Friday, November 18, 2011

WINTER time is on us








Well not a great documented cyclocross season so lets see if I can do it in a short paragraph.

As I upgraded to Master B category I found myself move from the back of the pack to the middle to the front with a great finish of 7th at the Orchard race I won last year.....success!

I also found that tubeless cyclocross do not love me and I have switched back to my regular clincher setup for the final race this weekend.  It did snow at the house today so ski season is upon us.

The best part is that Cyclocross is fun, the fitness was there and time with friends rocked!

One more race and then off to skiing and planning next adventure.......maybe a 24 hour race or creampuff revisited...????????? hmmmmmm?

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

Great race....

The start of the Season has really started when you get a Cross Crusade race under your belt. over 1000 racers there and a full weekend of fun. From getting Ron to race his frost cross race ever to "Not" getting Glenned. In the end it was about taking a risk. the risk to upgrade to the B category. I have had a ton of people ask me why I moved up as I was not forced and not winning the C races ( well, I won one of them) and the answer was to take a risk. I am really racing myself and my weakness for short races. In years to come nobody will care how I placed...( or a day after the race in truth) so I am making the challenge harder and pushing myself. I ended up Middle of the pack ( MOP ) for most of the race, stopped to check a flat that was not a flat that lost me about 15 places. The last lap I faded for sure. I need to work on a strong start and a strong finish not a taper...

end result for Alpenrose: 97th out of 135....need to move up about 20 spots!!



Photo from bikeportland.org

can you find me?

Thursday, September 22, 2011

time stop celebrating and start working

ok a few races under the belt.....fitness and weight at the right place.......time to start WORKING!

By adding the Tuesday night CX clinic that has assisted in mid week workouts. I have reduce the Kyle workouts to one day a week as well. Life at work has changed recently to 12 hour days so sleep has been fitfull. I must admit the active lifestyle and cyclocross really helps in the work/life balance.

Monday, September 19, 2011

season opener

In short here is how the first three races went for the Cyclocross season

Thrilla on Thursday: wide corner first lap....into the soft dirt, breathed in lots of dust

Saturday at Hood double cross: bent chainring...DNF after crash

Sunday: kicked it into gear and almost mid pack after upgraded to harder group...NICE!!!!

IMGP8370

Thursday, September 15, 2011

CYCLOCROSS 2011

I start the cyclocross season tonight. I am moving up to the Masters B Category. looking for MOP results this season ( middle of the pack) . The start of the season has been solid. Coming off of the Creampuff and results of training and finishing the 100 mile race and then converting this into a 45 minute sprint....arggg. However I have had some great training sessions and time on the cx bike so looking forward.....will post pics and results as they happen. Tonight is the thrilla and then this weekend in doublecross!

Wednesday, August 03, 2011

NEXT!


now that the PUFF is over and I am enjoying the summer whats next? Well pre-season cyclocross starts next month with our local series put on by my team at Webcyclery.com. So only three weeks to cyclocross can you believe it? I am enjoying the summer mixing it up with some crossfit workouts and enjoying my new ( new to me) mountain bike by NINER. here are a few pics of the summer and upcoming is a ride around the rim at Crater lake and August session of Mountain bike Oregon.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Cascade Creampuff 100

Arrived Friday night inking we needed to grab primo camping but ended up not being an issue this year. camped with Utek as support team and Chuck and Marsha. Saturday was a rest day before the race so Utrek and Marsha got a ride day and Kratsch and Brice and Jill came down to join them. They ended up riding a huge ride with a guy that joined them in the paring lot. The fact that they realized he had a county jail monitor ankle bracelet on was another story.

Race Day:

got up at 4 am and sunscreened up in the dark. Riding the new ( new to me) Jet from NINER. all is set and lined up for the 5 am start. This year went light weight and only brought a single water bottle and a few gummy bears as the aid stations really rock. Neutral start to the road and I stayed up front as last year i was in the back. when we started up the first big climb I grab a wheel of a faster group and hammered the first lap. A Chuck watched me take off he wondered what the hell iwas doing ( and so was I) but it ended up working out or me and really gained me some time early on. downhill on the first lap was fast and furious and I did not even realize I was in front of Chuck until I completed first 33 mile loop ( 6100 feet of climbing).

I was able to middle ring the whole first lap but second lap up needed the granny here and there. feeling great but after about mile 50 the gas tank was just not filligback up even though I was eating. got to the bottom of the third lap and thought I was done. I was doing the mat to see if I could finish as was not sure about the cut off times. I was ready o ask Utrek about the race times and when I got there he said I was MOP ( middle of pack) . We took off and Igot up for the third lap up to Windy pass ad was ll little ring all of the time. Utrek rode with me and talked me up.....I was WIPED! pedal stroke was fast but energy was low. Utrek peeled off at windy pass and I headed up the rest still really tired.

As I started down for the final Alpine I thought the cut off back to Windy was 5:30 so I was going as fast as I could with limited energy. I got to final aid 2 at 5:15 just making the cutoff........( come to find later the cutoff was 6:30 not 5:30 so I was way ahead of schedule)

Best aid station ever...Aid 2....I asked if they had something salty and pretzels sounds bad. he asked me " how about some bacon?" best bacon i ever had and only time an aid station has ever offered me bacon...it was supreme. then said that coffee would go nice with that and he got that for me as well. I mean we are in the middle of nowhere and this guy is making miracles happen with bacon and coffee for me.

final stretch down I knew I had made the cut off and would finish so took it a little easier and even walked up a few little hills. Here comes Chuck passing me and looking fresh. he had burned his candles more evenly over the day... He finisihed like 18 minutes ahead of me.

finish time just under 13 hours.......after a DNF last year felt like a real accomplishment. Support from Marsha and especially from Utrek made the race. great training rides before with Steph and Kevin and Kratsch.....finisher hat in the trophy case.


Now wfats next?????  HMMMMMM? 



first pic is me half a through race a little tired, second is the course with elevation profile, we did three laps

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Cascade creampuff 100 in the bag

details coming but in short............." i did it"......finish time after 100 miles and 18,300 feet of climbing? well how about 12:50:13.00

Saturday, July 02, 2011

training......NOT!

Went out and rode a 12 person bike for 2 hours for Utreks birthday.....should be considered 2 hours of pedal time which is good for training....unless you also drink beer and have cheese and crackers so not really good for training. But very fun.