Welcome Old Man Winter

Well friends, the weather has made its change. It went from mid-70 highs to just above freezing with some snow thrown in for good measure. In combination with the weather, the daylight savings time change makes it cold and dark when I'm not at work. This is the inevitable change that signifies the end of most of my outdoor activities.

The change feels like a bigger bummer than normal, I was having a lot of fun riding outside and keeping the fitness up. On the bright side, it should make the upcoming cyclocross races more interesting. I enjoy racing when it's cooler out but below freezing is cold. Upper 30's low 40's is my goldilocks zone for cyclocross. Wet and mud are fine, even preferred but racing in the wet in the low 30's quickly becomes uncomfortable and not as exciting. Honestly, we only have a few races each year in these conditions so I really don't have the cold weather clothing I need.

Now I've been reduced to riding on the trainer which will be tricky this year. I have many excuses but since my sister is currently living in my basement/pain cave, 'scheduling' is a bit of an issue. My workouts also never seem to be as hard on the trainer compared to outdoors anyway. That's something I should work on.

My thoughts are starting to drift to the holidays and next seasons racing. I'm a little surprised and sad how quickly my motivation appears to be fading. Of coarse my fitness appears to be doing the same thing.

I wanted to share a short video of some "Wednesday Worlds" rides that take place during cyclocross season. This one is in Boulder but I've been having a lot of fun riding with a group in Denver. These are the kinds of things I'll miss now that it's dark when I'm not at work.

Wednesday Morning, Boulder from jamie kripke on Vimeo.

School Yard Cross

This was going to be my first attempt at a Cat 3 race. I was looking forward to the race. I didn't do too badly the week prior. I believe, however, the outcome to this race began a few days prior to the race. Last week I was at a Wednesday evening worlds ride, which has been a lot of fun. We were doing about 30 minute "hot" laps. I was feeling strong at the beginning of the efforts but quickly tailing off, the legs were tired and sore (after the hard racing last weekend I wasn't surprised). Hey, it's just practice so I sat up and took it easy working on skills and flow in the corners. I took Thursday off and had a one hour mountain bike ride on Friday to open things up. This has been the basic schedule for most of the season.

Now fast forward to my race. The Cat 3 race is much later in the day compared to what I'm used to. The late race was actually a help for the family, I got some work done around the house, hung out with the kids and had fun. We got out to the race early so the kids could play at the beach and I could get warmed up. The weather was crazy warm, 70's in November. The dust was so thick and there was no wind (a rarity for the afternoon at the res). Warming up I knew the legs were not 100% but I was excited to get my first Cat 3 race on.

The ACA did their call up then called racers up by their registration order. I had a second row start behind my friend Peter who had upgraded earlier this season. The start was pretty good. I wasn't super aggressive as I wanted to see how this group raced, nothing to sketchy but everyone was certainly stronger. I stayed in the mix through out the first lap and a half. There were a lot of corners and some nice sand to keep you on your toes.

After those first laps I might as well thrown out a boat anchor. My back started hurting for the first time all season. I simply couldn't put any power to the peddles. The wind stopped and before long the dust was so thick it was hard to breath, I felt like I had a mud pie in my mouth. I was determine to do as well as I could. So I muscled on purely on will power.

When the race was done I was physically wrecked. My placement wasn't terrible but I knew I could do much better. I went out to a nice dinner with the family and began to wonder what I was going to do to salvage my fitness. I down loaded my heart rate file from the race and it told the story. First 10 minutes I had my typical race output but things dropped off as the back and muscle pain limited my output. Not good.

All in all I'm calling it a success, it may not sound like it based on the description above but I got in the race, completed the race and more importantly I didn't break anything (it's been a problem for some upgraded racers lately). I'm looking forward to the next one.

Photos from the race are from Jim Heuck SixDegreestoSlush

Update:
Crossresults.com says this was one of my worst results all season. No kidding.

Skills

Yesterday I took my just turned 3 year old, that took his training wheels off 3 weeks ago, to the Schoolyard CX at the Boulder Res. He road the practice loop multiple times and had a great time.

Today he surprised me with this!!

I didn't show him how to do it, he was just watching at the race. That's a perfect remount!

I'm blown away.

Going Out on TOP

Guess what came in the email last night.

Upgrade in CX
From: Yvonne van Gent (ACA)


To: Brian
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Brian
You have been doing really well in the SM 35,4 and have 19 pts. I realize I can't force you to upgrade till you reach 20, but think it would show better sportmanship to your peers if you upgraded now.

Let me know your thoughts.

Yvonne

Here are my thoughts:

I only need one more point (before I was forced) to upgrade. I currently have the highest number of upgrade points of all Cat 4 racers. I am currently the number one ranked racer in the SM 35+/4 (the biggest racing category each week) according to the Colorado Cross Cup Competition.
My results have helped put my team well into the lead in the Colorado Cross Cup Team Competition.


Originally my plan was to pickup my last upgrade point this weekend. But this weekends races aren't Cross Cup races so I wasn't going to increase my lead there. I could skip racing for a few weeks to get to the next points race but .... I want to race and that doesn't feel right.


Overall, this had been a exceptional season for me. I've won a CX race (not everyone gets to do that before they upgrade), I've received the first call up in front of 100+ racers for my first place in the CO CX Cup. I've been on the front. I've also debated about upgrading previously, prior to being forced to upgrade. I mean, what's the goal of a Cat 4 racer? To improve, become faster and upgrade out of the beginner group.

So, I'm going to upgrade. I'll move up the the Cat 3's mid season and be stuck back of the pack. My results are going to suck... just like they did when I started CX racing. But I'm sure I'll improve with time.


I'll tell you how it goes. Thanks for Reading.

Boulder Cup

This was a new venue this year, at the Flat Irons Mall. It was held in this retention pond/park between the mall parking lot and highway 36 going between Boulder and Denver. It's actually a very interesting and resourceful use of the land. There is a sidewalk that goes through the 'park' but there really isn't anything there. The DBC Events crew did a fantastic job putting this one together. There was a video that went on the web to describe the coarse, I like that there was a video but it really did a poor job getting across what the race would be like. People said it would be a dirt crit road race. I can assure you, it was a lot more difficult than people anticipated.

We took over a quarter of the Mall's parking lot for the race. It would start and circle around then drop onto the grass hill. There were a lot of steep off camber grass sections and difficult climbs. There were also two steep run ups to keep people at their limit.

I arrived early to pre-ride the coarse before the racing began. There was nothing overly technical but it was long and with the elevation change it was going to be hard. After a the warm-up I took a brake to get everything else ready for the race day. When the women's races started I followed with another warm-up lap. The condition of the grass was already changing. The grass and chunks of grass were getting ripped out of the ground. Now tires were riding on ripped out loose grass, especially in the places were racers had to turn or brake, these were becoming extremely slippery. A steep descending switch back section on the grass hill was already starting to become technically challenging.

I arrived for our call ups about 10-12 minutes before our race time. The race officials however were late. Our start time came and went. I was starting to get physically cold waiting to go. They finally showed up and I received the first call up due to my points in the Colorado Cross Cup competition. We got all lined up and they quickly got us started. I had my worse start this year. I was cold and I missed my pedal 3-4 times. I went from front row to around 20th. I was behind Brian G., which is actually a good place for a draft. Anyway, I had my work cut out for me if I wanted to salvage a good finish.

I steadily worked my way up the field passing on the climbs and on the run ups. During the first lap I somehow managed to drop my chain twice. Once I got it back on while peddling and the second time I had to stop and put it back on. I never had a clear idea of my placing so I just kept fighting to get to the front. Lap after lap I tried to pick the fastest lines, stay off the brakes and find the rhythm of the coarse. I passed two more guys on the final lap, one within 100 meters of the finish. I ended up 5th. I really wanted to get on that podium but considering the couple of mishaps I had and the terrible start, 5th was an exceptional result.

See more details about the race on 303cycling.com

Not many photos of the early race except the start.

Proof of the technical/slippery descent, this is Todd eating it his first Cat 3 race in the off camber switch back descent of death. (I heard stories of more than one person getting hurt on this tricky section)
All in all I really liked this race. It was well run, well marked and a coarse people will be talking about for a while, good or bad. I hope they do it again next year as it was certainly better than the old Harlow Platte Park Coarse!

CO CX Classic

This was an exciting weekend, perhaps the biggest for Colorado Cyclocross. Dare I say bigger than States, perhaps for some. This is when the big boys and girls come to Colorado to rip it up in Boulder (and Bloomfield this year). Saturday was held at a traditional Boulder location, the Boulder Reservoir. Personally I like the location but it always seems to be used a little too often. Hell, there's another race there this next Saturday, 7 days from the last one; come on Boulder aren't there other locations? I'm looking forward to the Valmont Bike Park.

Anyway, after my teammate Todd upgraded I had the first call up and was lining up on the front with the cut throat competition. Well not exactly, a lot of them have become good friends. I actually look forward to a few minutes of conversation before the race gets underway, but when the whistle blows you'll find no solace.

For this race I had a great start. I ripped out of the starting blocks into second place and streaked down the road. We had a barrier section close to the start and I didn't want to get hung up in the traffic. We were flying through the opening lap and into the first set of sharp loose turns when one other rider passed me. I didn't recognize him so I let them go and got into my own groove.

The first sand cleared some people out, I love the photos below. If your going to race at the beach you'd better have the power and skill to pull it off.




Sand, long straight sections and areas for running. It was a hard race and I was at my limit for most of it.



Towards the end I could see my friend Brian from Blue Sky closing the gap. I tried everything and thought I had a big enough lead. Unfortunately I didn't and was caught going into the final lap. Unable to hold his wheel I thought I'd catch him in he sand. Sadly I let my self get distracted by a lapped rider and I let my front wheel dig in, sucking my power away. I had to run the entire sand section causing me to loose time.

In the end I had a great result, 4th out of about 100 racers. But it was the first place off the podium. It was hard to watch the podium presentation but I was glad for my friend that made it to second. Perhaps tomorrow would be a better day, as it has been so often this year.