Busy Bees

Anne and I have been moving and shaking since she got in this past Tuesday.  Getting the apartment cleaned, sorting out a bike for her to race, and getting in rides have taken a big priority.  With me getting back into the swing of things at work and trying to get my business normal again, it's been even tougher to sit back and relax.  Then again, we're both young and the time to relax will come later.

This weekend we're headed up to New Paltz for Anne to compete in the Wildcat 100 mountain bike race.  It will be her first proper mountain bike race and should be a good experience.  Her background is in long distance triathlon so this should provide quite the challenge, but, riding with her the last few days, I've got to say that she should be well up for it.  The longer distance, endurance mountain bike races are really not all that technical, and given that she's got good handling skills on the bike already, I feel that this race will be more a test of fitness than skills.  She's coming off of doing Challenge Roth about a month ago, and is pretty healthy and fit.  While I'm confident she'll be just fine and wind up doing quite well, I'm more excited for her just because I know it will be a really fun experience.  Mixing things up (especially with mountain biking-the "real" sport-hahaha) is always something that's good.  If nothing else, it'll give her an opportunity to get her mind out of the "swim-bike-run" mode for just a bit and concentrate on something a little different.  It's still going to hurt like hell, make her tired, and test her meddle, so she should be right at home.

For me, being on the course and at the event will be fun.  I've never spectated a mountain bike race before (at least a 100 mile one), so this will be a new experience.  Though endurance racing is no longer something I like to do for myself, like watching Anne race triathlon, I'll just be pumped to be there supporting her.  And, being that it's a mountain bike race, there's bound to be plenty of beer there to help me pass the time.  I'll have my own bike there too, so being able to get out on the course to see her as well as have some fun of my own will be cool.

I love the town of New Paltz and have been dying to get up there for over a year now.  Last year, when I was still racing, I wanted to do this particular race, but because of health reasons I had to give it a pass.  It'll be cool to see what I missed, but I'm sure that I won't actually miss it-riding that long and that far in the shape that I'm in now would suck more than having to swim in the Hudson for an Ironman two days after a sewage dump.  Not fun.

So today is going to be a little bit of a restful, get life stuff and errands done type of day before we head off early tomorrow morning to get up to the race site.  I'm hoping to get a good chance for Anne to pre-ride the course and get her bearings.  The opportunity to camp before the race was available, but given my experience with camping the night before a long race, I suggested we take a pass on that.  It's all well and good to be part of the atmosphere, but when you're out to do your best the following day, sleeping on the earth in a hot tent is not the way to go about it.  Anyway, this weekend should be lots of fun filled with lots of cool experiences and hopefully a new sport that Anne can get excited about.