god damn that hurt......
DFL numero uno....
I woke up at 6am worried. I thought to myself, will I look fat in the outfit I picked out?, will the thong ride up too far --i've never raced with a thong before, will the boys stay inside the short shorts?
I've realized the best way to get my legs ready for a hard effort is to put in a hard effort the day before. So I decided to meet up with my teammate Ty and ride up to his pad in La Honda. So a nice little climb up Kings mountain and back home was the perfect way to open up my legs.
Partial Altezza40 Team Photo
I think it worked. My legs were tired coming into the DFL "ride", but the commute to the "ride" was good enough to warm up the legs for the pain I was about to inflict upon them. I've been doing the GGP cx rides and re familiarizing myself with the pain that only 'cross can inflict. We usually do 3 hot laps, followed by about a 5min. break, then another 3 hot laps. According to my watch it takes 15 min for 3 laps. My legs feel good under these conditions.
Enter DFL Numero uno....Dylan ran us for 50 minute, actually about 56 according to my trusty Polar watch. I entered new pain caves yesterday. The lack of recovery time really frick'n hurt. However, I was able to find new ways to recover like spinning high cadence in a few sections and focusing on relaxing. Only a couple people caught and passed me. For the most part I kept catching folks. Never really saw the leaders, but I know I wasn't too far back. We all know the chaos of a DFL starts ;-0 If you're not positioned well you'll loose sight of the leader in a millisecond....which I did.
I had fun battling it out with Gabe and then with my teammate Grant. We would go back and for passing one another. I pulled a little DFL trick and took and inside line, cut Grant off and hit the run-up before him ;-) Hey all is fair in love and racing right? Knowing Grant was just in back of me kept me pushing a high pace. What a frick'n awesome workout.
Gotta hand it to the DFL guys, the put together a wicked course. Love the new singletracks! Total I counted 6 logs, one was ride-able(right before the small hill), the other one I tried(near the end of the lap with the sand pit in front of it) and almost bailed so I started shouldering the bike for that one. The sketchiest turns was the one into the double log barrier. It was sandy, dusty and loose. I finally figured out I had to reduce enough speed just to roll into the sand and then dismount quickly to jump over the logs.
Also like the new run-up\ride-up after the small paved section after the double
logs. The dirt was so soft, but if you kept churning a gear you could make it through it, but if you lost just a bit of momentum it was faster to run it and then remount before the short descent. I bombed that thing so many times not even clipped in....dang I got install those crank bros shoe shields!
Anyhow with about 3 laps to go I thought we were done. It was very surreal. It felt like there was a sudden quietness, but I hadn't heard anything about last lap so I soldiered on. Took a beer feed from Nick and upped the pace again. Finally coming back around the start finish I heard something about 2 more laps. I was feeling surprisingly recovered so floored it to keep anybody from catching me .
HR ave\max 179\188 (disregard the first 30 mins of plot that was commute to park)
It was good fun to see all the familiar 'cross faces, plus a lot of new ones! It's crazy how many people were out. I would estimate at least 100 "riders" and then 30 spectators. I got lot's of compliments about my short shorts. I hope to round up some pictures.
Doesn't do the costume justice, but it's a mean racing photo...thanks bicigirl.
More pics
Things to work on: I need to start running. The run-ups were killing me. I took them slow and steady, made sure to breath rhythmically and take steady steps, but I had no explosive power. Also need to work on remounts. A couple time I swear to god I almost pinch flatted from flopping my ass down on the saddle. In the final run-up to the finish I managed to squash the tip of my pee-pee. It hurt so much I couldn't even think. I grabbed and icecold Coke from the cooler and stuck it down my pants...ahhh! Who knew Coke had some many uses ;-)
Till the next time...peace out!
I woke up at 6am worried. I thought to myself, will I look fat in the outfit I picked out?, will the thong ride up too far --i've never raced with a thong before, will the boys stay inside the short shorts?
I've realized the best way to get my legs ready for a hard effort is to put in a hard effort the day before. So I decided to meet up with my teammate Ty and ride up to his pad in La Honda. So a nice little climb up Kings mountain and back home was the perfect way to open up my legs.
Partial Altezza40 Team Photo
I think it worked. My legs were tired coming into the DFL "ride", but the commute to the "ride" was good enough to warm up the legs for the pain I was about to inflict upon them. I've been doing the GGP cx rides and re familiarizing myself with the pain that only 'cross can inflict. We usually do 3 hot laps, followed by about a 5min. break, then another 3 hot laps. According to my watch it takes 15 min for 3 laps. My legs feel good under these conditions.
Enter DFL Numero uno....Dylan ran us for 50 minute, actually about 56 according to my trusty Polar watch. I entered new pain caves yesterday. The lack of recovery time really frick'n hurt. However, I was able to find new ways to recover like spinning high cadence in a few sections and focusing on relaxing. Only a couple people caught and passed me. For the most part I kept catching folks. Never really saw the leaders, but I know I wasn't too far back. We all know the chaos of a DFL starts ;-0 If you're not positioned well you'll loose sight of the leader in a millisecond....which I did.I had fun battling it out with Gabe and then with my teammate Grant. We would go back and for passing one another. I pulled a little DFL trick and took and inside line, cut Grant off and hit the run-up before him ;-) Hey all is fair in love and racing right? Knowing Grant was just in back of me kept me pushing a high pace. What a frick'n awesome workout.
Gotta hand it to the DFL guys, the put together a wicked course. Love the new singletracks! Total I counted 6 logs, one was ride-able(right before the small hill), the other one I tried(near the end of the lap with the sand pit in front of it) and almost bailed so I started shouldering the bike for that one. The sketchiest turns was the one into the double log barrier. It was sandy, dusty and loose. I finally figured out I had to reduce enough speed just to roll into the sand and then dismount quickly to jump over the logs.
Also like the new run-up\ride-up after the small paved section after the double
logs. The dirt was so soft, but if you kept churning a gear you could make it through it, but if you lost just a bit of momentum it was faster to run it and then remount before the short descent. I bombed that thing so many times not even clipped in....dang I got install those crank bros shoe shields!Anyhow with about 3 laps to go I thought we were done. It was very surreal. It felt like there was a sudden quietness, but I hadn't heard anything about last lap so I soldiered on. Took a beer feed from Nick and upped the pace again. Finally coming back around the start finish I heard something about 2 more laps. I was feeling surprisingly recovered so floored it to keep anybody from catching me .
HR ave\max 179\188 (disregard the first 30 mins of plot that was commute to park)It was good fun to see all the familiar 'cross faces, plus a lot of new ones! It's crazy how many people were out. I would estimate at least 100 "riders" and then 30 spectators. I got lot's of compliments about my short shorts. I hope to round up some pictures.
Doesn't do the costume justice, but it's a mean racing photo...thanks bicigirl.
More pics
Things to work on: I need to start running. The run-ups were killing me. I took them slow and steady, made sure to breath rhythmically and take steady steps, but I had no explosive power. Also need to work on remounts. A couple time I swear to god I almost pinch flatted from flopping my ass down on the saddle. In the final run-up to the finish I managed to squash the tip of my pee-pee. It hurt so much I couldn't even think. I grabbed and icecold Coke from the cooler and stuck it down my pants...ahhh! Who knew Coke had some many uses ;-)
Till the next time...peace out!
Comments