That Time of Year

Its been a while since I've written something so I figured I would pretend that I don't have school work for just a few minutes longer.  

Its that time of year again, second semester is well on its way, and I'm deep into training for road season.  More importantly February is coming to an end which means collegiate racing is just around the corner.  The Midwest Conference will open its season next weekend in Kentucky.  Since I decided not to race much cross this year it has been more than 4 months since I last raced and I can't describe how excited I am to get back at it.  

Untill then I can be thankful the the last couple weeks have been fairly warm and sunny here in Madison.  This weekend looks like it will be more of the same so I'll be getting out for a couple great four to five hour rides.

I know Tony is planning to do a little collegiate racing in the North Centeral Conference and I think Dylan's conference has already started racing.  Good luck to both of them!  Nick told me a little while back on Facebook that he's been taking time with the mild winter to get some super secret training in.  I can only take that to mean he's been brushing up on his sweet ninja skills... So let that be a warning to any one out there who's thinking about pushing him around in the peleton. 

-Alex

Looking Ahead to 2012

Right now I'm just getting out and riding as much as possible with school and working on my base fitness. The last week or so I've been starting to think about planning out next year and what my goals as a rider are beyond just the coming season.  Maybe its just me trying to deny the fact that I have papers and final exams due soon but either way its been productive to start figuring some of that stuff out.  

I'll start the season in February with Collegiate racing and continue that through mid April or so with a big focus on Collegiate Road Nationals in May.  I wanted better than my top 25 finish in the road race there last year and I'm hoping to break the top ten this year.  After that the season will stay full with big regional races in May. Including Memorial Day weekend in Iowa (I'll try and keep my self in one piece there this year).  Then June will have us hitting some big races including Tour of America's Dairy Land and I'd like to try and find a spot for Nature Valley Grand Prix as well. As for the rest of the year I expect I'll be pretty tired by July so I think I'll plan to focus on trying to hit some good results at the bigger regional races in August.

As for looking beyong 2012, I've been trying to figure out what I want as a bike racer in the long term.  And I definitly want to continue to develope and race as a pro.  I don't really know how this will effect what I do this next season and in the comming years but I'm sure Dale and Charlie (as well as Pat and Adam) can help me figure that out.  In the end though I think it will be helpful for me as a rider to have a clear idea of where I want to go with all of this.

There's just one more week of school left before I'm home for winter break and I can't wait to get out and ski with Dale, Dave, Dilly Bar, Pat, Adam and every one else.  Although from what I've heard they don't have any snow back home so hopefully that changes soon!  Happy holidays!

-Alex

Finally...found some time to write a blog entry!

I realize it has been too long since I have written a blog entry.  My apologies, school has been keeping me really busy.  But no excuses, Dylan and Alex seem to have no problem finding time to write an entry.

So to recap what has happened since late August...

Over the past couple of months I have mainly been doing school work with some riding/hiking/extreme activities mixed in when time is available.  I did some long mountain bike rides with my cousin who races MTB professionally for GT Bicycles.  He took me on some really fun 4-5 hour rides up in the mountains on trails that only the locals know about.  It has actually been really nice taking it easy in terms of training and putting a little more effort into my classes, after all I guess that is why I'm attending college.  In the past I have raced the cyclocross season out here and put a lot of effort (at least it felt like it) into training for cyclocross.  In order to have any sort of good result out here in a cross race you have to take it really serious with the field stacked with talent (Danny Summerhill, Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski, Yannick Eckmann (17 year old superstar). Anyway, it was a pretty good fall here in Boulder, CO with some nice sunny, warm weather.  I had planned to race the collegiate mountain bike season but had a hard time finding the motivation to train and race.  However, looking back on it I wish I had raced collegiate and made the team for collegiate mountain bike nationals.  The course, which was in Angel Fire, NM was covered in snow!  Judging from the pictures and talking to the team the course was a mud fest, more of a cyclocross race with a lot of running.  CU-Boulder took 2nd overall for Division 1 for like the 3rd year in a row, the team was happy but very frustrated not to take the top step.  

