'Cross season is here again

Thanks, I'm sure, to Floradix, I felt ready to work out much sooner this time around than I did with Elliot. I've been swimming, taking spin classes at the local Y (on-site childcare!), and getting in rides on the weekend whenever I can. Ed is joining me at the races this year, which has been super fun and also adds a new element of difficulty -- getting the whole family out the door on time is more challenging than the race itself.

We started out with Quad 'Cross. Ed has tons of fitness right now but at the time hadn't ridden his 'cross bike much, so he would get ahead on the power sections and then overcook the turns. I felt like my bike-handling skills were lacking and got passed by numerous women on every climb. But we were both happy to get back out there. After my race, one of the women I had raced with said, "I can't believe you fed your baby and then raced. That's awesome. You win!" That totally made my day.

I also got to use my new camera and my new telephoto lens ("the big guy") to get some photos during Ed's race. 

We raced again this past weekend at Sucker Brook and were both really happy with how we did. I matched my crossresults.com seed and felt really great except when I was off the bike. Ed was seeded 54th and finished 15th. I was so proud of him!! My dad came along as well and took some photos of us.

I think there's a possibility that this year I might exceed the 8 races I did last season, but we'll see. I'm going back to work in 12 days and I'm sure we'll all be super tired as a result. I can't believe it's so soon already!

Summer fun

One of the hardest parts about being pregnant (for me) is forgoing group rides, which is how I get a lot of my exercise and adult social interaction. I'm not quite back on the bike yet. Maybe next week? But I think about it all the time.

My team, HUP, periodically hosts rides where we just go out in the woods and have fun riding 'cross bikes. Then we enjoy coffee at Ride Studio Cafe afterwards. This ride was in June 2011. I've seen a few others get organized since then and I keep wishing I could go!

I rode the Grand Fundo in July 2011 with past and now again, current teammate Brenda. I was so unprepared but my friend Brad told me to go slow and eat real food. I followed his advice and made it to the finish just fine. It was so fun to ride with Brenda again!

I finished up the summer of 2011 with Tour of the Unattended. My team, HUP, helped put it on, so I got to help select some of the stages. It was so much fun and amazingly, I won the Prospect Hill climb, probably because the strongest rider waited until after dark and wasn't sure where the finish was. I should also mention that there were only three or four women, but we still all had a lot of fun.

 

Here I am with the family at the Ride Studio Cafe-hosted after-party.

 

I hope to be back on the bike soon. I already registered for two 'cross races!

Waffle 'cross!

Waffle 'cross is back! Hup United had it's 'cross kickoff the Sunday before last. Yes, 'cross season is still a long ways off. But we like to ride 'cross bikes early and often.

Here's our route (just the part from Ride Studio Cafe and back).

So many Hupsters!



Sweet trails in Concord.



Heading into trails in Lexington.



Mud!



Happy Hupsters.



Après-ride at Ride Studio Cafe.



Plans are already afoot for the next one...

In my subculture, this is like a Superbowl party

I woke up super early to make it to Ride Studio Cafe (pretty much the best cyclist hangout in the greater Boston area) yesterday to watch the UCI Cyclocross World Championships. The women were racing at 5 am EST (11 am in St-Wendel, Germany?) and the men were at 8 am EST. We watched what I think was a Belgian video stream. A great time was had by all -- we ate waffles and drank espresso and gasped every time someone crashed on the weird icy off-camber little hill after the barriers. So fun and totally worth the sacrifice of 4 hours of sleep that I will never get back.

Wintry mix

This is my favorite weather condition from a logophile point of view, but my least favorite from a practical point of view. It's raining/sleeting/snowing now; we're all home safe, but I think the streets will be covered in ice tomorrow (and already are west of here).



We call this temperature (right around freezing, with precipitation) the Stevens temperature. Many years ago, I did the 'cross race at Farmington, and 'cross legend Tom Stevens delivered a disquisition to Ed in the pit on which bike parts, based on metal type, attract snow at various temperatures just around freezing.

