I got out the door right on time this morning, the first day of commuting since the time change. My pack was loaded down again to restock my clothing supply at work. My legs were feeling normal and the ride was easy. I still say that 1.5 hours alone on a bike does strange things to the brain. I did manage not to bonk though.

I tried something new for the ride home. I headed out along the W&OD in the opposite direction as I normally do. I rode towards Leesburg and saw ten miles of the trail I hadn't seen before. It's a great section of trail. It's mostly rural areas with very few road crossings--perfect for holding tempo. It was very dark not long after I left work and my crappy light doesn't help. I had to slow the pace a bit to be safe. Jess picked me up in Leesburg and we checked out Mars with her 'scope.

No real training today. Jess and I rode around downtown DC for a while though, so I spent some time on the bike. We rode out to Hains Point and I messed around on the grass trying to pop wheelies. Hains Point seems like a great spot for training rides and it was no surprise that we saw a lot of bikers coming by.


In the spirit of Halloween, I carved a pumpkin tonight. My choice of subject should be no surprise. 

The ride in this morning was fairly uneventful. The weather wasn't quite as bad as yesterday and I used some thicker hiking socks to keep my feet warm. They did an adequate job just leaving the very tips of my toes a bit cold. The ride home was far more noteworthy.

For the first time since I started riding my bike to work, I bonked. I figured it'd happen during the summer months when the heat and humidity were brutal, but instead, it happened as the fall weather is slowly creeping in. I left work not feeling too bad, but I knew my legs were a bit tired. I was happy to know I wasn't racing this weekend and that I could push through the tired legs and have a good ride.

As I was coming through the Powerhouse section to Vienna, I was rolling along at a slow pace and whistling. Then two guys went by me on road bikes and the chase was on. The frontrunner noticed me on his wheel and we started to go pretty fast. Since I was carrying a full load of clothes plus shoes and a towel, my pack was as heavy as it ever gets. But I was determined to hang. We actually traded off the lead a couple times and he got out of the saddle to pull away just as we were coming in to Vienna. I rolled up next to him as we stopped at a crossing and not surprisingly he was done. I told him thanks for the fun.

It's always nice to pick up a rider anywhere on the trail that will challenge me. I think most guys aren't out there looking to race, but when someone can push the pace, it makes it a whole lot more fun. Being out on the trail for an hour and a half can be monotonous when you do it several days in a row.

After I was alone again, the sun started to go down and with it went my energy. I threw in a few off-road sections to liven things up a bit, but I couldn't help but feel as though my legs were being drained of strength. I also noticed I was getting really hungry. And of course, I started thinking about the McDonald's just off the trail in Arlington. By the time I made it there, I was absolutely dead and more than happy to get out of the saddle and walk. I had a quarter pounder with cheese, six pack of nuggets, fries and a drink eaten in record time. Jess met me for supper and by the time she arrived I was ready for more food. Of course I was also freezing from the cold weather and the sweat that was sitting on my back.

I fell asleep after my alarm went off and it took me a while to gather my things. I had to carry a full set of clothes, towel, and shoes along with my usual stuff. That's what happens when I don't ride to work for a while. I was finally rolling at 7a--about thirty minutes later than I should have been.

I had thrown in an old pair of yellow gardening gloves in case my hands got cold and that turned out to be a good call. I put those on before I left Arlington. It was downright cold this morning. I saw only a handful of riders out this morning and even fewer were headed in my direction. It seems the weather is slowly but surely thinning everyone out.

At about the halfway mark, I was pretty uncomfortable. My cotton long sleeve shirt wasn't doing an adequate job of keeping me warm and neither were my shoes. My toes were freezing and I lost feeling in them after a few more miles. The last two miles weren't all that fun and when I did get to work, it was really odd to walk without being able to move my toes. But boy did the shower feel good. I stayed in there a bit too long enjoying the hot water on my frozen toes.

The solution, according to Pat, is to get some booties. I had thought those were for time trialers obsessed with aero, but upon further review it seems they have a higher function: warmth! I can add a pair of those to my list of needed equipment.

