Bummer! Was looking forward to it this week but I guess it cranks up in a few weeks (e.g. mid June)...or so the Teton Forum poster says. Going to do the pro class again this year to get some speed going on in these worked over legs and try out some new things I am toying with race-wise. Maybe a bit too early for such intensity but these are SO much fun it's maddening.

Nice light spin today early AM to soak in the beauty of the Republic before the work day commenced and pulls you under. All is SO good though these days. I look at these old posts of sickness and insanity and I just remember that I am now, finally, here in the place I wanted to be.

So the fellas (The WB, Longman, Bobby Mounts, Matson, JFry and I) got our early AM MTB on today. I have the day off and could pull this off which was rad. 6AM start, home by 9:20 or so. My Polar jobby job recorded 35 or so miles, 4820 feet of climbing 6920 Feet of altitude average with a max out at 8700 feet. Ha! I felt it, boy.

The ride looked more or less like this but I did a crappy job on this new Map My Ride thing. (The ride can be linked to here. ):

The route essentially was...

• down town (coffee...)
• Boulder Creek Trail
• Four Mile Canyon
• Logan Mill Climb
  
• Traverse to Mountain Pines
• Sugarloaf climb
• Switzerland to Switz North
  
• to Gold Hill
• to Sunshine
• home in NoBo....

Early morning MTB today before work. Went out with J Fry, Bryan and Stu. Bryan and Stu could probably host their own comedy/reality TV series. Hilarious conversations. My legs were loaded from yesterday and I crept along up the big climbs until the fire in the engine got stoked a bit, but these guys had me in stitches talking of schemes and plans to raise capital for a new "anti-team", riding to races regardless of where they are on same bike, etc etc. Before I knew it we were at the top of some of these monster climbs and drilling it through single track still talking schemes...but trading paint in the corners. Fun.

We did Sunshine to Poorman's to 4 Mile to Logan Mill to Betasso and on home to NOBO. Perfect temps and perfectly tacky ground. I am running these new 2.0 Hutchinson's....bumping down from 2.1 WTB's and I am just not sure about them yet. They were horrible at first this AM hooking up but then I found a rhythm with them. I think ultimately they will be decent for STXC but will pre-ride them at the Research Center a bit to conform. Dialing in the tire pressure too will be something I have to play with.

Post Japan, things are going fairly good again. I am in love with my SS and am finding it hard to go on longer road rides when that bike just feels so good.

In the gym I have been going deep on the weights and core. Can't say that I am going to have a six-pack and all that (i think I'm skinny enough) but I can feel the difference in the depth of my breathing just by having given other parts of my body some attention. I have been going fairly deep on the leg presses as well to develop a deeper strength which I haven't done since...well a long time let's say.

So to see where rubber meets road on all of this, I have been doing this route which is great on the SS. Climb Lee Hill, bomb Left Hand Canyon to Heil Ranch, loop that puppy and re-climb up Old Stage back home. Perfect. Mainly as it is all so close to my house. Climbing LH on the single is tough with the 32 x 16 but perfect to sort of continue that core leg strength work I have been doing. Sometimes it feels like I am going to blow the chain right off that puppy but she's hanging in there.

I can not wait for heat. Open jerseys, blaring sun, warm muscles.

Cold today! Jerome and I rode Betasso. Me on the Mooooooots and he on his CX bike. Nice work on the technical stuff Jayrome. I still felt the G-Men race on Sunday and I am still pissed about the start! Ruined a Mavic Ceramic and Tufo. Beeatch! Two more races to go to try and stay in the BCR top 10 even with an absolute crap ending to the season with mechanicals, sickness...blah blah blah.