Cross for Kids

Today was the Cross for Kids at Canada Olympic Park and another disorganized trip to the race for me. As I was about to put my bike on the car rack, I noticed I had another broken spoke. I'm going to get through the final few races of the season and then get a new wheel in the Spring. I spent a few minutes to change the spoke and try to get my wheel close to true. I noticed after the race that the rim might have still been rubbing the brake but there's some dirt that needs to be cleaned off my bike before I do a proper truing job. Anyway, once I got to the race, I also noticed I forgot my water.
The course at COP had to be changed due to the ski hill opening very early this year. As we were racing in amongst the bobsleigh course, skiers were on the main hill and junior lugers were practicing. Unfortunately, the covers were on the corners so you couldn't see the luges go past. The bike course favoured climbers. There were two good stretches on sidewalks that were difficult for me. Technically, there were lots of turns but nothing too difficult. Still, I didn't find a good flow through many of the turns. I did manage to have fairly consistent lap times but, again, I finished one lap behind the winner. I did have some racers around me most of the time. I have decided to be more aggressive with my passes but it was still difficult to pass when the rider I was trying to go around would wander all over the track unpredictably. I passed a few riders in the sand trap.
I completely six laps for 9.6 km in 42:50. I had an average speed of 13.5 km/h and a top speed of 35.6 km/h. There was about 35 m of climbing every lap. I averaged 171 bpm with a maximum of 182 bpm.

Blow Street Cross

Today was the Blow Street Cross in Calgary. I spent almost all my time since the Oval Cross two weeks ago training by doing my university homework and eating cookies. The weather has not been nice for cycling and I haven't bought a trainer or made time to hit the gym at the UofC. I made things better by spending my warm-up time driving home to pick up my race numbers. Still, the weather improved enough for this weekend that most of the snow had melted from the park where today's race was held. The snow and wet grass created some interest to a mostly flat course. My front tire slid quite a few times as I entered chicanes, there was one spot where I couldn't get traction with my rear tire as I tried to get going up a hill after a corner and one corner was quite tough with roots on the entry and in the apex. There were some boring parts due to long straights. If I had some conditioning, it would have been a good course for me 'cause I'm not a good climber unless it's a short, technical climb. After the fun I had at the Oval Cross, I did put the cleats in my shoes but they weren't needed on this course.
I ended up one lap down, completing six laps in 43:31 over a distance of 12.3 km. I averaged 17 km/h with a maximum of 35.9 km/h. My average speed dropped after my first two laps due to my lack of conditioning over the last little while. There was only about 15 m of climbing every lap and the stretches through the trees interfered with my GPS a bit. I don't know how dependable my heart rate info was but I averaged 179 bpm with a maximum of 187 bpm so I was definitely trying my best.

Oval 'Cross

Sunday morning saw me back at the university for the Oval 'Cross. It was supposed to be the same course as the previous night but snow and rain made the organizers shorten the course for the Sport race. During my warm-up, most of the hilly, twisty section was unrideable. They put that section back in for the Women's race right after mine and it seemed slightly better for them. There were many spots that I could easily ride the night before but had to try to walk in this race. On the steep descent that was so much fun the night before, I had to ski down on my shoes. A long, off-camber section by the tennis court fence was extremely slippery and I ran it on my second and third laps. In retrospect, I should have tried to ride it because running was really slow due to how slick things were. I also didn't attempt riding the sand pit, which I rode every time the previous evening, because it seemed tougher when wet and throwing the sand in the air really gunked up my bike the one time I rode a short section of it. My pedals were so full of mud and grass I wasn't able to clip in for most of my last three laps.
I ended up completing four laps in 39:26; longer than the night before despite the shortened course. I covered 8.5 km for an average speed of 12.9 km/h and a maximum speed of 31.4 km/h. I had an average heart rate of 164 bpm and a maximum of 177 bpm.

Dark Knight

Saturday night was the Dark Knight cyclocross race at the University of Calgary. It was my first nighttime race though, being in the first group, meant most of my time was spent in the early twilight.
It was an interesting course with two distinct sections: a hilly, twisty section on an embankment by the tennis courts and a more open section near the student residences with two sand pit sections. The forecast had been promising rain and snow all week but it didn't happen before my race. Due to the mayhem of last year, this race had different categories and didn't belong to the official ABA calendar. My group contained 65 riders of a variety of abilities. This meant I always had someone to race and the first trip through the twisty section was slow due to the numbers and some people unable to ride some of the hills. I was able to get more flow in my later laps as things thinned out. The crowds were great and really loud. There was lots of encouragement for anyone, like me, who could ride the sand pit or some of the steeper hills. The most memorable part for me was the steepest descent. As the sky grew darker, the descent and the following corner became bewildering due to the flashing lights and loud music. It was definitely a rare experience for a race.
I ended up one lap down so I completed four laps. It was definitely getting too dark for me to continue as my last lap was 40 seconds slower than each of my second and third laps. I did 9.6 km in 38:45 for an average speed of 14.8 km/h and a maximum of 32.8 km/h. There was about 25 m for climbing each lap. I averaged 169 bpm with a maximum of 187 bpm.