Back to winter

A few face shots this afternoon at Deer Valley with Sammi stood in stark contrast to the 80+ degree temps I was racing in over the weekend. Seems like the last few winters have been slow to start but finish with a bang. Maybe I've just noticed it more because I've been trying to get the bike season started a little earlier the past couple years.

This whole racing in March thing is pretty crazy- I didn't even used to touch a mountain bike until about May. The past couple years I've been making an effort to extend my bike season in hopes that maybe I'll improve more if I ride a bigger chunk of the year. Seemed to work and last year I had my best result in November at La Ruta.

Kicked off the first big event of the 2010 season over the weekend at the Fontana national. Despite suffering through an off day in the XC I was pretty happy with the weekend. I know my fitness is pretty good but just had no legs on Saturday. I finished and felt like I had just done a ride- not the typical post race feeling where you know you have nothing left. Legs felt fresh going up an down stairs and same thing Sunday morning- felt like I hadn't even raced. Not sure why, I guess sometimes you just have those days where you push on the gas and nothing really happens.

I felt much better warming up on Sunday and had a good short track- moving up to just outside the top 15 with 2 laps to go. Then I somehow crashed on the flattest part of the course in a sandy rut and that ended my race. It was pretty high speed so by the time I got my bearings, fixed my chain, and got going again I had lost too many places and was pulled out. I was encouraged though because I felt better than I normally do in a short track mid season.

Monday morning I felt like I was ready for stage 3, but had to take the day off for travel and I felt like I should rest. I guess this will just be a full rest week since yesterday the wicked winds and dust storm kept me off the bike, and today its back to winter.

There's no way I am busting out the trainer this time of year, or basically any time of year for that matter, so I'll chalk it up to some time off. Thinking I will head south over the weekend though to get some more time on dirt with Sea Otter coming up. Works out that there's the ICUP race down there and Sammi's family is going down for Easter.

Less than two weeks left of my 20's. Now that's something to think about... one of life's milestones I guess. Maybe I'll do a 20's recap post... or not!