CX, XC, XXC Whatever It Takes
I have been planning on doing some cross country races for 2 or 3 years now. I've yet to do so. I get so obsessed about racing the Endurance races that I never get around to doing it. Or I consciously or unconsciously choose not to for fear of making a real ass of myself. I will say it IS hard to do an Endurance race schedule and get too into XC races. At least it is for me. The recovery from a 12 or 24 Solo is a few week process for me. My legs, ass, taint and mind are usually not too into racing the week or two after putting my body through a Solo.
BUT...
But my recent two race Cyclocross season sparked a competitiveness in me that I've been missing for a while. Not a "MUST WIN" competitiveness. Just a mental "push" do try to go faster, pass the next guy, and get to the finish as fast as I can. I've been missing that for a LONG time.
When I do a 12 or 24 hour solo race, I'm mostly racing against myself. Pushing myself mentally and physically to do things that just aren't natural. They've become sort of natural to me, but not SO natural that I put the hammer down from the start like Ernie, Toastado or Eatough. They're out to win. I'm out to finish the race and see what happens in the results. When I'm on the race course I'm often by myself. If a racer passes me or is up ahead of me, 80% of the time it's a Team racer. I'm not racing them. It's strange. I love it. But it IS strange.
NOW...
Now that I've done a couple Cross races, where the goal is to try to go as fast as you can for 45 to 60 minutes there's no time to let any mental demons creep in or fall asleep on the side of the trail. Just GO! GO! GO! And that can be cool. I wasn't very good at it. I knew I wouldn't be going in, but that didn't stop me from doing it. I didn't care where I placed, just try to get ahead of the guy in front. Like I said, I missed that.
I recently e mailed with my old team manager Big Al about Cross and he told me- "Most people that try it (Cross) either hate it and never do it again or absolutely love it and never stop." While I can't say I'm addicted to Cross just yet, I can say it DEFINITELY sparked my desire to race XC again. It was damn refreshing to not be "recovering" for 3 weeks after a race, but even more than that it was nice to race against someone other than myself. I also can clearly see that racing even a handful of Cross Country races through the summer and a few Cross races in the fall could only benefit my Endurance racing as long as I schedule them right.
In 2009 the endurance races will still have my priority of course. But in '09 I don't plan to do ANY 24 Hour Solos. My body has been through enough issues the past year (blood clots, hearing loss, pink eye, strep throat, etc., etc.,). I plan to do one or two 12 Hour Solos and maybe 3 or 4 Hundies. Then try to work in 4 to 6 XC races. I can't wait!
The goal for racing XC races will be the same as my goals for Cross were. Push myself to do new things. Push myself work hard, gain fitness, get faster and catch the guy in front of me. I'm sure there will be a learning curve and I don't plan on taking any podium spots. I just want to push myself to get better, support the local race scene and have some fun with my fellow bike geek friends. Then come fall I can look into that Cross bike! ;)
Don "Seller of Rush's" P. informed me today that 2009 membership registration is now open for the W.V.B.A.. Time to go type in some digits for those folks and then hit Monster.com.
Later.
P.S. Speaking of me doing new and different things... Tonight I did a 30 minute spin to get a sweat on and then went for a quick 15 minute run. A RUN! And if felt great! I go a LITTLE longer each time and my knees and legs are getting used to the impact. I smell Hundie! OK maybe a 5K. Later.
posted by Jason @ 9:36 PM
9 comments
9 Comments:
dude, yeah cross is awesome. XC racing is almost as much. The nice thing about it is when you get to figure out who is near you, who you have to beat next week, and who you should've beat last week. It's addicting.
Not just that, but it will make the racing the endurance stuff that much better. Chris Carmichaels even stated on his blog how he's going to race local crits and short track stuff in order to replace some of his interval work, because you end up pushing yourself harder in those events rather than in a lone event.
Beyond that...the Brooklyn Dark Chocolate Stout...awesome, slight chocolate taste, real smokey stout-ey taste to warm you up on friggin cold nights like tonight, cheap instead of the price of the high-price belg's and 10% to make it so you don't want more than 2 or 3.
You have the stamina anyhow and you are quite clear what you want to achieve in XC races. It will be a nice change from purely doing endurance racing/training. I hate the expression but I think it will be a "win/win" situation.
Aaron- AWESOME indeed on of the best beers in the country and PERFECT for this time of year. Endjoy!
Win/Win for sure. I also like the fact that dong the races or at very least more group rides will replace the some of the tempos "no man's land" training I do.
I plan on doing more xc races next year too! As of now, I'm just doing one 24 at the end of the season. I find that if I only do one, I'm really excited about it. After that, I don't want to do another one for quite some time :-)
If driving conditions allow, I'm racing cx this weekend. We have so much snow it's going to be crazy!
I'm headed to OH for one last cx race on Sunday if you want to go, Jason.
Danielle,
I hear you. They are draining. Too many can ruin a season. Not just race wise, but fun wise. It's not all about the racing. I mean it sucks when you just want to go for a ride and you're too beat up to do it!! Won't stop me from doing one or two in the future but enough to scale back for sure.
Brad- if it was Saturday I'd be on it. I've missed a ton of family stuff in recent weeks. Time to man up (as best I can) and be a good son/husband/dad. Thanks for the offer though. Good luck! Should be great Cross conditions. Gerry P. warns of epic mud at that lo-cal.
I think most of the mud may be frozen on Sunday...or should I say HOPE. As for the XC bug that you have caught, I say DO IT. The only way to get faster times for the long stuff is to work on your speed with the short XC races and do longer recovery type rides during the week to build endurance for your longer races. I am sure you will find that doing this will bring your 12/24 hr race times down dramatically.
J-
XC is good for enduros. It gives you a more well rounded skillset. It allowed me to as well in 5-6hr events as I was doing in 12s since I was able to go faster from the gun. Its almost like we enduro nuts have a MASSIVE base but do no speed work. Even our racing is base work so I think XC helps round things out a bit.
Just don't get like me last yr and try to peak for an enduro at the end of June and then jump into a weekly XC series and expect to do well. I got hooked, was racing too much and burned out by August. In fact it screwed up the end of my enduro season as I was suddenly forgoing 5 hr weekend rides for races.
I think it is good in moderation for an old enduro guy like myself.
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