Bier en modder

It’s now May and perhaps, just perhaps, La Nina will let go and give us something resembling spring.

So what’s new…

I’ll most likely be taking May off from racing.  First, my right hand is a long ways from being 100%.  I’m getting it worked on now but I know from the riding I have done that a lot of pressure, like from a sprint, is not possible yet.  Second, we’ve got some work around the house to do that will keep me busy for most, if not all, the weekends in May.  I’d love to be able to sneak out for something like Bear Springs but odds are that I’ll have to pass.

Off-road racing isn’t all that much of an option anyway as my eggbeaters are on their way back to Crank Bros. in CA.  I’ve had them a year and a half so they snuck in under the 2 year warranty.  I’m a little concerned because I don’t thrash them that much and certainly don’t use them on a day to day basis.  I may look into different options for cross.  I hear Time pedals/clips work ok.  We’ll see.

Even though I’m not racing, a smart person would be banking miles for TOE 50.  A smarter person would also be getting their ass to Alpenrose during the week for Track Development.  More on that later.

It’s rags to riches with beer lately.  A slew of brewing in April, a few 2-a-days, have me with a pretty exciting inventory of beer for the summer; ipa, imperial ipa, imperial red, stout, porter, pilsner, and a low-gravity bitter.  More beer, combined with the new nitro creamer tap I picked up last month, will make for a hopalicious summer.

The bitter just finished fermenting under the Pacman yeast from Rogue.  Ideally I’d be repitching this yeast once or twice more because yeast is pretty expensive.  I need to think if I have time to brew.  Not every beer is suitable for the nitro tap so I need to pick a decent style or two.  An ESB and a nut brown ale are sounding good right now.

After the Mudslinger crash, my dad noted “You’re not having that great a start to your season, are you?”.  No.  No I am not.  After May, I do hope that I enter short track season fairly healthy, relatively rested, and motivated for cross training in the heat of the summer.  I have the feeling I’ll be needing to put a little extra time to stay competitive up in Master A’s.  I haven’t set a goal for cross yet except ‘go faster’.  Duh.

With the exception of commuting on a fixie, I still haven’t touched my bikes since Hillsboro.  I’m actually quite happy for that.  I needed a break and I still just don’t feel like getting on a bike yet.  All 3 bikes are quietly hibernating in the basement, protected from the harsh UV rays we get during the winter here.

I’m trying to stay reasonably fit by going to 24Hr 3 times a week during lunch.  I spent about 3 months last winter weight training and really felt the benefits during cross.  I felt I had much more power and control through tough sections.  Yes, I gained about 5 to 7 pounds during that time and I’ve already added a couple more so far this winter, but on my 6′5″ frame it’s hard to tell.  I’m only 205.  If I want to get faster I can either drop weight or gain strength.  I chose the latter.  I already feel skinny enough.  Maybe I should set a goal for heaviest ‘A’ racer.

24Hr (downtown) is a nice enough place.  Clean.  Plenty of equipment.  The people, other members and staff, are nice enough.  We’re going through the crowded January ‘New Years Resolution’ phase that generally lasts a little into February.  I get a deal through work which makes it easy to join and quit month by month if need be.  The big bonus for me is the sauna.  I love saunas.  I like hot tubs but I really love saunas.

I’ll be motivated to ride soon enough.  I still haven’t made a firm plan for the year.  That’ll come soon enough.  I’m not sure how much I’ll do during the first half of the year but I plan to be fully ready for Master A’s by October.  Until then I’m thinking of more brewing, maybe some disc golf here and there, a few more ski days, and whatever else seems like fun.

