It's heating up

Well, still no racing for me. The Gentleman's race got cancelled due to weather and I haven't had the time or the money to get away for any other races. That being said, however, I have stayed in the saddle the whole time. No real training though, but my base must be huge by now.

I quit the Emergency Room to work in the Cardiology Treatment and Recovery unit which was not only a pay raise, but day shifts. This works so much better with my class schedule as well as my racing schedule. Unless I work extra, I am off work by 9:30pm on Fridays which allows me to race weekends. It also gives me a consistent schedule to work with. Granted it is a very full schedule, but at least I can work with it.

So, that means that it is time to get focused on actual training instead of just maintaining a base fitness level. It also means that I get to watch what I eat a little better rather than just grabbing whatever I can. I have already taken off five pounds. I am also training for a marathon in December in Las Vegas. So I have to schedule runs with my rides. I have a plan for mileage each day with my runs and rides leading up to the race in December. We'll have to see how that works, though, as right now I have both my long runs and my long rides scheduled on the weekends.

The temps are really climbing. It's common to have heat indices of over 100 degrees most days. The race season is heating up too with the two biggest series' that Team Colavita/Parisi Coffee competes in coming up this weekend and the next with the Tour of KC and the Tour of Lawrence, respectively. I'll be racing in the Tour of KC, but not Lawrence. That's fourth of July weekend and I'll be at the lake!

I am looking forward to the Cliff Drive circuit race tomorrow. The Tour missed it last year because of construction and I heard that it is a really cool course. Then Sunday is the Power and Light Crit. This was a fun race last year with a course that suited me well. Steep and short climbs with sharp 90 degree turns, very cool. This will be my first whole year racing Cat 4 so I am not expecting too much especially since I haven't been doing any speed work this year. I figure that I'll just enjoy myself and get some more racing experience while using the races as a good hard workout.

The next races I have on my schedule are the Kansas State Games in Topeka in July and the Rapture in Misery 6/12 hour MTB race in August. I'd like to do more, but I am being realistic that with my schedule I might not be able to get anymore in.

That's it for now. Stay dirty my friends.

-Nate