All i can say about this race is, that i suck at mtb racing! Its been 3 years since i raced a mtb, and with no trails locally to train on, my bike handling has suffered.
About 30mins into the race, riding too fast for my current skill level, i ate rock, and it hurt. Only minor cuts and bruises, but i did smack my head hard enough to break my helmet. I hit hard enough that, if i had not been wearing my 'brain bucket', the paramedics would have needed a spoon to get all of my head off of the trail.
I'm going to continue to punish myself by racing off road, but i will not be racing in Comfort again. By far the roughest, rockiest course i've ever been on. If I ever feel the need to remind myself about this race, i'll have someone take a 2x4 and beat me about the head and neck (and butt)!
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
2006 in Review
I guess i'm going to post something about 2006 here...
Looking back I would say that it was a successful season for me. I met my main goal, upgrading to category 2.
Since i'm a nerd, I have every race that i've done, since i started racing in '03, written down.
2006 stats: 33 races and 43 days of racing. 21 top tens and 3 wins. (most of '06 was in category 3)
I switched coaches in August, from Velotek to Chann McRae. I felt like my training was for club riders, not for someone trying to compete in the p1/2's. And my old coach made that frustratingly clear by not letting me upgrade, even to the point when I had almost 60pts in a 12-month period (25 point minimum, 60pts is a mandatory upgrade).
After making the switch and seeing my new training regimen for the rest of the year, i knew what I had been doing wasn't enough. It was kind of a leap of faith, as Chann is a thoroughly proven cyclist, but his coaching, I had only heard about through word of mouth. So far i'm very pleased with the results, hopefully in 2007 I will be able to get my Category 1 upgrade.
Some pics from '06.
Looking back I would say that it was a successful season for me. I met my main goal, upgrading to category 2.
Since i'm a nerd, I have every race that i've done, since i started racing in '03, written down.
2006 stats: 33 races and 43 days of racing. 21 top tens and 3 wins. (most of '06 was in category 3)
I switched coaches in August, from Velotek to Chann McRae. I felt like my training was for club riders, not for someone trying to compete in the p1/2's. And my old coach made that frustratingly clear by not letting me upgrade, even to the point when I had almost 60pts in a 12-month period (25 point minimum, 60pts is a mandatory upgrade).
After making the switch and seeing my new training regimen for the rest of the year, i knew what I had been doing wasn't enough. It was kind of a leap of faith, as Chann is a thoroughly proven cyclist, but his coaching, I had only heard about through word of mouth. So far i'm very pleased with the results, hopefully in 2007 I will be able to get my Category 1 upgrade.
Some pics from '06.
Training Camp
So the team training camp didn't workout so good. The plan was to get the whole team together for 600+ miles of riding in beautiful Austin Texas.
What actually happened? It was 35deg and raining every day. Cold is ok, wet is ok, cold and wet, NOT ok. Once the core temp. drops you are in trouble, and the prospect of a 5hour ride in that crap was making me nervous.
Luckily, (or unluckily) we were welcomed by the owner of PURE AUSTIN gym to ride indoors as much as we needed. I hate riding outside in sleet, but i guess i hate riding indoors just a little less? We did 7hours on the trainer the first 2 days, and it surprisingly, wasn't too bad.
With the weather looking bad for the rest of the week most of the team bailed, and we had a handful of people each day. I somehow got food poisoning on the second day and spent that whole evening with my head in the toilet, yum. Needless to say, i went home.
All in all it was a crappy trip and not much, if at all, was accomplished.
The good news is the first race of 'my' season is coming up on Jan 27th. The weather is looking marginal, but i'm going anyway. Its a 52mile mtb race (marathon format), north of San Antonio (Comfort, Tx)
What actually happened? It was 35deg and raining every day. Cold is ok, wet is ok, cold and wet, NOT ok. Once the core temp. drops you are in trouble, and the prospect of a 5hour ride in that crap was making me nervous.
Luckily, (or unluckily) we were welcomed by the owner of PURE AUSTIN gym to ride indoors as much as we needed. I hate riding outside in sleet, but i guess i hate riding indoors just a little less? We did 7hours on the trainer the first 2 days, and it surprisingly, wasn't too bad.
With the weather looking bad for the rest of the week most of the team bailed, and we had a handful of people each day. I somehow got food poisoning on the second day and spent that whole evening with my head in the toilet, yum. Needless to say, i went home.
All in all it was a crappy trip and not much, if at all, was accomplished.
The good news is the first race of 'my' season is coming up on Jan 27th. The weather is looking marginal, but i'm going anyway. Its a 52mile mtb race (marathon format), north of San Antonio (Comfort, Tx)
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