life outside: XTerra Race Night and Trek Dirt Series Weekend

Thursday Night Race Night

Let's start with Thursday night. That was the first night of the COP mid-week race series. You show up, pay your ten bucks, and race your mountain bike. All skill levels welcome. No winners, no times, just you and your lungs off the start line with a lot of spandex-clad cyclists. You can do a single 6km lap or double up and do it twice. I threw myself into it. Only 6k right? What the heck ... Yeah, I got cocky and passed a couple people out of my saddle on an early hill only to discover the hill continued beyond the turn. Ugh! That's not what I call pacing myself. I suffered and couldn't catch my breath for the longest time. I slowed down but it was too late. Eventually I had to just stop and wait 30 seconds or so for my heart rate to drop before I could continue on. (I never did get passed by the people I passed on the hill though. :) Did the lap in just under 32 minutes and went home coughing up a lung. The coughing lasted a few days.

Moose Packers Trail

Friday I took it easy on the body and enjoyed some park time with my doggie buddies and got ready for the big Trek Dirt Series skill camp weekend. Woo! Two long full days of learning and talking with mountain biking chicks. Fun! Mother Nature wasn't all that on board with things but I took the snow as an opportunity to practice even more new skills: downhilling through snow. Saturday morning I was in the "Riding Skinnies" and "Mastering Drops" sessions. That followed with some trail time up on Moose Packers Trail.

Sunday I opted for "High Speed Cornering" (gotta work on putting all that together in the real world) and "Climbing." Then our group rode the top part of Pneuma. Eep! Definitely challenging ... thankfully, we rode snowless on this trail. It's rocky and technical and I mastered very little of it! But learned a lot.

To top off the great learning weekend, I won a draw prize of 50% off Sugoi clothing until the end of the year! Woohoo! I'm gonna save a lot of money ... by spending it! Gear me up!