Ok, ok….I know we have been having more of an indian summer in Colorado with temps still in the upper 80s. I’m not complaning, but in the mountains as you’ve seen, the leaves are golden and the air is refreshingly crisp.
I’ve had a busy week of training and playing catch-up after Interbike last week. It feels so good to be back in my normal training mode again, and to know that I don’t have to go anywhere for several weeks. Well, after I get back form ABQ (that’s where I am right now). I was just here 2 weekends ago for a wedding, and this time I’m back to see almost all the Looney side of the family! I finally get to meet my little “nephew” today (I say nephew b/c he is my cousin’s baby, so technically he is my 2nd cousin, but she is more like a sister than a cousin… ok, that was confusing)
Before I left, I got in a night ride to prep for Moab (before I knew I wasn’t racing), more riding, and a hike.
My friend, Bobby, joined me for a few hours of being mountain lion bait. I’m looking forward to some more night riding…but I’m not looking forward to less hours of daylight.
and playing in the daylight.
Today, I got on my mountain bike with my friend that I know from when I first started racing 7 years ago – John Stevens. We went to the east side of the mountains in ABQ and rode some of the trails at Otero/Tunnel/Cedro. I forgot how much I love that stuff.
I felt really strong and really enjoyed every minute of it. The light was perfect, the temp was perfect, we were riding around 7000′, the dirt was in great shape from the light rain the night before. I had the bike love feeling today- you can’t get it road riding. The feeling where you get butterflies in your stomach, can’t wipe the grin off your face, and feel so happy at times that you just might burst. I wanted to ride all day until the sun went down.
Look at that big, blue sky.
Rocks… I love the technical riding back there.
Now I’ve earned some New Mexican food and margaritas! Can’t wait to ride again tomorrow!
Change of Plans
After several months of mentally psyching myself up to race solo for 24 hours on one of the hardest courses in the country, something happened. I got on email a couple days ago… a very GOOD email.
It said plain and simply that I will be going to Brazil in November to do a 6 day mountain bike stage race as a coed duo with my partner from the Breck Epic – Jeff Kerkove. The dates are Nov 14-19. I thought, “Well, what about Moab?” It takes about a month to fully recover from a 24 hour race. Moab is Oct 9-10, so I would JUST be recovering and would not get to train for the stage race, let alone be fast for it.
Life is about making decisions and accepting change. Sure, I am disappointed that I am pulling the plug on a race in which I have been prepping both mentally and physically for months. However, I am a bit relieved at the same time. All the travel lately has left me feeling not as confident as I would have liked due to very inconsistent training, and I have been feeling exhausted from flying all over the place! And Moab – I’ll be back next year – you haven’t claimed me yet, and plus my friends that are racing will CRUSH IT. The worst thing about not racing Moab is missing out on seeing the friends coming from all over to race.
So, on to bigger and better things. I could not be more excited to get down to South America, to be invited by the race to come take part in their super cool and punishing event, and I’m even more excited to train for it!
Here is the scoop:
Stages? Click here. I’ll be discussing these in more detail later. Some of them are 80 something miles.
I feel so lucky for all the wonderful opportunities this year!!
Let’s see if I can boost my fitness a little bit more this year for this very late-season race! I love me a suffer-fest! We gotta HSB!
