Sucker Brook wrapup (and other junk)

the 2008 edition of the Sucker Brook cyclocross race came & went this weekend.  All in all one of the best years to date.  Attendance was just over 300 with big masters and B fields.  I'd be lying if I would say i wasn't dissapointed by the size of the elite fields.  with the amount of price money we were offering (quite a bit for a small race), i was a little bummed.  Oh well.  Mark McCormack & Kevin Wolfson put on an exciting final couple of laps with Kevin winning in the sprint.

most of my day was by the side of the one & only mr. dick ring.  what a cool cat this guy is.  with him coming "out of retirement" to announce this race, he asked for my assistance in keeping track of the "new guys" :)  i was happy to oblige.

during course takedown, seeing the course really cut into the grass is when it hit me how much i missed racing.  I knew with a new job & getting married that there would be less time to train this year.  it kept getting pushed back and pushed back.   before i knew it, it was mid-summer and i was barely putting in any saddle time.  training was starting to become more of a chore than a pleasure, and thats when i decided to pull the plug.

forcing myself to train, when im mentally & physically not in it....only to finish back of the pack just didnt seem to make sense.  i was ok with my decision at first.  the last week it has really been nagging me.  or better yet, .
depressing me.

i've been running.  or more accurately, jogging.  i'm slow.  i can't go very far.  and i'm pretty sure i look retarded.  but yeah, thats what i am doing right now.  my intention is to attempt a few 5K's sometime this fall.  who knows, if i keep it up all winter, i may shoot for something a little more challenging when the snow melts.

thats all.

currently listening to:  Sebadoh III

Race Report: UNH Cross #2 (10/03/07)

My lungs seemed to heal up much faster than expected. Given how i was feeling while laying on the ground after only 3 laps on Sunday, I kinda figured I was gonna loose a week of training. But Monday I was feeling OK. Last night, I went out for some skills work, but felt soo poopy all over, that I bagged it & went home.

Tonight, I decided to test the lungs (and legs) up at UNH again. Its amazing how big these races have gotten. Just a few years ago, there was only a handful of people total racing. Tonight, I think both the A's and the B's each had close to 20 racers each. Nice!

Got there early & did a nice warmup, then helped a little with the course setup. Lined up in the A's along side Keegan. He goes fast off the line & I jump on his wheel.. nice start, i should do this more often. As we head up the first hill, Josh Austin & Ryan Kelly ride by... we jump on board... Then corey masson swings in...
We stick together for about a lap... then it splits up to ryan & josh... then 5-10secs... then keegan & corey... then 5-10secs... then me (alone)... then 10secs back to the rest of the field... Stays this way for about 4 laps, until Josh flats.

Ryan is out on his own... corey & keegan are right in front of me... but i cant seem to make up tht 10secs. Additionally, i got some dude breathin down my neck.. i still got a little gap, but i wasnt out of his reach.

anyways... some kid who flatted jumped back in for the last 4 laps & sat on my wheel for 2 of them... this was kinda of the motivation i needed to make sure i didnt get caught.

with 2 laps to go, i can see keegan right there, but just couldnt make contact.
i pushed hard on the last lap & finished in 4th, about 10-15secs back from 3rd.

Overall, a really good night.
* lungs hurt.. but not too bad & now a few hours later, im still not wheezing.
* i got a good start
* i rode hard, but still had a good punch when needed
* i rode the wooded section better than i have before.

im hoping this is the start of things turning around for me. I finally felt good racing... .and HAD FUN. :)

it was nice to officially meet Josh. He killed it in the B's... then was riding very strong in the As until he flatted. :(

1:48mins back, 7 years ago

i was curious when my first cross race was, so i dug through my "cycling folder" that has misc stuff in there. anything from random reciepts from parts that broke 5 years ago, to (lucky for me) results from september of 2000. :)

To the best of my memory, my first race was on 09/30/00. Gearworks Cyclocross. I dont remember where this was...and i only have a faint memory of the race. i DO remember never having gone over a set of barriers before that day. haha.
finished 23 out of 34 in the C's.

