Work

Work.  That is pretty much my story this week and last.  Life is good though and I'm looking forward to my last workout this evening and my last big effort on the bike this Sunday at the State Champs in Temecula!

Marathon Nationals

I had an amazing ride in Bend.  My goal was simply to ride in the moment that day and pour out every bit of energy I had into my riding.  Of course I knew if I was able to do that I might also be looking at a top 10 at a national championship.  It was a good day to have a good ride!

After a mellow cruise out of town on the highway the race blew apart as soon as we hit dirt for the first time.  The entire course was super dusty and went back and forth between some single track and double track in the early miles before hitting the middle of the course which was mostly fast, twisting single track.  I was honored to trade some pulls with Dave Weins for about an hour or so early on before chasing and eventually working with Ben Bostrom throughout the middle of the race.  We were in 10th - 15th place most of the way and I was riding well and having a good time.  Once we went through the last feed zone I knew it was time to start digging, and I upped the pace as much as possible as the trails started going gradually downhill back towards town.  I was thinking about how much I love riding fast and really enjoyed pushing myself to try and catch the next guy up the trail.  In the end I worked myself to the limit and actually caught a few guys, putting me up to 7th place on the day!

I have to admit I've been struggling a bit since then!  Instead of training today, I decided I was better off with rest day #4 after being tired and hungry pretty much the entire day at work...  not too mention the sugar cravings and moodiness!  Recovering can definitely be harder than training


Garmin

Results

Anyone have photos?!

Marathon Nationals

It's so nice to be resting up in Oregon!  Mon - Wed were way too busy at work and wore me out a little more than I would like going into a big race.  I did get in the one good ride I was looking for during the week on Tue evening though.  Wednesday was 10 hours at work, followed by packing for some early morning travel Thur morning... 

Since then, things have been really chill in Bend, which is exactly what I needed.  It doesn't even feel like a race weekend yet, but that will change late this morning when we head out for some pre-riding and registration!  9am tomorrow is 50 miles of reportedly dry, fast trails, with only about 4,000ft of climbing total.  I'm just looking forward to putting in one last long effort for the season and seeing where that puts me at the finish

Vacation's Over!

Returning home from vacation always means a lot of catching up to do.  Returning home from a 3 week vacation...  actually wasn't that bad.  Despite a cold last week and being really busy at work, things are good!  It helps a lot to be training less this time of year.  Tuesday was the only workday that I did a workout this week and it was a tough day.  At work by 7:30, worked pretty much straight through to 5, then on the bike from my office, and not home until 7:45 (a lot more worn out then 12 hours earlier when I left).  Not too big of a deal one day week, but it was tiring, and I'm not sure how I was doing those days back to back earlier in the year. 

Of course I was riding for a reason and the season isn't over just yet...  This weekend I'm in for the Racers and Chasers 100mi race in San Diego (tomorrow actually) and after some prayer, I decided to take a chance at Marathon Nationals in Bend on the 17th!!   100mi mountain bike races have become a lot more popular lately, but I really had no desire to do one, until I saw Racers and Chasers making one happen.  They promote some really good races in SoCal and the course has "only" 10,000ft of climbing so it's not too much of a beast.  The hope is that I don't work my body over too bad and bounce back for a strong ride in Bend the next week.  Marathon Nationals is half the distance at 50 miles, but will be raced at a lot higher intensity.  I was pretty unsure about going to Bend while busy at work and only a week after the 100 miler I had already committed to.  But I'm taking a bit of a step in faith and we'll see what happens.

We'll leave this with a pretty strong verse for the day “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love ….” Romans 8:38-39

Swiss Bike Trophy Bern

So I thought it would be cool to ride the Swiss Bike Trophy a few days after the Grand Raid...  for the most part it was cool.  The Swiss Bike Trophy was a 1 hour race, in the evening, on mountain bikes, around the Swiss Capitol building in Bern, on 1.6k of streets and sidewalks, with man made obstacles.  Not exactly a normal mountain bike race. 

Bern was awesome though, it was definitely the coolest large city I've been to in Europe with a sweet river running through town and people on bicycles everywhere.  

The race venue was an awesome scene with lots of spectators, a jumbo screen showing the race, music, food and beer tent.  The women's race was fun to watch and then a nasty thunderstorm rolled in for the start of the men's race.  The first lap was a literal traffic jam for the second half of the field and riding around in the dark and rain, jumping off slippery wood ramps was only fun for about 3 or 4 laps.  That's how long it took until I got lapped so it was all good!  It wasn't much of a race for me, but a super cool event!