Pearl
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
I like keeping the years separate. It’s funny to see how much things have changed as the year goes by. Winter has been long. Since we last spoke I was pretty mentally beat up after cross. I take that back, I don’t think I was smoked, but I was happy to step away from the bikes on a daily basis. It is so intense that dialing it back and going back to a weekend warrior from The middle of November to the new calendar year was a good move. Once 2015 hit, I was itching to start the process of sharpening the axe. The good thing was I didn’t get fat.
So here we are, 2 weeks away from the Daytona 500 of mountain bike racing. What better time to create the log of races and get some good discussion going. It’s no secret I’ve been hitting the books hard the past 3 months. I have never trained for mountain bike racing up until now, so I really do expect a lot out of myself. Last year was more focused on remodeling bathrooms and kitchens and doing one endurance race. This just led to riding around and going by feel. I had the longest consecutive riding streak (Kevin may disagree if it actually counts) and I learned a lot about my body, recovery, eating, etc. I felt that I got stronger because of it, but I’m really interested to see what a focused approach brings to the table for me.
Apr 12 - SSaP
Apr 19 – MTBNJ Allamuchy
Apr 26 - MASS Bike Line Fair Hill XC
May 3 - H2H Wawayanda XC
May 9 - French Creek XC
May 17 - Jungle?
June 13 - Roth Rock Trail Mix
June 28 - Lewis Morris
July 12 - KVSP?
July 19 - MTBNJ Stewart 45
2015 Goals
- Finish better than 11 minutes behind the winner at SSAP. This was closest finish from 2013. With the longer course this may be more of a stretch, if it was the same course/distance I would have a goal to be under the 11 minute mark. It’s hard to talk about what place you would finish in because you never know who shows up to these things. Not sure if the 32 mile thing plays into my hand or not. Then I have to think about gearing. Oh, gearing. Can’t believe this is in two weeks.
- Crush April. Maybe a little bit of May too. At the end of May we go on a cruise and with a busy April/beginning of May, it will be a perfect time to get away.
- I really can’t wait to get back to Roth Rock. Everyone knows I get all giddy about riding here.
- Besides that, it’s just to race my tail off this year. I have no idea what to expect and who is racing my category. I’ve met some people from the ST race that will be in my category for XC so hopefully they will be around for me to play with.
I will now open the floor for questions
So here we are, 2 weeks away from the Daytona 500 of mountain bike racing. What better time to create the log of races and get some good discussion going. It’s no secret I’ve been hitting the books hard the past 3 months. I have never trained for mountain bike racing up until now, so I really do expect a lot out of myself. Last year was more focused on remodeling bathrooms and kitchens and doing one endurance race. This just led to riding around and going by feel. I had the longest consecutive riding streak (Kevin may disagree if it actually counts) and I learned a lot about my body, recovery, eating, etc. I felt that I got stronger because of it, but I’m really interested to see what a focused approach brings to the table for me.
Apr 12 - SSaP
Apr 19 – MTBNJ Allamuchy
Apr 26 - MASS Bike Line Fair Hill XC
May 3 - H2H Wawayanda XC
May 9 - French Creek XC
May 17 - Jungle?
June 13 - Roth Rock Trail Mix
June 28 - Lewis Morris
July 12 - KVSP?
July 19 - MTBNJ Stewart 45
2015 Goals
- Finish better than 11 minutes behind the winner at SSAP. This was closest finish from 2013. With the longer course this may be more of a stretch, if it was the same course/distance I would have a goal to be under the 11 minute mark. It’s hard to talk about what place you would finish in because you never know who shows up to these things. Not sure if the 32 mile thing plays into my hand or not. Then I have to think about gearing. Oh, gearing. Can’t believe this is in two weeks.
- Crush April. Maybe a little bit of May too. At the end of May we go on a cruise and with a busy April/beginning of May, it will be a perfect time to get away.
- I really can’t wait to get back to Roth Rock. Everyone knows I get all giddy about riding here.
- Besides that, it’s just to race my tail off this year. I have no idea what to expect and who is racing my category. I’ve met some people from the ST race that will be in my category for XC so hopefully they will be around for me to play with.
I will now open the floor for questions
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