Updates

So a lot has been going on in my cycling world with everything from upgrades to recovery. I'm finally feeling a bit like my old self and albeit a few pounds heavier than mid summer race shape I feel I'm doing pretty well. I was 153 for the early season and right now I'm hovering around the 161 mark. Something the inevitably happens when the riding load goes from 13 hours to 6 and daylight goes from a lot to almost nonexistent. Also, it's been nice to slack a little on my diet. Really nice but base will be here soon and the pounds will shed. Damn right they will. I got down to I think 148 for an afternoon last winter and should be in the same range this winter with more power and more discipline in my arsenal.

Anyway for the updates - Sunday night was a great night. I went to the H2H awards dinner and received my series championship jersey. It was amazing! I worked so hard this past season and through so much with my blood clot that it is truly amazing looking back. When I was in the hospital I didn't know if I'd ever be back on the bike again. Somehow I bounced back to finish up well in the series. The series went like this 2nd, 1st, 4th, 1st, blood clot, 9th, 4th, 2nd and locked up the series. The 8th race I opted to do in the pro class and finished 10th of 12. How nuts is that. I get a little teary eyed when I see that in print. Holy crap.
So it was a crazy season and now I'm in part 2 of the 2010 season.

Now it's cyclocross time and it's exploding again. Or at least I feel like my heart is - in a good way of course. I did the 2/3/4 race at HPCX and had a good finish and I told myself that this season I want to up the ante and race 1/2/3's at the local races. The problem is by doing that race it would take forever to get enough points to upgrade to a 2. So what do I do. I use the CX conversion in the USAC rulebook and inquire about just upgrading to a 2. DENIED... Because I should be a 1. Huh...yes a 1. If I want to upgrade I can contact USAC in Colorado and have them do it because the regional reps cannot. Sent one email...BAM Cat 1 CX racer now. What did I get myself into? Really for the NJ CX Cup it doesn't matter but if I do other series oh boy. I'll be the red lantern...

Even with racing the cross A class locally it's been good as I haven't been DFL - yet. It's coming, but for race #1 at Hidden Valley I was 8th of 9 and Sunday at Greystone I was 3rd of 5. So not too bad so far. It's only going to help in the long run and hopefully it translates to more explosiveness in next years XC or endurance events.

So lots of good updates...more to come.