This is week three of the “What If Cross Were Coming” series. To recap. Three weekends ago we kicked things off with a fundraiser event for Roanoke Outside Foundation. Two weekends ago we got into some CX specific efforts on the Fallon Park CX course, using the lines we burned in during the fundraiser, as well as some backyard cx.

This past weekend we got an even hotter case of CX fever!

Emily and I headed to Winston Salem, NC to grab some things we didn’t have room for during our first trip up during the move. That included, most notably, my bee hive and the dirt bikes! However, we were also treated to some great training and an awesome CX course with real CX weather.

Friday I got behind the moto and did some motor pacing to capitalize on a good week of training. I have been running, which is a weakness of mine, lifting, and doing some low cadence work, another weakness of mine. So motor pacing was good to help bring some snap back into my legs and make them feel light and fluffy before we got onto the CX course Saturday/Sunday for some efforts.

Normally, I get these CX course efforts done at Tanglewood, a park just 1 mile from where Emily’s parents live. However, with the recent rain Tanglewood was flooded in a big way.

Luckily, Jon Hamblen, a cycling coach and local junior/u23 team manager, has been taking the initiative and has put together a CX track on some private land just outside of downtown Winston. I was eager to check it out.

Saturday coach Ben Day prescribed 5x5min all out laps on the cx course, which sounds bad, but the course was awesome. Just a little slick and touchy in sections but then plenty of grip in others to let you get on the power.

Sunday was 3x15min looping CX laps and with Saturday nights rain the track became even more fun! We blew a bit more trail off on Saturday night, which opened up a 7.5min hot lap to loop laps on. It’s nice and important to have a good track for these kinds of efforts because when you are out there by yourself/doing your own workout sometimes motivation can wain. But Jon’s track ran good clockwise and counter clock wise and I left there with a big smile on my face and mud on my bike and body.

It was great way to cap off another week of prep and with that said there is only one more week of prep before the Go Cross race in two weekends!