Hill Country Challenge at Comfort

Well Comfort is a good race and a bad race for me. There is a lot of climbing, which is not so good for me, but the course is technical and has lots of downhills where you really can make up time, which is good for me. This technical aspect of the course is largely attributable to the vast amount of rocks present. Rocks and I don't seem to get along too well, having resulted in a pair of flats at the very rocky Reimer's Ranch course. Unfortunately, we continued our bad relationship this weekend when I flatted again. Yep, you heard right. I flatted 7 minutes and 30 seconds in this time. So immediately I was back to dead last. I fixed the flat and tried to get rolling again but I just couldn't get a good groove going on the first half of the course. When we hit the second half it started with a long climb to the tune of about 20 minutes, and interestingly this is where I hit my stride. I started making up some ground and passing riders in my class as well as others that had previously passed me. I kept rocking along on this second half of the course, I passed a few riders from my class and then caught another one a few miles from the finish with one solid climb left to go. I locked onto him as my last target and plotted the rest of the race to cross the line ahead of him. I knew I was going faster than him since I'd caught him, but I didn't want to pass him too early and expend too much energy, giving him a chance to lock on my wheel and pass me back. So I sat behind him until just before the last climb was over and then I made my move. I punched it to the top and flew down to the finish line. I wound up putting over a minute on him in that last mile or two, and I crossed the finish line with plenty of energy left over. Unfortunately, I finished only about 20 seconds behind the 10th place finisher, and 9th was less than a minute ahead of me. Had I continued my strong pace and passed that rider earlier, I would surely have caught 10th and maybe even 9th for a much more satisfying finish. But I didn't, so I have to settle for 11th.

I think maybe I need to work on my mental game a little? At Warda when I got dropped on that last climb I let myself explode when I may could have pushed harder to the finish alone to retain 4th place, or would have continued at the same pace if I just could have held onto that wheel and had a shot at 3rd. But once I got dropped and was by myself I couldn't push anymore. Was that mental or had I just hit my physical limit? I don't know. At this race I let the flat hang over my head too long which prevented me from getting back up to race pace. The flat should have only taken 4~5 minutes to change and I should have been back underway, but the impact on my race was much larger than that.

Well hopefully Double Lake will be a good race for me, I would like to get one more solid finish this series as a Sport racer before making the big jump this fall. I still also have X-Bar to race as well, but I'm banking on Double Lake right now as it is a local race that I did reasonably well at last year.

Oh I almost forgot to mention that just a few days before the race I woke up at 6AM Wednesday morning and didn't go to sleep until 8:30PM Thursday night. Yes that is 38.5 hours of straight being awake. I got called back into work Wednesday night to finish a test that took until 9AM Thursday morning, and then I chose to just keep on working the rest of the day Thursday. I did get Friday off, but I didn't get much sleep past 7:30AM or so. Only having a few days to recover from this episode may have had an impact on my racing, as I was sure feeling the tiredness Saturday during the preride. But I did what I had to do for work and then did what I could at the race so there's not much else to do about it.

The Warda Race and Reimer's Ranch

Well the last two races have been so good and so bad. First was Warda, a semi local course that suits me well: not much climbing and a lot of twisty stuff. And things went my way that day. My parents came out to watch the race, and brought the RV so we stayed there that night. My birthday was the next weekend so we also had a pseudo birthday party complete with cake and ice cream. Sunday morning I was on the line at 9:00AM, following a last minute tire change due to a cut sidewall the day before. I got a good start and grabbed a strong racer's wheel and we hoofed it for two and a half laps. We made a few passes here and there to move up to third and fourth place. About halfway through the last lap we hit the biggest climb on the course and Geoff got out of the saddle going up and I just couldn't match it. I tried to get back on his wheel but I couldn't do it, I was done. I was riding by myself in 4th at this point trying to hold onto it to the line. I lost one spot in a big open field right before hitting the singletrack again. I finished 5th, which was my best result ever and I was really happy with it. It was cool that my parents got to be there to watch it. This was a great race for me, and I thought my season was finally coming together and I was establishing myself as a top racer in my class. It was also an awesome race as Raine finished third in her third race, getting the first piece of podium pie between the two of us.

