Burchfield Time Trial

Well I had this big, long, me gloating about me, boring to everyone but me write up done about this race I did back on October 1st. Seriously it was REALLY long. It described a lot of the trail sections in detail but after thinking about it Brian and I drove all the way out there to race that trail with out ever even riding it before so why should I give anyone more of an edge than I had if they are even remotely thinking about going out there next year. Sure Dubs sent us a VERY descriptive email laying out the trail meter by meter, short of sending up a virtual topo map. But really even if I had a month to study that email there was no way I'd remmber all that come race day. Plus there were others out there racing that had never been there before. So not only am I being selfish for Brian and me, I am being selfish for the others I know who went there blind....thus my pictures only showing the easy sections of the trail.

So my personal recap is as follows:

1 - It was frikin' cold when we got to the race. 36 degrees on October 1st.
2 - Met many cool people before the race and signed up for Men's A (highest division they had listed)
3 - Scoped out some of the course while warming up.
4 - Still frickin' cold at start time, 10:00am.
5 - Course was killer with a little bit of everything.
6 - Rode a clean race to the finish with litle to no mistakes.
7 - Still cold after the race and quickly layered back up.
8 - Won some cool stuff int he silent auction and warmed up by the fire
9 - Found out I had won 1st place in the Men's A division and was feeling pretty good about myself.
10 - 5 minutes later found out I didn't set the fastest time of the day. Ends up some high school kid from Brighton smoked my time by a full 3 minutes. Props to the young ripper. Solid time!
11 - Packed up camp and loaded the car.
12 - Still frickin' cold outside.

Still went home happy with my fancy trophy medal wooden ninja star thing.

Back to the basics

Welp, the road bike found it's way to the basement and is now one with the fluid trainer. This will allow me to ride around the weather a little better. I'll still get out for the occasional trail ride this fall but the morning road rides outside before work are done for the season. Just plan to spin thru September and use it as a transition time. In Oct I will be back to the weights and will plan to start building my base back up on the bike. No races planned for the rest of 2011. Have some penciled in but none I feel I have to be at.

Next 5 weeks will be interesting. My son's soccer schedule will own me thru this time and also we decided to start my daughter in a volleyball program. After seeing me play last Monday she got all excited about the game. Plus the wife's volleyball season starts in 2 weeks so she has been working out hard to get ready for her up coming season. As much as I like the sport of cycling, most people know I'd give it all up to be able to play volleyball regularly again. Although I was just a shadow of my former self on the court earlier this week, I had a blast playing with and against the old crew. Marlowe, Bob, Tony, Len and this fancy guy named Cougar. After 3 games I was done and should have probably called it quits after the second game. It was just to hard to say no. Been doing a lot of extra stretching this week to keep the femur and tibia as far apart as possible to keep the pain down and it seems to be working. Still having issues walking down the stairs though. This was my reminder as to why I had to walk away from the game years ago. The muscle soreness is easy to deal with. It's the bone to bone contact that hurts like a mutha.

I am really happy with how the summer went as far as riding and hope to start earlier next year. I am going to focus on returning to Yankee and Fort Custer, two races I have not done since 2007. Yeah I missed a few races this summer due to scheduling, father-in-law having heart attack and not renewing my license but I was pleased to see the level at which I was able to compete at the races I did do. 2 races, 2 podium finishes. Gives me motivation to train this off season thinking that I can still keep the big guns on my radar screen. Sure I may not win any races but I could become a regular podium threat again.