It is March 21, and we are in the middle of a blizzard. OMG! This winter just will not stop. We got about a foot of snow today. If you would have told me at the beginning of the winter that we would get over 100 inches of snow in Madison this winter, I would have told you that you were whacked. I mean, I think we got about 20 inches of snow all of last year.
When I look at my log from last year, I had ridden locally at least 6 times by this point in March. But, there still is not a riding area in the state or in northern Illinois that is open. There is a MXC race in Prophetstown Illinois tomorrow, but I have done those races when they are 30 degrees and snow on the trail. They really are not much fun, and certainly not much like riding a GNCC race.
So, I am going to go Steele Creek with no riding time since Georgia. My practice bike is rebuilt and ready to be ridden, but there isn’t anywhere to ride it. I don’t really want to go down and ride at Waterman. That place is so frustrating. 20 minutes of riding is just frustrating to me. Plus, I am not a fast MX rider, so I don’t really care about that – I just want to put in more time.
It all means that I am just riding the trainer again this weekend. I have not put this much time in on a trainer since I was racing bicycles 20 years ago. I don’t really like it too much. Come to think of it, I didn’t really like it then and that is what ultimately made me retire from bicycle racing. I mean, there is only so many hours you can spend drowning in your own sweat on a trainer in your garage or your basement. Yow!
But, I feel like I am ready to race. My head is on pretty well. I feel like I can ride the pace of the leaders in my class, if the course is a woods course. I just need to be patient and let the race happen. I don’t need to push it. It is 3 hours, after-all.
So, we head to Charlotte on Friday the 28th, drive up to the Steele Creek race and get settled in. We will have to get to a grocery store etc… along the way. But, we can deal with all of that. On Saturday, I will have to put new clutch plates in the bike and fill it with oil etc… But, the bike is ready to go otherwise.
I hope to provide a great story for that race.
Tomorrow I am going to spend some time fitting up the helmet camera, and I hope to make that work for the race. If all goes well, I will be posting a video on Youtube, and a link from the site.
I am rambling, I know. You can tell that I am bored and ready to race. IT IS SNOWING OUTSIDE!!!! JEEZ!
See you in North Carolina!
Joe
303 Off-road 