The next race up was Reimer's Ranch west of Austin. Reimer's is another course that suited me well. A bit more climbing but not too much, a lot of technical rocky stuff, and some fast swoopy stuff on the backside of the course. Off the line a racer went down right in front of me, and I had no choice but to run right over his bike. I was having flashbacks to my road race crash and I just knew my life was over, but I managed to roll right over his back wheel with a nice crunch and keep rolling. I lost several spots so I had to work extra hard to get back to a decent spot before hitting the singletrack. I hit the trail in sixth place or so and everything was going well. Over a rough rocky patch the guy in front of me lost his bottle when it ejected from his cage. I thought he would be easy to pick off in about 20 minutes when he had been without fluid so I got a little positive. Then we came over a sharp hump in the trail and somehow down the backside of it I found myself careening out of control and into a stand of trees. Luckily my front wheel missed the trees but my front brake lever was not so fortunate, taking the brunt of the impact. This resulted in a loose brake lever and a bent bolt, but nothing was broken so the bike was still good to go. Unfortunately, I was not so much good. In the deceleration that occurred when my bike and the tree came to know each other, one of Newton's laws(don't ask which one please) told me that I had to stay in motion until an outside force acted upon me. So stay in motion I did until the steer tube on my bike acted upon my ribcage, knocking the breath out of me and leaving me a nasty fleshwound. But I got back on the bike and just tried to keep moving forward, meanwhile I was moving backwards relative to the majority of the riders in my class. A bit after the crash when I was just starting to get my breath and my groove back, I dropped into a rock garden and heard the dreaded pshhhhh, that is an "all the air coming out of my back tire" sound. So this would be a nice little break to get my breath and my wits back and say hello as all the old guys passed me as I changed my flat, and soon I was back underway.

The rest of this first lap was ok, I got stuck behind some guys for too long but eventually got past them and assaulted the swoopy stuff on the back side of the course to pick back up a few spots. Starting the second lap I was motoring along in overdrive feeling ok and looking to make up some time in the technical stuff. Then not too far along I started feeling my rear tire getting a little squirmy, sure enough another flat. So I rode it as long as I could and then gave it my last shot of air. I nursed it from there on, but only got another few miles out of it at best until it was unridable again. So at this point I'm faced with at least 6 more miles of trail, no more tubes, and no more air. So what do I do? I start walking. I walked the rest of the course, sometimes thinking I just had to keep going to finish and sometimes thinking how stupid I was. While I was loathing in my self pity and approaching the finish line less than a mile away, the last rider from my class came by me. So I got dead freaking last by three and a half minutes after pushing my bike for over a quarter of the race. So that was my race. Not at all what I planned, but I guess it could have been worse. Don't ask me how, but that's what they always say so why not?

Next up is Comfort, a rocky course with lots of climbing(not good for me) but does have some fast downhills(good for me) where I can hopefully gain a little advantage. We will see how it turns out and report back. Until then, keep the greasy side down(if you're in airplane) or the rubber side down(if you're on a bike). I plan to do both Wednesday night when I fly to College Station to ride at Lake Bryan with Patrick. Sounds like fun.

Ridiculously Awesome™ Day

I had one of the best days ever yesterday. It was preceeded the night before with a slab of Texas Roadhouse ribs when my brother James came over from Baytown for my week late birthday dinner. So that wasn't really in the Ridiculously Awesome™ Day but it should be noted.
So my day started off with fresh homemade waffles. I love waffles. My birthday was last weekend, and Raine got me a waffle maker. I love my waffle maker. I got out of bed and made waffles for breakfast for Raine and I before going to church.
We headed off for "early"(9:30, not really so early) service at church which was good, we haven't been to church in three weeks because of bike races. Then we headed back home and got dressed for a bike ride.
We rolled out on the road bikes and met Clare and Adam for a ride at George Bush Park. We got in 30 miles or so for the day before arriving back home. I pulled the girls along for a couple of intervals, I was sitting straight up to get the most for my money and give them a good draft to sit in. They held on up to 28mph or so on one, they really liked that. And I was really proud of Raine.
After I got home, I ate some leftover steak I had grilled Friday night. It was still good.
I then headed out to the airport on my bike. I had planned on going flying, but I had forgotten to call ahead to get the plane pulled out early enough. The Commemorative Air Force was having their plane show and fly-in that day, which happened right in front of our hangar. They couldn't get the plane out in time, so I just hung around and took pictures of the cool WWII aircraft and watched a few fly. I took some pictures and videos, they're posted here. I didn't know Picasa supported videos, that's cool.
So next up was my small group meeting. I love my small group. I have Ridiculously Awesome™ people like Patrick and JT in my small group. We had a great time and some great discussion, and we also all agreed to read through the bible in 90 days. What a challenge this will be, and I expect it to be life changing as well.
After small group and to finish off my Ridiculously Awesome™ Day, I went up for a late evening flight. I cruised around the West part of town with the power pulled back and at about 1000'AGL(above ground level) seeing what I could see and watching the sunset fade. I flew a loop around George Bush Park, then I went and flew a few circles around JT and Abby's house and then the Flick's. I flew out to Brookshire and watched the sun paint the clouds their last shades of pink and purple, I wish Patrick had been with me, I know he could have gotten some awesome pictures. Then it was back home for a night landing to end the day.

