Tuesday night cyclocross #4

After the problems I had on the weekend, things seemed back to normal at Tuesday's cyclocross race. I really enjoyed the course as it had a few good turns and the downhill section was fun. The quick downhill was a little intimidating during my warm-up lap but it was really no problem at all. I would have enjoyed a few more turns on the course but the long straight was slightly downhill so it went quickly. I felt good for the whole race and was able to push myself without extended run-ups on hills really pushing my heart rate too high. There is a noticeable dip in my heart rate on the first lap as I decided to draft another rider along the long straight, which I thought was into the wind. The wind turned out not to be that strong as did the rider in front of me. My heart rate starts to climb again as soon as I decided to make my pass. Official results were not available but I finished about where I usually finish in these races with just a small number of riders behind me. If you're interested to see just was cyclocross is like, check out these helmet-cam videos. I haven't seen myself being passed yet. I kept up my even lap times with laps of 7:00, 7:01, 7:08 and 7:05 plus the run to the start. I did 8.4 km in 28:35 for an average speed of 17.7 km/h and a maximum speed of 30.1 km/h. I had an average heart rate of 167 bpm with a maximum of 180 bpm. The night did end poorly as one rider collapsed after finishing. His status can probably best be monitored over at the race blog.