Originally Posted by
RGNY
cool. getting pretty excited. i'm just looking for a fun day out. i brought it up to some locals and they tried to scare me off by telling me that if i didn't go in with three bikes and six wheelsets, i'd be wasting my time. we'll see. i'll have one bike and probably one spare wheelset.
my regular commute is an 8mi loop consisting of: 3mi badly paved county route (250' rise in elevation, with another 200' in the last .25mi as my building is on a hill. elev not exact, just what my Casio says), 4.5mi on a rolling gravel trail where the gravel goes from packed to 2" deep in spots. in there is about .5mi of mixed dirt/grass/mud depending on weather.
one day last week i did it with horizontal rain and lightning flashing around me, so i'm hoping i have a decent base to build on.
whee!
Well, I don't know what your local CX community is like. Chicago is super fun and supportive. And a spare wheelset is more than I have. My rule was, if I had a mechanical, I DNF'd. NBD because I had no expectations to do well. It's just a fun experience and a reason to push yourself a little harder.
My commute is 20mi roundtrip on city roads. The biggest thing is to realize how much harder it is to ride on mud/grass, which you have experience with. I spent lots of time working on mounting/dismounting and barrier technique which was useless. I should have been out in the parks or on my trainer doing intervals until my lungs exploded. Barrier technique saves you seconds; cardio fitness saves you minutes. My legs were never the issue, it was ALWAYS my lungs/heart and trying not to stroke out from overexertion. "whee?" is right.
