Dirtbag Bike Racer

I hope everyone got a chuckle out of my last post. I sure did. They way I see it, if you cannot make fun of your misfortunes, well, life is going to be a lot less enjoyable. Laughing is just more productive in the long run.

Home sweet camp in Leadville.

It's been a crazy 10 days or so. I am tired, tired, tired. But a good tired. The kind of tired from excessive amounts of riding, racing, training hard at altitude, living out of my car, sleeping on the ground all while battling cold rainy weather and really bad mosquitoes. It's been fun, but a little rough for sure. There have been great nights (clear, with amazing stars), really bad nights (camped next to a group of screaming high school kids rocking out to Pantera until 3am drinking Boone's and chain smoking Marlboro lights) and some in between.

They way Eric and I planned July was to use three weeks of short cross-country efforts to help me build back some speed while putting in longer miles after the short efforts to prep for Leadville. For example, while most sane Pros were resting up from the Firecracker and/or getting ready for the Colorado Springs Pro XCT, my week went like this: the day after Firecracker 3hrs on Monday on the Colorado Trail, 5 hrs on the Leadville course on Tuesday, 4hours again on the Leadville course on Wednesday, preride the Pro XCT time trial and XC loops on Thursday, race the TT Friday, race the XC Saturday.

Cheyenne Mountain State Park, home of the Pro XCT in Colorado Springs

Rolling into a Pro XCT soooo fatigued was intimidating. But, it was also liberating to race with zero expectations. It worked out surprisingly well as I managed a 10th in the time trial and 11th in the XC. I certainly felt tired and did not at all ride as fast as I am capable of but I was really happy with my weekend and had a lot of fun. Mostly because I got to hang out with my teammates who I don't get to see that often and because I got to ooohhh and aaahhh at all the top pros who were there to race. I also got to skip the short track on Sunday to head up to Breckenridge for an amazing 5-hr ride on the Colorado Trail and the Peaks Trail. I needed a good training day after the 1st 2 days of racing and getting my tired legs pulled 10 minutes into a short track would not have been good training!

This past week has been more of the same: big 5 hr day Sunday, 4 hours on the Leadville course Monday and 4 again on Tuesday. (Yes, I have memorized the course, albeit there is not much to commit to memory out there). Again, camping out every night, finding random streams to soak and "shower" in and hanging in a lot of coffee shops and libraries to keep up to speed on my graduate work. Today I get some much needed downhill lessons from my sister around Keystone and tomorrow it's up to Granby for XC nationals on Saturday. I am definitely excited to race again with zero expectations, but honestly, I am most excited about having a kitchen in which to cook real food, a place to shower and a good bed to sleep in!