Are You Living It?

After Tour de Georgia I pretty much crawled under a rock to evaluate the week of racing.  Actually I would call it a week of motor pacing.  That pretty much sums up Tour de Gerogia, 7 days of flat out, barely hanging on, motor pacing.  It was fast!  I was happy with my racing for the most part and met almost all of my personal goals.  I really wanted to get into a long break on one of the days, I tried my hardest, but it just wasn’t meant to be.  That was the most frustrating.

For a week after Georgia I was destroyed.  The Georgia funk from all the road kill slop got to me.  I am sure racing in the rain that last day is how I got sick.  I picked up some nasty little virus that had me on the ropes for about 10 days.  I even had a hard time getting out the door to go to Bread to sit and eat muffins and drink coffee.  I know, that is tragic!

When I finally did overcome the illness I was able to get a solid week of training in here at home in the mountains of Durango before heading off to Portland, Oregon to start the Mount Hood Cycling Classic.  If you have not been to Durango in May, or Colorado in general during the spring, then you need to.  It is my favorite time of year in the mountains.

Mount Hood is an awesome race and I hope to do it again next year.  I think that it has grown each year and the only thing they are lacking is more financial help (sounds like all of us??).  The courses were well thought out and very tough stages.  It was this first time that I have ever been to Oregon and not gotten soaked the entire time.  In fact, I might have taken rain over the 98 degree heat during the 5th stage on the 100 mile road race with 11,000 feet of climbing up to the Mount Hood ski area.  I am usually there in the fall or winter for Cyclo-Cross and there is a 50 years storm, every year. How does that work if it is every year?

The race went well for us.  Neil, Ben, Evan and myself were there to build up some fitness toward Philly Week next month and have some fun.  I had my best race of the season so far in an NRC and was in the mix until the time trial just killed me.  I need to work on that some more and it shows.  Overall, it was a great trip to Oregon where it doesn’t rain all the time.  I came out of it with some great racing in the legs and got to catch up with some people that I have not seen in a long time.

What’s next? I am racing at home in Durango in the Iron Horse for the first time in four years.  I am pretty excited to be able to race it, but the forecast is calling for snow.  After the Iron Horse I will be traveling to Philly for the Triple crown and then off to Canada for the Tour de Beauce.  Lots of racing and I am having a blast.  Check out the new photos. Sorry for the long delay on the entries.