The ride home wasn't too bad. I was able to leave early enough that I wasn't in total darkness until I was near Arlington and even then the street lights helped out a lot. My light really doesn't do much. It's old and even with new batteries it doesn't shine enough except to alert people that you're coming. I think a new and more powerful light is another addition to my shopping list.

I rode most all of the off road gravel sections and felt pretty solid. My chain needs some lube so it was annoying listening to the derailleur squeak all the way home. I was meeting up for Bible Study, so I rode the Custis Trail to Military Rd. and tackled a massive hill. It's good to be back on the bike.

No riding today. I spent the last few hours before bed watching the wrong colored Sox win the World Series and getting my bike back in tip-top shape. I was able to fix the problem with my front hub just by loosening the cones a bit. I'm still not sure how they got so tight, but at least the grinding is no more. I finished removing the rust from the cassette and chain and used WD-40 to wash out any excess moisture. They look good as new again.

I had to get my old bike light out of the bin and put new batteries in it. I'll likely be coming home in the dark after my class tomorrow and after the time falls back, I'll definitely be needing a light.

Today, I am 22 years of age. The "double-deuce" as I like to call it. A lot has changed since my last birthday: a new city, a new sport, no school, and a new job. Life is coming fast. The cake was delicious.


The weather from all the hurricanes continues to make things miserable. It rained most of today, so I stayed inside to enjoy my birthday. I started cleaning up my bike which is quite the mess after Granogue. I shouldn't have let the chain sit after coming home because a lot of rust developed and I'm having a tough time getting it all off. I'm letting the chain soak in Simple Green tonight and hopefully tomorrow I can scrub the last remanants off the chain and cassette.

On a more troubling note, my front hub may be lost. I was cleaning up the wheels when I felt the bearings in the hubs grinding. I don't have cone wrenches of the correct size to check it out just yet, but it doesn't sound good at all. I'm not sure if it's becuase of all the rain and mud or if the beating of cross courses has done it. But in any case I need to get things fixed as soon as possible. The wheelset was brand new a the start of the season. Fortunately, the rear wheel seems fine.

The MABRA standings were finally updated and my Iron Cross Lite points put me 18th with 14 points.

Raceday! All I can say is wow. That's how a cyclocross racing should be. With all the professionals and elite racers at Granogue, I was really impressed with what this sport can be at a high level. There is really a lot of excitement with announcers and terrific organization.

The course was definitely my favorite so far. It's located on the Granogue Estate of the Dupont family, and is located near Wilmington, DE. The land is spectacularly beautiful and even the rain and overcast skies couldn't hide that fact. The race starts on a 300m section of road before getting into the meat of the course. There's a quick descent to the lowest part of the course after running over some nasty roots. At low point there was plenty of mud just before a large run-up. It then winds around a bit before making its way to the highest point on the course where it circles around a water tower. From there, it descends with a huge off-camber hill with the standard planks waiting at the bottom. After a few more muddy turns, it's back to the road and the finish line.

I decided that today I would do my best to get in a real warm-up. The best thing I can think to do is to mimic my running warmup in terms of length and intensity. So I set up the trainer next to the car and started spinning. I'd originally planned on riding for 21 minutes to get the equivalent of a three mile run, but a call of nature cut that to 11. Luckily, I was able to make up for that by running to the bathroom. It felt great to run! I felt so natural and effortless and my legs felt terrific. I got back on the trainer after returning from the bathroom and did several "strides" by spinning as fast as I could. I should do more of those I think as the rush in my quads at the start of these races always seems to scare me away from fighting through the crowds.

I went to the start line early as I've come to expect in 'cross races, but I was thrown off by the lack of folks milling around preparing to scrum. I learned that we'd be lining up by our pre-reg numbers, which looking around, seemed like a great idea to me. I had a decent spot and after they lined us up, I was in the top third of the eighty or so riders. From the whistle, I did my best to be competitive and not to get intimidated by all the close riding. After knocking a guy down at Hagerstown and then the garbage over the internet after Charm City, I'm probably a bit too nice and tend to be timid in the early going. What usually happens is that guys force their way through the pack and I yield to them out of fear/stupidity/niceness (take your pick). Regardless of how competitive I was early on, the first lap had a lot of stopping and starting as well as a lot of riding with one foot unclipped.

