roadcx.net

After last weekend performance at Cuba/Meridian, it was time to close the book on the 2010 road season.  I had some okay results, helped the team in a big way at a few races, and had a good time along the way.  I was running about 5 to 8 pounds heavier year-over-year compared to my 2009.  Between that and the training interruptions, I think it was a fair season.

So, it is time to pull back to start the ramp up to cyclocross.  The week started out by not doing anything… I took a day off on Monday to recover from the weekend.  Tuesday evening, I planned an hour run while Andrea had an hour moderate/easy mtb ride.  So we hit the Farms and both did our own thing.  I ended up getting about 6.5 miles running most of the way.  I had a feeling that I would pay for that later…  I would (I haven’t run > 5 miles in more than a year, maybe 2?).

Wednesday, we took the dogs to Shelby Farms for a little running around time (there is an off-leash area at the park).  Thursday, I went out for a little run with our Belgian Malinois.  It was a short run indeed, about 1.5 miles out, my knee started to hurt, so I walked and ran back towards the house.  About a mile out, I took off my shoes and ran back barefoot the rest of the way (mostly smooth sidewalk and not-as-smooth asphalt is around our house).  That ended up working better.

Tonight, I joined a local health club to start the other prong of my off-season assault… weight training.  This is something else that I have foregone since the winter before last, so my first session this evening was high rep and low weight.  I plan to go in pretty often for short sessions at first to get back in the swing of  things.  The gym is only a 1/2 mile from the house, so I can run (or walk) to/from.  Unfortunately the route there is sort of busy road/ no-shoulder.  It’s Memphis, so what else do you expect?

At this point, I haven’t ridden a bike since the road race on Sunday.  I may join Andrea and ride out moderately at Trinity tomorrow AM.  I did that last Saturday (morning before my race), the group was pretty feisty.  The group ride riders have hit peak form at the end of the season.  It always happens as we are ripping down Lenow Rd at 25+ mph.

I plan to keep incorporating running and weight training as I start to do some CX play riding / slow speed barrier drills (technique focused).  My 2010 road season was underperform (compared to 2009), I plan to make 2010-11 CX better than my 2009-10 CX season.

Andrea rewrapped the handlebars on my Ridley CrossBow (my “B” bike).  Now I have blue tape on my blue bike and red tape on my red bike (Ridley X-Fire).

On other notes, I am playing around trying to get Google AdSense to work on the sidebar.  It may not last long, but I am curious about it.  I plan to keep it out of the way and may take it out completely if it is too intrusive.

I also re-upped with AT&T and got an iPhone 4.  It doesn’t work well in my house, but neither did my iPhone 3G.  I have to put it by certain windows to get a good signal (and we live in a pretty built up / dense population area).  At work (in NE Memphis), I have no problems whatsoever even in metal buildings, etc.

Today was the day.  Race day for Andrea.  The Firecracker 50 is a big event for Breckenridge and adding to it is the fact that is the Marathon National Championships (long distance / endurance mountain biking).  Since I didn’t register for the race (it fills up months before), I decided to go off in the other direction (away from the race) after they started.

My ride, started off with heading back to camp to get my helmet (left it in the tent).  It felt weird to ride without a helmet, but I didn’t think driving back to camp was smart (and would lose our parking spot).  That ride is pretty much down 500 feet over 5 miles on the rec-path.  And then up those same 500 feet on the road (5-6% grade) and then drop down 500 feet again to the campsite (Prospector Campground).  I picked up my helmet and filled a bottle and headed back over the hill back to the rec-path.

The single track ride I planned was to ride up Colorado trail (up 1200′ in 2.5 miles) and ride the Peaks Trail back to Breck.  The Colorado trail starts off up at a moderate grade (and fairly non-technical).  After getting up past 10,000′ the trail turns nasty with lots of rocks, roots, and much steeper pitches.  Several times I would charge into a section (3-5″ ledges to pop over) and just run out of gas, stall and have to stop for a moment to catch my breath.  Damn thin air.  Once over this, it bombs down to the Peaks trail (photo first photos of the sign and the trail photo).

The Peaks trail is pretty varied from pretty rocky, some steep stuff, and some fast singletrack.  As I got closer to Breck, there was much more foot traffic (4th of July hikers).  When I got to a cross-roads, I stopped and looked at map and decided to add to my journey going up the right fork of Siberian Trail.  This is pretty much a gravel road that climbs up to 10,600′.  Some great views (some of the other photos are from there).  After out-and-backing that trail, headed down to Breckenridge via various trails (and dodging more and more hikers/dog walkers).

