Kevin and I raced the early (8 am) race Saturday. Other than the 5 am wakeup call the benefit was that it had rained lightly overnight, which softened up the course and also helped pack down the loose dirt on the technical section (the off camber, and then steep descent). I want to say KT got a 10th place, I was much further down.
Here is what I learned though:
-It's better (for me at least) to warmup on the trainer vs. the course. For me the trainer is much better controlled efforts, But because we were first race, I pre-rode 1.5 laps and warmed up without the trainer. The warmup wasn't enough though because with the cold morning air and hard initial effort I got EIA (exercise induced asthma) so my chest was tight the entire race and probably limited my power output. On Sunday I warmed up on the trainer and did not have the EIA.
-Heartburn! Has anyone had bad heartburn either before or during a race? Maybe it was something I ate, or maybe just nerves. All I know is it was nearly unbearable and no amount of antacid seemed to help. I drank a cup of "Sleepytime" tea Friday night, which I will never do again the night before a race. It does make you sleepy but I think it caused the bad heartburn also.
-SPD shoes clog after the long run up. Found this on course preview, some spray on the cleats helped a little but not much.
-During preview I should have focused more time on the technical part of the course. I noticed the UCI riders doing this. They rode that part of the course several times.
Most of the course was not difficult and even had long straightaway and paved where you could draft. The run up was long and brutal, the steep downhill had two lines, the high line was straight down but smooth, the low line was off camber and more rutted.
The later races on Saturday the ground dried up making for more loose soil.
KMC Crossfest 2017 (Saturday- Sunday)
Re: KMC Crossfest 2017 (Saturday- Sunday)
Doug, I usually do 1 or 2 full laps of the course at a very easy pace then focus on specific sections IE the tech stuff. KMC was layed out perfectly for this, I'd ride the 1st tech section and then loop through the course crossing to the second tech section I did that multiple times. Then I do a 20-25 minute trainer workout as close to my start time as I can making sure not to miss call ups. I use a version of the Trainerroad Pahrah workout for my warm up. Cool down is super important too if you are racing back to back days.
Brian
Brian
Brian Anderson
Re: KMC Crossfest 2017 (Saturday- Sunday)
The first weekend of UCI racing has come and gone for Patrick and me. While I feel that I am having a bit of a rocky start to the racing season, the KMC Cross Fest still proved to be a fantastic and especially unique racing weekend.
Racing for the Elite Men started at 6:30pm on Friday night, meaning we would be racing under the lights of the race track. On this road-heavy course, I knew that drafting would be critical from start to finish, and this was proven by the many races that ended in bunch sprints. After a somewhat rough start, I still found myself in decent position for the first two laps, although I was having trouble keeping myself from bleeding wheels on the long power sections. Keeping as steady as possible in the dry and dusty conditions, I was eventually joined by Patrick near the half-way point. Pat and I began to trade pulls on the road sections over the next several laps. This worked really well for us as our lap times ticked lower and lower in the later end of the race. Getting the bell lap, I knew that our little MRC team time trial would soon come to a close and the battle for the finish would begin. Knowing that Patrick absolutely had the upper hand on the power sections, I knew I would need to try to attack him in the technical sections to bide myself some time for the last portion of the lap, which was exclusively hard pedaling. I could see my gap grow after the technical off camber and corners near the expo, but knew that Patrick would still have a good chance of closing the gap before the line. Pedaling as hard as I could, I took one last look as I crested the banking of the speed way into the finish straightaway and knew that I would hold him off. It was definitely a pleasure getting to trade efforts with Pat all night and still be able to fight it out at the end of the night! We ended up finishing 35th and 36th, respectively. While this was not the placing either of us had envisioned before the race, it was not a terrible start to the long UCI season.
