It's Been A While...

2011 Mileage: 3,403

The past month has been a bit of a blur. I've had a lot going on with my CFA exam, catching up at the shop and trying to get in my last block of training before Lumberjack 100. All of this led to a serious lack of sleep and me getting sicker than I've been in a long time. Attempting a 100 mile mountain bike race while sick is not a good idea. I don't really feel like going in to too many race details but lets just say that lap 1 (out of 3) I managed to stay feeling alright and was right on track and then it was downhill from there. On lap 2 it was about 80 degrees out and I could tell that my fever was back but I still couldn't stop shivering. I rolled through with a lap time about 20 minutes off my pace and called it quits from there. It was a disappointing day. I brought Dad and Grandpa up with me for Father's Day Weekend and to help support for the race. I had an amazing time with them and was grateful for them being there and the amazing support they gave me, but at the same time it makes the DNF that much worse.

Car packed and the bike ready to go for LJ101, it worked great, too bad I couldn't do the same.
We did have a beautiful view from the condo we rented in Cadillac for Lumberjack.
I still am not sure whether I should be embarrassed about my Lumberjack performance or just let it go. Either way as soon as I got home on Sunday I signed up for Wilderness 101 in PA on July 30th in hopes of redeeming myself. The LJ100 experience is still weighing a little heavy on me and I definitely need to get another race under my belt so I can push that one out of mind. I'll be heading over to another Waterford Wednesday Night Crit tomorrow so hopefully that can happen pretty quickly here.

I've been running in to a lot of obstacles on the morning commute lately. The tree was easier than the geese since it doesn't attack you if you get too close.
Linz got me one of these for my birthday earlier this month along with an ipod nano. A funny combination: when I crash because I'm listening to the ipod and can't hear what's going on around me the ambulance will be able to figure out who I am. Obviously I'm just kidding I only wear one earbud so I can still hear just fine and I love them both, thank you sweetheart.

Another Waterford Wednesday

Rode to third in an interesting 4/5 crit tonight. The pace was pretty high right off the bat with a lot of attacks going. About 30 minutes in to the 90 minute race I saw an Essex Bass rider who looked strong go pretty hard and I jumped up to his wheel with one in tow. I assumed there would be more but somehow it was just the three of us with a reasonable gap. We went for it and rotated until we had a gap of over half a lap on what was left of a blown apart field. With 30 minutes to go I cramped on the short climb and the two guys I was with gapped me and I was never able to get back on. I was able to push through the cramps and get some water in me to keep on riding. Solo with the wind that was out there today was pretty tough. One of the guys I was in the break with ended up pulling out of the race so I was sitting solo in second with what seemed like a really good gap on the next 4/5 group. As I was getting passed by the 1/2/3 group it turns out that a Team Giant rider in my group was at the front of them and so I rolled for third on the day, even though I thought I was going across the line in second. Definitely a little shady how he passed me with another field but oh well there's nothing I can do about it. The officials told me that since he was at the front of them it was alright. I guess I should have stayed with the break I was in and it wouldn't have mattered. I think I still got enough points to get my upgrade (at least I hope) and walked away with enough money to cover our trip to the grocery store.

Now its back to the pile of books until Saturday. I've been living on coffee and lucky if I get two hours of sleep a night, so I wonder if that had anything to do with me cramping today.