I really need to get someone to help me come up with better blog titles. Anyways, busy weekend. First with Terry's details...he's coaching a little U-12 boys soccer team this fall. They struggled at the beginning of the season a bit but yesterday they beat the first place team in the league! Yippie! And then today his local league team played and won 8-0, but I don't think he scored a goal all day, shockingly. And that makes for like 4 games in a row without an injury. Knock on wood.

I'll my weekend start with Saturday...I went to the track to "help" Megan with a little training session. Note that I said "help" and not actually "do a track workout with Megan" because I would likely still be curled up on a ball somewhere on the Hellyer infield if I had done the entire workout with her. Basically it amounted to me sprinting a little bit ahead of her and then she'd blow by me like I was on a junior gear. Then Shelley recommended that I try to throw some flicks at her from down in the pole, but Megan was so fast going by me that I don't think my flicks were even noticed. But it was fun and I love to get a good sprint in at the track. Megan has been picked to represent Team USA at the Manchester Revolution track events in January and February and would really like to get some good training in, so if you want to help her out on the track, give her a shout. You're guaranteed a good workout and a good laugh.

From Hellyer I continued my journey northward/eastward/away from the coast to Sacramento for race #4 of the NCNCA Cup which happened to be part of the Sacramento Cyclocross Series. So rather than getting up way before the crack of dawn to drive 3 hours for a 45 minute race, I drove 2 hours from Hellyer to spend the night with teammate and uber-long distance rider Katie in Sac-town. I almost felt like I was sort of a big deal with host housing the night before the race plus Katie's boy/super mechanic Dean fixed up my bike for me the night before the race!

On to the race...There were only 5 of us in the B's today, but my main competition, Melanie, was there so I knew I was in for a battle. The course was great--completely flat (some might say grass crit), and with a little rain last night and one race before us this morning, a nice tracky groove was worn in making the course pretty fast and great for power riders. Two sets of double barriers and a cool section of 4 shorter barriers (bunny-hop-able by most of the men's fields). The weather was beautiful, the leaves were changing, nice crisp fall day...anyways, back to the race...I got a good start and held a lead for about 1/2 a lap and then Melanie came by me. We both settled in and she got a little gap on me by the end of the first lap. But slowly I whittled it down and got back head of her by the start of the 3rd lap. Then I got a little gap and tried to extend it out, but Melanie is tough and wouldn't let me get to far ahead. She made a pretty good charge on the 2nd to last lap so I just started grunting out all the long, power straightaways in a huge gear to try to hold the lead. About mid-way through the final lap I finally pulled away from her a little bit and pulled out another victory! Photos courtesy of Katie.

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That makes my second victory in the NCNCA Cup series and moved me in to first place in the series standings, but Melanie is right there in 2nd. Its going to make the rest of the series really fun!

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Nevada Marian was also there racing today with the all-star A's. She raced her butt off today after racing yesterday up in Reno. Hardcore!

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Next weekend is a double race weekend! Night 'cross race at Sierra Point on Saturday night and then CCCX #4 at Ft Ord.