I didn’t race this weekend. Yeah, I know it sounds a little lame (ok, really lame) but I had way too many things that had been put on hold start cascading down by the end of November; homework, house projects, family time, etc. I didn’t even make it out to watch either. Wah, wah, wah – cry me a river.
I used to be able to put life on hold when I played highly competitive ultimate. Take Friday off, fly to a tournament, play, party, call in sick Monday to rest up, train for a couple hours each weeknight with double practices over the weekend. Ah, the life of an active, unmarried 20-something. I just can’t do that any more. More importantly, I don’t want to do that anymore either. Owen and I had fun this weekend doing errands and projects and other fun stuff. I’ll take that any day. In some ways it makes me somewhat happy that there’s a Masters division to race in.
The party was last night. Rach got a babysitter and she and I went. I remembered that it was somewhere near the Hawthorne bridge and was called Audio-something. Driving there, I just thought I’d turn west off MLK and look for people. Once I got close I thought, ‘what’s that sound’ and rolled down the window. From there, it was pretty easy to follow the drums. The drum corps was LOUD. I think I started hearing them about 3 blocks away…over the rain and through closed windows.
Having only been racing for a couple years and not being on a team, I don’t know too many people. We didn’t mingle that much. I was ok with that as Rach and I got a chance to talk. It felt like a slightly more civilized ultimate party – people smelled better, there was less beer and hardly anyone was stoned. Sometimes that’s a good thing.
Didn’t win anything in the raffle although I was heavily lusting after the wheelsets.
The awards were fun. I won the Master B’s and picked up a bag full of schwag; new Bell helmet, couple tires, Cross Crusade shirt, arm warmers, and a couple other little goodies thrown in. Oh yeah, and the Chris King headset. Sweet.
Technically I tied with Johnny Vergis but I’m guessing that I won the tiebreaker based on the Hillsboro results. Bummer about his leg. I got a chance to chat with him for a couple minutes later about the injury and his lost skiing season. I hope it heals up to full strength.
The minute I got home, Owen came out of his room and asked what I won. I opened the bag and we went through it all. As I went through the stuff one by one, he asked ‘can I have it?’ on everything. I may give him the jersey and a couple other little things. He also asked if he could take the medal into school for show and tell. How on earth do you say no to something like that? So I left it out on the table for him this morning to take.
I’ll be up in the Master A’s next year. Yes, I’m already thinking about it. I wish I’d made the time to do one Master A race this year to get some sort of gauge for training next year. It will be significantly faster but to what extent, I’m unsure. In just about every race this year, I finished and felt that I raced at about 95-98%. I didn’t have all that much more left to give. I’m having a little hard time grasping how much faster I can get to stay competitive next year, especially in the magnitude of 30-45s/lap faster.
I need to relax. It’s flippin’ December 3rd and I felt this way last year. I’ve got a short list of things to work on which I’ll think about and address later.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Huge thanks to Tyrone Long who stuck around in the far end of the course and took the photos.

Final (tenative) results showing the top 19 riders. Please note that the best 5 results were scored. In 2 instances it affected the placement – I moved up 2 spots to a tie for first with Johnny V, and Ben Johnson moved up 1 over Chris Tauscher into the 7 spot.

Just got the OBRA preview schedule for ‘08 in the mail a few days ago.  Some stuff looks intriguing but without more specific details, it’s hard to start setting a schedule yet.

I raced a decent amount this past year, more than some but probably less than most: a few road races, couple PIR’s, the Tabor series, one MTB race, one short track, and 5 Cross races.  It kept me in shape and motivated during the year while not feeling burned out by July like last year.  I did Elkhorn in June of ‘06 and never really recovered until after cross was over.  For a new rider, it was too much, too soon.  I wasn’t all that interested in repeating that again.

For ‘08, I’d like to do about the same with a few changes.  I’m an opportunistic-type of racer, meaning if I see an opening or free weekend, I’ll take whatever I can get.  Here’s my tentative schedule & goals for next year.

Overall

• Find a team
• Move up a road cat.  Am I a 4 or still a 5?  How am I not a 4 yet?  I need to follow up with Kenji or somebody else at OBRA on this.
• A top 10 finish in MasterA’s.

