The Road to Somewhere
- Thread starter xc62701
- Start date
xc62701
Well-Known Member
Thanks man!!!
xc62701
Well-Known Member
Another year in the books and lots of good stuff on tap for 2024.
I signed up for the following races:
4/21 Rattling Creek
5/4 12 Hours of PJ
6/29 Michaux Marathon
7/27 Wilderness 101
Now it's time to do the hard work and get faster and lighter for the upcoming season. I'm still debating on a few races too to get my ass going early. The Stokesville 60/40 is March 3rd and the H2H Mayhem is 3/16 so I may throw those in the mix early to see how things are shaking out.
The knee is getting there but still has some popping which I mostly ignore, and then still regaining strength. I'd say I'm about 80 percent but it'll probably take another year to get back to 100% I've done this before so at least I'm aware of that. To help it, I'm going to do some workouts at home in the offseason to try and strengthen it further as I know it's not going to get any easier getting older. I'll try to help it out now while I can.
I'm scheming up a way to get a long weekend in Virginia to trail and get some long miles in too. That's my current debate. As long as the weather stays ok, I did a fun trip last January and it was a good time. I'd like to go again round two. Although I just started some online classes so lets see how demanding that gets...
I signed up for the following races:
4/21 Rattling Creek
5/4 12 Hours of PJ
6/29 Michaux Marathon
7/27 Wilderness 101
Now it's time to do the hard work and get faster and lighter for the upcoming season. I'm still debating on a few races too to get my ass going early. The Stokesville 60/40 is March 3rd and the H2H Mayhem is 3/16 so I may throw those in the mix early to see how things are shaking out.
The knee is getting there but still has some popping which I mostly ignore, and then still regaining strength. I'd say I'm about 80 percent but it'll probably take another year to get back to 100% I've done this before so at least I'm aware of that. To help it, I'm going to do some workouts at home in the offseason to try and strengthen it further as I know it's not going to get any easier getting older. I'll try to help it out now while I can.
I'm scheming up a way to get a long weekend in Virginia to trail and get some long miles in too. That's my current debate. As long as the weather stays ok, I did a fun trip last January and it was a good time. I'd like to go again round two. Although I just started some online classes so lets see how demanding that gets...
xc62701
Well-Known Member
Lol, just reading this previous post and nothing has gone to plan. Life has been too hectic, the March 3rd race got postponed and I can't make the new date. I did a fatbike race/TT on a golf course and felt like crap and got annihilated. So at least I got the first race out of the way. Rattling Creek I got a refund for since I'll be in Sedona that week. That's my main focus right now. I want to try and get in some kind of shape for that. April 20th I leave for AZ so I've got 3 weeks to curb things a bit and ride some more so I can enjoy all that goodness out there. 12 hours of PJ I'll be at but I won't be competitive since I'm a fat bastard. I'll probably still try to put in a good effort to reap any benefits of destroying myself for 12 hours. Michaux I got a refund as well since that's ending up being my family vacation week. So then there's the Wilderness. That's my A race for the year. July 27th is the date and I'm hoping to put together a decent showing, or at least not completely suffer the entire time. I'll probably try to hit some of the other local races this year, but I'm just hoping to get on a path back to more activity and better health since the knee surgery. It's been just under a year since surgery and I'm still working on gaining strength and confidence. It's taken a while but I find I'm making small gains here and there. I just don't want to f*ck it up again....that's for sure!
xc62701
Well-Known Member
Hi all. Back from Sedona! The AZ trip was pretty damn awesome. I was there for a week and got 6 rides, 1 hike, and 1 kayak in. I went out with @Sven Migot and had a blast. Those trails are just so much fun and totally insane in spots. We found pretty quickly that we enjoyed the blue and black trails and the double black trails we mostly fun except for the actual double black diamond spots. I don't know how people ride that shit without an ambulance nearby. That's just not what I enjoy riding. Some of the favorites were Mescal, Canyon of Fools, Chuck Wagon, Outer Limits, Broken Arrow, Slim Shady, and Pyramid. The riding is just a completely different landscape and just fun and beautiful. The rental bike I had made it a blast as well. It was a longer travel(120/110) FS and has me shopping around after the fun ride I had. The rockiness out there can mimic some of the fun stuff we have here so it could be a worthwhile investment. Food was good, and the beer was just ok. That's probably best as we were cooked from the heat and riding most days.
We did a 6 mile hike in the Grand Canyon on the Bright Angel trail. That was just amazing. My calves are just about back to normal after that. I did the math when I got finished. It's basically a super consistent 13.5% downhill and return for 3 miles each way. I am ok with hiking but that amount of vert...hurt. We capped off our last day with a ride and a kayak on the Verde river. Somehow Sven decided to sideswipe a boulder in the river, jam a piece of rock into the side of his kayak, snap off the rock and pop his now deflatable kayak. So the remaining 3/4 of the river trip was now a bit awkward for him, and great for me(as I was harassing him most of the time for popping the boat). All in all it was just a blast and we need to start planning our return trip.
As for life back at home, I'm trying to use the miles we did in AZ to help regain some fitness and drop some of the surgery/winter weight. That battle has not been easy, but this fat bastard will be at the 12 hours of Port Jervis this weekend.
I'm totally not in shape/ready for that but whatever. My goal is to just get some more miles and hours in to help progress back to being more confident/fit/happy on the bike. I've already come a long way but this is my prep for 2025 I have to remind myself that this time last year I was still 5 weeks away from being able to put weight on my knee, nevermind riding or racing. So progress is coming along.
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