Race Report: Aaron Shafer RR

Definitely a pretty drive through rural TN

I was skipping class to make this race, so I knew I needed to make it count. I had decided to not plan any particular attacks, but to simply race the race that unfolds with maybe some gas up the climb just to see what happens.

So about two miles into the race when the first attacks started going, I simply sat in and watched people burn matches for the heck of burning matches. I was sitting further back in the field than I was encouraged, but with the hoopla that was going on in the front, I felt more secure and protected where I was. Oh, and none of the attacks stuck or really ever even formed for more than 30 seconds.

Turning to start the climb, I had moved my way up to the front, knowing that I wanted to be in the top 5 wheels for it. Two other guys and I were working a rotating pace line over the easy rollers up to the climb and when the road started going a little more up, one rider went off the front. Unfortunately for him, he never made it more than 30 meters in front of us and stayed there the entire way. Once we got to the steeper sections, the field was stretching out and two other riders (different from the lower section) and myself knew what we wanted to do: hurt the field and create a gap over the top to start a breakaway. We began rotating nicely. I was about to finish one of my pulls, when all of a sudden teammate James B. came out of nowhere on my left and said he'd march ahead and do all the work. So I sat on his wheel and he pulled the dragging field along to the top steep kicker. At that point, a few riders kicked it up and over. I tailed along and got in a group of 3 with another group of 3 just ahead up the road. They didn't wait for us, so we had to chase them down over the next 1/2 mile. Once we caught them, we all knew what we needed to do and started a nice 6 man rotating paceline breakaway. Unfortunately, our group of 6 did not include a VW rider (assuming that is who chased the break down), so we were chased down and caught about 3 miles down the road. At this point I thought the entire field was together. I was wrong and supposedly we had dropped a good handful of people on the climb.

We continued rolling across the country landscape of farm animals and lush green grass. It was nice to take it in for a few quick seconds. This second part of the race didn't have any of those 3 and 5 second gap attacks like the first 15 miles. We were all rolling together and if someone accelerated, everyone in the front of the group accelerated with them. No one was getting away. I also made sure I stayed closer to the front from here on in, not getting much out of 7 or so wheel.

Once we made the second R hand turn nearing the finish, the group was really picking up speed. I was making my way up a few wheels along the yellow line. I knew soon we would be making the last L bend for the run into the finish. I was sitting somewhere around 3rd or 4th wheel as we made that turn and the finish line banner came into sight. The road was supposed to be open at the 200 m to go mark. Maybe around 300 meters to go, a CBC rider attacked from my left and created a two to 3 bike length gap between him and the field. At this, I pulled out of the line and began to charge, not quite knowing exactly what I wanted to do yet. I decided to bridge to his wheel and sit for maybe 2 seconds. Around 200 meters to go, I jumped off his wheel and went around to the left. It was perfect timing because as I was punching it out of the saddle, I saw riders out of the periphery of my vision on both sides of me going at the same time. I kicked it hard over the blip in the road. About 30 meters to the line, I took a glance over my shoulder and the race was over. I cruised under the banner super pumped and thrilled to have pulled off another win. A road race win!

It was frustrating to have to pack my car up and leave after the road race to get back to school. I had really wanted to do the time trial and defend my only race win from 2012. But life is life. I made back to class in time to discuss some material and complete the graded assignment before the 5 o'clock dismissal.

The very cool mugs they give to the podium. Now I have a set!

All the posters I 'get' to sign after the race

   

 If you look close, you can see me on the start line (top L corner). The picture they used was from last year's Cat 4 RR start. Pretty cool. 

I found some more photos.

Race Report: Pick Your Poison XC

The first race of the season. The first race since the crash with the boat/truck last June and surgery. It's been a long time coming and I was very eager to get back in the saddle and push the pedals full throttle. I had decent expectations that unfortunately didn't plan out. It's tough to be efficient and good at something if you don't do it regularly and I've only mountain biked 4 times since last May: my fault, my choice. Mountain biking is a different beast than road cycling, as the soreness in my lower back and neck can attest.

After several delays in start times and 3 warm up sessions, the race was ready to start. Some guys jumped out of my category and up to the Pro/Open category leaving only me and one other guy racing the Cat 1 19-29 division. From the start, I jumped out in front and hammered. I was hoping to break the other guy and then settle into my own pace and race. He didn't break. I was redlining and still not going that fast. I would put some space between us on the fast, downhill, technical sections, but he would catch back up once the elevation went up again. I knew I couldn't keep this effort up as every time I looked down at my computer my HR was over 180bpm. I gradually slowed and decided that if the he wanted to just sit on my wheel, then we would cruise at a slower pace.

