So for the past couple years I've been building a little cross loop at my parents' house in VT.
I'm using a base of roads and trails that were built a ages ago (like the driveway, and the main road). Then I'm building in some new single track and trying to work a path through the fields. The hard part about the fields is that they're mowing fields. So the grass isn't super smooth and buttery like a lawn. It's actually really bumpy and slow.
Perhaps if I work out the best line and design for a route, I can till and mow the route with a lawnmower next year to smooth it out.
This is the first round of video from the loop. I started pretty recovered so am going a little too fast to get decent quality.
Since i shot this I've added a nice single track section out on the far side of the run/walk up. And that adds in a lot more dirt road. I've also got a second set of barriers to put out. With any luck I'll get some new video tomorrow and post some comments about the loop as I'm going around it.
B-P is mostly carriage trails. Nevertheless it's still great fast riding. Willowdale has it's fair share of jeep/carriage trails but people have worked in a network of singletrack. The majority of which is root and rock free for a clean ride.
So I was rolling along, crushing it. Then I blew into this opening with a skinny sitting to the left. Sure, I can hit that...for about half of it. Then I go dropping to the right and manage to hit the back of my seat and somehow crack my seatpost. Which, is pretty surprising, because i wasn't really going that fast and the fall wasn't really that hard. But you can watch it for yourself.
Again this video is in diminished quality. Is my camera just that bad, or am I uploading it wrong? Any hints?
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
