Training, riding, racing.

And so it goes. About 10 days until the CX @ Brewery Ommegang. At this point, I'm expecting dry, dusty and (since it's been nearly 85 degrees here as of late) warm weather. That would actually be ok with me, since I really don't care much for cold weather riding, but I suppose since I'm pre-registered, I have to HTFU anyway.

Strangely, since I've only got 10 days left, any significant training will be lost on me now. Time to rely on the engine that has been developed (and mildly neglected as of late) over the past 6 months. One more longer, fast ride is on the books for early this Saturday morning, both to shock the legs into some longer, harder efforts and to shock my system into riding in the cooler morning weather. That will top up the aerobic engine, so my 'cross skills will be the only thing I'm really nervous about, since the more oxygen debt I get into, the worse they become. And everyone knows that 'cross is ALL about suffering above the red line.

Today I had the day off, so I did something I haven't done for a long time: go for a ride just for fun. No goals, no intervals to do, just plain old riding for the fun of riding. I don't think I even checked the average speed of the ride. I was able to enjoy the emerging fire of the fall leaves, the whistle of the wind through my Oakleys and the muted vibration of the pock marked road under my tires. It was magnificent.

So, while 'cross racing may be the order of the month, there will certainly be a relief to have no training to worry about, no numbers to hit, and many more carefree miles of road to eat up on those leisurely rides. Ah yes, and so it goes, and so do I.

Training daze, oh training daze.

The days are growing shorter, the air is growing colder, and the season is winding down. Yeah, right.

I just finally registered for my first 'cross race (CX @ Brewery Ommegang) and that means I'd better whip my butt back into shape. You see, since I've had a few things going on this summer (like a wedding, work being turned upside down, and of course the horrifically oppressive heat and humidity) I've been relying on my early season form and conditioning to carry me through. Of course, looking at my Sporttracks info recently reminded me that I've been a horrible slacker, and I've really needed to kick it up a notch. This means the traditional teeth gritting, leg crushing interval workouts, ridiculous climbing workouts and stupid hard time trial efforts. All that is interspersed with occasional recovery rides and the search for new, interesting roads to ride to keep the training from getting stale.

The past weekend involved a recovery ride to get breakfast on Friday morning (it was bloody COLD) and then a big climbing day Saturday (can we say steep hills?) followed by some short 'cross skill drills today. I've also bolted a 38 tooth inner chainring on my Foxtrot, which should give me just a bit of extra breathing room considering those heavy/solid Ksyrium wheels shod in huge, knobby tires.

So after reflecting on the past week of training, what has come to my attention? I need to toughen up a little bit more mentally, which I'm working on. My running mount-ups need a little work too (dismounts and hopping barriers is a perfect two step at this point, but it takes about 4 steps to re-mount.) My sharp accelerations are pretty good, and my endurance and pacing is pretty good.

So...three weeks to go. That means about 2 more weeks of hard training and then about a week of taper time. All the while I'll still be watching the days get shorter and the air getting colder. Ah well, I guess the season has to wind down sometime.

Of beer and ('cross) bikes...

The Labor Day weekend has been fantastic (so far anyway.) Since September actually heeded my previous request and has returned, bringing with it milder temperatures and a lack of humidity, it has been prime riding and training weather.

After spending quite a while rebuilding and tweaking my 'cross bike for the upcoming season, I've got this to work with:


Specs:
Origin 8 Foxtrot frame (7005 butted aluminum with carbon rear triangle and full carbon fork)
Mavic Ksyrium Equipe wheels
Bontrager Jones CX tires
SRAM Force shifters
SRAM Rival front derailleur
SRAM Rival rear derailleur
Shimano 105 12-25 cassette
Shimano Ultegra 39/46 crankset
Wipperman ConneX chain
Tektro CR720 cantilever brakes
Selle Italia Octavia saddle
Crankbrothers Eggbeater pedals
FSA Stem and bars, Bontrager post, Fi:zik DualTape wrap

This should serve me well enough in the coming season, especially considering this will be my first season racing cyclocross. As a benchmark, and as a way to shake out the tweaks in the bike, I planned a 22ish mile route that included 3 laps of a 2.8 mile circuit which was 75% dirt, gravel and oil and loose stone. Each lap included about 230 feet of elevation gain to test the legs, and plenty of curves and corners to challenge the handling skills. The ONLY thing that the route didn't have were dismounts, barrier crossings and remounts. Those were practiced before we set out upon the ride.

