First Cross Race Bar-Cam Video

Okay...So, I don't know why the quality is so crappy. I doesn't look this bad in imovie when I'm working on it nor when I watch this video in quicktime. But when I upload my stuff the quality goes from not so great to extra crappy.

Plus this was the first time running the bar-cam, it was twisting around a lot and was really shaky. So the video is really hard to watch. But. If you can stomach it I pass a lot of people and would have moved up farther after the first lap if I didn't stop to mess with my shifter that wasn't (still isn't) working correctly. It works most of the time. Then the ratchets won't catch to shift up and I have to hit the hood and that seems to get 'er going again.

So give it a shot. The first minute or so is fun in all the traffic. After that I don't blame you if you have to turn it off because you feel sick or can't see what's going on...or get annoyed because the camera keeps pointing to the right. (I'm working out the kinks)


Enjoy

Boston Road Club Cross at Shedd Park in Lowell from Toby on Vimeo.

In terms of a race report:

It was great to get back out on a cross course after a long season of Tri training and racing. What a different sport cross is! Fast and hard and intense!

I didn't rush to get a good position at the start so I could a) get good footage b) not stress about getting on the line first and take my time and c) take the pressure off of trying to go balls out for the whole race.

The latter so did not happen and after an exciting huge start and a stacked up first hairpin that spread things out I kept trying to pass people and track down the lead group. It was a mess through the spiral of death and I couldn't be bothered to try and pass anyone on the bitch of a run-up. But I was more than happy to make sketchy passes before and into turns once things flattened out and the descending started.

Towards the end of the first lap I was sitting in the the chase or second "pack" and hoping things would only get better. I suffered through the run-up again, remounted and I tried to shift but found that my STI didn't want to engage despite a liberal amount of encouragement (physical and verbal). So I rode for a short while in single speed mode then said screw it and pulled over to mess with the shifter, cable and rear derailleur. But without any luck. Turns out with a little banging the ratchets catch again and things work okay. Time for a new shifter yah?

So after my little pit stop I was even farther down in the pack, but that just gave me more people to pass. And riding aggressively and passing is definitely awesome fun.

From that point on I don't remember too many more note worthy moments.
I didn't recognize any of my opponents. (Although I did think that I was passing Tommy T at one point, but it was him) I bridged up to and through a couple of packs and was working on a final move when I ran out of course. I cranked it towards the finish and out sprinted a kid I'm pretty sure I was lapping, but didn't have the foresight to push it hard before the last turn in order to be withing striking distance of the other two-man sprint within my field of view.

Neither Crossresults.com nor Bikereg.com seem to have complete results for our race so if anyone in the blogosphere knows where they might be I'd love to see how I did. Thanks.

Squirrel

I hit a squirrel.

Nothing like coming back from a blog hiatus with such breaking and important news.

I was in the middle of a threshold set starting down a small hill. When a little gray blur popped out of the brush and; Bam, bam. Both wheels. Which makes me think if he wasn't able to move out of the way of the second wheel then he's not likely making it anywhere else soon.

I've wondered for a long time what it would be like to hit a squirrel/chipmunk (they're pretty much the same for all intense and purposes right?) while ridding. And now I know. Just a couple of quick blips under the wheels. No guts, no losing control and ending up in the ditch. It was pretty fricken awesome I must say. If I wasn't in the middle of a set I would have def turned around to survey the carnage.

Poor guy.

What A Great Day

The weather was brutal on Saturday for my threshold run in the wild and the rain and for the first day of cross racing in Gloucester. The all day ran made for an insanely muddy course. I heard reports from years past that Gloucester can be a grass crit...but I've never raced it so what do I know: That I was bummed to not be duking it out in the mud-fest.

It cleared up on Sunday and the course dried out a lot. I've got some footage of starts and some lap footage I'll try and put up now.

I caught the start of the Elite Woman's and then had to take off for my own training ride...on the roads...sigh. But before I left the house I tracked down a portable radio I got for Christmas a couple of years ago. I swapped out the battery and low and behold the thing works. You konw what that means right?
Sunday afternoon ride in the fall with a radio? That's ride. It was a Pats ride!

Granted the reception kept fading in and out until I started to closer towards Boston, and it was hard to really focus on the game a lot of the time. But I got the jist and could pay attention during my cool down, which coincided with the exciting last couple of minutes of play.

Plus Evelyn was in her first race and did really well. And the day was capped off with a killer roast with veggies.

Boog's First Race from Toby on Vimeo.

Pretty awesome day.

Wednesday Night Cross

Well, this is a week late, but last Wednesday we headed over to Bradley Palmer for ECV's weekly cross practice.

It was great to pull up and see a strong showing and a wide range of abilities.
The practice loop is a bit small, only a few minutes at best. They manage to put in a couple of technical turns, an off camber section and one forced dismount (barriers).

