50 kph cx?!?

**EDIT: IT JUST DAWNED ON ME I RACED 4X IN 18HRS. NO WONDER I FEEL LIKE CRAP**

Two days, 4 "races". Actually 2 days, 2 races & 2 roll around in pure agony sessions. But who's counting. Saturday I headed to Topeka with John Jones & his youngest son with the pop up camper in tow. CX semi Euro style. I'm pretty sure in a pinch I could have gotten a wind trainer in that bad boy. We dropped it at Clinton Lake park to save driving back to KC. By the look of the campground we weren't the only ones with this idea.

The Grand Prix HPT was CX at night on a car dirt track. My dad would have been in heaven since you could hear the dragsters in the back ground. Master's race went pretty well. Got a good start & hit the down wind run punching the 45x11 for all it was worth trying to hold on at over 50kph(not an exaggeration!). It was a cool course hard to explain if you weren't there. I'll have to try & find some pics that will better describe it. Kyle was in Chicago this wknd so I didn't have any team mates to help me overcome the 360 onslaught. Songer & Hejduk took turns working me over. One would attack, I'd cover. Then another would attack & I'd cover, etc, etc. Was super fun racing but I knew their numbers would get me eventually & Hejduk was able to get a little gap on the final lap & that was all it took. Songer sat up since he had the 45+ won & I rolled in for 2nd. Probably the funnest CX race I've done racing wise.

The 1/2/3's was about what I expected super fast. I figured if I could hook the draft I could get in a few laps of moto pacing before being popped off. I hooked the draft but had a rider crash a couple of guys in front of me in the infield & that was that,gap was opened. Into training survival mode(that what I'm calling the double now). Pick of a guy here & there rolled in for 11th on the lead lap too. Pretty happy with that.

Chris Cross is round 2 of the DeStad series. I've always liked this course since its kind of mountain bikie. Chris Locke changed it up this year to make it more crossie(yes it's my blog & I can make up new words if I like). The changes suited me pretty well. Lots of technical stuff, with some power section, not a lot of high speed stuff. Master's race was once again me versus the 360 boys & Jeff Winkler(he'd broke his saddle in the master's race the night before or he would have been a big factor there). Hejduk was attacking, & attacking, & attacking. Really putting the screws to me. With 3 to go Jeff saw Hejduk head drop just a little & attacked pretty hard. The 360 guys looked at me & I looked back knowing I didn't have enough to bridge. First was up the road now it was time to fight for second. I made a few vain attempts to get away. Then Songer dropped his chain & I was able to get around & Hejduk got stuck. This opened up a pretty big gap. But I would have felt bad taking 2nd because David got caught behind someone's mechanical, especially since Songer was racing in a different class. So I sat up & waited for David to catch back on. He drilled me in the sprint but he did the vast majority of the work & deserved 2nd more than I did anyway, 3rd for me.

I thought long & hard in the 15 minutes I had between races about either not starting the 1/2's or dropping out 30 minutes in. Then I remembered you had to finish to score series points. So I put my big girl panties on & toed the line for the 4th race in two days. It basically sucked, lots of pain. I managed to stay with David White for awhile till my rear tire decided to mysteriously let exactly half its air out & I had to pit for a wheel change. It did this Saturday night as well in the 1/2 race. I thought it was my imagination but checked it later & it had 15psi in it & never lost anymore. I guess the valve stem needs to be resealed. Kind of aggravating but I finished the race 16th which amazingly wasn't last. I was very tired & not too much worse for wear. Except for a few of the mandatory mystery CX bruises. I had a lot of people cheering for me which made the pain a little easier. I guess people enjoy a masochist flogging himself.

Ira from Bolivar who comes out on Wednesday for CX practice showed up Sunday for his first ever CX race. He laid open his knee pretty good but finished his race then turned around after bandaging it up & raced again for the double. John asked him what he thought of cross & he said,laid open knee & all, he was hooked. Like I've always said CX is legal crack.

This weekend made me question my little doubling up experiment. It's not too bad if you race just one day but hard as hell to do it two days in a row. Now I just have to decide if the the means justify the ends. I don't have a problem not getting any results in the 1/2's, but the Master's races are getting harder & harder. We're cranking out lap times pretty close to what the leaders are doing in the 1/2's, except for just 40 minutes(which is what I'll race at Nationals). Its going to be a debate I'm going to have with myself for awhile I guess. I got some good training advice from Jeff on how to train for the double(he's doing it as well). So will have to tweak my weekly preparations just a little & see what that does.



Today its a rest day with Mia helping me wash the bike & Amber breaking out the massage table to try & fix my back.