Wishing I had a FAT bike!

For a few weeks I've been stuck in that space of alternately wanting and not  wanting a FAT bike. Actually, I almost always want one, it's just a question of justifying the purchase on a cost per ride basis. I am certain that if I purchase one, winter will immediately and permanently come to a halt. One the other hand, it seeems likely that we New Englanders are assured the longest, snowiest winter ever if I don't purchase one.

Needing to get in a 3-hour ride today, I tried to dodge the issue by using fatter tires. At the suggestion of one of the LBS guys who leads a TON of group rides, I purchased a pair of CST Rock Hawks in a meaty 29 x 2.4. Set up tubeless and rolling well south of 20 PSI, here are my impressions, stolen from a friend's facebook thread -- but since I wrote the piece, it's not really stealing:

So. The wider tire *may* have helped some. I'd argue it was was negligible. Strava ride titled "Wishing I had a FAT bike". Coming back on my out and back I could still see my tracks in many places. They were comical temporary evidence of the efforts required to keep rolling and upright. Short straight sections overwhelmed in volume and length by sliding "S"-turns of corrections and over-corrections. And there, right next to them, nearly perfectly straight, nearly twice as wide remnants of another rider mocking my futility.

Also, riding a FAT bike, I likely would not have slammed my knee into the stem and/or handlebars as I did when going up hill and my front tire shot left and my rear wheel lost traction and started to spin. Looks like New England is in for a warm up. Sorry skiers!

Did I mention...

...one of my old high school buddies just won a National Championship? Way to go Tim! Interviews here and here, too! Reading about Tim's win took me back to high school, when he and I would ride early before school doing our very best Alexi Grewal impersonations and chanting "OTC! OTC!" as we rode. Good times and great memories!

Interesting to me that CX mag and dirtwire both use terms like "surprises" and "huge upset" when describing Faia's win. The crossresults.com Nats Predictor predicted a fourth place finish for him. In my simple-minded way of looking at things, after the proper preparation, little more than a dig deep effort and a smooth ride separate fourth and first on any given day. Regardless, a great effort and a great result! Congrats again!

End of Season De-Brief: Question 3 through 7

As promised in my previous post, here I tackle the remaining questions from the excellent podcast at semiprocycling.com where the creator recommends evaluation your previous season's results and training:

3. What else worked this year?
   Things that I found to be especially helpful were:
   
   1. WTF Wednesdays, a very "spirited" ride where the gloves came off early and it really simulated a race effort.
   2. Dedicated training sessions with 'cross racers more experienced that I. In my previous season, and even WAY back when when I was racing MTB's exclusively, it was often hard to focus exclusively on skills sessions. They often got blown off because it seemed they weren't targeted enough and there were other things, like fitness, that needed to be improved. Having someone with more experience lead and encourage these sessions -- as well as understanding the true value of not always going hard -- helped make sure these sessions happened and were valuable.
4. Did you meet your training goals?
   By and large, yes, but there were some weeks were I fell short of my time goals, and a block in the summer where I got a little bit off-track. Having a coach this year should help rectify this.
5. Did you meet your fitness goals?
   Tough to say, having not trained with a power meter last year, I didn't really make any really measurable goals. Will work with coach to improve on the goal-making this year.
6. Did you miss any large chunks from your original program?
   Yes, family vacation in early July and again in early August contributed to some down weeks that may have hampered early season results and performance.
7. How quickly did you recover from hard workouts or heavy periods of training?
   Pretty quickly -- especially for an old man Masters 45+ racer. I hope to keep this up.

There you have it. A pretty honest assessment of some of the things that worked and some that didn't. Feel free to share what worked for you, as well as pose any questions that you may have about improving your performance. I'm no pro, but together -- and with other commenters on here -- we may find some worthwhile solutions. Cheers!

