Today I was biking home from work on the bike path next to the Chuck Albrecht fields (near the police station).  I was surprised and disappointed to see another huge swath of trees chopped down in preparation for a new road.  All the trees on the north side of the bike path are gone.

Just as I was looking at the clear-cut and bemoaning the loss of more woodlands, out of the corner of my eye I saw a creature next to the ballfield fence on the south side of the path.   I only caught a glimpse of it before trees blocked my view.  At first I thought it was a dog.  But it was being very still, just sitting there watching me bike by.  And very quiet.  Very un-dog-like.  And there wasn’t any dog owner within sight.  I turned around and went back to get a better look.  Could it be…

Sure enough it was.  A wolf.  And there was another.  And another.   Three wolves sitting there watching my every move.  I suppose I should have been a bit nervous, like seeing a bear up close.  But I wasn’t.  I was thinking about how one second I had been lamenting the loss of more ‘wild lands’ in the city, and the next second I was looking at the animal that symbolizes wild Alaska.  All within several hundred yards of the Police Station, a hospital, and a Quiznos.  

In the time it took me to get out my cell phone camera, the closest wolf had ducked back into the woods.  So I didn’t get him in my picture.  But if you zoom in (click on it) you can see one blurry wolf next to the fence, and the rough outline of another halfway around the far side of the fence in the background.  Damn, I wish I’d had a real camera.

The encounter was a nice little reward for ridding my bike to work in dark 8 degree weather this morning.

Flash back ten years…

It’s January 1999. US Cross Country Ski Championships in Rumford, Maine. Tryout races for the World Championships, to be held a month later in Ramsau, Austria. I was an up-and-coming racer, 24 years old, and I finished 4th, 6th, 6th, and 10th in those tryout races. Four strong races that I thought might get me on the Worlds team. However…

There was a junior skier from Alaska who was storming up the ranks at that time. Rob Whitney was only nineteen years old, but he had been beating up on senior skiers for a couple of seasons already. In Rumford, he finished 5th, 6th, and 7th. That included a memorable pursuit race where I edged Rob in the classic race by 6 seconds, but he destroyed me in the pursuit. This earned the promising junior a ticket to Austria, alongside four established members of the US Ski Team. They only took five men on the team, and I was left at home.

Back to the present…

I now spend my days working a desk job in Anchorage. I’m married and raising an 18 month old son, and juggling a few side projects. I exercise whenever I can, which in a good week is about 6 hours. My priorities have shifted, and I am happy with the changes, but I still long for the fitness I had when I could devote 20 hours a week to training.

Rob Whitney is now a firefighter here in Anchorage. He’s got a house, and is well on his way to being married. Like me, he still exercises sporadically and does adventures when he gets the chance, but he has also lost the exceptional fitness he once had. Rob’s put some extra pounds on his tall frame since his racing days ended.

Several weeks ago, Rob casually mentioned that he was thinking of getting serious about training for a few months. The idea was to see if he could lose some weight and jump into a race at the US Cross Country Ski Championships at Kincaid Park in January. I immediately told him I’d do it too. It would be good for both of us to have something to train for.

I always enjoy slightly hair-brained schemes. After all, I’m the same guy who tried out for the Olympic bobsled team simply because they had open trials. Rob and I have no business racing against the best skiers in the country these days. But that is exactly why it would be fun. Plus, I’m always looking for extra motivation to train. There is nothing like the fear of being totally embarrassed to get me out the door.

We tried to recruit others to join our quest, but for some reason there aren’t too many out-of-shape skiers who want to race against guys like Kris Freeman and Andy Newell. So it quickly became an internal competition. The trash-talking commenced almost immediately, and the “we’re both in this together” vibe disintigrated into a mano e mano vibe. Rob versus Cory. Cory versus Rob. The intensity went to new heights on Monday when I went to the APU weight room on my lunch hour, hoping to sneak in a little closet training. Imagine my surprise when I discovered Rob was already there, doing the same thing! Uh oh. He’s already shed some pounds. I quickly regretted my recent two week hiatus. Time to get to work.

So this thing is definitely ON. Here’s the tale of the tape:

2008 Tour of Anchorage 50K Results
(the only ski race we’ve done head-to-head recently):
Cory: 2:23:15.2
Rob: 2:30:31.7

Potential weekly training between now and January:
Cory: 8 hours a week, tops
Rob: potentially a lot more than 8 hours a week (key word: potentially)

Current weight vs Racing weight:
Cory: Racing: 173; Current: 174 (but much softer)
Rob: Racing: 180; Current: Umm, quite a bit more than 180. This could be his ace in the hole. Lots of potential.

On paper, this looks like a tremendous match-up. I’ve got the early advantage, but Rob has the potential to close the gap. Will Rob regain his 1999 form and utterly destroy me? Can I hold him off? Will either of us beat the J2 skiers? Will we both get laughed off the trail before we even finish the race? Stay tuned. This is going to be fun.

