xc62701
Well-Known Member
Thanks man! Time and sacrifice are definitely getting me where I want to be. Oh that's why you were quiet… I should've gone harder then
The Long Road Back
- Thread starter xc62701
- Start date
Thanks man! Time and sacrifice are definitely getting me where I want to be. Oh that's why you were quiet… I should've gone harder then
xc62701
Well-Known Member
Wohoo! Back in the 160's! I had a nice easy ride in the rain last night. It was miserable and enjoyable. It was nice and warm so I wasn't cold but I didn't expect the rain so that was kind of a bummer. Once you're wet, you're wet so I just kept spinning and had a good ride. I was on my pit bike so I cleaned it up afterward and it's ready for race day. I'll go over my race bike tonight as well to make sure all systems are go.
Some short race prep tonight, a good dinner, a good night's rest and it's on for tomorrow. Looks like 13 prereg'd so far so I'm expecting 15 or maybe a few more on race day. I know it's a far drive for most but this is probably going to be the best course of the year!
Some short race prep tonight, a good dinner, a good night's rest and it's on for tomorrow. Looks like 13 prereg'd so far so I'm expecting 15 or maybe a few more on race day. I know it's a far drive for most but this is probably going to be the best course of the year!
xc62701
Well-Known Member
Well it didn't go exactly as planned...
I start hard and settle in 5th and wait in traffic in the woods where the hats dusty mtb portion starts. Start of lap 2 I get through the few ahead and am on the leaders wheel just before the sand. I corner super hard and aggressive trying to take the lead. I rolled the tubeless tire and burped most of the air out... FML. I hit the ground and jump back on now in 5th. I chase but the front tire isn't working and the next racers are sneaking up.
I start lap 3 and want to get to the pit to switch bike since I can't keep the bike with the low tire on the course. I tried hard but it's not working. I pit and can't find the exit and jump out as 2 more pass. Shit!!! Now it's time to hold position for the overall in the series. I'm sitting 7th of 13 now and try to save face. My B bike has tubeless tires and canti brakes that suck. They really suck!!! It just sucks in general. I jump hard and try to gain some spots.
I get to pass one and now I'm sitting 6th. I keep pressing hard but I realize how badly tubed tires suck and cantis change the handling of the bike. I see 5th ahead and realize there is 1 lap to go and not much room for improvement. I keep pedaling but more to hold off 7th than to pedal to 5th. I roll in 6th place overall after a hard fought battle and adversity. This will add to my overall standings. I've been sitting in first overall. I'm hoping to put together more of a good showing for Marty's. I'm in it for the long run and am sitting in first by 10 points which I'm not giving up. I'll go down swinging if I need it. I want to hit Marty's hard and have a great showing if at all possible.
Of course to add to the madness, I drive home and I run out of gas!!!!!!! I had to bring my car to the shoulder, park it and grab my bike off the car and ride for gas. I look it up on the phone and there's a gas station 1 mile from me. I have to literally drop off the turnpike, climb over an 8' fence to get to the surface streets and then ride to the station to get gas. I was hoping they had a can I could use and get fuel for the car.
I was in luck! I met Daniel from the Lukoil in Cherry Hill. He went home to get a gas can. He then took a deposit so I'd bring the can back and filled it for me which I gladly paid for. I rode the 1+ mile back to the car, over the fence and up to my car. I filled it and got it running again. I then proceeded to that same gas station to thank Daniel, return his gas can, and then give him that deposit he took as a way of saying thank you. He didn't have to do all he did for me. I appreciated all he did and wanted him to know this.
Even better he recommended a great pizza place across the way and grabbed 2 slices and filled my shakey belly. I was happy for everything to be over and to get in the car and drive home. Thankfully I arrived home to my wife and daughter ready to enjoy daddy for dinner and bath time and our usual ritual. It was good to have an adventure today as most would have been in distress - I was enjoying the challenge.
I start hard and settle in 5th and wait in traffic in the woods where the hats dusty mtb portion starts. Start of lap 2 I get through the few ahead and am on the leaders wheel just before the sand. I corner super hard and aggressive trying to take the lead. I rolled the tubeless tire and burped most of the air out... FML. I hit the ground and jump back on now in 5th. I chase but the front tire isn't working and the next racers are sneaking up.