In typical cross fashion there was a good friendly vibe emanating from the workout.
I think that the general structure to the evening goes like this:

Any time before 5:30, ride laps and get aerobic work or a warm-up done.
Meet up at 5:30 and work on some technical aspect of cross. We worked on a couple of techniques for dismounting and going over barriers. I picked up that last week they worked on starting techniques.
Take a little unorganized break.
Partner up and do some Madisons on a re-routed part of the course. We did 5 Madisons.
Take another unorganized break.
Practice some starts.
Head back to the car in the dusk and try fruitlessly to avoid the EEE mosquitoes.

Explicitly focusing on and discussing skills and drills was a pretty good way to spend a practice and to hone some talent. But it made for a far less aerobic workout than the 'one on, one off' style of the West Hill Wednesday night practice. And arguably when you go 'round and 'round, lap after lap your gonna get sharper at dismounts and sprinting out of corners and elbowing etc without going slow and breaking it down. A mixture of the two perhaps?

On another note thank you to the two people that gave up tubes for me. I showed up completely unprepared and owe a couple of six packs to Tim and the nice lady I madisoned with. Maybe I'll see them at Gloucester.

Autumn

It's defiantly not summer any more.

Well, clearly.

It's not like I need to announce that in the middle of September.

Labor day has come and gone. Schools are filled back up. Trees are already changing and shedding. And it's getting cold....

It always comes as a surprise to me once September hits. But alas. It's time to dig out the armwarmers and the leg warmers and the long fingered gloves, sigh, and the toe booties and the vests... and I shudder at the thought of having to do a swim bike brick. (10 min T1 with a wardrobe change? I think so.)

But it's the way it goes yah? And it's all in the name of Clearwater baby.

More Music

Gets ya going,




And this is good too

Timberman Race Report

Okay. So in retrospect Sunday turned out to be a pretty good day. Overall my goal was achieved; a spot to Clearwater. I had a good bike an as expected swim and I learned a lot on the run.

The water was warm during the swim and in between dodging passed swimmers and tapping toes (Sorry Mr. Schweihs) I started to get toasty. Wet suit stripping is fun but it is always nuts. A quick, but not too quick, transition put me on my bike and a straw sip away from some refreshment.

For such a challenging bike course I had a pretty enjoyable ride. I was worried that the turns at the bottom of every downhill were going to zap away potential speed but managing to stay aero and fast made for fun bike riding. Although I shutter to think what would be if I was another inch closer to the cones on the last turn onto route 11. Also I made it up to 52 mph on hill down on 107...I thought that was pretty good. Yah?

Starting in the 10th wave makes for an interesting disposition on the bike. You're passing tons and tons of people and feel pretty studly. But it makes it that much more difficult to settle into your plan and hold a straight line. If nothing else it abolishes any monotony. But you have absolutely no idea of where anyone in your wave is, and you get held up on the technical sections. But climbing the 'monstah' with all those people and rolling down 106 with a huge line of bikers in front your is pretty cool.

I tried to cool off with and drink a bottle of water at each aid station but realized a little too late that I needed to reload with more liquids. With twenty five minutes to go I choked down my last salt pill with my last squelch of Gatorade. At the top of the final hill I almost asked a guy with two full bottles for a sup of his water. Maybe I should've.

After another quick, but not too quick, T-2 my plan was to keep it reserved for the first couple of miles and maintain consistent splits for the rest. I managed to achieve the former but quickly realized that my legs were in no shape to attain the latter and my times consistently slipped over the last 10 miles. And, by the way, did anyone else have an insanely long mile 6 to 7 split? I can't tell if I just was really slow through the turn around chutes and over the grass or if it was marked wrong.

Despite pulling out my D Game on the run I managed to offer up a 1:30 half. Fortunately the heat repressed everyone and I still can't believe I didn't get passed. I kept waiting for it, especially towards the end.

You ever watch The Biggest Loser when they have the option to eat a whole plate of their favorite food that's sitting in front of them if they just give up? Me either. But those cold cups of Gatorade (not so much the warm ones, each aid station was a crap shoot, dagg) were like a little temptress offering up her goods. "You can go forth unto this heat and land of suffer or stop here under this tree. Take a seat and soak up this cold sweet nectar laid here before you as a gift from Kuahana, watch your compatriots suffer and give unto the relaxation my darling." Must...not...stop...

Dude, I just could not turn my legs over faster. I was all, "Okay I crested that hill, lets get smooth and turn it over on this slight downhill here. That sounds good. Okay...you're doing it, picking it up, high tempo, nice....feeling good...keep it up...uh oh...waiiiiit a sec...that lady's catching back up to me. Crap. Go faster, by any means!!!"

Didn't cramp though! (Thank you salt) Even though I was sure my quad twinges on the bike were going to take me into the hurt box. Lucky...

So any way. I want to give a couple of props to the Works crew for cheering me on and for the post race bevvies. It was great to have a strong showing.
And a big Thank You to the Fam, Sarah and Boog for supporting me through the weekend. Now it's on to the future! Tally Ho!