Sunday, however, was an entirely different thing for me... My goal was to get a much better start than the previous race and hold on to the lead group for as long as possible. When the whistle went, I was able to get myself up into the top 10 from row 4 before the first set of corners. I fought for the wheels from there all the way down to the first mega run-up, and still found myself in good position. About half way up the run up, my left foot, ankle, and leg, began to ache terribly, and by the time it was time to hit the gas on the bike again, my left leg's power had dropped considerably. Quickly bleeding wheels and taking on water, I began to ride steady to keep the aching at bay. For the remainder of the race, I kept a decent pace but focused mainly on pushing myself in the technical sections and hopping the barriers before being pulled right before two laps to go. As for the ache in the left leg, this is not a new issue, however it has seemed to be resurfacing on and off over the last few weeks during extreme efforts. I believe it may be some long term residual effects from Illiac Artery Endofibrosis, which I had surgically repaired in 2015, but I am exploring all possibilities to find a solution as quickly as possible!
Overall, this was an exciting weekend and a great event hosted by former MRC'ers, the Goguen Family. I am absolutely looking to build on my form in a big way, aiming for top 20 results in the UCI events by November. Hope to see you all soon and thanks for reading!
Nate Morse
Racing for the Elite Men started at 6:30pm on Friday night, meaning we would be racing under the lights of the race track. On this road-heavy course, I knew that drafting would be critical from start to finish, and this was proven by the many races that ended in bunch sprints. After a somewhat rough start, I still found myself in decent position for the first two laps, although I was having trouble keeping myself from bleeding wheels on the long power sections. Keeping as steady as possible in the dry and dusty conditions, I was eventually joined by Patrick near the half-way point. Pat and I began to trade pulls on the road sections over the next several laps. This worked really well for us as our lap times ticked lower and lower in the later end of the race. Getting the bell lap, I knew that our little MRC team time trial would soon come to a close and the battle for the finish would begin. Knowing that Patrick absolutely had the upper hand on the power sections, I knew I would need to try to attack him in the technical sections to bide myself some time for the last portion of the lap, which was exclusively hard pedaling. I could see my gap grow after the technical off camber and corners near the expo, but knew that Patrick would still have a good chance of closing the gap before the line. Pedaling as hard as I could, I took one last look as I crested the banking of the speed way into the finish straightaway and knew that I would hold him off. It was definitely a pleasure getting to trade efforts with Pat all night and still be able to fight it out at the end of the night! We ended up finishing 35th and 36th, respectively. While this was not the placing either of us had envisioned before the race, it was not a terrible start to the long UCI season.
Sunday, however, was an entirely different thing for me... My goal was to get a much better start than the previous race and hold on to the lead group for as long as possible. When the whistle went, I was able to get myself up into the top 10 from row 4 before the first set of corners. I fought for the wheels from there all the way down to the first mega run-up, and still found myself in good position. About half way up the run up, my left foot, ankle, and leg, began to ache terribly, and by the time it was time to hit the gas on the bike again, my left leg's power had dropped considerably. Quickly bleeding wheels and taking on water, I began to ride steady to keep the aching at bay. For the remainder of the race, I kept a decent pace but focused mainly on pushing myself in the technical sections and hopping the barriers before being pulled right before two laps to go. As for the ache in the left leg, this is not a new issue, however it has seemed to be resurfacing on and off over the last few weeks during extreme efforts. I believe it may be some long term residual effects from Illiac Artery Endofibrosis, which I had surgically repaired in 2015, but I am exploring all possibilities to find a solution as quickly as possible!
Overall, this was an exciting weekend and a great event hosted by former MRC'ers, the Goguen Family. I am absolutely looking to build on my form in a big way, aiming for top 20 results in the UCI events by November. Hope to see you all soon and thanks for reading!
Nate Morse
Re: KMC Crossfest 2017 (Saturday- Sunday)
It’s great to return to MRC for the ‘cross season, thanks for welcoming me back!
After a pretty exhaustive yet awesome road season, I’m came into the ‘cross season with little idea how I’d feel or perform. The practices at Ski Ward went well, and I was feeling surprisingly good after taking it easy for a bit, but I didn’t really have expectations or goals heading into my first race of the season at KMC.
Even going in with this mindset, I can't help but be disappointed about my performance & results. I'm lacking some anaerobic fitness compared to last year, but I believe the main culprit was/is stomach issues. I think I've figured out that I've been consistently poisoning myself with bad almond milk for the past week or so
. My body's been rejecting most food and fluids and sleep is hard to come by. I thought Friday and Saturday night was bad, but last night (Tuesday) was so bad that I was thinking about going to the ER.