One week later (10/07/00). Net1Plus Cross race @ Saima Park in Fitchburg, MA.
This is funny looking at the results:
1. Jamie Driscoll
8. Peter Rubijono
10. me (at 1:48mins)
12. Toby Marzot
19. Kevin Wolfson

I think i took a wrong turn somewhere in the past 7 years. :)

I'm trying to remember what happend the next few years. for various reasons, i didnt race cross again until 2004, I believe. I should try to figure this out at some point.

Sucker Brook 'Cross

designed by allie, printed by New England Duplicator in Manch.

Boy, its getting close. only 9 days away.
sign up. spread the word.

Race Report: Agawam (8/26/07)

You want cheese with that whine?

ok. a mountain biker, i am not. Today I drove down to Agawam for what was described as "... pavement, grassy fields and hard-packed single track and fire roads. It’s fast and fun with a few technical sections." sounds like it should have been right up my ally (not allie). i had a hard week of training, with 1-min hill intervals yesterday..so i wasnt expecting much from this race (officially). but i have to admit, with the amount of training i have been doing, i really did expect something. i expected to do well. not necessarily win...but i thought i would do well. i am going to go so far as to say i KNEW i would do well. thats how confident i was.

got there & was psyched to meet up with my friends... Meg, Zank, Yash, Hanson, Pierre, Ctodd, and probably a few others. Prerode the course and was like "hmmm... not what i was expecting". if you are a mountain biker, than you are psyched. if you are not a mountain biker (like me) then you are a little annoyed. I am just gonna come out and say it. I HATE courses like this. 90% trail/singletrack 5% fireroads 4%pavement 1% grass. yeah that shit is fun to ride... even fun to ride on a cross bike... i just dont like racing on it.

i line up...front row spot. whisle blows & i get a good start... paved climb before the woods & i think i go in there at about 4th wheel... not bad.. then the roots & rocks started jumping out of nowhere. ugh. i used to race mnt. but that was like 8 years ago... so maybe those skills are lacking a bit... but there is a reason why i quit racing mnt...

so i think after 1 or 2 laps, Ctodd caught me...& his buddy yells out that we are in 12 place.. ok.. i have moved back a few spots.. but i will make it up.
me & ctodd were together for a bit.. maybe another lap or two.. he was smooth as butter on the singletrack & i was doing my best to stick on his wheel.... we picked up a 3rd guy & rode together for a bit... then that guy got between me & ctodd, and ctodd sped up, while "other guy" slowed down... so that was the last i saw of ctodd (nice riding, bud!).

at this point, im tired. im frustrated. but i am trying to stay positive. i am no way near where i thought i would or should be...but im trying to push hard & make up some spots... but it just wasnt working. i was moving backwards, and fast.

im not sure what happend today. that was the worst i have felt or ridden in a long time. usually you can say "well, my tech skills were killer.. i just dont have the fitness"... or "well, my fitnes was great, but i sucked at the tech stuff". but i kinda sucked at both of them. i had high expectations, even though i knew i had just done a hard week of training. even though i know i suck on these courses. even though its august. nonetheless, it was dissapointing. very much so.

so thats it. i am putting it behind me. i cant see how it is even remotely possible that given all the training i have done over the past 6 months, i wont be fitter than previous years. so i am going to hang my hat on that. i worked hard. i am working hard. and it WILL pay off. (just not on a mnt bike course) :)


I stuck around for a bit... hung with Meg, JD, zank and Yash... good times. :)
Hanson took it home. He deserves this.


ps: the grass you see here is the ONLY grass on the course.

we got stairs!

DSCN1926
Originally uploaded by argylesocks

hopefully will be finished this weekend.... Ctodd wanted me to build a hill at Sucker Brook... but stairs was the best we could do. :)

the good.....

here is a summary of my life lately:

The good

- me & allie met my mom/dad/sis at Cafe Indigo yesterday for an awesome vegan brunch. good time was had by all. if you had asked me 13 years ago what my chance were of having a family vegan meal, it would have been kinda slim.

