All quiet on the cycling front.

Not much happening on the cycling front recently. The DINO series concluded in September, and I did do a few underground and unofficial short track races at Town Run. This was a first for me and I found the races to be a great time and good trianing for shorter, higher intensity races. Hopefully there will be interest in getting an official short track series started next year since previous attempts have not had much success.

I'm still commuting in everyday and on the weekends I have been training for the Gravel Grovel in November. I did this race last year on a whim to see if I could complete the "ride." I completed it, but not in grand style. This year I would like to do a bit better on the race side of things. I'm mainly doing long miles on the weekends with as much climbing as possible. Unfortunately in Indianapolis, that means lots of hill repeats at Crown Hill Cemetery for Fort Ben. Takes awhile to hit 1,000 feet climbing when the "climbs" are all of 80 feet.

Lastly, I have decided to give cyclocross a try. Cyclocross (or CX) is kind of unholy cross between mountain biking and road biking. The races take place mostly off road on a less than 3 miles course which has several manmade obstacles, such as barriers, and sandpits, that must be crossed. Some of these obstacles require a quick dismount and remount. Also, these races love mud. Apparently mud makes it that much more fun or something like that. I have learned to despise mud from mountain biking as to ride a muddy trail results in trail damage and scorn from your peers. Also, riding in mud just isn't fun for me. Additionally, the spectators at CX races heckle racers mercilessly throughout the race. Still, feeling a need for a race, I decided to sign up for a CX race in Bargersville later today. I entered in Class 4 as a beginner and slapped some 700 x 35s on my 29er. Absolutely no expectations for this race as I only want to see what this is all about. If it is fun, I will certainly try again. If not, oh well. However, we did get a half of inch of rain yesterday. There will probably be mud....