Three-quarters of the way through the first lap, I slid out in a left turn, catching myself, but still slowing dramatically. He moved around me at this point and I rode his wheel for the rest of the lap, losing ground when the terrain went up and rubbing tires when we went down. We came through the start finish together to start the second lap, but as we headed back into the woods I had to drop off. My body had to take a break from the effort I had been pushing that first lap. That was the last time I saw the other rider. After about 2-3 minutes of easy pedaling, I was back to racing, a little disheartened.

The rest of the race was pretty uneventful and I simply finished the last lap, knowing that I wasn't racing anymore and I was guaranteed second place. My body was aching and the miles were tough requiring a lot of effort and wasted energy to cover because of my rusty mountain bike skills. I might have been able to descend, but I was out legged and efficiently handled by the other rider. I finished the almost two hour race with an average HR of 173bpm, maxed out at 190bpm, and spent 23 minutes over 180bpm. HR was only below 151bpm for 1:40. We climbed 2,500 feet in only 19 miles.

I have to remember this was just a training race (very solid metabolic and cardiovascular training) and more racing is to come. A lot more racing. Next weekend I'll be on the track and back to racing the following weekend.

A Plan Coming Together

So, for the first time ever in my career, I have established a yearly training plan. In years past, I would schedule, haphazardly, the 2 or 3 weeks leading up to my most important race of the year, but that's it. This year is different. I have done my research and created a structured, purposeful plan to tackle the 2013 season. I have 3 big races I am focusing on with many others along the way. The first race of the season is March 10th with the first major race being in late April. The last race isn't until late September. It's going to be a long season.

As mentioned previously, the first half of the season will focus solely on cycling events with a gradual transition to triathlons in the summer. How am I going to integrate the two other sports and make everything work? No clue yet. I am really excited about the cycling though. I am using my new power meter to guide my training as I progress through the different training cycles. This weekend I completed my baseline power profile testing. It was a rainy few days and I didn't quite get the numbers I was expecting: timing, weather, big week as possible causes. Just means more room for improvement and I'll try again in 4 weeks.

I will be cycling more per week than I ever have as part of this cycling focused training. Come race time I should find out what my true potential is. I have the tools, I have the plan, and I have the perfect city to do it in. Time to execute.

The famous river gorge

The scenic city: a great place to train

Views from power testing

Another nice view from a long day of testing

It's a Beautiful Thing

I am smelly, sticky, covered in sweat, and just overall nasty. My hair is sopping wet and sticking up where the vents in my helmet were. There are salt crystals on several different areas of my body. A gnat or two in my eye and more that died in the sweat and forest of chest hair. I'm sore and a few muscles are even cramping. I have the red, slimy gunk at the corners of my mouth from the sugary sports drink I've been consuming. I can look in the mirror and respect what I've just accomplished.

Man, have I missed this. I am back on the bike and it is a beautiful thing. The first time I pedaled it around the apartment complex, I let out a shrill of jubilation. It had been entirely too long. Nothing compares to wind in your face as you soar down the mountain at 48 mph, exploring new roads, overlooking cliffs and mountains, and taking in the beautiful fall colors of the Southeast.
This was the ride today: click here

What might be even more beautiful is the bike itself. Her name is Sabella (Thank you Michaela for your help) and she is magical. The new Red front derailleur is the best shifting derailleur I've ever used. It was definitely worth all the time setting up and not over-hyped. It makes it fun to switch back and forth from the big ring: so crisp, clean, and responsive. I am running a 28 tooth cassette in the rear too which my fat butt is really enjoying on these climbs so far. I will probably even put a 32 tooth on there for some of the big mountain races. I love the higher cadence. Climbing is my biggest weakness and I need all the help I can get. I will be focusing on that aspect of riding over the next 4 months to see what I can change. The Quarq Red powermeter crankset is an amazing new tool I am so eager to start fully utilizing. I have a small grasp of the concept of training with power right now, but am still working my way through the books and discovering how to properly coach myself to top form. The new Garmin Edge is a wonderful thing too. I never new how much more data I could get and analyze from upgrading my computer. I haven't gotten to try out the new wheelset I got with everything else. I'm certain it will be amazing though and complete the ultimate racing machine for this upcoming road season. All the equipment is there, now time to work on getting the engine running again.