I start lap 3 and want to get to the pit to switch bike since I can't keep the bike with the low tire on the course. I tried hard but it's not working. I pit and can't find the exit and jump out as 2 more pass. Shit!!! Now it's time to hold position for the overall in the series. I'm sitting 7th of 13 now and try to save face. My B bike has tubeless tires and canti brakes that suck. They really suck!!! It just sucks in general. I jump hard and try to gain some spots.
I get to pass one and now I'm sitting 6th. I keep pressing hard but I realize how badly tubed tires suck and cantis change the handling of the bike. I see 5th ahead and realize there is 1 lap to go and not much room for improvement. I keep pedaling but more to hold off 7th than to pedal to 5th. I roll in 6th place overall after a hard fought battle and adversity. This will add to my overall standings. I've been sitting in first overall. I'm hoping to put together more of a good showing for Marty's. I'm in it for the long run and am sitting in first by 10 points which I'm not giving up. I'll go down swinging if I need it. I want to hit Marty's hard and have a great showing if at all possible.
Of course to add to the madness, I drive home and I run out of gas!!!!!!! I had to bring my car to the shoulder, park it and grab my bike off the car and ride for gas. I look it up on the phone and there's a gas station 1 mile from me. I have to literally drop off the turnpike, climb over an 8' fence to get to the surface streets and then ride to the station to get gas. I was hoping they had a can I could use and get fuel for the car.
I was in luck! I met Daniel from the Lukoil in Cherry Hill. He went home to get a gas can. He then took a deposit so I'd bring the can back and filled it for me which I gladly paid for. I rode the 1+ mile back to the car, over the fence and up to my car. I filled it and got it running again. I then proceeded to that same gas station to thank Daniel, return his gas can, and then give him that deposit he took as a way of saying thank you. He didn't have to do all he did for me. I appreciated all he did and wanted him to know this.
Even better he recommended a great pizza place across the way and grabbed 2 slices and filled my shakey belly. I was happy for everything to be over and to get in the car and drive home. Thankfully I arrived home to my wife and daughter ready to enjoy daddy for dinner and bath time and our usual ritual. It was good to have an adventure today as most would have been in distress - I was enjoying the challenge.
xc62701
Well-Known Member
Wow that's not a good day! Sorry to hear man! I'm annoyed that my race went the way it did. I was so looking forward to trying to get in front to use the woods to my advantage. It wasn't meant to be. I realized one huge disadvantage is the old canti brakes. I'm definitely waaaay more confindent and faster in every way with disc brakes. I'm not going to let my pit bike hold me back any more...
Pearl
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
Bummer stuff. I'm not 100% solid on mech disc brakes. I feel they will be 80% good 100% of the time, instead of cantis which can go from awesome to sucky really fast depending on the conditions. I'm all about first lap aggressiveness, but sometimes you have to know when to keep it in your pants!
xc62701
Well-Known Member
Mechanical discs...forget that. Hydros or nothing.
xc62701
Well-Known Member
So I was thinking about how to resolve my lackluster pit bike situation. I was working on a few solutions and then came up with this. I think I'm set.
I've gotta change the bars as they feel odd. I'm going to throw the same set of bars I have on my crux on here to keep it the same. Outside of that it has a low end drivetrain which I'll be upgrading shortly. I rode it for 90 mins last night and it was great. The shifting was a little inconsistent but it rode very well.
I've gotta change the bars as they feel odd. I'm going to throw the same set of bars I have on my crux on here to keep it the same. Outside of that it has a low end drivetrain which I'll be upgrading shortly. I rode it for 90 mins last night and it was great. The shifting was a little inconsistent but it rode very well.
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xc62701
Well-Known Member
So far so good with the new CX bike. I have been training on it and realizing it needs a couple of tweaks here and there but so far so good. It's advertised as a cx/gravel bike and I checked out the specs and the geo is the same as their top end CX bike and has wider clearance for the bigger gravel tires. As far as I can tell that's the only "gravel" part of this bike. It rides well and should be a great addition to the stable.
As far as fitness goes, it's been nice to have a week where I'm not concerned about the race this weekend. I have NO races on the calendar. What I do have is house projects. I've been working on my deck since the summer and it's stalling out until I have time. I will get to put more time in this weekend but the weather and family responsibilities will limit how much actual time I can spend on it. If I can make a lot of progress on the deck I'll be happy. I want decking down before it snows so there's my goal.
