Cyclocross Season

Cyclocross has been very hot and cold for me this year. I always go into cross really excited since I love to do it, but I'm often disappointed when I realize my endurance focus for most of the year doesn't fit well with the rigors of a cross race. This year has been no different. Through the end of August I focused pretty much solely on competing in endurance events like Dirty Kanza and Gravel Worlds. While these are very intense races that in some ways make a cross race seem easy, they don't require the top end power that cross demands throughout a race. Thus, while I've gotten some decent results (including some SS wins) and this has been my strongest year in cross, there have also been some struggles and frustrations as I have essentially been building as I go. In the past month or so I've really started to feel like I'm getting my feet under me in cross, which is good and bad. It is good because I'm now feeling better in cross races and during training. However, it is bad because cross will be over in a matter of weeks! I keep going back and forth over plans for next year and whether I should start my cross preparations earlier, but I'll leave that decision for a later date. That would require me to commit to skipping Gravel Worlds, which is going to be tough to do!

In those final weeks of the season, I'll be doing a couple of local races to get ready for my attempt at singlespeed nationals. It is never cheap to travel, but getting to CX nationals this year was about as cheap as I could have possibly imagined. So I booked everything and committed myself before I could reconsider! I'm pretty excited to experience the event, but it will not be an easy race. There are already 150 people signed up, which I'm pretty sure is the limit. As of now it appears I'll start somewhere near the back of the top 1/3 of riders, so hopefully it isn't too much of a cluster to move up. This is where I regret not being able to attend some bigger races this year where I could have potentially gotten some good points (and improved my starting position). But I guess it is better than starting in 150th place. 

While my training right now is solely focused on finishing cross season on a high note, I'm already looking forward to Dirty Kanza. Registration for that is just over two weeks away now, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to give gears a shot this year. A SS win and 12th overall finish last year has made me quite curious about how I can do with gears. There is certainly no guarantee that I'll do better, but I can't help but think that being able to shift into an easier gear on some of those monster climbs or shift into a gear I can really mash on flats and descents will make me faster. It's been a really fun year, and I'm excited to see how I can build off of it and get even stronger with the guidance of my coach!