Road

I wouldn’t mind doing a couple of the Banana Belt’s this year with one caveat – not if I’m still a 5.  There’s way too many brand new riders out that early in the season.  There’s a reason they dub cat 5’s as ‘The Crashers’.

I need to think, and decide relatively soon, if I want to do the Mt Hood SR (5/13).  I’d like to but judging on how I did at Elkhorn, I will need to get more longer rides in.

Hell of the Cascades (7/6).  Any race title with ‘Hell’ and ‘Cascades’ has my interest.

Mt Tabor series.  5 minutes from home.  25 minute race.  How can I not do these races.

MTB

3 MTB races, moving up from Sport to Expert.   I don’t know which ones yet though.  There are very few relatively close to town so I’ll need to wait for more details.

A couple short tracks.  It’s a bummer that it overlaps the Tabor series and also that it takes roughly 4 hours to get there from SoPo during rush hour.

Track

I keep telling myself each year that I’ll go and give it a try.  But each year rolls on by and other stuff takes priority.  Maybe I’ll surprise myself this year.  Probably not though.

Cross

Move up to Master A.  5 to 6 races, typically skipping the Halloween one and one other.  I may, repeat may, go back east for a USGP or other big race if there’s one held in New England.

The Kruger’s Kermesse series looks interesting too as a good tune up.  I didn’t head out this year as my bike wasn’t in yet but maybe next year if the timing works out.

That’s all I can think of so far.  I’m sure this will change as more details come out and the exact schedule is finalized.

Hillsboro – Cross Finals

In case you missed it, fall/winter is officially here: Grey skies. 45°F. Steady rain. Perfect hot tub weather…but more on that later.

Rach stayed home with the kids (wise move) so I headed out with enough time to warm up and get a quarter-lap pre-ride in. I walked around a bit to check out the rough stuff. It was fairly clear that Sunday’s race would be like none other this year. Results from the previous 6 races wouldn’t matter much as the conditions would require a much different set of skills and strengths.

Gone would be the high speed cornering and the straight stretches that called on aerobic endurance. Getting through the mud would require intense, muscle-searing, power-based bursts and handling skills to stay on track. The mantra for this race would be – keep your momentum.

I got a quick warm-up in on the trainer, lubed up with some Atomic Balm, and headed to the line. Brad forgot the current standings so we were left to best-guess the top 10 or so. It all worked out just fine but in the short 15 minutes we were standing at the line, the cold started to seep in through the layers.

My goal for the start was to stay in sight of the front and stay calm. It’s a 45 minute race and we were told that as the previous races had been running 12 minute laps, 4 laps would probably be it.

The gun went off and Mike Alligood, Johnny Vergis, 2 HFV (Wade & Kevin), Jeff Standish, and I moved out front early down the parking lot. The pace seemed fast but manageable. Winding through the muck out back, I found a line to the right that made it rideable up to the short hill. This part stretched out the field a bit.

Mike was out front setting a pretty hard pace as we wound around and then back the straightaway to the start area. Wade and Kevin were behind by 10 yards or so with Johnny V and I chasing.

Grinding through the second mud area, I found a decent line to the left this time and powered through. Having watched a bit of the C race, I knew the turn around the power tower and up the hill was not rideable. We all dismounted and trudged up the hill in what seemed like slow motion.

This group stayed together until the far part of the course by the entrance.  By now, our 5 man group was showing signs of breaking up. We went up and down the berm and then back to the slippery downhill by the power tower. Grinding out the bottom section, Jason Crago and I emerged out front.

Jason put a nasty pace on by the finish and out on the pavement. Looking behind, we agreed on trying to open up a gap. I took the lead before we hit the mud.

By now a certain sort of zen was setting in right before we entered the sticky, gloopy mud stretches. Shift down, sit back a touch to weight the rear wheel, point the front wheel where you want it to go, relax the shoulders and start spinning. I think there’s a tendency to tense up when you first hit those stretches because you don’t know which way the mud will take you, wondering if that 6 inch rut is firm or soft. Almost like you’re submitting to it. Not today though. Mud – I am so the boss of you.