After shifting more focus to school in the fall rather than racing I have come to realize I'd rather put more effort towards training and racing.  It keeps me sane!  It's all about prioritizing and I've discovered my training/racing takes priority over school (don't tell the parents!).  So for the past few weeks recent race retiree, Dave Hackworthy and I have been doing some backcountry snowshoeing in the mountains.  I'm sure you are laughing at this (everyone does) but it has actually been loads of fun filled with cliff jumps, rock slides and testing how far we can walk on a frozen creek before breaking through!

Over this last week with school letting up before finals begin I have been planning my season out.  In the past my training hasn't been planned out very far in advance and I think a more concrete training will help me stay on track.  As of right now, most of my base will come from long XC skiing at Eldora Mountain, which has over 40K of groomed skate ski trails.  At about 3000m (9500ft.) above sea level it will be a guarantee that it destroys me but I got to train for that double Birkie when I get home so Pat, Dale and Adam don't drop me 1K in and make me look like a fool! After building a big base I will start the collegiate road season on March 17th and plan to race every weekend to qualify for the nationals team.  From what Patty Cakes and what others tell me, the nationals course is really hard so hopefully I can have some good fitness coming into it.  This has pretty much what I have been up to since I last saw most of you.  I hope everyone is enjoying the fall and maybe we could plan a SPBRC team party and/or a cross country ski outing!  

Thanks for reading and I will work on writing more blog updates regularly!

-DB

Here are some pictures.  Descriptions and more pictures can be found in album "Training in High Country"

MTB Nationals Recap

A week ago I made the trip out to Angel Fire Resort in New Mexico for the collegiate national mountain bike championships.  Racing Conditions were super tough due to a snow storm that hit the mountain the day before racing began.  Additionally the race was at elevation which proved to be an interesting challenge. I traveled Thursday and got in with enough time to do a pre ride loop of Friday's cross country course.

Friday was the cross country.  The race was shortened from five laps to three in large part because the course was so muddy from the melting snow.  The course had us climb 1,400 feet up the mountain and then back down.  Due to the melting snow and mud the first half of the climb was too muddy to ride so you had to get off and run.  The upper part of the mountain was cold enough that areas were still some what frozen and could be ridden which was a welcome relief.  I ran in to problems with my bike on the second lap when my front brake went out before the descent unfortunately causing me to lose quite a few spots.  When All was said and done I came in around 50th happy to have finished. 

Saturday was the short track cross country.  This was the day that the switch to elevation really hit me hard.  To begin with I'm not a great short track rider, I'm just not suited to the 20 minute all out effort that it requires.  Saturday was when the elevation really hit me hard.  I felt like I was going hard while warming up and I just couldn't breathe enough to keep out of oxygen debt. And finally to add to the trifecta I didn't have the necessary parts to fix my front brake.  So I had to make a go of it with only a rear break which turned out to be kind of scary in a few areas. In the end it was a rough day and I got pulled two laps into the race with a group of about 25 other riders.  Although it was some consolation that only 4 riders finished the whole race with out getting lapped and pulled.

In the end it was a good learning experience and I especially learned some valuable lessons about how my body reacts to being at elevation. 

-Alex

Carolina Cross

Cross season just started here in the Carolinas. It is weird to think that in a few weeks it will all be wrapped up back home.

My knee has almost completely healed. It still gets sore after hard workouts and barriers, but each week it feels stronger and I feel more confident. About a month ago I was able to start doing only dismounts and remounts slowly, and I have progressed to ripping down our school's Dual slalom course on the Cx bike and flying over the barriers I set up at the bottom at a good amount of speed.

Last weekend in Raleigh was my first real cross race. It was 70 degrees and sunny, no mud, and no rain. That isn't cross. My brain kept jumping back to last years MN state cross race that followed the blizzard on my birthday, where we ran more than we rode I think. It felt so good to be racing again and I had a great time getting to know a whole new crowd of racers. They take cross pretty seriously here and there were some really talented riders in our field.

I have a lot to work on for fitness, but I'm just happy my knee is still holding up well.