Tuesday, July 19, 2011

HOT du Lac and Projects




Since we are getting new windows, I had to replace some cedar. I'm told they will blend in with the old boards in time.






Kiera and Sara went strawberry picking while I powerwashed the house.


I've got no race pictures to show... I'm sure they will surface at some point but I can't give the visual of how hot it really was. I had my full zip KUHL jersey flapping open the entire race and I still thought I was going to melt. Thanks a ton to Rosco and Dodzee from THE SHIHUT for dumping water on our heads and for the hand-ups. Thanks too to Kate Tesch for giving me water even though her husband Josh was only about 30 seconds behind me the entire race. I can't believe how many Hammer Race Caps I put down and how well the Hammer Gels/Heed worked in the rain forest like conditions.

Sara, however, seems immune to the heat because she was on fire (no pun intended). Not only did she win the women's race, she worked her way up to sixth place overall in the men's expert field even though she started two minutes back. She finished about 8 minutes ahead of the first place male comp winner. If only she could have had this kind of day at the National in Wisconsin a couple of weeks ago. Ah, bike racing and form can be so fickle (along with the timing of illness). Needless to say, Sara is pretty stoked about her race day.

I'm pretty happy too since I was able to finish and go pretty hard for most of the race. I bridged up to Brendan and Jesse in singletrack but they rode away from me on the climb each lap. I could barely see them at the start of the forth lap and they were out of sight by the fifth and final lap. I was pretty happy considering I didn't ride my bike last week but instead worked on the house. Yesterday I stained it with $85 per gallon Sickens in 90 degree heat.

No racing this weekend and then off to Dan Swanson's bachelor party at the Cayuna trails and Elk River the following day. Should be interesting.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Buck Hill Debacle

Scott and I decided to go to Buck Hill because of the shorter course and temps in the 90's along with leaving Kiera at home to be watched by Grandpa. The day before the race Scott and I had to bike in long sleeve jerseys due to the cold temps(thanks to Kuhl our new long sleeve jerseys work perfect in Duluth's foggy and 55 degree summer days).

Scott felt he raced maybe a lap before he just went backward through the pack. It is tough to figure out why he is not racing well as we don't have cats anymore (he is very allergic) and he is off work for the summer. He seems to feel best early in the race season and then it seems to go downhill from there. He is more than perplexed. We have been doing a lot of house projects (Scott ripping out years of insulation) and other things that fill his day so there is very little down time, especially with Kiera.

I felt much better racing than I did at the WORS race a few weekends ago. I led up the start of the first climb, but could sense Rebecca close behind. I slowly grew my lead with each lap. Unfortunately, I did an extra lap (6 instead of 5) but have absolutely no idea how I miscounted. There are times like these that I feel I am completely losing my mental faculties. It was a very frustrating way to end an otherwise good race.

Thank God the next race is close to home at Mont du Lac. Not much chance of miscounting laps there!