SCOLETRAIN

WORS #4
Not a great day, but I finished. Today's race sure did have the makings of another mudder as it rained, thundered, and the skies sparked some for an hour before our 1:30 start time which eventually got delayed until 1:45. Once the gun went off I found myself mired back in the small pack of elites until I shot mysteriously to the front of the pack and actually entered the single track 2nd behind Brian Matter. What in the heck did I eat this morning? Somebody in my household must of laced my Life cereal and Heavy Pedal Roast Peace Coffee with Flintstones chewable kids vitamins to give me this kind of boost. I enjoyed this brief moment of being competitive near the front for all of about two miles before Jesse LaLonde(congrats to Jesse on his overall elite win today)came past me on his single speed to latch onto Brian's rear wheel. After the first lap of excitement I held down 6th until lap two begun and I hit the wall hard with only a few cylinders still firing. From that point I slowly worked my way backwards until something internally started firing again on lap three and I picked my pace back up to something that respectable. The last two laps of the five were actually pretty good as I battled with one other fellow elite racer before moving ahead as we finished our 5th lap out on the lap course before taking the cut-off to the finish and heading into the fairgrounds. No blood or crashes today, just a good 14th overall and 3rd in my age group in what turned out to be a small elite field. My mojo may have come back in the single track today, but something still doesn't feel right after being sick two weeks ago. Maybe I'm just getting old...

This next week is the start of some long hours on the bike to get me in 24 hour solo mode that will end with a good taper a few weeks prior to the 24 hour solo nationals which are rapidly approaching at the end of July. Hopefully by this event I'm feeling strong both mentally and physically without being labeled crazy by all my neighbors.