After the first lap or so, things thinned out just enough to where I was more comfortable about racing. I still had to be agressive and forceful anytime I wanted to pass because of how small the lanes are. But I remember getting passed by a Wissahickon cyclist and I decided I'd suck his wheel and let him pull me through. That helped quite a bit as he seemed to create holes for us to ride through. With all the maneuvering that takes place on the off-road sections, it's no wonder that I took a liking to the 300m of asphalt. That tends to be my speciality at whatever course I'm at. I can usually fly on those sections and make up for my lack of technique everywhere else.

Speaking of technical sections . . . the off-camber hill that Granogue is apparently known for was really something. In all the races I've been in so far, I haven't had to ride with a foot unclipped. But this hill, as steep and as muddy as it was, made this the only option for me and, it seemed, for everyone else. My back tire was really sliding all over the place coming down that hill and I thought a few times that I would ride right off the course. I didn't, and I managed to ride the hill better each time we came around.

I'm not sure at what point I spotted Bernie McDonald, but when I did I felt like I had been drifting around aimlessly. Picking him up got me focused again and I set my sights on staying at least at his place. At some point, I realized that fellow-blogger Chris Nystrom had joined in the fun. The three of us were battling it out for what seemed like most of the race. Several times, I thought I had enough to break away from Bernie and I would really pour it on coming off the asphalt section. But everytime I tried, I would make a mistake in the first turn or on the roots or in the really muddy section before the run-up. And everytime I did, I rode there watching either Bernie or Chris or both take an amazingly sweet line right past me. It really sucked, but I couldn't do much about it and mostly tried to keep them close enough to where I could make up the lost ground on the road. That tactic became the theme for the duration of the race.

The most shocking moment of the race happened at what I think was near the midway point. I was taking my usually crappy line over the roots when Adrian Lobito went by. Seeing as he's leading the MABRA series and either wins or places second at every race, I was a bit suprised to see him passing me this far into the race. Most likely he had a lot of trouble getting through traffic at the start as I couldn't sniff his wheel the rest of the way.

As Chris Nystrom was making clear to me several times during the race, "No Brakes!" is the way to go. I'm definitely not the trusting kind just yet, but I can see how I will go a lot faster when I start taking more risks. I have a tendancy to grab a handful when the going gets rough or slick and it can get me into a lot of trouble. I almost crashed last weekend because of that and in this race it slowed me down a lot. Seeing the pros race really clued me in to how much you have to let go. Those guys would absolutely fly down muddy off-camber sections and you could see how difficult it was for them to keep the bike upright. But they let it roll and they didn't crash.

Bernie, Chris, and I mostly traded spots until the last lap when both of them were in front of me. I was able to keep them fairly close, but in the end I was only able to pass Chris on the road while the gap to Bernie was too much to overcome. It was nerve racking riding the final sections before we hit the road. I felt like a caged animal trying to get out. When my front wheel finally hit the asphalt, I stomped as hard as I could and got as low as I could all the way to the finish. I was trying so hard in that last lap to beat both of them but in the end my technical skills and maybe a bit of conditioning weren't enough.

For the race as a whole, all the laps blur together, I have no clue how many we raced or for how long we raced. That's one puzzling thing about cyclocross--I feel as if I could ride one less or one more lap and it wouldn't change my output. I just keep riding until they tell me to stop. I guess the exception to that is when I hear the bell. In that case I try to get more intense and deliberate about what I'm doing. I think with time I will grow more focused.

The section around the tower was very annoying. It was barely rideable before the race and after it became muddy it was neither rideable nor runable. I think those are sections where the course fails a little bit. If you're slipping too much to run then I don't feel like it's about speed--it becomes a battle of equipment or who can manage to muck through. I can't wait till I have enough cash to buy some new shoes with toe spikes! They should be mandatory on days like this one. I think they're good enough for a place or two for sure.

