CX Team Training Camp

Wow! I forgot how much I hate CX when there is about 5 minuets left to go in a race.

It was a good day. I woke up pretty early and rode the mountain bike for a couple hours at St. Edward before heading over to Marymoor for the team CX camp. I don't know the trails that well though, a little bit, but it all looks the same to me. CX camp started at 0930 so I only had a couple hours to ride.

Got to Marymoor and there was a crazy amount of people there for the dog show. I called Phil who leading the training camp to figure out how to get in the velodrome. Finally got there and was greeted by about 15 teammates, not too bad of a turnout. We did a bunch of drills. Got a pep talk for the newbies and also to get a refresher for the vets. I must have done the barriers 100 times this day. And the temperature reached 90 with only a few wispy clouds to offer a slight reprieve. We then ended the day with a team race.

Phil started fast early but flatted on the 2nd lap. Since he is a regular finisher in the top 5 in Masters 1-2 I waited until he caught up after getting his other bike. Randy and I traded the lead for a while but I was trying to save something for Phil. Sure enough he came through and I promptly let him lead for a while. I would say we were going at about 90-95% of race speed. It definitely hurt, but if someone attacked I think the pace could have gone up a bit. I'm glad no one did. Arron was riding extremely well for his first day on a CX bike. In the end it was a 3 up sprint for the line, with Phil giving pointers on the last lap. It was lots of fun and a great introduction to the season. And I was pretty spent at the end of this "mock" race.