Love the Mud

Well folks, I know that I have been delinquent with my posts on here, but I had a death this past week. My poor little MacTop finally died, and I was forced to use a PC for a bit, and just could not bring myself to type on one for more than a couple sentences. But for all intents and purposes, I'm back with a new MacBook and ready to go.

The last race, as Mary mentioned, was in Lexington, KY. It has significantly cooled off, and rained quite a bit leading up to the race, surely making the racecourse a swamp. Well, I didn't quite get my way. The course had some mud, nothing super thick or really nasty, but it had its fair share of slimy spots. In the two weeks between Gun Club and this race, I really needed a little time to just ride my bike. So out went the interval workouts, and instead, I hopped on the mountain bike. It was exactly what I needed to clear my head and just have fun again. Slowly, but surely I got to know Juan Solo again, my beloved singlespeed, and found that hunger again to race.

So fast forward to Lexington. The conditions were right up my alley; very cold, a little sloppy, and some good technical bits. Once again, I took it too conservatively at the start, letting way too much traffic get in front. I still seem to be nervous about a pack pileup, similar to what happened at Java Johnny's earlier this season. So I just rode too far back, and ended up just sitting in a little group. About halfway through, I dropped one of the guys, and started making my way up a bit. It felt great to be able to stand and go at any given moment, I'd been missing that for a while. With a couple laps to go, I got tired of my tail that had been attached for the race, and sat up on the road to make him get in front. I sat on him until the second corner, and made an attack. It started with a couple seconds, and then I opened it up to about 12 seconds when we got to the next pavement section.

All in all, I felt like a competitor again, and didn't feel out of place. I finished pretty far down, but I had that punch, and that desire to stomp people again. Sometime this year, I lost my desire to pummel people, and I think that has caused me to race much too easy. It figures that we only have 3 or 4 races left...

Anyways, to sum up this lengthy post, I want to announce that I have left the Cycler's Cafe for The Mountain Bike Depot. I will be managing, wrenching, fitting, sales, and just about anything else that might come up. This is a fantastic opportunity for me to bring all of my interests, talents, and abilities to the table. I look forward to making that shop all that it can be, and I hope to make a big impact on the cycling community with it.