Good Day/Bad Day

This past week was spent trying to motivate my self to get out and ride. I have purchased all the necessary paraphernalia to ride in the dark and cold but for some reason my body wants to go home and sit in front of the fireplace eat soup and a grilled cheese and read magazines or watch useless TV programs. Needless to say I am having a bit of a problem with motivating myself to train. Perhaps I need a rest from training and need to just ride the bike have fun no goals etc.

In retrospect this year has been great:

· I participated in numerous mountain bike events and won the overall SERC series in my age group. The cyclocross season has been fun. I did not attempt to win an overall series, instead I chose to travel to some races outside of the area and race some different venues. I have had some first place finishes in the cross races and these are always welcome.
· Diana and I purchased a tandem earlier this and it has been awesome. We have done several organized rides and have ridden it at least 1/week , well until the time changed. Needless to say we have had a great time riding the tandem.
· Amber our daughter is engaged
· I did attempt to grow a garden and it was a disaster. I was banned from the garden center at several stores for fear I would kill the plants.
· I raced my SS cross bike and consistently beat Cara. I chose not to do the last race and spare her the humility of being “seniored” (def. being beaten by an AARP member) before nationals. I thought being beaten by an AARP cardholder a week before could have an adverse effect on her performance at the US cyclocross nationals. I can just hear the whispers as she lines up with the other racers…hey there’s that girl that got beat by the old guy!! You can imagine what that would do to her psyche.

Goals for next year:

I have loosely set some goals for next year nothing definite yet…well except for Amber’s wedding. That is going to be exciting. Nothing definite…not quite true as I have registered for Southern Cross and plan on doing the Snake Creek Gap series. I do plan on doing some mountain bike races but I may not focus on an overall series win. I would like to spend more time in the garden (don’t laugh).I am sure the Gardening centers will have forgotten about my disastrous results from this year and allow me to purchase plants, seeds etc. I will need to automate my irrigation system, build some frames and I may buy a small tiller. I thought about chickens but Diana said a definite no to chickens and any other farm animals. She may have a point, based on my results with plants. Dead plants are easy to get rid of, a dead cow on the other hand may be a problem, may not be a bad idea for me to stick with plants and see if I can get them to live before I branch out into livestock.

Oh yeah back to my post- Good Day/ Bad Day:
I got a call Friday afternoon from Jess, Cara’s friend asking if I would like to car pool to the x-race in Bristol on Saturday, I said sure since our races were relative close and I always have room for another person. Jess’s husband dropped her off at the house Saturday morning and we loaded up the truck and made our way to Tennessee. It was nice to have someone to ride over with and to chat with. Hairry and I travel quite a bit together but with Hairry the conversation is usually one sided…although I think I may have heard some uttering’s from him on occasion or perhaps it may have been voices in my head. Like I said Hairry doesn’t talk much but man he farts a lot when it is just the two of us.
Anyway back to the trip, Jess and I made small talk on the way over talked about our family, jobs etc. She asked where I worked how I got into racing cross etc. I wanted to tell her that I started racing cross while doing 15-20 years in the State Pen but I was not sure if she would see the humor in this and I did not want to get maced before my cross race. Some of you may find this odd but I have noticed a lot of people do not share my same sense of humor…interesting.
We made it to the venue and did the usual prerace ritual, registration getting dressed pinning numbers etc. Jess had a good race and finished 2nd. This was her first cross race since moving here from Boston. I was up next and was not sure how I would do following my week of feeling puny. The race started and instead of going to the front I sat 3rd wheel for the 1st lap. I had not pre ridden the course and decided to follow and learn versus going out and making a mistake, which would have cost me time. 2nd lap I went to the front and attacked the course. I shed one of the 3 but Jeff stayed on my wheel. I was unable to crack him. I did put some time on Jeff over the barriers but I bobbled the remount and lost all the time I gained. With 3 to go we came around to a short steep incline which none of us could ride. I would always dab at the top push the bike re-clip. This time Jeff was right on my wheel, when I dabbed at the top he was on the steep part of the hill and had to come to a complete stop. In doing so he fell over lost his chain, hearing the metallic sound and someone say sh_t means one thing ATTACK!!! I went as hard as I could and put 30 secs on him. I was able to maintain this gap and won the race.
After finishing I went and got into the truck cranked the engine and turned the heater full on. Eventually I was unthawed and able to change my clothes. Working zippers, buttons etc is next to impossible with frozen fingers. While waiting for the results and to collect my swag I went to watch the women’s cat 1,2,3 race. Cara dominated the race and came away with the win. I am sure part of her fitness can be attributed to her trying to kick my butt in the SS races. This was a good day!
Next up Salisbury. This race was a total disaster. It was probably my lack of focus as I had seriously considered staying home and doing a long mtn bike ride. Based on my performance I should have stayed home period. Not only should I have stayed home I probably should have stayed at home and stayed in bed!!! I will not go into the details but it was my worse race ever…oh well there’s always another race. This was definitely a bad day!
I made my way home, Diana and I went to the grocery store and bought the stuff to make chili. I made a pot of chili had a glass of milk, sat in front of the TV and became a vegetable. One more cross race in Tennessee and that’s it for cross season!