Tan Lines

The South was finally blessed with two wonderfully sunny and warm weekend days instead of our regularly scheduled snow and ****ing cold we have been getting and I took full advantage of it. Saturday was filled with spring cleaning and basic chores punctuated by random playtime sessions with the dogs, the boy and the wife. I got all my tools and work area in the garage organized, spare bikes and parts all serviced, organized and put where they go, and finally I cleaned and prepped my Optimus for a trip next weekend to round 1 of the Dirty Spokes 6/12 Hour Series next weekend in Georgia.

Sunday was the treat for all that work. I took my faithful Jabberwocky and headed to Warriors Path State Park for a ride. It was beautiful. No arm warmers, no tights, nothing but warm sunshine. I quickly got down to business. On the agenda was 3 race pace laps after a short warm up on Darwin's Revenge. After riding through Darwin's, I came back through the parking lot and did Darwin's again followed by the rest of the trails there in a clockwise fashion. Warriors is not an easy place to ride. It is very technical, very rocky and very rooty. Although there are no really long climbs there, there is a bunch of short ones (about 1400' per 8ish mile lap of them) and they get tough, especially if you push it. I rolled through my first lap in 1:00 flat which is a very nice time for a lap there and I then rolled right into lap 2. I backed off because I was riding too hard (I have a problem with that and it leads to me being in a really bad place after 6 hours of racing sometimes). Half way through lap 2, I got a little sloppy and made some blunders that I was very happy that nobody saw. Warriors is that kind of place, you let your guard down for a minute and you'll get a surprise and you probably won't like it.
I changed water bottles between laps 2 and 3 and rolled into my final lap. I was tired but I knew that this was good stuff. I suffered through the final lap and then hit the road for some cool down and spinning before calling it a day. Three laps in 3:35 and I was cooked! But very happy. I don't have the fitness I need just yet but it's coming along pretty well.