Tasty Singletrack!

As I watch the pouring rain and hail build up on my deck, I'm so glad I hit the trails for a hour tonite before this crap blew in. Trails at SMP were BONE DRY and gates still closed. I'm in good shape right now, not great, but the lack off off-road riding really hurts the technical skills. The Bonebender 3/6hr race is coming up. Could be my last mtb race of the year. Heading out to sunny SoCal in a couple weeks to celebrate my big 40th birthday with family, both mine and Kristines. My beloved little white dog Louis gave us a little scare. She broke off a tooth so we got her antibiotics just incase. She seemed to really slow down and we feared the worst. We've since taking her off those and she's starting to perk up again. We're hoping she just had a bad reaction to the meds and she'll be back to her fiesty self in no time.

Too Much...

Good week of riding so far. Up and down weather as usually. Sunday cold and rainy, Monday just plain cold, but got out and did about an hour on the cx bike at Lake Lenexa. Tuesday's Crit went OK. Warm and not so windy so everything stayed together. Managed something around 10th in the sprint, which I rarely ever go for, but I found myself too close to the front to peel off and get out of the way safely. Wednesday was gorgeous so I decided to ride in the work. 18 miles in about 50 minutes. Only my 4th commute this year so i'm behind last years pace by quite a bit. the ride home in the afternoon was tough. I was just tired and didn't have any snap. the steep climb on Renner south of Holiday sucks as did the the long climb south of Midland. Of course the the climb on Woodland to my house wasn't fun either. Got home just before 5pm, grabbed some food, then headed back out for the 45minute ride over to the start of the Wed Hill Ride. I was feeling pretty stale by now but what the heck, it's just training. Sometimes I can ride through feeling crappy and sometimes I can't. Once the ride got going, the legs just turned into dead wood. I tried to go at the bottom of Lawrence Hill but came to grief rather quickly. That was it and the rest of the ride was just miserable. I've done the commute to work and then did the Tuesday night crit many times but trying the Hill Ride was too much. I ended up have just under 4hrs in the legs by the time I got home. It's good to stress the body like that periodically. With the rain coming today and Friday, i'll get a good rest period and come back feeling great.

Another Tuesday Night Crit - Another kick in the face!

In years past, I've always have 3-6 mtb races in the legs by now, and a whole lot of MTB training that comes with that. Since MTB racing (& the training for it) make up about 90% of my overall fitness, it's no surprise why i'm not exactly flying on the pavement right now. My off-road form is OK right now, but not even close to 100% given the zero race schedule. I can do all the paved "junk" miles I can stand, but that really doesn't do much for me. Contrary to some popular opinions, riding road doesn't make you fast off-road. Last night's crit was another windy-as-hell 45 minutes. I managed better than the week before but still sat out 1 lap around mid race to nurse a leg cramp. Never really did much expect stay in the right place to avoid the wind. Few more weeks, I should be back out there on the cross bike, and probably going better. I'm only doing the Tuesday crits to keep some high-end over the Spring/Summer for cross season. The Wednesday night hill ride tonite was a good one. Plenty of fast guys. The roll out was nice and brisk. I managed to hang near the front on the first climb till the top when I got gapped a bit. Shad Shreiner went pretty hard near the top and we got an lead group established. The Renner climb was a bit more subdued, with just a few little digs towards the top. The lead group slip in two over the top and somehow I stayed in the front one. I did get spit out briefly along Renner but I got back in with the help of some 360 guys that were popped on the Renner climb. We were all together up Woodland and I managed to stay near the front, till Shad went near the top. I didn't have much left after that.

Week in Review

Got in a great week of riding last week, before the rain starting Thursday night. Another windy as hell Tuesday Night Crit. The field was already broken up into 3 or 4 different groups by the lap 3. Curb-to-curb echelon up the hill and single file in the gutter down the hill. I never could get any draft off anybody for very long. It sucked. I pulled the plug after 20 minutes and took an extended route home. Wednesday I tried the Hump Day Hill Ride for the first time. It never really fit into my schedule since Wednesday is usually reserved for off-road. Trails were still a mess so why not do something different. I rode for about an hour 15 minutes over to the start at Bates City BBQ. Group finally left and we meandered along for about 15 minutes or so. I've ridden Midland plenty of times, but I'd never ridden that first "Lawrence Hill" so that was new. Nice stair-step climb. My cross bike creaked and moaned all the way up just like my legs did. Still managed to stay with the front group. Next hill was Renner. Longer but nothing steep. The last climb that I did with the group was Woodland. Since I live at the top, and did over an hour of riding before the group ride, I was ready to head home. The climb on Woodland is flat at the bottom, gradually rolls a bit steeper as you go, then finally kicks towards the top. I can't really go easy on a climb, then do a hard acceleration, so I went to the front and rolled on the gas to keep the group under control. About half way up, I really turned the screw and really strung it out. The legs fell apart about 100 feet before the top however. Thursday I got in a couple laps of SMP before the rains hit. Sold my '69 Nova over the weekend. Had it 6 years and just ran out of money, motivation, and knowledge to finish it off. I would have had to turn it over to someone else to finish anyway so might as well sell it and maybe get something else down the road. Crappy weekend for riding, finally got out late Sunday afternoon for a quick spin. Crazy wind for yesterdays ride. Hope that doesn't continue for the Tuesday Night Crit tonite. Probably do the Hill Ride again Wednesday, then maybe ride into work later in the week. Looks like another crappy weather weekend coming up. Great!

I was going to mow the lawn today........

...but something came up.