Saturday CX, Sunday Gravel

The late summer / autumn, race / ride season is heating up. There's a lot happen in August with a short break leading into a full blown cross season. Last week I finally started mixing in some cross specific rides, increasing the intensity and decreasing the duration. Still keeping in mind though that in 3 weeks is Gravel Worlds in Lincoln, followed shortly by the Dakota 5-O in SoDak. With that being said, here's a small look into the August window.

• 8th - Centurion Gran Fondo - Wisconsin
• 14th - Rapture in Misery 6/12 - Trenton, MO
• 21st - Gravel Worlds - Lincoln, NE
• 28th - Maskenthine Classic - Norfolk, NE

Then we move into September...

• 5th - Dakota 5-O - Spearfish, SD
• 11th - Branched Oak Capital City Challenge - Raymond, NE
• 18th - WEEK OFF!!!
• 24/25th - USGP Cyclocross - Madison, WI

eh...seeing that all typed out freaks me out a bit. But, no time to waste gotta go, go, go.

So this weekend I'm meeting Randy and Paul for some CX sprint training. We did a pre-run last weekend and it was awesome. The plan is to meet at 8am at Wohlners. Warm-up spin to Seymour Smith park down the Keystone. The course gets you two standing sprints and three seated sprints per lap. No barriers, we're just focusing on the power accelerations you need for cross, those 10 hard pedal strokes out of every corner to get back up to speed. My disclaimer, this is an intensive training day so come expecting to be in the red zone.

Sunday is a big gravel day. Rafal, Anne and I will be meeting at Wohlners, 6:30am. We'll start with a spin out to Platte to load up on the bacon buffet. Full route can be found HERE. There's a couple escape routes if you don't want to ride the full 200k.As we get to the south loop off of Glenwood it'll be uncharted territory for me, should be interesting terrain. Weather looks awesome with temps starting in the upper 60's and peaking in the upper 80's. Cross bikes it is.