Shoot I forgot. A 3-week summary.

Eh, sorry 'bout that.

Hey all, sorry about forgetting to post anything for the last few weeks. It’s been busy, but thankfully, with the Marji Gesik coming up in just a few short days, I’m on a taper week! Taper weeks aren’t something I’ve cared to do in the last few years and COVID had a lot to do with the sporadic race and life schedules that put racing and riding with intent on the backburner. Now that I’m firmly back in the captain’s chair on intervals and getting the race miles in, taper weeks are something I can look forward to.

When I was younger and just getting into racing, I knew nothing about training. I still don’t know much, but I do know that rest does help. I used to ride and lift endlessly, thinking my mediocre results were because I was newer to the sport and didn't have good base fitness. Looking back, I realize that I probably had good fitness it’s just that I would ride for 12-15 hours a week with 2hrs of intensity on Sundays. Not only did this pattern cause excess fatigue, but it also meant that when I did rest, I would feel like absolute garbage the next day due to needing more than just 24hrs of rest. There’s something to be said about overtraining, and I think a majority of young athletes would benefit from doing some research, or at the very least having good role models who don’t solely post gym and bike workouts every day.

Anyway, my last post was on August 23rd. It was about bike racing and lo-and-behold, that’s the theme for what I’ve been up to the last few weekends. On August 23rd, I took my first Top 5 in a Whatcom World Cup! The most important, best local series in the world. I’ve done around a dozen World Cups, and it still amazes me how fast some of the local talent is around here. I know I left ~10 seconds hanging on the 6 ½-minute racecourse, but beyond that, it's incredible how much more time the fastest guys can find. A few days later, I participated in the Raging River Enduro presented by Race Cascadia. The trails are incredibly fun and about as good as you can get when Enduro racing. Read: rough, fast, long, and physical. The racing was fun when I wasn’t making mistakes, but a few too many cost me any chance at a decent result. I still did well in my age group, but that’s a poor consolation prize considering I was somewhere near 40th overall (of a few hundred). To round out the downhill stuff, Crystal & I went to Sun Peaks bike park last weekend! Very fun. Highly recommend. Great progression zone, and it was amazing watching Crystal do features and trails I never thought she would enjoy.

What else? Cyclocross stuff has started! I’m going to be honest; I hate cyclocross. But this year, I’ve got a good group of friends who love it, so I figure I should commit to a season. My broken foot still isn’t 100% healed, and I’m tentative about running on it so much, but so far, so good. I got a little too cocky during the local Thursday night CX event, so much so that I got peer pressured into snagging a pretty clapped-out 2012 Giant TCX. I didn’t pay too much, and after a few hundred bucks in parts, I have a perfectly functional 14lb aluminum cyclocross bike. From there I signed up for the $60 wheel-of-pain that is CX racing. I signed up for the Mens P/1/2 because I missed the start time for the 3’s race, and promptly got 3rd or 4th to last. Overall, the racing was a miserable experience that was very type 2, with only the smallest smatterings of enjoyment. On the plus side, I didn’t crash during the race, and I still got to heckle and hang with friends afterward.

But none of that matters because Marji is in a few days, and I’ve spent the last 8 weeks prepping. For now, I’ve got lots of couch sitting and hanging out to do so I can be fully recovered by event day. Stay tuned for a full bike check soon and see if my broken and battered body can hang for a full 105-miles of racing!