There are two races left in the VACX series. This weekend was Luray CX, next weekend is Bread and Bicycles on a private farm in Rice, VA. Private farm means open beer consumption and not from plastic cups. God I hate drinking fine Belgian ales from a red cup! It's wrong!
Luray is a bit of a trek and my wife's hand made bike scarfs are selling like crazy causing our house and her life to be a little stressful, so I'd have been making the trek alone. SO I decided I'd not race this weekend, instead I'd attend the holiday party (and drink fine beer) we were invited to; get my christmas shopping done; work on my bikes; and sneak in a Richmond to Williamsburg and back 100 mile base-mile training ride. After all, my focus now needs to shift to preparing for the American Ultra-Cross series with the first race being in late February. Racing cross has made it hard to get the long rides in I need, so I need to get back to aerobic training for these longer races.
So on Friday evening I stopped by Crossroads and kicked things off with a glass of St. Bernardus' Christmas Ale, then went home I put on my suit and grabbed a bottle of the lovely (and kinda odd) Duchesse de Bourgogne I'd been waiting to uncork.
Duchesse De Bourgogne is a Flemish Red Ale produced by Brouwerij Verhaeghe in Vichte, Belgium. After a primary and secondary fermentation, this ale is matured in oak barrels for 18 months. The final product is a blend of a younger 8-month-old beer with an 18-month-old beer. The name of the beer is meant to honor Duchess Mary of Burgundy, the only daughter of Charles the Bold, born in Brussels in 1457, who died young in a horse riding accident.
This is a very interesting beer. It's is very un-sour in comparison to some of the other beers I've had in this style (which is by no means a comprehensive sampling). It isn't all that sweet either in comparison to many sour ales. And it's certainly not a funky and acidic as the average Gueze. In fact the thing that makes this beer interesting is how muted and subtle the flavors are...And yet, they are still very complex. You can taste a million difficult to describe flavors, but nothing is over-powering. The finish and mouth-feel are remarkably clean with very little alcohol taste in throughout.
So I was enjoying the beer and conversating with my wife and and old friend and we kinda lost track of time, so I didn't get to bed until almost 3AM. As I drifted off to sleep I was dreading waking back up in 5 hours to mount my carbon-fiber steed for a long day in the saddle and the first ride of anywhere close to this distance that I have done since cross season started back in September.
I was determined to stay disciplined and keep my heart rate in zone 1 and 2 and get as much time in those lower aerobic zones, which I have been neglecting by banging around in the mud every weekend. The course from Richmond to Williamsburg is very flat and allows you to work on cadence and pedal stroke about as much as one can on a real road. There were to be 5 of us, which always threatens a training plan that requires discipline, but I told myself, not to hesitate to fall of the back if things were dragging me out of my target zone. I've never succeeded with that kind of discipline, but yesterday about 70 miles things began to turn up and I successfully said, "See you guys later." This actually inspired one other rider to put the breaks on as well and the two of us happily pedalled it in in a nice zone 2 pace.
The ride and distance felt pretty good. I, however, was incredibly sore simply because I haven't sat in that position for that kinda duration in a long time. Also the flat course has you in the saddle pedalling the whole time, so there is no variation in position. Late in the day, I started getting out of the saddle on every bump in the road just to try to lossen things up.
Today I christmas shop and rest (maybe a little time in the hot tub and some foam rolling)
Also worth a brief mention, I had a St. Bernardus Christmas Seasonal on friday evening
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