2016 Racing Gravel, MTB into CX Season

Winter cold temps set in the past week here in the KC area. Just in time for gravel grind race training. I feel satisfied with my fitness cause I had started rolling gravel in late October through November and December all while keeping my CX fitness strong. Now that the temps are lower and bone chilling wind chills are here I can now focus on power, cadence and some speed work. It has been 5 years since I had taken to full on gravel seriousness. This weekend was the Kick off of the gravel grind fun events listed on Guru's Gravel Grinders. I'll see you at the events. PTC will be hosting one in late February.

The past few years I have been on a health rebuilding faze. Several years ago I was injured in a CX event that put me down for many months then back issues set me back even further. After a good 2015 based on the realistic goals I set for my self I meet them with an A. Raced the MTB well and had a great CX season for the events I chose to race. The MTB season was cut short for me due to rain outs, date changes too dates I could not make too a fractured MTB frame. With all of this I moved to focus on the CX season, again with realistic goals to stay healthy and give my all at each event but still limit my racing.

While I was reading about all the people and clients doing the DK200 this past June I had this vision to return for my quest of racing the sun and a finish. My sites where set on racing the DK200 in 2016. I planned my race training early so I could maintain a good fitness base line so when the temps where just too cold to be safe and stay healthy I could take a day off and find it would not hurt. Smart planing is the key to this success. Having a very busy schedule each training faze has to be balanced. I started planning a few key events that I could prepare for prior to the DK200 so the one was the LandRun100 and a few others.

The first week of January while I was having a silence and solitude day of bike work and house cleaning I started to think about what is the most important part of my racing life. I really love racing Cyclocross and I want to gear my year to the CX season. With the change I decided the DK200 for 2016 was not in the cards for me based on the training time and length I would need to race the event. There are differences in what people think about racing but for me it is not to just participate but be competitive. With the MTB being out of the picture for the first part of the year I will be racing the LandRun100 Gravelleursraid, and Cool Hand Luke Gravel Grind. These events will be perfect for me to go into the MTB season and then into the CX season. LandRun is March. Gravelleursraid and Cool Hand Luke are in April. The promoters of these two events are a series so sign up for both. If you are getting ready for the DK200 these should be a must do to test your fitness and nutrition combination.

From a coaching look at gravel it is a great way to build power, bicycle handling skills, mentally refreshing and psychically challenging. Looking at my training schedule and early race schedule the gravel will end and the MTB season will kick off with the United Federation of Dirt West series.
MTB season will kick off with the Kansas Fat Tire Festival out by Wilson Lake, Kansas. April 30 and May 1st 2016. As the MTB scheduale sits now I will be racing 5 events to end out July then it is full on CX season prep time. This could change if Jingle Cross gets a World Cup event then we will be heading that way and could be early September 2016. Stay tuned.

Need help keeping fit or need some personal one on one training give me a call. I do work with all levels of fitness form the just getting off the couch to the upper level racer. If you are broken I can also help you get your rehab in order and organized safely.

Coach Ruder