Coming off the Break

There is a lot of good racing going on right now.....the Breck Epic, Windham/Worlds, some local 6 hour raced up here in Vermont. Unfortunately I haven't been partaking. I got back from PA at the beginning of the August completely trashed from a month of ultra-endurance racing and traveling. The prescription: couch time, movies, swimming, and blueberry picking. All the things I didn't really get to do in a month on the road. All pretty nice really.

The plan was to take two weeks off, come back for the Millstone Grind and the Race to the Top of Vermont and get ready for the VT 50. But the allergens in Vermont and my asthma had other ideas. For three weeks I could barely breath. So no Millstone and Race up Mt. Mansfield. Not much point in racing when just going for an easy spin is hard.

Fortunately, things are looking up. I finally got well enough to bust out a couple of hours of awesomeness at Perry Hill the other day. Technical and fun. Check it out. Last night (Wednesday) was the last Catamount Training Race of the season. It was more like a dirt crit than a mountain bike race this week due to the lack of light and the need to finish before it was completely dark outside. I started with the leaders, got dropped, managed to rage to two tiny quasi doubles solo on lap two, got in with a chase group, got in enough of an attack to hit the doubles first on lap three (yay), and then sat in for the rest. Good to remind the legs and head what it feels like to race.

Now its back to training. I'm switching gears a bit, but hopefully I can get enough good training in to make a go of it at the Vermont 50 in September. That may be it for the year, but who knows, maybe a late season race or two will sneak into the calendar for me.

Stay tuned for some local VT trail reports and photos coming soon. Thanks for reading.