Life Outside the wheels

Well it has been a while since I posted but there have been more than a few events that have refocused my attention outside of cycling. Just prior to the 2nd Snake Creek TT I was informed of a family emergency in Arizona so shortly after DNFing half way thru that event I was on a plane out to Arizona. Unfortunately while I was out there my wife received a call from her family informing her of a family emergency on her side of the family. I guess these things really do happen in 3 because while I only had one family member with a issue she had two. Well that resulted in a return flight from Arizona followed two days later by a drive up to Michigan. These past weeks events have put life in perspective helping me to put things I get wrapped around the axle about in a different light.
Reapplying myself to my riding this week with a lighter approach for the rest of the season is my goal. I still plan on being competitive but I want to get back to having fun again while I am at it. Seems I have been so busy focusing on "training" that I forgot what got me started in the first place. The first time I went on a mountain bike ride I travelled up a fire road huffing and puffing while the rest of the group I was with rode a parallel single track that ran along the side of the hill we were gradually climbing. When we hit a creek about 4 miles up the road and the trail became rockier and a little steeper I thought "who in their right mind calls this fun?" After what seemed a eternity of rocks and climbing we hit a point where they decided to turn around.Downhill Arizona Style, it took me three tries to make it down this "major" drop

Going back down the road proved just as hard and a tad bit scarier(mind you we were just going over rocks in the trail not major drops). But as we continued down the trail I managed to keep myself upright, eventually ending up back out on the fire road we started going up. Travelling at what seemed like 40mph(I am pretty sure it might have been 15mph now)thinking "great I didn't have a heart attack going up the hill I am going to break my neck going down!" I survived that day and after a couple of more difficult rides and some encouraging by some guys who had been riding alot longer than me I was addicted. I remember the first time I put SPDs on for pedals, I was brilliant figuring "If I do this on the road at least I wont fall into some rocks or cactus or something hard" Shortly thereafter putting peroxide on my road rashed elbows palms and knees from falling on the soft asphalt when I couldn't get my foot unclipped at a stop. However the ride ended whether muddy or bloody, flat tires or broken frames, we always managed to have fun and always ended with a smile on our face(ok well not when we broke a frame). It was as if being 35yrs old and riding like a 16yr old kid made life seem a little less like the hectic grind of the day to day work and bills routine. Better than any day at the office the first ever 24hr event I participated in

That is the mind frame I want to get back to, not how I place but that I finish and have fun. If that produces a result that gets me on the podium then so be it and I will be glad for it. I will still ride to keep in shape and get faster and better, I will continue to go to spin classes and road ride since it is great exercise and I have always worked out in one way or another. When I hit the trails though it will be to enjoy the ride, catch some air, bomb down hills and enjoy the company more than to see how hard I can push it. So that is my renewed approach to riding this season, to approach it with the attitude I had when I first started and remember this is a recreational activity that should be a stress reliever not a stressor. There ends the sermon hopefully I will get out sometime this week for a ride at Thompson so if I do and your out there I Will See You on the Trail!The B E A Utiful effects of flying like superman while everyone else wants to mountain bike how could anyone not love this stuff?

Spinning in the Desert

Well this past couple of weeks have been somewhat uneventful as far as riding goes but that is about how it goes during the winter time. I spent the last week out in Las Vegas at Nellis AFB in support of some training, and while I didn't get down to the Strip I did manage to get to the gym for some training of my own. I managed to get in some solid work on the Stair Master and some time on the Spin Cycles. While I would have rather had a FS bike out there and a way to get out to the mountains I was flying over every day I had to settle for the gym so I managed to make it worth the effort. Well it had been almost two weeks since I had been out on the trail and I was itching to get some dirt on the bike so I headed out to Dauset on Super Bowl Sunday at about 0630hrs(thats 6:30am for all my civilian readers)to hit the trails, it was COLD! to say the least but not as cold as it had been in the past. So I put on the snivel gear and headed out, the trail was it pretty good shape and I could tell the areas where it had soaked up some pretty good rain. The Huff and Puff extender was in pretty rough shape so I made my best effort not to add to the ruts. I am going to do a full check out of the fork and rear shock this week before Snake Creek I want to have it dialed in as it was feeling kinda rough this weekend.
Speaking of biking stuff, since this is a biking blog, I have been signed up on Loop D' for a little over a year now this year I have been picked back up by Sock Guy and also have a new sponsor Endurance Training Center.com The have quite a bit that they offer so I am looking forward to using some of their products this year. It is definitely the time of year for me to start getting back into race shape I am currently back up around 154lbs so I need to get back into the aerobic and weight watching mode so I can drop the 14lbs and get back down to my race weight again. This year I am looking more to focusing on the endurance events and just hitting a couple of the series races for fun. Since it looks like I am heading to the land of the Morning Sun in July I am going to be limited to events I can compete in before June so that has me looking at a few events in particular, I am already competing in the Snake Creek TT all 3 this year,and the following
12hrs of Santos - 21st Feb
Dirty Spokes 6hrs of Heritage Park - 14th Mar
GSC 1 E. Macon - 22nd Mar
Cohutta 65mile"Big Frog" - 25 April
Dirty Spokes 12hrs of Yaro - 2nd May
12hrs of Tsali - 23 May
And possibly a event during the month of June if I can find one that fits the time frame before I have to get ready to head to Korea for the year. This events location may be somewhere in Michigan or depending I may just see if there is a event I would really like to do before I PCS. Well that is about it I will leave you with some pics from a frosty Sunday morning at Dauset, Charles and I plan on doing some trail riding Wednesday evening at Thompson so if your out there I Will See You on the Trail!