Sorry for the delayed post on Sunday’s bike racing action. Ended up being a long day and I decided not to open up my little black apple last night. So it was a good day on the bike. Didn’t win. Didn’t get on the podium. But I had a really good race. I really really wanted to win. I tried. But it didn’t turn out in my favor. Such is bike racing. Play the cards and hope it works. Reality is that everyone else wants to win as well, and there is only one top step. Anyway you can read the full on details over here.

Have to say a big thanks to Alyssa and Sophie for the great riding on Sunday. We were able to work together a bit to try to make things work. It was a nice change to race with some other people and really to feed off one another’s energy. Also thanks to Marc for helping me out and keeping me relaxed and chilled out. Also for pointing out the good things that came from the race even though I didn’t reach my goal.

Definitely was a great way to spend a Sunday. I raced earlyish – 9:15 and then we came home for a bit before going out for Marc’s race at 2:15. Gave me a chance to shower and chill a bit and gave Marc time to relax and get in a decent lunch. One of the best parts about such a race day is hanging out watching Marc and our friends race. I get to see a lot of guys race who I don’t normally get to watch and the extra bonus is hanging out with friends. It was the perfect day for it. Marc’s race went well – super fast and quite aggressive. He rode well and finished 12th in the Senior 1/2 field – so a good day for him as well.

All in all, I’d have to say it was a pretty fine weekend in July. Didn’t do much besides race our bikes, but this is the way we like it. Not much on the race calendar for me until August 30 when I’m going to Binghamton to race at Chris Thater. Always enjoyed this race – great way to finish the road season and bring on the ‘cross season. Now I’ll be spending more time on the ‘cross bikes and getting into even more specific training. Looking forward to it. Alright, I’m out. Have a good one. I’ll check back in with you in a few days. Dig out that ‘cross bike – because the season is just around the corner.

Up at the crack of dawn this morning for the OBC Grand Prix. This is a great “little big” race in the Gatineau Park. This year Peter T. of the OBC was the race organizer. A big shout out to Pete and his volunteers for a really well-organized race. Many thanks for continuing the tradition and keeping this race going. I especially appreciate the earlier start time for the women’s race.

We made it out to the Gatineau Park at around 6:30 and it was wet. Really wet. Ah well, I don’t mind racing in the rain. I prefer rain over the heat. And besides it is not like it is November and raining. This was a warm rain. Have to say though, at times during the race, the rain felt like little knives going into my arms and legs during the descents.

Great to see lots of friendly faces from Quebec and Ontario – made it an easy way to relax before the racing action started. Many thanks for the words of encouragement and cheering during the race – it really does make a difference.

So what happened? Well, I’ve written a race report and posted it here. But suffice it to say, all in all, I had a good day on the bike. At first blush if you simply look at the race results you might think otherwise. I don’t know my final result. I didn’t finish in the main pack. But the key here is that I finished. I haven’t finished this race in some time. Last year I dropped out on the first lap. The year before, I warmed up and didn’t even start. So this year, my goal was simply to finish. My problem is that I “beat myself” up over this race and then get frustrated with myself and everything else. But I told myself today would be different. And it was. The crazy thing is that the first time up Camp Fortune I was shocked when we hit the top of the climb – I thought we still had a couple more turns left and wasn’t ready for the acceleration across the top. Yep, made it up with the lead group and got popped during the acceleration. Sigh. I chased and chase, but couldn’t catch back on. At times I felt like I was close, but distance can be deceiving on climbs.

Anyway, I’m okay with the ride. I had a few goals and all things considered, today is a win for me.

Congrats to Sue S. for winning today. Also congrats to Cynthia and Sophie for their great rides. In fact, congrats to all the women who came out and raced today. The great thing about this race is that women who don’t typically race come out and race. This is awesome to see. In fact, quite inspiring.

Had a pretty chilled out afternoon. Relaxing lunch at Kettleman’s and then home to get cleaned up and ready for Sunday’s racing action. Marc did lots of time in the garage getting our bikes cleaned up and ready for the crit tomorrow. Me, well I put the laundry on and stuffed our shoes with newspaper (and then I watched the track and field on CBC). Got to say this was a great way to relax and keep things in perspective. Seeing these elite athletes going for it in rainy and windy conditions in Paris was just what I needed. Not to mention seeing some impressive feats: female pole vaulter who won today was pretty dominating, Usain Bolt – well he is amazing, the sheer force and speed of the hurdlers always dazzles as well.

Thanks for reading and maybe we’ll see you’ll tomorrow.

Wow – what a great day it has turned out to be. One of those days I just feel so fortunate to be surrounded and supported by such fine people. This may sound like over-the-top gushing, but it isn’t. I really do feel super lucky today.

