Moments of clarity...

Well, this past week and weekend was extremely busy for me with work, a 40K time trial on Saturday, and the Platte River 6 hour MTB race on Sunday. Fortunately, I didn't get a chance to race the Platte River race, but I will explain that later.

Saturday was the 40K (approx. 25 miles) state time trial in Norfolk, NE. This was the first race I ever did last year and was wanting to come full circle. I like time trials because it is a means for me to measure my improvements over time. Of course there are factors that can also affect the results such as wind, temp, road conditions, etc... By a strange twist of fate, this year was pretty much similar to last year. The wind velocity was pretty much a duplicate, and the temps were just slightly warmer. The only diff is that I have been working my keyster off for the last year. I purchased some aero bars earlier in the week. I probably should have purchased them earlier and started training on them. Sitting in the aero position doesn't seem too bad to me. However, my tender bits seem to disagree. About halfway through the ride things started going rather numb and it felt like the nether regions wear covered in a rather large coating of lead. I took a lot of out-of-the-saddle breaks on the last half.

My final result was that I improved over last years time by 9 minutes, of which I am extremely happy. All of the other good things will come over time, I just need to keep working hard. :) It was great seeing a lot of familiar faces and many new ones at the race. Everyone seemed to have a good time, even though everyone appeared to have a "I gave it everything I had" look on their face. Heck, at bike races everyone knows that's a look of someone who had a great time.

I had planned on racing the Platte River 6 hour MTB race put on by Cycleworks on Sunday. However, earlier in the week I was asked to officiate instead. Since a NORBA sanctioned event can't go on without an USCF official, I decided to step up to the plate and do it. I arrived at the park at the crack of dawn with Zod to get a chance to at least ride the course one time before I had to start my duties. This is one of the most fun places in Nebraska to ride a mountain bike. The course will teach you much about yourself and your bike. The first half is mostly climbing and turning, while the second half is fast and very technical. It was good to ride it. One thing I noticed though, was that my legs were pretty much shredded from the time trial and I was glad I wasn't doing this race. It definitely wouldn't have been much fun without fresh legs. This was my first time officiating and it went off well. At first I was a little less than confident, but as I talked to people and got things on my checklist marked off I felt better. Many things were learned and I will be more than confident at the next race I do.

So, all-in-all this was a great weekend. Now it's time to prepare for the Norfolk Classic weekend in 2 and a half weeks. Main objective is to have fun and ride my best, not to mention no crashes on the crit. hehe Good job and thanks to everyone who raced and/or put on an event this weekend. I know I had a great time.