By the time I got back, 4 hours had went by.  Andrea was estimating a time for herself of 7 hours, but there seemed to be a lot of finishers (pro men and women).  I tried to find a lap sheet to see how fast she got her first one done, but I didn’t see that anywhere.  Hung around and drank a beer (Frisco brewery Backcountry Brewery was there with free pints).  Ate a sandwich and decided to get a shower at the Ice Rink.  When I got back, I tried to figure out if she was finishing…  Maybe 10 minutes later, I hear Dave Towle announcing my name.  Andrea had finished, saw me, but in the crowds around the finishing chute, decided to just have Dave call me.  Once I met up with her, she thought she was top 3, but wasn’t sure.

The podium presentation wasn’t until 5, she went to shower and I waited around to see if the results were posted.  Not long after she left, they were put up and indeed she was 3rd in Singlespeed Women.   Podium and apres-podium beer shots are in the gallery below.

Right now, we are headed further west to Fruita, Colorado.   After 3 nights outside at 9500′, with overnight lows in the low 30′s, Andrea wants to get some warmth.  Fruita is around 4000′, so it should be a bit closer to home and is supposed to have some good trails.  It would be nice to explore more of the trails of Summit County (Breckenridge/Frisco), we only covered a small percentage in our 3 days of riding.  I would definitely recommend it to anyone despite the amount of people in town and on the rec-path.  Get off into the single track and it is like your own little world.

After another short week of work, I flew out to Denver on Thursday afternoon where Andrea picked me (she is on a longer road trip this month).  I was pretty tired from meeting out with some friends on Wednesday night and getting up early (as normal).  I also think my racing schedule was catching up with me right at the perfect time since I am not planning on racing anytime soon.  By the time I got to Denver, Andrea was running behind and I had to kill 2 hours at the airport.  Unfortunately, I started feeling worse and worse, probably a combination of tiredness, maybe something I ate, and I am sure the elevation change.

When she picked me up, we headed straight through Denver and out to Frisco, Colorado.  It was getting dark and I was not really in the mood to camp, so we got a room at the Snowshoe Inn there.  Pretty basic, but it worked.  We had a quick dinner and afterwards all I wanted to do is lay down.  I fell out right after we got back.  The good news is that woke up feeling much, much better.

We headed down the street to the Log Cabin for some excellent breakfast.  After reorganizing our gear some, we headed out to find a place to camp.  The national forest campground next to Frisco was fairly full.  The nicer part was absolutely full and the next part looked like a boat launch parking lot.  We ended up going to the next one down the road.  We were settling into one part when I noticed that they had no water.  The sites were $21/night with electricity (which we don’t really need).  The other part of the campground also didn’t have water, but since it was more basic (no electricity), it was $16/night.  So we set up her small one man tent (for storage) and planned to sleep in her Element.   By then, we needed to get going, so we headed to Breckenridge for our ride.

We started off trying to find a good bike shop.  She saw two guys headed down the street looking like they knew what there were talking about and asked for a shop recommendation.  Andrea wanted to top off the Stan’s in a few of her wheels.  We headed down to the shop Elevation for this.  It was going to take him an hour or so, so had some time to kill.

We started to think about how much of a pain it would be to move out all the stuff out of the Element every night, so we decided to buy a larger tent.  We were pretty close to an outdoors store (Mountain Outfitters).  We went there and found what we were looking for right away.  The shop employee was super cool and we setup up the tent in the shop to have a look at it.  We bought it.

After dropping off the tent, we were hungry, so we hit a Japanese restaurant.  By then, her bikes were ready so we went to get them and got ready for our ride.  Our plan was to ride the short cut lap of about 15 miles from town (just like her race would start).  The first part of the ride is asphalt (3 miles or so) and a few more miles of gravel.  Most of the time it was just heading up at various pitches from 2% to 10%+.  The single track picks up after that….  here are two photos that pretty much sum up most of the trail, pine forest and old mines.

After our ride, we came back and set up our new tent…

All in all, it was a good day.  We will tackle some other riding tomorrow, some it on miles of paved bike path since Andrea doesn’t want to ride too hard the day before her race.  I still need to figure out where I will ride when she is racing… Probably will use the bike paths to get to some single track away from the race course.  On Monday, we will head to Fruita (at least that is our plan) and ride out there for 2 days before she has to take me back to Denver for my flight back to Memphis.

Now that I am gearing up for my June racing push, I have been laying back a little and focusing on short and more intense workouts along with more recovery type rides.  Tuesday morning I did show up at the Peddler AM ride, and was pretty happy with my efforts which were short and sweet for the most part.  I jumped on McVay and stayed clear until joined by a select group on Poplar Pike.  Our group of 6 was pretty much shut down by a rider going down on the Pike.  I am not sure if he hit a wheel or a pothole, but he hit the deck hard.  Never like to see that.  (He is a bit banged up, nothing very serious to my understanding).