End of Season De-Brief: Question 1, 2

Over the next few posts, I will work to answer the questions posed in the End of Season De-Brief post. Below I start with Questions 1 and 2:

Did you meet your racing goals? 
In a word, no. But with that said, I think my goals may have been a bit over-ambitious. With no real knowledge or experience of the strength of the Masters category in New England cyclocross, I probably had no business thinking I could consistently break into the top 3, and as a result, onto the podium. I am still happy with my season and pleased with the constant improvement I saw throughout the season. Given the way my finishes improved through the season, I am confident that next season (2014-15) the goal of finishing the Verge Series in the top three of the overall standings is a reasonable and reachable goal. For 2013, I was completely self-coached and used heart rate only to gauge and guide my training. For 2014-15, I am looking to incorporate power as well as the service of a coach.

Do your training efforts truly replicate what is needed during competition?
 I noticed in the early part of the season, I would start strong in races but then start to fade about halfway through the competition. I was perplexed at first because I'd done so much base in the early part of 2013 that I was confident I had banked many matches that I could burn. In looking back through my training journal and thinking on it some more, I realized that coming into the early part of the season, I'd not done enough high-intensity work. I think I was afraid to "burn too many matches" in early training, and thus, my body was not prepared for the intensity of a 'cross race. I will definitely visit this as I research and build my plan for 2014-15, especially if and when I hire a coach, this will be a topic to discuss.

Other than that, though, and once I got into the meat of the season, I feel my training did do a good job replicating the needs of the races. I worked with another local rider (I'll get his permission before putting his name up here publicly) who showed me a great local spot to simulate a course and race efforts. Thanks to this guy, I also learned this past season to integrate adequate rest into my routine. With that said, things can always be better and I'd still like to fine tune my pre-season work as well as my in-season routine. I will likely add a weekly time trial effort into the pre-season mix and more organized group workouts to the in-season.

Additionally, I would like to integrate more skill work into my training this next season. Coming from a mountain bike background, I like to think I have a strong bike handling skills, but I am always impressed by how much smoother and more fluid the fastest guys are.


I will write more on the other questions over the next few days. As always, I'm curious to hear your thoughts about your past season. Visit the EoS De-brief question list, and let us know what you did well and what you'd like to improve? What are your plans for improvement?

Cheers,

~kj

End of Season De-Brief

Having (reluctantly) made the decision to NOT go to Nationals, my CX season is officially -- and sadly -- over. Now is the time to start taking a long, hard, honest look at where things went well with both training and racing, and where things could be improved for next season. Taking a cue from the excellent podcast at semiprocycling.com, I am going to spend some time evaluating the following questions:

1. Did you meet your racing goals?
2. Do your training efforts truly replicate what is needed during competition?
3. What else worked this year?
4. Did you meet your training goals?
5. Did you meet your fitness goals?
6. Did you miss any large chunks from your original program?
7. How quickly did you recover from hard workouts or heavy periods of training?

I am going to spend some time over the next few days to weeks evaluating this past season and the answers to these questions in advance of creating next year's annual training plan. Also, I'm going to spend some time evaluating each race, and to the best of my ability create a post-race report and de-brief. If/when your season is over, you might consider doing the same. Curious to hear how many other folks go through this process and what, if any, insights / learnings are found.

Are you going to CX Nationals?

A good friend, unofficial mentor, and very experienced local 'cross racer who has competed in the past at both Nationals and Worlds discouraged me from going to Nationals this year because of the altitude. Now, before I pin the whole decision to not go on my good friend, it should also be noted that I am not exactly where I wanted to be in terms of competitiveness when I originally set me sights on Nats earlier this year. I don't want to fly halfway across the country to be pack fodder, so I'd set the goal of being a consistent top 5 finisher in order to justify the trip to Boulder. I'm just now starting to break into the top 10 in the Verge Series, so while I fail on my original goal, it's hard to look at the downward trend of my points and not wonder what could be if I made the trip. Not only did I live in Summit County for several years in the early nineties -- which might as well be a lifetime ago -- but there was a period of years not too long ago where I'd weasel my way out to the Rockies for ski trips 2-3 times a season and never had issues with skiing at altitude. But skiing at altitude with your buddies who are no strangers to excessive alcohol -- even really hard skiing, these guys are chargers -- is not the same as racing 'cross with the best in the nation at altitude. Long story short, not going is probably the right decision, but I'm having the damnest time accepting it.

How about you? Are you going? What are your goals? If a sea-level dweller or other relative lowlander, have you raced at altitude before? How'd it impact you? Would love to hear the thoughts of others.