I’ll write a longer post on Jingle Cross when I have a little more time.  I usually just get moving after races.  I usually don’t sleep much after hard efforts, so sort of wished we would have driven the 6 hours home after the race last night.  I was up until 3 am anyway.  We would have been back at least an hour before then.

The race yesterday for me was terrible.  I really didn’t have that bad a race considering, but the result was horrible.

I was lined up on the last row, as usual.  I’m not sure why I get so unlucky on the draw at UCI races.  The guy ahead of me missed his pedal when I was already going, so I hesitated some and then we were at the very back.

I passed a bunch of guys hitting the first mud section and then dismounted for the 100 meter off-camber run.  I maybe had 15 guys behind me, but then it went south.  Someone behind me slipped and grabbed my rear wheel to steady themselves.  That pushed my handlebars into the metal fencing and my bars got wedged into a small triangle in the fencing.  By the time I got it out, I was in last by a mile.

I got going and sort of caught the back of the last guys and was gassed.  We had to run up Mt. Krumpet super early in the lap and by the time I got to the top of it, I was hurt.

It is weird in cross, you can ride the speed of your group and if your group is going slow, then that is sort of your speed, especially early season.  I had to get off my bike again and straighten my brake lever on the climb.  It was twisted and was pulling my rear brake on.

Anyway, I rode 4 laps and then got pulled.  I was going about a minute a lap slower than the back of the top ten.  I was doing 9 minute laps and they were doing closer to 8.  That didn’t seem that bad really considering how unprepared I was to do a race of this caliber.  I honestly can’t say the food poisoning deal I had a couple weeks ago was an issue.  I wasn’t riding all that badly, for me, I was just a bit off all around.  My bike handling was super rusty, but got better.

I looked at some of the other categories and compared to all the master’s times, I was good. I was nearly 2 minutes a lap faster than my age group in masters, but that is to be expected.  But really, comparing different races is just make believe.   That being said,  I think I would have finished 5th in the women’s race, so I could have been competitive there, if I were a girl.

Like I said above, I didn’t sleep much.  We’re nearly to Des Moines, so should be back to Kansas by early afternoon.  I am surprised I’m not sore from the 45 minutes I rode.  I would have thought my legs and back would be wasted, but not so, which is nice.

Okay, I’m just rambling.  Tucker is out on the bench seat.   He isn’t used to hanging out all day at a cross race.  He had a blast, but he needs to sleep some during the day. Especially three days in a row.  Me neither it seems. It was a harsh was to start the cross season. It was a mildly embarrassing and enormously humbling day.   I’ll figure it out soon..

Trying to keep some sort of speed going up Mt. Krumpet.

I got faster descending each lap. I put a little more air in my tires because I didn’t like how they felt folding over on this off-camber descent. This is the same corner Stephen Hyde fell on Saturday.

This is Abby Krawczyk and Sven Nys. Abbey won Chequamegon last weekend.

Women’s start run.

This is the sunset when I was riding back from the venue last night. Pretty great.

Big numbers at McDonalds. Crazy.

Tucker is out for the drive.

I don’t like rust.  It ruins so much nice stuff.  And once it becomes rust, the stuff is horrible for skin.  Working on a car with rust is not very rewarding.

I don’t like ticks.  I actually hate ticks.  Ticks are my least favorite bugs, by a factor of 10.

I don’t like/nearly hate, people that throw trash out of their cars while driving.  I have no understanding of their thought process.  It is like they want to live in a terrible world.

I don’t like sitting in traffic.  Who does?  Sitting in traffic is a complete waste of time and it would be very difficult for me to live somewhere where there is a high chance I’d be in stopped traffic on a daily basis.

I’m not big with laundromats.  I’m not even sure where that word came from.  I’ve spent a fair amount of time washing clothes in these places and most the people that I run into I don’t want to know personally.

I don’t much like eggplant.  I eat just about everything, but eggplant never took.  That and pea soup.  Add to that canned peas.  Fresh peas are fine, but I don’t run into them that often.

I don’t like hearing gunshots when I’m out riding in the country.  I don’t have any idea when way the gun is pointed, so it spooks me, as it should.

On the gun subject, I’m not big on hunting for sport.  Most of the time, the way I see it, there isn’t much sport in hunting.  It is just killing.

I don’t like dressing up for an appointment.  I try to make it a point to limit things I do that require dressing up.

I don’t like walking downhill.  Especially downhill for a long time.  I like hiking, but dread the downhills.

Overeating should be on this list.  I rarely do it, but when I do, I hate it.

On that subject again, I don’t much like buffets.  I can’t stand looking at how much food the majority of patrons tend to heap on their plates.  It is one of the 7 deadly sins.

Waking up from too long of naps is not good.  I am grouchy and more tired than before the nap.

I hate sticking to my jeans after I’ve crashed.  Jeans and sheets.  I came up with using Saran Wrap, back in the day, now Tegadrem is the ticket.  It still occurs some though.

I don’t like waking to a cloudy day when I expect a sunny one.  It sets a bad tone.

I don’t like skipping breakfast.  I nearly can’t function without breakfast.

Injustices.  Obviously, by definition, they are unfair.  Too many of these occur nowadays.

I’m not big on bad dog breath.  I love dogs though.  Same with people, other than I don’t love people as much as I do dogs.

I could probably keep going all day.  These are just a few. Any of your own?