Brayton Osgood

Actually, this weekend felt like the beginnings of fall, which would be fine by me. It actually has been just fine training in the sun at 75-80 degrees in the afternoon, but I could do with some signs that winter is on its way. One sure sign of the approaching race season (9 weeks to the first race at West?) is the frequency of time trials in my training. I guess 4 in 5.5 weeks isn’t really all that many (basically averaging one every 10-14 days), but it’s nice to always have the next one in sight. This morning Marshall and I did the North Rim TT a week ahead of schedule (I’m not going to be around next weekend and I convinced him to do it with me even though a couple of our other training partners had … (ahem) … a change of heart at the last minute). We battled back and forth the whole way until the finish where, tragically, there was no line to lunge for or camera to determine a winner. Not really a problem, I’m happy to claim a share of the course record for at least a few days. This was my second PR of the summer, following up on August’s Westminster West Road effort. 21 seconds off in a 28 minute test today and 20 seconds off in an 18 minute test back in VT. I’m pretty pleased with both those efforts. Of course they were sandwiched around two rather disastrous uphill skate TTs (Century and Edison), so I really don’t know what to make of it. Maybe I need to consolidate the gains I’m making in classic skiing and get back to skating like the last couple of years? That seems like a good plan. Actually, it would be good to go faster than in years past. I’m making a quick trip cross-country this weekend for the festivities surrounding my cousin’s wedding. It should be a great chance to catch up with the extended family, have a grand old time and hopefully catch some of that foliage I’m starting to miss.

My bike racing season continued (and ended) with the OBRA version of the Cascade Cycling Classic (aka the Cascade Stage Race), which is where you end up if you’re a Cat 4. After my huge successes at High Desert I decided to extend the season for two weeks. That let me get in a sweet “training ride” at Crater Lake and then a little intensity block in the form of 4 stages in three days.

My bike racing season continued (and ended) with the OBRA version of the Cascade Cycling Classic (aka the Cascade Stage Race), which is where you end up if you’re a Cat 4. After my huge successes at High Desert I decided to extend the season for two weeks. That let me get in a sweet “training ride” at Crater Lake and then a little intensity block in the form of 4 stages in three days.

Two days and two pretty excellent workouts. Thursday we (Marshall, Lars, Kristina, Taylor and I) went for a little roller ski up into Newbury Crater. We were all a bit blown away by the quality of the pavement (worn in chip seal that was more than fine for classic skiing) and the quality of the ski. I think we got close to 3000’ of up in 17 or 18 miles of skiing (map my ride thinks less vertical than my Suunto, but gives us credit for almost 6 miles of sustained 6%). The bulk of the climbing happened from about mile 6 to 13 and was a lot of grinding double pole kick. Except for Lars who out-toughed us all and decided to rest his legs. It was rather nice to find a new 2.5 hour ski here in Central Oregon. I will be back.

The High Desert Omnium (Road Race) … Today was my first bike race of any kind in three years (since Williams Crit) and my first road race in six. It was pretty fun. I found some muscles that I didn’t remember existed, put my legs into trouble on a few occasions, did some suffering, threw in a couple of attacks and was even around to fight it out at the end.