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crossing out 2010

The only thing better than a day off from work is a day off from work with a cyclocross race. I made the short trek to Stump Park in Shawnee yesterday, for the last race of 2010, and the first one with my recently renewed 2011 license.

The course was pretty much non-technical, but included a pretty long run-up - probably 60 or 70 yards up the side of a steep hill at the east edge of the park - and one set of barriers that you could hit at a pretty good clip. The only other notable feature was the descent after the run-up which include a tricky off-camber turn.

The weather was the story of the day, however. When I left the house, it was 48 degrees and sunny, but dropped to a cloudy 36 degrees in the fifteen minutes it took me to get to the park. Thursday night, brought just less than a half inch of rain and freezing rain, then the 20 to 25 mph winds dried most of the course out, but left a few soft spots, and a little mud in one or two places. I am proud to say "Karl didn't fall down". The Fango's at 25psi did a great job - never felt slipery or sketchy in the mud or corners.

We were all shivering in the cold wind during staging, but warmed up quickly with the effort and in the sun, which peeked out from behind the clouds about midway through the race. I didn't get clipped in well, and got off poorly, but made up a few places throughout the race, especially on the run-up, and finished pretty much as expected, in the bottom half, but not DFL for once.

Thanks to Roger Harrison for the above picture. He's a great supporter of the KC cycling scene, and always has a lot of good race pictures, including one or two of a pretty good crash about 10 yards after the start line in the Master's 30+ class that took of just before my Master's 40+ group.

Just two more races are on the local CX calendar to close out the season, including one tomorrow at one of my favorite venues up the road in Parkville, MO.

Recommended Sodium Intake = 1500 mg/day

The weather this past Saturday proved to be nice enough to pull the road bike off of the trainer and hit the mean streets of south Johnson County and test out my new MWI Showers Pass Soft Shell Trainer.

My kitchen thermometer read 37 degrees, with a light wind from the southwest. I dressed up for the cold with a sleeveless base layer, a long sleeve base layer, my regular short sleeve jersey, and the soft shell trainer on top. I was a little cold to start, and had to stop to put on shoe covers to keep my little piggies warm, but once I got warmed up, I was reasonably comfortable.

I headed south and west from the house to Kenneth, just west of the state line, and hit a couple of my favorite local "hellingen" (no cobbles) before cutting over to State Line Road and about 3 miles of gravel south of 199th St., including one of the steepest gravel road hills I've found around here, before looping back to Mission Rd. for a straight shot home. It turned out to be a great ride of just over an hour and a half, aided on the way home by the unseasonable south wind.

I was really happy with my Softshell Trainer. The fit (size M) was very good, and even with the other layers under, it never felt bulky or constricting. I liked the all of the zippers: the two under arm vents, the one rear vent high on the back, the two zippered pockets, and the cuff zippers. I think that the cuff zippers and the two big rear pockets (rather than 3 on a regular jersey) turned out to be my favorite features. The cuff zippers made it really easy to get a good seal around my gloves and the big pockets were easy to get into with my gloves on, and deep and wide enough to hold a lot more stuff than I needed on my short ride.

And the sodium reference in the title? Well, about a week ago, we got about an inch of snow, and Johnson County laid down a lot of road salt. Enough salt that it is now dried out and caked on the roads, and riding over it can cause it to dust up a little. That dust found it's way to the nozzle on my water bottles, and I got my daily sodium intake via my salty water bottle nozzle.