For weight, I've been being good and watching my intake and I'm still hovering around the 169/170 mark. I'd like to be 165 by Marty's cx race next weekend. I thought for sure I'd be lighter today as I got in a great 4 hour mtb ride in and ate pretty light but yet I actually went up in weight. I feel like hard efforts like that actually make the body hold onto food longer - so that's why I gained weight. Who knows if my theory is right but it sounds good. I'll find out over the weekend and into next week if that's true. So for now my eyes are on the Marty's race for round #4 in the NJCX Cup and I'm still sitting in the lead by 10 points. I'm hoping to open that margin up. Ideally the Marty cx course is 20 mins away(by bike) so as soon as the course is up I'll go over and ride it and get familiar so race day I'll know exactly what's going on. I hope I'm feeling good for this race. I never know what legs show up on race day until the first lap or two is done.
As far as fitness goes, it's been nice to have a week where I'm not concerned about the race this weekend. I have NO races on the calendar. What I do have is house projects. I've been working on my deck since the summer and it's stalling out until I have time. I will get to put more time in this weekend but the weather and family responsibilities will limit how much actual time I can spend on it. If I can make a lot of progress on the deck I'll be happy. I want decking down before it snows so there's my goal.
For weight, I've been being good and watching my intake and I'm still hovering around the 169/170 mark. I'd like to be 165 by Marty's cx race next weekend. I thought for sure I'd be lighter today as I got in a great 4 hour mtb ride in and ate pretty light but yet I actually went up in weight. I feel like hard efforts like that actually make the body hold onto food longer - so that's why I gained weight. Who knows if my theory is right but it sounds good. I'll find out over the weekend and into next week if that's true. So for now my eyes are on the Marty's race for round #4 in the NJCX Cup and I'm still sitting in the lead by 10 points. I'm hoping to open that margin up. Ideally the Marty cx course is 20 mins away(by bike) so as soon as the course is up I'll go over and ride it and get familiar so race day I'll know exactly what's going on. I hope I'm feeling good for this race. I never know what legs show up on race day until the first lap or two is done.
xc62701
Well-Known Member
As the weekend approaches I've realized that the 165 mark isn't going to happen, nor should it. If I try and drop too much weight I'll be depleted for race day and that's not where I want to be. I hit the scale at 170 this morning and will probably be a pound or so lighter by race day and that's fine. I forgot the fact that my wife was out of town Sunday-Wednesday so when I have to fend for myself I usually end up eating crappy. That's kinda the story.
I feel good and the legs are wanting to race. My pit bike is all worked out so Sunday is the day. I'm hoping they put the course up early. Since it's not far from me I'll run over there and do laps if possible. I'm really looking forward to the race Sunday and the end of the season. 4 more races to go!
I feel good and the legs are wanting to race. My pit bike is all worked out so Sunday is the day. I'm hoping they put the course up early. Since it's not far from me I'll run over there and do laps if possible. I'm really looking forward to the race Sunday and the end of the season. 4 more races to go!
4????
Marty Cross
HPCX
HPCX
Sussex CX
Bubble CX
Supercross Cup
Supercross Cup
Marty Cross
HPCX
HPCX
Sussex CX
Bubble CX
Supercross Cup
Supercross Cup
xc62701
Well-Known Member
If I had to choose between SuperCross and HPCX, I'd do super.
xc62701
Well-Known Member
a couple years ago i watched my weight go up all cross season and i just got faster/stronger as the year went on... not sure if that means anything or not, or i just ate shittier as the season went on
I'm finding that I can drop weight between races, but if it's too aggressive I find myself not feeling that great on race day. If it's more of a steady drop or I maintain a close weight between races I feel much better and race better. With that being said I topped off my chocolate chip cookie tank last night so I should be good to go for Sunday. Either way I'm lighter than I've been for 2 of the previous 3 cx races and pretty close to the weight for the last cx race that I blew my tire off at. If I race smart and give it all I have I can't ask for more. I'll just see if that's enough to put me in a good place or not.
xc62701
Well-Known Member
Supercross is the weekend of my wifes birthday and I'm trying to plan a getaway. A much needed getaway. That's out.
xc62701
Well-Known Member
You're just trying to keep me out of your field at HPCX. If I'm doing it I'll be in the 35+.
