Nittany Cyclocross Weekend #1

Packing Friday Evening after work:   this trip consists of...

• 1 racer (me), 0 passengers
• 1 full Honda Element "mobile garage solution" with 2 CX bikes, road wheels, trainer, chair, table, gear, tools, trash bags...
• And a few more race day supplies to add in the AM.

This weekend:

• Nittany Cyclocross UCI Race Weekend
• Race Saturday 2:30P
• Race Sunday 2:30P
• Nittany is a UCI race (international points race) and attracts racers from up and down the eastern seaboard since it is the only UCI race on our coast weekend.   IOW, the talent would be showing up.

Honda Element Mobile Garage Vehicle

Saturday 9:00A departure, drive 2.5 hours to Trexlerstown, PA



Owings Mills to Trexlerstown

Arrive 11:00A in time to pick up my numbers, pre-ride the course a few times, get my stuff together, and warm-up.  

(It was fun getting some practice and chit-chat time in w/fellow teammate A Breyla)

Race time was 2:30P with call-up's at 2:15





















The course:

Saturday Key Take-away's:

• No specific goals for the race other than to race my best "in the moment" and have fun with it. 
• I felt good before the race but I never know how I'm really going to feel until I am in the race with the afterburners on.   Plus, I never know what will happen in the race ... so it is best to just meet the moment when it comes, adapt as necessary, and let my training just "kick in"
• We had 7 women in the ProWomen field Saturday (and Sunday).  Yes, SEVEN.  How freaking cool is that?!!
• My Mom's cousin Gail and her husband, Jay, live 10 miles away and were coming to the races to cheer me on.  How cool!   Plus they were putting me up for the night.  Bonus family visit!
• Because I have ZERO UCI points (international series points),  I don't get a preferred call-up in the starting grid.  IOW, it is the luck of the "lottery" system and this go around I had last row luck.
• I raced smart.  I felt amazingly good.
• I felt calm at 180 heart rate beats per minute
• I was calculated. I made smart moves.
• I raced up to 17th place out of 40 women.
• I raced "my" race.
• And I had fun.
• ZenJen and Tillmanator were both present during this race.  Two unique sides to my own Racer profile.  They worked together quite well.
• I felt great and I did the best I could that day. 

I spent Saturday evening hanging with my family (Gail and Jay).  They fixed me a super healthy nice dinner and we relaxed and got to know one another.   It was a very sweet cherry cap on a solid day.  1st day of racing was in the books!  (the cookies for dessert and home roasted coffee were probably my favorite)

Sunday:

Still no specific goals for the day other than to do my best and have fun with it.

Race course was run backwards today.  We ended up racing six laps instead of five like we did on Saturday.

During warmup's, I felt a tad fatigued.  My body def felt the effects from suffering hard on Saturday.  Still I could only do my best, whatever that would be today. 

I was in the 2nd-to-last starting grid today.  Woot, one row ahead of the last row.  Small things.  :)

My family came out to cheer again but this time they brought their bikes.  Yah.   Bikes rule!

From the start, it was going to be a wicked fast day.  The accelerations and overall pace felt faster today.  The leaders were off and the group stayed in touch with them during the first lap.  (Imagine nearly 30-40 racers in a fast line all trying to over-take that rider in front of them while racing as hard as they could)

I made a few small tactical errors in the first few laps.  For example, I tried to overtake a racer in a turn when I probably should have just conserved my energy and "burned that match" later.  It was ok.  I was learning in the moment and re-calculating the rest of the race using my ZenJen Tillmanator selves to create balance. 

I was suffering.  Man it hurt so much more for me on day 2.   I had a few carrot racers out in front of me.  I'd catch their wheel, they'd pull away a few seconds.  I'd catch. Repeat.  Cat & mouse.   Good solid "races within the race" action.

On the last lap, I made a few moves and over-took a few other strong women out on the course.   Some must've spent too many "energy matches" on Saturday's race and/or early in this race.   Either way, I passed and they fell off.  Obviously, I had at least one more energy match than they had at that point in the race.

My ZenJen Tillmanator decided that when I was overtaking on that last lap, I had to give it everything I had (and MORE) and do it smart enough to create (and KEEP) a gap

I applied a Tillmanator after burner match early in last lap and gapped two women and kept the gap.   I was where I wanted to be in the woods section.  

I had been jumping the log (on bike) vs. running with bike like most women had been doing.   In this wood section, spectators huddled to watch.  Jumping that log earned me LOTS of awesome cheers from the crowd.  I loved that.  I grinned so big and played into the crowd.  F-U-N.  good times.  To those 10 year old kids hiding in the trees, I was a superstar.  Thanks kids.  Each lap, they'd scream "jump the log, do it" (something like that).  Heckling action.  When I successfully jumped, they cheered like crazy.   (the adults nearby were fun as well, especially those that had a few Ales in them) 

I finished with 10 sec or so on the two behind me.  22nd place on day 2.  

I gave it a solid effort.

I gave it my best during that race in those moments.

And now I'm back to my "day job" until next weekend.

Overall
I am pleased with my first wkd of racing. It was hard. It hurt.  I had fun.  I raced hard. I feel strong.  I feel open to what the season will bring.  ZenJen Tillmanator.  Interesting merge of two sides of good ole' "me" may be the recipe for the season.   It'll be interesting what things get added or subtracted as the season progresses.

Cycling is a great laboratory for life experimenting...

thanks for reading.

_ _ _ _ _

Next up, probably MedImmune local race on Sunday 9/15 to help me get some more training racing in before the Charm City UCI weekend.

Race Date		Series		Race Name	Alternates
a	09/07/2013	MAC	UCI	Nittany day 1
a	09/08/2013	MAC	UCI	Nittany day 2
	09/15/2013	Sportif		MedImmune
	09/21/2013	MAC	UCI	Charm City - Day 1
	09/22/2013	MAC	UCI	Charm City - Day 2
	09/28/2013	MAC		Whirlybird
	09/29/2013	Mabra		AppleCX
	10/05/2013	New England	UCI	Providence RI,  Day 1	Local Alternate:	Psycho Cross
	10/06/2013	New England	UCI	Providence RI,  Day 2	Local Alternate:	Hyattsville
	10/12/2013	Sportif		SCCX
	10/13/2013	Mabra		Tachino
	10/20/2013	Mabra		DCCX Cross
	Cancun!
	11/02/2013	Sportif		Patapsco Cross	UCI Race:	Northampton MA, Day 1
	11/03/2013	Mabra		Ed Sander	UCI Race:	Northampton MA, Day 2
	11/09/2013	MAC		FSVS Cross
	11/10/2013	Mabra		Schooley Mill
	11/16/2013	Sportif		All Hallows
	11/17/2013	Mabra		Rockburn
	11/23/2013	Off?			UCI Race:	SuperCross NY
	11/24/2013	VACX		Luray	UCI Race:	SuperCross NY
	12/01/2013	Sportif		Taneytown
	12/07/2013	MAC		Limestone at the Kiln	UCI Race:	NPX Rhode Island
	12/08/2013	Mabra		Capital CX	UCI Race:	NPX Rhode Island