Too much of a good thing!

I was looking forward to getting to some doing snowy mtb rides in. So much for that. Leaving work at 1pm on Thursday, the freezing rain was just starting. Eventually it turned to snow but the damage was done. I attempted to head out on the cross bike but that ice rink below the 1" of fresh powder made just getting out of my driveway scary unpredictable. Saturday I figured everybody would be hitting the trails so I ventured out. Roads were a slushy mess from all the salt so I jumped on the Mill Creek paved trail, or attempted to. Axle deep snow...on average. some spots 6" then a 2ft drift. Took about an hour to go 2 miles. Made it over to the trails to find not a single bike track, or foot prints, or car tracks. Way to deep to ride. No way was I headed back the way I came so I took the road back home.

Off-Season - Almost

There is 4 weeks between Boss Cross #4 December 5th and my next race (maybe Cross Out the Old Year December 31st or Epic Cross on January 3rd. That's a long way to keep the engine all fired up. Last week was crazy-ass cold so I only rode twice all week and both times were inside on the trainer for an hour. I'm sort of at the bottom with no where to go but up. My motivation to ride outside when it's single-digits is ZERO, and very-little when it's anything below 20. Since it's dark when I leave for work and dark when I get home, I can only do night rides Monday through Friday. I don't have one of those part-time jobs that allows me to ride in the middle of the day on a week day. This past weekend was the first weekend I could actually just ride(without racing) since September 12th/13th so I took advantage of that. Did 3+ hrs on Saturday. Hadn't did a ride that long since this past Summer, and it felt like it. Got out Sunday and did 2hrs and that felt like 4. I just kept telling myself "this is the bottom, looking up". This week just trying to nail down some good "structured" riding. Hopefully after this coming weekend, i'll have all the junk blown out.

Boss Cross #4 - Cold temps and heavy legs

After taking a full week off the bike after the Nebraska Lincoln races, and celebrating Thanksgiving with family in SoCal wearing flip-flops, I wasn't expecting much from the legs. Thanksgiving weekend was my first weekend of no racing since 'cross season began on September 19th. Only managed to get a couple hours of outdoor riding during the week before Saturdays race. 20 degrees feels worse after you've spent a week in the 70's. Got the jump in the Masters 35+ race with Doug Plummer right behind me and Josh Taylor close as well. I could already tell this was going to be a rough one. Doug got by me pretty quick and I just tried to stay with him until the first good climb. I got by him but he stayed close for a while before slowing dropping back. I had to ease up a bit and only went hard enough to keep from getting caught. Steve Songer, who won the 45+ race going away, started 20seconds behind our group and caught me on the 3rd lap or so, going by me like I was sitting still, and finished at least 1 minute in front of me. I'd say that put's me about 2 mins off from my Pre-Thanksgiving speed. Considering we know have several week before the next race, it will be a challenge to get back up there.

Thanksgiving in California

Nebraska Lincoln Weekend

The 2 races in Lincoln Nebraska mark the end of my 'cross season, basically, for this year. 19 races over 10 weekends. Headed up with 360's Shad Shriener so I raced Open both days. Saturdays race went great. Brian Jenson and Shad Shriener were off early and racing against each other. Got into a great battle for 3rd place with Jesse Peterson and Matt Farnham. I started feeling the pinch with about 5 laps to go so I had to let those 2 go just as Troy Krause caught me. Me and Troy worked together for a couple laps and actually started catching back up to Jesse and Matt on the the last lap. Troy put in one sharp attack on the final hilly grass section before the long fast paved finis. I just about came unglued but held his wheel and was able to get him in the sprint for 5th. Brutal hard way to finish a race, and I was completely wasted. Good pizza and beer in downtown Lincoln finished off the evening. Day 2 was a bit more intersting. Jenson and Shriener once again off the front early and nobody really was interesting in trying to hang with them. The battle for 3rd was hot with me and 3 others. I was pretty wrecked from the day before so I had to ease up and put it into cruise mode early. Alone in 6th for a few laps before Nate Woodman came up. Managed to get 2 pair of WarAxe socks on Hooligan Hill (hence the above Pic courtesy of Cornbread). Right before Nate caught me, I slid out in a turn and peepled the back tire off the rim. Yes, same problem I've had before running too low pressure. I slid out pretty hard and the second it caught and hooked back up, off it came. Took forever to get it pushed back on. This happened before the run-up on the far side of the cause so I had a long way to go to the pit. I eventually got it back on put had to let most of the air out. Should have just un-did the rear brake and rode it., but.... ended up dropping to 10th in the 5 minutes or so it took me to get my pit-bike. Got going again and got 1 guy back, and could see 2 others up the road. Unfortunately Brian Jenson came up and lapped me, so I couldn't chase then down. Ended up 9th, the last money-paying spot. Few other low-key races this season but this was the bulk of it. Heading back to California this week for a nice Thanksgiving vacation and a full week off the bike.