Check the church of the big ring for some inspiration for those of you headed to Natz. Or even Ice Weasels and Nats Schmatz.
“Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure…than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat”Wise words.
- Theodore Roosevelt
as you go into the national cx battle
in the state they raise cattle
be sure to give it your all
and try to pick the right line so you don’t fall
finsh strong and don’t ever let up
listen to the cheering crowd - cowbells and hup hup hup
ride smooth and fast - it’s only an hour
let the spirit of the big ring provide the power
to pass one or two more racers in your class
and the finish the race - knowing you busted your ass
-MK
Pee first, apply embrocation second. Trust me on this. - Blaze
I tried to get an extra ounce of sleep this morning. Seemed to work, but I'm solidly in a funk. No matter how prepared I was for the end of the year bash at NBX, and what a bash it was. How much fun was it!? No matter my preparation I think I'm solidly feeling the mental let down of the end of the season. And I'm tired. Two days on the bike commuting in left me last night still sore, despite the walking the bike pace yesterday. Maybe less sore than if i'd just parked the two wheels and jumped in 4. But coupled with feeling tired, and overwhelmed with what will start tomorrow and won't even end when we get on the plane for the PacNW next week, the end of cross has me feeling pretty melancholic. I should be enthused by knowing just what I have to do to be closer to the level I am right not at the beginning of next season. But I'm actually feeling more overwhelmed. Sort of angry at myself because I didn't follow through with the running this year, October was a rough and busy month and that more or less shot the whole running deal out the window. Daylight savings time plus all sort of other stuff didn't help. And I suppose I would be more okay with it if I knew I chose to let it slide more than anything. I was my fault for not sticking with it. I was happy to be able to stick with the trainer sessions this fall though. They helped me get my power back to where it should be. They helped with the jumps and speed. But I need more of everything esp focus and dedication to move up the ladder for next season.
Too early to look back and think about next year? Yes, probably. In some ways I was better prepared for some aspects this season. So those are positives I should be focusing on. I had a great year. I felt like I was really racing and not just doing a CX time trial for a change. That was very cool. So the positives are there. But at the moment with all the stuff that needs attention. I'm just having a hard time pulling it together. Free coal to go get to fuel our dual fuel stove to help cut down our gas bill each month, but I don't have time to go get it. Both cars need attention, the Volvo's serpentine and nightmarish washerfluid system isn't working (hiding the damn resevoir in the front quarter panel may seem convenient from a design standpoint but it sucks to follow hoses and trouble shoot. Winter tires to get on that car. VW has a vacuum leak or the brakes are hosed and maybe the vacuum leak is part of the whole turbo problem (would make sense on some level). Need to spend time trouble shooting that. But there isn't any time. All January projects. Sure these are all pretty minor things. Easy to over look. Move on from. But like the straw that broke the camels back... it all adds up. I know logically how to deal with it. Start with one and move on to the next and just freaking HTFU and get it done. Why the hell even write about it and lay it all out there. Dunno. Maybe in the small hope that it will get me off my ass and energized and focused. I'm tired but have no craving or desire for coffee. Which is odd, but not really I guess, being this far removed from the addiction.
So a big does of introspection in an attempt to pull out of a post season funk. Stupid cyclocross, such a tormentor...
heddwch
G
24 comments:
Hey G,
My unsolicited cx training advice to you would be to RIDE MORE, RIDER HARDER in July and August and hit the season with a better base.
Trying to train well during the season, when you have a full time job, wife, kids, biodiesel contraption, disappearing daylight, races tiring you out, etc is a tall order. Heck I can't even train much in the fall, and I only have a job and a website eating my time.
For us non-pros, you can't do much except try to maintain fitness after about mid-October, I believe.
Anyway, that's just my two cents on where you'd be best served to focus your motivation next year.
How many days until Battenkill?
My own results indicate that I'm not qualified to give training advice, but IMHO, you need to do more rides of 3+ hour duration, per season. Two or three is not enough!
Oh, and use a Powertap! (not as a toy- actually USE the data)
;P
does the 24 hours of great glen count as one or two 3 hour rides?
thanks colin... that's more or less the plan, just have to figure out how to work it all in...
it looks like someone is going to be strong arming this big guy (me) into making an attempt at the Mt Washington auto road race this summer... that may or may not help focus the prepration a bit more effectively than say "battenkill" or 24HOGG...
Ge-
Having a big-base focus with a race shortly before cross season starts is a good idea. I'd make it a bit more specific to cross though. As such, a race such as Shenandoah Mt. 100 would work a lot better than Mt. Wash.
Josef
might toss in the Great Glen race if the team decides they want to go for it again... might have to find a team-mate who can do more than one double lap tho...
I'm pretty sure JB is joking about a 100-mile MTB race being "cross specific."
he is probably tongue in cheek suggesting i try racing my least favorite type of event in prep for next season (crits)...
i'd much prefer to do the mt bike thing than crits...
I'm not going to seriously start planning next year yet, not by a long shot.
But I know that this year I came in with base to spare. 2 man team at great glen wasn't terribly taxing although I wasn't terribly fast... I could ride forever, and go pretty fast at high cadences. But that equaled zero speed for cross...
I need that kind of base in June to lead into July and August power building before cross season kicks off.
Hell who knows maybe I'll get really bold and set up a summer cross series to get in shape with, but then I'll probably get too busy...
Depends on when your A race(s) is/are, and what you consider 'specific'. It forces you to spend time off road. I read once that off-road skills are important for cyclocross - is that true? At the end of the day, they're all 99% 'aerobic' sports.
