Manions/1st Cross race of season...

Raced Manions on Saturday which was the first cross race of the season for me... You know what? It hurts just like I remember!! I was coughing all day Sunday....

You know.... I forget each year how seriously some folks take this riding around in the grass.... Multiple bikes, multiple wheelsets (each of which are more expensive than my whole rig), got their trainers out, hell even license plates on their cars for crying out loud.... Ain't nothing a beer and some dirt singletrack could not fix, but anyway.....

I was happy Manions was the first race for me because it is hilly and technical... This levels the playing field a little for us MTB dudes.. I got to hand it to you roadies, your bike handling might be a little lax, but your engines are large....

Just as I remember it!

I was doubling up on the day and hit up the Single Speed race at 3:00, then the 3/4's at 4:00... I have never done a back to back CX double so this was uncharted territory...

Started SS about 2 rows back but after the whistle, I passed everyone and hit the hole shot in first... I always can seem to do well at the start, I think its a combination of MTB race starts and everyone else not used to their eggbeaters...

I actually held on to first for about 1/4 a lap until I started loosing ground, Britton came by and then another Colavita dude (Kent, who won the race).. So back to 3rd real quick.... Couple min later 4th.... End of the first lap 5th.... Damn it!!!

I limited the damage after that, another Colavita dude was creeping up on me but I started taking ground later in the race and thought I was going to catch Rodger on his MTB ahead of me... Heading back in I hear the "final lap bell" where I was told 2 laps to go and 1 lap to go by two different people... HUH???? Owe well, just keep trucking, see what happens.... Finished the race in 5th.... Not great, but felt a hell of a lot better than my first race last year...

SS Results

Gettin it! See the massive dust trail in my wake? Yah, me neither....

Next up a quck nutritious drink and the 3/4's... I paid some extra cash to get a call up for this one, well, because I was smart and knew I would be racing some fresh legs on geared bikes...

So the game plan was to haul ass at the start and hold on the best I could... Started 2 rows back again, and again hit the hole shot in front of the pack (sittin 4th) and again stared to loose spots immediately...

6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, etc... Damn it again!!!!

After a couple laps, I got in a nice routine of riding the hills hard and recovering on the flats/downhills and started to pull back a couple spots and settled in and finished the race 9th....

Well, as much as I hate to admit it, Cross is a blast.... So much that I am working on a little project to get me a geared version of one of these skinny tired bikes...

Had to leave early, but looked like Ethos was killing it in the open class.... TDonn, CRex, JPBrocket and one more I have not met yet.....

Results Day One...

Results Day Two...

Cross.....

Well, with RIM cancelled, I had no choice but to face the inevitable... Time to take the slicks off the cross bike and put on the knobbies....

Big thanks to JPS and BikeSourse, these Specialized Tracer Pro's corner like they are on rails....

So I headed out to the Cross course that the Hippy and company put together and its effen SWEET! Easily one of the best laid out courses I have ever been on... Go Check it out!

Which brings me to this weekend, with RIM cancelled, Its off to Manions Cross. For this I am utterly unprepared... After my first lap out on the course I found out some hard facts.

Most important one being: Putting in 4 hours on the road to gear up for an endurance race does absolutely NOTHING to prepare you for cross!!!

Well, session ended, I felt like fat girl playing dodge ball out there!
Lungs hurt? check! Legs hurt? Check!
I did not get anywhere near my fat tire racing out of me. However, cross is here, can't fight it anymore...

RIM Cancelled

I am so bummed.....

I don't want to start Cross yet... I have yet to get the fat tire racing out of me!!!!!!!

R.I.M.

The road to RIM goes UPHILL!!!

Its a coming up in a couple of weekends... 12 hours of fun, well, painfully fun that is! I really enjoy Crowder State Park, closest thing to Krug around.. The race is one of the best organized around, don't miss it....

Have a couple of good climbs each lap so I thought I would go do some hill climbing on Sunday... Which reinforced how much thinking (or lack thereof) can go into training..

Soooo, this climb is not that hard, just long enough to get you thinking..............

"Crap, this is much harder than when I was riding it  back in Feb/March for my 'spring training'. How can that be, I am in better shape? Well am I? Maybe its the extra 10lbs I am carrying? Well, that's not all fat, so maybe its not? Maybe I am just not used to climbing anymore? On the other hand I am running a bigger gear on my SS cross bike, so maybe I am going faster, but it just feels harder? Yah maybe, but my MPH does not look that impressive? Wish there was someone else riding with me so I can gauge a little whether I am getting faster or not.... Man, I am training well, why would I not be getting faster? Maybe I am over-training and need to ease up a little? They say train smarter not harder... Man this hills kinda sucks, but so do intervals. CX season is here and I have only done one interval session so far... Man should I be doing more for cross? Well, nevermind that, RIM is two weeks away, worry about that later...Wonder if I could make it to Berryman? Well, if not, I could just switch back to cross after RIM? Hell, cross, I need to get this back wheel tuned up by someone who knows what their doing, feels like I am riding with my breaks on.... (Then start back at the top and re read until you hit the top of the hill)


So there you have it, insight into the mind of a dude who loves to race bikes.... Kinda a nut job I know...
Now all I need is a heart rate monitor and a power meter, and you can find me in an insane asylum in front of a computer analyzing data to gain and extra 25 watts!!!

