Mount Snow, Day 2

Last year, the Mount Snow course was really hard. This year, it’s even harder. There were a lot of sections that were really hard when muddy, actually pretty unridable, and so the USA Cycling course designers were kind enough to replace them with even harder sections. Instead of riding on single track climbs, we now get to go straight up some insane walls. Good times. The descent is still really fun, although they cut out some good stuff on that too. It’s a 5 mile loop; with an amazing 1500 feet of vertical climb each lap. And half of that mileage is going down…
Anyway, I slept in to the amazing hour of 8:30, got some Lucky Charms, and proceeded to veg out in front of the TV. In spite of not having any good channels, I have a feeling that there will be a lot of vegging going on this week. Once we were done frying our brain cells, we went out to ride for a bit. We are supposed to be 3 miles from the course, but really are closer to 8, meaning that riding to the course is pretty much not going to happen. So yeah, not much to say about the pre ride other than describing the course, which I’ve already done, so I’ll just go ahead and stop talking about it. So yeah, at the moment, I’m watching some more TV, while Julia, Tasha (Jessica?), and Wells are at the store, Squirrel is out working on the computer, and Capitan America is getting ready for his race tomorrow. I’ve already sticked myself and stretched today, so I really have nothing to do until tomorrow. Good times.

Mount Snow, Day 1

Well, I wasted about 3 hours of my life today, even more so than if I had just ridden in the car for the 7 hours that I was supposed to. But no, the wasted 3 hours came in the form of it taking us 10 hours to make it the 7 hours from start to finish. But yeah, in any case, we spent a long time in the car. I think that we hit about 4 hardcore traffic jams, and that slowed us down a lot. During one of these, we tried to make a detour around the section of road that was jammed, but ended up just hitting another traffic jam one road over. That sucked. We ended up meeting up with the other car about 2 hours up the road in this airport-esque travel center after getting dropped big time for the second time on the trip.
After a very long time in the car, we finally made it to Mount Snow. It is pretty much just as cool as I remember it. We drove up to the course, but didn’t really see anything since we had to meet the other car at the store. After doing our shopping at the local Shaw’s grocery super center, we went up to the house… not bad. It’s a little out of the way, but it’s nice, and apparently there is a shortcut over to the course. Anyway, I made dinner while everyone was out riding, and now we are watching “I Survived a Japanese Game Show” after seeing a rousing episode of “Wipeout.” I highly recommend the Wipeout show, but the verdict is still out on the game show. So yeah, there obviously wasn’t much to write about today. We are going to ride the course tomorrow, and I’m pretty much looking forward to getting on the bike on some super fun stuff. Later.

Finally.

Pretty much my entire training year has been leading up to this week. National Championships in West Dover, VT. I went last year totally unprepared, and without a clue. This year, I know what to expect (mostly), and I have been preparing all year. That being said, I have very little confidence in my fitness level, and am pretty much hoping to pull off something unexpected.

Today was my final day of preparation, and I still feel like I have a lot to do. I worked on Julia's and my bikes for a couple of hours today, trying to dial everything in. I even put a granny gear on, just in case. Julia is running some awesome ADvantages, and I'm on Monorails. I do have my trusty Medusa's in case it's muddy, but I'm hoping that they won't be necessary. I've got all of my stuff packed up, and even got a custom kit done... let's just say that my non-physical self is ready.

I still have to ride tomorrow morning after breakfast with the fam, and hopefully I won't forget anything that I need. I'm stretching now, thinking through all that I've packed and what I still need to.

Anyway, It's time to stop rambling and start sleeping. I'm pumped, and totally ready to end the speculation. Let's get it started...

What my life is made of...

My life has a few things that I consider essential to the definition of it. These being (in no order other than as I thought of them...
Bikes
Racing
Fitness
Female company
Work
Sleep
Dr. Pepper
Subway
Battle between the sweet and the healthy
Driving
School
Knowing the plan
Sun
Summer
Music
Looking forward to the next great thing

That pretty much sums up my life at the moment. What also sums up my life at the moment is my extreme excitement about going to nationals. And although I am not overly confident in my current fitness level, I am looking forward to being able to get to travel and have fun with some racing thrown on top of it all. It is going to be a great trip. We are leaving on Monday, and I am going to try to write a blog about every day that I am gone, but I guess that will depend on my Internet connection capabilities.

