Thursday, November 30, 2017

Secret Squirrel CX Race

It started with a tagging on Facebook.  I feel a lot of stuff happens that way these days.  I got tagged in this post from Warren Angell.



I said what the hell.  And I ended up signing up for my first cyclocross race.  This is odd, because I have been wanting to do one for about 5 years, since the first time I saw a cyclocross race in Roger Williams Park.  I have looked at bikes over the years, I would then forget for a year and then go to another event and want to do it again, but it would be the end of the season, so why do it now etc.  This pattern went on and on.  So, after all that all it took was the words Donut Relay.

I only had 3 weeks to find a bike.  Warren had a spare bike that was too big for him…but it would be a bit small for me.  I tried to find a bike through a few different avenues, but in the end I ended up grabbing Warren’s bike from him the week before the race at the Lil Rhody Runaround.  His bike size is 53 CM, my road bike is a 56.  I was able to make a few adjustments to make the bike not feel too small.  In the end I think it worked out fine.
I rode the bike two times before race day, both short 3 mile jaunts to see how the adjustments I made felt and the day before the race to test out the clipless pedals that I have never used before.  What could go wrong?

Race day.  We were racing at 10:30am, so we got there at 8:15 to do a course ride through.  This is always a good thing to do, so you can see where the obstacles are etc.  I rode one loop with Warren and even though the course was not stupid technical, I was like “oh fuck” I was breathing heavy already, my quads already hurt.  What did I get myself into?
We went back to the car and got stuff together and road part of the course one more time, this proved essential since the cleats on my shoes were coming lose, leaving it so I could not get out of my pedals.  When I went to get out, the cleats would just rotate and pop out.  So, after some hard love to my shoe and pedal, I got the shoe off and then had to find a new screw for one of the cleats as it fell out!!  That would have been a disaster on the course.
All that aside, I was ready?  They start cyclocross races based on rank and since I have never done a race I was starting on the back row of a 100 person race.
And here is the short version of the race itself.  100 meters, stop for the bottleneck at the 90 degree turn, 100 meters, stop for the bottle neck at the neck turn.  This is what happens when you start last.
After that there is some grass to open up on, 2 barriers to jump over then a flat very rideable section, I would say around ¼ mile.  I passed some people here, but since I do not bike, this was probably my weakest section later.  I rode well, but I lost time here compared to others.  After that stretch, there was a pretty solid quad burning uphill.  I rode up this every time, many people around me dismounted.  Short down, around a corner and another up to another steeped down and then the sandy run up.  I did well on this section later in the race; I do run….so running in the cycling race works for me. 

After that section there was a short down and up to a fire road that was rolly, but rolly in a good way.  After that you popped out to the “other side” of the course, both sides were very different, this was more technical and wooded; roots and another bitch of a climb, followed by roots and a down and roots and an up.  Two logs to jump over, some more roots and a drop off.  Wind your way around the final little stretch and through some sand and back to the start finish line!  Phew….now do that 3 more times.

The loop was around 2 miles.  I definitely got stronger and more confident with each loop.  The fun part was picking people off and getting in a little bit of a battle with one guy, in which I beat.
I finished 62nd out of 95 officialfinishers.  There were 100 signed up.

My quads were like jello, but it was fun…and also horrible. 
So, that was over, but the day was not.  I replenished with two Mayflower IPAs.  I asked the beer guy why he did not bring the Porter.  He said, they thought people would like a refreshing beer, like the IPA or their Golden Ale.  I said “I would have liked a nice refreshing Porter!”  Haha  It was in good fun…but I really did want that damn Porter!  After grabbing my first beer I got a chourico and pepper sandwich, all solid food choices before racing again.  We had like 4 hours to waster.  So, we hung around watched the other races and enjoyed the 55 degree day.
Now, for the reason I got roped into this in the first place.  The Donut Relay.  This was all for fun and I was not ready to ride again.  Basically it was a half mile loop.  Warren ate a donut and then headed out to ride the loop.  While he rode I ate a donut and then I rode and he ate a donut.  We both consumed 3 donuts and he rode three times and I rode twice.  We finished 12th out of 22 teams.



After the races were over and the sun was setting, I stopped at 2 Jerks BBQ for some dinner and you know what they had?  The Mayflower Porter. 



So, cyclocross.  It is tough, it is very different from running, but it sways closer to snowshoe racing, when the courses had a lot of variety.  The nuance of having to work up in categories to be better placement at the start is cool.  It gives you something to shoot for.  The crossresult.com site also makes you want to race more.  There are stats, predictors, ratings, rankings stalking, you name it, it is there!

