CX Retrospective

Hey, it's that time of year where everyone talks about their cross season in the past tense. I'm joining the party, mainly because I made a post this summer about some goals and I basically got them all. Pretty easy to do when you make goals based on your current fitness + 5%, instead of current fitness + 50% or whatever other wishful thinking floats your boat.

Whatever, let's run down the goals list anyway.

1) Learn to cross mount -- this took me most of the season to get around to spending the required practice time to get it right, but I can do it now. It's not very good when I'm tired, and I stutter step when it's bumpy, but it's not like the giant, terrifying mental block it used to be. Good enough for me.

2) Win a non-Verge B race -- Done and done. This was definitely a case of plugging away and racing a lot until I got the right combination of course and attendance to get the win(s). Both of these courses rewarded Mtb skills and none of the super Cat 3 sandbaggers showed up, although Ben Coleman actually did race at Casco Bay, but it was back before he was dominating Cat 3.

3) Verge Top 15 -- This turned out to be pretty hard. I didn't get it done until the last weekend, when field sizes were down to 50ish and the courses were at their most technical. My number one goal for next season has got to be more steady-state power, it's just ridiculous how badly I get toasted when I can't get micro-rests on technical corners. Gloucesterx2, Chainbiter, Sterling were utterly terribly, my best finish was 38th among those 4. All power courses, or at least not the kind of technical course I like.

4) Upgrade to Cat 2 -- I have the points for this, but I didn't do it yet. Those last 2 top-15 Verge finishes really helped me feel like I can ride with the 2s on a normal course, so I'll upgrade for next season as long as nothing weird happens.

5) Beat Josh More Than He Beats Me -- Jamner made this one hard by dropping out or racing twice in the same day in more than half of our head-to-head meetings. Honestly I'm not sure if we ever had a fair matchup... but I think I get it by TKO if nothing else. Whatever, goals based on other people are kind of silly... just like this blog.

So, um, that's it. 5/5. Man, what's next?

It's hard to think rationally about next cross season, a lot can happen outside of my life on the bike between now and then... so I'll just say this -- at NBX I said to Thom P that if I ever won a Verge B race I'd buy a UCI license the next day and ride elites. My goal next year is to have to buy a UCI license to avoid becoming a liar.

Lots to do between now and then. Just like last year, I'm miles behind the rest of the nordic scene in terms of fitness, the difference is this year I don't really care that much. I've already done my time trying to be a fast skier and I'm not a fan of that work/reward equation. So I'll be doing the funnest ski races I can find and trying to not to get to worked up about getting beat down by 15 year olds.

Next spring will be just another MTB season, with the required mediocre expert results, but the big target is the Cascade 1200. 760 miles in 90 hours -- that's like 25% of my yearly mileage in 4 days!

Hey, sorry this post was so masturbatory. Might as well finish it off with some gratuitous dollar prime action.