Heathpack 

Won it.

Official time 31:38. Over a minute off last week's personal best.

revchuck 

HELL YEAH!!!

LAJ

Hot damn, @Heathpack! Well done

chasm54

Most excellent. Looks like that Strava data was off by almost a minute?

Heathpack 

Im assuming Strava time includes most of the held start, plus some of the deceleration leaving the course (the segment looks like it runs long). Maybe also has some GPS wiggle in it?

Who knows?

valygrl

Awesome!!

IBOHUNT

Way to go. Always a learning experience and we always think we can do better
Next time you will

sarals 

TOP STEP!! I knew it, I knew it! @Heathpack, you are strong and meticulous, and I knew you had a good chance at this! I am SO PROUD of you!! Welcome to time trialing, and best of all - you're a Racer Chick!!

Heathpack 

Thanks, ya'll.

happybday29475

Woot!

I should go off the grid more often, all kinds of good stuff happens!

shovelhd

Nice job.

Heathpack 

Strange thing: We got an email last night that the cycling club that puts on the Fiesta Island TT, San Diego Bicycle Club, has done an "investigation" and made some corrections to the results and added 40 seconds to everyone's time. I have no idea. It did not change any of the women's placements, not sure about the men.

New time: 32:18, which is still a PR for me on that course by exactly 1 min.

Hey @shovelhd, I have some license questions. There's 10 races in this series. I need to race them all in the appropriate category for licensed women. One of these, Santiago Canyon, is USAC-sanctioned, so I need a license for that one. We go there twice, once in this calendar year and once in next. The date in 2016 is not released yet, so I'm not 100% sure I can make it. I was just thinking I'd get a one-day license at the event for those two TTs. A friend of mine who knows marginally more about this stuff than I do said she thought you could only get a one day license once.

So my questions are: Is my friend correct that the 1 day license is just a one time thing? If so, do I need to buy a license for the 2015 calendar year and then again for 2016? Or do the licenses run 1 year from when you get them?

Racer Ex 

No limit on one day licenses. The licenses run for the calendar year. My suggestion would be to buy a 2016 and do the one day till then.

[h=2]One-Day Licenses[/h] Competitors who do not have an annual license can purchase a one-day license when registering for their event. Such riders do not become members and may not enter championship events. Riders that purchase a one-day license are entitled to the USA Cycling accident medical coverage for the event day the license was purchased for and limited to only the cycling activity of the event. All medical coverage is subject to the terms, conditions and exclusions of the policy(ies).

One-day licenses can be purchased when signing up via USA Cycling's online registration system or on-site. Events that don't use the USA Cycling registration tool may require on-site payment of the one-day license fee.

For road, track and cyclo-cross events, riders may purchase a one-day racing license for $15 and be permitted to enter races open to men’s category 5 or women’s category 4.
For mountain bike events, riders may purchase a one-day racing license for $10 and be permitted to enter races open to category 2 or category 3 riders. Riders must hold an annual license to race as a category 1 or Pro racer.
[h=3]One-day License Fee Rebate[/h] One-day license fees from road, track, cyclo-cross and mountain bike events may be applied toward the purchase of an annual domestic racing license (two non-competitive one-days may be used, not to exceed $15).


The one-day license must have been purchased within twelve months of the annual license purchase. For annual license applications that are mailed to us, the one-day license must be attached. Members can deduct the $15 for road one-day licenses, or $10 for mountain bike one-days from the $70 domestic racing license fee.
To receive the refund for an annual license purchased online, the one-day license application must be mailed to USA Cycling and a refund will be issued. Only one discount per adult annual license per year will be granted.

Heathpack 

Thank you, @Racer Ex!

shovelhd

What Ex said. Bottom line is that you can race one day forever but only one one-day counts towards your annual. Also, once you upgrade out of Cat4 (Cat5 for men) you can no longer purchase one day licenses.

sarals 

That shouldn't take @Heathpack very long to do.

shovelhd

Only if she does mass start races.

sarals 

You're right, I forgot. I won't twist her arm on that, though.

chasm54

We've never met, but I have the strong impression that Heathpack is pretty good at twisting her own arm...

sarals 

CCCX Cyclocross #3, Toro Park, Salinas, CA

Master Women 55+

Teammates - none


The race was held on circuit laid out in a regional park close to where I live. This was my first cyclocross race this year. I had no expectations for the race, I didn't know the course, and I am relatively new at off road riding and off road events. I race cyclocross because I enjoy "race pace" and pushing myself, and I don't want to back completely away from racing in the off season. I don't want to be stale at the start of the next road racing season.

The course was roughly 50/50 flat and hilly. I was advised to preride the course, because I was told the hilly section was very tough and difficult. It was! The flat section wasn't that easy, it was very technical, but surprisingly there were only three barriers - two planks near the finish and a tree/log close to the entrance of the flat technical section. The hilly section featured three short, but very steep, climbs, and a long high speed descent. There was no designed in run-up hill, the entire hilly section was rideable. The conditions were dry, with hard packed double track, hard packed single track, and a grassy infield. The temperature was 84 degrees at race time.

