Pearl's Generic Talk

My first xc race was in cat 2. It was my 5th race ever, 2nd race of 2007, the LMC. The first 4 races I ever did were mentioned in my thread earlier today: 2 24 hour races, the 50k, and a 4 hour MASS enduro. There's no cat 3 in those races.

I have no idea what my expectations were but I did pretty lousy in the race. Back then the classes were 30-39 for cat 2, and I ended up 33/34th out of 50-60 starters. I'll look for the old blog post tomorrow if I remember.

My advice to you is to expect a relentless stream of technical features. Expect to think at some point, "OMFG did the Nazis design this course?" Expect a very hard course.

Take that approach, and ride your pace, and you should be ok. I do know that I always had this absurd notion that I was just going to show up one day and be a top 10 rider. I have no idea why. I guess I was hoping that if I posted enough about it I might suddenly be fast one day. Reality had a different idea.
 
My first cat 2 experience was a disaster, Tymor in the greasy mud. It was the longest time I had been on a bike up to that race. Something like 2.5 hrs and close to last place. I just didnt have the fitness. I actually went back to cat 3(illegal) and did well at blue. I was definately more tech than roadie and was 3rd fastest of all cat 3's. So I decided to bump back up to cat for the rest of the series to gain some experience.

JH was the first Cat 2 race I was mentally and sort of physically ready for. I had no expectations but to not blow up like Tymor. It was another tech race but a good amount of road thrown in for the roadies to gain some ground. I paced myself well on the first lap and layed it down on the second. Finished top 10 but burned myself out for the season finale.

My only advice is not to push too hard on your first lap. Run your own race and try to reel them in on your second lap. Its really only a training race for next season. Good Luck
 
Cat2 is nothing to be afraid of. Really, you have nothing to lose. When i was in cat3 I expected to be competitive. I put pressure on myself going into races. When I moved up that pressure was gone. I just went out and "raced my own race" and wherever I ended up, I ended up. Moving up was actually quite relieving. Just go out and have fun, that's what its all about. If you end up dying out there, ill do the right thing, check you for valuables and continue on my way.
 
Here, I found it:
http://normbrero.blogspot.com/2007/07/bring-out-hellmans.html

Not very interesting. I find rereading these old blog posts a bit humbling, because I didn't know the first thing about what I was doing at the time. The "mysterious news" was actually the beginning of MTBNJ 2.0, with Albert/Heythopre about to announce his news that he was starting his own website. The site has since gone away entirely.

Jake asked me that weekend if I wanted to be on the team as we lined up for the race that day. So I'm the longest running team member, since July 15, 2007, roughly 10:30 am to be exact.

As for the Lebanon 52, I still haven't done that. Man I've been talking about it for 3-4 years and still haven't put it together. That's so lame.

Anyway, that link is of no use at all for your first race. Maybe my Blue recap will be of more user:
http://www.mtbnj.com/forum/showthread.php?p=33830#post33830

I admit that the misery I experienced in that race is not properly described in that recap. Historically speaking, you can see the seeds of the Fred & Ben Bromance forming even way back then.
 
Norm said:
Here, I found it:
http://normbrero.blogspot.com/2007/07/bring-out-hellmans.html

Not very interesting. I find rereading these old blog posts a bit humbling, because I didn't know the first thing about what I was doing at the time. The "mysterious news" was actually the beginning of MTBNJ 2.0, with Albert/Heythopre about to announce his news that he was starting his own website. The site has since gone away entirely.

Jake asked me that weekend if I wanted to be on the team as we lined up for the race that day. So I'm the longest running team member, since July 15, 2007, roughly 10:30 am to be exact.

As for the Lebanon 52, I still haven't done that. Man I've been talking about it for 3-4 years and still haven't put it together. That's so lame.

Anyway, that link is of no use at all for your first race. Maybe my Blue recap will be of more user:
http://www.mtbnj.com/forum/showthread.php?p=33830#post33830

I admit that the misery I experienced in that race is not properly described in that recap. Historically speaking, you can see the seeds of the Fred & Ben Bromance forming even way back then.
Click to expand...

This is some very interesting reading. Its crazy that not long ago.... that was Norm..😛
 
Screw all the lead up stuff.
The goals for my first Cat 2 race:
Not to die
Not to blow up (even if I have to sacrifice effort)
Beat the start of the cat 1 race

12 pre-reg'd for this event, Not sure on the final count. I get into line and almost take out Mark as I swing my bike around. Good job, dumbass. What a way to look really cool in your first big dog race.

