I'm long overdue for an update about the east coast trip and my not-so-fast races at Mt. Snow. To be honest, I haven't had the motivation to revisit my lack luster performances and spin a yarn about the trip. Bottom line, I just didn't have the legs for some reason. Even more strange, I had a no-chain day (i.e. pedaling is so easy you have to check and if the chain is still there) on the Thursday after we got back to Seattle. Bike racing is an enigma. Sometimes you're fast, sometimes you're not. There is supposed to be "science" behind the training, but I think there is way more to it than periodization and spending lots of time riding. All the variables that come in to play are mind bending when you try and figure out what happened: too much saddle time, too little saddle time, good training but stressed mentally, the perfect day that happens for no apparent reason (e.g. the Padden race this year), nutrition, hydration, too much sleep, too little sleep, travel, etc., etc., etc. All I know is I love to ride and some races it works out and some it doesn't. I'll just keep on trying.
Racing aside, I love Vermont. I feel nearly as at home there as I do in the Pacific Northwest. The riding is really technical and the hardwood forests remind me of the days when I first got into the mountain bike lifestyle. I have a bunch of pictures to post from SLR and Dr. J and I promise to get them up shortly. I also have to say a big thank you to the Blue Star fan club that made the trip up from the Constitution State. The t-shirts rocked. Thanks to SLR for spearheading the effort. It sure made the pain of the muddy suffer fest a little more tolerable to know people were cheering me on. Maybe next year, I'll bring some legs.
This weekend SLR and I are off to Snowmass, Colorado for the NMBS Series finals. The course is 18 or so miles with 7000 feet of climbing. It's going to be crazy hard! I want to have a better showing than I did at the last altitude event I did in Park City. In any event, I'll be living it up enjoying the last mountain bike race of the year in the beautiful Aspens groves as the race descends Government Trail. Assuming I finish the race, I should finish 3rd overall in the series. Some more hardware to round at a year's worth of training, traveling, and racing.
Now that the season is winding down, I'm already starting to think about next season. A few changes are on tap. Do I go semi-pro? I'm leaning towards yes, assuming I can get a reduced work schedule. I know I'm making a sponsor switch as well. I've been working with Ellsworth for several years, but I've decided to move on for a variety of reasons. A primary reason is I think there are more technically advanced bikes that have come out in the past couple of years. Carbon fiber is an amazing material and my race bikes next year will be several pounds lighter than the alloy Ellsworths I was running. 2 lbs makes a huge difference on a long climb. Thanks to some help from Lloyd at
Velo Bike Shop in Seattle I'll be rocking a
Giant Anthem Advanced and
XTC Carbon hardtail. I'm also contemplating expanding my race schedule to include some races other than NMBS and local XC events. In particular, I'm going to try to get a spot in the
2008 TransRockies. TransRockies is a seven-day mountain bike stage race that covers about 550km in the Kootenay mountains of British Columbia. A unique aspect of this race is that it is a team event. Teams consist of pairs of riders that must complete the entire course together remaining within two minutes of each other at all times. Choosing my teammate among my cycling friends will be an interesting process.
That's all for now. Sorry for the lack of posts and I promise some photos from the VT trip soon. Thanks for reading.
Blue Star