The saddle is temporary. Haven't decided what I like.

Because it is majestic when you're in the saddle

The only thing I'm not happy with is the handlebar. The drops are way too flexy. I'm big, but not that big. Trying to sprint with these is a scary thing and I actually think they might break when I really give it all I got. I went aluminum too, but they flex more like aluminum foil. Not impressed with the Zipp service course bars.

There is some squeaking from somewhere in the rear of the bike. I haven't looked into it too terribly hard yet and hope I can figure it out soon and fix it.

Oh, and from the last post about camping, I forgot to mention the tick that attached to me over my clavicle. I didn't find it until Tuesday evening when I was about to shower. I remembering seeing a small speck when I was about to shower Monday night, but didn't worry about it. Since I showered once we got home Sunday night, that means it was at least attached to me for over 48 hours, maybe more. It was definitely sucking my blood and growing in size. I still didn't know what it was when I was grabbing at it Tuesday night. When I finally pulled it out I realized what it was. It was also still alive and crawling on my fingers. Ironic since we had just discussed Lyme disease and STARI in our med/surg course in school. Anyway, I haven't gotten sick that I know of, so I guess it's okay.


Thanks for reading and your comments are welcomed.

Down Time

I have been meaning to write an update about how surgery went and the rehab was coming for some time now, but just never got motivated to do it. I could always find a reason to put it off. It's amazing how inefficient my life is currently. I am doing very little outside of school which is only half a day Monday through Friday, but I still can't find down time to write a post or study the training book I'm trying to read. Staying busy with training, school, and social life really pushed me to fine tune my time management skills and make the most of my days. Last spring I was in class from 8-5 four days of the week and putting in around 12 hours of training a week. I stayed on top of everything. Where did that motivation, determination, and work ethic go? Down the drain with my activity level I have to assume.

Anyway, surgery went well and recovery is taking an eternity. Not exactly, but being on crutches for 45 days was a long time. I watched as my calf and quads shriveled away as my hands and armpits became calloused. It was so liberating when I could finally walk and be free from my crutches. Then walking made me sore. And I loved it. I am now back in therapy trying to regain my strength. It is a slow process. I have yet to feel any soreness in my thighs because my calf and foot intrinsic muscles are so weak and atrophied that they limit my abilities for higher function. My lower leg and foot tremble after walking long distances or in single leg stance. I like the sense of improvement, but I want more progress in more areas.

In addition to not having the motivation to write, I also was never really sure how much I wanted to divulge when I finally did write something. I definitely struggled there for a while, but I now feel close to the home stretch of being able to resume normal life again. The strength will have to come over the next several months. I cannot expect to just jump back into the form I had. It had taken 5 solid months to get there coming from an able body. It will take a lot longer now. I'm getting excited about buying new equipment, my new bike, and planning for the next race season. I have a lot of unaccomplished goals from this year that will get carried over with a new vengeance. I feel like I got robbed: my bike, my fitness, my strength, my power, my races, my season, my standings, my championships, my jerseys, my glory. And that will have to drive me early in this rehab process to regain my form. I'm just waiting for my foot strength to catch up with the rest of my body in order to proceed to the next level.

Going Under

Well I thought I had it bad at ITU Worlds when I flatted twice and lost my first place standing. It was the worst experience I've had in the sport so far. That is until June 9th. I've waited for a while to write about this for many reasons: it was hard for me to face it for one, I didn't want to write details on the internet before the driver's insurance company accepted responsibility, and I was just feeling down and out about the whole situation without much motivation to do anything.

Most people probably already know about what happened to me, but for those that do not, or don't really know the details, here it is.

I was coming off a terrible race at Roan Groan and knew that I needed more practice at climbing, especially at the end of a race. I wanted to do well at River Gorge later in August, so I set out on Saturday June 9th, from my apartment in East Brainerd. I had mapped out a course that would take me over Missionary Ridge and the toe of Lookout before jumping into the River Gorge RR course. Things were going well and I was having fun playing out in my mind how the race would turn out this year and how things happened last year. I climbed Raccoon, stopping at the overlook to refill my bottles, eat some snacks, and take in the scenery. I started my descent from the mountain to head back home to get ready to head out to River Bend that night. Once I got off the steep slopes of Raccoon and made the hard 90 degree left hand turn, I saw a truck stopped at a stop sign on a side street to my right. He began to pull out to make a left hand turn and come up the mountain towards me. I was getting nervous and applying the brakes. As the truck got further out into the intersection, I was horrified to realize he was carrying a boat. His truck and boat were covering the entire intersection leaving me no place to go. I am grabbing as much brake as I can by this point. My wheels begin to lock up and my rear wheel starts fishtailing out from under me to the left. I was in shock and utter disbelief as I covered those last 3 meters before contact. I couldn't believe this was really about to happen. Skidding out placed me in a more parallel position to the boat so that my left shoulder and knee hit the boat first. I bounced off and swung around the back of the boat as the driver continued to pull away. I hit the ground and my bike went bouncing. I rolled around on the ground in intense pain in my left knee. It wouldn't straighten out and I knew I was injured pretty badly.

