Cross Fun, July Totals, Recent Cat 3 Track Racing

Cross Fun
I love my cross bike. I'm really pleased with the Redline Conquest Pro, and it took about 10 seconds to get used to SRAM Rival shifting (double-tap) via a single shift lever on each brake lever versus Shimano's two per side. I like it better already, and I presume I will change over the road bike during the offseason (the road bike's parts are nearing their end of life anyway).

My first cross ride was with a team mate I didn't previously know, but Brad raced cross last year, so he's more expert than I! We did a nice 1.5 hour trail ride, and practiced a few dismounts (he showed me the step-through dismount, which was way easier than I thought it would be), remounts (I'm still slow) and hopped over a contruction pipe a few times for practice. I was definitely loving riding on dirt again after about 7 years away from trail riding of any kind.

Thursday some of my team mates are running a cross practice workout. I hope to start refining my technique and practice the step behind dismount a bit more, as well as carrying the bike properly.

The first cross race of the season is Labor Day. I'll update the race listings and results on the right side of the blog soon.

July Totals
My crash earlier in the month derailed my training and racing a bit this month, but it all ended up with reasonable numbers. I didn't manage to get in the 40 km test for July, so I'll have to make sure I get one in soon for August.

Bike
Distance: 548.9 miles
Time: 30:17:00
Longest Ride: 48.4 miles, 2:55:00 (Zoo Hill repeats)

Run
Time: 1:01:00
Distance: 8 miles

Going to be stepping up the running now that 'cross season is imminent. Today I did a trail run with 8 hill sprints. It was hard, but felt good.

Recent Cat 3 Track Racing
I'm finally scoring some points and placing regularly. It's good to feel like I am progressing toward cat 2, probably not this season, but hopefully early next year.

On Aug 1st, I won the first race, a points race, by winning the 3 points on the last lap, tying with my team mate Travis on points, but since I finished higher on the last lap I get 1st and he gets 2nd. In the second race, which was a scratch race, I got off in a break of four total, three sprinters, and me. I accidentally dropped them by pulling too hard, and eventually slowed up until they caught me, since I wasn't planning on going solo for the remaining 7 laps. Once we were together, my team mate Travis, whco was having a great night, attacked the pack and bridged across to our break, nearly a full half-lap ahead of the pack. When I saw him getting close, I dropped off the back a couple fo bike lengths and pulled him to the group. This also conveniently placed him on my wheel, which was perfect since he's a great sprinter. In fact, it worked like a charm since I was on the front for the last lap, and led him out where he took a convincing sprint win. And, since I stayed in contact with the break, I got 5th. The last race was a 6x5 progressive points race, which means there is a sprint every 5 laps, and the points you get for winning the lap increase and go deeper in placing. The first lap is just worth 1 point to the winner, but the last lap is worth 9 points to the winner and goes 9-7-5-4-3-2-1 points with finishing order. Early on in the race, Travis joined "the break" which not only stayed away, but they lapped the field. This hardly ever happens at Marymoor since our track is 400 meters long, but is more common on 250 meter and 200 meter tracks. Anyway, each of the four members of the break get an extra 20 points for lapping the field, which was helped along by some great blocking by my team mate Niels and some from me. Our job was slowing the pack when we could, by getting to the front and riding easy, then hopping on the wheel of anyone who tries to attack. They give up when they realize we aren't going to help, and after a while, lapping the field was a foregone conclusion. What's great is that once they lap the field, the sprints are re-set, which means there was one sprint left, the last one, and the winner would get 9 points. A few riders attacked (many were getting tired, since 30 laps is long for a cat 3 track race), and I sat on, then sprinted around the last leading rider (a cat 1 woman who is super strong) to get the 9 points. This put me in 5th place, beind the breakaway riders. And, it means I got 3rd for the night. Plus, I finally won some $.

On August 8th, we just had Niels and me in he Cat 3's for my team, and we had some many cat 3's that they split us into two groups! Naturally, we were in different groups, which means no team work. I managed to get 2nd in the first race, a 12 lap snowball, by taking the 8 and 10 point laps, again winning some $! The next race was a keirin heat of 7 riders - this is the race where we are paced up to speed for 4.5 laps by drafting a motorcycle, reaching 30 mph before the motor pulls off. Then, it's 1.5 laps to the finish. Our group slowed up in turn 4, and so I attacked with everything I had. I didn't win the heat, but since I finished 3rd, it meant I would be in the finals! My best keirin result this season. The next race was a 20 lap scratch rac, and though I tried four times to get a break to work, even with two laps to go, it all came to naught, and I got something like 8th place. In retrospect, since I had done well in the first two races, I probably should have played it conservative, but I was feeling spunky. Oh well. Then we finally got to the keirin final. It was pretty stacked by the Broadmark team, since they had three of their top three cat 3 sprinters in it, and they all drew positions 1-2-3 behind the bike, which made things even easier for them, and harder for people to get around. In the end, I managed to get 6th out of 7, and was feeling pretty beat, but hey, it was a decent result, and put me in 5th overall for the night.

I am now over 1/4 of the way to having enough points to upgrade to Cat 2. And two of the stronger riders in the cat 3's who have been beating me just upgraded, which should make things a little easier. Even better, three more Cucina Fresca riders just upgraded - Jason, Jerry and John. Hmm, I guess there's something to a name starting with J!

Tomorrow night Bree makes her big debut in the Wednesday night women's field. I'll try to get some pictures. I'm taking this week off so I can get in some sort of mental and physical break before the next 3 month of cyclocross racing.