Winter Came and Went or A New Season Begins

Somewhere in the midst of the onset of winter I stopped doing a lot of things. I just about stopped riding bikes altogether. I got out once in a while but I'm pretty sure I managed at least a three week stretch without touching a bike. Mental recovery is what I'll call it, maybe it was just laziness. You may have noticed I also stopped maintaining the blog too. It's been quite a while since I've written anything down, to state the extremely obvious fact. Being that spring is approaching rather quickly, I think it's time for a little winter recap.

January rolled in, and I rolled onto the couch. The temptation of my roommate's PS3 got the better of me and I found myself playing Call of Duty for an hour and a half longer than intended on a rather frequent basis. Life wasn't all about cuddling up and fighting cabin fever with video games though. There was skiing too.

During the Presidents' Day weekend I joined a number of friends in renting a house just off the slopes of the Stowe ski resort. We had to walk maybe a quarter mile to the lift, but we were able to ski right into the backyard of the house. I put two full days of skiing in; only stopping for bathroom breaks.

March seemed to roll in like a lamb and stay that way. I took advantage of the really nice weather on a few weekends to wash up all the bikes real good. They hadn't been that shiny in a very long time. The headset in the 'cross bike sounded like a cross between a really squeaky hinge and sandpaper rubbing together. This last 'cross season was extremely harsh on the bikes.
I took the bike into the shop and got it fitted with a nice new Chris King headset. I also got the Dura Ace shifters that I'd bought on ebay mounted onto the handlebars. I was then able to return the right hand shifter back to the road bike and got that in working order.

All of that work led to a minor amount of riding. Skiing was not done until this past weekend though. A group of us stayed at our friend Tom's (family's) condo at the Okemo resort in Ludlow, VT, then spent a day skiing at Killington. Spring skiing, I found, is rather enjoyable. Bundling up like an Eskimo is not required, sunglasses however, are. The snow is soft, if a little wet. It was one of the most fun days I've had on the slopes ever. It was the perfect opportunity to try the trail Outer Limits. This trail is normally above my skill level, but on soft snow it was worth a try. I fell 4 times at least, but there were no spectacular wipe outs. I did learn that day, that if a mogul is soft enough, your ski will not ride up over it like normal, it will spear through the mogul and throw you forward on your face.

And now here we are, March is coming to a close. Bike racing is just around the corner as are a few exciting travel destinations. The cycle keeps going.

Some pictures that we took at Killington; from me, from Tom, from Dan.

Season finale

I hung up the bike after the last race and called it quits for the season. I was certainly ready to be done with riding for a little while. I was mentally in need of a break and physically I could feel my legs yearning for some quality rest. I was so ready to be finished, that I didn't even get to writing anything about it until now.

We attended both days of the NBX Gran Prix in Warwick, Rhode Island. Day 1 included temperatures in the low to mid 40s along with rain. It made for less than pleasant racing. Only a short way into the race Jake and I were riding together, and then I got a large piece of dirt in my eye. At this point I could barely see out of my right eye and had some difficulty going into the turns. After a slow lap of suffereing with the severe pain in my eye, the dirt seemed to flush out. My pace picked up again, and I was able to hold a steady gap behind Jake but never made it back up to him. If I hadn't had that issue, I probably would have been in the top 30 with Jake. I still finished a none too shabby 35th on the day. Immediately upon finishing, the chill of the temperatures and being soaked to the bone set in. We rushed back to the hotel to get hot showers. I was almost shaking uncontrollably.

On the second day of the race, we awoke to a layer of snow and ice on the ground at the hotel. However, only 10 minutes away at the race venue there was hardly a trace of snow on the ground. There were some changes to the course, and most of it was pretty dry. A pleasant change from the day before. I spent a large portion of the race riding very close to several other guys. It made for a very good race between all of us. I thought I was riding better, but I managed to pull off 35th again.

It was a good finish to the season. Respectable finishes with some good hard riding. Since then the bike(s) haven't been touched and it's been great.

There are some pictures available from Day 1 and from Day 2 for you viewing pleasure

Weather channel

So I was looking at the weather forecast on weather.com for the coming weekend. I wanted to see what things were looking like for the race in Warwick, RI. It seems the weather channel is catering to cross races now. Notice the forecast highlight for Saturday, "course conditions." Cyclocross course conditions? And Sunday, "stay warm on the links." Is that chain links?

