Hiking the snow, with a little Riding

February first, I'm finally getting sanity back and the itch to ride more, not quite at the point of training, but definitely getting out for some good old fashion fun on the bike. Today I met with Jake and Tom and we rode a little bit at first in the snow, but as the tracks from hikers dissipated the riding became near impossible. We reverted to some hike-a-bike. A few feeble attempts were made at riding, but were generally unsuccessful.

After hiking to the top of the hill we followed a trail that plenty of people had hiked on so riding was possible. It was also downhill, and a lot of fun.

Here is a video clip from a portion of the ride.

Riding the Snow from Scott Frison on Vimeo.

Skiing Stowe

The Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend took me to the Stowe ski resort, near the town of Stowe, VT. I joined a number of friends at a house that we rented in Morrisville, VT. We spent two quality days on the mountain skiing, despite extremely cold weather. The first day we pulled into the parking lot with sub 0°F temperatures. The second day was warmer at 11°F when we pulled up.

The skiing was fantastic, especially on Sunday after an overnight snow left some fresh white stuff on the mountain. While it can be relatively easy to just glide down the mountain, we didn't take it easy. We really worked the turns at a fast pace, leaving my legs rather tired by the end of day two on the mountain.

There are a few pictures here.

I also captured a video during one of our runs. I almost had a giant yard sale on the mountain when I hit a small patch of ice followed by some bumps. Skiing with both poles in one hand and a camera in the other, not the easiest.

I suggest clicking on the option in the lower right of the video screen for HQ (high quality) when watching. It takes a little longer to load, but allows you to see a much better image.

Lots of Car Time

There's been rather little bike riding since the final race. In fact, there hasn't been any for me, I didn't even bother to take a bike with me on my Christmas trip to my home town. There was quite a bit of time spent in cars during that time though.

Tuesday, December 22nd found me home-bound after work. 6 Hours 36 minutes after leaving work I arrived in Port Allegany. With little time I made good time.

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The only traveling on Christmas Eve and Christmas day was around town to places like my grandparents, church, and my friends' houses. Then, the day after Christmas, I traveled with my parents to the Buffalo airport to pick up my brother.

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After a weekend of family fun it was back to the Buffalo airport early Monday morning to drop off my brother. The warm weather that had arrived with him, seemed to be going back to Florida with him as well. I stopped in Smethport to see my grandfather on the way back from the airport and then in the evening I went skiing with some friends at Holiday Valley. This was my 3rd appearance in the town of Ellicottville, NY for the day. Conditions were on the icy side after the big melt and refreeze.

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The rest of the week was spent relaxing. Then, Saturday, January 3, 2009, I made the return trip to Connecticut. Thus ends my Christmas vacation and its travels.

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I suggest clicking on the option to 'view larger map' and zooming appropriately to get the full picture of the travels. To some, this would be hell. For me, it can be rather enjoyable, the traveling about. I hope to place some pictures on a map soon. I'll be sure to post a link for your enjoyment.

'Tis the Season to Call it a Season

Saturday was the NBX Grand Prix in Warwick Rhode Island and I was beginning to think this might be the last race of the season for me. I've been a bit mentally and physically burned out, well, for far too long, and I kept trying to drag myself just a little bit longer through the season. I hadn't ridden since the day before Thanksgiving, so I was going into this race in no kind of form, since a week and a half without riding will do that to you.

The day started at 4:45am when I rolled out of bed and into some clothes then waited for Jake to arrive. We then picked up Taylor and headed East. I closed my eyes and gave my best effort towards sleep en route, especially since I'd attracted some kind of stomach bug about 36 hours prior.

We arrived in some significant cold. Jake and Taylor readied themselves for the 8:30am Cat 4 race while I readied my cameras. During their race I ran around, using the small camera for video on the Gorillapod (many thanks to my sister, I finally put it to good use Lori), and the recently acquired SLR for still images. It was a lot of fun grabbing all the images, I even caught Taylor crashing, you should watch it (look for it just after 3 minutes in).

