Training Race Report 10/5

Sunday provided me with an opportunity to train at a higher level than normal. A Portland crew had collaborated to organize an underground training race at the Eastern Prom. Since my last CX race was 2 weeks back, I was jonesing for some competition to prepare for this weekend's New England Worlds. Making it work was a little tricky. You see, we were celebrating Fenix's birthday today and I had a short to-do list to complete before festivities started @ 9am. Fortunately, the race was slated to go off @ 8am so I reported with confidence to Babs I'll easily be home by 10:30am and get to work. She was skeptical and said I'd be lucky if I were home by 11am. I thought that was absurd, so she bet me: if I weren't back by 11am, I would have to buy her a $300 pair of boots for her birthday. I took the bet. I'm an idiot.

I made arrangements with JB to meet at the 497 and pedal from there. It was a nice brisk warmup along the Maine Marathon route into the big city. Upon arrival, we found some likely suspects in the likes of Marianne Stover, Chris LaFlamme, Ryan Littlefield and others. Things got started slowly. We did a couple of pre-ride laps to get a feel for the course. In true fashion, LaFlamme attempted to bunny hop the barriers on our practice lap, crashed, and rendered his rear wheel warped (on a mtb no less!). The course was a nice mix of a long uphill to push out watts, short straights with 90 degree turns mixed in, some off-camber riding, a double and single barrier, speedy descents, a run up that could be ridden but I wanted practice running, tall grass that needed a beat down, and of course some mud and water. We finally got organized and started at 8:30am. Was time a factor? Nah.

JB and I were pushed to the front and led the charge. Littlefield hung on for a few laps riding a singlespeed with cow horn bars! Soon, it was just Burnsy and I. We swapped off a bit. Our riding styles are definitely different. JB powers through sections than recovers in others. I like to stay steady and ride consistently. 3 laps in I let John lead the way and he created a gap. If not for the turns and techy stuff, he would have stayed away.

We raced for about 45 minutes and I made a point to stay in front of JB heading into the run up which after 3 previous attempts, I committed to riding on the final lap and it worked. We spun back towards the parking lot and it was then that I started doing the time math in my head. It was 9:23 and we had at least a 30min ride back to the 497. So we made haste and rode home. We had to choose an alternate route in order to avoid the now full-on marathon. At some point JB lost pressure in his rear tire and had to change it out. I continued on, becoming worried I wasn't going to make it. I got back to the car shortly after 10am, chitchatted a bit with French Freye and Hattie and began to realize I really wasn't going to make it. I motored home trying to make up time without doing any crazy speeding and pulled in at 11:03:30! That's a steep fine: $100/minute! So Babs gets her boots, I got a proper ride/race in, Fenix had a great party (thanks to Babs), and I got a cold! Gotta take the good with the bad!

Next up is the biggest CX race of the year for me.