Cyclocrosspaloosa! Are you still with me???

It's HOT hot hot right now.The cross season is in full sizzle schwing!  This past weekend proved nothing

short of it. The entire weekend's  focus was  prep, race, recover

 do it all over again.Cycle Smart International Cyclo-cross 2 day event was the place

to be in Northampton Massachusetts. Kudos to Adam Myerson and his crew. This two day venue of racing just gets better and better every year. 

 Both Saturday and Sunday

started with a 4:25 AM  wake up call for the drive and prep for

start of the day- racing. On Saturday, I had double duty with a

  9:30 race and directly after, I rolled over to

attend a 2 hour women's  CX clinic hosted by the ladies of Luna Chix including

Katerina Nash, one of the top ranked women in the world. Of course she

made any and all skills pertaining to cyclocross  look easy and buttery smooth. It

was very informative and  I picked up some good advice/tips but one stands out

in particular. My less than perfect cyclocross

bike remount conundrum .  Now I did blog about this a few weeks back with a video included

showing that I had made HUGE strides in mastering this skill but...

I was only 82.4 % there. I still couldn't make that full commitment

of letting my left foot go and launching on to the saddle. Well peeps, I'm proud to say I

pulled up my big girl panties and put this to rest. No more stutter step, no stopping

in my tracks to swing my leg over and clip in. It's a done deal. The full

monty. With just a bit of tweaking and listening to some simple advice, it just clicked. 

I did it once perfectly during the clinic and I stopped dead in my tracks, jaw hanging open with veteran cyclist Roz Puleo watching and yelling " You JUST did it!"   Of course I thought

this was just a complete fluke and no way had I really gotten it but I  did it again, and again,

and again, and again, and as the story goes, ain't no turning back. I had REALLY  mastered it.

Of course I wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of the day out on that field until the sun started to set

making damn sure It was planted FIRMLY in my gray matter.

Sunday was the true test.  Would I become verklempt and blow it during my race when push came 

to shove in the heat of racing?

Miraculously I held it together and nailed every remount. I felt like a STAR at the barriers with lots of eyes watching and me feeling

 very proud I could play with the big girls now even if it was only by a newly learned

skill. Of course I have no proof of this because here's a fact:The photographer is NEVER in any

of the pictures and now I'm wearing plain black, no logo, no team sponsored gear so not

only am I racing in the back, I'm the generic  back-o-the pack-cross plain jane no one snaps photos of all because a race official told me I shouldn't be

wearing or signing up for cycling races under Team Psycho ANY MORE as it's not a registered cycling

club/team. (another story)

Ok, so here's some technical data to lull you to sleep after my verbal spillage thus far.

 I wear my Garmin while racing to gather data including my lap times, speed, heart rate. It appears that I I'm fit because as you'll see, I am not wilting like a daisy as the race progresses and frankly, if I'm gonna have a chance in hell to  pick off other girls out there, it's always toward the last 2 laps when (lesser fit) people uncoil and can't hold the pace. I wish more of *those* would show up! I lack the skills and pure power to ever be in contention with the faster girls. (again.. another story)

 Forgetting to hit my watch for the first lap, one is missing below but notice my average speed and my times per lap of the remaining 3 of the 4 I captured.  NEGATIVE  splits as the race progresses and really, the first (slower) lap not shown doesn't even count because you

are in a train of girls bunched up and climbing over arms and legs in double sand pits and bottle necked in narrow steep run ups TRYING to

shake things out, stay upright and waiting for the congestion to clear out (while swearing under your breath)

Click on me to zoom!

 Next up, a few photos of some of the action over the weekend and maybe even PROOF via a photo or 

video that YES, I'm a remount Diva!!

Thanks for stopping by!