Ready for the beach

Seems like all the riding I've been doing lately has gotten me back in shape. That's what happens when you know you only have a few weeks left in single track paradise, you ride a ton,... and get stronger! I've made a different goal in my racing this year. I wanted to improve my time at the Tuesday nighter at Solitude each week. Unfortunately, I failed. The first 5 races went well, each competition I improved my time by at least one minute. Last week was different. I felt good, but ended up 6 seconds slower than the week before......at least I didn't go back to my time of the first race.

This was the shortest mountain bike race season for me in a while, but it was a fun one. I'll be heading back east next week and I'm looking forward to the upcoming cyclocross season. Well, before that, I can't wait to hang out on the beach a little and work on my stroke with my swim coach. Apparently I suck at swimming, but I'm determined to one day finish a triathlon.

Solitude

When you think of Solitude in terms of skiing, you think of a small resort, not too crowded, with great terrain and quality skiing. When it comes to mountain biking, it's no different. The resort might not have the amount of trails that Park City has to offer, but it has some great single track climbs and down hills.

The Tuesday night race series features a short loop, about 20 min long, and that usually makes for great racing. Too many races have long loops, the field strings out immediately, and the race becomes an individual time trail. Don't get me wrong, I like long loops when I ride, I don't have to do the same thing over and over again, but when it comes to racing, it's just more exciting when the field stays closer together. So last night, I ended up riding with Shannon on the last lap and he made me push as hard as I could to hold a 10 sec. gap. It was a good race, if someone didn't hold my digital camera hostage, I wouldn't have to steal this picture from the Solitude Race Series website......