I miss that course.

The end of 'cross season

December disappeared -- multiple (minor) illnesses, lots of missed days of work, family visits, holidays, construction on the house... I feel like I'm still trying to get back into my normal routine. I'm finally starting to work on getting caught up with the blog.

First up: the end of 'cross season. I did my last two races, Shedd Park (Lowell) and Sterling, at the end of November. The season continued for a few weeks beyond that, but I was so exhausted that I decided to pull the plug after Sterling. I ended up doing 10 races total.

The Shedd Park race was a small 1/2/3 race. I hadn't been able to race the previous two weekends (didn't want to travel to Noho and was sick and DNS'd at Plymouth), so I was a bit nervous. I fueled up with a yummy chocolate chip cookie made by my teammate Robert a few minutes before the start.



I felt like I got a decent start on the cinder track, but I soon realized that I was last, as usual. I surprised myself by being able to pull ahead of a few people and rode a clean race to finish 12th out of 15. I think we ended up doing 5 laps. I was so cross-eyed up the very steep hill where my friend Andy (of Waffle Cross) was doing waffle handups (and someone else was doing 4Loco handups) that I couldn't find him.



I almost got the waffle on the 4th lap but didn't quite make it. Fortunately the Wheelworkers had a tent set up so I could get one later.

Here's someone in the men's 1/2/3 field who had more success than I did with the waffles.



The following weekend, I was pre-reged for both days of Sterling. It was a UCI race so I was in the 3/4 field. This tweet pretty much sums up the situation: "Elliot's (maybe?) finally teething, lost the acetaminophen, 1130pm CVS run. Sometimes my mom life is not compatible with my cyclocross life." (Indeed, he was teething.) I ended up skipping the first day but made it out for the second. I got to the venue super early to pre-ride and took note of a blind, unrideable dropoff very soon after the start. Many of the women didn't get a chance to pre-ride so I asked Richard Fries, the announcer, to tell everyone about it. (Yes, I am such a mom now.) He was super accomodating and even walked over to the spot and stood in it. No one crashed there (unlike many of the other fields).

I much prefer the small 1/2/3 races, which afford me lots of personal space. The 3/4 UCI races are more crowded and I get a little tentative at the start. I was not very aggressive off the line and ended up riding near a bunch of women I'd never seen before, so I assumed I was doing pretty poorly. At one point, the Tiny Russian was cheering for me and I smiled. She said, "If you are smiling, you are not riding hard enough!" I moved up a bit in the middle and ended up finishing about where crossresults.com predicted, much to my surprise. I was beyond tired and realized that as much fun as I was having, it was time to stop racing for the season.

I hung around for a while and took photos. The ground was frozen for my race but thawed and got sloppy as the day wore on.



Here's the masters 1/2/3 field going through an especially twisty section.



I ended up racing a lot more this fall than I planned, mostly because of my awesome team. Hup United made it so much fun to be out there almost every weekend. I don't miss road racing much -- I think I got my fill over 11 seasons -- but I can't wait for 'cross next fall!

Canton and Orchard CX

I raced twice last weekend, in Canton MA and Hampton Falls NH. The races were somewhat similar and a very busy week has passed since then, so they get one entry.

Both races had super long courses that provided extensive tours of the grounds of the Massachusetts Hospital School and Applecrest Farm Orchards, respectively. This helped me to not get lapped in the 1/2/3 field on either day, but made it difficult for spectators to watch anything. In both, my crossresults.com points had me seeded second from last and I indeed finished second from last on both days.

Differences: I underinflated my new tires (Vittoria XG tubies) for Canton, which led to some sliding out in the turns, but with Ed's help, got the pressure dialed in for Orchard. I have a long way to go, but my turning is improving. I went to Canton solo and brought Ed and Elliot along for Orchard, since there was a fall farm festival going on. Also, I got surprised at Orchard by $20 prize money for finishing 9th -- they were paying 10 deep even though there were only 10 starters. Woohoo!

