Garden Leave

I guess you could say I finally hit a wall. After CX Worlds I was on a high. With so much time between the USGP finals in Bend and Nationals, and then even more time between Nationals and Worlds, I came out of the CX season mentally refreshed. Then there is always the fact that when you're winning you always feel better. So when we got back from Louisville I pretty much just started cranking out the base miles testing out power based training. That turned into power based intervals leading into the opening round of the Psycowpath MTB series at Swanson.

Then winter decided to stick around. Six days off the bike left me not even closely prepared to race the Twin Bing Classic. I still poured everything I had into the race for teammate Lucas Marshall and we were rewarded with a 'best we could have done' 2nd place finish. Then winter decided to stick around. Six more days off the bike.

Finally I said screw it and I literally went on gardening leave, building some veggie boxes in the back yard and just doing house stuff.

When is CX season again? The timing was just about perfect. Two solid weeks off the bike and the stage is now set to begin the long slow ramp up to CX season v4.0. Fourteen weeks of base, 8 weeks of specialization and boom, it's CX season.

Of course I'll still be racing here and there. There's the "must do" races, Platte River Battle Royale, Ponca's Revenge...I'll probably try and do the Big Ring Ranch Enduro as it'll fit nicely into the base mile routine. Not a lot of criteriums to hit though but whatever, I'm not really into traveling a whole hell of a lot.

I will have some exciting announcements coming up soon and I know I've said it before but I'm going to really try and make an effort to keep the blog content fresh. I've been kind of bummed on the general devolution of social media. It seems the written word is being left behind. We started with Blogs, then devolved to 140 character Tweets and now we don't even bother with words at all we just post pictures on Instagram. Then again, since a picture is worth a thousand words maybe that means we've come full circle and we're back at blogs. Hmmm, who knows, regardless, I should probably write more.

So, time to say goodbye to my single race road and mtb seasons, hello cyclocross. But then like I've always said, everything is just prep for cyclocross anyway, right?

Race Report: Psycowpath River City Shootout

Well hello blog, how have you been? I've been MIA.

After the big blow out that was the 2012/13 CX season I was pretty refreshed and went straight into training for the summer MTB and road races. I've been playing with my Quarq power meter and have been blown away by the quality of training you can get out of it. It's pretty amazing. But, with the weather being crap I hadn't spent any time on the MTB since the Dakota 5-O last labor day.

By the time the trails finally dried out it was, you got it, about a week before the opening round of the Nebraska Lottery Psycowpath series. I made it out mid-week to make sure the mountain bike, ahem, still functioned. I was left with a less than stellar feeling going into the weekend. The bike worked great but I felt like crap. I was left wondering if I'd been spending too much time on the road playing with my new training toy. I managed to pull myself up convincing myself that nobody had been riding their MTB either so the playing field was level, right?

It was going to be an interesting weekend. Local fast-man Kent McNeill was off his usual high fitness level, as was Cam Kirkpatrick from Des Moines. Steve Jarrett was out, Kevin Limpach was out, Nate Woodman was out. The front end was looking pretty lean. One thing for sure was up and comer Brad Auen was definitely not off and was most likely going to be the guy to watch, along with teammate Greg Shimonek.

The weekend started off with a two pack of sprints creating a mini-stage race not a stage race weekend. Saturday was the 20 minute one lap time trial at Jewell Park followed by the 20 minute Short Track Cross Country at Swanson Park.

Did I mention I was nervous? Pretty typical. As I like to say, I'm motivated by self doubt.

The TT went off without a hitch. I ran through the course in my head on the ride to the park pin pointing the sections of the trail I would attack and the others I would recover on. After only one close encounter with a tree I rolled across the line in 16:15 setting a new course record and taking the win ahead of Brad and Greg. My nerves were slightly calmed.

Photo: Emily Hoesly

That evening it was off to Swanson for a more cyclocrossy style race, the STXC. Brad, Kent, and Greg immediately shot of the startline as I had a rough time getting the legs going. Brad was setting a scorching pace as I struggled to get up speed. The legs finally came around after a lap and I figured I should hit back. I made the jump around the front three and attacked the course much like I would a CX race. The gap opened up behind and the group shattered under the pressure. Twenty minutes later I rolled across the line for win number two ahead of Brad, Kent and Shim.

TT/STXC Podium (L/R) Kent McNiell, Greg Shimonek, yours truly, Brad Auen, Noah Marcus
Photo: Emily Hoesly

The next day would be interesting. Kent as I mentioned above slipped out of the intense effort XC race and into the "quest for fitness" marathon class so it was basically going to be Shim and I against Brad. Shim took the lead into the singletrack and the three of us immediately had a gap. Jeremiah Grell and Noah Marcus were close behind but never made contact over the opening two laps. As we rolled through with three laps to go both Brad and Greg went to grab bottles and I rolled through into the lead. I started to test the guys a little bit to see where I could get gaps and by mid-lap I had a plan. I finally opened it up on the backside descent and as we made our way back to the start-finish area I had 15 seconds or so on Brad and a few more on Greg.

Alone at the front in the Cross Country
Photo: Anne Savery

I continued to push hard during the 4th lap and by the end had doubled the gap. At this point I started to back off just a bit only pushing as hard as I needed to. Ultimately rolling across the line for win number three of the weekend a mere 8 seconds ahead of Brad and with two minutes to spare on Greg. I'm stoked to win at Swanson as I consider it my home track. Next up for me will be the Psycowpath Battle Royale at Platte River State Park in 4 weeks. After such a heavy cyclocross campaign last winter I'm picking and choosing my races this summer. Gotta keep it fresh.

XC Podium (L/R) Jeremiah Grell, Brad Auen, yours truely, Greg Shimonek, Jason Gaines
Photo: Emily Hoesly

More from worlds

Long time friend Keith Walberg produced a great little piece on my worlds victory

Conversation with UCI Masters Champ Mark Savery from Gizmo Pictures on Vimeo.

Someday