WHAT UP!

Well this is going to be a picture heavy post. I'd rather post pictures then type stuff anyways. Its been a busy couple months but its been a good time. Took Trey to his first baseball game(which we didn't really watch because they had a bounce house and other fun stuff to do). The fam and I headed out to Colorado again to hang with family and friends and I was able to do a little racing in Colorado too. Other than that its been hanging outdoors with the kids at home and trying to ride my bike when I can. Pool is open so I'm sure we'll be doing a lot of swimming with summer starting now.

Colorado Trip:

We had a full load going out to CO. Six of us going to CO and 7 coming back.

Teammate Jesse before the start of the Ridgline Rampage near Castle Rock. He was 1st in the XC cat. Good job man.

It was nice to have the fam at the race too. They usually don't come to my races but it worked out this time. Here's Payton after the race. She won a cap too. I have pictures of that but there all on my other camera. Sorry this blog usually gets the pictures that I take with my phone.

So I had to take a picture of this on the way home from the race. I ride Sram so I thought this was cool.

So I guess I should talk about the race. This Ridgline Rampage was the first time racing in Colorado for me. It was in the foothills which was still 5000 ft of elevation higher then Nebraska. They had one long climb that I really noticed the elevation change but most of the race I was fine. I had a blast doing this race. I lost a lot of time on the down hill sections of the course so maybe a top 10 could of happened if I just let go of the brakes. Oh well I ended up 13th out of 25 so I was happy with that. I ended up doing the 30 mile race instead of the 60 which I'm glad I did. Maybe the 60 next year. Actually next year I want to race in the mountains. Maybe the Breck 100 or something.

Ute Valley Park

So on the last day in Colorado Jackie was going to see a friend in Colorado Springs so I thought I'd check out some trails in the area. She dropped me off at Ute Valley Park. This was a small loop but it had a lot. At first I ventured out onto some trails away from the normal loop and found some cool stuff but that turned into me walking a lot so back to the main trail I went. It was fun with lots of rocks(which I love to ride now) climbing and some good down hill section for me to work on. I got about 2 hours in before Jackie and the kids picked me up. Next time when I'm looking for a quick loop to ride this will be the place. Oh and no bears this time unlike my experience with Falcon Trail.

Ute Valley

Ponca and the Mighty MO River

Well I thought this looked bad until I got back to work and saw photos of the rest of the flooding. This is nothing.

Now back to racing Nebraska, thanks to my lovely wife and family for letting me head up to Ponca with Brandon to do the State Championship race. I didn't have high expectations for this race, it was raining the whole way up and it also rained all night. Ponca is about 3 hours away so who knows what the trails will be like. Actually I was hoping they called it off because I was not feeling like racing that day, OK let me rephrase that, I wanted to race just not Ponca. Last time I did Ponca was 2 years ago and I sucked it up bad that day. I did the cat 2 xc which is 3 laps and I suffered during every one of them. This place has lots of climbing and lots of down hills. After the race in Colorado Jesse gave me some tips on riding DH so it came in handy for this race. Still I was not the best on those sections but I felt I did better. Last year I wasn't in any shape for racing so I didn't do this race and this year I still didn't want to race it. I know man up but after I raced Ponca 2 years ago I wanted to quick racing it was that bad. On top of it I was doing the 3 hour so instead of 3 laps it was going to be at least 6. Well I was hoping for 6. Well to sum it up(and I don't want to type anymore) the race went well. I ended up doing 8 laps....what 8? I still can't believe I did 8 at PONCA! A small victory for me for sure. I also ended up 5th so that means pay day for me. So after being haunted by this place for 2 years I remember sitting on my cooler after the race with Brandon(not on the cooler with me) and thinking to myself MAN that was fun. It's been that kind of year for me.

Yes that is me next to the podium guys.

The only other racing I did was the 12 hour at Wagon Train. I wish I had photos of this one but no luck. Oh and I ended up 1st place with 25 laps in the 12 hour cat. Like I said its been that kind of year for me. My goals for this one was to beat last year lap total(15) and make the whole night. I did both. Now how am I going to top 25 next year?

Now the not so good news. Back in May I screwed up my back lifting weights and for the most part I could handle the pain. Well Monday it was to much. So now I decided to take some time off. Just when things are going well and I want to increase my taining I have to wait and do nothing. I'm going to take this week off and see what happens next week. I might have to stick to smoother stuff like gravel or pavement for training. Will see.