Catching up post 3 of a lot... Arkansas and the Hells Kitchen Road Race.

Today is Tuesday, April 30 but this happened back in mid march.

Drove to Fayetteville, AR for a couple days of training, culminating with the Hells Kitchen Road Race on Sunday. Stayed in an awesome house for free (perfect example of "it's who you know now what you know") and had an absolute blast... until race day. After two days of the best weather we had experienced in months we woke up to chilly temps and drizzling rain. After hemming and hawing i decided to race only to be dropped on the first pass up the major climb. And it was a major climb. I rode casually to the feed zone where x and the other girls were hanging and i quit and joined them for the remainder of the race.

The weekend was so great that i moved past the disappointment of the race pretty quickly. We had great company all weekend and even celebrated my 33rd birthday with gourmet cup cakes and a tequila shot that would have been much better had the lime not been discusting. Seriously. You look forward to the lime after the shot so imagine my horror when after biting into it i realized it was way past due. So gross.

Fayetteville is fun.

Catching up post 2 of a lot.... Final Wednesday Night Urban Mountain Bike Ride of the Year

Today is Wednesday, April 24 but this happened back in late Feb or early March.

This probably doesn't warrant a catching up post but i absolutely love this ride and for once we had the conditions i envisioned when i dreamed it up in the first place. Remember that awful (or amazing, depending on your point of view) winter we had about 3 years ago? That was back when KC, MO really sucked at plowing the roads and i rode my mountain bike everywhere. I had some of the best adventures of my life back then.

So it was fitting that for our final urban ride of the year the conditions were as close to the good old days as ever before.

The Wednesday night urban mountain bike ride will be back!

Catching up post 1 of a lot... Final Street Cred Wrap-Up

I've always been a big believer in striking while the iron is hot... thats sarcasm.

Today is Monday, April 22 but this happened on the last Saturday in February.

In a nutshell, in this years Street Cred i pulled the "Greg Lemond beats Laurent Fignon in the final stage time trial of the 1989 Tour de France to take the overall win". That means i came from behind to win the overall on the last stage.

Ka-Pow!

Below are some pictures capturing that beautiful Saturday in February. Big thanks to Levon, Brian, Chris-Go and everyone else who made it happen and i cant forget to thank the driver of that snow plow who showed up at the perfect time and in the perfect place. Without you i wouldn't be the owner of this amazing chrome jersey or the even more amazing XL blue t-shirt. Even if im only temporarily holding the XL blue t-shirt, it's an honor.

Street Cred will be back.

My legs and lungs (i think) are in good shape, my back and core (i know) are in terrible shape. Bone Bender will be tough.

Is 13 days enough time to get my back to the point where it will last for 3 plus hours of mountain biking at Clinton Lake? It doesn't need to last any longer than that, at this point, so just get me thru the race and i'll be a happy man.

I aint getting any younger and my body is not happy with me since i quit yoga. might be time to start again.

If it wasn't for the potential back issues i'd be pretty optimistic for Bone Bender. Since January 1 i've ridden more than any previous year during the same period. Unfortunately i've also raced less than any previous year with the exception of my very first year.

I have a question for anyone who knows: which category should i race? I've always been horrible about knowing how upgrades work but in Mountain Bike racing im really horrible. Last year i was second in the sport category, 3 hr race. So should i race expert this year? do i need to upgrade on-line (would i even have the points or whatever to upgrade) or do i just tell the registration desk im racing expert. The year before last i entered expert on a whim and no one questioned it. I've been at this long enough, i'd like to race expert. Isn't there an extra fee to get an expert license for mtb races?

Maybe i'll just lobby for one category for all racers, the human category.

The human category, races for people.

Anyway...

Whatever category i end up in i will be pedaling around Clinton lake a week from Sunday and if you see a guy standing on the side of the trail stretching him back then tell him to man up.