4luvandlife

fit a race into painting a kids room last weekend. got to Mankato at 12:30 and switched things up by warming up. strange sensation to spin a bit before the race. this was the first race with signs marking the waves so i had to find something else to be confused about. after call ups i rolled up to the start line while Wyatt was sticking his head into the starting chute, pumping his fist, and yelling "Daaaaaaddyyyyy!!!" again and again. gave him and Henry high fives and waited for the countdown. very small wave took off up the climb. i thought i would be feeling good right off because of a short warm-up. i was wrong. i felt pretty bad, unusually bad. i'm still curious why. i think it was painting all day the day before and the morning right up to when we left. that and a lot of pepsi all week before are the only thing i can think of to create the sluggishness. i kept at it hoping to break out of it. at the end of lap 1 my seat broke. i'm thinking, "ok

77 minutes. 18.0 Av. 23 miles this morning. Looks like 30% chance of precip in Mankato on weather.com. Scattered T-Storms.

94 minutes. 18.1 Av. 28 miles. looking forward to Mt. Kato this weekend.

70 minutes. 18.2 Av. 21 miles this morning. waited out a rain for about an hour before starting. plenty of rain so far this year. 2 races down in the series and i have some minor lessons. bottles are better than camelback. camelback is nice until you get to huffing and puffing near the redline. then sucking in hard on a tube is almost the last thing you want to do. i did have the tube bunched up a bit in the pack to shorten the tube. that probably made it harder to get water out but not sure how much better it would have been without doing that. may be worth another try without bunching the tube but definately going to try to stick to bottles amap. replaced the "ergonimic" shaped specialized bar ends with short, straight ones. that was a pretty big improvement. the shaped ones were pretty bad for control and comfort. one of my favorite changes this year has been the low profile, lock-down, Specialized grips. old ones were big and squishy (and worn out). i like the

first comp race without a flat tire last Sunday. didn't get a warm up in at all so i decided to make the first lap my warm up. we pulled up pretty much as the kids racing was starting. got Henry and Wyatt registered and Wyatt was running to the starting chute with me. he kept saying, "lets go daddy... i go fast... let's go... here we go daddy". it was hilarious. he gets his scowl on and tilts his head down and starts running and doing this intense breathing thing. he has the best game face ever. i hope i get some video of that sometime. we took off with me pushing Wyatt's tricycle and we were getting toasted by all the strider bikes. Wyatt just kept looking around and steering into people. he thought it was a crash derby. about halfway through he started his self-talk again. "i go fast" and "i'm going to win". i was impressed with his positivity on winning considering he said it while looking at about 10 other 3 year olds in fr

about 48 hours away from Lifetime Avalance in Afton, MN. i wish i knew how many thousands of feet of climbing it is but i don't. actually, maybe it's better that i don't know. jump for the single track, find the right gear, spin and grind that up to the top while ignoring the little voice that tells you to stop. enjoy the downhill and then do it 2 more times. hoping to see the finish line this year after double flatting last year. i can still see the look on Henry's face as i was coming down the hill though. that is better than any finish line.