Levis Trow

Levis was a blast. Hot and painful, but a ton of fun. The STL representatives made their way up to MKE on Thursday. We proceeded to celebrate Scott's birthday and the smokefreeness of the MKE bars! It was a bit of a late night for a Thursday, we almost closed Wolski's.

Friday it took us forever to get to Levis, so by the time we got there I was really itching to go ride. On our pre-ride we saw that the tornado was not horrible, but also not great to the trail conditions. By the end of Friday night I was pretty sure I was going to do the 50 instead of the 25 because the lap had more fun parts and I wouldn't have to wait until 3pm to start. First thing Saturday morning I signed up for the 50.

Then I found out at the start of the 100 that the laps were now 15 miles long and everyone was doing the same lap. Suddenly, I was going from 25 to 60 miles. Game plan: feel out the first lap and try to get faster and faster.

Well, I did hold back more than normal, but I still got a little swept up in racing and went out faster than I had planned. After 30 minutes of that I back off just a bit and settled into a comfy pace at which I could really enjoy the trails. The trails and the route were awesome, except for the bog section--that part just stunk on a hardtail. All in all, I really enjoyed just riding the trails

The heat was rough and people were dropping left and right, the tortoise plan may have worked if I wanted to ride more than 6 hours. But I didn't. I hadn't planned on it and didn't really feel like getting beat up that long. So I only did 3 laps, knowing that a 4th lap would have sent me well beyond 6 hours.

A little stat action from the Garmin w/speed sensor: the laps were actually about 16.2 miles with 1,430 feet of elevation per lap(according to the elevation correction function). Which means that 3 laps was over 48 miles and much closer to the 50 mile race the organizers kept calling it. Big props to all the people that finished the full 64ish miles.

I think Eddie was feeling the late Thursday night during his 105 mile race but he seemed like he had fun. Scott and Matt did great, finishing 6 laps in their duo and taking 4th. I have no idea were I placed, and I am not too concerned about it. I had fun and more importantly, I felt better than I have in while. After Saturday's race and an hour trail run today I feel good. My legs are cashed but aerobically I feel good. I have realized for a while that my mtb races this year are just going to be training for cx--at least that is my hope.