For the first time racing bikes, I had a brief cramp in my right calf. It was brief and not at all painful, but it scared me. I've never had problems with cramps, so hopefully I won't start.

After the race, I made my way over to get in line for the bike wash. It took a while, but once I got to the head of the line, I was able to give my bike and my legs a thorough washing. With the weather being so chilly lately, I was freezing after spraying all that water and so I went for a run around the estate to clean up. It was just a brief two miler--hardly worthy of a cool-down, but it did the trick and it felt good. Running it wet cycling shoes isn't the best of conditions, but it was good enough for today. I continue to be plesantly surprised by my running fitness.

All told, I finished 28th of 75 finishers--not too shabby for my first MAC appearance. I must say that even though the atmosphere is more exciting in the MAC, I prefer MABRA for racing. The smaller fields generally make for more fair competition. There's not the waiting for things to clear out the way there is in MAC. But it should also be said that I need to become more forceful about racing hard in the first few laps and finding a solid group to stick with the way I did today. Obviously to be good at this sport, my technical skills must improve dramatically. I think I've had success in the last couple races due to the long sections of pavement. Eventually I need to make even the muddiest of sections my playground.

 

Jess had the day off today, so I rode in to work so she could use her car. I did my best to ride 24 miles without straining myself, but that's neither easy said nor done. I felt mostly strong early on and I'm glad I took yesterday off. The cold weather and lack of light makes for lonely riding in the mornings. But today that was a blessing as I wasn't tempted to hammer anything.

With about six miles remaining to reach work, the skies opened up. I had to stop and put the iPod away and before long I was totally soaked. It was like many of the workouts we did on the track at MIT. All that was missing was Coach Taylor sitting on the side of the road in his Gore-Tex rain gear. Wet cleats made for an intersting scene walking across the marble floors in the lobby, but I was really happy to finally get to a hot shower.

All my clothes were still soaked through at 5p, so I opted to get a ride home from Eric. This was a wise decision not only because riding home in wet clothes would be awful but also because I can rest my legs that much more.

I don't have to make many adjustments to my bike tonight since I've rode to work three times this week. It's been shifting well and the rain today gave it a nice wash. I'll just pull the light off the back of the seatpost, lube the chain, and it'll be ready to ride.

I was thinking about buying some new pedals before tomorrow because I think I'm going to have lots of trouble with mud clogging my Nashbar ATB pedals the way they did in Hagerstown. I decided to save the cash and I'll probably wait till next season, but I'm also trying to decide between the Time ATAC's and Crank Brothers Egg Beaters or Candy. I'm told both of those styles will shed mud extremely well. If anyone knows better between the two, let me know.

Tomorrow is a huge race. It's the second race in the more prestigious MAC series. There are 61 pre-registered for my race and 42 for the elite race. The elite race has several professional riders and even a dude from Belgium. It should be amazing to watch. More importantly, it will be a severe test of my skill. The talent level at this race far exceeds any that I have rode in so far and I'm not sure what kind of goals to set. For a non measureable goal, I'll be happy if I feel as though I've competed. I don't want to come away feeling the way I did after Lilypons where I felt the course man-handled me. Rather I'd like to come away feeling the way I did last week where I didn't lose any spots after the first lap. My place could be horrendous, but I will know whether or not I've competed.

With it getting later and later in the year, it's very dark when I leave for work at 6:30. I rode down to Bluemont Park to see if the Italians would show for practice, but it was still dark when I got there and waiting around until after seven for it to get light would have made me later for work than I wanted to be.

The weather in the morning is pretty chilly and I was glad to have some gloves on--even though my fingers got very cold. I figure eventually I'm going to have to switch to full gloves and put on my sweatpants to ride in. I'm already riding in my longsleeve shirt for the duration of the ride. The temperature was probably around 45 or so.

I'm noticing more and more folks from the races out on the trails in the morning and afternoon. Yesterday I spotted the Women's MABRA leader as I was coming home and today I rode behind a guy on the Rockville Harley Davidson team as I was leaving Arlington.

I tried to find another cross practice in Lake Fairfax Park after work, but the sun was setting and I didn't find te park immediately off the trail. Maybe I'll make it some other time. I probably added five miles of riding down various roads to find an entrance.