Jason and I hammered the 2nd lap. He seemed to lead out on the flat stretches and I was making up ground through the mud. He grabbed the lead going down the mud slope to the power tower. I was right behind, powering through again when something happened right at the transition back to the pavement. I don’t know exactly what but I went down hard on the pavement.

Luckily no one was on my tail so I didn’t get run over or passed. Jason looked back and hit the gas, opening up a quick 15 sec. gap. I got up, remounted and took off with a now-throbbing left hip to chase.

Jason kept the gap for the next lap and a half, pushing real hard. We were running solid 11 min. laps, maybe a touch below in the 10:50’s.  I tried a few quick bursts in the big ring to make up some ground but the gap was holding strong at a good 5-10 sec.

Heading into the last lap I knew two things for certain – Jason was riding strong, especially on the flat stretches, but was dismounting early through the mud. I was probably only going to make up ground riding hard through the mud.

I caught him on the mud section by the pit area. We hit the run-up by the crowd together and came up on some junior & clydesdales that he navigated better than I did. He opened up a couple second gap on the low, flat stretch. Entering the mud area by the entrance, he lost his line and dismounted. With the conditions, he wouldn’t be able to get back on until after the run-up after the barriers – about 50 yards or so.  This was it.

I took the line to the right that had been working so far and started spinning.  Around the pine, I went to the middle, which was surprisingly rideable.  I caught him on the turn before the barriers and kept pushing.  Up the hill and back on the bike we headed to the slick up & down.  Once back up top, we remounted and he took the lead.   I’m running out of gas.

We had just the muddy downhill and the short 70 yards to the finish.  I had one match left to burn and I chose to use it to pass through the mud at the bottom.  For a split second though, mud ended up being the boss of me.  At the top of the hill, I lost my line and veered right, losing momentum forcing a quick foot dab to get back on track.  Jason had maybe 5 yards heading into the pavement and put a sprint on that I could not match.  2nd place.

It took all of 2 minutes for the cold to set in and my left hip to start barking at me.  I was shivering by the time I got my wheels from the pit and downright chattering by the time I got back to the car.  This isn’t good.  Peeling the clothes off, I changed quickly envying the junior parked next to me with his parents helping him get changed, washed off, and warm.  I poured a cup of hot tea from the thermos, packed up the car and headed home with the heater on full.

I skipped the post-race wash, still shivering after the 30 min ride home.  I got a quick shower in and parked myself in the hot tub with a beer.  That’s right – 104 degrees of love.

For me, this should do it for the year.  My hip is trashed.  I’m exhausted and have a bunch of other stuff to do that I’ve basically put on hold for the last couple months.  I know the USGP will be a good race but I’m just tapped out of energy right now.  I am, however, looking forward to the party.  I’m sure if you track me down I’ll have a few tasty beers – the good stuff from the cellar, homemade and commercial.

Yes, the race for 306th place is on and it’s gonna be a rumble!

Here are unofficial, non-sanctioned OBRA standings of the B+35 field..

The places in italics are those who, to the best of my knowledge, have moved up to A+35. The bold numbers are the top 16 active B+ spots that may get called up Sunday.

Because of upgrades there are 6 racers between 61 and 47 points, a difference of just 14 points. For the double points race, a 1st place by one of the top 5 will win the series.Gregg Rouse in 11th has a shot with a win but only if Chris Tauscher places at or below 3rd. Kevin Thompson, with 41 points, also has a chance but he needs a win and people in 5th place on up to finish out of the top 3 . Below that, there needs to be a lot of bad days in the top 10. But hey, it’s cyclocross – anything can happen.

There’s a number of us, myself included, that have been lamenting the lack of rainfall this year. You could make a (valid) argument to shut up and just ride but let’s face it – riding in the mud is much more interesting than on dry ground. I won’t necessarily say ‘fun’ but just different, and in my opinion, challenging.

