Looking back and going forward

It was 366 days ago that I entered my 2^nd race since my 12 year hiatus off the bike.  I was somehow talked into the Vision Quest race by my good friend Chas, and managed to transfer a spot at the last minute.  I had only been mountain biking again for about 4 months, most of the time on a single speed too, and I had never ridden over 40 miles, and there I was about to race 56 miles with over 11,000 feet of climbing.

For some reason when I started riding again I wanted to do these longer ‘epic’ races, looking back I feel a lot of people getting into racing are interested in this type of racing for the accomplishment of completing something great.  I got lucky and managed to finish the 2011 VQ top 20, and 1^st in the single speed category, it was a great experience and I learned a lot.  I will never forget seeing Tinker and the lead group a switchback ahead of me on the first climb in the dark, it looked like they were doing 25mph uphill!  At that point I really kind of realized how slow I really was, and started to think what I could do to start riding faster.  Just ride more right, HA!

I did a few more races last year, with some decent results but just couldn’t figure out what it takes to start getting to that next level.  I recalled the first time Len told me he had a coach, Im pretty sure I laughed out loud at him.  A coach for mountain biking?  Seriously? 

It didn't take me too much longer to realize that I wanted to step up my game so there I was asking Len if I could get the number for his coach.  I have only been working with Trevor Glavin about 4 months and in about two weeks I'm about to race one of the biggest races of the year in Cat1 and am feeling pretty good about it.  I have been wanting to race sea otter since I worked in a bike shop 12 years ago, and now that I live in CA its a pretty feasible task.

Its pretty awesome to look back and see how far you have come in a year, what has changed and where you plan on trying to go.  I am super excited to keep working with everyone and see how far I can go, big thanks to everyone at this point!

From this(haha)...

http://www.photoreflect.com/pr3/orderpage.aspx?pi=0EFA006G000022&c=&e=


To this(haha again)...