Who Cares If I Look Funny.

I had a crap day at work Friday, I had to work again Saturday morning and I was really stressed out. I needed to ride. I wanted a 3 hour ride but I also wanted to ride my mountain bike. I have been doing alot of road riding lately and my Jabberwocky needed some love. With time constraints being what they were, I was in a dilemma. Do I load up the mountain bike and drive to some trails, wasting ride time? Do I give the mountain bike the cold shoulder again and hit the roads (that can be dangerous as mountain bikes are very jealous and will only take so much.) I decided to do something I normally do not like to do. I rode my mountain bike to the trails.

I know that's not a big deal. It's just that I have a strong road background and when I am on the road, I like to go fast

and a singlespeed on the road is more of a lesson in futility than speed. Plus I look pretty damn funny spinning along on the flats at 140 rpm's going about 12 mph. I just never liked riding a mountain bike on the road.

I did it though and I had a good time. It was great for training. Some of the Marathon XC events have sections of road where geared bikes absolutely eat my lunch (only to get payback on the next climb we come to) and I need to train for that if nothing more than to condition myself to not hate it so much. I rode from my house to the trails at Warriors Path State Park and did a lap and a half there, then I went on to the main part of the Park to meet Nancy and Nathan at the playground. It was a good 3 hour training ride and by the time I was done, I was stress free again.

This is a hard month for me as there are no races in September (none that I can make anyway) and with two 12 hour races back to back (one is a 4 man team so it will be easy) right in the middle of Cross season that begins Oct 13, I have to maintain what endurance I have plus build some anaerobic fitness for Cross.

The rest of my season looks like this:

Oct 13 - MSG Cross #1

Oct 20 - MSG Cross #2

Oct 27 - 12 Hours of the Hill of Truth (4 man team)

Nov 3 - Treeshaker 12 Hour (solo)

Nov 10 - MSG Cross #4

Dec 1 - MSG Cross #5

Dec 8 - MSG Cross #6

So begining Oct 13, I will be racing for the next 5 weeks, off for Thanksgiving and then 2 more.

Pain. It's what's for breakfast.