It's officially the Wednesday before the race. 4 days till race day. This is a good sign. At this point I'm recovering from CO and the RC50 and the efforts I've done this past week have been solid and I'm really feeling hopeful for the race. On top of that I have both tires sealed up and fully tubeless and I should be able to actually have better control of my race prep than for two weeks ago. I've been sleeping well and a lot and that's a big help. For the last race I felt off and really overwhelmed by the humidity and being back in NJ for a while before this race makes me feel more confident as well.
The next best thought is that I should be more prepared as this is the 3rd attempt at the SM100 course and the 4th time I will be riding it(Rode it once in a non-race scenario). All the climbs and hard sections are burned into my mind and my time goals are already set. For the first run at this I ran a 10:39, then in 2009 an 8:41. This year I'm trying to go sub 8. That was my goal for the W101 and I beat it by 12 minutes but the trail was a bit different. The SM100 is advertised as the exact same route and I want to knock off 42 minutes from my PR. If things go well I should be able to reach that. I remember in my last attempt at the race that I actually got woosey climbing and descending between aid 3 and 4 and actually rolled down the hillside as I was hallucinating as I messed up my hydration/nutrition needs. This time I have been experimenting with that as well and I think I have figured that out a little better. I have been existing on Hammer gel alone and I don't think that's been fueling my body the way it needs. So now I've been using the gel and Clif Blocks and that has been a lot better. Well that and not using Accelerade. Accelerade is good for training but not for racing. I just feel 100% better when I use plain old water. Go figure...
So Friday night I'll be traveling down to the SM100 grounds so I have a nice long relaxing Saturday before the Storm and then let 'er rip for Sunday. Should be a nice long effort to put one last big race in the tank for 2011. After this my focus is shifting to the shorter stuff as I finish up the last XC races on my calendar and then the full CX schedule is ahead. Only 3 more months left to the racing season. Wow that's still a long time!
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