Of course, one particularly botched dismount involved the bike tipping over opposite the side I was dismounting on, causing me to end up tripping over the fallen machine and sprawling out on the lawn. In the process, I was busy rolling my right ankle and covering myself with bruises. Awesome, I look like a battered housewife, and I only have my own "skills" to thank.

Fortunately, after a pretty decent ride (even with a sore ankle) I finally got to tear into one of these:

Home brewed Belgian Double. Not too bad, but it could still use a few more weeks of "cave aging", which has become my new term for aging beer in the rough hewn rock and mortar cave I call a basement or cellar.

Ahh..

Rest day, how I love thee. Although...it's nice and sunny, only 72 degrees, and I could head out on the road bike for a recovery ride...

As summer winds down:

The heat...oh the oppressive heat around the northeast in the past couple weeks has been unreal. Average temperatures of 85+ degrees paired with 70% or higher humidity have made riding conditions awful. In fact, there's been very little riding to be had.

My mountain bikes have been hanging in the garage with the exception of the 65 miles that I put on them around the time of the wedding in the beginning of July. I've been primarily riding my early season fitness into a big plateau, and re-building my cross bike, tuning it all up to get ready for some cyclocross races.

Cyclocross has laid an entirely new set of skills at my feet and challenged me to learn things like running dismounts and running mounts. Oh yeah, and how not to crush your...tender bits...upon remounting the bike on the fly. Sadly, since your right thigh is supposed to take the abuse of hitting the saddle first, when you MISS the saddle, it becomes a painful learning experience. I'm surprised I don't look like I've been beaten about the junk by a cheap sado-masochist off the corner of 42nd and Broadway (note that I'm clueless about that actual location, if it even exists...)

Similarly, running dismounts have been a hilarity. Not entirely hard to do: unclip and swing the right leg over the back of the bike, then swing it between the frame and your left leg, hit the ground running while unclipping, and go! Sure, easier said than done, especially when your left hand is operating the front brake from the hood and the right hand is supposed to be on the top tube, ready to hoist your beast over the looming obstacles. What could go wrong?

Let's talk about hitting a bump in the grass, the wheel turning sharp left and falling over onto the frame. Funny, right? Howabout scraping your leg on that non-drive-side cantilever brake as you swing the leg over the back of the bike? Maybe jamming the pedal/crank into the back of your right heel when the left foot doesn't unclip cleanly and you (try to) start running with a bike still attached to your left foot. Oh yes, this is supposed to be FUN!

Fun it will be. Mud, beer and cowbells. In fact, this description IS cyclocross. I'm looking forward to my first 'cross races: CX at Brewery Ommegang and the Wicked Creepy Cross Race in Bennington. Those should be a great intro to this bizarre fall/winter sport.

Now...to consider embrocation on my shaved legs (and hopefully NOT mix it up with my chamois butter...)

And the bike bites back.

Ah yes, it's that time of year where we're trying to get the last hurrah out of a quickly waning summer season. The rain and cold has hit in the northeast, and things have gotten pretty sketchy pretty quickly.

Trails are soggy from heavy fall rains, and are covered with wet leaves and deadfall, so in the interest of not ruining the hard work of many, we stick to the road on days following heavy rains. Of course, there is nothing saying that deadfall and leaves aren't on the sides of the roads either.

That being said, in the 5 years that I've spent seriously riding, both road and trail, I've had my share of crashes, mostly on my mountain bikes. Of course, there was some bruises and scrapes involved, but nothing too terribly bad. Of course, all that had to change on Sunday afternoon.

Riding in paceline, no more than 4 miles from home on a beautiful 60 degree, sunny day, a large sticks (heretofore known as the "little bastard") managed to wedge itself into my front wheel behind the brake caliper. This means that my forward momentum of approximately 20mph carried me right over the bars and to the left, into the lane. Fortunately, no cars were right behind me at the time, and I escaped being flattened by a moving vehicle. My face and body didn't escape the pavement though. My chin cracked down onto the tarmac hard, leaving a deep gash, before I slid and tumbled across the pavement.

After taking a second to determine if I was going to die (I was not) I came to the following conclusions:
1: I was pouring blood from my shredded chin
2: My teeth were all still intact
3: I was laying in the middle of the lane, 2 feet from the yellow centerline, as was my bike and bottles.
4: WAS MY BIKE OK!?