What a Ridiculously Awesome™ Day.

Ridiculously Awesome™ is copyrighted, any use without the express written consent of the originator and copyright holder is strictly forbidden, punishable by penalty of law and a good noogie.

Bicycles & Burritos, Airplanes & Pain, Flowerbeds & Friends

Interestingly enough, none of the above pairs are actually pairs. They're all just things that have been going on in the last week. In fact, there are triplets, a pair, and a loner.

We'll start with the loner: flowerbeds. Since we bought our house, we haven't done much improvements to the exterior. We still haven't put down grass on the sides and backyard, and we didn't have much of a flower bed. Raine and her mom and grandma had done some work to the flowerbed last year, but it never really took. The soil was just not good for plants, and they planted at the wrong time of the year. So we decided to redo it this spring in the hope that it would take this time. So we started by mixing some organic matter into the soil to better support the plants. Then we planted three roses, some Salvia(?), and a few small flowers. We also put in a soaker hose to keep the bed nice and moist. We topped it all with some mulch, and it actually looks pretty good. I really hope it will stay looking good, as Raine really likes it and it also really improves the looks of the house: curb appeal, that is. Maybe a pretty flowerbed will make it easier to sell when we decide to evacuate this flat swampland, who knows?(pic to come)

Next up, the dynamic duo: bicycles and pain. After all the setbacks I've come across this season(road race wreck, grandfather sick and passing, etc.) it has been less than ideal. I am just now starting my high intensity training stuff, where you envelope yourself in pain to acclimate yourself to the pace required in a race. I was talking about this with Raine the other day, and she said "I don't get you people. Pain is not gain." This was my response:

"Pain is gain. How do you figure it's not? Ok, well you're actually right it's not the pain that's the gain, it's the recovery part that's where the gain comes from. But you have to have the pain first. But there is a certain enjoyment(to me) of going out and pushing yourself to the limits if for no other reason than to get back to the house in time to see a stupid TV show. It's euphoric. You just have to get into it to feel it. It can't be explained."

It's true that sometimes I don't feel like getting on my bike and pushing to my limits, but I know that I have to. But once I get out there and get started, I don't want to stop. In this case, hurting is good. The pain truly is euphoric. That's what those doods who hang themselves by meat hooks in their backs say, too, but I really think this is different.

And finally, the trifecta: airplanes, burritos, and friends. Towards the end of March I still had some hours to use from my plane "lease" so I took a few mid-week evening flights. Monday night I flew from home over to Eagle Lake, then up to Brenham, then back home. Had a good flight, beautiful day with smooth air and good landings. Then Wednesday night, I flew to College Station with Brandon as my copilot for dinner. Patrick picked us up and they took me for a tour of the A&M campus, then we dropped into Freebird's where Jon met us for dinner. All these guys are Aggies who are in my church small group. We are all either newly(relatively) or nearly married. It's a great group and we all get along great and have a great time. We ate our burritos and told war stories, then we went to Jon's place and watched a "The Office" episode. Namely, Conflict Resolution. Then it was back to the airport for the flight back to Houston. We were bucking a headwind down low, but the ceilings were only about 2800 feet, so we just had to ride it out. Still only took about 45 minutes, though.

So that completes the list. It's now April, which means I'm almost another year older(April 12th if you didn't know, hint hint). It also means the heaviest period of racing is upon us, with three weekends of this month occupied, and two sets of back to back races with only one weekend between the sets. Hopefully I'll have good stories to tell about those races that do not include vomit. And as always, I'll have good pictures of myself. SEE YA!!