Ready for the Black Locust & OC

I have been training hard the entire winter for the next two weekends. Hopefully all those "colder than a well digger's ass rides" will pay off.

Up first is the Black Locust Duathlon. I'm excited to have the opportunity to race without promoting. This is such a luxury. It seems like a simple thing, but for the past 8 years I have been involved in the majority of the off-road duathlons in this area. I believe they are awesome events and are so much fun to race. It's unfortunate that there aren't that many here in the Midwest.

This past weekend I put in about 11 hours of training in 3 days. I am actually feeling very good endurance wise. I sort of wish I had some higher intensity days in my legs and more running miles, but the form is good and I am confident about Saturday. I really like the run course at this event. There are plenty of creek crossing and technical terrain. Anything to keep those light weight guys with weak ankles in check. The weather is looking good for me also. High on Saturday is 44 with a 70% chance of rain on Thursday and Friday. Who doesn't just love a good muddy race at the SAC River Trails :-)

After this weekend I have also deemed myself ready for the Ouachita Challenge. It will certainly be a challenge for me as I will be on a rigid single speed beast called Mary. After 4 hours of riding her at Landahl this past Saturday, I questioned my decision to enter the SS division. But somehow riding with a single speed takes all the pressure off and I can just ride and see how many "geared full-suspension" riders I can pass.