Opening rounds of cross.

The first 3 weeks of cross are by. I'd have to say I'm a bit disappointed on the results. The hardest thing I've been trying to overcome this year is back problems. I've pretty much figured out it's coming from a lack of preparation at the start of the season. I've been dealing with a bit of a core-strength issue lately as well as lacking some flexibility. This winds up showing up in a cross race fairly quickly. A few weeks back, I began to combat this by pulling out the old workouts that I did as a diver. I'd gotten a lot of these from the Cornell diving school some years back but as I drifted out of that sport and into cycling, I forgot about them. I had a couple ok races and then hit the beginning of the MAC series by the Trexlertown velodrome. I got a back row start(sort of a theme of my cross racing the last few years). Without a great place to put that quick and dirty move which would get me forward 20 or so places, I just hung out at the back. Once out on the course, there really wasn't any place to pass except in the areas where horsepower was required. Lacking that, I quickly found there really wasn't a spot where finesse or skill would be a factor. So I raced with the back dwellers and had a good time. Then it was off to Charm City. Here, I managed to get a decent, by my standards start spot. I was in the 48th to 56th row out of over 90 riders. At the gun, I almost got into a wreck, but managed to hold up a rider from falling and then pushed him off, then got back into a groove. The course might've been a bit bumpy but there was good flow to it. Kris Auer does know how to make a nice course. The first couple laps were very good for me. I'd worked my way up to almost 20th spot and was feeling strong. Unfortunately, the back had it's say on the 3rd lap. The sand pit was a bit of a maze and there were 3 sections of it. Once again, the mtb'er in me wanted to stay on the bike. In the 2nd section of it, I had to get off after stalling and almost falling. The odd dismount I did tweaked the back wrong. I noticed it up the little climb towards the pits. By the end of the lap, I felt myself slowing and I started losing places. So into cruise control it went. Amazingly, even like this, I came back to a group and held in til the start of the 5th lap. From there I was just out riding. What made it a bit depressing was that after almost 2 full laps of goofing around, the leaders finally came up to me. A more conscious effort would've prevented me from getting lapped that day. The following week was definitely a bad one. I'm finding there are 2 courses that just really hate me. The first is the Ed Sander's race and the second is Hagerstown. I'm not sure what it is about the Ed Sander's course, but the grounds at Hagerstown are just too damn bumpy and hard. Even after a day of riders going over the course, it doesn't get broken down any so you feel it all. To top it off, I got my first cross injury of the year. After going through a drop I had to do a 180 and head back up. Well, I hit the divot in the ground that I was telling myself I had to miss and I dumped it. OUCH, S**T! I popped my thumb out. After smacking it back into place, it took about a lap before I could use it for shifting again. So I finished the race well down after having gotten lapped. Kelley Acres the following day was a bit different. I actually stayed with the group a lot longer and managed to miss the bumblefest at the bottom of the flyover on the first lap. The wonderfulness of carbon seatposts was being revealed for all to see with nasty results. I got thru that traffic and felt really effective on the sections where bike handling was an absolute must. The only thing I didn't like on the course was the long climb out on the back side of the course. I held my own on it for the first 3 laps and then started going backwards. I got caught about halfway through the sixth lap and after the wind went out of the sails only went about a minute further back. I was a bit bummed out for the weekend til I saw the results. The lap times were less than 5 minutes and almost down to 4 minutes each. On full cross courses, this would mean I would've been well out of that getting lapped range. This was against riders who would've done pretty good against the elites at any MAC race so I'm beginning to look at it from a very positive outlook. On top of that, I again helped out several riders in other races in showing them lines and how to take certain parts of the courses. One rider won her race, another had a great start but got beat up by the Hagerstown course and the third rider got 6th. I got some good compliments from them. The one thing I've learned over the years is how to read courses. I might not have the tools to do very well on my own, but it's a good feeling to see others take the info I can see and relate to them and put it to great use. Maybe I should follow the age old saying which goes 'those who can't do, teach'? Sorry to any teachers out there if that sounds a bit of a jerk statement to make, but my results have supported that one in the cross arena.