On Wednesday, the Metro Moto team hosted a the 1st of the 3 race criterium series on a new boulevard in Collierville.  I rode the 12 miles or so down there (Andrea was going to drive down, watch, and drive us back).  My legs felt a little wooden out of the house, but started to loosen up on the way down.  At the line, I had a teammate (Robbie), Greg (MetroMoto), Brad (CdV), Ian (Oxford), Boomer (Los Locos), and 5 Memphis Velo (Michael, Todd, Matt, Chris, and Blake).  With such a small field and such great mutual understanding of one others abilities, it was going to be interesting.

Started off sort of slow through the squared roundabout about on one end, and started to pick up down the straightaway.  There were some attacks, but the one that stuck was Boomer, Todd, and Robbie.  (I think it came together in that order.)  I worked the front of the small group to try to make sure it stayed three up there in the break.  I covered one move and half-lap later had to cover when Micheal jumped.  Too much too soon, I couldn’t nail him back.  Micheal ended up making the bridge after 3 laps(?).  This situation was less than ideal (but what else could I expect with the numbers).

Torn between just pulling it back (I didn’t try that), covering the attacks, and starting my own.  None of it was with much heart not wanting to tear my legs off (the earlier stuff just before and after Michael attack was probably too much for this week).   In the end, Robbie came back, and Michael won with Todd in 2nd.  Boomer was 3rd, and Matt won the field sprint.  The final run down the boulevard, I wasn’t into it and ended up at the back of the small field.  I could have played it differently.  I probably should have just sat in and only covered Micheal.  This might have worked, but really it probably would resulted in more MV up in the break.  There wasn’t really a good way to handle this.  Certainly everything that Greg and I did met with reactions.   Another teammate would have been 100% better, but isn’t that always the case?

Andrea took photos of the A-race…

On Thursday, I did the Outdoor’s C-ride on my TT bike (I am using the 130 mm for now).  Got a little wet with a pop-up rain shower, and rode home.  A few beers with friends of Aaron (his birthday) at the Saucer (now at 64/200ths of my way to my plate on the wall).

It was probably about 8pm on Thursday night when we finally decided to bag going down to St. Francisville for the West Feliciana Classic.  It was an okay race last year, but with no teammates for either of us going and a 5+ drive, I wasn’t feeling it.

The weekend then reverted to a few group rides and a party thrown in (teammate Will just got into a house, so he threw a party).  I felt pretty good on both the Trinity ride and the Outdoors ride, trying to do some short decisive hard efforts…  I would say that I was partially successful in that (Saturday much more than Sunday–maybe it was Will’s party?).

For about the 10th time in the last few weeks, I ejected a bottle from my carbon cages just as we turned onto Ramsey road on the Outdoors ride (where it starts to heat up).  The cages I have tend to spread open when hitting a pothole, quickly liberating one water bottle (seat tube mount).  I put an Elite cage on the seat tube and will get a different design that is not so flexible.

Tomorrow, Andrea, Matt, and I plan to head down for some mountain biking at Clear Creek near Oxford, Mississippi.  A bunch from Memphis are headed down (some pretty early).  We will be there in late morning and will try to get some laps in before it rains (if it rains).  My one and only visit there was on a rainy day (Clear Creek Challenge last fall).  I have ridden my mountain more than a few hours by now, hopefully it will go much better for me.

My favorite connector road from TN196 to Collierville, Fletcher Dr is a construction zone for the TN385 loop.  They are building up overpasses, which seems a bit odd considering it is a gravel road (you would think they would just dead end it).   In any case, it was on my route this evening and I decided it would check it out despite the road closed signs.

Well, my plan to do another overload ahead of MSGP (next weekend) has worked…  I did 2-a-days twice and generally logged a bunch of hours this week (especially for a mostly full work week….I had Friday off).   To cap off the week, I traveled to Mountain View, Arkansas with Andrea and Eric.

The plan was for Andrea and I to pre-ride the entire Syllamo’s Revenge course.  I signed up for the 50 mile mountain bike race when the registration opened several months ago (they always fill up in a several days)..  I knew I was tired and really rusty (last single track ride was probably 6 weeks ago?), but I needed to see how it would go so I would know whether or not to keep my registration or try to sell it before the deadline next weekend.

We started out at the 3rd Green Mtn trailhead, and dropped down to the Caverns campground, to just turn around and do the climb straight away (much like the race does).   My legs were tired, but I kept up with Andrea up the hill.  Right after climb, the Yellow trail (Jack’s Branch) starts out and given my rustiness, it immediately began to challenge my skills.  I had brought my seat up 1cm (to make it closer to my road position), but the added seat height ended up making me feel unstable…  I managed through the Yellow trail section loosing time to Andrea the whole way.  She was pretty well rested this week and rides her mountain bike much more often than I do, so that is pretty normal.