Wrap it up and eat some pie

Here we are, exiting the eleventh month of the year and nearly at the finish of the racing season, at least for me. This is a good thing, though. As fun as the riding and racing of this year has been, it's time to take a break from riding to train and riding in general. I've reached the point where riding very much at all is making me slower, or so it would seem and feel. The dreaded precipice of over training. The difficult thing about over training in these late months is that it becomes very, very easy to do. When we change the clocks I think the body naturally wants to rest more. Instead, I've been forcing my body to ride with headlamps burning.

Cheshire Cross went well. I'm happy with my result though not fully satisfied. I'm very happy that I finished relatively well in front of the friends that came to cheer us on. A top 50% finish is never horrible. I could have finished better though, but I faded as the race wore on. I was running top ten for a while, but just couldn't hold my pace anymore. The legs just felt more and more tired with each lap. This does, of course, happen every race, though in a different way than when the legs just turn to bricks.

I figured all would be well the next day at Durham though, since I always tend to do better on day 2 of doubleheader race weekends. According to the online preregistration page there were only 5 of us signed up; 3 of which were from our regular group of riding partners. Lee, Taylor and I all figured we could take it easy for a few laps before really racing each other. Things changed as several guys registered the day of the event. The field size was close to fifteen guys. This being the case, the race started as usual; fast and aggressive. I got into a lead group of 5 and was pretty excited. I figured I might have a chance at a win. The pace was high, and the legs hurt; in fact they were feeling that sluggish, made of bricks hurt instead of the "bring it on show me what real pain is, I want more" kind of hurt. I was definitely faster than the others in some places, mostly the turns, and even took the lead at points; but after two and a half laps the legs just couldn't turn an effective gear anymore. I rolled across the finish in 6th. Despite a good finish, the placing was a bit disappointing. I knew if the legs had felt good, or at least some level better, then I could have easily finished in the top 3 or won.

I took advantage of the Thanksgiving holiday to deal with the over training situation. I didn't ride a whole lot the entire week, but I did eat a fair amount of stuffing and pie. I hope the rest allows some snap to return to my legs this coming weekend as I hit up two days of racing at the NBX Gran Prix.

Apples, Cheesesteak, and a Break.

The week after Hartford Cross came the West Hill Shop race in Putney, Vt. I had a great start to the race and was hanging with a group of guys that fluctuated between 3 to 4 of us for a few laps. I'm guess we, as a group, were holding somewhere in the range of 4-8 positions at any given point. I was feeling good with the group, but the other guys were rather strong. There were places on course where I was faster, and there were places they were faster. Strangely enough, I tended to be faster in power areas, and most of them in the slick corner sections. I finally cracked at the top of the run up one lap though. When I jumped on the bike, the legs just couldn't turn the gear over that I needed to turn over. I faded back for two laps, at which point Jake bridged the gap I'd had over him. He brought one other guy with. I figured Jake was riding much stronger than I at this point, so I decided to get between him and the other racer and block for Jake. With one lap to go Jake was pulling away, but then with a half lap remaining I managed to close the gap on him, then power away through the soft feeling corn field. I placed 8th, Jake 9th. Our prizes, sacks of apples.

I eventually made apple pie with them.

The following weekend was a planned trip to Philadelphia, a city which I'd never visited. Since my friend Sarah and her boyfriend, Matt, live there it was a great opportunity to visit them and see the city. Before I headed for Philly, I needed to make a trip to my home town to pay my final respects to my Grandmother. She and my Grandfather are together forever now.

I made it into Philly Friday night, and after some brief hellos we ventured to a local pub to catch up over some beverages. Saturday morning we headed into the city. We started with a great breakfast at a small restaurant/cafe which gave very large portions of very good food. It was obvious the food would be good from the line outside the cafe. We then ventured to some historical sites including Independence Hall and Elfreth's Ally. We rounded the night out by living the scene from Rocky and running up the steps of the Art Museum.

That brings me into this weekend, in which there were no trips, and no races. That's not to say there wasn't any riding. Sunday was a beautiful day for a bike ride after a very rainy Saturday.