I am not used to the nomenclature used to designate the racer categories in cyclocross. There were A, B, and C fields, as well as Master's fields. I entered the MW 55+ field, and I was the only rider in it. The starts were staggered by 30 seconds, with the A women going off first. I'd estimate there were 30 women total racing. As far as I could tell, most, if not all, had a lot of off road (mountain bike and cross) experience.

I rolled off with the master's and C women, we were the third field to start, and I positioned myself at the back of the pack to watch how things were developing. I had no idea as to how I'd handle the race, other than to stay out of trouble and try to keep my pace even. At the barriers, I was behind a younger (strong) woman on a mountain bike, and she completely messed up the barriers and got crossways in front of me. I had no where to go, so I had to wait for her to get sorted out before I could get going again. I managed to stay on the wheel in front of me through the single track section leading to the hilly part of the course, but as soon as the course opened up to double track, my lack of meaningful recovery had caused me to load up with lactic and slow down enough to where I was passed by several younger, faster riders (I had ten years on the next youngest rider at the race). I started up the steep sections alone, which I was okay with. There were hecklers there (genteel hecklers, they were being helpful) who advised me to "pedal, pedal, pedal!" as I hit the steepest pitch. I had to stay on the saddle and keep my weight back, in order to keep the rear wheel from slipping and loosing traction. Stopping and then trying to get started again on that incline would have been a trick! The front wheel popped up several times, but, well - it happens! I made it over the steep parts, and started the descent. The descent was not straight. It featured a right turn, then a left hand sweeper, followed by a right turn at the bottom. That first right hand turn was a rutted, off camber mess, and I stayed outside, trying to ride what little berm there was there. I had the rear brake applied and the rear of the bike hopped around a bit as the rear wheel intermittently lost traction. I made it through that turn, and set up for the rest of the descent. Basically, I just let the bike go. I could see several other riders up the road, but I had doubts I could catch them. At the bottom of the descent was that aforementioned right turn, which was preceded by a really washboarded section. That rough stretch made it difficult to hold a good line into the corner, and I almost went off of the track there. If I had, there was a lovely dead oak tree there to collect, which would have abruptly stopped me, and probably not in a good way. I learned from that, and the next three times around that corner I had a much better line.

There was one more nasty roller to negotiate before returning to the infield, which was strategically positioned to rob me of any recovery gained from the descent and high speed section before getting to the infield. Cyclocross courses are like that. "Let there be pain". I got up and over the roller, and then rode to the infield. I made it through the infield in good shape on my first lap, but on my second lap, I muffed the dismount to clear a log barrier and ran into the log. The bike almost went head over tea kettle, but I managed to save it. There were three young men pre-riding the course behind me, and I stopped there to collect myself and let them go around me (and leave me alone!).

In all I did four laps. On the third lap, while I was in the infield, the A woman started to catch and lap me. I just moved over and let them by, it was not possible for me to keep up with them. The fourth lap was a tired, slow lap, but I got around the course intact and mistake free. I actually did well clearing the barriers prior to the finish, which was satisfying.

Cross is freaking hard. It is a series of sprint efforts followed by FTP efforts with some brief recovery here and there. And then you have to dismount and run! My HR was well above threshold for the entire race, and it took me an age before my body came around enough to where I could comfortably breathe. This is an entirely different kind of racing for me. I don't know if I'm slower than I was racing the cross races I did last year, but this race sure did hurt, and it was the hardest race I can remember doing, harder even than the Groveland Hillclimb in the Mariposa Stage Race. I was impressed, but not disheartened, with the apparent ease with which other riders seemed to be able to ride away from me and pass me on the hilly section, but I was satisfied to find out that I was their equal on the infield section - that's what several of the women told me afterwards.

In spite of being outside my ability and comfort zone, I plan to do as many cross races as I can this winter, but even so I don't think that will be more than three or four more races. I can see where I'd have to train specifically for cross, plus gain a lot of offroad experience before I'd be truly competitive in this discipline. However, I'm a roadie, that's where my heart is, and I do well there. Cross is just fun, and it's a heck of a fitness challenge. I'm happy to leave it at that!

Heathpack 

Nice race, @sarals! I still don't get this cyclocross business but it sounds hard, ie right up your alley.

sarals 

What is it with me and this difficult stuff, anyway? I must be nuts!

sarals 

I was surprised at how hard it was to ride fast on the grass! I haven't had opportunity to do that until yesterday. I expected it to be smooth, and it was, and I thought I'd be able to go pretty quickly. Wrong! That stuff is like riding on velcro, except it doesn't stick in the corners. But, it just grabs the tires and makes generating any speed very difficult. I was riding on 42mm tires yesterday, and their rolling resistance is high, anyway. What a workout.

LAJ

Well done Sara!

I tried to watch a cross race once. I sat on a bench, and waited for them to come by.... Darned if the bench wasn't part of the course.....

Kidding, but I don't get it either.

sarals 

LAJ, thanks!