Monday, October 11, 2010

Flat... and I Don't mean Tires

For whatever reason yesterday's Cross Out Cancer 'cross race did not go well; either race, but we'll get to that soon enough.

Friday I had hoped to get in a solid 1:30 - 2hr ride on the road and with a handful of real-life things in the way it didn't happen, which made for 2 days off the bike. This is pretty rare for me during this time of the year (season), but I had more important things to do and prioritized correctly. Ball practice with my 4th grade team went really well and I'm looking forward to the upcoming season at The Courts. Spend most of the evening setting up a new home entertainment/blue-ray system (camper money) for the living room. That went smoothly and I'm looking forward to finishing it off with the TV (which was in transit).
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Deb's granite counter tops were installed and it did not disappoint; I knew it would be a nice change/upgrade, but had no idea this good. Waiting on a cabinet/wood guy to finish out a couple pieces before the electrician comes in to install the under-cabinet lights and rigs the hookups for the new stove, then the last thing is the tile guy putting in the back splash. Deb did some deal'n the other day and swapped our old 52" TV for some cash and the cost of the tile - quite the bargain (for both parties). Looks like total project done by mid-next week (fingers crossed). No pictures of the dining room, kitchen, or new entertainment cabinet until everything is 100% finished.

Saturday (one of the rare one's I am at home from Sept - Dec) was all about catching up on yard/shrub/garden and any other outdoors maintenance. That ate up most of the morning while Deb was volunteering at a Convoy for Hope event. Early afternoon until Deb and I jumped out for a tandem ride with Dale joining. We got in 1:30hrs at a super easy pace.

Saturday evening Deb, Ian, and I headed off to SGF for some Chipotle and then some basketball shoe shopping for E while Jake and friends were taking on the universe with the new Halo Reach. It amazes me the price of youth shoes these days and I absolutely refuse to have a 9yr old were $90 shoes when his foot is growing. We shopped many places before finding the exact Adidas ball shoes I play in in his size (and at a reasonable price); Ian thinks it's pretty cool we play in the same kicks.
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It was great spending the day at home with the family, but I was ready to hit the road north to get my 'race on'. A little bummed not to have anyone driving up with me as the Bolivar boys were all busy and I hate dragging Deb and Ian up for the day as they have stuff they want to do at home; so National Public Radio and I would spent some quality time together.
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Sunday early departure since my first race was at 11am. Early in the season I like to 'double up' racing for 1 day events like I did at Manion's. I 'race' the first one, usually Masters 35+ or 40+, then do what I can for the 2/3 race usually an hour after the finish of the first one. It makes for a tough day, but going into it I know I will suffer in the back of the 2/3's and focus on bike driving and gaining fitness. I'll quit the doubles in November and focus on single events.
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Got to the course and pre-rode it a couple times; holy cow that was rough (even with lower pressure). Decently flat loop with tons of fun different style turns and twists, three barrier sections (1 double 'above-regular' height, one triple 'low' section, and the last a double 'regular' height), and did I mention rough. In warm up I rode the 'low' barriers sections, but decided I would run them in the race as my speed was dropped drastically by the last one as there was a turn going into them that scrubbed off quite a bit of speed. On the backside of the course you had to be attentive as the turns were made around trees with loose wood chips underneath and low (I mean low) branches. Decided to go with full Griffo XS on the front and rear (which worked out fine) for race 1.
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Whistle goes off and I get a crappy start and am mid-pack into the first turn. On the first and second laps I work my way through the pack and settle into the pace in 3rd with C Ellis, and a 360 guy in tow with two 360 guys up the course a little bit. I am starting to worry a bit as my legs have absolutely no zip/snap and I am having to work way too hard out of each turn and on the straights - ugh!!!! Half way through Ellis drops me and I am battling with the 360 guy and holding on for dear life (this is going badly quick).
***All pics from Roger Harrison***

The funnest part of the race was a little over half way in I was battling with the 360 rider (J. Roundtree, I think) and we ran into some lapped traffic at the tall barrier section with him just ahead of me. He took a line to the left while I jumped to the right and a small gap opened between the two 'lapped' riders and I was able to squeeze between mid-run and take a pretty decent advantage coming out of that section (sadly, he overtook me later that lap and I couldn't pull him back), but for that short moment it was full-on 'strategery' fun.
The rest of the race I held my 6th place spot and tried to get out of the funk of dead legs. I ended up holding on to 6th in a pretty decent field, but was frustrated with the lack of snap; oh well, you do what you can.

Back to the car for some recovery products (lots of liquids), a little rest, switch of costumes, er, kits, and before I knew it it was time to spin up the legs and see what I had left for the 2/3 race. Solid field (as the 2/3's will always be) and I opted not to take my front row (pre-registered) spot and hung out in the back as I knew I was in for 50 minutes of training and not racing and that's exactly what I did. It was hotter than the Master's race (which was not good for me) so I pushed it for the first 25 minutes or so then backed it way off for the last half and simply worked on driving my bike and finishing the whole 50 minutes. Mike G's wife Kat was awesome in handing up water to me and providing moral support as it was hot out there. This was probably the slowest/worst 'cross race I have had in years and every time I thought I should pull off and quite I kept thinking of Jake's season and how he never quit no matter how bad it was going so I plugged away until the finish. Somehow I got 13th out of 22 starters; mechanicals must have plagued the others as there is no way anyone could have rode slower than I did. No big deal as that's racing (especially on another 'double up' day) and sometimes you're feeling it and some days not (this was definitely a NOT).
Speaking of feeling it - J Yielding tore it up (again) winning the 2/3 and getting the auto punch into the Cat 1 license. He is really focused this year and it is paying off big. He and I had the typical KC .vs. STL races discussion and I have to agree with him that STL is fielding a much stronger 'A' field (have to reference it that way since our Missouri rep still won't field a 'Category Style' race), but it's not so much STL riders as it is Mid-MO (Columbia/Herman) crew driving east instead of west that bumps up those events. No matter if you are an east or west coaster (or in the middle) MO 'cross is still building momentum/growing and it is awesome. Props also to Josh Taylor for knocking out a second place in the 2/3's and to Dan Miller for an impressive ride in the Open; both strong performances.

Got back home Sunday late afternoon and played some football in the backyard with Deb and Ian, caught some Amazing Race, and generally vegg'ed out with the family.

Monday was a 100% rest day as I was fried from Sunday's double. Mid-afternoon our TV arrived so out of work I went and played, er, configured the new system. Absolutely stunned with the new 1080p picture, the wireless internet options (netflix, pandora, slacker...), and the Sony Sync of the Blue-Ray/home theater - makes missing the camper a little less noticeable. Baseball playoffs and Monday night football pictures in HD 1080p is incredible and a netflix documentary on Yosemite was pretty cool. I like the National Geographic documentaries (usually 1hr in length) on netflix and last night Jake and I took in one on North Korea and then another on 'Inside the Secret Service'.
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Nice cool 40 minute run this morning with hill run ups replacing the stadium climbs. There was a weird fog in the darkness (6am) that made for a very 'fallish' type of morning. Doing a little bike driving at lunch.

Heading to Tulsa's Guts & Ruts this Friday with Peter Krause (Boss Cross Cat 3 General Lee jersey holder) to see if we can snag a little cash (certain Tulsa races for some reason pay big and deep and usually is worth the 3hr drive). Saturday is a race in Topeka, but I am going to skip it, catch Ian's soccer games, spend another day at the casa with the crew, then hit Blvd Cup in KC on Sunday.

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