2012 Viroqua Cross!!!

Hello all!

Every Thursday in Sept and Oct at 5:45 at Washington Park in Viroqua there will be a 45min-1hr practice race.

Free. All welcome, we have beginners to the IA state champ from years back. Just show up and have fun.

Thanks!

Chris

Early Base

Starting to put in some work towards next season... silly I know to get going so early, but you know, I'm silly. Meeting some great shop guys for an early ride out of pewaukee at 6am tomorrow. All in all, the spring has felt sluggish and I have had a hard time getting time on the bike, work has been pretty intense.

That being said, there are always ways to get ready for a season. Instead of riding off weight this Spring I have revamped the diet and really had way more discipline around food. Lost some lbs and weigh in less than any point last year. Feels good to improve power/weight with minimal training and I do feel it on the bike. Power numbers make the creep back up quicker than I would think, going to do some crits this summer... the kids are older and sleep is better. I don't overtrain anymore. I get something from every workout and don't get overly mental. Maybe things get better with age? Certainly I tend to flog myself with less frequency. Lee would(does) make fun of my powermeter, but that has helped as I bail out on fewer LT workouts, work the Vo systems better.

So this is going to be a great season! Going to see a local allergist and Will Beaty is going to run the kids series of Viroqua Cross! The WCA season is going to be looong and I'm doing Nats.

Badger Prairie

A pretty good showing for Viroqua-Crossers out in Verona. Jay and Dick had good showings in the 45+, Jay getting 7th and Dick 8th in age grouping. Bob C. rocked his second race, looking good out there on a tough Course. Newlin was thought to be 7th, 10th in the results, managed to finish a race. Watershed moment!

The course had a few minor improvements that added up to a pretty interesting and flowing course. The RR ties on the backside certainly made it more interesting, and the front of the course was way more flowing... lots of rest, but every other part that wasn't rest was crazy talk for 30sec at a time, uphill! Fun!

See you Guys at 5:45 on Thrusday night at Washington!

10/14/10

Hey-yo! Very fun practice again tonight. Dick, Lee, Jay, Bob, Thom and I all came out for the throw-down, and throw down we did! The new cheater sections of the course have made the racing pretty rugged. If you get a gap on somebody, you turn around and there they are again! This tactic was employed freely, and Dick claimed to have a two lap lead at the finish... Maybe he did!

Thanks to all who showed up and had fun. We are starting the races at 5:45 now to squeeze a couple more weeks out of the fading daylight.

Thanks to Donna for hanging out and running the clock, even giving splits! Whoa! It was pretty awesome, accept for when she said that we were pulling too slow a lap. 35 min still seems like plenty of practice.

See you next week, and look for the ViroquaCrossers in Verona this weekend. Jay and Dick in 35+, Bob in the 4s and Chris in the 3s. Good luck to all!

Cross is Fun

Sorry for the infrequent posts!

Last night we only had a few guys, but I think e might have had the most fun. We made the course longer with more features than weeks past and also had some spots where dropped guys could cut the feature and catch back on, still race wheel-to-wheel. Nothing better than attacking on a stretch of pavement to get a gap, turn around and see a rested dude who is about to throttle you! It was great!

Thanks to Jay for the 'Team Car'. Gotta get some photos up. Harder this week with one race. Also, note to Lee V. We added a few longer stretches for all of our roadie type dudes, making the laps both longer and a little harder. Super fun!

See you out there next week!

Chris

Week 3 Coming up, USGP Report...

Hey everyone, looks like the season has started, ready or not. The Madison USGPs have come and gone and we are heading into week three of Viroqua Cross. Thursday will have some new folks coming to to race; local MTBers will be hitting it as well as the usual cast of characters. Looks like a 35min format, dropped riders welcome to pit and catch back as needed. Have fun, race as hard as you can. That's the point, right?

A bunch of us did the USGPs this weekend. Jay and Dick hit the 4s on Saturday and had some fun. The consensus was that a 6th row start and a few crashes out of the gun pretty much seal the deal... Yep, that will do it! The start is important, but it's tough to battle through that many dudes and get in the winning break. The first race is to registration!

I had a 5th row start but battled forward, was in the top 10-15 guys and felt pretty good. It was fast but doable. On the second lap I totally crashed at the barriers... guess I was due! Pretty aggravating but I battled back, kept calm. Lungs locked up again, did some weird coughing-barfing. Thought about dropping out but instead sucked it up and pedaled around and felt okay. Kicked off the brakes, bobbled a few more times... it happens man! My first season, everything was usually smooth. Now, maybe not so much.

Whatever is going on for me health-wise is a bummer, but man I had fun racing in that big a group. Moving up during the first lap was a blast, getting chopped in the corners and bumping is somehow super-fun. It'll come around and I will be healthy, all isn't lost. It's nice to not get a result but remember that racing is fun and should be considered process driven. I train a bunch and can get all mental regarding results, but if I have trained and have put the time in it is nice to race and be present. Maybe that is what guys say as the get older and slower... but even though I have coughed up a lung in the last two races, I am relaxing away from the 'what-if' type thinking. I did throw up after the race, but I also did finish. Maybe I put myself out and dug a hole health wise, but I doubt it.

First Thursday and other notes...

Hello ViroquaCrossers, Connie Hawkins aka Chocolate Thunder, or lone follower of ViroquaCross. This last Thursday we had our first Race, or practice race and we had a blast. Slightly greasey out there, we had a full showing of the Local Cross guys, Lee and Andrea from IA and first-timer Eric from LaCrosse! It was fun and we did 2 20min mini-races. Fun. Next week will be missing some, so Jay will be running the show. Please let him know how much you appreciate what a pain it is. He is already watching my chickens...

Also, a few Western WI guys were at the No Good Double Cross today. I saw Eric anyway and he looked great. Really fun conditions, sloppy, just the way you like it. I imploded with lung-mung that doesn't seem to want to clear this season. Paul from MWInc suggested allergy shots and I am gonna look into it.

Each year I suffer like a dog until Fall is cold and Summer is hot. Since I am only fit for 3 weeks a year, it would be nice to be able to race as I only race during my allergy season. If anyone else has a suggestion I'll take it. I already don't do gluten and that has helped other symptoms, but I am all ears at this point.

No matter how much I hated coughing up a lung and puking from the lunging, it was fun to ask a spectator to move so I wouldn't barf on him.

See you the week after next for some fun at 6pm.

Chris