While I’m pleased that my cold has passed and health has returned to my body, I can’t believe that cyclocross season starts in only 3 weeks. Unlike last year when we had a new baby born on this day in 2010, I’ll have a little more fitness for CX in 2011. I had to take about 3 weeks off the bike in 2010, and I entered the CX season with a CTL in the low 40′s / high 30′s. This year, my CTL will likely be double last year, but that doesn’t mean I can ride twice as fast. I have a few challenges in CX that my fitness can’t fix. First, my offroad bike handling is not the best. I have never ridden a mountain bike in my life. I owned one for a brief period of time via an eBay purchase, but I sold it a year later after never riding it. Second, I still have winter road / base miles goals to achieve in the road offseason, so I can’t peak for CX like the other racers. In fact, I’ll probably do 70 – 80 mile hard rides on Saturday and then attempt to race cross on Sundays. That’s a recipe for disaster, but at least I’ll get in my base miles, right….
My wife informed me last night that our kids can’t realistically spend all day at the cross race which is required if I race Masters as the first race, and she races Women’s A’s as the 3rd to last race. So, I am being forced to likely race Men’s A’s. While my fitness is above last year, my poor bike handling and Saturday long rides will be enough to ruin any chance to even finish anywhere near the top half of the field. So, look for me to be pulling up the rear in the Men’s A’s unless we can sort out some baby sitting in the next three weeks. I’ll miss week 1 due to work, so October 9th will be the start of the fun.
Despite these challenges, I still agree with this TrainingPeaks post on why cyclocross is such a great sport and something everyone should do at least a few times a winter.
