The decision has been made, the plane tickets have been purchased, hotel and car reserved, registration done. I am going to Sea Otter to make my career debut as a professional mountain bike racer. I have a funny feeling it is going to be rough. The pro XC field, as of this morning, is at 145 racers so there will probably be another 15 to 20 added before now and Sunday which means it is going to be pure chaos.
In preparation for this trip, as far as training goes, I have been ramping up the intensity pretty hard. With my new training zones close to 20 beats per minute higher than a few weeks ago that means I am killing myself when I go climbing or sprinting or anything for that matter. Thus, making me very very tired. The other preparation piece of this puzzle was a mock race. The reason for this is primarily that I haven't raced at all since the Boulder Cup cross races in November, a very long time ago. Essentially I need to remind my body what it is like to go super hard for 2.5 hours. That hurts, especially when you don't have a carrot in the form of another racer up ahead, in front of you. Well 3 hours (warm up and cool down added to 2.5 hours of killing myself) later and 40 miles of mostly dirt roads and trails I was shot, I hurt, I was tired and all I could think about was nap time.
In other fun news Shannon and spent yesterday chilling and having a good time together before she had to head back to work for another back breaking 40 + hours in 4 days this week. We took our first trip to the Denver Zoo and looked at all the awesome animals they have. The Denver Zoo is definitely not the best Zoon I've been too, but all in all it is really good. They have some cool creatures, particularly the polar bears and brown bears, my favorites by far. They also have some cool birds, especially the penguins, Shannon loves those little guys.
After a good 4 hours walking around we hopped in the car to head back up to Longmont, taking a little detour at the new REI in Westminster. This is a pretty sick REI, not on the scale of the Seattle or even downtown Denver one, but it's pretty good. Arguably better than the one we have in Boulder. The plus side to this REI is it is in an outdoor mall with other stuff to go check out too, like a huge IMAX movie theatre and some pretty good restaurants, chains all be it, but good ones not the normal applebee's. The restaurant of choice for a late afternoon beer was the Rockbottom brewery. They have a pretty good ESB, I was fairly impressed and their Coyote Howling Pale Ale was quite hoppy, though not on the level of a Dale's or an Avery Brewing, so...
Yesterday was a great relaxing day, perfect for getting all geared up to head to California in 2 days!
In preparation for this trip, as far as training goes, I have been ramping up the intensity pretty hard. With my new training zones close to 20 beats per minute higher than a few weeks ago that means I am killing myself when I go climbing or sprinting or anything for that matter. Thus, making me very very tired. The other preparation piece of this puzzle was a mock race. The reason for this is primarily that I haven't raced at all since the Boulder Cup cross races in November, a very long time ago. Essentially I need to remind my body what it is like to go super hard for 2.5 hours. That hurts, especially when you don't have a carrot in the form of another racer up ahead, in front of you. Well 3 hours (warm up and cool down added to 2.5 hours of killing myself) later and 40 miles of mostly dirt roads and trails I was shot, I hurt, I was tired and all I could think about was nap time.
In other fun news Shannon and spent yesterday chilling and having a good time together before she had to head back to work for another back breaking 40 + hours in 4 days this week. We took our first trip to the Denver Zoo and looked at all the awesome animals they have. The Denver Zoo is definitely not the best Zoon I've been too, but all in all it is really good. They have some cool creatures, particularly the polar bears and brown bears, my favorites by far. They also have some cool birds, especially the penguins, Shannon loves those little guys.
After a good 4 hours walking around we hopped in the car to head back up to Longmont, taking a little detour at the new REI in Westminster. This is a pretty sick REI, not on the scale of the Seattle or even downtown Denver one, but it's pretty good. Arguably better than the one we have in Boulder. The plus side to this REI is it is in an outdoor mall with other stuff to go check out too, like a huge IMAX movie theatre and some pretty good restaurants, chains all be it, but good ones not the normal applebee's. The restaurant of choice for a late afternoon beer was the Rockbottom brewery. They have a pretty good ESB, I was fairly impressed and their Coyote Howling Pale Ale was quite hoppy, though not on the level of a Dale's or an Avery Brewing, so...
Yesterday was a great relaxing day, perfect for getting all geared up to head to California in 2 days!
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