My course of action (the two in front of me were scrambling to get back to me at the time) was to scrabble over to my bike on my hands and knees, and half carry half toss all my gear to the side of the road before staggering to the shoulder.

I realized that the bike appeared OK, and even though I was dripping blood at an alarming rate, I appeared to be mostly ok. So, off to the ER I went where they glued my chin back together after fishing out some of the grit.

So here we are, two days post accident. My body is aching and sore in places that I didn't even realize I had. My chin is disgusting to look at, worse to touch and even more painful than I could imagine that it would be. In fact, at times the pain is almost nauseating.

All because that little bastard decided to make itself known and put a quick end to my season. At this point, by the time I heal enough to begin riding again, the snow will be falling and the holidays will be here, which means no riding.

Ahh holidays. What more of a bummer does the year include other than "the holidays?" Those are almost as low on my list as the "little bastard."



On the plus side, time on the sofa means plenty of cycling DVD watching. Hello 2009 Giro and 2008 Tour DVDs.

And a month later...

Here I am again.

Forget updating ever couple of days, I can't even remember to check my bank balance that often. No, I'm kidding. Actually, the real difficulty in updating very often lies in the fact that life (which includes cycling, imagine that!?) has been interfering with...well, life.

Here in the northeast we've become mired in that awful beast known as "fall" in which the sun drops below the horizon early in the evening and leaves us stuck on stationary trainers or bundling up and donning lights to stick out a few miles in the chill of the evening air. It's an ever-present dilemma that anyone in a New England state will have to come to grips with early in their cycling experience. Gone are the long lazy evenings of tooling along trails and less traveled back roads. Those carefree summer days are replaced by worries of darkness, fallen leaves hiding slippery roots or potholes in the road, and the creeping chill of the coming winter.

Not to fret: the weekends are prime time to spend with the rubber side down. Knobby or skinny, mud or tarmac, spinning or mashing, climbing or descending, it is all good. It's just the exhilaration of the ride that makes the week's troubles melt away. It is worth all the time spent in the office, in meetings or on the phone. And it's one of the only escapes from reality that allows us to focus on the next obstacle in front of us without any thought of the consequences lying down the trail.

Wouldn't it be nice if life was just as easy?

And so it goes...

No, it's not just the title of a great Billy Joel song, one that extols the sadness of never letting yourself be heard (although sometimes mother nature forces that situation upon you), but it's also a simile for the march of time.

The past few weeks here in the northeast have been ultra-prime. Riding has been fantastic to say the least. With the fall leaf season, the soil has dried enough to become tacky and sticky, but not tire cloggingly thick, trails have been worn through piles of fallen leaves which now hide insidious roots, and a chill in the air forces the use of base layers, arm warmers, thermal gloves and long sleeved jerseys. Of course, the top of the first grinding climb is the place where everyone stops, strips and packs away their heavy layers before they start sweating too hard.

Yes indeed, fall is my favorite time to ride in these parts. While there is a hankering to get back to your favorite spots in the spring and see if you can still hit that kicker, ride that skinny or clear that rock garden, there's something absolutely magical about riding in the fall. The crunch of fallen leaves under the knobs of thick rubber, the brisk chill in the air that burns your lungs, stings your face and forces you to hammer just to keep warm, and the wonderful feeling of a season winding down, with no races or cares in the world is a nearly indescribable pleasure that's all too often unrealized until the fall ends.

In the northeast, we've suffered our first "nor'easter" of the season. Yes, that damnable word that brings chills to my very soul, the harbinger of winter, has slashed it's mark upon the fall season. Torrential rains, sticky, heavy, wet snow and gusting winds will quickly damp even the most dedicated fat-tired spirits. True, the snow won't linger and sunny skies follow a day behind, but there is a certain doom and gloom that follows the first storm of the year. Is it time to pull out the trainer? Is it time to send the bikes to their winter homes in the garage? That may well be the case, it may well not. Riding in the snow is great fun, if a little bit taxing on the body, and the easy access to studded tires makes light years of difference.

There is one positive thing about the winter's imminent arrival, though. Time to tear down the trusty steed, clean out the muck, lube everything up and shine it to a mirror finish, all in preparation of its next outing. When will that be? Who knows, but at least it'll be ready. And so...it goes...