The last month and a half has been a rough patch for me fitting in any time on the bike. It started out with a late August/early September trip to Eurobike. A bike show in Germany? Sounds fun enough. And it was, but there was work to be done and I did not bring a bike with me. Long days of work followed by poor eating habits for a week straight. Don't get me wrong, I love German food. And German beer. It's just a the best training menu...
Back to the States with a short week before I headed down to Lake Geneva for the WORS race. I was using the race to get ready for the Chequamegon 40. I was able to finally resolve a brake issue I was having, which was caused by a silly move on my behalf during a cleaning session. However, this mistake had kept me busy trying to fix it in the garage...instead of on the bike prior to the Eurobike trip. So after two weeks of pretty much zero riding, I was able to squeeze in a couple of rides before heading to Lake Geneva.
The Lake Geneva race went as I should have expected. I was lacking any sort of real power, which kept me a little further back on the climbs from the start, as well as each time through the climbing section on the first part of the course. The good thing was that during my time off the bike, I hadn't forgotten how to ride singletrack. And there was a lot of singletrack in the second half (or more) of the race. Was able to finish up 5th in my age and 18th overall in Comp class. Not bad, but not the 1st in my age and 3rd overall from a month earlier at Cam-rock.
It would have to do as warm up for the Chequamegon 40. Only fit in a trainer ride and a day-before warm up ride with TMTmates (and boathouse roommates) Jarred Cassady and Todd Heal. The race started out fairly well on the road, but shortly into the off-road sections, I was not able to really start passing people as I thought I should. TMTmates Sanjay Ganju and Doug Bailey came by me and there wasn't much I could do to go with them. I just tried to keep the tempo high without going into the red. Made it to OO in just over an hour, but started to cramp around the lakes. I was able to hold off any complete lock-up in the legs and finish in 2:36. Not what I had wanted, but not bad for my first 40.
Plenty of beers post race. And there was more beer on tap for the next two weekends. I made it up to LaCrosse Oktoberfest and then to Doug Bailey's wedding (congrats Doug!). Mix in almost a week straight of rain between the two. Just as the weather was turning nice at Doug's wedding, I came down with what I thought was a cold or the flue. It kept me home from work on Monday and Tuesday, I struggled through the rest of the week and finally on Friday I went in to the doctor. Bronchitis. And antibiotics. Missing out on the best weather of the fall. Oh well, at least I'm on the road to recovery. The time at home this weekend did at least give me the chance to build up the new 'cross steed. Looking forward to putting it (and my fitness) to the test soon.
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