I met up with Vince at The Cyclery today and I was overwhelmed with his generosity. Along with running a bustling cycling store, Vince is a huge supporter of the local racing community. Once again he has gone out of his way to support me for the upcoming cyclo-cross season. I’m feeling pretty darn lucky today. Thanks Vince! Go check out the store. The shop has a fine shipment of Dugast tires and you know you want some. How about a new bike? A new helmet? New shoes? Okay – you get the idea. Anyway, check out the store – you’ll be impressed by the quality of service and knowledgeable staff.

Really this support I get with bikes, groupos, wheels, service, handlebars, pedals, etc. is simply awesome. It makes my life so much easier knowing that I am riding super reliable and fast bikes: Stevens Super Prestige. These bikes are well-designed, agile, and have a pretty darn nice paint job as well. If you’re thinking of buying a new ‘cross bike this year or maybe you want a new road bike – go check out Stevens Bikes.

Sure sign that ‘cross season is around the corner – registration for the first weekend of the New England Verge Series opens on Monday. Crazy that we are registering for ‘cross races in July. Definite sign of the incredible growth and popularity of the sport. I’m stoked to return to Vermont this fall to race at Catamount. These are super fun race courses that offer terrain for everyone. Extra bonus is hooking up with all my ‘cross buddies who I haven’t seen all summer. Be sure to remember to register on Monday.

Well now I best be off. Early to bed for me. Have to get up at the crack of dawn to get ourselves out to the Gatineau Park for the OBC Grand Prix. Marc is up for 6 laps of the park. I have to do 3. Check back later tomorrow for a race report and story about the day. Feeling like this good luck and fortune will keep following me this weekend. Looking forward to some fun on the road bikes. As for next weekend – who is up for a ‘cross ride? Come on you know you want to…

Just on my way out the door but I’ve got time for a quickie post. So training today did not go as planned but in the end it all worked out. Plan was to do a gym work-out before work and then a road ride after work. Smooth. Get to the gym – hmmm, it is completely dark and there is no music playing. Huh, no power. Oh well, there are still people working out. So I start my work-out. I just get settled in nicely to a round of back squats followed by jump squats and I’m told we have to leave. Bummer.

I must admit I came home a bit cranky. I was stressed trying to figure out when I could get this work-out in. Hopped on my bike for the ride to work. That is when it hit me, missing the gym session was not the end of the world. I will try to do it on Thursday, if not no biggie. Priorities for the week are really to be well rested for the racing this weekend and to get in a solid session tomorrow on the ‘cross bike. I caught myself before letting the missed gym work-out snowball into something bigger and worse.

Got in some excellent time on the road bike today. All about recovery so it was nice to be out enjoying the sunshine and listening to some Vinyl Cafe podcasts while pedaling along. When I got home I read the second part of Jeremy Power’s interview on CX Magazine. A pretty good interview. One part question really struck home with me and I thought some of you might be able to relate:

CXM: For those looking to progress to the highest ranks as a cyclocross racer, what words of wisdom do you have?

JPow: I think the biggest thing is to listen to the people around you and what they are telling you. One of the biggest things that I do, and one of the biggest aspects of my life, is I ask people to critique me. I am always asking what can I do better about this, what do you see? People say, “Well, I see you do this when you race in the mud, and when you get back on your bike.” Work on anything you possibly can. Because you are putting in 20 or 30 hours a week riding your bike and you’re not doing those things, then you’re not giving yourself a full chance. I think it’s important to just look at yourself from the outside in and say, “o.k. what can I do to make myself better, what do I know that I am not good enough at?” If that’s running, or if that’s riding in the mud, or if that’s just power, all of those things can be worked on. You can run more, you can train harder at intervals, you can go out and wet down your back yard and ride around in circles in the mud. You can make sure that you do all these things to at least give yourself an opportunity, and if you don’t give yourself that opportunity, then you have stumbled out of the start gate as if you never even tried. I would say breaking it down piece-by-piece and then taking your game to a different level is the hardest thing to do, but you have to look at each individual piece and then focus on one at a time and just knock them off. That can take years.

You’re looking at the top end of a sport, and when you look at the top end, there is going to be a really high range of guys. Some courses may suit you better genetically than others, and you may say that in that flat grassy race you’re awesome but then you get in this mud race and it’s not that great. You just have to look at those things and try and work on them one at a time.

Some very good words to think about. I know I am. Okay, gotta jet. The new Ottawa Cross clothing is going to look hot. Many many thanks to Fearless Leader for an excellent design. I’m off to get some forms faxed to Champion Systems so I can get myself some slick new racing and training duds.