The rest of my ride was fairly typical, with the exception of sucking off of a guy riding a Seven road bike. He past me as I was getting back on the trail and I had to drop the hammer to stay with him. He was riding 23's and because I'm lazy, I'm still riding my cyclocross tires. But I did manage to stay either on his wheel or directly beside him all the way to the Vienna Depot. It was a good interval to do on a Wednesday. I think he was chilling a little bit since he rode the stretch with his arms draped over his handlebars.

After he turned off, I settled back in to an easy pace and felt terrific. I was turning the gears soo smoothly. In comparison to running, at least for me, the smoothness with which I ride is comparable to the "pop" that I talk about running. It's the sweet spot of cycling. Everything just feels right. I rode up the Wilson Blvd. hill spinning my gears at a stupid fast cadence and I climbed it better than I can remember.

I made my usual commute to work for the first time since my disaster last Wednesday. Nothing really to report except that it felt great to be back on the W&OD doing mileage. My legs feel strong and I've recovered nicely from Saturday's race.

I haven't had time to get a race summary written, but I had a great race at Iron Cross Lite. I finished 8th in the B race, which is my best finish yet. I actually had some fight in me for this one and had a solid race. The results, which for the first time have splits and finish times, have been posted--as have the pictures of the race. The series standings haven't been updated, but I should have picked up 8 points, giving me 14 total for the season.

As has become customary on Thursdays, I got no work in. But today was also disappointing in another area. I had a lead on two great bikes off CraigsList, only to have both of them fall through at the last minute. I was really excited about both of the bikes, but I guess it's better to keep that money in my pocket anyways. I don't really have the cash to spend. The Sirrus lives on as my lone road/cross bike.

I did, however, stop by Lowes on the way home today and buy some PVC to make cyclocross barriers. I followed the plans at BikeMan.com and they were a cinch to construct. They look great and should work wonders. I can carry them in my backpack down to Bluemont Park and use them for practice. Total cost was just under $17.

I forgot to mention earlier in the week that my tenth place finish (poor competition though there was) earned me six MABRA series points. That puts me 25th in the current Men's B standings.

This morning was a bit of a disaster, but I did get a good workout in. I forgot to set my alarm earlier so I could get to Bluemont Park for some cross practice. Instead, I woke up at 6:40a and had to rush out the door to make it on time. I wasn't all that late and when I got to the park, I started to wonder if the Italians had stood me up.

I was just about to leave when Scott rolled up. He showed me a nice little loop that they run and it has most everything you could want to practice: off camber turns, gravel, asphalt, grass, a run up, and even PVC barriers. I think I'll probably construct a few PVC barriers of my own. We rode that loop a few times and I was sucking mightily. My bike handling just wasn't very good this morning and it showed. My gears also need an adjustment after all the mud that my bike went through last weekend. A simple tune up should take care of it.

The real disaster came after I left the park. I rode all the way to the Vienna depot before I started thinking about the clothes I packed. I couldn't remember what shirt I'd packed and when I stopped to check, I realized there wasn't one! After contemplating whether Eric or Pat might have a shirt I could wear, I decided I'd better go home and get one. So I rode 22 miles this morning and ended up driving in to work. It goes without saying that I was way late. But at least I rode today.

Showing up for practice this morning gave me a good idea of how I can get better. A simple, but well thought out loop in the park can give me something to master. And once I've mastered that I'll have a skill set that will help me in races. Thanks to Scott of Squadra Coppi for the introduction.

I'm going to try something a bit different for a race summary this week. I've posted an .mp3 file. This is my first attempt at something resembling a podcast. It should be pretty funny. I was able to get ten minutes of content edited in Audacity which is quite surprising. Hopefully I don't sound like a total idiot. I think I covered all the major points that I would have covered by writing a race summary. Let me know what you think . . . but be kind, I'm no broadcaster.

Pictures from the race can be found here. Results are here.

Enjoying the mud. 


Photo Finish. 

