Under the Tucson Sky

My internal clock is still a mess from this past weekend’s stage race in Tucson. Losing an hour at the border of Arizona on Thursday night was an unexpected treat. Even more than that surprise, was the realization that we would never get that hour back due to DST. Arizona just has to be different, and ignore the farmers of the world I guess.

I had a great race and I felt like I was firing on all cylinders. The time trial put me in 5th place and I never let go of the spot in the overall. I worked my butt off on Saturday. Chased down a couple of early breaks, and the pack worked together well on the front end to make it happen. I did cross wheels with a guy, but managed to stay upright. Also made a rookie move that almost caused a crash, but after being yelled at, I settled down to finish with the front group. We shed about ½ of our group on the climb into the finish.

Sunday was another day of hard work, and I worked with the top 3 guys to dictate the pace of the race. I led an entire lap, and apparently guys were just falling off the back. Sweet! Although I was in front most of the race, I let myself fall back on the run to the finish. Hindsight is 20/20 and I should have positioned for the win. Oh well. I realized after the fact, my goal of just holding on to my overall place cost me a potential win. 10th is not bad on the day though. I finished 5th in the overall and was super stoked with how I performed out there. I am feeling stronger and stronger as the weeks go on.

This next weekend will be the true test of strength as I tackle the San Dimas Stage Race. I have no teammates, but will be excited to watch the MCS women and Julie dominate the women’s race.

Comments

An Excited Heart

It’s no big secret that I was not feeling super great heading into my last race. It was the perfect storm in many ways. I had a stressful week at work two weeks prior working on a massive deadline followed by a heavy training volume week where I nearly doubled my weekly mileage and then fell behind in sleep the week leading into Quad Rock. I was super stressed out heading into Quad Rock due to the distance and vertical gain. I felt comfortably trained up to the 35 mile distance, but I had failed to put in the back-to-back days in training that would have given me confidence to make the jump to 50. The night leading into my race I had some significant arrhythmia while I was lying in bed. The feeling was not new to me. 10-years ago I was diagnosed with benign PVC’s. The condition takes place when nodes in the ventricles fire off signals that interfere with the main SA pace-making node in the heart. The result is a feeling of a skipped heartbeat followed by a hard thud in your chest ...

Tall Trees and Tough Trails. The 2024 Cascade Crest 100

Welcome to Easton! The welcome sign that we stopped to take a picture of just about summed up our experience here. On the hour or so drive up from Seattle, Julie and I couldn't stop taking about the amazing trees and dense forest that lined the highway. The trees were so tall that you couldn't even catch a view of the entire towns that laid just behind them. Definitely a contrast to Colorado where the main attraction are the 14ers that line our skylines. I'm so happy that Cascade Crest 100 found me. The idea to travel to Washington for a 100 mile race started when I looked into doing a race close to a good college friend of mine that moved to Washington several years ago. I hadn't seen him or his family in years, and it would be an excuse to both see them and have an epic adventure at the same time. I had heard about the Cascade Crest 100 from a couple of friends that had raced it previously. As a Hard Rock 100 Qualifier, the race had a reputation of both difficul...

Quad Rock 25

For some reason every time I know I have to wake up early the next day, I can’t sleep. I set my alarm the night before for 4:45 AM and went to bed around 10. I woke up just about every hour on the nose and looked at the clock. By the time 4:15AM rolled around, I just laid in bed and waited for my iPhone to tell me it was time to get up. Buzz….It was time to get up. My pre-race plan I rolled out of bed virtually exhausted and put on my battle armor for the day -- shorts, socks, compression, t-shirt, jacket, and my signature trucker hat. I had loaded up my car the night before with all my gear and nutrition so I was good to go. I kissed Julie on the forehead, she wished me luck as I left to go grab some coffee, pick up Chris and carpool to the race. We made it up to Horsetooth about an hour before the race start. Since we carpooled, we were able to park about 100 feet from the start line. This was clutch because outside it was 37 degrees, raining and windy. View close...

Spokes

Search This Blog