After what looked like a promising start to the water year (defined as Oct to Sept), it’s been basically dry. But historically though, each year has it’s ups and downs. I compiled the rainfall data for the past 4 years, loking at rainfall depths over a 24-hour and 7-day period.

2004 is the first year I have any reference to, having started in the beginners that year. With the exception of Barton Park on 11/6 and Nationals at the end of the season, it was a fairly dry year.

2005 was more interesting. We had an off-week during the most intense period of rain but it kept Barton and Estacata pretty well saturated for the rest of the season. I didn’t take the data past the end of the year, but as you can see, the late December rainfall was pretty intense.

The 2006 season had the epic rainfall during November. For those in the water resource business, we have classified the November ‘06 event as a 5-year event – which is to say there’s about a 20% chance of something like this occurring each year. We peaked out at nearly 8 inches of rain in the week before Estacata.

It’s interesting to note though that the USGP finals was really where the rain and mud took it’s toll although the really intense rain had died down for a week. There’s another term we use – antecedent conditions – that generally describes how saturated the ground is. Rainfall during dry conditions tends to soak right in, which is why big early season events typically don’t cause much flooding. Depending on the soils, it can take days or weeks for an area to get fully saturated. But once fully wet, even a little rain can cause problems. By the time the USGP finals rolled around everything was good and wet and that weekend rainfall was like icing on the cake. Whatever rain fell had nowhere to soak in.

This year, by most accounts, is a hydrologic dud. We’ve had some good stretches of dry weather and whatever rain that did fall in early October is long gone. Shifting the schedule to get a more muddy Barton Park race unfortunately didn’t work. Even the Rainier race which took place after our most intense rain of the season wasn’t all that bad. Failing an intense storm from the Pineapple Express, Hillsboro may look more like the early-season race we had there last year instead of the epic mudbath.

Someone started a thread in the Cross Forum about upgrading and tewills chimed in with a couple ideas on the upgrade process. According to Candi Murray, OBRA currently has the same 3 top 3’s / 5 top 5’s criteria for cross that it does for mtb racing. It isn’t the stricter, more elaborate set that road racing has probably due to having less races to judge a rider by in a season. However, the field sizes are growing. I don’t think it’s the ideal criteria but failing a better suggestion, it’s the best we have.

Caveat – I am currently a B+35 racer. My season results (5th, 1st, 3rd) put me right at, but just below, the upgrade limits. I will not say I should or shouldn’t cat up although I am sure that 99% of any comments will say that I should. If you do think I should – I am genuinely interested in hearing why.

Anyway, I was thinking about the process this year, particularly after Brooke Hoyer began posting lap time information on his blog and the overlap that happens between categories. Brooke put the Barton lap times here. Comparing the A+ to B+, the average B+ lap time for 1st, 5th , and 10th places (about 8:10) was right at the 10th place A+ lap time (also 8:10…assuming I’m reading the data correctly). You could make an argument that those top 10 B+ riders would do reasonably fine in the A+’s. Comparing the open B’s to A’s, the difference is even less noticeable. But by current criteria, only the top 5 really get scrutinized.

So is placement a realistic indicator of performance? I’m beginning to think that maybe it isn’t. Perhaps lap times would be a more accurate representation of ability…and category placement. Instead of 3 top 3’s, maybe 3 races where your lap times are better than the 10th or 20th percentile of the next category up is sufficient. This may be the top 3 racers or the top 10. Aside from deliberately slowing down for an entire race, sandbagging would be much harder to do. Simply ‘bagging it to drop a spot or two down into the 6th-10th places that fly under the upgrade radar might actually be counterproductive.

The reality of it though is that implementing this criteria would mean significantly more work for the race officials. In addition to the time they spend getting placement right, they would now also have to track finish times and # of laps to get average lap times. The race chips would be a potential solution but they’re expensive and are reputed to be somewhat unreliable.

Obviously this is just a thought. But if we’re looking to have a category system that feels fair, maybe lap times are a better indicator of performance than placement.