Weekend in the dirt

Saturday MTB Race
Richie and I showed up at Yellow Creek Saturday morning. It was just about perfect weather for a race. Sunny and temps in the 70s. The race started of at a good pace and things seemed to be going well. About 2 miles in I had a bobble and 5 guys came past me(including Richie). I worked the rest of the race to pull them back. For a while I was stuck behind a 3 man group because I can barely ride a Mt bike let alone pass on single track. Eventually I got to a short uphill double track section and I made the pass and continued in that position for the rest of the race. It was a fun day to play in the dirt. I ended up in 14th place and Richie was just in front of me finishing in 12th place.
Sunday at Raystown
Early on Sunday morning I set out of the trails at Raystown lake. Originally I had planned to ride all 32miles of trail but had to cut my ride in half because I needed to get home. These trails are a blast to ride even though they are not challenging in any way. There are no climbs to speak of just lots of short ups and downs. The trails are sorted like ski trails from blue rectangles to black diamonds. The only real difference in the difficulty lever is the amount of elevation change. Definitely worth the trip but it may only be a one time experience.

Summer Presque Isle TT

It was a really nice day. I had stone legs. Finished 3rd. Not much else to say. It was good to see everyone out that day.

2010 PA State TT Championship

Steve M. and Henry came over today for the race.

I did my best and my best wasn't good enough.

It's hard to look at average power on a up and down course like the one at Clark's Valley because the course rarely allows you any time at one specific power before you have to change completely. Knowing this I just rode as fast as I thought I could sustain for the duration. In the end I was extremely happy to lower my PR for the course by roughly 45 seconds. Unfortunately it was only good enough for second place.

Philadelphia Amateur TT

It was a short 8 mile, flat, out and back TT. Ever so slightly up hill on the way out but with a small head wind on the way back made both ways about even. I extended my trainer warm up from 20 minutes to 30 minutes and really felt good. The weather was beautiful and a perfect day to put down a fast time.
I started out fast putting out alot of effort but I felt good. At the turn around my average power was at a new high but I was still feeling really good so thought I might just be able to hang on to the end. I was OK until about 6.5 miles and then the pain in my legs really started. The last 1.5 miles were agony and afterwords I felt like vomiting for the next hour so I knew I put out my hardest effort.
I ended up losing Cat 3 by 15 seconds. I take solice in knowing that my training is going well and I'm hoping to peak in 2 weeks. I hit a new high for average power and found that a longer warm up may benefit me. All seems to be On schedule.
As for Steve...............................He told me that he dropped his chain at the start line and then got some early cyclocross practice when he put his chain back on and got a running mount on his TT bike. As if that wasn't disappointing enough the timers lost Steve's time. After his name wasn't listed in the finish sheet he asked them about it. They told him they didn't have a time recorded for his number. Then moments later a new time for his number appeared on the finish sheet but it was far slower (15-25%) than Steve's actual time that he had recorded on his Garmin bike computer.
On a positive note 2nd place in Cat 3 was good for $50 so we got to stop to eat on the way home and I had money for the turnpike(easy come, easy go)

Also, this was my first race that I got to travel to in my new Honda Fit. It was great and super easy to load. Unfortunately once fully loaded with gear, trainers 3 people, a canopy, and 2 TT bikes on the back the gas mileage for the trip dropped from the 35mpg that I was getting to only 27mpg for the this trip:(