Month of Mud part #4

(See attached file: Grove City.jpg)
At this time of the year I feel like I should be taking a break from long rides and start focusing on cross. But with La Ruta coming up in November I feel torn between trying to race cross and doing long training rides. The hardest part for me about doing long training rides this time of year is the lack off daylight as I found out on Saturday's long ride. In an ideal world I would like to do my harder shorter workouts on Saturday then on Sunday do a long easier ride. But I'm still searching for that ideal world. I decided that I would do a long ride on Saturday and the MOM race on Sunday. After getting started a little later than planned I was out the door on the fixed gear at like 11:30. The plan was head down towards town then jump on the tracks and hit the Armstrong trail up to Tempelton and back. The idea of bringing a light never crossed my mind. Near Ford City I ran into Ruth she left about the same time but went straight to the trail. We stopped in Kittanning and got some water and food. I planned on riding north on the trail until for another hour or so then turn around and head back home. When I turned around it finally hit me. It's after 5:00 I have about 45 miles to get home it will take a little under 3 hours but it will be dark out in less than 2 hours. When I was getting close to Schenley I caught up to Ruth and it was getting pretty dark at that point. I told her that I would just ride ahead and get home first and come back with the car to pick her up. The worst thing about riding in the dark is finding that hole in the road that you for didn't know about and getting blinded by oncoming cars. I got home a little after 8:00 and was getting ready to go pick up Ruth (she thinks this makes her tough) but she called said she'd be OK riding home alone. After she got in it was time to start getting ready for the MOM race at Brady's.

Surprise I got to Brady's an hour before the start and was pretty happy about that. I got ready and did a pre riding to check out the course and then with little time to spare it was time to go. It's always cool to get a call up, but I also knew that it wouldn't help much. Because during the prolog around the horse arena I knew I was out gunned being on a SS. Just as I figured I think I was pretty far back in the pack when we started up the hill. I rode as hard as I could up the hill and passed allot of people. I think I was like 5th or 6th heading into the singletrack for the rest of the climb. At the top I passed a couple of more people and was in third. Funny thing was I figured after the long ride on Saturday that I would be climbing slow. But I seemed to be climbing good, but I was descending pretty slow. There was a few times I'd look back and nobody would be in sight then right after a downhill Joe would be right on my tail. In the end I got 1st SS and 3rd overall I was pretty happy with the results. This weekend I get a break from racing I was thinking about going to the Cross Your Heart and Hope to Die cross race but just going to stay home and put in some extra miles. Thanks again to the MOM crew.



J