Tuesday Cross 3

Tuesday night's cyclocross race featured a course which, I think, should suit me a little better. It was very flat with lots of difficult turns. Some turns got a little easier as the night wore on as leaves were cleared from the racing line. I'm not a good climber and I tend to go through corners faster than those around me so it should have been a good race for me.

After last week's fiasco through the first few turns, I had considered trying to be in front for the first corner but this course had a few gentle corners before the sharper turns. I did move up after the start but I was still stuck behind some riders who were slow through the corners. Lots of corners with short straights meant it was difficult to get past riders. I really tried to sprint out of corners when I thought I could overtake someone in front of me who was a little slower. Single barriers in two different spots helped me quite a bit. I'm normally faster than those around me when it comes to getting off and on my bike and I received some pointers from Aaron Schoolar the night before.

My lap times turned out to be very different from my expectation. Traffic usually slows down my first lap and my second lap was affected by pulling off to the side right in front of one of the most difficult corners to let the leaders of the A group go through. It ended up costing me quite a bit as two or three riders in my group had just been passed and I couldn't jump back on the track right in front so I lost a few positions. In retrospect, I shouldn't be such a nice guy. I actually pulled off to the side again on that second lap. I think I was pushing the limit of low air pressure in my tires and my rear actually felt like it was going flat. It seemed okay when I stopped so I ended up completing the race. The stops were fast enough that my GPS didn't end up recording any rest time. I thought I might have been pushing a little too hard for my fitness level on the first two laps but, if I did end up backing off, I must have picked up speed through the corners as my third and fourth laps were, by far, my fastest. My heart rate was about the same for all four laps so there isn't much proof that I backed off.

In total, I covered 7.2 km in 24:49 for an average speed of 17.4 km/h and a maximum of 30.2 km/h. The maximum came right at the finish line as I thought I had someone right behind me through the last corner and I didn't want to give up one more position at the end. I had an average heart rate of 168 bpm with a maximum of 179 bpm. My lap times were 6:15, 6:24, 6:07, and 6:02.

I'm trying to figure out what to do with my current cyclocross bike. I have a feeling that there's something wrong with my rear hub and it feels like it has some internal resistance. It's not an obvious problem but something that I feel is there. I'd also really like a new bike, as mine is nearly 8 years old, and I'd really like to get a new one with disk brakes. My club's bike shop doesn't have any bikes with disk brakes in stock and I don't know when they might get any. I have a friend who tweets about her great wheel sponsor but they're out of stock until 22 Oct and my season ends 11 Nov. Plus, new wheels doesn't get me a new bike with disk brakes.

Tuesday Night 'Cross 2

I did my first Tuesday Night 'Cross race today. I missed last week for some meet the teacher time. I liked the course though I found there were long, non-technical sections where I needed better fitness. There were two good sections of turns, one on the side of a hill and one while cruising down a slight downhill.

I covered 7.32 km in 27:24 for an average speed of 16 km and a maximum of 33.4 km/h. I averaged 166 bpm with a maximum of 178 bpm so I was pushing fairly hard, for me. My heart rate was a little low on the first lap because I started towards the back and the turns on the sidehill slowed down the group severely. I tried a few aggressive passes but I would get halfway beside the rider in front of me but then I would get cut off and have to get back in line. It took nearly a lap for me to get to my pace without someone going slower than me through the corners. My lap times were 7:15, 6:34, 6:42, and 6:53. My average heart rate was over 10 bpm lower on the first lap, at 157 bpm, than my other three laps which were 168 - 170 bpm. I'm thinking about starting at the front next week so I can get through the first corners at a good pace and let everyone else worry about passing me.

Hop 'n' Hurl cyclocross

Hardcore Bike hosted the Hop 'n' Hurl cyclocross race on Sunday. The course was quite a bit different than most 'cross courses with lots of pavement stretches and some single-track. There were a few corners with roots which I just couldn't get right. Still, it was a challenging course and it was good to be out racing.

I covered 10.3 km in 40:27 with one fall. I averaged 15.3 km/h with a maximum speed of 28.9 km/h. My heart rate averaged 162 bpm with a maximum of 177 bpm so I probably could have pushed a little harder throughout the race. I put in four consistent laps of about 6:40 but my lap times fell off at the end to 6:50 and 7:03 though my average heart rate was consistent over all of the laps.