More specifically, you can prepare for a long race by doing repeated short/hard efforts, and once you have a solid 'base' (whatever that is), it doesn't take all that long to convert that to good form on shorter efforts.
BTW, my more specific training advice would also be to ride MORE and HARDER. You don't have to log monster miles to do a long race well.
Lastly, and I think we've talked about this before: aggressive crit racing is a great prep for cyclocross. If you're comparing power files from a crit race to cross, they're not too dissimilar.
Many ways to skin a cat, but the guys who manage to maximize training volume at the beginning of cross season have a definite upper hand.
Ha - got me on the crits!
If you think you had 'base to spare', but then your results were lacking, I'd argue that after a month or so of consistent cross racing (along with some mid-week intervals), you should have seen a turnaround happening.
If that wasn't the case, either your base wasn't good enough (going forever at a slow pace does NOT equal good base; going 'pretty fast' for a long period does, however), or you didn't race/interval train enough early on in the season.
What Colin says is spot on IMO - it becomes a matter of maintaining fitness around mid-October, and if you start off higher, you have more to give back.
I could ride forever, and go pretty fast at high cadences
Unfortunately, those are two things that don't have much to with cross unless you're a singlespeeder.
IMO, off-road skills and cyclocross skills are quite different things. You wanna get better at handling a cross bike, then do it on a cross bike, on a cross course, not on a mountain bike.
Set up some cones on smooth and corner until you fall, that'll teach you more than 100 miles of mountain biking.
"Set up some cones on smooth and corner until you fall, that'll teach you more than 100 miles of mountain biking."
To quote my students: "Can I do both? Is that allowed?"
:-)
If you think you had 'base to spare', but then your results were lacking, I'd argue that after a month or so of consistent cross racing (along with some mid-week intervals), you should have seen a turnaround happening.
I feel that there was a turn around mid-season or so. Hitting my stride somewhere at Gloucester, riding up a peak until Plymouth South... My results at NoHo should have a big asterix, racing with that nasty strep throat thing.
If I had kept the running up i feel personally that i would have had a better individual race last weekend. Looking only at my performance, not relative to others.
And yes, colin. I know. I tried the spinning thing in cross and i went backwards fast. Sucked. But I learned a good lesson.
And yes, mt bike handling and cross handling are different beasts. No question there.
We'll have to see how 2009 unfolds. What the hell with the goofy tall un-coach-able freak gewilli do? Stay tuned and find out. Ya know you will hear about it here.
"Can I do both? Is that allowed?"
If you have the TIME and DESIRE to do both, then you don't need my advice at all.
I actually think that if you found some hardass crazy enough to help you with your training plan, you would reap great benefits - more so than others.
Not saying that you should, but most people benefit from a little bit of increased accountability.
Nice discussion. Ok, back to work. Have a great holiday season.
Balance your expectations with what you are willing and able to devote to the sport. It is unrealistic to think that somehow you will be competitive with the other athletes in the 1/2/3 masters if you are not putting as much time and effort into it as they are, and for many of them that's an all year endeavor. You have to respect the competition; they have raised the bar rather high. If you're unwilling or unable to raise your personal bar just as high, you really cannot expect to outperform the more serious competitors. That's OK, and it's why they have the 3/4 masters category. But be honest with yourself first -- were all the people who finished ahead of you each week working harder at this than you? Probably yes.
The competition is closer than ever, with dozens of riders finishing within a minute or two of each other, but some are consistently a level or two above the rest of us. You can be assured that most of them had to earn it.
that was some of the nicest nega-coaching I've ever seen.
Colin, I have a career's worth of performance reviews that equate realistic expectations with negativity... Now I know that everything is going fantastic! This is what's known as experience.
Solo, if i donate to Angell, will you coach Ge?
What you need is a mid-week industrial park crit that is local to Providence and not in Ninigret or Wompatuck.
I know you detest them, but then, why do you think I'm doing cross? I assure you there is no love affair and that I do it to keep my fitness sharp (what's left of it) plus I get to hang with a lot of the great people who I crit with during the summer. (Yes I used crit as a verb there) Being dead last or lapped is a bummer I can live with.
You can't deny that the training crits give you speed. We crank it to 33 mph on the Ninigret straightaway Wed nights. There is some good adaptation happening when you stress yourself at that level. I don't need to tell you..
He's uncoachable, but sure, I've been trying all along anyway.
"I feel that there was a turn around mid-season or so."
Yeah, bingo, after five weeks of racing, you began to race well... What a surprise! When I look at the top 40 in the results each week, I see a list of bike racers. Not cross racers, not mountain bike racers, just bike racers. That's the #1 key.
Murat is right. You don't have to spend a fortune traveling all over New England on the weekends if you can't do that. Go to Ninigret or Wells ave every week starting July or August. Or get yourself invited to the Wednesday night Rocky Woods rides, which are 20 minutes from your place by antique VW oil burner. Every one of the guys on that ride beats you every race, so I think it qualifies as appropriate training. It's not "sweet single track" it's six guys racing through the woods as fast as they can ride for an hour. Sound familiar?
That burning sensation you're feeling is the realization that solo's right...
Well it mirrors what you wrote in the first comment.
Quote of the Day - Bobby Knight - "Most people have the will to win, few have the will to prepare to win."
So next time Chabot beats you, instead of writing a tearful blog entry, put on some plaid pants and throw chairs around the house while swearing like a maniac. That should make you feel better.
So next time Chabot beats you, instead of writing a tearful blog entry, put on some plaid pants and throw chairs around the house while swearing like a maniac. That should make you feel better.
< In a hockey player's voice from Slapshot (or any good canadian accent for that matter) >
thanks coach
< /voice >
The fucking machine took my quarter.
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