XC-Ski at Beaver Creek Reserve

I was up in Eau Claire, WI over New Years and got a ski in on New Years Eve with my brother in law. It was about -2 our but it turned out to be not so bad. 

We got tons of snow at home now so hopefully I'll get at ton of skiing in. Temps are really going to drop again so I'll get to try some sub zero skiing again. 

2013 IL State Cyclocross Championship 40+ (full race)

I'll post a report later but this was one special day on the bike.

2013 Psimet Norge Cross (Cat 30+) video

Borrowed a gopro for some fun.  If i get to it i'll do an actual report but for now there's the video.

Enjoy.

Video of the Cat 4 start at Melas Park Basin

Indian Lakes Resort Saturday 40+

For the second straight year at Indian Lakes i found myself running to the pit within a couple minutes of the start.  This time it was the result of being forced to take a bad line out of one of the sand traps and while it was obvious it was a steeper exit i still misjudged it and endoed over the bars and got run into from behind.  Somehow my rear wheel got dislodged from the dropouts and i couldn't get it back in so I found myself running.

Fortunately this time the pit was closer and i had a pit bike but still i was just about dead last before i got back on the course.  On the approach to the pit the second time of the first lap neutral support was there standing with my bike, rear wheel all ready to go so I swapped back to my main bike.  I spent a couple of laps trying to make up as many places as I could.  Wind was a huge factor so drafting on the stretches heading south was a must.

Then I fell victim to trying to run too low of tire pressure.  I'm still running clinchers and love the challenge Open Tubulars.  I am also trying the latex innertubes and was thinking i could get away with a little lower tire pressure with the latex tube.  I did 35psi on the rear but about lap 3 on the approach to the sand traps a section of the clincher bead came dislodged from the rear tire and I was forced to run the same section to the pit again.  Switched to my pit bike and finished the race on that, trying to catch and pass the same 10 or 15 guys i had chased the first half of the race.

I ended up 36th and actually still had a ton of fun.  The SRAM support was awesome and only today did i realize I ended up with a new skewer on my rear wheel that i need to return.  I felt better than i thought i would given that I was racing on 4 1/2hrs of sleep due to having to work really late the night before.  It was actually a nice little experiment on how to prepare myself during the week for something like this.  I just made sure i got lots of sleep during the week.  If I hadn't had the mechanicals it's hard to say wether I would have felt the same riding further up in the field but all in all it was a good race.  I also really shortened my warmup and race day prep so i could get more sleep and I think that could have contributed to the mechanicals as I didn't have the time to go over the bike as well as I normally do.

Fun in the sun, sand, and snow

Cat 3 Upgrade

Today I got upgraded to Cat 3 for Cyclocross. I could have done this long ago but because of my work schedule (working weekends) staying a 4 left me more options since I could make it to the cat 4 races after work. When I raced cat 4 I would soft pedal the start till we were thru the first turn then I'd go for it. It made for a great training race without being a total sandbagger.

I ended up only doing 1 4's race at Bartlett last year and this year I haven't done any and I think I can make 1 or 2 of the 1,2,3's races if I can get off work a bit early so that's what I will try to do going forward.  If all goes to plan the first 123 race will be at Melas in a couple weeks. 

Griffo and latex.

I used my new Challenge Griffo with a latex inner tube for the first time today. I ran a couple hot laps on my CX course near my house and I have to say it's pretty awesome. It's rained a lot the last day and a half and there was a good frost on the ground as well as tons of leaves. 

In comparison to the Fango and a butyl tube it gripped the off camber stuff really well. There's an incline we ride across and I was able to ride whatever line I wanted which in the past I haven't been able to do. I also did a lap with the pressure 3psi lower than I ever had and it felt amazing. 

I have yet to ever ride a tubular so I can't quite compare but for a clincher this is pretty amazing. I'll have to see if I can borrow a tubular wheel with a griffo to see if I'm even close to the feel of a tubular. 

Little Zonhoven on ride today

Psycho Cross 40+

Teamie Greg during the 30+ race

I went into this race determined to move up as far as i could at the start and then see what happens.  Long story short I found myself in the top 10(i think) for about a lap before I lost power.  Then it was a case of me just trying to hold off anyone I could for the rest of the race.

