Just say no.

The Maine UCI Cyclocross races and NEBLOGGERCROSS won't have solobreak to kick around this weekend. My second place standing in the Which Blooger Sucks the Worst at Cross competition will surely fall. No worries. Last year I went to the Maine race for the mud bath, and I vowed never again, and I'm sticking to my vow. Sure, the promoter has no control over the weather, and mud is a part of cross, but last year was ridiculous. The rain was pretty bad all week, and the race course was at the lower end of the sprawling, converted mental institution office park/rec center which was the venue. So some things can't be helped. However, the depth and length of the mud bog they ran us through was downright dangerous. Breaking a leg was a real possibility while trying to run through shin-deep muck, with no idea about what lay underneath. There were ample options for re-routing the course to lessen the danger and obscenity of the situation, but the organizers chose not to. Furthermore, part of the course was pretty dry, and to me, the mud bog looked like it may have had some artificial help in forming. Whatever, but I'm not taking any chances this year. I ruined several hundred dollars worth of clothing and equipment in just fifty minutes of "racing" last year, and at the beginning of cross season, I don't need that, so I stayed away. Hmmmmph.

My reward is a rare Saturday morning at home with no set schedule for getting anyplace. I need to get up to NH to preview the MTB loop for The Pinnacle Challenge tommorow, and before heading up my MTB is going to need a little TLC. The Yo Eddy looks like she was ridden hard and put away wet (don't remember when this was), so today I'm going to have to wipe the mold off the saddle at a minimum, and probably throw on a new chain and apply some lube as well. Then I've got to put MTB pedals on the road bike so that I won't need to change shoes during the MTB to road TT transition. All that shouldn't be too bad.

The bad news is the forecast for tommorow in Newport, NH is a high of 51 degrees F. Yikes. I'm not looking forward to working up a mad sweat on the first run and MTB leg and then getting on to the road bike to freeze my ass off. Last week at the Eliot Duathlon I wore a skinsuit and arm warmers for the entire event. My upper body was fine, but my legs were frozen during the bike portion, and it was probably in the low 50's by that point. Luckily, I didn't get any wierd ass-rash from running in the skinsuit, so the Verge chamois might be OK for tommorow too.

At last check there were 36 solo entries, plus about 15 teams. This could double by tommorow. My plan is to go out on the first five mile road run as easy as possible. I think running 8:20-8:40 would be smart, but when starting with a group I know it will be hard to hold back. If I can finish the run in the low 40's without really pushing the legs, I think this will be adequate. The MTB loop is short, only 5.5 miles, but from the sounds of it the course goes straight up a 525 foot climb on double-track out of the transition. The fastest split by the host club's testers has been 39+ minutes, so it must be rather slow and technical. I plan to go fairly hard on this leg, then continue hard on the road TT leg. They have $25 prizes for the fastest split on each leg, and I know the road TT prize could be within my reach, but in the interest of doing a good overall and not dieing a thousand deaths on the trail run, I think I will take a lesson from Eliot and cool it quite a bit on the second half of the road TT leg.Cliff noted the same calf cramps I experienced at Eliot when getting off the bike at his last duathlon. These really killed the first mile of my run at Eliot, and that was flat as a pancake. Since the trail run at Pinnacle also goes straight up the same hill as the MTB leg, I know I've got to be ready or else I'll be reduced to walking. So I'm going to use the second half of the road bike ride to stretch and relax a little, rather than pounding a huge gear all the way into the transition only to crumble up into a fetal ball on the run.

There you have it. I should have some more mechanical tales for Gewilli this upcoming week. There's no TV at the KL North Training Center where I'll hang my helmet tonight, so I'll need to live without the torture that is Joe Buck and Tim McCarver this weekend. WTF is Fox trying to do anyway, make the playoffs as painful as Fox News? Thanks for reading.