My last cyclocross training ride prior to Wednesday’s CrossVegas race was on Friday. All is well- my power numbers on the CX bike are just about as good as they’ve ever been, so all that was left to do over the weekend was some active recovery.

Saturday, after a short ride and some pretty strenuous yoga (if you’re local and enjoy yoga, you HAVE to try Arline’s Level 3 Vinyasa class on Saturdays), I helped the guys plan and build a bike rack in the garage. It’d been a while since I’d parked the Element in there because several of the 20+ bikes that reside in and around the house were spilling out into my parking area. So, we decided we might as well make it easier/neater to store them out there- especially since CX season is upon us, and there’d be extra dirty bikes moving around.

I was put in charge of sanding…

 

Finished product:

 

Loaded up:

 

We celebrated with sushi and a Saturday night trip to Target. Exhilarating.

Sunday morning, Ryan and Matt went out to set a new WRT-Stanky-WRT standard. Earlier in the week, I’d done the route in 3 hours, 10 minutes (including both a mid-lap stop to help a lost old guy on a bike at Stank and a wrong turn on the way home). They wanted a longer ride, so they did the same route, but with 2 laps at Stank instead of 1. Elapsed time, 4 hours, 16 minutes. I have vowed to hammer out a sub 4 sometime soon after Interbike.
If you’re local and want to give it a shot from the house, hit me up on the FB page, and I’ll let you know where to park and tell you the route/rules. Gentleman’s rules in strong effect- not only can you not do anything that makes mountain bikers look like douchebags to other trail users and drivers, you are required to act kindly towards other trail users (watch for/greet/help them if they need it) and be mindful of traffic laws.

I picked up some groceries for the grill at Whole Foods, then came home and went for a run. In case you missed it, I’m slowly adding runs into my training in order to prep for the Tennessee Adventure Challenge… a little less than a month away. I wanted to see how fast I could run a mile. Turns out, I can run a mile in about 6 minutes, 27 seconds. I’ve got a good start on the speed stuff, now I just have to get through CrossVegas then start building some distance.

By the time I was cooled off and changed, the guys were home. After lunch, I went out to a local nursery and picked up some crepe myrtle trees.

 

I dug holes while the guys bent metal garden border material. A few hours later…

 

I also tried a different setup to catch the armadillo that has been rooting around in the yard and flowerbed at night:

 

It didn’t work out exactly as I’d planned:

 

I took it to the woods this morning and let it go.

So, two more days, and I’m off to Vegas. Lots to do in that time- gotta make some “sponsor me” packets for a couple of companies, ride a little, pack my bike, clothes, and generally get everything in line. Right now, I feel like my cat, Thor, when he crawls through the handle of a paper sack, then tries to walk around, stuck in the handle, with the bag dragging along under/behind him. He tries to walk it off and act cool when it’s obvious by his body language that he’s about to totally lose his shit and freak out. That’s prettymuch where I am.