Winter UP

So we're stuck here in the Northeast and the time for over indulgence and playing Wii golf has come to an end. Wouldn't it be sweet if you could Wii and bike on your trainer? I tried to Halo and spin once. But my hands got too sweaty to control with any finesse and I got annihilated.

But training in the cold doesn't have to suck. Nor does it mean you have to be stuck staring at your kid sister's poster of KB you're too lazy/obsessed with to take down....I mean that inspiring Tri picture you put up.

Here are a couple of my secrets.

Wind proof. Part of what sucks about winter training is wearing a ton of layers and being all uncomfortable. I got a couple different shirts of varying thickness from Zoot with wind panels on the chest and they're really great for keeping my core warm. Plus they're not bulky like jackets can be.

Also on the run when it's cold a peter heater is key. Need I say more?

And clearly on the bike if you're not blocking the wind you're just asking for trouble. I guess you can keep layering up and you'll stay warm/the wind wont suck all the heat off your body. But you can go lighter when you wind block.

When I bike I don't have super heavy duty insulated booties. But I've found that a couple of warmers on the toes do wonders.

Uh, that's all I got. The pool is still warm...ish.

Any suggestions?

Ice Weasels Bar Cam

Here's the first lap and a half of the Ice Weasels Commeth avec comentaire.

Race report is here.

I hope to put together a highlight reel of the rest of the race.

Ice Weasels from Toby on Vimeo.

I know I say this every time....but, keep in mind the quality just isn't so hot. Perhaps it's the iMovie? Reminds me of the early days of Colin's seatcam. Clearly something can change. I mean look at the text...even that is blury and that was sooo not blury when it was typed in iMovie. Sigh...

Update:

Maybe my brain with it's pea-sized knowledge of computer processes will think that I can upload the video in youtube and have it look better...ummm nope. But here it is any way

You tell me.

Ice Weassels Race Report

What a great day for a race! Low thirties, windy and sunny!
Here in MHD we had a lot of rain last week and while I was aware that it snowed in other parts of New England I was still surprised to a see a very snowy course at White Barn Farm.

Did I mention it was cold? I watched the single speeds rip through for a few minutes and decided I had to put more clothes on slash but on my bike gear and warm up.

But what to wear, that to wear. For ski racing I had the formula pretty well figure out; peter heater, long underwear and Uni. And that was usually in 20 degree weather. It wasn't that cold. But usually the cold feels colder when you're biking. Plus it was windy and it wasn't a real high HR course because of all the technical sections. So I was thinking about going with the heavier tights.

But after jumping on a trainer in front of the barn, sweating in the sun and taking stock of what everyone else was wearing (Go peer pressure!) I decided that shorts and leg warmers would be enough for the race. Good call.

Colin heckled me for for having a Clif-Shot taped to my stem Tri style for a 60 minute race in 30 degree weather. (who's laughing now Colin! ha!... [although frozen gel in considerably harder to squeeze out I learned])

I got a Pro tip from Jon Shea to run the field at the start of the race and pass a lot of people. This sounded like a great idea at the time and a great idea when I was standing to the side of the back row at the start. (Plus Colin looked prepared to do the same, peer influence!) But it quickly fizzled into a stupid idea when I realized that there was no way for me to put my bike down in the sugar soft snow and then work into one of the traveling lanes.
...So, I just ran into the traveling lane, put my bike down and had a miserable remount stacking up the field behind me, making friends no doubt. Stupid Triathlete.

Any who it did get me pretty far up the field!

The next lap consisted of trying to pass in the corners and rip past people on the barriers. Pro tip: Bunny-hop the barriers. Wayyyyyyy faster.

When I procrastonated signing up last week I saw that prize money only went 5 deep. [Correction, 8 deep] Sigh. It'll be fun to race though. So, imagine my surprise when I was tailgunning the lead group. I continued to make questionable passes and curse myself for not changing my rear shifter after last race's debacle. I had to hit it again for it to work, and then it'd shift up one gear if I was lucky...so not Pro. I even have an extra shifter. Stupid.

So when I came to the long starting straightaway I barely managed to stay in contact on the first lap, but tagged back in when the group accordioned into the 180 before the descent. Onto the old rail trail and a hard right into the run-up. For being only a five foot run-up it was pretty damn gnarley. It was icy, and you carried a lot of speed coming through the hard 90 right hand turn.

I put a move on a couple people on the remount and the subsequent 180. Dodged a fallen Geekhouse ride and grabbed a wheel into the first of the short barriers. Hopped it and passed two riders there. I caught the tape on the next corner and nearly lost the progress gained on the barrier. Ripped it through the berm and caught up to Kurt Perham on the next barrier (give you a hint...he ran it.) Tailed him into the double barriers and passed him on the remount, boo yah!

Being only the second quick lap of an hour long race I was totally worried that I was giving to much too soon. But didn't feel too anaerobic so kept it going. I did the rest of the second lap wondering whether I was going to get caught and looking over my shoulder.
Then it was time to come back into the barriers and I caught up to Alec Donahue who, you guessed it, was running the barriers.

I followed him for the next couple of laps, but carried enough speed into the barriers that I overtook him without thinking much about the up coming power/straight section.
Actually I thought I could put enough time on him in the barriers and the rest of the technical stuff that he wouldn't be able to catch me down the straights.
And this may have been the case if I didn't wipeout hard after the second barrier. I still got back up in the lead, which kind of gives you an idea of how much time I had gained. But it was a hard fall, and my face was scuffed and my knees and fingertips hurt.

Right as planned I led through the rest of the technical snow stuff and then got dusted by Donahue once it opened up. It wasn't even funny. Four weeks of detraining and a season of long endurance work doesn't make for much of a power producer.
But I manged to bridge back up for the last time on the next set of barriers. I held on for a few laps then overtook Donahue for the last time without being able to put distance between us before the straight.

Then it was game over. I tried to hook back on but couldn't do so quickly enough and resigned to second place.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I did a bit of stupid racing in there. I had no right to pass Donahue the second time and if I was smart I would have just sat behind him until the last lap and then put time on him over the low barriers. Up until that point it would have been him dusting me and me trying to catch back up in the tech section. Alas, twas not to be.

Great course, fun venue and ripper crowd.

Couple pics courtesy of DoubleHop and I'll be hopefully editing up handlebar cam footage soon. There are a couple of good crashes and plenty of bunnyhopping!

Cross Course at Wells House

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.

Wells House Cross Course from Toby on Vimeo.

Post Breaking Crash

On Monday I went up to Bradley-Palmer and Willowdale to follow up on my assumption that they'd have good cross bike riding.

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?

Seat Post Breaking Crash from Toby on Vimeo.

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.