What are you training for?

I've been getting that question a lot lately... As I've been putting some time on the bike and keep upping my weekly mileage. The answer is not that complicated. Mostly I'm riding for a good life, but I also eat well, hike, run, play and relax for a good life as well. The short term answer, CYCLOCROSS!

Another year on a great team

 Last year was a great year for me in cross, I really enjoyed it and did fairly well for my first real season back. I enjoyed good fitness, peaked pretty good, had great company and had a ton of fun racing my bike again.

Bike path spin with the kid

Cross is a short 5 months away, yes you heard me, a short 5 months away! It's not that long when the second half of spring and summer fall in the middle of that, of which is prime riding season in Oregon. Time gets away from you when there is so much going on.

Taylor enjoying Wolf Creek

 This season is going to be just as fun as last year and I hope to be faster. The goals are yet to be finalized but Cross Crusade and/or GPET and the State Champs are on the list, as well as the local Eugene series (I need to defend!). Also thinking it’s time for a new bike, and maybe one with gears to ride in the off season, and race in the A's this year as well as SS. Time for team sponsor Stoemper to see what we can build together!

Local Ghetto Ride with Dax

A short reflection on last year. In total I did 28 CX races in 3 1/2 months. That is a lot of racing! I ended up 4th overall in the OBRA CX Singlespeed Best All-around Rider completion, with numerous top 3 and top 10 placing’s. With great teammates on the Tensegrity PT cycling team I was able to do every race with company, which makes a big difference when traveling all over to race your bike. By December I was running on fumes and finished my last two races with just enough energy to maintain my overall series points and standing.

It's hard not to race that much cross when you get into it, with 2-3 races a weekend across the state, and numerous weekday races early on your choices are unlimited. This year I'm going to try and be a little more focused and maybe a bit pickier on what I race and focus on. Last year I used the early cross races to get some speed into the legs.

 

The first 100 miler of the year, good to have Dax along.

I’m enjoying the fitness gains from last year mostly in the strength area and starting to work on gaining more power and endurance for the summer and then will work on speed a little earlier. I have some more general plans through the summer this year, do some big mountain bike rides, I’m signed up for the Triple Crown that happens throughout the summer and Cycle Oregon come September. The latter putting some miles in the legs for a week, a total of 489 miles and 34,893 of climbing in 7 days, should be a good boost for cross.

Right now though, it’s time to enjoy the non-competitive feeling of being on the bike and lack of race pressure so I can enjoy other things like camping with my son, backpacking, canoeing and just enjoying summer and getting fit.

Monday Night Fa(S)t Ride

Climbing up Cottage Grove to Lorane

This year the team is putting on a race series in August for Short Track Racing, this is similar to cross racing but without the barriers and more geared to mountain bikes then cross bikes. This will be every Wednesday in August starting at 6pm at Crest Elementary School. Stay tuned for more information on this race.

So, as the season goes on for all of our mountain bike and road racing colleagues I wish you the best of luck and I’ll be thinking about you all as I am enjoying that nice ride through the high mountains thinking about fall and racing my bike again in the rain and mud.

Battle at Barlow - one of my favorite weekend's racing last year.