The Math

My goal for this year's cross season was top 10 overall. Based on the math in points my best possible finish will be 8th overall. My worst possible finish is 13th overall. I will need my A game and my best race yet to reach my goal of the top 10. I am going to do my workouts and push hard during the race for my best finish yet!

Conyers Mudd Fest Cross Race!!!

Wow!! That was an awesome race it reminded me of the races in Seattle. Ton's of Mud and off camber hills, Deep Mud creek crossings and some slight inclines that were so thick with mud that you had to run them. The laps were long about 15 minutes each which was great we only had to do 5 laps. I was battling back and forth with a guy named Rob for 7th place. I know that his name was Rob because he had a big cheering section. We were trading off 7th and 8th place each lap. He was a little more fit then I was but I was better in the technical mud sections. On the last lap he put in a fairly large gap at the start finish line and help me off for a long time. I finally passed him on a run up about 1/3 of the way through the lap. After I passed him I put the hammer down and did not look back. I ended up taking 7th place which is my best finish of the year. One more race to go, the Finals in Dallas, GA. This week I am going to do the Race week in the In-season program with the addition of my 30 minute morning high cadence spin.

37 mile mountain bike ride and Race on Sunday

I did not do a lot of riding this week. I did cyclo-impossible 1-5 on Tuesday followed by a 37 mile mountain bike ride through the Georgia Mountains on Wednesday. We were in the woods for about 5 hours. 4 of which were riding. Tons of climbing and fast descents. It was a big workout and I was really not able to ride on Thursday or Friday due to my body needing to recover. Today I just did a pre-race ride. Tomorrow morning I will do a 30 minute spin before driving the hour to Conyers for the make up race. I feel pretty good so I am expecting a good result. Only 8 more days left in the season. Next week I am doing the Race week training.

Sunday's Race--Felt Good!

I had been doing the A cross race despite my license saying a cat 4. (I jumped categories do to my training with cyclo-core over the past year). I was informed that I needed to upgrade my license on the USA cycling website. They would only allow me to upgrade to the B race. So I decided that I would podium in that race so I could return to the A group the following race. The group was very large and unfortanately I had to start at the very back. I am a little nervous attempting to move up on the pavement in a group that large because one wrong move and I will be sliding across the pavement or worse. I went into the trail in about 15th place which is way further back then I wanted to be. I was stuck for about 3/4 of a lap behind slower riders as the leaders got away. I finally broke away from the group in 7th place at the start finish line which was mostly pavement. I was on a lone break trying to catch up to a group which contained 3rd-6th place. It was exhausting trying to catch up on my own. I noticed that I two other racers were not too far behind me. I let them catch up to me and one of the two guys was an excellent technical rider that was faster then me through the curves. I sat on his wheel and we made our way up to 3-7th place with about 3 laps to go. I varied my position in the group from last to 2nd until 2 laps to go. With 2 laps to go we were able to drop 2 guys out of our group and were down to 3. I sat behind the two guys, all the while knowing that I would be able to drop them in the deep sand section followed by the hill. On the last lap I darted past them running as fast as I could in the deep sand and up the hill over some barriers and back to the road. When I looked back they were no where to be found. I finished the race in 3rd place. I would have loved to win the race but I think missing the 2 person break at the beginning made it too difficult for me to win.

Feelin' Good and ready to Push

I believe that I am 100% recovered from my cold. For the past 3 days I have been focusing on riding twice per day. After completing the Morning Rituals I have been doing a 30 min high cadence spin to start my day. Yesterday I had intended on doing a hard workout but my body told me that I need a recovery day. Today I feel stong and ready to go. This will be my last hard workout of the week. Today I am doing the 10 min warm up, warm in 5, Cyclo-speed Anaerobic Functional strength circuits 2,3, impossible 3,4 then Power in 5, 8 min power yoga 2x and then a 40 min bike ride with two 5 minute z4 intervals. Tomorrow will most likely be a 1 hour recovery ride. Thursday I will be off. Friday 2 rides, Saturday pre-race ride and Sunday ride in the morning and race at 12;30. I am looking forward to a big result this weekend.

The Cold

Today is the 3rd day without riding which is surprisingly easier than it has been in the past. I started feeling bad Friday night and had a full blown cold by the middle of the day on Monday. I am electing to not race this weekend and am hopeful that I will be able to begin training again tomorrow. I have heard from some pro cyclists in the past that after 72 hours your muscles begin to atrophy. I am excited to start riding 2x a day and think that is going to be helpful to finishing the season strong. Three more races to go and 2 of them are worth double points so I am hopeful for a strong finish to the season . One lame thing is the USA cycling is requiring that I race at CAT 3. I did 4 races as a CAT 1 but my license said CAT 4. I should have followed the protocal and went through the normal upgrade procedure but I wanted to race at the top level. USA cycling is requiring that I race as a CAT 3. So I am going to finish the season by hopefully winning the CAT 3 races and then winning the CAT 1 Georgia cyclocross season next year.

Rome Cyclo-cross race

Another disappointing race. I am currently ranked 13th overall in the Men's A Georgia-cross series. My goal is the top 10 this year and to win the series next year.
I probably should not have raced this last Sunday. I was not feeling well and I now have a full blown cold. I did the best that I could and raced fairly well considering I was ill. The reason that I choose to race is because I had a team mate and friend visiting from Seattle. My friend was able to win the Men's A race by a huge margin so I was very excited for him. He gave me a valuable tip that I think will help a lot with 4 races to go. Every morning do a 30 minute spin on the trainer. Nothing to difficult but enough to wake your body up for the day. He said that I would be surprised at how good I would feel for my main workout of the day. Once I am feeling 100% I am going to implement the 30 minute ride every morning and hopefully break my way into the top 10 for the Georgia-Cross Mens' A.