Stony Creek XC

It's been 10 years of racing now, and I can't remember one of those years not including at least one trip over to the local trails at Stony Creek for a race. My training has swung full gear into high intensity mode lately to get ready for the fall season of shorter races. Mitch has gotton really good on the scooter and we're like a team out there on the dirt rds. However my body is still adapting. The workouts are really intense and I always want to quit at least once before we're halfway through.

There was plenty of crazy fast talent present for our local XC series race. Christian Tanguy, Mark Parmelee, and Greg Kuhn to name a few. We took off and a group of 5 of us were riding together. Kuhn, Tanguy, Parmelee, J. Whitbrot, and me. By the end of lap 2, it was down to just me, Tanguy, and Parmelee. During lap 4, Christian made a super charge through the roller coaster and got a gap on Mark and I. Without my full suspension Superfly 100, I wouldn't have made back to his wheel on the rough singletrack. It was down to just him and me as we made our way out the pines. I was feeling pretty gased from Christians's roller coaster effort, and just couldn't seem to fully recover. Christian rolled away at the end of lap 4. I was doing everything I could to try and recover and keep my tempo up. Finally Mark caught me about halfway through lap 5. The legs were feeling better, but still not 100%. I punched it a couple times, but Mark was right on me. We both rolled into the finish and I just sort of rolled in behind him. Didn't have much left for a sprint. Congrats to Christian and Mark who both rode strong races. It was a fun race, and a really good workout. I think my finishing time was 2-1/2hrs! That's a pretty long XC race.

Stony Creek seemed like the perfect fitness topper for next weekend at Shenandoah, the NUE series finale! I'm currently tied for 3rd place in the points, so it will all shake down by then end of this weekend between SH100 and Park City P2P. I'll take it easy on the intervals this week and give the body a little time to rest and adapt. Hopefully I can continue my streak on the NUE podiums! Thanks for reading.