The word “training” is not in mountain biker Joel Gwadz’s vocabulary.
“I like to think that training is the ‘T-word,’ ” he said. “Training is like homework; I never really did my homework. If I am out of shape, I just have to race myself back into shape.”
The 42-year-old is a mountain biker, husband and father of two boys who participates in a unique form of bicycle racing called cyclocross. Gwadz began cyclocross racing about 10 years ago.
“Cyclocross comes at the tail end of the mountain bike season,” he said. “There can be some fatigue and some burnout from all the time on the mountain bike, but cyclocross switches things up, makes the bike and racing fresh again.”
Cyclocross involves racing multiple laps with a modified road bike on a course of 1 1/2 to two miles. The course includes different kinds of terrain and obstacles that sometimes require the racer to dismount and carry his bike a short distance.
Gwadz raced in the DCCX, the District of Columbia’s only cyclocross race, last Sunday, where he came in 35th out of nearly 100 participants in his class. He also has participated in the Charm City Cross Race in Baltimore, the Ed Sander Memorial Cyclocross Race in Buckeystown, Md., and the Kelly Acres Cyclocross Race in Middletown, Md.
His workouts are his day-to-day routines. He commutes to work on his bike from his home in Mount Pleasant to downtown D.C. and often takes a post-work ride. He also rides the Mount Vernon Trail and Capital Crescent Trail. For him, the races are his training.
“I am not as devoted to excelling or achieving as other people, although I play to win,” he said. “At the line when prerace anxiety kicks in, I remind myself to just ride my bike.”
Gwadz also races in several mountain bike races ever year, preferring multilap relay races. His best race this season was the Fair Hill Classic in Elkton, Md., where he placed first in his class. In mountain biking, Gwadz usually races as a Clydesdale, racers who are more than 200 pounds.
“Mountain biking is good for the soul,” he said. “Racing is also good: It’s healthy for people to push themselves.”
When mountain biking, Gwadz rides with Mike Pearce, a friend he met through a group of mountain bikers called the D.C. Mountain Bike Team. Mountain biking is a buddy activity, Gwadz said, in that riding with someone else helps him improve his technique. Watching Pearce, whom Gwadz said was “super-talented on the bike,” helps him become a better rider.
Gwadz also uses his racing to fuel a creative outlet: his blog. Gwadzilla.blogspot.com contains his “rants on cycling and on life,” as well as photos from the places his bike takes him.
“Riding a bike is my Prozac: a post-work ride around town where I can breathe in the season and snap a few photographs,” he said.
However, fitness is still the most important element of cyclocross, Gwadz said, and the fastest cyclist wins. Cyclocross is about cyclists fighting to pass the racer in front and fighting to stay ahead, “even if they are fighting for 85th place.”
But balancing racing and family is important to Gwadz, whose sons Grant and Dean are 5 and 8, respectively. Gwadz coaches Grant’s soccer team and spends many Saturdays at his games.
“I am not a professional racer, I am a husband and a father … I can’t race every Sunday. There are other things we like to do,” he said, citing Halloween parties and fall festivals with the kids.
“Life is a balance. If anything, life interferes with my riding.”
