No Repeat at the Page Farm

     The Cross the Way Cyclocross Series returned to my favorite venue this past weekend. Kurt Page hosted the race at his farm in Murfreesboro, TN. I loved this course last year. It was technical and fun, with lots of corners, some mud and some dirt humps to pump over. And I won. That always helps you like a place.

     The course was a little different this year, but still great. They opened up some of the wooded sections, but there were still plenty of turns to negotiate and humps to roll over. Despite an enormous amount of rain during the week, the course was dry, with only a couple of slick spots to be found.

Course layout



Masters winner Troy Tucker

The course featured a short section through a barn

     I was again doing the double, racing both the Pro/1/2 and Singlespeed races. Like I said in my last post, I've been off the bike lately working on my mechanics. I think I've passed the point of feeling really rested from a break and have begun to lose fitness. I felt good in my warm-up while I was out on the road. I made a few adjustments to the bike during my warm-up as well. My Redline cross bike is very small. The frame is short and it really has me in a different position than what I have on my other bikes. So I tweaked a few things in order to stretch me out and allow me to use my glutes more. I took a quick lap on the course right before the start. Halfway through the lap, I started feeling weak and sort of sick. I thought maybe it was just nerves and it would go away once the race got going.

     We had six riders in the Pro/1/2 race for 60 minutes of Page Farm fun. I had a terrible start. I was in too big of a gear and got smoked off the line. I was last through the first turn. It took me a few turns to get up to 4th. By the time I got there, the lead three had 10 seconds on me already!

Pro/1/2 Start

Jeremy Chambers and Tanner Hurst got away out front on the first lap

Tanner begins to pull away from Jeremy

Me chasing in 4th

     I felt so bad the first lap and dropped a lot of time to the three leaders. I kept my cool though, hoping the legs would come around after a few laps. The three up front were Jeremy Chambers, Tanner Hurst and a Cumberland University rider. The Cumberland guy seemed to be struggling to keep the pace of Jeremy and Tanner. I just stalked him, knowing that he would fade at some point. Finally on lap 3, he began to drop back. I started gaining on him ever so slightly. Then, he totally blew. I erased the 10 second gap in one section. I passed him over the barriers, but then dropped my chain and he passed me back. After remounting, I ran him down and went back by into 3rd.

 

Up to 3rd place now

     I had a hard time cornering the first half of the race. I was slipping and just not comfortable taking the corners fast. The pre-race adjustments to my position did not turn out to be a good idea for handling, but I did do well recruiting my glutes. I didn't care if I had to slow down, I was going to hold true to my new pedaling style and use my glutes more. I made numerous mistakes, dropping my chain again over the barriers and falling three times on a steep, off-camber hill climb. I just couldn't do anything right today. I kept feeling worse too, getting weaker with each lap. I held on through the suffering to take 3rd. Tanner slipped away from Jeremy halfway through the race to get the win. Jeremy has a pair of 2nd places in the series and now leads the points. After my mechanical at race #1, I needed a win today. Third place today basically puts me out of contention for the overall. I'm in 4th place overall, 21 points behind Jeremy. It would take a miracle for me to pull it out, but a podium is still possible.

Me coming through the barn



     I felt terrible as I lined up for the Singlespeed race. The series title was still a hope in this class after my 3rd place finish at Fontanel. I tried to focus and gather up all the strength I had left as I sat on the line. I knew my big gear would again be hard to turn with all the corners, but I was confident that I could corner well and overcome.

     The start was quick and my big gear was slow getting off the line, putting me towards the back of the group. I was patient the first lap and got the opportunities I needed to move up. There were a few crashes that helped me get positions back without having to battle for them. I was up to 3rd by the end of lap 1, holding onto the wheel of Nate Newton. Mike Edens was getting away, so I passed Nate and went after Mike. He was a little too fast in the tight sections. I was cornering sooo much better than in the first race, but it wasn't enough to run Mike down.  My big gear was eating my legs alive.



2nd, 3rd and 4th places on lap 1 of the Singlespeed race

The tricky off-camber run-up

Buzz Lightyear was manning the pits

Lawrence Czarnecki

Making the pass on Nate Newton for 2nd

Junior winner Carson Beckett

Singlespeed points lead. Maybe I can at least get one win in the series. The final race at Lock 4 next weekend will be interesting. We will be battling for points and also reconning the site of the Tennessee State Championships that Lock 4 will host on December 18.

