Updates...

I was told I should either delete the blog or update it, your blog sucks, update and I'll tell how to suck less at racing xc.  So here we are, a rough 3 months between posts - it's really easy to neglect the blog when you've already missed a month.  I've not really been doing any "training", I have been riding my bike sometimes, although not enough to do well.

I started riding/racing my singlespeed, which has been going ok at someplaces (marsh creek) and not so ok at others (fair hill & bear creek).  A lot of this "may" be attributed to me going out to hard on the start. 

On a non bike but blog related, apparently while not blogging you get a lot of spam comments from people with chinese writing.  Also Blogger must have done some sort of update where the preview function actually works.  I'll have to try that out.

Up next is the Guy's Racing - Neshaminy on the singlespeed for hopefully a better race than Bear Creek.  Good thing I updated the blog so I can get some professional advice from The Experience.

-matt

Pre-race prep?

What's your pre-race prep?  Do you do an "opener" workout the day before a race?  What's your warm-up like the day of a race, whether it be an xc race, cx race, road race, or endurance race?  What other pre-race rituals do you have, ie: food day before and day off?

This morning I did an opener workout on the rollers - 10 minutes warmup, 1 min max, 1 min rest, 1 min max, 2 min rest, 2 min max, 2min rest, 2 min max, 4 min cool-down.   Tomorrow I'm going to try to do a good warmup before the Granogue race, as I didn't ret a good warmup at Greenbrier and felt it instantly on the first climb.

Post a comment with your routines.  Thanks!

Tough mudder?

Last night I did some hill repeats, a chill pace loop, and a race pace loop at Bear Creek.  During the chill loop I noticed some of the stuff they have set up for the Tough Mudder competition this weekend.

Somehow they kept some snow around for these guys/gals to run through. 

They also put in this pond, which they are supposedly gonna throw a bunch of ice in, that they will have to swim through??

I always forget how fun this place is to ride.  The second lap was at race pace, just to see where I'm at compared to last year.  My fastest lap in the race was 53 minutes last year, and yesterday I did a 49:47 but I also added about a half mile to the loop.  I was pretty happy with how I felt, considering I didn't feel too good at Greenbrier.  Though, I really need to work on consistency between laps - as my lap times last year at Bear Creek were 53, 57, 1:06.

See you at Granogue!

159..

As of 1:40 pm today only 159 of you have registered for Granogue. Go register now! This weekend looks to be some great racing weather, unlike last years mudfest.  This course is cool mix of everything cool about mountain biking.

The many groups of people that go into making this race possible are awesome.  The vibe at this event is always great with XC and endurance races going on.  They also have a huge bike gear raffle benefiting HERA Women's Cancer Foundation.  You only get the chance to ride here a few times a year, they have a cyclocross race and mountain bike races there.

See you Sunday!

Last minute race..

I rode Friday with Yozell and Thorpe, a really chill pace road ride with a stupid climb up Deysher Rd just outside of Fleetwood. I was feeling pretty tired the whole ride.

The weather was looking to be shitty leading up to Greenbrier, so I planned to just chill at home. At the last minute, ie. 10pm on Saturday night, I decided to race the Greenbrier Challenge. VeganRob and Matteo roped me into taking the drive with them - fortunately I got to sit back and relax in the back of the Daniels Landscaping Dakota.

We rolled into the park around 12:15, registered and kitted up for a short pre-ride. We only got about 1/3 of the way through the course and had to head back for the start. I probably should've warmed up on the road and gotten some efforts in to prepare for the start - fail.

The start went off quite fast up the gravel then double track climb - and I was feeling the pace already. I settled in behind the 4th rider up the next climb, but these guys were pulling away from me. I was about a minute down from the leaders on the first lap, and rode the 2nd lap pretty much by myself in sitting in 4th place. On the third lap I wasn't really feeling it, 2 guys got by me and I couldn't stay with them on the climbs.

I finished out DFL - 6th place, 15 minutes off the winning time of Josh West from Bikeman.com. I really feel the climbing of this course is where I lost most of that time. There was 3300 feet of elevation gain in 4 laps.

Intervals?!?!

Tonight I got outta work a little early from work, and decided to meet up with VeganRob and do some hill repeats, I mean nearly puke induced intervals. We ended up doing 6 - 5 min hill repeats at Lehigh with a few Lungbuster repeats, one up the Witch, and one up Superman.

This workout hurt quite a bit, but I guess its supposed to. It is however, the first bit of structure I've done this season. I was thinking about holding off on doing any intervals and just race on Sundays and suffer. I guess it's probably better to be a "little" prepared.

Helmet-less riding...

I got all my gear together to do a nice easy recovery ride, only thing I forgot was my helmet. As opposed to skipping the ride I rode helmet-less. No, I'm not trying to be this guy , I just wanted to get out and ride since I had some time outta work and had everything else.

It was kinda nice having the airflow without the helmet, although a little weird feeling at times. I friend of mine hit a pothole at like 40mph several months ago and broke his shoulder and the helmet he was fortunately wearing. So I was a little sketched out without one, but everything was all good.

I guess I just need better planning in the morning when getting gear together. My helmet was in the other car from the weekend trip. Enough babbling about a helmet.

This weekend is the Greenbrier Challenge in Boonsboro, MD near Frederick in Greenbrier State Park. Its a great venue, with a 4 hr enduro starting @ 9:30am and XC distance races starting at 10am through 2pm for the expert/pro race. This race is part of the KendaCup series, which also includes Bear Creek AMBC PA State Championships on Aug.1, Massanutten Hoo Ha in Virginia on June 20, and The Bulldog Rump H2H AMBC Nj State Championships on July 11.