Some pics from Canton, both of which I showed at my photography class last Tuesday:

The Boston 'Cross barriers are still in service! Aperture priority is my friend.



Jonny Bold just after the previously pictured barrier. I played around with the aperture and ISO a bit and was pleased to get this to come out just the way I planned.



Orchard CX:

Here, Elliot meets his first sheep at the petting zoo at Applecrest Farms.



These pics of me are by Brent Doscher. Nice use of a wide-angle lens.

MRC 'Cross

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I'm finally getting around to blogging MRC 'Cross.

Gorgeous fall day, excellent venue at the Bolton Fair Grounds. Ed's mom came to hang out with us (and Elliot, of course), which was very fun. Check out this gorgeous color!



Here are my teammates Mark and Robert riding strong in the masters' race.



First off, I accidentally rode on the course during one of the races on my way to registration, since it wasn't taped off. Oops! I did a couple of warmup laps. I liked the course except for the flyover, which was way beyond my skill/confidence level. I determined pretty quickly that it wasn't going to happen, so I ran down and decided to stick with that strategy.

Here's what it looked like. Way too steep for me. Because I am old and I type professionally. (This is Mike R. on his way to winning the masters' race.)



We were staged by crossresults.com points, which meant I was at the back, but there were only 15 of us. So there was really nothing holding me back from a strong start, which I sort of got, but then everyone passed me in the first turn. The turns were definitely challenging and there were a lot of them, but I kept pushing and finished ahead of two real people and two phantom people (apparently there were 2 DNFs, but I don't know who they were). I kept running the flyover. I met my goal of not getting lapped. The Cat 4s were 1 minute behind us and 5 of them passed me. It was a little bit demoralizing. But it spurred me to buy some new tires, which I'm totally sure will compensate for my lack of cornering skills. < /sarcasm > My handsome mechanic glued them on tonight so I'll be ready for the races this weekend.

PVD

When nationals came to Providence several years ago, I wasn't old enough to do the masters' race (the first year) and too out of shape to attempt it the second year. Ed was old enough the first year and did try to race, but his race was postponed due to extreme weather conditions, and we didn't return after it took us 5+ hours to drive home after which he spent 2 hours clearing knee-deep snow from our driveway so we could park. So I was quite excited to get a chance to race on the former nationals course this past Sunday.

I woke up at 4 to feed Elliot, then started getting ready so I could be on the road at 6. Ouch. I made it out in time to pre-ride before the first race. The course was pretty tough and long. The hardest section (for me) was right by registration and was the first part I saw. Very intimidating! But I managed to get things figured out during the pre-ride and was ready to go for the race. Il Bruce brought me some Fall River-style malasadas, which I saved for post-race nutrition.

I got a good start and then slowly lost places throughout the race. I felt okay though and was riding pretty cleanly, but I got tired the last time leading into the stairs and didn't clip out in time and botched the dismount, which allowed one rider to pass me right away and another to outsprint me at the line. I was still happy with my result (18th out of 67), and was so knackered that I had to sit down right after the finish so I could catch my breath and not boot.

I did a cool-down ride with my friend Aimee V., who is borrowing my old Redline and giving 'cross a try this season. Then I enjoyed my abolutely divine malasada. I was afraid it would be like the one I had many years ago in P-town, which was thin, oily, and a little crispy -- itwas more like fried dough than the malasadas I grew up with. The Fall River-style malasada was very similar to Hawaii-style, but around three times bigger. Amazing. Then I enjoyed a pizza made by my friend Jennyoooo's company, La Strada Wood-Fired Pizza.

I got to see Brad, who was in New England with his family for the weekend. I've known Brad since we were 16, and he accompanied me to the first time trial I ever did, in Mokuleia in 1997. I think I got about 100 pictures of him racing (seriously -- I had 430 pics total at the end of the day) in the 3 race. Here are a couple of my favorites:





The course was pretty solid when I raced -- it was in the 40s and I was having trouble clipping in because it was so cold (numb feet). By the time Brad raced, it was warm and sunny and the course was dusty. Also, do you see what I'm talking about with the size of that malasada? Amazing.