Good news is that I've lost some weight which will be ideal for racing on a ski hill at Night Weasels tonight
The teamwork with Nate on Friday night was cool and definitely a positive takeaway from the weekend.
Big thanks to Busick and Jesse for all the help with pit duties.
After a pretty exhaustive yet awesome road season, I’m came into the ‘cross season with little idea how I’d feel or perform. The practices at Ski Ward went well, and I was feeling surprisingly good after taking it easy for a bit, but I didn’t really have expectations or goals heading into my first race of the season at KMC.
Even going in with this mindset, I can't help but be disappointed about my performance & results. I'm lacking some anaerobic fitness compared to last year, but I believe the main culprit was/is stomach issues. I think I've figured out that I've been consistently poisoning myself with bad almond milk for the past week or so
. My body's been rejecting most food and fluids and sleep is hard to come by. I thought Friday and Saturday night was bad, but last night (Tuesday) was so bad that I was thinking about going to the ER. Good news is that I've lost some weight which will be ideal for racing on a ski hill at Night Weasels tonight
The teamwork with Nate on Friday night was cool and definitely a positive takeaway from the weekend.
Big thanks to Busick and Jesse for all the help with pit duties.
Re: KMC Crossfest 2017 (Saturday- Sunday)
How long until you can build up a tolerance for Almond Milk Poison?
Working in the pits this weekend was interesting. One thing that was nice about this year's KMC is that you could actually see what was going on in the race from the pits instead of being stuck in a dark swampy corner.
Clearly some teams were a little rusty this early in the season, two separate times I saw a racer come in, not able to find their mechanic (chatting on the other side of the pit unaware that their rider was coming in). The rider had to dismount and then remount the same bike and do another 1/2 lap before getting a change.
Working in the pits this weekend was interesting. One thing that was nice about this year's KMC is that you could actually see what was going on in the race from the pits instead of being stuck in a dark swampy corner.
Clearly some teams were a little rusty this early in the season, two separate times I saw a racer come in, not able to find their mechanic (chatting on the other side of the pit unaware that their rider was coming in). The rider had to dismount and then remount the same bike and do another 1/2 lap before getting a change.
-Chris Busick
Re: KMC Crossfest 2017 (Saturday- Sunday)
I have a couple different trainer warmups, both start with a 10-15 min easy spinning at Z1. The ladder warm up is 30 s on/30 s off, followed by 1 min, 90 s, 2 min , 2.5 min etc up t o 5 or 6 min. if time allows. I will normally include 2 or 3 90-100% sprints in this workout before the cool down.
The other warm up is 10 min Z1, 5 min Z2, 5 min Z3/4 and then 2-3 maximum efforts for 10-15 sec.
Any type of warm up works for me, so long as it includes sustained efforts at at least Z3/Z4, which are harder to get riding in the parking lot. I think for Asthma the key is just to be fully warmed up at the start and as close to the start as possible without missing call ups.
I was bringing the work stand to swap the rear wheel on my CX bike, but I like the road bike better as I can leave it on the trainer, change shoes and gran my CX bike and go. Plus my road bike has bottle cages for the trainer.
The other warm up is 10 min Z1, 5 min Z2, 5 min Z3/4 and then 2-3 maximum efforts for 10-15 sec.
Any type of warm up works for me, so long as it includes sustained efforts at at least Z3/Z4, which are harder to get riding in the parking lot. I think for Asthma the key is just to be fully warmed up at the start and as close to the start as possible without missing call ups.
I was bringing the work stand to swap the rear wheel on my CX bike, but I like the road bike better as I can leave it on the trainer, change shoes and gran my CX bike and go. Plus my road bike has bottle cages for the trainer.
Briana wrote: ↑Tue Oct 03, 2017 2:23 pm Doug, I usually do 1 or 2 full laps of the course at a very easy pace then focus on specific sections IE the tech stuff. KMC was layed out perfectly for this, I'd ride the 1st tech section and then loop through the course crossing to the second tech section I did that multiple times. Then I do a 20-25 minute trainer workout as close to my start time as I can making sure not to miss call ups. I use a version of the Trainerroad Pahrah workout for my warm up. Cool down is super important too if you are racing back to back days.
Brian
Hup Hup