CX Training

With about 2 weeks to the first race of the season I finally started my CX training. Yesterday I realized a couple of things. I am out of shape for cross and my skills are not quite what they were last year. I am working on correcting my dismount style also. Last year I would dismount by pulling my right leg over the top tube. It worked out pretty good, except for the time when my cleat got tangled up with my brake cable. Luckily it was just a sand pit that I was dismounting for and was able to hop on my left foot until I got untangled. But this could of been quite painful if it was something solid I was trying to get over. So this year my goal is learn how to dismount correctly. This of course throws my timing off, which is not a good thing when a barricade is fast approaching. After 2 days of practice I am feeling a lot better, the true test will come in a race. Hopefully I dont revert back to my old style.
Today was a interval and skills/running workout. It felt good, but I still have a long ways to go.

Fort Custer TT Race

Well I made the long drive out to the Fort Custer TT this past weekend. The day started out with a pretty steady rain most of the way over. As we got closer to the park the rain stopped, but the skies stayed gray. I have never ridden the course before, but from what I was told, it was going to be a fun course. The turn out for the race was pretty low, which I was kind of surprised by, but I figured had better chances to place. The race started out pretty good. For never riding the course before I moving pretty fast through the course and I was feeling pretty good. The course had a lot of sand that was packed down from all the rain, the logs and roots were a little slick though. The trenches is a really cool section of the trail. It is like a flat switch back section that if you pick a good line you can fly through. So all was going good until I hit about mile 11. I come through a sandy downhill turn and I hear something rubbing. Well I broke a spoke on my back wheel. I have been breaking spokes for 2 years now on my singlespeed, so I finally broke down and bought a new wheel. Now it has spread to my new wheels I bought for my Klein. So I stop, and decide not to try and true the wheel. I figure it is only about a mile and half to finish line, I should be able to ride that faster than fixing the the wheel. Well aparently I had some bad info, the race was closer to 15 miles long. So everyone that I passed earlier in the race passed me and I got last place. Figures I was feeling good and riding fast, and I get a mechcanical.
Oh well. The next race is the stony creek xc race which I plan to do on my single speed. Hopefully I can do better than last year when I bonked hard and finished 15 minutes behind the next guy.