I was up this morning at 6:00 feeling pretty good with only 5hrs of sleep because I had racing on my mind.  At 7:00am I was the last person at United Cycle to load up the van and trailer with bikes.  The van could only take 5 people so someone else took people to Canmore in their SUV.  Tim, John, Bruce and I were in the van.  Trevor, Roger, and Stew were in the other vehicle.  For the 4hr ride to Canmore Bruce and I listened to Tim and John talk endlessly the whole way down about the dumbest stuff.  Conversations that were so funny and derogatory that I can't write them down.

The Expert Men started at 2:00pm so the van made it to Canmore with lots of time to spare.  After a decent warm up I waited at the start line and the front.  I was more concerned at being at the front of the start than having a good warm up because after about 100m of pavement, there was a sharp left turn and I wanted to be one of the first people around that corner and not get stuck behind people.

The start went very well.  I took the lead from the start and held it until a quarter way around the first lap.  The pace of the race was so fast and it dropped the boys from the men really quickly.  After the first 2 laps there were about 6-7 of us chasing down the leader who was about 50m ahead of us.  With each lap people in the chase group were getting dropped until there were 3 of us chasing down the leader.  Without about 4 laps to go (0.5hr left) we caught the leader.  The pace continued to be extremely fast and the 4 of us were lapping people more and more people with each lap (laps were about 3-4km).  I made sure I was at the front of the pack when we headed down the trails but gave up my lead and drafted when we hit the pavement.  After each section of pavement there were two short, but steep hills which I had the energy to power up because of the earlier drafting.  With 2 laps to go, one of the guys couldn't stick with us.  Since the race starting becoming so tactical he couldn't keep up when the pace increased, but caught back on again when the pace slowed down.  The last two laps were very fast at times and very slow at others. The forth place guy got a flat with 1.5laps to go which left me with two other guys. 

After dismounting and running up a short hill on the bridge we had to climb a steep short hill.  I was drafting and in third at the time so when we started climbing the hill, the 3 of us separated.  First place was hammering to get away from second, second was hammering to catch 1st and stay away from me who was desperately trying to catch second.  However, the gap didn't change between the 3 of us and I ended up taking third, racking up 15 points for myself.   If I had placed second at the race, I would have been in the Elite Category for the race in Calgary this weekend.  I now need 2 points to get into Elite.  If I was able to finish in Red Deer last weekend, I would have been in Elite in Calgary also.

Prize money for third was 50 bucks.  Not too bad.

Because John DNF'd once again (2nd time in a row) Tim, Bruce and I ripped him apart with jokes and made fun of him the whole way back.  4hrs of making fun of John.  His self-esteem must be at an all-time low.  After a mix up of how far we could go with only so much gas in the tank, and John being so such about his gas-calculations, the reserve light came on when we were 35km out of Leduc.  Luckily we made it into town with 1 liter left in the tank.  John would have been the one biking into town if we ran out of gas on the highway.

It was a wicked trip and hopefully next weekend I can get my 2 fricken points and be in the Elite Category.  John has a lot of pressure on him to not DNF or he will never hear the end of it.  If he DNF's he might even quit because we will never stop joking about it.

I was up this morning at 6:30am and in the United Cycle van at 7:30am.  Waking up so early in the morning sucks, especially when you know that in Red Deer its cold, windy, and pissing rain.

The Expert Men started at 12:00 so John E. and I had a good long warm up before the race started.  I wore my winter coat and pants on top of my racing clothes.  This stupid mistake cost me later.  Anyway, I had a really good start; I was in second position as the count down came to an end and raced aggressively to hold onto fourth for the first lap.  I managed to stay in third for most of the race and not crash once.  The course was so muddy and wet. I was soaking wet and freezing cold.  I was so cold by that on the third last lap I started shaking and almost decided to quit despite being in third place with no chasing group behind me.  With one lap to go, fourth place caught up to me so I drafted off him.  However, after running through the 25 meter sand pit, I jumped back on my bike, pedaled for about 100 meters and then my piece of shit derailer decided not to work properly and get caught in my spokes.  I stopped and tried to bend it back into place but it wasn't cooperating.  So with half a lap to go and having done 55 min of racing, I had to DNF (did not finish<---quit).  Looking at it positively, my technique is getting better around the corners and I'm getting in better cycling shape (probably because I'm only running twice a week now and biking 5 times a week).

After showering in the College I realized that I forgot to bring extra pants.  As I said earlier, it was really wet and cold out so I decided to warm up in the only pants I had.  So after a nice and warm hot shower (lips are still blue at this point) I decided to look in the lost and found for some dry pants.  Yeah I know it’s pretty gross but I really wanted dry pants.  I couldn’t find any so I had to put on my nasty, cold, wet, dirty pants.  What a rookie mistake!

Next week I'm racing in Canmore, AB and hopefully being on the podium and out of Expert and into Elite.  Hopefully the course will be dry with lots of dismounts and hills.  I need 14 more points so a 1^st or 2^nd would be nice.

Hr Avg: 172

HR Max: 181

Total Distance: 17.5km

Result: DNF and a broken derailer

What a disaster of a race.  The race started at 10am this morning when the temperature was dancing around -1C.  The race started out really well.  I sprinted my way to fifth place at the gun.  I got my feet in my pedals very quickly and managed to stay aggressive and hold that position for about half a lap.  However, after about a lap I had no more fuel left in my legs.  They were completely fried from yesterday’s race.  I just didn't recover fast enough to race today.  Each lap got slower and slower and I felt like shit throughout the entire race.  After realizing that I was no longer a top contender my goal changed from a top 5 finish to a "don't get lapped finish." I was beaten badly from people who were lapped in yesterday's race. I know, it was embarrassing but I decided to push on anyway.  I managed not to get lapped and finished in 13th. United Cycle must have been embarrassed to have me on their team haha.

I had absolutely no power in my legs today.  I could even get my max heart rate to yesterday's avg.  Anyway, another Cross race is under the belt.  Looking at it positively, my technique around the corners was very good. A major improvement over yesterday in that aspect.

Max Hr: 172bpm

Avg Hr: 162bpm --that's really bad!

Total Distance: 20.5km

Fun Fact: After yesterday’s race I ran over a dog on my bike. Yes, a real Golden Lab-Dog.  It came around the corner as I was biking home and I ran over it.  What a big bump!  My bike was okay and the dog managed to hobble away on 3 legs. I'm sure it's okay.....I think.

Fun Fact #2: During the race today I almost ran over a squirrel. It ran across the trail and almost under my front tire.  Lucky for it because it wouldn't have been moving like the dog did afterward.  It probably would have been crushed lying there as the other 25 riders bike over it each lap.