CCCX Fort Ord, March 4

[Jim Hewett]

The Base Phase of training had just ended, so I decided to get a fast pace workout in by heading down to the CCCX race at Fort Ord.

Rainy weather had given some firmness and grip to the sandy trails, and the cool temps and sunny weather promised ideal conditions.

I lined up with Carson Benjamin, Kell Mckenzie, and a bunch of young guys that I didn't recognize.  We cruised up the paved road start and turned into dirt with Carson in front and me second wheel.  The course was VERY flat and fast, so it became a train of about 6 or 7 racers.  Carson stayed in the front for a bit, and then Jason Gandzjuk came around him for a bit.  I rode third for awhile, checking out the course for the first time, as I had not been able to pre-ride a whole lap.  The pace was pretty fast, but I was able to keep it without too much trouble.  I attacked on an uphill fireroad and lead through the bermed and flowy trails back to the finish to complete our first of 6 laps.  After the start, there was a sustained slightly uphill section with no recovery.  Here I wasn't able to keep the pace up enough and fell back a couple places.  I moved to the front again after some recovery on some downhill sections and lead the group to the end of our second lap. 

It looked like the pace was having an effect on the group, as we were now only 5.  There were two Baghouse racers that looked like roadies that were pretty much sitting on behind Carson, Jason, and me.  When we started our third lap, I once again fell off a little from the sustained pace on the slight uphill, but once it became more varied I was able to make my way back up front.

This group stayed together through the end of the third lap, but I fell to the back as they hammered the sustained section again.  I kept on the gas and made my way back to one of the Baghouse racers.  He and I were not so far behind the others, but we couldn't reconnect.  They were keeping the pace of our first 3 laps, but we were falling off slightly. By the end of the lap they had grown their lead to 45 seconds or so.

After racing with the Baghouse guy for a few laps, I had decided that he had an advantage on the flatter bits of the course and I had a slight advantage on the few steeper climbs and the descents.  As I led us out to start the penultimate 5th lap, I tried to push hard to stay in the lead for the sustained section that had been giving me trouble.  Either he was too tired to come around me, or he just wanted to suck my wheel, but I was able to stay in the front through that section and lead the whole lap.

We were getting into Cat 2 lapped traffic, which interrupted a couple attacks.  I tried to keep the speed up and damage him, but he would claw his way back.  The guys ahead of us had grown their lead to a couple minutes by the time we started out on our last lap, so it was pretty much the two of us battling for fourth place.

Once again I was able to lead the first quarter of the course, and once we got to the "steeper" climbs I attacked as well as I could.  The first one did not stick, but I felt like it had hurt him.  We came up on some lapped racers and I banged bars with one of the guys, just after which I put in a big effort to get away.  The next time I looked he was not in sight, but I kept up the effort all the way to the finish for an uncontested fourth place.

You could say the race was fast, as we averaged 17mph.  Bike worked great, and I was very happy to see a lot of high heartrate numbers.  Fitness is coming along, as I begin to enter the Build Phase to come to peak form in a couple months.