DINO Warsaw, etc.

(I don't have a pic from this weekend, so here's an MTB pic from last year)

Saturday was stop #1 for the DINO MTB Series in Warsaw IN. It's a long drive up, but a good trail and always a good turn out. There was a lot of talk about rain and wet trails in the week leading up, but Saturday provided nothing short of perfect trail conditions. I, being 1)lazy and 2)leary of the conditions kept on my wet condition tires, which was a mistake (in hindsight, of course), as they didn't hook up well in the dry dirt at all.

I pre-rode most of a lap and felt like I was riding terribly. "Uh oh" I though, this could be bad. I know I have good legs, but if I can't handle the bike it doesn't' really matter. Once I got racing though, I was riding quite well, so whatever. There was a crash that I managed to find myself "in" at the start. A guy clipped his bars on the re-bar marking the course and and fell into me. I didn't go all the way down, but had one foot unclipped and my bars touching the ground. So was chasing/behind people I'm faster than form the gun. I passed several people and rode pretty well. I ended up 21/44 overall but 12th out of the Cat 1-non pro field (Cat 1 pro/elites start 2min ahead of the rest of us, but then 2min is subtracted from our time. Still though, we're not really racing them directly). Not a great result, but not terrible.

Sunday RS and I went out for a 3hr ride. I rode super hard Saturday racing and he rode super hard Saturday on a training TT ride. So we both wanted to ride eas(ier), but for whatever reason we ended up riding super hard anyway. We did a really cool (though kind of climb heavy) route and on the way back in RS asked if I wanted to try to climb Indian Hill road (which is a gravel road w/ a SUPER steep climb). I said "not particularly, but I'm down for whatever." So we detoured over Indian Hill (we both made it up no problem [on road bikes nonetheless]), then descended it and came in. It was killer ride, but after two very hard days, I think I'll be feeling it.

I did my usual ~50min EZ ride this a.m. and actually felt pretty good. I can feel some tiredness in my legs, but not what I expected really.

Forecast isn't looking too awfully bad, lets hope it holds out.