I don't have time for this, so it will be uncharacteristically short. Work exploded, with summary judgment motion due Monday and various other filings I've been under significant stress at work. So I've been beat, and it showed at cross practice Wednesday morning. The effects of stress on physical performance, even when you are otherwise in great shape, can be crushing.
So, we have the "Howard County Double Cross" -- two races by the same promoter, a new one on Saturday "Schooley Mill" and then Rockburn on Sunday. I was beat going into Saturday. I figured red bull and a good warm up were my only hope. I got a good start, and was in the front, in fact going off the front for a while on the back side of the first lap. But the course was very wet and it was sucking mud and grass...not my strength (not from a handling stand point but from a pure power stand point). I stuck with the front 5 on the second lap but then started to fade. Faded all the way back to 10th. Which given the run up days, I would accept.
Jake had a great race. Tanner Brown wasn't there but Noah Bell was. Jake got gapped at the start, but really hung on. Noah could not extend the gap and Jake pulled back close after some of the more muddy sections. He did a great job of keeping Noah from getting away, but Noah was too strong on the final hill and the 20-30 yard gap was just too great for Jake to close. I was proud. Noah was riding away from him earlier in the year. Photo by Bill Scheiken of www.cxhairs.com
Liam was scheduled to come but he had a big project for school that he hadn't done so had to stay home, much to Loren's significant displeasure
Today Jake and I got up at 6;15 again, loaded the car up again, and headed to Rockburn Park, just south of Baltimore. They were running late so I got to ride the course for a full hour to warm up. I felt better than the day before. The course suited me much more and I felt faster (I loved to big ring it through the single track in the woods). Another decent start on a long road start and I slotted into the top 5-8. Moved forward some and got hooked onto the front group. I heard it was up to 7 or 8 people at times, with Bruce Buckley hanging on the back. It was Neil Sapp, Scott Stahl, Jon Seibold, Ken Morris and a guy from Bike Doctor who decided to do the masters 3/4 instead of his regular race. There were some adventurous times ona semi-slippery but fast course. There was an acceleration when Neil Sapp attacked (or so Bruce said afterward) and that left just 6 of us, then Ken went into the tape on the last lap, sort of gapping me; I closed the gap and should have tried to go through some of the guys then, but shoulda woulda is easy in hind sight. I ended up 5th. A good result, certainly.
Jake's race was a carbon copy of the day before. They started the boys with the Cat 4 women. This screwed Jake because he kept getting taken out by women who couldn't handle their bikes in places where he was technical and faster. That blocked him from making time on Noah at least 3 times. But again he fought hard and kept clawing back to within 20 yards of Noah, but just couldn't close it. But he has Noah looking over his shoulder now worrying about Jake catching him, so that's impressive. He's frustrated because he wants to catch him, and he thought today he could with the more technical course. It was a nice day. This is a nice picture that Bill took today.
Some classic quotes from Jake today:
- I'm lining up, he asks if I need anything, I say no, so he says "I'll be out around the course to identify your mistakes"
- driving home Jake says he needs to go to the bathroom, I offer to pull over while we're still up there, he says no. By the time we're pulling off I-66 near home he's really squirming and we hit a few bumps, which makes him say "that's not helping." Then we hit a few more little bumps, basically cracks in the road and he says "does this car just not have ANY suspension" hahahahaha
Now back to work
Comments