddle by close to an inch just before a race. Sometimes my back would hurt, but it'll go away after a while, then my aquiles tendon would start acting up or I would get muscles cramps on odd locations. So a few weeks ago I met Art and we went over my position on both the mountain bike and the road bike. After close to an hour of pedaling on a trainer, moving, measuring and checking alignments of things we ended up with a completely different position. The most drastic change was my saddle height. I had it so high that I was not only rocking my hips (which explains the saddle sores) but I had also gotten used to pedaling with my toes down.

At first, it was hard to feel comfortable with the lower saddle position. I felt like I was riding a downhill bike but after a few continuous days of riding, I have gotten used to it and really enjoy it. I still have to remind myself to drop the heels while I pedal but I'll get there soon.

 

Racing is still in the down low for me, however Norma did race last weekend at McDowell. I did a horrible job assisting her as I missed her second hand off. Thankfully Art was there to cover me. My goals was to give her the first bottle then ride to a point on the long loop to give her the second one. I under estimated how long it would take her to get there, then I wisely decided to ask some of the expert riders that were coming up this hill, crossed eyed and almost delusional from the unusual heat if they had seen my wife back there. One of them said "Yes, I saw her back there" but I guess he was referring to seeing her on a previous lap. Anyway, by the time I got back to the finish line, Norma had already finished and had even changed out of her racing clothes after finishing 4th overall and 2nd in her age group. I suck at doing hand offs!

 

Looking ahead, coach has given me the green light to participate on two races this month. Dust Devils #3 at White Tanks will be my next one, then I am going to give Cyclocross racing a try on the 23rd. Stay tuned for that!

 

Pura Vida!