Programming Note:

We initially chose the 10K classic race at US Nationals on January 5 to be our showdown. However, we recently realized that we’d need join USSA and pay a high race entry fee, just for the privilege of embarrasing ourselves on the nation’s biggest nordic stage. I’m sure we can find a way to embarrass ourselves without paying over $200 to do it. The showdown date is currently pending.

Official Result: 30:17  (24th place)

Actual Elapsed Time: 27:55 

Since when do they start these races right at 6:30?

Race Results

Full Season Results

I am coming off what might be the longest stretch I have ever gone without exercising.  As you might have seen in my training log (link in the homepage sidebar), there is a huge hole between Oct 4 and Oct 17.  A week of that time was spent in Florida, visiting relatives.  Summer didn’t come to us this year, so we had to go hunt it down before it was too late.

It was unbearably hot in Florida, and I’ve had a nagging knee injury, so it was all too easy to just sit by the pool, or if I got ambitious, wade into the surf.  The net result was that for two straight weeks my heartrate did not climb above 80.  I don’t think that has ever happened before.  The most exercise I got was literally walking to and from our hotel room to the beach.  All 100 yards of it.  Our kiddo struggled with the travel, the time-change and the relatives, so when we weren’t in the water, we were napping.  Sleep, eat, swim, repeat.  That was the routine for seven days.  The disturbing part is that I was okay with it.  I usually go stir-crazy if I am deprived of a workout for a few days.  But in Florida, it didn’t upset my mellow.  The warm sun can do strange things to a man.

While I hadn’t planned for a two week layoff, I think it did help get rid of the knee problem.  And now that I am feeling pudgy and lazy, it has given me a little more motivation to get back into the routine.  

Our cyclocross series wrapped up on Saturday, Oct 4 with a great race at Goose Lake. This course was the best one of the season. It combined pavement, trail, and even sand to make what I considered a true cyclocross challenge. This race was worth double points, so everyone showed up. I finished 13th, and also finished 13th for the season, though I only did four of the six races.

Results | Photos | Photos below by Peter Lekisch

I really enjoyed the cyclocross races, but I can’t help but think that the current cyclocross format is handcuffing the sport. In an article earlier this year, I discussed the similarities between cyclocross and cross country ski racing. In my opinion, cyclocross also suffers from an unfortunate similarity: the over-use of multi-lap courses.

I absolutely hate this trend in skiing. It makes the races boring and repetitive for the racers. Its called cross-country skiing, not gerbil-loop skiing. Let’s cross some country. I long for the days when I could do a 15K or 30K race without having to count laps on my fingers and toes. And the tiny loops necessary for these courses degrade our trail systems. Instead of long, winding, scenic trails through the woods that everyone can use, ski racing now demands extremely short loops which are of little use to non-racers. Case in point: the “new and improved” Kincaid Park. Whoops, sorry for the rant, let me reel it back in here…

I understand that there are many good reasons for using short loops for cyclocross. Its a lot easier on the organizers, it impacts less land, and it is easier for the spectators to see the racers (though it can be impossible to figure out how they are doing - just ask my wife).

But why pigeon-hole cyclocross into this format?  In many ways, cyclocross is the purest form of cycling. The bikes are pared-down. No suspension, no disc brakes. The objective is to cover all kinds of terrain in order to get from point A to point B. So why add in all the contrived stuff like a one hour time limit, multiple loops and man-made barriers?

While skiing has moved to this rat-in-a-cage environment (I’m going to see how many rodent analogies I can squeeze in here), fortunately there are still some ski races that don’t conform to the new standards. Likewise, we need some cyclocross races that break the mold. Let’s have a good old-fashioned bike race from point A to point B over lots of different terrain.

Think about the races we could have near Anchorage:

1) Start at Hilltop, go down the Seward Highway to Indian, up and over Powerline Pass and back to Hillside. Or the same route in the other direction.

2) Start at Kincaid and make your way to Glen Alps or the Dome, using the Coastal Trail, Chester Creek trail, and various dirt trails in between.

3) Start at Moose Run golf course, go up Arctic Valley road, and up the ski area to the ridge, along the ridge and drop down to the South Fork of Eagle River trailhead and back to Moose Run on the road.

4) Start at the Hatcher Pass Lodge, go up and over Hatcher Pass, then climb up Craigie Creek Rd. Then drag your bike up and over a couple of passes to get to the Fern Mine area off Archangel Rd. Ouch. Then back to the Lodge on the road. Is it even reasonable to hoof it up and over while carrying a bike? Probably not, but it would definitely be interesting to try.

Each of these routes offers plenty of the elements that define cyclocross (pavement, trail, bike carrying) and it would be a hell of a lot more interesting that going in circles. I know all of these examples would have issues that could prevent a race from happening, but the point is that there are other options out there.

In no way do I mean to criticize the organizers of our great Arctic Cross series. They do an outstanding job, and it is important to have a series that conforms with international standards. But this is Alaska, where we have the potential to do things bigger and better. Maybe we need to branch out and make this its own sport with a catchy name (Cyclocross Extreme!!) and sign Red Bull up as a sponsor. So who’s in? And more importantly, who wants to organize it? After all, I want to DO these races, not organize them.