Mad Mud Cycling

Hola Amigos
So i've been on vacation. I don't even know where to start this long ramble. Vacation was pretty good. It started the same day that Ryan Trebon rocked the US Nationals and Barry Wicks gased it in the Short Track Contest. Way to go for Adam Craig who nailed the Super-D and last but not least Carl Decker for the SS win. A great weekend for Kona. I hope to see some great performances at the worlds for those guys. Also, I cannot forget to mention the man of the hour, Floyd Landis. A great and inspiring ride. He has done something that I personally never witnessed, bringing back an 8 minute gap with a nice solo effort. Pretty nice. It was a good and unpredictiable tour.
So...vacation. Needed to take some time off with the little one and we packed it up to maine. Had a great trip and Aidan of course had a good time, he filled his diapers with excitment!!! Got my 1st long MTB ride in of the season with Vuth at Mnt Aggie. A great ride with plenty of time to get lost...seriously, we got lost but eventually ended back up on the road, so it was all good fun. A warm day but it wasn't too bad in the woods with the shade and all the friendly mosquitos. I was able to manage a good 2 hour ride on wednesday that included two climbs up the Mnt Aggie access road so that put the hurt on. I biked along the ocean and the york harbor area for some fun every day to keep the mileage up. We found a really good Tapas place...yes I know what you are thinking, over-priced tiny dishes of food. No...at this place you got plenty of food for your 5 bucks. All Tapas were 5 dollars, the most expensive thing was the cheese platter but it was worth every penny. Chapman Cottage was a great place. Good food, nice and quiet, a good little escape for the wife and I.
So, back to reality, decided that I needed to see how my two weeks of training went so I entered the Root66 Nutmeg Nor'easter race. It had rained alot but I wasn't too worried about that. Since i haven't raced in a while I was more worried about having trouble riding upright. The course has a small climb right at the start banner, this leads up to some single track that was rather muddy. I had to get a good start becuase once everyone funnels into the singletrack I didn't want to get stuck behind people slipping, sliding and falling over, that would just allow the leaders to get away. So being inspired by Tree-Farms approach to the nationals, I figured if it worked for him, it should fail miserably for me. The start whistle goes off and I set a good tempo going up the first hill and enter the single track leading the pack. I kept the tempo up, further stringing out everybody behind me. It was a great start, i thought i was going fast and riding strong. I managed to keep that position for about a mile and then i got passed like I was standing still. That was tough but i held onto second for as long as I could, but eventually got passed by the 2nd and 3rd riders, they were never to be seen after the 2nd lap. i couldn't keep up the strong effort, I have to find a way to get my heart rate to recover quicker and have the legs to close down gaps. I finished in 4th. It was a real challenging mud fiesta. I had some serious chain-suck issues and derailleur shifting problems...more like lack of shifting that was the problem. Dirt really cakes onto the front derailleur and it just won't budge after a while, so I have to be very selective in my gearing. I had a few good slips, the Fire-Pro XC were the wrong tire choice, they caked with mud and never shed any of it. I had a great time and I wish I could race more as it felt amazing to lead that first mile or so. I had high hopes and finished with high hopes. It was also the first time that members of our age group were talking about training techniques and diet...none of which I follow but it really showed how riders want to improve, move up and keep the level of competition high. I have to motivate and get more mileage on the legs if I want to keep up. Thats about it for now, if I get motivated and the little one lets me, maybe i'll post a pict or two.