Getting ready to rumble... or grumble. And a challenge!

As I've posted before, I don't really get the opportunity to do a heck of a lot of training for the Cap City Cross races. Mainly because I'm on the road most of the week and when I get home, it's all catching up with family time. I am trying to make the best out of whatever time I do have, however. Sometimes that means I ride at the super-secret-small-dirt-track or I work on riding the steep hills nearby. With the final results of the last race placing me squarely in the middle of the pack (19th out of 40 in the "C" race) I have a lot of training to do.

The super-secret-small-dirt-track-in-a-small-patch-of-woods is basically a couple of trails that are used by the ATV and motocross riders from the motorcycle shop across the street.  Over the summer they didn't ride it much which meant some of the trail became overgrown as my little bike riding once every couple of weeks wasn't enough to keep nature at bay. Which is good or bad, depending on your point of view. To me, it is what it is (or, was what is was, I guess). But now they have been back, breaking new trail. It's fun to ride out there and gives me a chance to work on putting down power (yeah it even sounds silly to even type that) in the grass and dirt along with working on technical skills. I find that I make a better collector of burrs than a fast rider. When those tiny ones that are about the size of ticks get stuck all over your leg hair, they tend to cling like ticks, too. Ouch. No, they aren't ticks. I do know the difference. But then again when oxygen deprivation blurs your vision enough that you find the trees moving, maybe, Rabbit. Just maybe.

While Ohio is mostly flat, pretty close to my house is a series of short (less than a mile) but steep hills, and when I'm out on the road I try to stitch several of those together. This I found is a great means for bringing your lungs to the outside of your body and turning your legs into the consistency of 3 day old pudding. Enough of a skin that you can balance a vanilla wafer on top of it but not enough to support a half dozen, let alone the weight of my burgeoning middle-aged body. Yeah I forward to that.

Nonetheless, I honestly feel better after I get home and get showered. I've always sort of known that my mental well-being is better if I do some sort of physical activity. My bride has recognized it long ago and has sent me out at times when I start getting extra-grumpy. Like you, I've heard of the "exercise releases endorphins" thing too. Perhaps there's really something to that. But it's the same whether it's a one-hour self-punishment fest, or a 3 hour slow rambling ride.

Hopefully it will pay off. We shall see maybe Sunday. Race #2 in the Cap City Cross series at Coffman Park in Dublin, OH! The weather should be great for spectators. Much better than selling ice cream when it's 43 degrees F outside, too. This promises to be a good, fun event so I look forward to seeing lots of people out there heckling us. Or giving us beer hand-ups. There's always a great bunch of competitors to be on the course with at Cap City events.

Speaking of, I've almost been talked into the challenge of racing not only the "C" race that I place squarely in the middle of (30 minutes +1 lap), but also racing the "B" race directly afterwards (45 minutes +1 lap). Holy bendy legs, batman. Am I up to the challenge? Sure, why not?

Question is, to those of you who haven't yet contributed to Wounded Warrior Project, are you up to the challenge? If I can throw down for a second more punishing race, can you toss some money to the Wounded Warrior Project? If so, please contribute HERE, please.

Thanks for reading, and thanks for your support.