Running from Nate     photo by Ann Beckett

Mike Edens

Photo by Ann Beckett

Video: Pro/1/2 and Singlespeed race clips

Revamping the Plan

     Shannon and I had the opportunity to take a continuing education class a few weeks ago through our place of work. We have to take so many hours of classes per year to maintain our PTA license here in Tennessee. This class was about Functional Training of the Lower Extremity. It sounded good for work, but also caught my eye as something I could learn to better my riding and running. I have known for a while that my glutes are weak and need attention. I thought maybe I could learn some ways to make me better through biomechanics as well. We really didn't know what to expect, as a class talking about the lower extremity can vary with so many potential issues to discuss. Well, it happened to be freaking awesome! Dr. Chris Powers from the University of Southern California (USC) taught the class and every bit of it was applicable to me, both from a work standpoint and from an athletic standpoint.

    Dr. Powers basically related 90% of lower extremity injuries to hip weakness. We learned how to test for glute weakness and evaluate mechanics. The goal is to be able to correct the mechanics of athletes through strengthening and adjustments to their training methods, in order to prevent injuries and increase power. It made perfect sense for me to do it since I already knew my glutes needed work.

     After the class, Shannon and I ran through the glute strength evaluation. We both failed it, but I was way worse than her. I have no glute strength. I make up for it with my quads. I am very quad and hamstring dominant. Why use only two of your large lower extremity muscles, when you can use three?! So I have started working on it with strengthening exercises and some minor changes to my pedaling style. My running gait was very ugly. I have not tweaked the run yet as I'm still not strong enough to maintain good form. Dr. Powers linked my hip pain earlier this year and my constant posterior shin splints to weakness in my glute max.

Looking at my pedaling style with a camera

     I am almost three weeks into the strengthening program. I have noticed some gains with the exercises themselves and even some on the bike already. I don't think my glutes were super weak, I just didn't know how to activate them to stablize my legs during activity. My glutes have always limited me with my time trialing. Having a lower trunk causes more glute recruitment. The aero position really drops your trunk down and causes the glutes to participate more. I'm struggling a little with the change to my pedal stroke. It's hard to break a habit that's been going on for over 10 years, but I'm starting to be able to hold the form without constantly thinking about it. And I'm definately recruiting my glutes more. There's no doubt when you are using them because they will scream and let you know! I've had to cut back my hours in order to not get an overuse injury from the change to using new muscles that aren't so used to working that hard. It sucks to not be riding as much, and it's going to hurt my performance for the last few cross races, but I think it will pay off next season.

    My goal is to get my form correct on the bike and with running to improve my times with triathlon and power with bike racing. It should help me time trialing and give me enough power to finally get in a real breakaway. I'm going to reassess my glute strength every four weeks, so I will post some comparison pictures as I go through this process.

    I've already evaluated some athletes in the clinic. It's amazing how a top athlete in their respective sport can have such weak hips. Most of the athletes I've looked at demonstrate quad dominance with squatting and jumping, and show medial knee collapse with all activities. Medial knee collapse is the main cause of ACL tears, so it is very important to correct. It seems that most of us have significant weakness and we don't even realize it. Just a tip for those of you who are interested in doing something about it, watch your knee position with everything you do. Even with something as easy as walking up stairs, you may notice your knee drifting in as you step up. Concentrate on keeping your knees directly in line with your toes. And do some glute strengthening exercises! Buns of steel!

Pump Track Nights

    I've spent a few Fall nights out on the newly redesigned pump track at Pump Track Jim's house. I've made it out twice in the past two weeks. It's always a good combo of riding hard, shooting the breeze and eating hot dogs by the fire.

Dual berms

PTJ in pursuit of my blur

Went into the biggest berm a little too low and it cost me some red blood cells

     Shannon got to go with me and was persuaded into making a few laps. It was her first time on a pump track. She did pretty well with it. Keith and Misty also came out last week. We had a good time hanging out together. It's always more fun to have many people on the track and by the fire.

Keith and I chatting between runs

Pump Track Jim

Jim

Jim

Me

Pump track video

Fall Riding

     Here's a few shots of the Fall road riding I've been doing with my lady. Haven't had a lot of time to go mountain biking and let her get in some trail experience, but we have found some nice backroads that have helped ease the craving for singletrack.

You know it's Fall when all the barns are full of tobacco

This tower has become a familiar sight on our rides

What a great day for riding