Keller Rohrback/Eatonville Circuit Race

Instead of doing the equivalent of slamming our head against a wall and racing the Jack Frost TT six of us traveled up to Eatonville to race Washington's season opener, the Keller Rohrback Circuit Race.  The forecast predicted 39* with 3" of snow on the way.

Almost every one of us admitted to being willing to pull the plug on the race, none of wanted to be "that guy" so there we were, racing.

6.5ish mile circuit, 8 laps, one big-ring climb.  After pre-riding we thought it would be a race of attrition with no real break being able to stick.  With this in mind we formulated a plan of who we needed where and when.    Eli described the day's racing style as "passive-aggressive."  Heck, we're from Portland, we can manage that.  Just like last week, our plan went to total shit after about a lap.  Instead of sitting around with our hands in our jersey pockets like last week, we adapted.

Cherry Pie: still a lot to work on

First road race of the year.  We had a plan and we followed it as best we could but as we all know, that means we accomplished about 10% of it.  A break of two established itself  early at the start of the second lap (I think?) and a solid chase effort never solidified.  That is until we managed to set up a beautiful little chase effort with a TIA guy, an Ironclad rider, two teammates and a sitting-in Gentle Lovers rider.

Chase 1.
Photo courtesy of Mary Stephens

Cyclocross

As a true crosser I feel an obligation to share this with all.  Enjoy.

stolen from Cyclingdirt.org 's facebook page

Those of you that are out there traveling and racing every weekend from September through December will fully appreciate this.

and the season is upon us

Seems like we just wrapped up cross season and here we are, a week away from the first road races.  We've been doing some huge rides lately (see below) and hopefully it all pays off.  That said, this year is all about balance, both on and off the bike.  Somehow I'm still managing to put in almost the same amount of hours I did last year but I'm both happier and stronger when it comes to it.  I've heard so many people talk about FTP numbers and TSS scores but they rarely remember to factor in one thing:  life.



Some may be wondering why all this talk about this thing called 'life' and why I'm taking a more laid back approach to things this year.  Well, I'll tell you, this happened.

courtesy of Katie Doyle Photography

Bikes are awesome and all but they only last so long.

That said, here's to another awesome season with one of the best teams around.  2012 road season, here we come.  2013 cyclocross season, hurry up and get here already.

Doing things a little different for 2012

This year: no coach, no rigid structure, no staring at tiny screens just hoping it will finally display that magical number, just fluidity.

This past cx season I noticed that I was able to train at a higher level without focusing on the numbers.  Instead, I based everything on feel.  Maybe this was stupid and foolish but I feel it left me in a better place physically and, more importantly, mentally.  The few times I did hop on a road bike and actually measure power during cx season I was blown away by the quality of the workouts I'd been doing.  I'd never been able to hit some of those numbers on the road but somehow I was hitting and exceeding them with shocking consistency.  The reason for this:  I actually enjoyed riding and racing my bike again.  I was no longer attempting to fight a schedule and hammer out an interval when everything was falling apart around me.  That is the model I am going to take into the 2012 race season.  Yes, I will write a schedule but if I feel like doing intervals on Tuesday instead of Wednesday then Tuesday it is.  So often racers become so focused on their prescribed schedules they forget why they're even doing it.  We do this because we love racing.  We love pushing ourselves and we love the feeling of going out there knowing we're trying to be better than we were before.  No one is paying us for this so why don't we all just take a few deep breaths and enjoy ourselves.

This year I will be there at the finish.  No more off-the-back in the first 8 miles.  No more trying to will myself to get over just this one more hill.  No.  This year I am going to be there.  I make no promises as to winning races or obtaining my Cat 1 upgrade but I will be there for my teammates, turn myself inside out for them and use my brain and legs to be as close to the front as I can.  All of that aside, I'm going to have fun and I'm going to enjoy every mile.  Like I said, we're not paid so we may as well enjoy this silly sport if we're going to spend as many hours on the road as we do.

Psycho Cross Day 2

This is going to be a short one.

The weather Sunday was awesome, 60 degrees, sunny and just a light breeze.  We had the pleasure of enjoying that right up until about 30 minutes before the A race went off.  In that half hour leading up to our race the clouds rolled in, temperature dropped to 45 and the rain settled in.

One of the reasons I enjoy these small races is for what happened next.  As all six of huddled under shelter trying to stay warm the official proposed a shorter race if we were feeling it.  After a short discussion we settled on a laps.  The faster we rode the faster we finished.

Ross Brody led through the first single track section, I sat second wheel and that's where I finished the day.  Without even trying I managed to finish second overall .  I definitely would have preferred first but hey, all in time.

Psycho Cross Day 1: Good Result, Crap Legs

It was a week of essentially no training and I was loosing motivation.  Fast.  As I type this I have 15 days and 4 races left in my season.  I had to race this weekend, if for no other reason than to remind myself I can still ride a bike somewhat fast.