inconcistency

The NORBA circus left town again and it's time to figure out what to focus on next. The XC race took place on a very hot Saturday afternoon, didn't quite go as well as I was hoping for. I did have to start from the very end of the pack, but that was certainly not the reason why I finished that far back(I think somewhere in the late 40s) My legs just couldn't generate any power, I've been feeling ok riding my bike, racing though it seems my body likes to shut down after 15min. Maybe it has to do that I haven't done a single hill repeat this year. If there's anything I have learned this year in terms of cycling is that you can get into some sort of shape without any organized training, but you can't really hold it for very long.

So it's time to dig out the heart rate monitor and power meter in order to get back in shape. I haven't used either in a while but realized they are actually great tools. (duh!) I guess sometimes it takes me a while to figure things out. I heard about a tuesday night race series at Solitude, I'm in, that is if I don't have to work those nights. There's also a super D series in this state I might try just to freshen up my outlook on cycling. We'll see

hairless legs

There you go. I gave in to the peer pressure and finally shaved my legs for this past weekends race at Deer Valley. I thought that would be it, I'm going to smoke my competition. Well, it turned out that I got smoked. Immidiately I went to the back of the 30 deep Pro field and pulled out of the race after just 1 lap. My hairless legs felt like led. I guess sometimes you just don't have it. I don't know if I'll be able to regrow my hair before this weekends NORBA race at DV, but I'll do my best and hopefully I'll have a better race. Good turnout at the race, though, the trails were in fantastic shape, too.

Big Calves

The Intermountain Cup "Circus" headed to Sundance this past weekend for a challenging but fun race. The course is equally challenging and fun, a sufferfest on the uphill but a blast coming back down. I opted to ride a full suspension bike this past weekend and I have to say I really enjoyed it. Thanks to Matt O to let me ride this bike and Ryan K at the Cannondale tent for helping with a super fast set up. The bike was also equipped with 172.5cm (I am used to 175s) crank arms which turned out to be an interesting experiment. The Pro field was stacked again with almost 20 people showing up including a come back from Eric Jones. You could feel the fear on the startline, everybody thought Eric would put the hammer down again just like he used to. I actually rode a while behind him at the start and noticed his calves are almost as big as mine. (but not quite)

Alex Grant and Ali G got away at the beginning and a small group of 4 formed about 2 min. behind. Bart and myself were in that group at the front and I noticed I could barely stay with him on the steeper climbs, but felt like I could do much more on the backside of the race course. I attacked on the gravel downhill section (or maybe my 160lbs just helped me pass Barts 135lbs on that section) and was able to build a little gap which I held to the finish. I caught Ali at the beginning of the third lap but never could quite get within the reach of Alex G. He seems to be getting in form at the right time and put in a great race. It'll be fun racing at Deer Valley for the next 2 weekends.