Catchin Up

It's now Tuesday May 15th, and it's been awhile since my last post. So here is the 411 on PalmettoSolo.
May 6 - The StumpJump XC race allegedly the S.C. State Championships. Raced in the Expert field and landed myself in 5th place. The first from the state, so does that make me the Unoffical State Champ, I like to to tell myself so. I had decicded to race the expert field in fear of no one showing for the SS class. To my surprise they had 7-9 riders. Oh well back to the expert race, I was on my SS 29er for 36mi or 4 muddy laps. A real kick in the beans. I started out hot, finishing the first lap in 2nd place. There on I would slip a place per lap and managing to hold it all together and finish up strong. (5th of 12 / 36mi 3:03)

May 8th - So from here I needed to decide on the Tsali 12hr race in two weeks. The week progressed with plenty of work at work and little bike riding after work. The Team HBW trainning ride was to follow the next Saturday. Having not put in a heck of miles on the road bike, I really wasn't pumped about it. I needed the miles no matter what. So forcing myself to work with the my road bike and try to tune the fit as much as possible. I went for a planned 2.5 hr. ride down south of town. Up to speed and cruising along not realizing the tailwind I had. Now an hour down the road and about 30 minutes of daylight left in the sky. I turn back north into the now 20mph headwind. This would be a problem. I had to make it up highway 321 which is a four lane road linking several smaller towns to the down town area. Little traffic at the time but I had no red blinky light or anything for that matter. With only two more big rollers to go I hit a pot hole and PSSSSSSSSSSSssssssssssssssssssssssss. The rear tire goes so now I'm in the grass grinding up the climb to the safe spot change the tube and cussing the whole way. Change the tube - oh no it's a hybird tube. Ah s#*&@ i cut the tube installing it. How in the hell am I to get home from here it's now 8:45pm and i'm 5-7 miles from my truck. Luckily my brother-in-law was in the area and by 9:30 I was loading bike ride in his truck.

May 11 - So friday(overtime) at work out in BFE, I had a run in with some devil's whip. It caught me right in the knuckle of a previously injuried finger. Big pain, felling concerned I went to the urgent care that afternoon. Three aggrevating hours later I had a very sore hand and a decision to make, go to the mountains on an uncomfy ride road bike for 6 hours or take some pain killers and sleep in. Yeah sleep.

May 12 - Having overslept till sometime into the morning, I needed to get in some miles this weekend. Packed my bag and headed to Lexington to ride around my old stompin' grounds. These roads out by my folks house were the very roads I started on back in '92. These road are a great way for me to clear my thoughts and ride without traffic. To make this experience even better I took out my hybird for a the 4 hour ride. A planned 3 hour ride would turn into 4 beacuse I was having such a great time. Finishing the ride with 70 miles, on a comfy hybird. Trainning secret of mine riding on 700x38c. tires.

Hopefully now this past weekend was a turnning point for me and seals my decision for this weekend's race in Tsali. Now it's down to planning and packing. Well I need to get back to work, thanks for reading along.