Road Work

I've been riding the road bike A LOT lately.  It's not that I'm taking a turn in my attitude toward mountain biking, but rather that I'm refining my training approach a little bit.

A few years ago, when doing my first dedicated mountain bike racing season, I was super fit.  I rode quite a bit, quite often, and raced decently well.  The one thing holding me back at the time was my technical ability.  Fast forward a few years to present day, and the one thing holding me back is precisely the opposite: FITNESS!

After that first year of mountain bike racing, I dedicated myself whole-heartedly to becoming a better technical rider.  I was dead set on gaining speed through sections of course that had previously slowed me down.  I, like always, went a bit overboard with it and got into more super techy trail riding and some downhill as well.  It was a good thing for my bike handling and overall skill, but now it's time to get back to work on getting in some hours on the road bike.

The road has been two things for me so far.  First and foremost it's been a change of pace.  I get bogged down sometimes in my training (like most people, I'd imagine) and need to mix things up occasionally. For me it's not just riding in a different environment (i.e. the road), but rather riding a different bike altogether.  Equipment means a lot to me and in diversifying what I'm literally on, it has a big impact in my overall attitude towards getting out and getting motivated.  I'm a head-case, I know, but hey, that's me!

So the last couple of weeks have consisted of probably about 90% road riding and about 10% mountain biking.  With our next race coming up in about a week, I'm going to transition back to the dirt a bit more for this final week to fine tune my trail skills.  I'm positive they haven't gone anywhere, but one thing is for sure-when I hit the trails now, I'll be much better for it from a heart and lungs point of view!