- saturday i worked on the bridge & stairs for SBC. this is going to be pretty K.A. Allie finished up the poster & mini-flyers. un-freaking-believably cool.

- morning jogs when its 58 degrees

- wearing a sweater & shorts to work today

- Tubulars are glued on (Thanks Zank) & the bike is all built up.

- New Les Savy Fav is due out in September.

The Bad

- My rest weeks tend to spend maybe a tad too much time off the bike. This week was no exception.

- Still need to work thru a couple bugs on the bike. no biggie though.

- Still need to clean & organize my place & cycling gear.

- I have no money.

The Ugly

- I felt horrible on my ride yesterday. Probably due to the limited riding this week... but still.

- I still have no money.

- I'm a few pounds heavier than my ideal race weight...and races are right around the corner. ugh.

- I need to work on my mental attitude towards racing. still.

Fall is almst here

i just got back from a run. 55 degrees out.
now im going to go do my workout on my 'cross bike :)
eRichie is the man & hooked me up with some Grifos.

discouraged or encouraged? i dont know

as i skipped wednesday's threshold workout, i needed to get it done on thursday... what better way to get that work done, then heading up to loudon for the NHIS race.
its a points race, with points awarded to the top3 on those given laps. since my group sprinting days are over, points weren't a concern for me.

my plan was to go hard for 15mins... rest...repeat. maybe it was just me, but things seemed a little faster last night than normal. anyways, at the start, someone went to the front & was pushing hard, i just sat on his wheel for a bit... after 2 laps, my friend rob took to the front... again, me 2nd wheel.... for the 3rd lap it was me pushing the pace. the workout has started :)

i figured i would give it a go on the back hill & jumped... nobody came with, so i just drilled it. got a good little gap & stuck away for a bit... got caught... but still tried to keep the pace up by sitting on the front. im sure people were thinking "what a dumbass, just sitting on the front all night" well... that was the plan.

i tried going a couple more times... bridging gaps, etc. but nobody wanted to go... each time, the guys would quickly sit up. ugh. those repeated efforts wore me out, and i just sat at the back for the last couple laps.

i dont know. i was hoping that i would have seen this huge spike in my fitness & i would have just walked away from everyone. yeah, that didnt happen. but on the other hand, i did do alot of work during the race, and was still able to quickly move from the back to the front on the hills, any time i wanted to. so that was nice...

i have put more time, effort, devotion (and money) into getting ready for this 'cross season, then I ever have in any previous season. so i cant imagine NOT being faster than previous years....but as mark reminded me last night "everyone else is training hard too" time will tell, i guess. I do still have another month of intensity training.... mmmm...intensity training.

this morning i woke up feeling like shit. headache, tired, sore. yeah. i forgot how much racing hurts.

tomorrow, i am meeting up with my friend john, to visit the grave of a girl we were friends with in college. she died of an overdose 10 years ago today. sad. very sad.

I hate missing workouts....

...and i almost never miss them, but i got the worst stomach cramps ever. plus i gotta nasty kink in my neck. plus i slept like shit last night. plus im grumpy & tired. plus its like 105% humidity.

ok.. i still would have ignored all those things and rode... but my stomach issue is a problem... im gonna lay down for a while & see how i feel.. ill probably just swap wed/thurs workouts & be good to roll for tomorrow..

i organized my cyclocross gear this morning at 530am.

growing up, i always loved that couple of weeks right before school started. going & getting my notebooks, pens, paper, etc. i love that stuff. i could spend HOURS in staples. seriously. not sure what my problem is, but i love office supplies.

my mom commented on how this obsession has not translated to 'cross. i love getting my shit all organized way in advance. rebuilding my bike. buying new gear. is it too early to start stocking up on warming rub? i dont think so. in fact, i put some on the other day, just for the hell of it.

oh yeah, as GeWillieeeeee pointed out, Sucker Brook Cross is now open for registration... check out the website.. then go tell Allie how much you like it.