So, will I do any more cyclocross?  Well, not until this coming Saturday!  I will be at the NBX Grand Prix of Cyclocross in Goddard Park.  I am only doing the Saturday race, so I can get in a long run on Sunday.  My race is at 8 in the morning and there are currently 136 riders!!  The race is also 15 mins shorter in time.  So, I guess I need to be more aggressive!

Check out some media from the Secret Squirrel, there was plenty of it!







Tuesday, November 21, 2017

2017 Lil Rhody Runaround

The last 3 weeks I have been trying to gain some fitness and get back in a groove. I have slowly been adding miles and am right around that 50 mile per week mark. I think I am starting to feel more fit, I have been able to end runs in the low to mid 6 min pace range without much trouble. Now I just need to up the mileage and start getting in some actual work outs. I feel for now, the upbeat training day, the progression run, do the trick.

Racing when unfit is always a challenge, but when there are races you like to run and you have the motivation to race, you say what the hell…so that’s what I did this weekend.

This would be my 8th Li’l Rhody Runaround. I knew it wouldn’t be my fastest or my slowest but I thought I could be somewhere near that 50 min mark.

2002-1:02:52 - 84th
2008-50:39 - 6th
2009-49:30 - 9th
2010-49:03 - 5th
2013-49:29 - 8th
2014-47:41 – 8th
2015-50:24 – 11th

I of course had to slightly sabotage my race and ending up having a bit too much fun on Saturday day/night. Drinking more than I should have and getting to bed later than I would have liked. This made for a groggy start to the AM on Sunday. I woke up thinking, yah, no…I am just going to run this one easy and have fun out there,

Luckily the race has a later start; I still felt a bit off on the warm up, but good enough to give it a go. My plan was to start out more conservative than previous years. This race always goes out stupid fast and I did not want to get sucked into that, it would only hurt me later.

So, mission accomplished there. OI went out in around 5:51 vs the usual sub 5:40. I felt pretty OK. Legs felt stiff and beat as if I have never raced before and my stomach felt like shit from all the beer and the late night grilled cheese and tater tots, otherwise, I felt like pure gold!

I fell in line with the usual suspects, Jonny, Muddy, Tommy 5k. There were some younger Westerly HS kids again which ended up being great bait when they were fading late in the race, Brightman went out hard per usual, but faded and got caught by Jonny. Muddy stayed close to me and I caught he last Westerly guy at the road and pulled away in the last mile. The 3 of us were pretty close. I finished in 50:13 in 5th place, not great, but not horrible on the slow day. Eric was slower than my 8th place time from 2014 and he is much faster than I am.

After the race, it got cold again. It was a weird weather day. We headed over to Jonny’s house after the awards for a bit. Would have loved to have stayed longer, but Saturday was catching up to me and I just wanted to go sit on the couch and watch TV.

Next up…CYCLOCROSS!!!

Check out Matt Walker's video of the race!


Tuesday, November 7, 2017

Post Baystate

What to do now?  The Grand Prix Series was kinda The Thing this year!  It was also kinda a bust…well the whole year was.  The good thing now though, I am pretty motivated and getting to 100% healthy!

The week after Baystate I took very easy.  Most of this had to do with getting ready for the 6 Hour which was held on 10/28.  It was the first time in a new location, so I felt like I need to use every moment that week to get ready.  I only ran on Tuesday.  A super easy 3 miles.  I also ran a loop at the 6 hour, plus ran while setting up the course.

The next week, 10/29 to 11/4.  I was hoping to get a good transition week going.

10/29- 3 miles upbeat.  I just needed to get something in.  657-627-555
10/30- 6 miles pretty easy
10/31- 8.1 mile at TNT.  A small Halloween crowd, made for a shorter run.
11/1- 4.1 miles easy
11/2- Super hard trail run...but overall it was a lot of fun.  About 6.5 miles
11/3- 6 Miles with Bob Corsi, felt super tired
11/4- Around 8 miles at Big River with a group of 6.
41.7 or so miles for the week.

I am already feeling better this week.  I hope it continues

I plan on running the Lil Rhody Runaround on 11/19.  It will probably be pretty slow, but hopefully a “fun” race.

After that I foolishly? signed up for a cyclocross race!  This is funny on a couple levels.  

#1:  The reason it came about is Warren Angell tagged me in a post looking for a teammate on a relay team at the event.  It is a 20 minute race.  While one teammate is riding, the other has to eat a donut…and so on.  I have a donut reputation, so I guess I am the man for the job?  Our team name is Kreme Filled Squirrel Nuts.  The name of the race is Secret Squirrel CX and there are donuts, so I thought that name worked awesome.

I also signed up for the novice race, since I will be there anyway!

#2 funny thing.  I don’t own a bike!  I need to figure this small detail out by 11/25.  EEK!

After that I will make the trip out to Newport for the Annual Almost 10k.  I have run it way too many times, so why stop now?