Cyclo Cross at Hudson YMCA

The Big Ring Flyers over in Hudson put on a great race.  The course was okay, but the event was great.  They had a nice venue with the YMCA providing showers and pool if needed.  Food was on the grill, a little hammer gel schwag, and music.  The course featured a lot of off camber sections and lots and lots of 180's.  The 180's are not my favorite since it involves a short acceleration with a rapid deceleration, so lots of hard braking and with my Brett Favre elbow acting up it puts the elbow through the ringer.  A couple of sections that were long where you could get up to speed and lots of bumpy terrain.  I had a decent start, in that I didn't go too hard and blow, but hard enough to have a good position to work from.  I should of dug a bit deeper to hold off Bell.  Fred and I had a rematch from last weeks Dakota Tech duking it out for the duration.  I held my speed til the end and Fred faded.  Next up is Saturday's race in Andy's crazy commune in St. Croix.

Cyclo Cross begins

Tuesday night series is a blast.  Good course, reasonable price.  I don't have cross fitness yet, but it'll come.  Some pictures from cycleture.

The RIver bottom commute was deep today

This morning the path crossing the Minnesota River in Shakopee was dry as a bone.  Not 6 hours later. Not one of the smartest commutes I've had, but I needed to get to day care, they charge a lot when your late.

The Yellow Line

The Yellow Line is a pretty definitive line and it's pretty clear where it is.  Officials need to enforce this ruling, it gets ridiculous when people push this line further and further into the other lane of oncoming traffic.  A windy day in St. Cloud had people stretching the limits.  For me that is the rule (I sat up and said F-this).  When deemed necessary it is a good rule for the safety of the riders.  Unfortunately it happens and it divides the fields.

Jim Bell had a kick ass race.  Kudos to him for winning the race after he broke away on the first lap and fought through the winds with little to no help from his temporary drafting companions.  He went for it and nailed it.  The field was definitely attentive and he held them off.  Nice Work!

State Road Course

Hot Wednesday Night Worlds

It was a good night for a ride, I committed myself to sitting in since I gave blood on Monday.   I wasn't sure how this would effect me.  I'm pretty sure I have taken a hiatus from giving blood all these years from May through September since I like riding and it's pretty much the opposite of what dopers do.  To my surprise I felt pretty good, the heart was working harder than usual I'm sure.

I felt blind riding without PowerTap numbers.  I have grown accustomed to looking at them and regulating effort based on what I see.  I use it like a tachometer in a car and possibly don't push hard enough.  I also missed having mileage to regulate effort.

Maybe the technology has become cumbersome and riding without it is better.  Maybe I won't fix mine or replace it.

People are getting to lackadaisical and fanning out all over the road without regard for traffic.  Drafting is good, but being oblivious to traffic is going to cause a problem.  When someone calls out that a car is back riders should attempt to get out of the way to some degree.

Selling on Craigslist

I have one of my Powertaps for sale on Craigslist.  Here is the link.  PowerTap

I have three other ones and this one I don't need.

Sprinting

I've always just accepted that I can't sprint and left it at that.  Maybe I should work on that, I hear people do sprints and intervals. That sound like punching a clock and going to work, I just like to ride.   My 2 races at the State Crit were fine nothing more and that is because I have no sprint.

Saturday Soccer

Today was a soccer tourney for Abby.  She had four games for the day, they were shortened, but I could see she was worn out by the end.  Afterwards we rode bikes over to Lifetime for a swim, she made all the hills on her little BMXer single speed.  I was thinking Mankato for a MTB race, but after the weather we had I think the Mn State Crit will be a better option.

No hiding here.

Dan, for your reading pleasure.

I'm guessing the 1hour 32 minute blank is the Jordan regroup.  I'm also guessing somewhere on the bottom line where the minutes are not visible, probably where 1 hour 58 minutes would be, is where I fell off the lead pack.  Probably right where the red line is showing heart rate.  Weird since I wasn't wearing a heart rate monitor.  Maybe my heart was beating so hard that it wirelessly sent out a cry for help that registered on computer.

I was looking forward to tonights ride because of the wind.  It forces people to ride to their abilities and not be able to hide.  Hiding itself is not a bad thing, in fact its quite useful to help some riders, however when experienced riders with strength hide its lame.  It was a blast tonight, everyone got turned inside out.  Some people found themselves outside of their comfort zone.  Scott county looked like a bomb went off instead of the usual orderly protective cocoon.  I like throwing caution to the wind, not being a reckless rider, but maxing myself out repeatedly without concern for whether I get dropped or not.  If you get dropped so what at least you know the limitations of your fitness.  Bantle "The Bomb" is a good example of this.  Good to see him out riding again.

I'm not sure what happened to me.  Maybe it was that I had my mind set on a Jordan regroup at the gas station where I could get a Snickers, maybe it was that I hadn't ridden since the last Wednesday ride, or maybe it was just a fn hard ride.

Some gore from the Square Lake RR.

Look out she'll be ready for Buck.