So Far So Good

It's now getting towards the end of the month and things are looking up for the 2010 season. Today was an opportunity to get some nice miles in with a few teammates and wander around the Mendham area. The hills were good and so was the company. It's soo much easier to get through a nice day in the saddle when you have people to suffer with :-) 5 hours 10 minutes and 80 miles seemed to just fly by.

On the other hand the 2010 schedule is coming together nicely. On tap for this year are basically a repeat of last year. A bunch of the NUE series races, a few H2H XC races, some road training circuits, and a nice bunch of CX races for the end of the season. At this point the thought process is going over fitting in the Cohutta 100, Mohican 100(just registered), Wilderness 101, Shenandoah 100, and if the lottery is nice - the Leadville 100. I've basically realized that I can only do about 10 MTB races, I want to pick the good ones and actually leave some good recovery time inbetween so that I get my money's worth at each race.

For the Leadville, it's actually jammed in the schedule 2 weeks after the W101 and 3 weeks before the Shenandoah 100. It kinda fits, although I'd like more recovery time going into Leadville. So actually I won't be horribly disappointed if I don't get in since that will springboard me into a great buildup for Shenandoah. The Mohican is the 1st planned peak in my schedule and the Wilderness is the 2nd - although I'd really like to do well at the Shenandoah too. I know 3 peaks is a little much to plan for so I'm hoping I do well in the W101 and carry over some megafitness to the SM100. We'll see.

Either way I'm feeling pretty good for January and already getting some good rides in and the body seems to be responding. The weight battle was not too bad this year as watching the diet closely has only led to an additional 6 or 7 pounds which peaked at 165 around New Year's and has already begun to be shed as I hit the scale this morning at 160. Looking back my goal was to be at 165 for the Cohutta last year which I barely made. And at this point I'm already 5+ lbs lighter. That will make all the difference in the hills - and there's still 3 months to go(from tomorrow - but who's counting). Things are looking good.