What defines your life?

Work

So. I'm at work. And bored. No one has really come in today, and with the exception of Wes being here for a little bit earlier, I have been alone.
It was raining earlier, but it has turned into a really nice day, so I'm looking forward to getting out on a ride after work. That being said, I have a long time to wait. I'm hoping someone will come and hang out with me at the coolest shop on earth...

Anyone? Hello?

I guess I will go work on my bike some more, then get around to Punky Brewster's clapped out fork.

Wait, a stupid tourist is coming in. Great. Not who I was looking for, but I guess I should go help them...

Later.

Hey! Back at Clemson!

For once, I am actually going to blog about a race right after the race itself. Pretty amazing, huh? Julia and I went down to Clemson to do the SERC race there. I seem to race this course a whole lot during the year, and I get kinda tired of it. However, since it is only an hour from my house, it is hard to miss out on doing any of these races. So, once again, we packed up for the day, and drove down to the heat.
I was glad that our races were early in the day so as to avoid much of the heat, but even starting at 9:30, it still was already 80 degrees. I just about missed the start, lined up against about 15 other riders, and set off into the woods. I didn’t get the best start in the world, and ended up going into the singletrack 8th or 9th wheel. “No problem,” I thought, “my goal is to start slow and be consistent today, so I’ll just work my way up through the field.” Yeah, I was still pushing pretty hard, and lost sight of the leaders WAY too quickly. After passing 2 of the riders directly in front of me, I didn’t see anybody else until the end of the lap.
I finally caught up to the rider directly in front of me, and after playing tag for a little while, I was finally able to drop him. After that, it was just about surviving. My legs weren’t responding the way that I wanted them to, and I was suffering up the climbs. I had just installed a granny gear on my bike, and I actually was pretty glad that I had it on the steeper climbs. My descending was OK, but I still was lacking the smoothness and flow that I had the last time I raced here. By the final lap, I was suffering pretty good, and had a hint of cramping in both legs.
I ended up getting 5th, only 15 seconds of the guy in front of me. I was pushing on the last lap trying to catch him, but he just had too big of a gap, and I couldn’t pull it off. The winner was something like 13 minutes ahead of me, but since he beat 2nd by almost 9, and has been dominating all year, I feel pretty good about my race for the condition that I was in. I’m hoping that I am on track for nationals, and should be able to get in some good training between now and then. I don’t actually have any more races to do before Nats, so I’ll have to find something else to write about until then.
The rest of the Sycamore Team had some good results and good times. Julia got 7th in her first real expert race, which is a really good result considering her approach and general disdain for “training.” Tasha, the newest addition to our team, won the Women’s Pro/Expert race, beating out second by about a minute. Capitan America came and gave everyone a killer feed and photo shoot. I’m pretty sure that it takes a experienced racer to give a good feed, and the one we had was straight PRO. After we were done with awards, we headed over to Ruby Tuesday’s for some post-race burgers. Yeah, we seem to do that a lot. Not that I’m complaining at all. I realized that one of the very nice things about racing Clemson is that it is only an hour away. Pretty much every other race is over 2, so when you can be back home, relaxing on the couch within an hour, that is something pretty cool. So yeah, I’m pretty much chilling today, so I’m gonna go get back to that. Until next time, keep the rubber side down.

Boredom anyone???

So, uhh, it's been a while since I've posted anything. Yeah. Not a whole lot has happened since my last post, and in all honesty, I just haven't really had the time or desire to write anything at all. I went to Alabama to race at the Bump and Grind, and in spite of some good results from teammates, my race was far from enjoyable, and I ended up pulling out before the finish. It was God awful hot down there, and I can't understand why people (myself included) would ever live down there. Unless you have a morbid fascination with fire ants, there really isn't all that much worth the heat.
Anyway, life outside of racing has been pretty good. I've either been training hard, working, or hanging out with my totally-pumped-about-cycling girlfriend. Yeah. Actually, it's been unusually hot up here in the mountains too. I guess that is what generally happens in summer, but still, you don't expect it to get that hot up here this early in the hot season.
I pretty much don't have much to write about right now... I'm going to Clemson this weekend, and I promise a race report from that. Yeah. Right.