For Sale.

Can't beat this deal!!!

http://boulder.craigslist.org/bik/252399692.html

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When I was in college my rowing coach asked me where I got my legs from. Where I got my “base” from. Everyone, Pro athletes especially, have a level of genetic ability that they are boprn with but even more important is what have they been doing since they were 5 years old. Or earlier.
I told her it was probably from hiking, climbing, “I played soccer in high school?” I really didn’t know. I didn’t grow up riding my road bike for hours and x-country skiing all day for fun like some of my freakishly strong friends. What I have done since I was 2 years old, however, is down hill ski. I have been doing it for so long that I forgot how hard it really is. Christmas day Lindsay and I went to Copper mt. and after a easy run together I started to hit it hard. I mean I thought I was Scott Schmitt for an hour or so. By the time 2pm rolled around I was paying for it. My legs burned, the 12,000 feet of altitude was making me more tired than normal and my back started to feel like Derek Jeter had batting practice on it!


Which brings me to THE key component to cross training. Going skiing one weekend is not cross training, country skiing once a month is not cross training. Random acts of physical activity that are hard on you, make you soar or think, “wow what a workout!, I hurt soooo much”, are not cross training. Cross training is an activity that trains aspects of your primary sport and aspects that are not directly used in your primary sport but still important. Most important is that one can participate in this activity frequently enough to become efficient at it and rep the true benefits from that activity. Other wise your just beating your head against the wall. Which can be fun and all but it won’t make you any faster.
Check out the race reports for a winter training article on how to make the most of your time. Also seen in the coming Jan. 07, PTS newsletter.

whens things go bad...

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http://custom.photoshelter.com/c/jrice18/gallery-img-show?G_ID=G0000qnribTOEPJM&start=4&pagtotal=103

here is another pic of the first lap. before the mud.

No race report for the last boulder series race. sorry... no pictures yet either. internet picture security is getting better and better.
Today I can say proudly say that no cyclist beat me. Not one. I was chewed up and spit out by the course. The course and the course alone simply ruined me. You can just refer to the report form the USGP race It was pretty much like that except with mud. Lots of mud. Now I realize that mud IS cyclocross. And for some the more mud the better. Like that race horse in that Seinfeld episode. The one that “loves the slop”! This is not me.
When things go right in a cross race they go really really well. You find the line. Swing right around the tight 180 degree turn, your feet clip in first time on your re-mounts, you can drink Champaign and hit on all the pretty ladies watching the race looking fresh and in control and the competition falls away. Caught in the malay that is a cross race. And when things go bad, your simply in disbelief that riding a bike could go so wrong.

I started to harbor serious thoughts of pulling out the race. Right before the start I saw a few Toyoda United guys riding by. Looking fit already, clean and fast on their road bikes. About half way through the race this sight popped into my head. “that’s what I should be doing” “This is stupid any way!” “I’m not a cross rider.” Amazing how you can come up with theses things when its all going wrong. Last race I was talking smack to myself during the race convinced I was a cyclocross GOD! Yeah far from, I know.
With 20’ minutes to go more and more people passing me pulling out became very real but I thought of my dad just home from surgery on his hip and I thought ahhhh, no I am finishing. I have a thing about finishing races. bike racing in all forms has a prod humiliation attached to it. If you try. If you give it your all people know. You know. There can be much pride in finishing second. Or last. I have learned a lot from the cyclocross experience. many of thought s thoughts on training and life coming soon.

Time to start training gang.
Stay tuned.