Monday, April 27, 2009

XTERRA Time

The Rabbit Valley Rampage race in Fruita, CO went pretty bad for me. At the TT on Saturday, I missed my start because I was treating a gnarly cut on my knee that the porta-potty gave me. Once I get to the start, the lady tells me to wait till all the other riders have gone, and she would give me a new start time. So when I get to the finish, the director says "Nope, you are pro, you cant do that." If I had known that, I wouldn't have waited the 7 minutes. Anyway I finished DFL, 6 minutes behind the person who actually was the slowest. I think I would have been 13th if that hadn't happened.
Then the XC was just a sufferfest. It was just 1 big 28 mile loop, mostly on jeep roads, with a singletrack section that made my back ache like no other. On one of the downhills 6 four-wheelers were in the way, I made sure to yell at every one of them, especially the ones who were oblivious and cut me off as I was trying to pass. I finished second to last in the XC.
Now I will be leaving either this Wednesday or Thrusday to go to LAS VEGAS for the first XTERRA Cup of the 2009 Season. There are already 270 racers registered, and most of the worlds top XTERRA Pros. I am really looking to place in the top 20, but it is going to be hard with the heat. Forcasts are saying 100* F for Saturday. Hopefully Im ready, last week was one of my bigger weeks of training this year, and this week is going to start off hard and taper down a little towards Saturday. Wish me luck.

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Pro XC

That race was nuts. 120 starters. The first lap was just insane, people were crashing and getting mechanicals all over the place. There was a super steep sandy climb at the beginning of the lap, and only the top 10 or 15 guys were even able to ride it, so I did what was natural to me, and sholdered my bike and ran. I passed maybe 20 people by the time I got to the top of the hill. Going so hard so early sort of ruined my legs for the rest of the race. O well. I ended up placing 71st and was pulled at the end of the 3rd of 5 laps. At first I was a little dissapointed with how the race went, but then I had to realize that I had pneumonia a month ago, and was out for 3 weeks. Now I am glad things went the way they did, I learned a lot and I now know that the only thing I really need to work on is my general fitness which should come throughout the summer.
The races coming up next for me are the Mountain States Cup XC and ST in Fruita, Colorado, and the first XTERRA Cup on May 2nd in Las Vegas.