Raced some races...

Wyandotte Lake Mointain bike race:

This was about a month ago. 

It was hot. I parked an hour away by bike and pedaled to and from the race. Did crappy in my age bracket but had fun and didn't crash. Or at least I don't think I did (it was a while ago). 

By the time I made it back to my car I was 4 hrs in and completely spent. 

Topeka road race:

This was two weeks ago and terribly embarrassing. Meaning I got dropped after 18 minutes. 

Yes you read that right. I showed up to a 52 mile road race and got dropped after 18 minutes. In my defense we were going single file when I got dropped. (Sarcasm). 

After that I intended to only do half the race but missing my turn for that so I did 52 miles solo in windy conditions and I pushed hard the whole time. Partially because I didn't want my car pool buddies to have to wait too long to drive back to kc.

So it was a terrible result but a pretty great workout. 

After getting dropped I took a few pics of the surrounding countryside. 

(From now on I'm always racing with my phone in my pocket)

Tour of Lawrence day 1:

This was last weekend. 

Showed up late and had minimal warmup. Got dropped after 20 minutes. Fun course. 

I swear I've been training!

Tour of Lawrence day 2:

Finally a good race. I got caught behind a crash with about 5 to go but I think I was on my way to a pack finish. Or at least a finish where I hang on till one to go and then when everyone gets serious I sit up and later claim I could have hung on but didn't want to crash. 

I guess we'll never know. 

Truman cup is this weekend. 

If you're reading this and thinking "this dude sucks, he gets dropped at everything"... You're right. But I honestly feel like I've done the work necessary to be decent for cx this season, which is the grand plan. 

Time will tell. 

Tour of KC

Raced Tour of KC this weekend. Skipped the time trial but did the cliff drive circuit race and the cross roads crit. 

Cat 4. 

In the circuit race I got dropped first time up the goose neck climb but soldiered on until getting lapped at the bottom of what was the lead groups final accent of said climb. Disappointing but not surprising. I stayed positive throughout. 

Had my phone on me so took a picture of the group as they lapped me. They were going a lot faster than I was. 

Once the race was over I hurried home and little man and I went to watch mom do the Roller Derby. Her team won and they play in the championship in two weeks!

Sunday was the crit. This was the first year at the new cross roads location and the course was awesome. starting at the back was a terrible idea. I should have trusted my abilities and lined up earlier but I was nervous about crashing and knew the back would be less stressful, from a crashing standpoint. And when I say the back I mean the very back. In an ideal world I would have tail gunned for 15 minutes while getting comfortable racing a crit and then moved up during a massive slow down. The world is not an ideal place. Think I lasted 10 minutes before getting dropped. 

Still I was pleased to see I had two or three hard efforts in me as I closed a few gaps early on. 

Hooked up with some other dropped folks and road around for around 30 min total before I called it quits. 

The race seemed pretty blown up. Looking back I'm upset I dropped out but I blew up a second time as I tried to join in when the lead group lapped me and that was enough. 

I used a heart rate monitor and 188 was the highest number I saw. I'm 36 years old. 

These were my first raced on the road bike since (I think) Tour of Lawrence last year. Hopefully up next is the mountain bike race at Wyandotte and then the Tour of Lawrence. 

Last Years CX Season

Since I've been in the blogging mode lately now is a good time to recap last years cx season. 

I did 10 races but only blogged about the first two, Buffalo Bill and the first day of Raytown BMX. About the first day of Raytown BMX I wrote something like 'felt stronger as the race went on so looking forward to tomorrow's race'. 

Well then I got sick and missed a few races and long story short I downgraded from a 2 to a 3 for the last three races. 

It was a good decision. 

Before the downgrade I was constantly getting crushed to varying degrees. If it was a turney course I was getting crushed less, if it was a power course I was getting crushed more. Colavita and Boulevard cup were tourney and fun. Shawnee Mission Park and Capital Cup were about power and therefore less fun. 

360 cup was my first cat 3 race, since maybe 2012, and it was awesome. Think I finished in the middle. Field was around 30. Cliff drive was next and it was a disaster. I rallied for the fast and furthest but after that I was thru. I had intended to race all the local races but I was getting slower all season so it was time to quit.

(At least the Royals won the World Series!) 

Before the season began I was pulling the trailer a lot but once it got darker and colder I stopped. Tried to transition to trainer but it wasn't consistent. So it was a slow decline in fitness all season long. 

All in all it was a good learning experience. "How to race and have fun when you have a kid and very little talent." 

I'm still trying to figure it out and now I've got one year of experience under my belt.

Hope springs eternal here in the blog world. 

Below are some pics from last cx season. 

God's Country Mountain Bike Race

I raced my mountain bike yesterday. 

Did the sport / cat 2 race at the Lawrence Riverfront Trails. 

It was a great day. 

Showed up late as usual but was psyched to see about 40 racers in my category. Including teammates Ivan, Danny, Jon S, and someone I didn't know. But he seemed like a lovely fellow. Ray also raced earlier in the day so we had a good turnout. 

I lined up next to Ivan, in the second row. The start was a shock to the system and I was breathing hard and unable to hold the wheels in front of me. Still I was glad to have hit the singletrack in almost exactly the right position (I seem to have a knack for that) because Nobody was sitting on my wheel begging to get around. 

My bad habit of not properly warming up continued but I felt like my legs had some power to give as the race went on. That was encouraging as I haven't ridden much this year. 

My 2016 plan is be fast for cyclocross and do some crits and mountain bike races leading up to that. So far I'd say I'm off to a good start. 

I wish I had warmed up properly because right now I feel like I'm not too far off from being competitive in the sport category, but I think that's all in my head. I'm probably a long way off. 

In the end I finished 12 or 13 out of around 45 sport racers. I'm trying to convince the wife to do a family trip to Springfield, MO next Sunday for their mountain bike race. That's her home town so I think I can make it happen. 

Below are three pictures from the day. Two are from the Bourgeois Pig (pre race and post race). I told you it was a great day. 

Pot Pie Odyssey ride

Last Sunday Pot Pie took us on an odyssey. 

8 started and 5 finished. 

We we're out for 4 hrs and 50 minutes. 

There was lots of mud. 

Now here's too many pictures of the entire experience...