Land of the slugs

Well, I'm just getting done with a vacation to the land of slugs. I've ridden the bike a couple times since Natz finished up but it took me almost a week to recover. Flying to Portland and then driving to KC was definitely over the top and left me more than a bit wasted. Seeing the news for Cross Natz next year is certainly interesting. I know I will be doing a similar trip but I will be looking to stay out in Portland next year and if my work there allows it, I can spend a few days downtown doing the work thing between the races and then rent the van and pickup friends at the airport for the drive to Bend. I've already worked on the logistics of it and it looks like I could wind up being pretty rested up for Natz if I do it this way. Now if I can just get myself into some better condition. I start the base miles training today with an hour on the trainer tonight and then a few hours on the road tomorrow. I'm hoping I can have 150-160 hours on the bike by the end of March. I have found over the last few years that number works to get me ready for the spring races and sets me up for a decent year. Unfortunately, the last couple years I missed that mark by around 40 hours, so the body just hasn't been ready. Also with the way the Munroe Falls races have run their categories, I can't hit those hard early races by doubling up in the 123s and the masters which were essentially another 123 race. Those races gave me a good 50 miles of hard racing and with warm-ups and warm-downs, I was usually doing 80 miles on those days. I really with they'd get their crap together and realize having the masters as a 35+ race was a whole lot better with a much bigger pack. The same guys are winning so the only difference is who is placing 4th through 10th. I won't hit the 45+ class for another couple years so I'm going nuts trying to figure out how to get the extra intensity I need at that time of year.

The team is forming up and everyone is getting pretty antsy about the new year. We had some very good results last year in the West Virginia series with Adam nearly taking the whole thing ahead of Gunnar. Staying out of the wind a bit more and learning to be a bit more wiley about tactics would have giving it to him but he did an awesome job. I'm considering doing some more of the 123 races to help him out this year as I'm really motivated to get back to the level I was at before the nasty wreck I had 4 years ago. The body has recovered, but I've had some problems with my ability to really make myself hurt isn't quite to where it once was. Still, I've won at least a couple races in the last 4 years with 2 years ago the number hitting 7. I'm looking to have another year where I've posted in the neighborhood of 10. I've done that a couple times and I liked it. I'm also looking to raise the game on the mountain bike this year as well. Last year the bike handling was noticeably better and in races, I was finding myself looking for where I was going to go rather than looking out for where not to go. I noticed my ability in this was really there at the Iron Cross this year. I'd gotten passed by a large number of riders on the long road climb before the fire road to the first big single track section. Of the large groups that passed me, I caught and passed back almost all of them and even left the group that I eventually wound up with in the end by almost a minute. (I dropped them in the end, thanks to the 50 tooth chainring and the big road descent). I was feeling the course and moving with it so I didn't have that 'beat up' feeling like I had the previous year. Even though I got stomped in most of the races this year, I think I'm finally ready to get the form back up to where it had been, shed the 10-15lbs I've been trying to get rid of for the past 10 years, and am finally feeling that aggresive streak that I had just a few years back when some of the bigger guns in the region were starting to notice from me. If all goes well, maybe we'll have a few more podium spots and wins for the team next year. Here's hoping.....nah forget about hoping, we're going to do it.