2011 CCCX CX #2, Cyclocross at Fort Ord

Last Saturday, second race of the season. Instead of trying to stick to the leaders and dying like the previous race, I put my HR at the top of my threshold zone and held it there. Just raced my own race.

Placing was slightly better. 15/23 ("photo finish" with 14th) vs 13/19.



And my new Williams wheels and Challenge Grifo tubulars. They're fuckin awesome. Ran them 28,35. Plusher then the Conti clinchers at the same pressure and seemed to have more traction while climbing and cornering.



Now I just need to get some skills. My remounts are embarrassing. I'm slow as shit through the tight, flat, u-turn sections. And I need to figure out how to bunny hop logs. There were two on this course and I killed a lot of time running over them.

2011 CCCX CX #1, Cyclocross Season Starts!

Kicked off the cyclocross season with CCCX CX #1 at Fort Ord, down by Monterey, CA.



Wasn't really ready for it. Saddle was too high, adjusted it in the parking lot. Hadn't practiced remounts at all. Was exhausted from the previous week of mountain biking and driving.



So, I didn't place well. 13th out of 21 I think. Open Men's B class.

Also went way too hard at the start. Tried to hold the leaders. Was tasting blood in my throat 15 minutes in! Totally blew.



Was good fun though. Nothing like diving into the deep end to kick off the season.

For the future; going to do more threshold work. Practice remounts. New crank, 34/50 to 36/42. New tubulars. In the processes of gluing them.

2011 Moab, UT Mountain Biking

Five days of riding in Moab with some of my Georgia mountain biking friends! Great vacation.



Rode Sovereign, Amasa Back, Whole Enchilada (twice!), Pipe Dream and some of the Kokopelli loop trails around Fruita Colorado (including Horsetheif, Mary's and Troy Bilt).



In terms of fitness, it was a pretty laid back week for me. Probably gained a little endurance though, was out in the sun, on the trail, for well over 20 hours. Also made massive gains on my mountain biking skills. I started the week rusty and by the end, was cleaning technical trail that was well beyond anything I'd ever ridden before.



Some of the GPS: