Thousand Mile Month

Yeah, in the grand scheme of thing it's really no big deal. But it's still the first time that I've ever done that many miles in a month.

18 miles on the Pivot Mach 5 mountain bike
31 miles on the Gunnar Crosshairs cyclocross bike
954 on the Moots Vamoots CR road bike

And I had to ride 57 today to hit 1,000.

I am such a dork.

Storm The Beach CX

A few pix from the cyclocross race I "competed" (to use the term lightly) in on Sunday.

Storm The Beach is held on Camp Pendleton's Red Beach. Not a very cyclocrossy venue, but beautiful nonetheless. I also did this race last year......

I'm on the left below, this other racer and I had a good battle going back and forth for a few laps. It all started when he tried to pass me in deep sand, deep enough to catch his front wheel and sending him over the bars into me. I didn't crash, but was just left with a greasy imprint of his chainring on my calf. We swapped positions a few times, but I finally succumbed to him on the fifth lap after tripping up in a sand pit. He pulled away and was able to put some distance on me.
I'm not in the image below, but it shows the stretch of Red Beach that was traversed. By the time my group went out, the tide was a bit lower, leaving us more real estate to race on.
In the end I paid $45 ($35 entry + $10 one-day UCI license) to suffer for 46 minutes and six seconds. At least it was less than a buck a minute. Still, I managed to finish in the top ten (well, 10th out of 14) in the Masters 35+ Cat 1/2/3. I thought the Masters category would be a bit easier than the open 1/2/3 that I raced last year. Not so, as I lined up against a few retired pro mountain bikers and a one-time national track champ.

Maybe I'll do better next year. Or not.

Second and third pix swiped from the SoCal Cross Flickr page.

Lunch Ride

Fun times on Vista's Buena Vista trails at lunch today. Good place to ride the cyclocross bike in its element. Next time I'll hold the phone steadier so that the image doesn't come out all blurry again.

Cyclocross At The Velodrome

This past Sunday saw racing of my second (and last) cyclocross race of the season. The SoCalCross Prestige Series had a couple of events down here in San Diego County this year - Storm the Beach at Camp Pendleton in November and Cyclocross at the Velodrome this past weekend in San Diego's beautiful Balboa Park.

I had thoroughly enjoyed thrashing body and bicycle during the 45 minute race back in November, so the grrrls and I drove on down to the park.

Ordinarily cyclocross races are held in dreadful weather - mud, rain, sleet and snow. This being San Diego, I didn't expect to see any sort of inclement weather. With temps the low 60s accompanied by a stiff breeze and overcast skies, at least there was some chill in the air. Ironically I did overhear one guy say "now this is cyclocross weather". I guess it's all relative.

The course was laid out over singletrack and fireroad that had both sharp and rocky as well as washed-out sandy sections. Additionally the organizers put in a "spiral of death" - a decreasing-radius turn on soft, slippery grass. Overall, a very fun venue.

Celeste has been having fun trying out her new digital camcorder (thanks Dean) and captured a couple of snippets of me. Excuse the shakiness, she was rattling a cowbell and some jingle bells.



(middle vid courtesy of Melissa from Electra)

For some reason I wasn't really all that amped up at the start. My heart was racing at 100 BPM as we waited for the starting pistol and I managed to let a decent-size group of guys ahead of me. I hadn't done a recon loop, so I didn't know the course and decided to follow along for at least the first quarter of the first lap while everyone found their race pace.

I started picking away at the field, passing some solo guys and some groups of 5-6 riders.
I managed to spend a couple of laps out in a "no-man's land" with very few racers...

...but settled into a groove and turned up the speed to pass even more racers. Happily I didn't get passed once by anyone in my race - but the top Cat 1 woman (pro mountain biker Pua Sawicki) manged to reel me in on the third or fourth of five laps. A number of fellow racers suffered from flat tires from the rugged course while the Gunnar just chugged along underneath me while I enjoyed the springy feel of the bike's cro-moly tubeset.

The highlight of the race was the finish on the San Diego velodrome. Laid out in a manner where you entered the track high and completed two total laps prior to reaching the finish line. Not sure of my finish, but Allie thinks I was somewhere just outside of the top ten in the men's 3/4 open.

Another good day on the bike.
stats
time: 47:09
distance: 12.16 miles
elevation gain: 740'
avg speed: 15.5 MPH
top speed: 26.7 MPH
avg heart rate: 163 BPM (3 BPM less than Storm The Beach)
max heart rate: 174 BPM (6 BPM less than Storm The Beach)

Storm the Beach!

Another Sunday, another great ride. This time, however, the ride was a race. I tried racing cyclocross a few years ago while living in Wisconsin and absolutely enjoyed the pain and suffering endured during 45 min of my heart thumping away in the anaerobic zone.
Traditional cyclocross generally adds cold/wet/muddy/snowy conditions - something that's obviously not possible here at 33 degrees latitude. Instead, we get a beautiful day at the beach. Yep, temps in the upper 70s and a perfectly-clear blue sky.
But not just any beach, the race was held at Camp Pendleton's Red Beach, a USMC training ground that's usually not open to the public. The course ended up being a very fast and relatively flat 2.5 mile loop on mostly doubletrack dirt roads that encompassed many sections where drafting and other road racing tactics helped considerably.

certainly doesn't look like most CX courses

For some reason the organizers placed only one barrier on the entire course, seen just right of center in the photo above. However, the multiple sections of loose sand more than compensated for the man-made obstacles. Held during a very low tide, one stretch had us racing on the semi-hard packed sand.
And with us being so close to an unregulated beach (well, for the day at least), we brought Juno along to see if she'd enjoy the ocean.
Answer - a definitive yes. She pulled at the leash and dragged Allie down to the surf. Her belly covered in salt water and sand, we had one happy pup. Back to the race...
I entered the men's open category 3 & 4 which meant that I'd be racing for just over 45 minutes against a some collegiate racers - UCSD, USC, UCSB and University of Oregon were seen - along with other guys up to about 45 or so in age. And while I started towards the back of the pack to watch things sort out during the fast first lap, I still managed to pass enough riders throughout the race to end with a respectable top ten (I think - results not yet posted) finish, thanks in part to the grrrls cheering me on.

stats
time: 47:20
distance: 12.11 miles (that's all??)
elevation gain: only 533'
avg speed: 15.4 MPH
top speed: 25.2 MPH
avg heart rate: 166 BPM (ouch)
max heart rate: 180 BPM (ouch)

Not only did I get a great, fun, fast race in, but I also came back with a sweet souvenir, a fantastic dirt tan...
...as well as a nice pile of sand in each shoe:

who you callin' a sandbagger?

Another good day in the saddle AND with the grrrls. Especially after the post-race recovery beverage (an ice-cold Red Stripe beer).

American Dream Bike

I told myself I'd get a new cyclocross frame once I landed a new job. Well, the frame arrived a couple of days before the movers came, so the assembly will have to wait until I get the house a bit more dialed.
What exactly is it? You'll just have to wait and see; the box is still taped up.