Catching Up - Hudson

I've fallen behind on my blogs the last few weeks though I'm not sure how many are following this anyway. Raced a new venue in Hudson, WI a couple weeks ago. Caryn's parents were in town so that was nice. A different course consisting of a lot of turns strung out over a large, flat grassy area. The county shut down access to the adjacent woody area so they had to be creative with what they had. I had a terrible start which was not good for this course as passing was very limited. I sprinted as hard as I could the first couple of laps to try to catch some groups with limited success. I also learned that I need to spend some time working on my 180 degree turns as I ride the brakes too much, but that's all part of 'cross.

I downloaded the GPS file from the race. As you can see, lots of turns. We didn't actually go over the buildings as this suggests...I think there's a projection issue between my GPS and google earth.

This is a download of my speed and heart rate (in red) from the race. It's definitely an anaerobic workout!

My training regiment is a bit different from a couple of years ago. It includes weekly rides with my cycling partner. He doesn't seem to help much on the hills but enjoys the rides. We don't ride together much this time of year because of the early sunset.

Duluth Weekend and Corcoran

It's been awhile since my last post. I've raced the last couple of weekends. Two weeks ago was a back-to-back race weekend in Duluth. Friends we've gotten to know through Dentist Dave were running the events. The first night was an evening race in on a cross-country ski course. Lights were positioned all over the course. It wasn't an easy course as there was a lot of climbing and the flat sections were soft and muddy but it was fun. The next day was at a high school. This course was vastly different and better suited to my abilities. The highlight of the course was a long, steep run-up. There wasn't a huge turnout for the weekend as there was a big race in Madison but hopefully they can have it next year as it was definitely worth it. Caryn and Gerrit spent Saturday evening in the hotel and did some swimming. We had a nice lunch at Fitger's brew pub before hitting the road for home.

Portion of duluth course at the high school.

Photo of me "enjoying" the run-up as you can see on my face.

Last weekend we went to an old race in a new venue in the NW portion of the metro. The race was located at a moto-cross park. It had all of the elements required for 'cross racing including a run-up, barriers, sharp corners on loose gravel, sharp corners on grass up hill, and whoops. Whoops are rolling hills on the motocross track. They are a common feature of european 'cross races but are typically smaller and spaced closer together. Nonetheless they made for an entertaing feature of the course. I enjoyed this race finishing 25/57 and top 20 in my category. Wish I was a little further up the placings but it takes me some time to get my race legs under me these days. Perhaps a combination of getting older and not being able to put the miles on that I used to. Having a lot of fun though which is all that matters.

My training partner.

My mechanic making some last-minute adjustments before the race.

The whoops.