The driver and passenger got out of the truck after they pulled over to the shoulder. I laid in the middle of the intersection as they called 911 and asked if I was okay. I think the screaming and writhing in pain should have indicated I was not. Thankfully, I had just seen fellow teammate Jim Farmer at the top of Raccoon. He was packing his bike up and was about to come down. He drove up on the scene shortly after the accident happened. Another woman who had been running on Raccoon also stopped on her way down. These folks helped out a ton (Chattanooga obviously has an amazing outdoor community that cares for each other). My teammate was able to collect my bike and belongings and the other lady was able to call my parents back to let them know what was going on. The paramedics and fire truck arrived a little while later. They put me on the board and we were headed off for Erlanger ER.

Several radiographs and a CT scan later, they determined I had no broken bones and would have to follow up with an orthopedic surgeon the following week. The first visit with the surgeon was terrifying. The laxity in knee from the clinical examination pointed to several tears and disruptions in the tissue. The MRI ruled some of them out, but I was still going to need surgery. Thankfully, I didn't need immediate surgery which would have caused me to miss my first clinical rotation and be forced to sit out of the PT program for one year. Glad I avoided that disaster.

After much hassle with the police report, the driver, and the driver's insurance company, his insurance company finally accepted fault. They are collecting my medical bills and already reimbursed me for my bike minus depreciation.

I've had ups and downs over this time period. Times I would feel super energized about training for next season and all I will be able to do. Other times I was depressed and could only think about all the stuff I was missing out on and how hard it would be to come back after surgery. I missed several races including the Crit State Championship, which I was favored to win, the rest of the TBRA races, which now means I lost my Best Area Rider qualification, two Xterra races, which means I will probably lose my regional champion status and bid to nationals, as well as the Georgia Gran Prix stage race, the Huntsville race weekend, and two more crits in Atlanta. No defending my crit title at River Gorge this year. I also feel bad about letting my team down. This is the first time I've ever raced for a team and it ended with a terrible showing for myself. I wanted to do well to validate my spot on the team. I will have to settle for next year.

I got robbed, and I hate it. I've been so angry. But this is just the year I've been having with several broken pieces of equipment that required replacing and the bad finish at ITU. I have great plans for coming back next year with a more focused training plan, better knowledge of how to train, better equipment to train with, and a burning desire to come back strong and dominate the Cat 4 field. I'm trying to construct a detailed training plan without the help from a coach since I can't afford one. That being said, I would gladly take advice or suggestions from people out there that have had coaches or might be coaches just to make sure I am going in the right direction and I am interpreting my data correctly.

Surgery was yesterday (I meant to write this earlier in the week), so I have started the path to recovery and my journey back to sport. However, I guess I underestimated this surgery because of how easy my last surgery was on my right knee in 2007. I had my ACL reconstructed with a cadaver graft that time and I was able to get a full quad contraction the morning following surgery and was up ambulating without much pain at all the next day. That is not how this surgery has gone so far. I am in a lot more pain than I remembered or expected. I hope that it subsides before classes begin on the 20th. The first day of physical therapy as a patient on Monday the 13th. Should be a good experience. Just have to organize a way to get all my stuff moved to my new apartment while on crutches.

My bike got a little jacked, technically speaking

The culprits 

No big deal

No clue what this leg hit to get bruised 

Race Report and whatnot: Dalton State Collegiate Cycling

This will be slightly abbreviated because a week has already passed and I don’t really care that much about it. (Okay, after I finished writing I realized it wasn’t too abbreviated. I guess I got caught up in the excitement again.)

