Sol Vista: MTB Nationals '09

Last night I figured out what I was going to write about the race, and then made the mistake of gong to bed instead of actually writing it. Thus, I don't remember, so I'll just make it up as I go. Sound good? Good.

Going into the race I felt more confident than I had the last couple years; I had a (much) better Texas season, and had been training pretty hard. I actually lined up on the front row instead of at the back, and was sitting mid pack-ish off up the start hill. When the race finally got to singletrack for the first time, like 3.5 miles in, I was around 10th, and could see all the way up to 3rd (turns out 1st and 2nd got DQd for cutting the course...).
Everyone spreadd out over time, but I was still top 10 starting the second lap. This time it got harder to tell where I was as the leaders from other classes started coming by, but I stayed around the same, maybe passing some people in my class and maybe getting passed by others.
Then the third lap hit. Maybe I didn't drink enough early in the race, maybe I didn't eat enough breakfast, who knows, but I did not have anything to finish off the race. The third lap was about two miles shorter than the first two, and my lap time was almost the same... I felt so bad that I didn't even care who passed me, I just wanted to make it to the finish.

I ended up 14th, less than 5 minutes out of 9th...
I felt bad for losing four or more spots so late in the race, but I had given it everything I had (my legs are still sore almost a week later) and I'm still happy with the way the first 2/3 of the race went down. I know a little more about what I need to work on for training, and learned some more about nutrition. We'll see what next year brings.

Filler

Nationals recap coming soon.

Have a teaser picture:

Back to Granby

We made it up to Granby earlier today. We were a little early to check into the hotel, so even though we weren't riding a trip up to the resort ensued. We watched the downhillers hit some jumps and talked to everyone we knew that had already ridden the course. I still don't know what to expect when we ride tomorrow. Well, except that the start goes up an annoying steep hill. Perfect.

Yup

Got some good riding in in Austin. And I think Wheel is ready to move to Austin and go to UT... Anywho, we hit up two kinda hilly, really hot days. My legs were feeling it at first, but by the end I guess they had gotten used to the short steep Austin climbs again because I was feeling good by time we left on Tuesday.
We hit up the snow cone place right by my apartment too. Somehow I had never been there before, but I will be back. Pretty much the best snow cone I've ever had!

Anywho, I'm just about finished packing to head back to Colorado in the morning. It'll be nice to get back to somewhere where it less than 100 degrees again. I'm also ready to get back and see the course, which they completely changed since the first time I was there. From the sounds of it, I think it'll suit me more than the original course. We will see.

Fireworks and Stuff

The last few days haven't been too eventful, just working in the morning, riding in the afternoon, and chillin' with my people at night.
Yesterday though, for the Fourth we continued tradition and went up to Lake Lavon to blow stuff up again! As per always, it was a good time.
Tomorrow me and Wheel are going to make a trip to Austin to get some (hilly) riding in to finish out the low altitude hard part of training. Take a couple days off after that, and then I'll be back in Colorado by the weekend!