Bike racing. Where it's OK to wear a unitard (yeah, call it whatever you want, it's a unitard).
So, cyclocross!
I managed to do a few of races in the past couple of months, despite having Saturday clinic and getting my share of colds this season.
It started with QuadCross, a race on a gun club.
Then I went straight to Gran Prix of Gloucester, which was really hard, lots of climbing, big sand pit, huge field of really fast people, and pretty demoralizing.
Then Night Weasels, a cx race on a ski hill. It was all twisty uphills, twisty downhills, or off camber stuff. I had a huge crash within the first half of the first lap, which nearly caused me to DNF. But, to my dismay, I was OK and could continue...
Then I was too burned out from work and multiple conferences across the country to race Providence, so I just bought a whole bunch of stuff at the festival. Then on to Minuteman Cx, which was my favorite race so far this season. I had actually been riding a decent amount, and it wasn't a super hilly course, though it did have some tricky woodchip sections. It was also my best finish so far, at 31st of 40 (not that I care about placing at this point).
The day after Minuteman was the Jamestown Classic, a random road race in October, which was fun and scenic, even if I was dropped after 8 miles. Oops. Then I basically didn't get on my bike for a few weeks because of work and being sick. My first race back (and my 20th race towards my goal of 20 races this season!), was Boston Road Club's Shedd Park Cx. It was a super fun course, a little climbing but not much, steep runup and uphill barriers, big downhill, a woodchip path, and a big flat sprint at the end. Having not done much training since Minuteman, I felt pretty weak. But, getting to wear the skinsuit made up for it, at least in part.
I'm aiming for another race or two before the end of the season, possibly the New England Cx championships this weekend, then Ice Weasels in December. It's already time to start getting those base miles in preparation for the spring!