Sunshine and Light

The Approaching Weekend

This weekend begins the first of my trips East for cyclocross races. Chris has already had the first CX adventure last weekend, but this is my first time out. Oh, I’m not racing. I’m going along to stand alongside the course yelling “GO CHRIS” through mouthfuls of ding dongs and ho hos.

I have to admit that if I were going to race again, I’d be most tempted by cyclocross. Essentially it looks do-able to me because at the beginner level, EVERYONE looks like they’re suffering. Unlike my experience with road racing where working hard as a beginner just meant I could count progress in terms of “I only got lapped twice!” while more natural athletes seemed to make better use of their hard work. I’m wayyy too competitive to be able to put up with that. And way too lazy to put in the consistent, day-in, day-out, dead of winter training that I really would have needed to do to finish with the pack. Actually racing kind of killed my appetite for cycling for a really long time. When you start doing something because you HAVE TO, it’s easy to lose track of doing it because you love to. And that’s where I found myself with racing. And now I’m just to the point of occasionally going out for a few mile rides along the local rails-to-trails, and occasionally trying (but not succeeding too well at) mountain biking. It’s the mountain biking that keeps me sane with regards to racing cross. I’m a poor mountain biker, and I think that probably reflects where I would be with cyclocross. Well that and I haven’t worked out, and the reality is there’s no reason to believe I’d be any better racing cyclocross than I would at any other form of bike racing.

Anyway, Chris is on a new team this year, so he’ll have plenty of fresh faces to hang with, in addition to our friends on other teams. The Fred dog is ready to be oohed and aahed over, and has his special “Go Dad” yip (which is probably more like a “Come back! You should be with the rest of the pack!” yip) all primed. And I’ve already printed out 300 pages of directions to the race. (we’ve had a few lost moments in our travels and now we’re way, WAY over prepared on maps).

So if you need me this weekend, I’ll either be in the pit, or chilling with the mutt. If you’re going to be at Buckeyestown, say “hi” and I’ll cheer for you. Or pit for you. Or feed you. Whatever, it’ll be a nice mellow day for me and I’ll have time to lend a hand.

Labels: Travel

posted by MyHusbandRules @ 7:53 AM