My first impression of the weekend was crap. I went in expecting to sweep the omnium and that’s what I told myself the whole time. I didn’t win a single race. I took “2^nd,” 4^th, and 3^rd. Race morning Saturday was wet and still raining a little bit. The registration table seemed chaotic and attendance looked small for a race. The time trials were supposed to start at 8:30 and my start time was 8:42:30. As time progressed, it didn’t seem like there was any chance that they were going to start on time which is about when they announced that the TT would be moved back to 8:45. Okay, sweet. That means the start times are moved back 15 minutes so I should start around 8:57. Wrong. While I was waiting in line for the porta-potty and frantically trying to pin my number to my jersey, my start time came and went. I made it to the start line over five minutes late. My new start time was moved to 8:46; however, I was never informed of this. I knew I was starting behind so I thought I could just make up some time. That led to me hitting it hard out of the gate. Not the best idea either. Since I was rushed, I never warmed up. My legs have never felt so heavy in my life. The whole thing was painful and I never got into a groove. I pulled off a 27:09 for an average of 22.5mph over the 10 mile out and back course. If that was the time that actually had been recorded for me, then I would have finished 2^nd. (Not only in C’s, but overall since turnout was low that morning for the ITT.)

Later that afternoon was the crit where I thought I stood the best chance for a win. However, stupid us waiting for another teammate to get ready, we missed the start of this race too. We saw the peloton coming over the hill while we were riding to the start line. The race official confirmed it was the Men’s C group and let us pull a quick 180 to jump in. That is of course after we chased them down over the first mile. Just another huge effort on cold legs to start the race. No big deal. Since the course was a 3.5 mile loop, we were only set to do five laps for the 40 minute race. For some reason my stupid self thought it would be a good idea to pull the entire second lap. This ended with me going straight through the back of the field as we hit the climb to the finish to start lap 3. I never recovered from this like I thought I could on the descents. I put in some good efforts and almost bridged the gap with another rider on my wheel early in lap four. When we got close to the break, there was some miscommunication and he jumped on an attack to bridge and left me behind. More work for me. I kept at it although I never really expected to catch the front break. I guess I pulled back enough riders as they fell off because I finished fourth. Oh, and I overtook and outsprinted the guy that I had drug back to the group in lap four.

So going into Sunday’s road race, I wasn’t feeling too excited or expecting too much from my performance. The course was supposed to be hilly and would probably have some breaks. I was fine with just getting out there and riding the two lap 37 mile course. On a positive note, I did make the start line for this race. About 3 miles into the race, one rider went off the front, how stupid. We let him bleed. Then about 9 miles into lap one, a break started to go. Sitting middle of the pack, I was not with the break, but I was able to see it go. I was determined to make it. A shallow decent allowed me to launch a huge effort and fly pass the other riders strung along the course. I made the break consisting of 6 riders represented by 6 different teams. It felt good. As we rolled through the pace line, I guess I took too big of a pull in my excitement because as we rolled through the next hill, I fell off the back. Damn it, Matt, you did it again. I was stuck in no man’s land for a few miles with the group in my sight but still out of reach. I was suffering, but knew that I had to bridge the gap again; otherwise, the race was over. I hammered and eventually made it back on. Now I’m two big efforts in on the race and still 20 miles to go. The group stuck together from this point on and kept rolling through the pace line. Race official told us we had 4 minutes on the peloton with about 9 miles to go in the race, so the winner would be in this group. I was starting to like my chances. Over the last 5 to 6 miles, we started picking up the pace. Riders started making attacks in the last two miles. Each blip in the road was a new launching point. It was starting to hurt. I wasn’t positioned very well heading into the 90 degree right hand turn 150 meters out from the finish, but I thought if I took the outside line and launched my sprint appropriately things could work out. I got bumped way to the outside in the corner and came out of it in 5^th place or so. The rider leading into the corner had a great line and came out over 20 feet in front of me. I still gave it a shot, but the legs didn’t feel too great. I came up beside the guy that took second, but couldn’t overtake him. I finished with 3^rd.  (race results) 

Overall spring break was really good to me. More sleep, no stress from school, and more time to ride left me with a four pound weight loss for the week. On top of that and the races, I got to go camping in Alabama and get some training done on the ITU Worlds course.

The dichotomic following weekend:

Saturday I had probably my best training day of the year. I had a really hard bike and pretty impressive run following it. Everything here has hills so I have to take that into consideration when I compare times and splits to previous years that I trained solely on the flatlands of Memphis. So when I pulled a 20.4 mph average 55.5 miles on the road with 5 intervals of 4 minutes into the pain and lactate threshold with my heart rate above 170 with 3 minutes recovery each set and followed it with a four mile run averaging 7:42 with four decent hills and the last mile being the fastest even with my VMO’s cramping, I was pretty satisfied. After when I was relaxing I could feel the work and damage my legs had undergone. It was a very rewarding and satisfying exhaustion.

