Go Run

Cross Baby!





Went out to cross again last night…  Great course…  much more rideable than last week…  I still went down 3 times…  once pretty hard on the paved path thru the park.

And to answer some questions from last week…  yes Mountain bikes are allowed but…  all obstacles must be dismounted for.

The coolest thing about this week is that my kid wanted to give it a try…  Judi gave up her bike…  and basically her whole setup.



My baby girl did us proud tho…  she kept at it for the entire hour.

She did, however, pass out exhausted as soon as we got in the car.

Man this sport is fun!

Closer

It is a wonderful life....

CX

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Cyclo-cross (sometimes cyclocross, CX, CCX, cyclo-X or 'cross') is a form of bicycle racing. Races typically take place in the autumn and winter, and consists of many laps of a short (2.5–3.5  km or 1.5–2  mile) course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills and obstacles requiring the rider to quickly dismount, carry the bike whilst navigating the obstruction and remount

The above is a pretty good definition…  but they left out MUD

I have a few friends that do cross in other parts of the country…  they keep telling me how fun it is…  so… when I heard that a cross series was being organized in my hometown…  I decided that I had to try it…

And since I was so excited about it…. Judi decided to give it a whirl too…  being the little honey badger that she is.

Well we got there…  had a beer… got signed up.. ($15 each) pinned on a #...  then rode a loop of the course.

It was basically the cycling version of a goofy golf course

Not the actual course (of course)

Got a little muddy…  broke a sweat…  we were ready to start.

We seeded ourselves towards the back and without fanfare the RD shouted GO!

And here’s how it went…

PedalPedalPedal…turndon’tfall PedalPedalPedal PedalPedalPedalMUD PedalPedalPedal FlashSplashGurgleWhatTheFu… (I have my first non-pedaling or bike handling thought of the race) that guy just went off the side of the bridge and is now underwater with his bike on top of him

We stop for just a second…  I hear the guy thrashing in the water…  someone behind us yells “Keep going” so I do…

PedalPedalPedal…turndon’tfall PedalPedalPedal PedalPedalPedalMUD PedalPedalPedal… DismountJumpthe DitchRunupthehill… remount PedalPedalPedal turndon’tfall PedalPedalPedal PedalPedalPedalMUD PedalPedalPedal…

DismountJumptheBarriers remount PedalPedalPedal turndon’tfall PedalPedalPedal PedalPedalPedalMUD PedalPedalPedal… DismountJumptheBarriers remount PedalPedalPedal turndon’tfall PedalPedalPedal PedalPedalPedalMUD PedalPedalPedal… DismountJumptheBarriers remount fishtailthoughtheMUDpit

PedalPedalPedal turndon’tfall PedalPedalPedal PedalPedalPedalMUD PedalPedalPedal… DismountJumptheBarriers remount PedalPedalPedal FlashSplashGurgleWhatTheFu… (I have my second non-pedaling or bike handling thought of the race)

Another guy ran off the bridge hit the far bank and rolled sown into the stream…  I didn’t stop this time

PedalPedalPedal… DismountJumptheBarriers remount PedalPedalPedal turndon’tfall PedalPedalPedal PedalPedalPedalMUD PedalPedalPedal… DismountJumptheBarriers remount PedalPedalPedal turndon’tfall PedalPedalPedal PedalPedalPedalMUD PedalPedalPedal… DismountJumptheBarriers remount fishtailthoughtheMUDpit PedalPedalPedal turndon’tfall PedalPedalPedal PedalPedalPedalMUD PedalPedalPedal… DismountJumptheBarriers remount

And so it went…  45 minutes…  a blur…  no thought of pace…  average speed…  What lap I was on… where I was in the field… just go go go…  and keep me and my bike upright and moving forward.
I went down once… washed out in a corner… 

I heard lots of bells but never realized there was a “bell lap”.  I stopped when the dude counting laps said “Stop”

Found Judi… then found more beer.

I cannot recall when I have had more fun on a Thursday night…  we will definitely be back next week.

Get it!

Judi's Side of the story

You often read here my side of the story when Judi and I train and race.  Follow the link below to her side of the story about what happened last weekend.

http://thebluebandana.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/the-road-less-travelled/

Run

The mile

150

With racing goals kind of up in the air throughout September…  school back, more responsibilities and such…  I had a simple goal for September.

Make it my best running month so far in 2011…  in order to do so I needed 150 miles.  I hit 151.

Bike and swim were a bit down…  but so was my weight by a pound or 2.

The numbers:

Run: 151 miles

Bike: 797 minutes

Swim: 220 minutes plus a w/e of Total immersion

Strength: 235 minutes

Total: 2699 minutes

on again off again Ironman

One of our goals this year (Yes…  Judi and I train together 90% of the time and race together 95% of the time) was to do an Ironman distance race.

In this case it was more of my goal..  Judi was just along for the ride…  Just as she had been in 2010 when she grabbed an AG 2^nd place at a ½ IM.

We contemplated IMFL last November.  That, however, was just too much money to spend that far out.

Next up…  Beach to Battleship.

Open late

Swimming with a current

Nice venue

We kinda stuck that out there as a goal for a couple of months (yet did not register)

Perfect!

Well except that it fell on the weekend of an important conference…

Switch gears…  GFT is harder but…  yeah!  Let’s do it!  We have a score to settle there anyway…  and that was the plan…  for a few months.

Training went well…  until we had a bit of a setback:

http://allaboutpace.blogspot.com/2011/08/feeling-kinda-bla-ggy.html

the untold story there was that Judi DNFed…  needless to say our confidence waned.

Then…  September came…  training was going well…  I did a weekend at the Total immersion seminar…  Judi remembered that she was part honey badger…  Race on…  Bring on GFT!

We sat down last Monday to register…  pulled up the website and realized that we had yet another scheduling conflict.

So it’s off….  Not a huge deal really…  We’ll just take another shot at the ACT 1/2

Maybe I can break 5 hours this year.