Thursday, September 9, 2010

Racin' 2010.... Part I

Busy as life get's (and soon to be even busier -- more on that later). My goal is to always get in at least one blog entry each month, ideally after each race with good blow by blow recap of the action. Didn't exactly happen this summer, so perhaps on some of the cold winter nights to come I'll find myself reminising, perhaps with all stories & tales that get enhanced with the passage of time.

However more recently to bring things up to speed -- it's been a pretty good racing MTB season. Started with the Rhinelander Rasta Rally & Cable Off Road Classic in May. June, I gave the MN MTB Series a go at Afton Alps,MN. It'd been a couple years since I'd been there, approached that race as just some good hard practice as I'd been in the middle of some difficult training intervals that week. Nice to go to a race without any expectation of performance.... considering I was still piling through the COMP racers lineup after the gun went off for the Elite race it was a good thing. Making for one of my more fond memories of the year -- all these people at the start line cheering & yelling as this lone Elite racer is just plowing through the crowd & finally gets to the start line after everyone else is 150yards up the trail. Funny stuff.

The other races in June - Keewanaw Chain Drive & the WORS Suburu Cup had mixed results. With my regular full suspension bike out of commission, I raced the Gary Fisher Superfly hardtail 29er. Nice in some ways but it reminds me of why full suspension bike are nice for certain races. First time I did the Chain Drive and it was everything I could of asked for in a race. I'll definitely recap it later at some point. I finished a respectable 8th overall in the Expert Race after having to coax a partially flat front tire. The first race of what soon would become a repeated theme of coming in 2nd place to that Todd McFadden fella from Duluth.... more on that later.

WORS Suburu Cup - ProXCT National race was nice to see and everything but nothing that rocked my socks. The course had been muddy leading up to the race and despite taking a recovery week leading up to it, I did not have a good race day. Not even remotely close by my standards. The first lap went relatively well from a back row start position I moved up 30 racers or so, but the next several laps (4 or 5) it was a struggle to just get through them. Not sure if it was me or just a bad day on a more technical course. I finished in the mid 40's out of 100ish racers when a top 20 would have been a reasonable expectation.

So next comes July....
I start off the month with Power Testing and much to my delight we find that even 6 years into structured cycling training and at the tender age of 37, I'm still making gains, getting stronger & faster. Age is a fact of life but never sell yourself short of what can be done or accomplished no matter what. My favorite hero's of life are the Jerry Rice's, Hershcual Walkers, Steve Tilfords, Ned Overends, Doug Fluties -- guys that have done or are doing things quite impressively after the "prime" of life.
I maybe started the month off with the roughest race of my life -- Miner's Revenge - that race is something else. Done in the U.P. of Michigan, it has some of the most non-standard singletrack for a race course I've ever been on. I know you either love it or hate it when it comes to race... by the way did I mention you pass through a 1/4 mile of underground mine shaft -- requiring a headlamp? Sounds intriguing and if you must give it a try, not sure it's my cup of tea in the future however. After being 3rd overall for a good share of the race, I lost out in the final lap to some strong riding from Bart Rodberg & Paul Belknap for a 5th place finish.

As much as I like to erase that race from my memory, the weeks that followed made up for it. Despite doing some of the most intense training intervals of the season I got in some, for lack of a better term "sprint races" on the weekends. What was nice is they were all close to home! I don't know how many racers really appreciate driving 3 & 4hrs one way to get to a race.

Gotta wrap things up for now... but hope to bring the season recap up to speed before the Chequamegon 40. Still to come winning ways, getting sick.. really sick and sick again & finally seeing a turn around..... perhaps in time for the Big Show.


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