School of Cross

The first true cyclocross race took place today with my own club hosting the School of Cross race. Last weekend was an enduro-cross race but I'm not counting it. In the past, I haven't liked the School of Cross course because the school grounds where it's held drop away into a ravine. This usually means long grass, very bumpy trails, and up and down a steep hill too many times. However, this year the ravine section seemed to flow better and it was a more enjoyable course for me.

I've felt my best during races where I slurped down a Clif shot a little before the start. I was eating them last week during my race and felt good and I had one left so I ate it about 20 minutes before my race started. If any of the three people who read this know where I can get Clif shots by the box, please let me know. Anyway, I was a bit surprised to feel pretty good throughout the race. My heart rate did spike each lap as I came out of the valley which meant not pushing hard on the easiest section of the course but the urge to cut the fun a lap or two short never came. It might have helped that I had two teammates nearby for the opening. I lost track of Wes behind me late in the first lap and had Bruce right behind me going into the barriers for the second time but I could hear he had some trouble on them and I noticed a good gap on him the rest of the way. After the finish, I saw that Wes dirtied both of his knees during the race and Bruce said he had problems on two occasions. I don't know Wes very well but I know Bruce is a good Cat 4 racer. He's much stronger than I am on the road but it was only his second 'cross race so it must have been my experience and maybe a little better off-road bike-handling skills that kept me in front of him.

I completed four laps in 35:39 and was one lap behind the leaders. I covered 9.2 km at an average of 15.5 km/h and a maximum of 26.1 km/h. I averaged 170 bpm, which is just two bpm below my anaerobic threshold, and had a maximum of 183 bpm. There was a 30 second run up to the start/finish line and I had laps of 8:40, 8:38, 8:54, and 8:57. I thought the first lap was slow, due to all the traffic on the first lap. I then thought I picked it up for the second lap but this doesn't appear to be the case. I was expecting my body to start telling me to stop so I backed off a little on the third lap, thinking I would have two more to do. I was a little surprised to see two laps to go as I started my fourth lap and I expected to be passed soon by the leaders so I knew I'd probably just have one lap left to do. I was pretty set in my position so I just did enough so no one would catch me.

Kettle 'Cross

The cyclocross season started with a different format on Sunday. For the first time in Alberta, an endurance cyclocross race took place; the Kettle Cross Enduro. The course was a 37 km loop in Blackfoot Provincial Recreation Area. While most racers would do the Full Kettle, a two lap, 74 km race, I decided to do the Half Kettle. I did a lap of the course with four ERTC teammates about a month prior to the race and 37 km of bumps seemed like it would be enough for me. There was also a 15 km Tea Cup option.

The race began with all of the about 170 riders starting together with a one kilometre neutral start. I seeded myself towards the back of the starting pack and a few riders moved past me during the neutral start. I had made a tactical error before the race by taking my bathroom break too early before the start. When it came time to stage for the start, it was too late to go again. At about 10.5 km into the race, I was relieved to see, and use, an outhouse.

I knew the race was going to be, for me, about two hours of tough riding. I could tell I wasn’t into the race mentally right from the start as I was content to either sit behind slower riders or not try and push a little to stay with some slightly faster riders. I should have used the beginning to get a little ahead of pace instead of trying to save something for the end.

From my pre-ride, I knew that the bumpiness of the course would take its toll on my body. My triceps and shoulders became sore towards the end of the race but it was my back that was a major problem. Even though the entire course has a variation in elevation of just 45 m, my GPS recorded 200 m of climbing. I wouldn’t say there were any flat sections. I was always climbing or descending. With no flat sections and the constant bumps, I just couldn’t relax my back and was quite sore from about 10 km on. This meant I was constantly trying to stretch and relax on all the downhills so I didn’t carry speed into the next little climb and I also couldn’t attack the climbs too well.

I didn’t have any issues with the course itself. At my slow speed, I wasn’t surprised by any of the few tight corners and I bunny-hopped two of the bigger ruts across the course. I did have one rider crash nearly right in front of me when her front wheel slipped out.

According to my GPS, I covered 36.4 km in 2:01:51 though my official time was 2:09:07. I spent a few minutes in the outhouse and I had four or five minutes at the side of the course lending out my tire levels to someone else who had a flat. I noticed quite a few mechanicals, including a few who had some long walks to either the start or somewhere that they could get a ride to the start. I averaged just 17.9 km/h and had an average heartrate of 167 bpm with a maximum of 181 bpm. I expected my heartrate to be lower as I really felt I could have pushed harder over the last half of the race if my back wasn’t bothering me so much. I also was on my own and, when you don’t have people around to race, it’s easy to lose mental focus and start to coast.