My 2011 bike racing season has officially come to a close.
Finally.
What started last March in the cold ended in January… in the cold. Neither the first race nor the last race had snow, which is surprising considering that we had a doozy of a winter last year. Stranger than that is the fact that my second race of the road bike season (Durand) and my second to last race in Chicago (I lump cyclocross Nationals as one race) were both IN the snow. And of course we had everything from 10 degrees to 92 degrees in between.
Roobar Cheekin in the snow at Durand in April
Not so much riding my bike in Chicago in December
But, it has been a long season, and as much fun as I had, I have to say I’m glad that it’s over. Not that I don’t like racing, but the travel every weekend, and the packing and unpacking of equipment is getting a little old. And, much to Nate’s likely disappointment, there is a lot of stuff I want to get done around the house that we haven’t had time to do since we’ve been gone every weekend. So Nate… get your workin’ pants on buddy!
I will miss the people we race with, but through the miracle of bookpage I will still be able to stay in touch with them! That is, when I actually figure out how to aquire “friends” on the computer.
So this is either my last race update from 2011 or my first race update for 2012. I guess according to Nate, it’s debatable. Either way, I don’t care, it just means I get to write about other stuff for a few months.
Cyclocross season ended with Nationals in Madison last week. Nate and I both raced on Wednesday, I raced again on Thursday, and Nate had his second race on Saturday. By some small miracle I was able to get the day off from work on Thursday to actually go. I raced Wednesday morning and was back to work by 2pm. Thank goodness for nice weather.
Holy nice days Batman.
Umm, is this really January in Wisconny? oh yeah!!!
It was in the upper 40′s and lower 50′s on the days we raced which is unbelievable for January. I will definitely take it! We had about 2-3 inches of snow the weekend before… just enough to make the course a snowy mess and as people rode on it, it turned into an icy path through the park. The organizers did a great job of putting melter on the course, and by the time I rode on Wednesday (the first race of the whole shebang) it was still really icy, but you could at least find some spots of dirt to ride on.
Oh that? That's just ice... just ride over it.
Only problem was, where there wasn’t visable ice, there was frozen ground and not a whole lot of give to the dirt. Running over the barriers felt like you were jumping onto a hockey rink with a fine layer of dirt over it – just enough that you can’t tell it’s slippery as heck. The downhills were pretty icy and the ground was hard as rock.
How do I know this?
Because when you fall on your arse sliding out around a tree going around a turn on the frozen ground, it hurts a lot more than when you fall in October. It also leaves a much bigger bruise. So purdy.
I ended up finishing 4th in the non-championship race for females on Wednesday and was pretty happy with my ride. I’m not a huge fan of ice, so for my first time really riding in those conditions, I have to be happy with it.
Day one is done
Then the sun came out. And it warmed up. When that happens, ice melts and turns to water… which on the dirt, turns to mud. Which is exactly what we rode in after that.
By the time Nate had his race at 2pm, the course conditions had drastically changed. What was ice for me, turned to mud for him. He loved it. He was really happy with his race and he didn’t get lapped which was his main goal. He came out with a 19th place finish, a jersey full of mud, and a bike full of mud and grass.
Run lil guy run!!!
Thursday was an entirely different course, conditions wise. It was the same course set up – except for the sand pit, they added more of a turn so it was kind of like an “S”… definitely faster running that sucker. But even though it was taped off as the same course, it was definitely different.
The mud was so incredibly slippery and deep and sticky. You really couldn’t pick a line to follow very well – you pretty much just went where your front tire wanted to take you because if you tried to fight it, you fell down. It was a really slippery mud though, and it was just chewed up enough from the day before to make some ruts and some deep sections. It was a total energy suck.
And a total monkey mud fest.
Should have taken the left turn to "Alburquerque
I only went down once – around a tree – but should have gone down at least a half dozen times.
I was pretty much out of the race right from the start. I could not get my foot clipped into the pedal and ended up way in the back after a pretty fast start. I made up some ground before we hit the grass, but the start is critical to the race and since mine absolutely stunk I ended up farther back and had a hard time catching up to where I wanted to be. I am usually pretty quick out of the start, and I think that is usually one of my strengths. Not so much on this day.
Very frustrating, but in the end I had a great time, learned to ride in really cruddy mud a little better, and brought home about 10 lbs of Dane County mud on my bike as a souvineer . I ended up 10th. So I guess you could say that in my age group I am the 10th fastest cyclocross racer in the nation… that actually showed up to race. Yay me!
Total monkey mud fest
Nate was a spectator on Thursday which was really strange for him. Not having to pack all of his stuff was a little odd, but he made it through and managed to do a lot of cheering and heckling of all the ladies and some of the guys as well.
Our lil racer guy had his day on Saturday, and again the course conditions were different than they were for me. He had a lot of mud that was much thicker and stickier than Thursday. He had a decent start, but the thickness of the mud got to be a lil too much for the lil guy and he got just plain tuckered out. He managed to turn 2 laps before he was pulled from the race and ended up 61st in his age group. I thought he was going to be a grumpy lil racer guy at the end, but he had a good attitude and said that it was different mud than he had ever ridden in and it just sapped the energy from his legs. He said it wasn’t the most glorious way to end the season, but he still had fun and he’ll be back again next year.
too...hard...to... pedal...
On Sunday we went to watch the elite women’s and men’s races.
Wow… what a rockin’ good time that was.
We actually knew a few people in the women’s race so that was sweet.
Katie Compton on her way to a(nother) National title
A few of the girls that I race with during the season were racing with the elite women and they did awesome! Although, I did find out that one of them not only has a carbon race bike, but also has a carbon PIT bike.
Whut tha?
Seriously? Major carbon envy on that one.
The men’s race was a hoot as well. Those guys go so fast and make it look so easy. They just seem to flow around the trees and some of them even bunny-hop the barriers. Maybe someday if I dedicate 8 hours a day to training, 365 days a year, I could be half as fast as them.
Ryan Trebon (Boom! Holla! Yummie!)
Yeah, no.
So that’s the bike racing season. It was outstanding. We both had some success, both made some awesome new friends and managed to somehow keep the friends we have, we had a ton of fun and get to take away so many awesome memories. We even got to see family on a few occasions. (that is what happens when you don’t go to JingleCross!) I actually got to have 2 weekends – both for marathons, but hey, they were MINE! The only 2 I get each year…
Hopefully (in 2.5 months) when the 2012 season starts up it brings with it much of the same good spirit as last year. (Okay, just without the crash!) For now, it’s time to start amping up the mileage on the running shoes again and start going longer instead of faster. I need to get on the spin bike as well so I can mix in some riding with my running.
Since Nate seems to have elected himself as my “coach”, I’m sure he will make sure I’m on my bike (mountain bike, too) regularly. 
Can you kiss your "coach"?
Til next time…