Huge shout out to Clif Bar for getting my order to me so quickly. You guys rock. Pretty jazzed about the new Shot Blok packaging and looking forward to trying some of the new flavors. Had my first chocolate brownie Z Bar today – mmm, quite addictive.

Wow – what a day I’ve had. Kicked it off with a little bit of Tour de France watching and lingering over a steaming mug of coconut chai tea. Pretty smooth way to start a Sunday. The day simply got better as it rolled along. Packed up my trusty Stevens Super-Prestige and made my way over to some new training grounds. I wanted to ride some more technical trails than I’d been riding. And frankly I’ve been feeling a bit stale riding the same general trails every week.

Decided to check out Lime Kiln. I didn’t know much about it – but I presumed from the name it would be rocky. Well, definitely got that right! Rocky. Rooty. And unfortunately a tad too technical for me and my mountain bike. No biggie though. I zipped around on the trails there a bit and then rolled down Moodie and picked up another trail. This is where the real fun started. I ended up on a flowy singletrackish trail that took me over everything. Roots. Rocks. Bridges. Mud. Pine needles. Lots of twists and turns. Still technical but less so than Lime Kiln. Eventually I popped out at Stony Swamp. I picked up another trail and zipped around. All in all, an excellent morning session on the ‘cross bike.

Bonus factors of the morning session: testing my limits, stretching my limits, being in nature, conquering some challenging mud, remembering to keep pedaling at all times, looking ahead instead of two feet in front of me, remembering to ease up on the brake, and most importantly – being outside on a beautiful Sunday morning enjoying nature!

Had a chilled out late morning/early afternoon. Got lots of little jobs done around the house and found time to sit down and ready the Sunday NY Times. How I love this paper! I now subscribe to the Sunday NY Times. What a great treat to peek out onto the front step this morning at 6 to see this paper ready and waiting for me! Nothing like sitting down and really discovering the world and what is happening around us (pair this with some chocolate mint tea and it is even better!).

Soon enough it was time to hop on the ‘cross bike again and roll down to my local park for some skills and drills. I’m super lucky to have this little park down the street. It features a short but steep hill. Soccer field. A gravel/sand ball diamond. A sand box. And this kind of sloping section on the edge. So lots of great natural training features. Throw in some flags and a little creativity and I’m off to the races. Today I set up my standard grid on the steep face of the hill. I worked on riding up through the grid – making tight uphill corners. Then I worked on descending through the grid – making fast corners and maintaining speed. Then I worked on simply climbing the steep face with speed and playing around with my gearing. It was an excellent session. I learned a few new tricks. Overcame some obstacles. But best of all I learned how to maintain my cool…

So I was doing fairly well with the uphill corner drill – the last two corners were tight but with some elbow grease I was getting through them. I saw our car pull into the lot. Cool – Marc has come to watch and help out. Well, I started making all sorts of mistakes and I could no longer get through the corners. I was frustrated. But I didn’t let it get to me. (In years past I may have sulked or simply gotten quite angry with myself.) Marc showed me a couple of things. I tried them. Made some gains but still struggled. So I did something totally new for me – I moved on. I put the drill away and moved onto the next one. I didn’t let it ruin my session or eat away at me. For you this might not seem like a big deal. But for me this is massive. I think it shows that I’m actually starting to have some confidence in my skills and technique. I didn’t let one little thing snowball and ruin the rest of my training session. Probably the biggest reason for this: dudes I’m super motivated this year. I’m going to do it. I’m going to make it.

This focus has helped me see past the little blips and really keep my eyes on the big deal and the prize.

Bonus factors of the afternoon session: Marc coming out to help out and give me encouragement and advice, succeeding at failing and not getting upset, learning some new skills with regards to climbing and momentum, cornering and more cornering success, and most of all – being out there and doing it.

It is so easy to not go out for the extra session. But I have to do it. I haven’t got a lot of natural talent or raw skill to fall back on. I need to put in the hard work. Luckily I have the experience to know that the extra hard work will pay off in the end. Besides, I love training. Seriously, I enjoy training. I would train even if I wasn’t racing.

Yep, so a most excellent Sunday. Just had one of my new favorite snacks: carrots, celery and tomato with white kidney bean dip (one can of white kidney beans drained and rinsed blended in the food processor with a liberal amount of tahini, a splash of water, squeeze of lemon juice, and a dash of cumin or cayenne pepper). Now I’ve got one last “job” to do for this Sunday – iron the work clothes… The reward is good though – a trip to the big book store to touch books and sip a tasty chai tea misto and then dinner out with pals at the New Mee Feung. Yep, pretty darn fine Sunday. Extra bonus of this Sunday – seeing my man Jens Voigt ride like a machine to bring his team mate back to the peleton after a flat. Jens rules!