It rained all day today and I didn't get a chance to do anything outside. Instead I put in just twenty minutes of riding on the bike trainer. I was able to work up a good sweat while watching the Sox bow out of the playoffs. Somehow it doesn't hurt nearly as much now that they've won one.

I'm all set to race tomorrow. I didn't spend the time I usually do cleaning my bike because I know how disgusting and filthy it will be tomorrow. Cleaning it now would just be stupid. I'm really looking forward to some wet conditions.

It's great to see folks are taking a look at the pictures. I didn't realize quite so many of them would also read my blog. I guess some comments I made about racing at Charm City got one guy upset. You can read all the comments at the end of the log entry on 9/25. That said, I cracked 110 hits today from people looking for photos. One of them was posted on FatMarc's page. Pretty cool.

My training, which is what this log is really about, today fell through. What a shock. Thursday's are the hardest to find time. With rain in the forecast tomorrow, I may spend some time on the trainer or just brave the elements for a run. Who knows? In the meantime, I really need to give a race summary for last weekend before I race again on Saturday.

I've posted some pictures of Sunday's Ed Sander Cross Race at Lilypons Water Gardens in Buckeystown, MD. The pictures are of the Men's C/Women's B/Juniors race as well as the Men's B race. However, most of the pictures of the Men's B race are of me. This was my first time shooting with a really nice lens (rented), so I'm by no means an expert photographer. Feel free to use any of these pictures--though it'd be cool to see my name in the credit for whatever you choose to do with them. Enjoy.

I rode in to work again today and felt great doing it. I kept a nice pace going all the way out to Sterling and never really had anyone approaching my wheel. I went offroad on a few sections to try things out and did a few tricky climbs in loose gravel. Hopefully I can get better at that as my trials on the gravel road last Sunday really hurt me.

Coming home, I didn't feel quite as good early on. My legs were sore and I couldn't get moving for a while. To shake things up I went offroad at nearly every opportunity and suddenly I was feeling stronger and ready to roll. Luckily I started riding past folks and evern found one guy on a Lemond who was moving pretty well. By the end of the ride my legs felt amazing and I was spinning really well. I'm really enjoying riding the nobbie tires on and off the trail--it's letting me find new sections and making the same monotonous trail not so.

I think two days of riding to work is enough mileage for this week with the race in Hagerstown on Saturday. I'll probably ride in on Friday and let Jess pick me up on her day off. Tomorrow perhaps I'll try to get some cross practicing in (dismounts, carrying the bike, feeble attempts at bunny hopping, etc.). Time is definitely limited on Thursdays though.

This Saturday, I'll have a new lens to play with. I wasn't able to get the 70-200mm f2.8 lens this weekend, but I did get a 100-400mm f4/5.6 lens from Penn Camera and that should be plenty fast enough aperture if the sun is out the way it was last weekend.

38km X 2

I'm too lazy to transform my bike back into a road machine, but I'm not too lazy to finally start riding back to work. I hit the roads (and trails) today at O dark thirty (6:30a). With the summer coming to a close, it's still dark at that hour and the temperature is just right. I thought it was going to be chilly at first, so I wore a long sleeve shirt. But before I had gona a mile, I took it off.

Riding with cyclocross tires and without aero bars makes things slower, but not all that much less enjoyable. Clipless pedals are great. There are a surprising number of sections alongside the W&OD where you can ride off the path. It's really quite fun. I can ride my normal 38K route to work and get cyclocross practice whenever I choose. I think it'd be great training to do fartleks on the off road portions. I have no idea how fast I'm riding now because I took off my bike computer and don't have any extra zip ties yet to reattach it. But it's probably best that I don't know for now.

Coming home was more of the same and the weather was wonderful. Fall is definitely on it's way. Pat was leaving at the same time I was, but he said he needed to take it easy and let me go on my way. I kept a strong pace the whole time, but never had anyone to deal with. I caught Jess riding to her piano lesson in the opposite direction just as I was coming through Arlington. We don't need no stinkin' gas. What we do need is pitching!

I need to update a lot, and I've got lots of pictures . . . For now I'm trying not to get any further behind.

38km X 2