You Know You're a Cyclist When....

You know when you're a cyclist when....(feel free to add to the list and I'll start)

1. You can effectively pronounce the last name Eatough (as in eat off a plate)
2. You have become a full fledged meteorologist overnight.
3. Minivans and import station wagons become more appealing based solely on the amount of gear and bikes they can hold.

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See you all at nine mile and yes I am still a little sore from the 12 hour.

EVOMO 4th and 5th at WEMS Opener

What a way to spend Memorial Day weekend than on the trails racing for 12 hours. Friday night brought me up to Green Bay to stay with Jesse and Steve from Performa Racing prior to meeting Brando at the roadhouse. Getting up at the butt crack of dawn isn't always in my best interest as I am night person, but with 12 hour on the bike ahead of me there is no way I could do any wrong today as I jammed to Rise Against over and over again all the way down to Kewaskum.

We didn't arrive with too much time to spare as I had barely enough time to say hi to fellow EVOMO Teammate Tim Ek. I ran my bike to the start, grabbed my camelback and gloves and by the time I turned around they started the race and I was instantly dfl and stawicki comes screaming by as well just before the trail narrowed I couldn't latch on to him as he was long gone before it opened up and there I was fighting an up hill battle. At this point on my 4th or 5th lap knowing that our times were all within a minute of each other and no letting up it would be extremely hard to catch up before the 6 hour started. I was feeling okay on the first pit to switch camelbacks and bottles and it wasn't until about 7 1/2 hours into it that I started to lose some substantial power and not riding the big ring in places on the course that I normally would and the climbs were starting to not feel effortless anymore. I think this was a case of lack of calories coming in and relying on hammer gel and pay day bars to get by not as planned...I really needed more time to get setup correctly...lesson learned.

So here's the deal
I did 25 laps 117 miles and a 5th place finish (this is only 60 or so less than at 24/9 last year what a difference a year makes)

EVOMO:
Tim Ek 4th place 27 laps @11:46
Justin 5th Place 25 laps @11:24

Treadfest 2008

I wasn't sure what the weather was going to bring to the Lake Geneva area, but as luck would have it, the rain held off on race day.

I didn't know what to make of the race as I was still sore from the weeks workouts and felt lazy rolling up to the start, but on the plus side I was claritin clear as I continued to fight off the allergies and lung issues stemming from it.

Anyway, I actually got off to a decent start but fell back on the climb as the lactic acid built up fast. I had time to recover on the first drop as there was a logjam and by that time the lead group was gone and by the time I got to the colorado heartbreaker I was already 3 minutes or so back and not riding in the big ring to make a long story short the first lap was the worst of the five. I finished in about the same placing once again but I know my better rides are ahead of me and this weekend in kewaskum and rhinelander will tell a different story.

Lost and Found = Iola Recap

Photo Courtesy of Rusty

I gave it a crack and rolled up to the line for my first WORS expert race and I really didn't know what to expect, but that was fine since I didn't have any large lofty goals going into this one considering the fact this course hasn't always been nice to me and there were so many unknowns about starting, pacing, and so on, but as usual I end up losing focus on all of that as quickly as I lost focus in my contacts so after 20+ seconds of screwing around that I am off again and chasing the five guys that went by and caught 2 in which one I think Jerrod was his name wanted to trade me lungs for tech...sometimes I would definitely take that in a second as I am still trying to improve those skills and appreciated the comment to be honest. Second and third laps were uneventful as my lower back started to act up. Fourth lap brought caffeine which set up for a great fifth lap and finished with fresh legs which should not have happened lets just say I need a good dose of learning how to deal with the pain train for the entire duration of the race or maybe I am just a slacker...who knows.

So with that being said I know I could have done better than 17th in my group, but hey I went through this very same thing 4 years ago and bounced back to a 4th place finish so we'll see what happens as it's the start of an exciting year.

The next stop on the WORS dirt circuit is Treadfest in Lake Geneva. Hope to see ya there!