I saved the last two malasadas for Ed and I to enjoy at home. Elliot got a taste too.

Night Weasels

This video, by David Deitch, pretty much says it all. You can just watch this and not read my post.

Night Weasels Cometh from David Deitch on Vimeo.

The crossresults.com team, led by Colin and Linnea, put on a really great race, the Night Weasels Cometh, last Wednesday. Hup was helping out, so I worked registration. The course was set up on the side of a shallow ski slope (Ski Ward) in Shrewsbury.

When I arrived, it didn't look too scary, despite the previous days' torrential rains.



Here's Chip hanging out at the Pedro's love van.



Here's a teammate I haven't met yet, spectating. As you can see, darkness is descending.



By the time I made it out to pre-ride, the course was muddy and the grass was super slippery. Everything was off-camber and the course was twisty. Also, it was dark. So this course was designed to exploit all my weaknesses. I made Meg give me a pep talk. I consulted Matty B on tire choice. (I have Tufo Elite tubies that I bought used from Mark A and Ritchey Speedmax clinchers, one bought used from CXM publisher/editor Andy Yee and one I bought new. So 3 of my tires are around 10 years old and all are more all-terrain than mud-oriented, but this is normally not an issue.) (Matty said to use the Tufos.) Then I made Cathy give me a pep talk.

I dropped out after one lap of sliding around, walking sections I should have been able to ride, and never really getting my heart rate up because I was riding so slowly. So, next year I think I will just volunteer. :) (Watching the video made me realize that my biggest problem is that I don't want to crash. Even gently onto muddy grass.)

But -- Night Weasels is what 'cross is all about. It was a great event. It was very well executed and everyone was out having a great time. The venue was great (nice comfy lodge for hanging out and registration) and the course was very spectator-friendly. I was proud that Hup was part of it.

Photo taken near the end of the women's race:

Gloucester

If you are here, you already know about the wonder of the Gloucester CX races and don't need me to say much about them. Or, you are a blood or calabash relation, in which case, the picture of Elliot is at the end.

I made it out for both days, with Ed and Elliot spectating for the first. The first day featured a downhill start, which made me nervous since I was in the 5th row, but I stayed on Cathy's wheel and made it to the sandpit in the top 20. This made it possible for me to ride all the technical parts without getting stuck in traffic. Woohoo! A longer-than-usual course meant that we only did 3 laps, although we were on the edge of being able to squeeze in a 4th. But the shorter duration was good for me, as I didn't run out of gas, and held on for 18th out of 99 starters.

Pre-race hoto by Chip. My super-tall teammate Joy is on the left and my other super-tall teammate Jen is on the right.




MegA and I were together for much of the race. This photo is by Todd Prekaski.



Ed took the next two photos.



I think you can get an idea here of how much I was suffering. I was about 30 seconds away from finishing and trying to hold off a rider or two.



We spent the rest of the day hanging out at the Hup tent. Hup is the best team ever and I am having soooo much fun doing 'cross this year because of my super fun, supportive, classy teammates.



Elliot didn't quite get the hang of cowbell-ringing, but I have high hopes for next year. This year, he chose to concentrate on cowbell-dropping.



The second day was a lot harder for me. We had the traditional uphill start, which I thought would work more in my favor (and again I was on Cathy's wheel), but we got stuck behind a big group of slower starters. We both tried to move up after that; Cathy was more successful than I was. My arms were pretty tired from racing and baby-carrying the day before, and my bike-handling really suffered as a result, so I wasn't going as fast through the turns as I should have been. 26th out of 88 on the day. But, there is no such thing as a bad day at Gloucester!

Sucker Brook

Sunday was Sucker Brook, a super fun race in NH. I had a cold all week (thanks a lot, Elliot!) so my only "training" consisted of practicing turns on a mini-'cross course in our backyard.



