Discouragement.... Wah...

Man, I tell you what, I was super motivated after Crocodile Rock (KS State Championships) to get some interval and longer training rides in... Did it happen, well sorta... Not really though...Life can be a sun beeoa sometimes...

Took a little trip up to Krug yesterday and boy did I feel flat and weak.. It is rather discouraging...

So what do you when your not feeling up to par on your bike... Race the damn thing of course, on (from what I hear) a technical course... Good think its going to be extremely hot!!!

See you gents on Sunday.....

Yep, BIG RING SOB....

Yah, I met the man once.... From the looks of it, I just started racing, still had my tater hog on at 200lbs.... I think I see some man boobs!!

If you don't know who he is, don't admit it to anyone.... All you need to know is he is a big ring pushing bad arse!!!

Crocodile Rock, 2011

Didn’t really know what to expect this race considering I have been having trouble finding time to get long rides in and have not raced in almost a month. What I did know is that this race was going to be fun since it does not have the technical sections like Landahl, etc. Also, I knew that most of the heavy hitters were off racing in the Subaru Cup…

The field was alright in size, the start was a little hectic being rather short, but we were off into the single track and started to spread out pretty quickly. I settled in about 4-5 or so back (not really sure though, lost track of places rather quickly on this one) behind BrianD and my boy Hoppe.  Seems at this point we were in no man’s land (where I usually spend most of my time) between the slower traffic and the super fast dudes.

Hoppe was putting in a pretty good dig at the end of lap one, but think it over heated him a little and I got passed him on lap two. I hit it hard thinking I could catch the lead group and put a little gap on him. When I slowed to recover a little bit, went and hit a little rocky downhill when I heard what I thought was him behind me, turns out GMapes caught me absolutely bombing the downhill. Once by, I took his wheel until about the final climb of lap two where my lack of riding time/fitness started to show.

Lap 3 was pretty uneventful except for the fact that GMapes gaped me and I was caught and passed by another Cat 1 and then Mark Cole on his SS. Damn it, this is a crappy feeling, getting passed and nothing you can do about it.. The Cat 1 passed and I held on his wheel for a about a mile till I was spent, Mark passed and he was gone.

Final lap was also pretty uneventful, just pushing gears as hard as I could without blowing up, passing lapped traffic and the remnants of the Marathon race. Was passed yet one more time, but I had enough of this crap and held on his wheel to the finish. I always look at the numbers to see who was who, knew he was in a different age group, so I did not fret over it much. After the start line, I did not see another person in my age group. Well, because there were only three of us and the winner beat me by 9min. So second on the day, not very satisfied on where my fitness is right now. But who is? Ended up 5^th overall out of 19….

On another note, It was sweet to see all the Ethos Racing Jerseys on the podium!!!!! There were also a bunch of folks from Joetown, that’s always good to see…

Damn that was fun though, can’t wait to do it again!!!

I have no pictures or results, will update when I do….  

Finally....

I get to race my bike this weekend!!!!!!! Rain, you better stay away!!!

Also, good luck to the Midwest racers, especially Ethos, racing at the Subaru Cup this weekend!!!

Life......

Well, life is crazy over at casa de JDoug.... I have tons of motivation, perhaps too much to be good for me... What I have in motivation, gets lost on time...

Looks like I am going to miss the next two weekends of racing, which is a bummer... You train, train and train some more, eat the same chicken/fish - veggies - rice/pasta in order to accomplish some goals, then life gets in the way and you can't take the test... Which for me is trying my hardest to beat other dudes (or more recently, getting my butt whooped) in bike races... Hey, I never said my view on things were healthy...

I will have to live vicariously through by racing buddies... Good luck this weekend in Warsaw, or wherever you might be racing...And good luck the following weekend at KC Cup!!

Down N Dirty -  6/5/11 - This one is a fun race and for me a good one as it does not have the rocks as Clinton, Manhattan, Swope, Landahl, etc..... I still have no technical skills...

KC Cup - 6/12/11 - This one is a real bummer to miss, its the MO state championship race. Being out at Landahl says that my showing would not be spectacular, but races like this always bring out your A game. Its the ones that motivate you to get your arse outside and ride in 15 degree weather in January and February, or out of bed at 5:30am. Well, you got me there, 6:00 - 7:00am..

Owe well, there will always be other races....Good luck to all the Ethos boys and girls!

Not much going on...

Not a whole lot going on with Memorial Day weekend. Still having a tough time finding time to get in long rides..
.
I did attempt to get a Landahl trip in over the weekend, but as I left Bike Sourse it was raining pretty bad, which sucks as I need as much practice on technical sections as I can get...

Speaking of Racing... My last race pic...

Dirty Little Secret, you dirty *%$*!

Race Report, I suck.... Someone needs to teach me how to ride a bike, seriously, I looked like a monkey effen a football out there.....

Soooo, I was a little disappointed to say the least about my performance out at Fancy Creek Sate Park on Sunday. I wont bore you with the specific details of my meltdown lap by lap, other than I think I did a great job of breaking one bike part per lap.

The course was pretty sweet, dry and fast (well for some people)... I had a tougher time navigating these rocks than I did at Bonebender. At least there I got better with each lap, I could never quite get in a groove on Saturday, which was a shame, it was a great venue, great weather and great competition. There were a couple of hills out there, but hills are not what I have trouble with. Just need to get some technical skills or my results will always be pretty limited.

Started off with a rolling start which was a first for me, I did not try and hit a hole shot anywhere near the front as I knew I had no business being up front and slowing everyone else up when we hit the technical sections. Pretty quickly there were about four of us in the second group. The leaders where off light-years ahead of us already by 1/2 a lap into it.

Basically my race goes as follows. Hit technical section, hobble and fumble around, put a foot down (sometimes my whole body), maybe break a pedal or something, cuss really loud in frustration, then chase back to the group and repeat....

After the first lap and once JPB shredded his derailer, I  basically road by myself. Towards the end of the race I had basically quit going hard and just tried to get in a steady groove the best I could. Probably one of the worst performances I can recall since starting racing. While getting into the shower later that day, I noticed bruises on both hips, not a good sign when your racing bikes...

Just fuel to the fire though! I am going to catch up to them one of these days, or die trying!

Here are some pics of the race..... Results are not posted yet....

On another note, go here and buy a T-shirt from Kuat! or your a selfish A-hole! 

100% proceeds go to Joplin relief effort..

Big Poppi put on one hell of a race, had free bbq, beer and sweet swag....