Tall Oaks Challenge n other babble

Last Sunday Hoppe and I headed down to Jeff City to do the Tall Oaks Challenge 6 hour race, Duo Stylee....
Left Joetown early, way before sun up, drives like this kind of suck, but if you want some dirt lovin racing action, its what you have to do...

Now before I get into the racing part, let me introduce you to the "JDoug's categories of racers".... I am kind of a mental case so bare with me...

First you have the ridiculously fast... 

• Guys that either have their pro card or could get it if they wanted. 
• Best seen lapping you making XC racing seem effortless. 
• While laping you, you can't even hold their wheel for longer than 15 seconds.
• Their race reports actually tell of stories of racing against each other trying to take overall positions in Cat 1. (see wanna-be-fast for opposite)
• Usually lean as crap and know sheet about bikes, nutrition, etc...

Then you have stupid fast....

• These folks were either once ridiculously fast and don't train anymore, or upcoming wanna-be-fast dudes that started eating right, training right or quit drinking so much beer. (not necessarily in that order or actually may still be drinking beer)
• They can actually hold the wheel of the ridiculously fast folks for a half of a lap or so. (impressive!)
• After racing they will be seen actually taking in nutrition, BEFORE post race IPA's (also impressive!)
• Some of these folks would be ridiculously fast, but they are kicking every ones asses in the open field/Cat 1 on their singlespeeds.
• Usually lean and also know sheet about bikes, nutrtion, etc...

Which brings us to wanna-be-really fast...

• Folks (myself included) that aspire to be stupid fast and even ridiculously fast, but aren't for one reason or another.
• Can be found riding alone in XC races in no-mans land; Which is faster than the "just fast dudes", but slower than the "stupid fast dudes" and waaaay slower than the "ridiculously fast dudes". 
• Race reports are boring since after the start, they have been riding alone the rest of the race.
• After racing they will be taking in post race IPA's BEFORE post race nutrition.
• Know enough about bikes to be dangerous and enough about nutrition to give themselves diarrhea (or the "endurance race Cha, cha, chas" as I like to refer to them) during endurance races because they ingested to much liquid cab mix...(*See RIM race report 2010)

For time reasons I am going to skip the just fast dudes which are mainly comprised of Cat 2 racers that have bumped up to Cat 1 (or need to) or Cat 1 guys that don't train for crap but are just naturally gifted with superior genetics.

There is one last Category I want to touch a bit on is the Free Spirited XC Racer (FSR)... 

• My favorite type of racer, I wish sometimes I could be more like this dude. 
• Does not appear to be burdened with the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) as the rest of us.
• Can almost universally be found on a steel framed singlespeed and 25% of the time will have a mustache of some sort.
• Knows a ton about bikes and can weld a bike together with some spare parts from a junk yard and some pvc pipe. 
• IPA's ARE NUTRITION!
• *Disclaimer, FSR's are NEVER slow! Don't let his laid back persona fool you, he will whoop your ass if you let him, and on a bike that at first glance you would not buy at a garage sale. (until you look past the spray painted Kona frame to see Cris King Hubs and Ceramic Bottom Bracket).

So on to the race:
Ethos Racing was out in full affect with duo squads of:  TDonn and G (ridiculously fast), JPB and Jesse (Stupid fast), Myself and Hoppe (wana-be-really fast), Jamie & Sara (wana-be-really fast & girl stupid fast)
Then solo folks of: Burnsy (my favorite FSR!), Cole (Stupid Fast), KarenB (Stupid Fast) and Kay (borderline, stupid fast/ridiculously fast)

This is the first time I have been on this trail system and it was worth the drive. This turned out to be one hell of a fun race. Minus the fact that there were an ass ton of stupid fast and ridiculously fast guys there... Dude, it was crazy!

I took off first as I "thought" I was faster than my partner Hoppe. Once into the trail system, it was pretty narrow had tons of turns, which made it difficult to pass slower riders. Especially when they are not tired.
Got stuck behind a train of 4-5 for the last half of the lap and tried the best I could to pass as many as I could during the open sections to hand off the lap to Hoppe.. Hoppe went down a couple of times in the loose stuff but did pretty damn well...

Since I went on a tangent with my categories of racers, I will keep the race report short for the 3 readers I have left. All in all we had a great time at this race and pulled in 9th out of 31 teams. Not bad, not great... We both kept our lap times pretty consistent about the 38 min area, until later in the race when we dropped a min here and there.

I did learn a little trick from my Ethos brother Jesse....
Take in protein between laps and you won't cramp! Thanks man! Years of pain and cramps on virtually every endurance race I do, an NOW I finally find this out...Better late than never I guess... and it worked!

RESULTS HERE

After Swope a couple of weeks before doing the 6 hour solo, this duo action as fun!!! The event was ran very well and it was a great time! Ethos Crew was fast and awesome as always!

Next up RIM and hopefully Berryman! Then on to Cross Season.... I need to drop some weight, I got lazy on my calorie intake!!