We went out to the National Cyclo Cross series on this past long weekend which was fantastic! Cyclo Cross is a combination of road and mountain biking.
This weekend the best CX riders in Australia converged on Adelaide. The first race was at "Mulch Hill" in the south-east parklands and attracted a cracker crowd. Day 2 was held at "Zombie Park" and the crowd was even bigger!
My daughter even had the opportunity to race in the "little crossers" support race which invited 3-7 year olds to have a go on a shortened course. I was so proud of her as she can get herself very worked up with new activities but she did really well.
Day 2 even had a skills session run by Ride-a-bike-right which Maddi and JC loved!
Organised by PACC there were support events for non cx bikes C,B and A grade riders on CX compliant bikes held across the 2 days and the fields in all grades were quite large.
Well done to Gemma and all the PACC crew for putting on such a fabulous event. Hopefully not only the National rounds, but also the local series continues to be well supported.
I thoroughly enjoyed watching all of this but once again i found myself thinking "i can do this!" My trouble is, yes you can enter a non CX bike into this (i.e a MTB) which i have in the form of a 20kg ish 20 year old mountain bike with huge knobbly tyres. Not too keen on this as i am not really one for just "having a go", if i do anything i like to be competitive and that is in no disrespect at all to anyone currently racing a MTB in the CX races! My other option is using my current road bike and getting some CX worthy tyres to go on it. Even less keen on this idea as this is my ONLY road bike which i use for training AND racing so if anything were to happen to this i would be stuffed.
Next year i will be getting a new road bike which i cant wait for (although the time frame is being hotly debated!) which would free up my current steed for a CX conversion!
Time for me to learn some patience. I have decided to just consolidate my priorities or whatever and just focus on the remainder of the road season and just base training for good crack at a number of events next year.
My main issue lately has been a severe lack of motivation and this has come from the fact that i have had not end goal in mind. I have also been extremely good at finding excuses like "what is the point?" "everyone has better bikes/equipment". I need to just focus on training this year and getting bike fit so when i do get an upgrade i will be right within myself.
So for CX this year i am not going to stress myself out and am just going to leave it. My time will come. The Adelaide Dirty Dozen in September will be a big goal for me as i didnt do this last year from a fear of failure. This year i WILL do it. Also after we get back from the USA in October the Criterium season will have started.which i didnt do this year due to not having a CSA membership and being unfit! Yes CX would be fun but it will have to wait =)
My goals for the rest of this year.
1. 13th of July - Norwood Club Road Race at The Range
2. 20th of July - Red Deer Brevet #7
3. 17th of August - Norwood Club Road Race at Greenock
4. 7th of September - Adelaide Dirty Dozen
5. 8th of September - Red Deer Ritrovo
6. 26th of December - Boxing Day Criterium (TBA)
The only interruption to my training will come in Spring when the magpies start swooping again. I hate that time of year and find it hard to get out on the bike knowing that blood will be spilled and i don't enjoy it so will be lots of gym work and stationary trainer sessions.
When i lay it out like this i have a lot to look forward to so need to spend more time being thankful of the things that i can do and not hung up on the things i cant!