I hung to the back off the start and didn't want to get in anyones away. We had a big pile up mid pack up the first loose gravely hill. That thing sucked. I ended up passing either 2 riders off of the second fire road climb. I decided to settle in behind an older guy in a campmor jersey. He ended up losing me.

I find him on the side of the trail fixing a wheel and he peels off as I pass him. I can't remember if he passes me again or not. 2 laps = hard to remember all the details 😛

I end up going past a Cat 1 guy watching and he said "1/4 mile to go, SS you crazy!" The whole race I was thinking the six miles would go fast, but they didn't. That was a rough 6 miles.

First lap comes to an end and I say to myself as I pass the tent "I feel really good". I have to do the whole bottle exchange. Mandi was ON POINT and was able to give me a great exchange.

Just like RUChris said, once you pass the first lap start/finish, you kind of just go back to business. I didn't feel drained yet and I still had something left in the tank.

I spend the next couple of miles tailing a geared rider in a Allenwood? jersey. He said I could pass him, but I was content where I was. He was hurting and was just looking to stay alive. I swap places with him a couple of times and eventually I don't see him anymore.

EDIT:
At some point around here, I pass a guy with the front wheel off, ass in the leaves on the side of the trail. I asked everyone I went by if they were alright. He said he needed a pump. I slammed on my brakes and threw my pump at the guy. Told him my name and said he would drop it off at the tent. I got this pump for free from Dustin, so I figured what the hell. At the end of the race the guy returned the pump the to start/finish table. Good people are still around!

Kirt and Chris26er come up past me on one of the loose gravely climbs. Exchange some words with this Chris as he asked how I was doing. They both were moving. I got out of the way since they were chasing some other geared dudes. Man they were boogying.

RUChris then comes up on me. He was with some other guys as well in a chase, so I get out of the way. Out of no where, pooriggy is hell bent on the next downhill. I never see him after he makes the next turn on the downhill section. Boy was he killing it.

I stay on Chris' wheel until Yin (the last rock garden after the 1/4 mile guy), where I'm running low on fuel and get tripped up. I cleaned it the first time since so many people were watching.

I come around the finish and have a smile on my face. I somehow enjoyed this more than I thought. My legs felt pretty good.

The only thing that I can say that was holding me back was my gearing. 33x19 was painful. I don't think I would have gained another place with the gearing, but I would have been in better shape afterwards.

So now that I have my own opinion, This was the roughest race I have done. The course wasn't frightening, but it was far from a cake walk. That being said, this was not my kind of course. I have a rough time with power and power was needed through a lot of this race. I was silky smooth on the downhills and the tech sections. I almost want to say 15% of this course was not rideable (I'm sure Luke will disagree). I felt that since I wasn't on the bike 100% of the time, I wasn't really in the groove. Sure I got to rest and catch my breath as I hiked some of these features that were too rough for me, but I felt as if it messed me up more.

I'm sure I'm missing something, but overall it was a great way to break into the Cat 2 class.
 
Last edited:
Dammit, why are you still alive? Die already! 🙂

Good job fool! What class did you end up running?
 
Kinda jumping back a bunch of pages, but your cat is LAZY! Love how she meows for ya while you are away though! And awesome job in CAT2 BTW. 🙂
 
Photo

Live from some other state:

tumblr_l8oyfu8dO31qc3buto1_500.jpg
 
So this morning I woke up not too stiff. My joints ache but nothing too crazy. I realized I had a couple of weird bruises, one on my ankle and one on my thigh.

Went for a quick spin today with mandi and jrel6 around the canal side of six mile before the storm came through. His first time around the red trail. We sprinted back from the bridge to the car as the lightning and wind came.

I noticed that the bruise on my ankle is from my crank arm. I am somehow torquing my legs in such a weird way that I am wacking the inside of my ankle on it. Is this normal? Are my cleats f'd up on my shoes? I've never noticed this before.
 
Take a picture of the bottom of your shoes. Your cleats may be crooked. Or you may have some sort of strange foot position. This would certainly explain some of the knee pain you've recently had.

Having said that, I find random bruises all the time. Usually on the outside of my body though, like calves/knees/hips/elbows/etc, presumably from brushing trees and such. I always seem to have dings on my ankles after I ride. Rocks love my ankles.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom