It's on...

Cross in New Belgium has begun. Good sized fields turned out in Agawam, MA on Sunday for a great race. I played a support role for all my pals. It was great seeing everyone all together in one place again.

The good dcotor and I made it just in time to see the 4 race finish up. Hup-pal Josh had a couple of tire set backs, but he said he was riding well before the gremlins took over. Tony M was just finishing up his first-ever cross race. He rode well and it seems he may be hoooked. Dan O and Steve R also gave it a good show. Nice work, boys!

The Maters races kicked off next. JD and Brant had a great duel going. JD was putting the screws to everyone in the wooded sections, but Brant and his group would pull him back on the faster sections. A great battle. Very happy to see Brant getting supah-fit again. Eyebob and The Waterboy were also out there putting in some hard efforts. Eyebob is coming off Lyme Disease, so I guess he thought cross was the perfect antidote. Nice work out there, boys!

The Killer Bs (3/4) were next. Hup was well represented with PVB, Rosey, Yash all lining up. IBC pals Ctodd and JJ were flying the flag for the Boston area. Ronnie S was doing Gamache proud. Mike and Koley were showing that Harborside is going to be a force this season. Jeff K also lined up with the 3/4s and showed the boys how to do it on a mountain bike.

Next up was the ladies open race. Rebecca, Kerry and Meg all flew the Hup colors. Rebecca went old school with the original green Hup strip. She was keen to see if her hard work over the past year has paid off. She had a great start and pushed her technical skills to the max. She rode strong all race and was very pleased. Kerry had a great ride too, coming in 1 spot behind her Hup teammate. Meg had a blistering second and third lap and moved up to 4th by the finish. Nice work, ladies!





Did I miss not racing? Not really. I have a plan and I'm sticking to it. But now I am psyched for Sucker Brook. Time to test myself and see if my training has been working. It was great seeing lots of familiar faces. Cross effin rules.

A good sign

Well, after a great weekend of riding with the good doctor and our pal Myette, I have this pesky rest week. This past training block has been great. Sunday was almost a sad day. I didn't want to go on a rest week. I didn't feel like I needed it, physically or mentally. I still wanted to train. So this rest week has come at a perfect time in a way. A chance to come down a bit and relax, while avoiding over training. I certainly feel like I over reached in the last block, searching out some of my limits. But I felt sharp enough on Sunday to do some good town line sprints with Matt. So let the rest carry on.

Where am I mentally for cross this year? Hmmmm. Well, I am certainly psyched, but I am not coming out of my skull psyched yet. Some of my pals are already raging excited. I have been purposely trying to stay mellow, even and patient. Patient because the season gets longer and longer every year, which is why I am going to skip Agawam this weekend. The rest week is a good excuse to miss it. But honestly, it is to save some energy and to keep me focused on the more important races that start two months from now. Yes, I am really looking forward to Sucker Brook, but the real racing begins for me at Gloucester. If I did Agawam, it would basically be a 4 month season. If I think of Gloucester as the start, it is a 2 month season. That, to me, is more manageable and I can keep up my energy level for that amount of time. I want to be freaking-out excited when I get on the plane to go to Portland for the GP. I don't want to be burnt out and bored with racing. So that is where I am. If you talk to me and I don't seem super-pumped for cross, don't let that fool you. I am just trying to save my energy and enthusiasm for just a few more weeks.

Awesome workout yesterday

I did one of my favorite workouts yesterday. I got it from Allen and Coggan's book. Warm up for 15 minutes. Then, hold tempo power for an hour. Every 3 minute within the hour, jump out of the saddle for 10 seconds. I try to average over 600 watts for each of the efforts. Then, recover back down at tempo. I felt really good yesterday, and I tried to hold just under threshold power in the final 20 minutes. It is tougher recovering from the effort at threshold power rather than tempo, but that is much closer to the type of "recovery" I will see in a cross race. It's funny how my perception of "recovery effort" changes as I get into cross season. Anyway, the workout went really well, and I put up some new peak 45 minute and 60 minute power numbers. My normalized power for the last 20 min of the session was 259 watts. Hmmmm....back in February and March, that is what I was riding for 6-7 minute intervals!

2 solid days of training

After a good threshold workout on Tuesday and a Tempo/Threshold ride yesterday, I am ready for an easy day today. The Tempo block was mentally tougher than I thought it would be. I did an hour block and it took a good bit of focus during the last 15 minutes. Then a 10 minute break. Then a 10 minute Threshold interval, which felt short compared to the 15 minute Threshold intervals I did the day before. The 10 minute interval felt harder because I was fresh on Tuesday coming off a rest day. I also averaged 5 watts lower during my 10 minute interval yesterday than I did during my 15 minute intervals on Tuesday (255 vs. 260).

Overall, I am very pleased. My FTP has been creaping up all season and my weight has been coming down. I was 176 on January 16. I was 158 this morning. I would love to get back down to the 143 I was in college, but I am taking it slow and steady to keep it off. But this is the lowest I have been in 6 years or so.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out for cross. I am in my third week of this block and then a rest week next week. Then another 3 week block of training, with Sucker Brook coming at the very end. Mentally, I am looking at the season really beginning at Gloucester. I can focus for 10 weeks. 14 weeks would be a bit much. I want to be fired up for my trip to Portland for the GP and not fried. I am going to skip Agawam myself, but Dr. Z is going to race. I'll be in full support mode for her.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the cross crowd in a couple of weeks. I've missed you guys!

Gut check

On a whim, I decided to attend a Root 66 MTB race yesterday to see how the form was coming along. I had trainied pretty hard the week before including Saturday, so I wasn't expecting much. Well, I didn't get much except for a kick in the head. I had a lousy start and got tangled with a couple other guys. I watched Myette's group ride off into the sunset. I got into the singletrack in around 10th or 11th and picked off 4 or 5 guys by the end of lap 1. I got another guy at the start of lap two (of three) and was in around 5th - 6th. Then, I tanked it pretty hard on sweetly-burmed fast turn. I kept thinking "no brakes, no brakes" but I think I feathered the front brake a bit and down I went. It rung my bell pretty good. I got up, dusted myself off and got going, but the power wasn't there and I started to get a really bad headache. I packed it in. I got in 35 minutes of pretty good intensity, so that was a plus. And the legs actually felt pretty good.

Rest day today and then another good week of training.

I swear I wasn't checking her out...

(T)raining hard

It was raining out pretty hard. Some girl I know wants to win one this year. Nuff' said.

Tubulars for this season

The latest in cross-crack.

Salute the flag!

Welcome. It's August 9, 2007. Cyclocross season in New Belgium starts in 17 days in Agawam, MA. Every year it starts a little earlier. People are going out of their minds right now getting psyched for cross. I will be telling my story here. My crazy bride will probably have some stories to tell as well. We have 23 races on the schedule, including a trip out to Portland for the GP and some stops in the Mid-Atlantic. Let the games begin.