With today’s rain we should have good conditions tomorrow at round #5 of Southridge Winter Series. Looking forward to the race!

Some XC skills

Finally a race! Not super fast going over the rocky rolling terrain of #lakeaccotinkpark but good enough for an #agegroupwin. I think I was 7th overall, not sure. It's crazy how I felt great, like I was knocking down 6 minute miles, except they were 7:30s. Some more bling for the @athletics_east_masters_tc virtual trophy case. And I am pleased to see that I got progressively faster in today's race. Maybe I am finally rounding the corner. Some tougher, more competitive events are coming up though. Looking forward to the challenge. #runblr #fitblr #xcracing #trailracing #xctraining #summerrunning #almostfallrunning #mastersxcrunner #keepshowingup (at Lake Accotink) https://www.instagram.com/p/CE1vgQfnN67/?igshid=1gf83dchhgzic

UCI MTB XCO World Cup: Mont-Ste-Anne

This was my best XC endurance race so far! The pieces are falling into place. With my endurance fitness as high as it’s ever been. And the bike setup clicking in after going back to 2.2 tires. I love how they drift on this dirt, and the faster steering input & acceleration is awesome. The FOX34 is more than enough to plow through anything technical anyway. I’m loving it. Racing is amazing.

We did an XC Marathon race today. It was about 2X the XC Olympic distance with 64 km and 1600 m of climbing. I'm stoked to finish it under 4 hours! (3:53:19). That was 4th in the Pro Men category. The trails were so good up there; I was having a blast and smiling through my second lap. I think I managed my pace and nutrition well. I drank ice cold Tail Wind Endurance Fuel all race and took 4 GU Espresso LOVE gels. My caffeine intake was about double what I usually take on race days. Weirdly I wasn't bothered by the 2500 m elevation much. I would go by feeling: go as hard until the legs start burning, then pace down. I would only keep digging through the burning legs when essential to keep climbing over the technical obstacles, which I knew many of them on this course. Next time we race there, I might be able to push harder in between.

Recovery ride but not really

A lot of riding in the last three days ☺️