After hanging around for a while I raced at 12:30pm. Based on registration, I started way at the back of the field. As soon as we hit the first sandpit and sandy run up I moved up some places. Then I found myself running directly into the back of another guy in a group that had come to a stop on a small up slope. I jumped off and ran, gaining a few more positions. Finally things cleared up and I settled into a pace I could hold. I knew not to make any extra efforts as I certainly wouldn't recover. I passed a few guys and a few passed me but I found myself in a general race with a few other guys.

The only consistent competitor around me was Vinnie from Keltic Construction. At one point his hand slipped picking up his bike over the barriers; the bike hit the barrier and stopped, he did not. And so I thought I dropped him for good while he ran back for his bike. However I found myself with another guy who would pull ahead of me but refused to pull me in his draft on the pavement. He would slow up and move so as to indicate for me to pull through. Good strategy would say to refuse pulling, which I did until he was pretty much just coasting. I realized that I couldn't loligag behing him for long as Vinnie would likely catch back on. This happened 3 times, and much to my dismay, Vinnie caught back on with a lap and a half to go. We had a great battle over that last bit and it made for quite a fun race. Our sprint at the finish made for an exciting way to finish the season even though I couldn't quite come around him at the line to win our little battle.

Taylor and Jake used my cameras while I raced, the photos and video from the day are at the links listed below.

Photos are here (or slideshow). A total of 542 pictures were taken, I've narrowed them down to the good ones.

Videos:
Early in the Cat 4 race
Cat 4 Men in the Barriers
Cat 4 Men running Sand trap #2 (Taylor's spill at 3:12)
Start of my race (Cat 2/3)
Ticking off another lap
The Sprint Finish


I wish I had stayed and raced at day 2 of the event. My friend Adam went solely to take photographs and he said the conditions were awesome. Snow with a little mud, conditions that would have made for a great race. He took a lot of photos, a number of them quite qood, they're worth a look. You can see them here.

Slowing, like molasses

I'm a little slow with a lot of things recently, including posts. There hasn't been much to write about as of late. The last race was Cheshire Cross and I haven't been on the bike since the day before Thanksgiving, though it was a ride that involved snow. I never planned an appropriate break in the season, now my mind and body are just burned out. Thus I'm just getting slow on the bike, I'm slow at building up motivation to ride, heck I'm just slow, like molasses in January. I'm going to go out this weekend though and have some fun drifting around the course at Warwick, Rhode Island. There's nothing quite like riding a fully taped off 'cross course, even if you are slow.

On the up shot, I'm currently sitting in the top 10 of CX Magazine's fantasy cyclocross league. That means my choices of pro riders are riding quite well, even if I am not. Though I'm down 1 spot from last week, I'm still hanging in there and hoping to hold out for a top 10 or better by the end of the international cyclocross season in February.

I also got a hold of some video that my friend Mike took at the Cheshire race. I posted two of them to vimeo, one is embedded below.

The final lap of the race, I thought I finally had the hill, as in, I was going to ride up the whole thing. Alas the second log foiled me. I'd been the only guy trying in my race, or so I was told, but another guy followed me, riding up the hill, that final lap.

THe Hill at Cheshire Cross 08 from Scott Frison on Vimeo.

Cheshire Cross Tailgate

Saturday morning was cold. So was the entire day for that matter. I'm not even sure that it ever made it above 30°F. The sun was bright, which added some sense of warmth at times, but the wind was blowing a lot, thus adding quite a chill. This would be the first really cold 'cross race of the season. The cold tends to be extra painful, since by the end races at these temperatures I usually can't feel my toes to well. Thank goodness they're only 45 minutes.

The Cheshire race is considered my 'home' race since it is only a short drive from my residence. Because it is so close and because my race as well as Taylor's and Jake's race were late enough in the day we decided to throw a tailgate party, hoping to snare some of friends into coming and cheering for us. With the added lure of food and booze a few were willing to brave the cold day and cheer. A BIGGEST THANK YOU to each of them!

I arrived at the park to see Matt from the Devil's Gear Bike Shop already there. We set up our little tailgate area and soon I was off taking some photos with my new camera. I got a look at a few sections of the course before heading back to the tent to greet the arriving friends. We ended up with quite a crowd around our tent.

