As Good As It's Been All Year

That's how I felt today on my road ride with Howie. We did 34 miles in the Elmwood/Trivoli area and at a decent clip. I'm not sure what it was but I felt pretty strong today on my bike. The weather was great, I feel like I stayed fueled well, I was hydrated. The only thing lacking was maybe an hour of sleep. I worked until midnightTuesday, so it made for a short night of sleep. I will probably do some trails tomorrow at Farmdale or Indy. Another thought is maybe getting out and running a little bit. I'll just get a ggod nights sleep and see how I feel in the morning.

Most importantly, today was a great confidence booster for No Baloney. I could have done 50 today, no problem. That will be a great way to get things going for the Fall and Winter.

No Ride Today

But not a big problem. I needed to run some errands and just didn't have the time I was hoping for. I needed to pick up my new pump, some Hammer Gel and groceries. I looked in the fridge this morning and realized I had NO food. No I'm stocked with food, a full bottle of gel and I can now get RIDE out of the trails after a flat. I put off picking up a new pump and of course had two flats in the last 3 weeks.

Tomorrow I hit the road with Howie. Hopefully we can get in a nice 30 miles or so.

An Awakening?

Maybe, or maybe just a flash of enthusiasm that will peter out before the first snowfall. Seriously though, I want to do a biathlon next year, maybe a couple. I think the one in Charleston would be good and I'll find a couple more. Thanks to Billy Morrow for getting me looking in the right direction. Up first though is No Baloney. Sounds like Howie and Tony are interested, so I'll start gearing up for that. I'll also start looking at some 5k's in November.

I had some good trail rids on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday was the group ride at Comlara. I rode pretty slow with some less experienced riders but it was nice to help them along. Sunday I rode with CIC. For a downhiller, that guy is fast on the trails!

I took today off, but I'll hit Farmdale again tomorrow and the road with Howie on Wednesday morning. I need to be doing two nice road rides/wk from now until No Baloney.

Race Weekend a Success

It didn't start out that way though. Friday night I laid in my tent and watched the thunderstorms roll by. We were so lucky. We got two periods of hard rain, luckily they only lasted about 15 minutes each. At one point I left the campsite and went to a pizza joint with our race coordinator for some pizza and beer. If anything would cheer me up, it would be those things. On Saturday morning we took a look at the trails and were pleasantly surprised at how good of shape they were in. They were a little greasy, but all in all pretty good.

Numbers were down, about 74 xc racers, but considering the weather, it was a make-up date and it was on a Saturday, things went well. I was disapointed with the expert class, only 5 racers, but I'll say this.....the first 4 of them were FAST!!!

Sunday was just great from the beginning. The courses were dry, and numbers were good. 40 DHers and 35 or so mtxers. We finally got to see the mtnx completed and it was awsome. We have some bugs to work out, but nothing major. We left the weekend excited about the festival in October.

As for me.....I'm ready to get back in the gym. I still haven't come up with many goals yet, but I do want to race the Proctor next year. I'd also like to find a road duathlon to do.

Busy Week Ahead

With the upcoming race weekend, I"ll have a lot of work to do. The course still needs some cleaning and marked and the MTX and DH courses still need some grooming and marked also. The medals are ready, the port-a-johns are ordered and the PA is taken care of. We may need a second generator, but I think Little Ades is hookin' us up there. It's my 4-mid week so I'd like to get some riding in also. I haven't been on the bike since Wednesday so I'm starting to get a little itchy.

With all the rain we got this weekend, the trails are going to be a little squishy. That's actually a good thing because it will get me on my road bike. My initial thought is that if I train for an event next year it will be road bike oriented. I'd like to do a duathalon sometime. That's always been a goal of mine. Plus, I don't exactly have a bike for any type of XC event. Oh well, I've known all along that winter training would be different this year. I really want to putmore emphasis on my cardio work. I hate coming into the season built like an ox and benching 300+ but I can't ride with anyone for 20 minutes. I'm just tired of riding myself into riding shape.

Maybe if I actually came out in April at 215 lbs rather than 230 lbs I'd have a better season. So far, this year has been just like last year, my best riding started in August and September. By October I feel great and then the riding slows down. Then I'm off to the gym to build up to 230 lbs and looking like a bull again. Hell I have a CSCS, you'd think I would learn. It seems like I'm better with other people's progress than my own.

Great Job, Mike!!

Wow, Mike did a great job this past weekend at 24/9. He finished 5th out of 40 racers completing 17 laps for a total of 220 miles. I was so proud to be part of it. I have been telling him all along he has done the right things and trained smart. I had no doubts that he would be ready. It's just such a gamble though. You can be in top notch shape and it obnly takes one glitch in the system to stop you. I witnessed two guys who are animals in endurance racing each have to call it quits due to a bad stomach and a bad back. I really felt for both of them. Jeff and Paddy, good luck at the World's!!

The PAMBA/Proctor guys were awsome also finishing 5th, 22 laps. Bets Silzer took home a 2nd in the 12 hr solo womens and her husband Nick completed his first 12 hr. solo event. I was so happy and proud for all of them.

It was inspiring for me. I need something for motivation right now. I'm kicking around a few events to do for down the road, but I need one big one for next year to keep me motivated.