Entries in Mol (24)
Finito on the Short Track for 07
The last Boulder Short Track occurred this past Wednesday. It was an absolute throw down. It was "double coupon" night...2x the points for your results so the field was HUGE. The course was the longest of the series with so many tight 180's it looked to suit me and my BMX background. You have to JAM out of those bends to get gaps on folks and it is all about the power output. I lined up next to Sager, Ward and Colby and virtually everyone wanted front row positioning so the front line was like 25 people large (about 15 -20 in the row behind) and all trying to hole shot into a much smaller space.
Becker yelled 3,2,1 go! and it was like a full on motocross start. Braaaaaaaaaaaaaap! Chaos! Dudes bumping, crashing....i literally had my head down and elbows out...not to take people out...but to protect myself! I navigated through the chaos and didn't win the hole shot but was safely in the top 6-8 (I will not be keeping this phat position for long...). Things bottleneck up on 1/2 the first lap into those above mentioned 180 degree sections. Brady Kappius comes flying by me trading paint in this corner and we all back up. I hop off, 'cross style and run as do some other dudes and jump back on. So many dudes on such a tight spot. Crazy! So as the attrition sets in, lap after lap. I am trying to figure out how I feel. I am going SO HARD it is incredible. I am getting near what I put out in CX (not there yet) so am averaging about 172 with spikes at 180. This said, I felt almost sick on the last 2 laps. Literally like "Man, I better stop and sit down" sick. Crazy. If I could graph the night, it's something like this:
So I finished up totally spent, like 24th, worst personal result but still smiling and satisfied where the body is going. Totally different than last year and years prior. I think I was in the mid 20's overall in the A's having done 4 of the 8 races. This husband/daddy/worker can't complain! These mo-fos are FAST!
So as I write this, my reminder pops up like it does every Friday for me at 8AM MST. It makes me smile. It gets my juices flowing for Belgium. My plans are coming together. I got good news yesterday I'll share when 100% confirmed but as it relates to where I'll be staying for the 10 days in Belgium, it'll be total PRO style! Think Transitions2. Dreaming....
Friday, August 3, 2007 at 7:36AMFinito Part Trois
Another huge amount of climbing in the bank. Satisfied, yes, but empty today. More empty in the head, than empty in the legs. Belgium 2008.
Remember the three part teeter totter I have been talking about? Side 1: Family, Side 2: Training, Side 3: Work. Well, two of the three sides are bending and scraping the dirt at the moment. Family and work are needing me. Family more than anything and most importantly. My beautiful wife needs to feel me again instead of the sort of monk I've become in the last 3 months. So this tells me that the training is too much and bending the most important side of the teeter totter.
Do you ever get in that spot when you know you feel it? You want to go deeper and see what you can do? If you go just that bit deeper, you can maybe see just how the body will respond. You need more time to do this. I can't take or materialize more time. Not without bad consequences and I refuse to do that. I've seen it happen and it's not good. I think sometimes that the impulse to be selfish and go an extra hour than I should instead of going home is like what a meth addict must do to go get a fix. I never give in but I feel that tingle in my mouth. Or maybe this is what I hear those golf widows experience. I despise that too. I'm not that guy.
So, instead of some ballistic training thing today, my lady and I rolled. She and I, pavement, sun and our words. We rolled beautifully like we haven't done in a dog's year. We talked and gabbed, solved the problems of the universe....or at least how to get our youngest potty trained. It was so needed. We connected again like we used to on long rides years ago before our children came. So much fun. Meanwhile, as my wife is talking to me, gabbin away, she's dropping every Tom, Dick and Harry riding their $9,000 Parlees on the ramp up from 7K to 9K feet in Ward CO. HA! Hilarious. I lover her. I could feel that side of the teeter lift.
Man, since I started writing this post, I feel a helluva lot better. Thanks.
'Tis announced
Mol, BE Saturday January 19th, 2008. Le Championnats Masters Mondiaux. The day before my birthday. The beach awaits. I am smiling ear to ear.
Belgium 2008. I can't believe I am doing this.
Dreaming of Mol
More fuel for my "Belgium 2008" chant I say to myself silently every AM.
(from http://www.rugbyreviewtoday.co.uk/)
Ives, from Baginton, just failed to make history in the event by becoming the first rider to win six World Masters Cyclo Cross titles.
He was beaten into silver medal position in the 65+ category by old rival and now five times world champion Herman Martens, three years his junior.
Ives had trained very hard to defend his championship and was a clear winner at the recent British Championships, but it is a very different ball game in Belgium, where the cyclo cross is huge and big events often attract 30,000 spectators.
The course at Mol, which Ives has raced ten times, is very fast and mainly single track through pine forests, with 500m of road and three big sand sections, some of which is rideable, the rest has to be run.
Ives has won the title five times, been second twice and third once. He has also been second three times in the UCI World Road Championships and third once in the UCI World Mountain Bike Championships.
MI Racing-EAS-Thule team mate Barrie Mitchell finished eighth in the 60+ category, just three places behind last year's World Champion Vick Barnett.
Barrie's race went exactly as expected and for the first time in five years he managed to get round without any crashes or problems.
He was happy with 8th, although he was only 15 seconds away from 6th place.
"Racing at Mol is very fast and even small time gaps are very hard to close up. Passing is also a problem as a large section of the course through the woods are on single track paths," he said.
"As usual the large sections of sand are a problem to the English riders as we have nothing like this in the UK.
"You can lose big chunks of time each lap if you are unable to ride through the sand sections. Local Belgians are very good at this as many events in Belgium are centred in sandy areas each weekend."
