It may be May, but it may still be Winter

This week was crazy. Some days with highs in the 80's and some nights w/ lows in the (low) 40's. A couple of the morning rides were down-right cold. 

Hot as hell?

I did, however, wake up with my thermo reading this one morning. 

I didn't feel like $1,000,000 training last week. But these things happen. Eb/flow. Tuesday's intervals were a real struggle. But I got them done.   

I'm clearly more excited about this pic than the girls are

This past weekend was the Indy 500 and my brother and his family were at his in laws, which isn't too far from me. So I went up there and spent the day with my parents and my nieces while the rest if them were at the race.  

Daphne being a little cheese-ball

Ramona and I gathered rocks to throw in the lake

They live on a lake that has an 8-9mile road that goes around it. I took my bike up with me and busted a few laps around the lake while the girls napped.  
Once everyone got back from the race we ate hella pizza. It was a nice day spent with family and getting a ride in was nice too. 

This coming weekend is the second race of the DINO MTB series, but the first for me. I skipped the first one because it's pretty far away in northern IN. This one is at BCSP in Nashville, IN. I always like this race. The course has been changed and the "big" climb on the lap has been removed, which is a bummer for me, but it'll still be good I'm sure. I have been training well and the TT races I've done have gone well. So I'm excited to get racing "bar-to-bar."    

2 race weekends in a row!

Man, racing bikes 2 weekends in a row? Lookout, I'm feeling like a racer again!
Today was another TT at the same course as last week (Monrovia) but it was put on by another organization and they started and finished in a different place than before. They also moved their turn around from where the other people have it. I woke up feeling ready to race, warmed up well and felt good racing. But when I hit the turn around in 25minutes, I knew the course was short.

I stayed on the gas and finished in 50min38sec (time on my watch has to be adjusted because I have to start it before I actually start). After finishing in what would be an absolute blazing time I KNEW the course as short. I talked to a few people and they all seemed to have 22.7mile, instead of 24.8. So the course was about 2miles short. But whatever, you're racing the course no matter what. There were some very heavy hitters here and I ended up 8th overall. But those big dogs only beat me by 3minutes. I was really happy with that.

Yes, there were other people in my race, but they left before awards, so I was on the podium alone like a chump

And since I'm a Cat 3 on the road, I won "my race." Since these races are backed by Colavita, I got a bottle of XVO (extra virgon olive oil), which is totally sweet because 1) I buy Colivita XVO anyway 2) I'm almost out and 3) its like $20 a bottle. Score. Beats the crap out of winning a box of some shitty flavor of expired powerbars!

Despite the turns my life has taken recently, my training is going really well. I'm very focused (but I'm always pretty focused) and I'm able to push very hard. It's hard to say when you're not racing a ton but I think I'm on some really good from right now. The summer racing for me is just getting started and summer racing is less frequent for me than Fall racing, but we'll see how it all goes. It's gone pretty good so far these past couple weekends. And the training should stay up.
This coming weekend is the Indy 500 and because of that my nieces will be at my sister in law's parent's house, which isn't super far from here. I am going to try to get up to their house to see them for the day.
Well, I don't really have much else to say. I have a ton of stuff (little things, big things, tons of things) I'm dealing with right now, but this blog is about my cycling life (mostly). So that's how we'll keep it.
Next race for me will be MTB racing at BCSP. It's a couple weeks out (June 2), but I am feeling pretty good overall and will put in a couple more weeks of training to get started on MTB racing for the year!                 














words

I raced bikes!

I haven't raced bikes since the end of CX season in December. If you're a long time reader you'll know that I decided to not race any spring road races to give myself some real time off.
I planned to race MTB last weekend, but the bogus weather cancelled it. Oh well, this weekend was a road TT, so I committed to it. I knew it was going to be cold (for a TT), but I really wanted to race.  

The Rodkey Racing Monster Energy Giant Trinity RTR (ready to race)

The races was Monrovia 40k, of which I've done like a hundred, but a new organization has taken it over and modified the course. The dirty secret of the 40k course as it has been for years was that it was short. I'm not sure how short, but not full 40k. So all previous times are now void.    

Because these races are held on open road, they start them early. Also the wind is weaker earlier (typically). They start at 7:30 a.m. Today it was in the mid 40's at 7:30. And it was quite windy. I have never TT'd in temps that low, but as I said: I wanted to get some hard race effort in.

So not really knowing exactly what to expect, I went out and did what I do. I layed down a 58.15, which isn't a stellar time, but considering the conditions I'm happy with it. That's a touch under 26mph for the ride and I felt great out there. My hands went numb from the cold and I probably lost 3-5lbs of snot out of my face (I have hella allergy congestion right now), but otherwise it was a great day.

After the race I continued north to my parent's house to spend the day w/ my Mom. It is Mother's Day after all. I had a nice time hanging with her (and my dad). We did some things around town and went to lunch together.  

My training has been going very well. I'm very focused and am riding really good. Now that it's getting to racing time, I'm going to try to keep this blog up to date. I enjoy writing about the crap that I do, and I know at least a few of you enjoy reading about it (or are bored enough at your job to read about it). So with things moving forward, and barring any further setbacks, I will try to keep it going.
Thanks for reading!