Near the end of the Yellow trial, I dropped my seat height and when we started the next section Blue to the Orange, it was going better.  Unfortunately, Andrea got a stick jammed in her RD, and after some trail side repair, resolved to ride the rest of the day in a gear (hanger bent, not broken, RD would hold a gear if trimmed, but didn’t do well shifting).

Having not ridden the trails since mid-December, my memory was weak about how they went.  That combined with wet rocks, made for an interesting ride.

After the blue, we rode the course to the Green and did that loop.  Again, not so swift on the rocks, but a little better.  Mostly was just losing my legs as the week caught up with me in waves.   We met up with Eric at the 1st trailhead and while working out the options, I noticed my front tire was leaking air.  From there I just rode it back to the car (the road from the 1st to the 3rd trailhead is no easy ride) as the tire slowly lost air.  Eric had sealant problems as well, and followed behind and I came back to get him in the car as Andrea rode out the last sections of the trail.

The plan is to ride the Orange and Blue tomorrow (after adding some Walmart purchased Slime tire sealant…the Stan’s seems to have dried out in my tire).  This is despite the fact that the creek is up (blue trail has 3 crossings).  I need to see this trail so I know what I have in store.  At this point, I am reluctantly planning on riding it.  It should go a lot better than today if I get out on the trail a few times and don’t kill myself training on the road leading up to it.

Once again I am headed out to China for a few days.  The trip will be short and sweet, not much time to look around.  Part of it is that I don’t want too long of an interuption of training at this time of the year, the other part is that my first race is next weekend (Rouge Roubaix).  I am coming back on Wednesday after spending only two full days (three nights) in country.  Unfortunately, I am missing our training race tomorrow which should be starting around the time I am flying up to Detroit (first leg of the trip).

I think I am in pretty good shape despite how hard my solo ride today ended up.  It wasn’t terribly long at 62 miles, but it was windy and I was alone out there.  Before I did my ride, I took Andrea’s Bulldog CX tires off my Dura Ace wheelset and put my Bontrager Hard Case tires on.  Those are going to be my wheels for Rouge.  My bike, at this point, will be my Felt.  Andrea’s team Trek Madone came in on Thursday, mine should be soon, but I might not be ready to race it in the few days that I have before Rouge.

Well, I suppose I should pack some clothes.  Andrea is out to race Spa City 6 hour.  It is an NRC mountain event in (relatively) nearby Hot Springs, Arkansas.

After what has been a lower volume January / early February, I have been trying to right the ship by increasing volume and adding some intensity at the same time.  The good news is that I am apparently able to handle it and I just completed a good 3 day block.

• Friday – 2 hours moderate mountain bike (night)
• Saturday – 6 hours moderate road – 100 miles
• Sunday – 4.5 hours moderate/hard – 70+ miles

Although this sort of thing will be routine in a few months, for now, it is a stretch.  So we spent the afternoon watching Winter Olympics on our only “big” television (we finally bought an “HDTV” a few months back, 37″).

On today’s ride, I put in some good efforts through the Forest and generally was very happy about how I felt all the way to the end.  I guess I must have retained more fitness than I thought.  Hopefully, I can continue this through early season racing (and that my next China trip won’t interfere).   Rouge is coming….

A training hole that is…  I really haven’t been riding as much as I did last year at this time.  (To put it in WKO+ terms, my CTL is about 10-15 points lower than last year at this point).   Weather had something to do with, work also was to blame (a bit longer hours and travel to China).  It is not the end of the world, it is just where I am at.

It doesn’t mean I am screwed for the upcoming season, I feel pretty good and have been able to step it up when needed.  Rouge Roubaix is only a few weeks away and I should be okay for that assuming I can go at all (I might be in China again the week before.. not sure yet).

My plans for March include:

• 3/7:  Rouge Roubaix (LAMBRA – St. Francisville, LA)
• 3/20: Hell of the South (TBRA – Berlin, TN)
• 3/27-28: Tour de Tuscaloosa (Tuscaloosa, AL)

I haven’t put together a full calender for the 2010 season yet, haven’t had the time yet, but plan a fairly full schedule all the way to August.

This season promises to a be a good one, I don’t have a lot of definite expectations for early season racing, but expect it will be a good month for the Marx-Bensdorf cycling team.

Some where in the next couple weeks, I should get my long awaited Trek Madone in (Andrea is getting one as well).  They are a the bike sponsor for the M-B team and a good portion of the team will be riding the white & black frames with red accents.  The feedback from the guys that have got one has been positive–I expect to be selling 58cm Felt FC (w/ SRAM Red) sometime in March…   any interest?

R