Just before I raced, Taylor and Jake went out on course for their race. I was able to shout and watch them come around while warming up on the trainer. Both had a great race. Then I headed for the start. I was good and warm but I found myself in a second row starting position. The start didn't go too well either, somehow I was near the back of the pack after the first turn. Not only that everyone seemed to be pulling away. I had nothing, the legs couldn't turn the gear I needed to push over. (I had realized the night before why I'd felt so slow lately, I've only been putting a quarter of my regular time on the bike over the last month and a half; at best.)

Needless to say, I had no chance of keeping up. I watched most of the field just pull away from me and there was nothing I could do. At this point I was a bit disappointed in myself, all my friends had braved the cold and I was going to be doing my best not to be DFL, instead of doing my best for a top 5 or better. I figured I might as well try to please the crowd and have some fun. On what is probably the longest run up of the New England circuit, almost everyone was running. The log at the bottom and the log half way up made for a difficult ride. Plus there were numerous roots strewn about the lower half. I saw maybe 3 guys ride the hill earlier in the morning. For the first few laps I got over the first log and about half way to the second log, losing traction in some loose dirt on the right side or getting hung up in the roots on the left. The crowd of people that had gathered there loved my attempts though. They would scream like crazy as I made my attempt to ride up the hill.

Finally on the last two laps I made it to the second log of the hill. On my first attempt over it I just didn't have enough speed to get the whole bike over. On the final lap I managed to get the bike over the log, but didn't have enough momentum to keep the bike moving. The crowd seemed to love it though.

My friends were all over the course. There was hardly a spot where there weren't screaming at me. That alone made this race about the most fun I've ever had with a race. I was way off the back just trying not to be last, but I was having quite a bit of fun with all the screaming and shouting. At one point I rolled towards the edge of the course as Mike was running beside me yelling, I gave him I nice push in the shoulder just to play back a little. At another point, after I'd failed to ride 'the hill,' I pumped my fist in the air while running the rest of the way up through the crowd.

All in all, not a bad day. My results were far less than stellar, but introducing a new group of people to Cyclocross was great. Watch for next year, the tailgate is likely to be back.

Many thanks to Lee who shot some video for me. Some of the videos he got are posted on my Vimeo page. Some of the shots I got with the new camera and some of the shots Kevin took with it while I was racing can be found on my Picasa page.

My friend Adam was there taking photos as well. His shots can be seen at this page.

Cyclocross 101: class 10, review and wrap up

We've come through a lot of information on cyclocross, and there is really a lot more to be had. However, at this time it would likely be best to go out and experience a cyclocross race. The written word can only provide so much about the overall experience that can be had at a race.

The basics have been covered here. The start, the obstacles, the competition, the bell lap. Essentially the race is about going as fast as you can, while pacing yourself just enough to last the set time period without imploding. A little knowledge from various cycling disciplines is quite helpful. Bike handling skills from mountain biking and power and strategy from road cycling, cyclocross encompasses it all.

Before we completely wrap up this course there is one brief topic left. That is being a fan at a race. There are a couple of items essential to being a really good 'cross fan. First, a good beer and some frites with mayo (fries to Americans) will keep your belly happy and your soul warm. Second, warm up your voice and scream at your favorite racer each time they come around the course. At most races in America there aren't enough fans to fully line all parts of the course, so you can likely even run around a few places and catch the rider a few times per lap to scream at them even more. The final essential element is a cow bell. As the saying goes, more cowbell! An air horn would be a suitable substitute in most cases.

So this concludes Cyclocross 101. If you would like to go back and review each class just follow the links below. It's been fun!

Class 1, The Overview
Class 2, The Competition
Class 3, The Race Format
Class 4, The Barriers
Class 5, More On Barriers
Class 6, An in Depth Look at Barriers
Class 7, An in Depth Look at Run Ups
Class 8, An in Depth Look at Sand Pits
Class 9, The Start
Class 10, Review and Wrap Up