Despite all the time in the world, I was of course running late. My two guys thoughtfully loaded my bike on the car.



Guys in the sand pit. I don't remember which field this was. But there's my teammate Mark.



Eric M. was showing Kerry the lines during the pre-ride, so I tagged along to see if I could learn something. (Yes.) Then, the race. It was super fun, with a swoopy turny section before the barriers, then some woods, then a sand pit, then pavement up to the start/finish. I felt like I was handling my bike much better than at Quad 'Cross. In fact, I think I did all right on all parts of the course -- no particular issues turning or shouldering my bike or "running," but I just did everything very, very slowly.

With two to go I alternately worried that I would, or wouldn't, get lapped. But then I did about 2/3 of the way through. DFL. Next time. :)

I rode around afterward to cool down with MegA and Solobreak, who is staying strong in his protest against the new BOB kit. Solo showed us a nice gravel road behind the course, which linked up with some of the awesome trails I rode during the Big Ring Rumpus. I could have ridden around back there for hours, which I guess means my "fitness" is entirely aerobic right now. Dammit.

Fall is here:



I got to try one of the famous Sucker Brook cupcakes. Tasty, but too much with the muchness. This was more of a two-person cupcake.



Ed and Elliot stayed home, as I encouraged them to save their 'cross-spectating energy for Gloucester. There are seriously going to be 100 women in my race on Saturday and almost as many on Sunday. My team is all set with tents and grills. I can't wait! Can sheer excitement make me fast? I rode the trainer twice this week just in case it doesn't.

Quad 'Cross

It is almost fall. Time for cyclocross. I did my first real 'cross race in 2 years last weekend. Ed was in RI doing a half-Ironman, so I dropped off Elliot with Uncle Brad and Auntie Kris before riding over the venue (only 7 miles or so). I could have driven, but was loathe to uninstall the car seat to fit my bike in the car. :)

Anyway, it was great to be there and catch up with people I hadn't seen in a while, including Solobreak, who entertained me with complaints about his team's new kit. And I saw my former teammate Pauline, which was so great. And of course I got to hang with my new teammates from Hup, who were all so fun and cheered so hard for me.

I had signed up for the 1/2/3, for numerous reasons: 1) I wanted to sleep in, and so did my babysitters, 2) the race was 10 minutes longer than the 3/4 and cost the same, 3) I like smaller fields so I can have lots of personal space. But I could tell I was going to be in trouble when I saw Adam M., who gave me a big hug and asked if I'd already raced (the 3/4 was at 9 am and the 1/2/3 was at 2 pm). And when I said I was about to race, he said, very kindly, "Oh."

I was a little nervous on the line. I helped another woman get her number pinned on right side up and listened to people chatting. The woman next to me, who was tiny, mentioned her 3 kids, the youngest of whom was 8 months -- one month younger than Elliot. There goes my excuse for sucking! (She trounced me.)

So anyway, long story short, I purposely soft-pedaled the start and tried to get into my own rhythm at the back. The race was much harder than I expected -- yes, I don't have 'cross fitness, which I expected, but the I was really shocked at how crappy my bike-handling skills are. The course was really twisty and required finesse, and I was riding like I was on a 58cm bike with broken brakes. (Thank goodness for Mike and Cathy, who ran a small clinic a couple of days after the race and helped me figure out what I need to work on, and how to work on it.)

Here's a pic that my friend Bob R. took. I don't think he'd mind if I included it:



I never really got to the point where I felt like I was using the little fitness I had, as there were so few spots where I could build up speed because of my bike-handling issues. But I did try to turn it on just a bit at the end, and managed to finish third from last, ahead of a friend who was racing for the second time that day and someone else who got a flat in the first half-lap and didn't have a spare wheel in the pit.

My plan was to ride back to my sister's, but a handsome man showed up (Brad described Ed later as a "knight in a shiney Subaru") and drove me home.