I ended up finishing 19th which is exactly the same position I got last year and equals my best ever official finish in a masters race. I had 12th at Campton last year before my derailleur exploded 600m from the finish but I digress. So with about half the training time and clogs to 20lbs extra weight I equal my best finish ever with more racers this year than last year. Go figure.

Bar cam vid.  I'm in around 9min. but the first lap is much more interesting.

Hopkins Park 40+: Reason 42* why I love cross

This year has not been a typical year for me as far as racing and training goes.  While i intended to lay off the road season a bit I didn't plan to not do any road racing but that's the way it goes sometimes I guess.  So because of that i've entered the cross season with lower fitness than normal.

Sunday was my first race of the season, the second stop in the Chicago Cross Cup, Hopkins Park in Dekalb, IL.  Even though my fitness is lower than it should be I was pretty confident that i could improve on my finish from last year.  Due to too much air pressure in my tires last year i ended up on the ground about 5 times and finished 56th.  This year all I wanted was to finish higher than that.  The course was amazing.  It features a great combination of straights and corners, pavement and singletrack, and even has a flyover.


So Reason 42* why I love cross is that no matter what your fitness level is, there is still a race for you in cross.  Once the race starts and things settle in you will usually find yourself in a group of riders with similar fitness and ability and you will have a full race of using what fitness you have, the technical skills you have to race those you are with.  I ended up in a group of about 6 or 7 who I traded punches back and forth with the whole race.  You quickly figure out what sections of the course you are good at and what sections your competition is good at.  Then you use tactics to figure out how to maximize your strengths and limit your weaknesses.  So even though we were fighting for 31st place, we still had a blast.  That is reason 42* why I love cross.

Here's a handlebar vid from my race.  I spent the whole race way behind this guy but it lets you see the course if you weren't there.



Next race for me is the 10/19 Psycho Cross in wauconda.

*42 is just a random number i like.  Sorry I don't have 41 other reasons, well i probably do, i just haven't written them down.

Bike is race ready!

Not that you can really tell from the photo but I did the final mod to the bike which was to put the rear brake on the left hand lever. Now it's ready for its first race on Sunday!

Cyclocross 2013 Season Tip # 01: Don't clear your front brake while rolling.

Retroshift derailleur

I swapped the shimano deore long cage derailleur for the retro shift derailleur. Now all that's left is to swap the brakes so that the left lever controls the rear brake and the bike will be cross ready!

New Ride

Pedals, Check!

Galena Gravel

I was in Galena last week and did some gravel riding. Here are some pics.

River rd at the Bottom of Chesnut Mt  

River rd. 

River rd. 

Devils Ladder Rd at Rt 20

Devils Ladder Rd at Rt 20

Devils Ladder Rd from the West. 

S Rodden Rd

New Ride!

Strava followup

I emailed Strava's customer support asking what the accuracy of a segment that short would be. Here's their response. The accuracy of very short segments depends entirely on the quality of the GPS hardware recording the data; however I can say that the shorter the segment, the more prone it will be to GPS errors. Most GPS devices have sampling rates anywhere from every 1 second to every 10 seconds. Clearly a ten second sampling rate is going to render a 5-second-long segment completely inoperable. Unfortunately there isn't really anything that can be done to improve the accuracy of the segment - other than encouraging your friends to get high quality GPS devices. I did some experimenting in a field during barrier practice where i set a lap marker on my garmin before and then after the barriers i set up. I had the auto lap feature but it was a total crap shoot as to when it would trigger a new lap. It was a difference of up to 20 feet. So long story short it might not be that reliable.

Using Strava to analyze Cyclocross Technique

I don't use Strava on a regular basis but if I have a ride i did well on or a race i'll upload my file. After uploading my last cross race i had the thought of what if i created a segment that was just the barrier section, or in the case of the Psycho Cross race, a flyover. I was hoping i could see how i compared on these sections with whoever else raced. I can't verify the accuracy of this but it's fun to see. You also have to filter out the year due to course changes from year to year. I created the segments just guessing where it was. I think for the next race i'm at i'll create a lap with my garmin during warmup for each section just to try to be more accurate. Anybody ever messed with this? Here's a couple segments from our race yesterday.