The rest of the weekend didn’t go quite so well. I got stood up Saturday night which was so much fun and then my Sunday workout turned to crap. I was determined to make it a great one on Raccoon Mountain with an off-road brick, but God had other plans. My first lap was going fine until I passed my first guy at about 9 miles into the ride. I immediately burped my front tire on a rocky section which made me feel really cool. The Stan’s sealed up nicely, but I still stopped and put some air back into it. I continued on. I came out to a really rocky section next to the dam. Not being familiar with the trail and just blazing through, I decided to just hit it hard right in the middle. Why not, right? It was a three step rock drop-off of considerable size. It was the only line I saw as I approached it. As I dropped off the first rock, things went straight downhill: my front wheel turned and got stuck on some rocks, I endo’ed, I banged my left elbow and knee, I could now hear air screaming out of my front tire, and as I looked up from the ground, I caught my bike as it came the rest of the way down the rock. I had a little gash on my elbow, my pre-patella bursa was swelling quickly, and I had ripped a hole in the sidewall of the tire. I had had such good luck with all my equipment and now that I am away from my shop all hell is breaking loose. It really makes me miss Outdoors Inc. I flipped the bike upside down and started to put my spare tube in. The tube has a hole of course. So I begin to walk it out. I don’t know how many miles back it was, at least two. I figured someone would pass me once I made it back to the road and give me a ride back to my car; I wasn’t so lucky. Halfway along the road, I was tired of walking in my carbon fiber shoes and messing them up so I decided to take them off. While that might have spared them some damage, it left me with a nice blister on my right heel which would keep me from doing any running once I made it back to my car. I don’t remember the last time I flatted and had to walk out of a trail, but I know the last time I had to walk my bike because of a mechanical issue was on this exact same road. After the time trial at the River Gorge Omnium, my crank arm fell off and I had to walk halfway back to my car before someone picked me up on this same road around the reservoir on top of Raccoon Mountain. The only other time I’ve tried to ride this trail was on my birthday last year. Only a few miles in and I took a descending corner too fast and tweaked my right knee (which has undergone three previous surgeries). We didn’t finish the ride that day either. You can say I am not a fan of this trail. But then again why shouldn’t this have happened? I would be greedy to expect two good workouts in back to back days.  

4 Day Weekend

It's 30 degrees outside. Might as well go mountain biking. A quarter of a mile into the ride, mostly uphill, I could tell my legs were still pretty shot from the 100 miles Thursday and Friday and the all day snowboarding Saturday. So, what do I do? Put in a two and a half hour brick workout. First one of the year. That will show that scar tissue in my foot who's boss.

Since I had deleted my iHeartRadio app, the ride was done in complete silence. Not originally how I wanted to do it, but I think it was better for it. I got to pay more attention to the trail and immerse myself in it. I've noticed that sometimes when I get going, my vision blurs and I have to back off the power. I wish my eyes could see and process the trail as quickly as my legs and bike want to ride it. Come on Brodman 18 and 19. Can't you work a little faster back there?

On the last leg of the ride, I dropped into the pump track. I made it around 8 times without pedaling before my arms started to get tired. Pump track for the win! A lot of the trail has big humps and jumps like that so integrating it on the trail was fun. I felt like a moto-cross or a downhill rider. It sure was a lot of fun, and of course some of them I just launched for air to have even more fun. Overall, it was a wonderful ride. It was great to get back on the mountain bike and fly by trees, roll over rocks, splatter mud, catch air, and fish tail in some corners.

It's sad to say that I enjoyed the 2 hours of riding on Sunday more than the day of snowboarding on Saturday. Although, I guess if it were the other way around, then I've been investing all my time and money into the wrong sport. It's fun to mix it up though. It's not often that you get frostbite on your face or the chance to put on snow chains for a commercial van.

After the ride, I went to walmart to get this week's lunch meat and nutella. Can't function without that. To entertain the people, and just because I didn't want to get my sweat pants dirty with the mud from the trail, I went in with my Under Armour tights on over my chamois. I got some looks, but they got the show.

So this nice four day weekend left me with 13 hours of training for the week. It's a nice little precursor for what I have planned for spring break. The chance of being on Team USA is motivating me even more right. I hope they make the right choice and I get the chance to wear those stars and stripes in Alabama this May.

And as always, P.E.M.D.A.S.