Where's my helmet?

Full on into 'cross season and I've only managed to do one race since Gloucester. I'd have done two, but I managed to forget my bag with shoes, helmet, jersey, et cetera right by the door. Since that was the case, I worked as chauffeur for Lee and Taylor to the Mansfield Hollow race. It was a rather picturesque Autumn day, but I have no pictures. I left my camera at home figuring that with Jake, Lee, Taylor and myself riding the same race we would be able to get any pictures. My bike did get used though! Jake's shifter stopped working midway through the race and he was stuck spinning in his easiest gear. He shouted at me and replied back double checking his style of pedals, which were compatible with mine. I sprinted back to the car, got my bike together, and got to the pits to make a bike swap with him. It was a little funny watching him on a bike that was too small, but he managed to gain some positions back after the swap.

Then came Hartford Cross. Woohoo, I remembered everything this time. And I took a camera just in case. Hartford didn't have much in the way of technical features and was a bit of a power course. Had it been dry, the place would have been super fast. Heavy rains the day before left some soft ground and mud holes in places. My legs weren't feeling very chipper, and the conditions weren't making things any easier. The one awesome feature about the course, was that we went straight up a rather steep 40 foot levee. During warm up I managed to ride up it, maybe the only person to do so all day. During the race though, I was too gassed to get the whole way up. I'd managed to get about halfway then I'd have to run the rest. The best part was that I was much faster up it than anyone else I was around. Between the up and the off camber, muddy, rut filled down hill that followed I was making time there.

I was battling with a few guys, and they would pull away for the half lap leading up to the levee. At that point I would catch back up, stick with them for a little while the slowly get dropped. I thought I'd had it at one point when they'd built a lead at least 100 yards on me. But I managed to surge through the levee and the following section in the woods to catch back on. With one lap to go I was determined to minimize the lead they were pulling, which I managed to do. They didn't get far ahead and I put everything I had into attacking at the levee. I passed them and pulled away. I kept driving for the remainder of the lap and held off the one guy that was slowly surging back up to me. All in all, not a bad race considering I never felt particularly good the whole time. 13th of 30 guys with 2 nonfinishers.

Cheshire Cross is coming in about a month. We're trying to get some of out friends to come out and have a tailgate party yet again and cheer us on since it's sort of like our home field race. I put a video together to go along with the invitation I sent out to hopefully garner more interest.
Check it out.

Cyclocross - be there from Scott Frison on Vimeo.

Diving into Cyclocross Season

So here's the recap since vacation since I've failed to stay up to date with it all.

I returned from vacation and on September 19 headed for Rocky Hill, CT for a race. Actually two races. I competed in the Cat 3/4 race then rode in the 1/2/3 race for training. I was doing well enough in the 3/4 race but just didn't have enough gas to ride they way I did for the first 20 minutes of the race. I faded pretty hard after that point, but still managed to finish well. During the 1/2/3 I was just trying to survive the entire hour of the race.

I was scheduled for another race the following weekend but I needed to pay my final respects to a truly great man. My grandfather was quite the role model. I hope he's putting in a good word for me in heaven.

Then this past weekend was the Gran Prix of Gloucester. The third year that I've attended New England Nationals, as it has so been dubbed. Competition is fierce and many. Saturday was a complete mudfest. It rained all day. Jake and Taylor suffered through cold temperatures and rain during their race at 8 am. By the time I raced the rain was intermittent, but the course was a complete mudbog. I didn't have the most particularly awesome race, I was still feeling a bit worn down from the events of the past week and a half.

Day 2 began far nicer. Jake, Taylor, and Lee raced at 8am on a changed up, cleaner course under a dense fog. Jake even pulled of the victory in a solo break away. By 1pm, the sun was out and the course was drying out where it had still been wet. The corners were tacky and everything was fast. I'd rested up well too. Despite starting in the back, and I mean the waaaay back of nearly 100 guys, I managed to fight my way through. Place by place. After some aggressive passes in turns and putting the hammer down I managed to work my way up to 48th.

It was quite a weekend, and now we are full on into 'cross season. More cowbell!

Pictures from Gloucester can be seen here.