I’ve had an amazing past few weeks riding and racing my bike. Probably my most notable progress is my time at BCT and Kentucky Camp. I think I’m starting to get the endurance racing formula down (it is a complicated one).

Kentucky Camp big loop was my first ever endurance race. Some stats from it:
11/20/2010 7:29:01

This year I pulled the following:
11/17/2012 4:52:29

In two years’ time I improved my Personal Record by 2:36:32! How did I do it this time around?

1. Eating right: 5 weeks prior to Kentucky Camp, I started eating “right.” Meat. Vegetables. Sparse fruit. NO BEER. Reduced portions. Nuts. Avocados. NO RICE. NO flour tortillas. I slipped up daily and ate a lot of carne asada tacos. Over the 5 weeks, I dropped 7 lbs and am now the lightest I have ever been in a very long time.
2. Training on Agua Caliente Hill. I can feel the pain that hill puts on me and while racing I can feel the power it gives.
3. Black Canyon Trail Race: I rode fast and felt good. Usually I just take it easy and hope for it to be over and it takes a long time. This race gave me some confidence and let me know what I could (and couldn’t) get away with.
4. Taper
5. Rest day
6. Pizza, AJ’s pre-race dinner/breakfast BBQ pizza
7. Coffee
8. Encouragement, All those I passed/was passed by during the race, passed on some good words.
9. Music, ISIS/Slough Feg-The Traveller
10. Beautiful weather
11. Watching the movie Valhalla Rising to give me mental strength
12. Perfectly adjusted fork as per Scott’s tips!
.
.
.

N.

So many variables to consider!

Race Recap:
Climbing with fast group. Unsustainable pace. Let others pass. Box Canyon Rd minutes earlier! Kentucky Camp 10 minutes earlier! Caught Max halfway through, let off the gas to pace a bit more evenly. Cleaned the ascent-o-death. Figured I could get sub-5 by the time I hit KC. I hurt, but paced well up Melendez pass and AZT climb. At the top of the climb, I ripped as quickly and carefully downhill as possible as a sidewall rip was very likely and would be devastating. From that point on, I stood up and hammered every climb and sprinted the flats hoping for a tiny bit of downhill to catch my breath. I ended up hitting the sand and pushing a brain-bending final sprint to the finish for good measure. I felt great. Cold beer in one hand, chocolate milk in the other. Good friends and fellow racers were around. I hurt everywhere, but felt amazing. A big thanks to Chad Brown and the Arizona Endurance Series for putting on such a great event!

In a few weeks I will be starting the LW Coaching XC Cat 1 Base training plan to refine what I’ve got going for me.

Also, I have been meaning to post this article: SICK, BRAH: THE INELOQUENCE OF TALKING ABOUT THE OUTDOORS Enjoy.

With all the racing I’ve been doing, the camera hasn’t been coming out as much. Although there have been a ton of pictures of me racing, funny how that works.