Another Phase

Well it's time to taper off the riding with DK less than 2 weeks away, I will still ride just not nearly as far and not at a high pace (well if we ride tomorrow night I will try to hang with the big boys for that one). I can tell that the race is getting closer because I am having a hard time trying to get deep breaths. That happens to me on races I get nervous about, the first time I was afraid I was getting sick but turns out it was just a bit of anxiety. It is affecting me early in rides as I am totally winded but after about 10 minutes I must seem to settle into a groove and forget about it and then am fine. I am needing to get my water intake at about 90 oz per day which I am short of right now so I really need to focus on that. I also need to get better at eating the right foods and not a bunch of empty calories, although a few extra fat stores in the upcoming 10 days will probably be a good thing. I like to eat but the extra calories right now along with the shorter and less often rides make me feel "fluffy", but I know it needs to be done.

I have to keep telling myself that the DK 200 is a long ride and that I am riding against myself. It is too easy to get sucked into racing early in this ride but going out too hard too fast usually doesn't work out too well. I had such a good finish last year that of course I would like to finish that well or better but just finishing is the goal, plus there are double the racers this year so that can change things dramatically.

Every time I read about someones training for DK I get worked up and start getting concerned that I haven't trained enough, but looking at my mileage that I have logged so far this year I have the base. The lack of interval training really doesn't concern me too much in the race due to the long distance of this event.

I put my bike back up on the stand the other day and got the shifting better, not nearly as good as Cale did but it is better. Then I put some tape on the barrel adjuster because I am concerned that it is a bad adjuster and could be letting slack back into the cable. After taping the adjuster I took my cross bike back out and rode the loop and it did much better, the chain never did jump down to the lower cogs when I applied more torque. I need to ride it some more to make sure that the problem doesn't happen again, I am sure hoping that this problem is not going to come back and affect my riding.

Okay it's about 3:00, must be time to eat again!!!