Jingle Jingle Jingle

I raced 3 Days of Jingle last weekend with my favorite support crew and my big midwest cycling family! Jingle Cross is always a fun, well-run event... and on top of that, it supports a good cause with proceeds benefitting the local children's hospital.

Jingle also always includes Mt. Krumpit -- a big, steep, muddy hill! Going up Mt Krumpit is a leg killer in a cross race where you repeat everything again and again and again... but for me, going down is the hard part. Steep slippery slopes are not my forte on the bike -- i'm a bit of a wimp and get scared at the prospect of crashing down such climbs. Two years ago, I developed a good strategy of dealing with the slippery slopes... just slid down on my butt!!

(mudslide technique -- also see movie at 2:07)

This maximizes the fun (who doesn't love a mudslide) and minimizes the danger (you can't fall if you are already on your butt). However, the approach is not the speediest way down (although for me it was... when i tried the riding technique, I ended up falling in a ditch over the course fence -- see movie at 0:26). Moreover, this year was just muddy enough to be a bit slick, but not muddy enough for my mud slide technique. So... I tried the "big kid" approach of actually riding my bike. While I managed to make it down on my bike (opposed to my butt), heavy application of the brakes is not helpful in a race for speed!! I still managed a couple of top 10's and overall had fun racing and think I managed to get a tiny better at the slopes by the end.

But my forte is really running up the steep slope. Luckily, day 2 of the 3 day weekend had us running up instead of riding down. This is not so scary!! And I'm a lot better at running up than riding down. After a bad start, I kept moving up throughout the race until I was battling it out for the last podium spot. I took the lead for 3rd in the final lap after my opponent slid out in a corner and then almost lost my spot when I got my bars tangled up in course tape (oh no!)... but ended up hanging on for a podium finish.

All in all, a super fun weekend of racing and nice to see lots of friends back in the midwest. I do miss the midwest some days... but was happy to return to CA where the weather does not require lobster gloves!