This will be the first in a small series of post Sea Otter Classic blog posts. I'll start with a review of the training I laid out in my previous blog post and then follow with other posts about the Airborne photo shoot with Ian Hylands, the awesome people I had a chance to meet and new experiences courtesy of Sea Otter.
The timing of Sea Otter remained to be tricky as the weather did not permit local mountain bike trails to open until 4/12 which coincidentally was the same day I flew out to Sea Otter. Given that I was the only rider in my age class not from California this really did me no favors. However, riding on the road did provide a nice endurance base, which is why I was able to finish the 20 mile race and not be last, but in race condition, I was not. But I guess, I had no illusions going in that I would be. I did feel like I could ride all day, just not fast necessarily.
The pumptrack as training for climbing: This actually worked a little better than I thought it would. In terms of cardiovascular conditioning, it was great. I was really surprised at how well I felt with my lungs on the Sea Otter XC course which ends in a 3-4 mile climb. Predictably the shortcoming of this strategy was leg strength. While I was breathing well, my legs just didn't have the power to push up hills at a competitive speed.
Jumping on a 29er without the benefit of much previous trail riding was tough. It could not really be duplicated by riding a 29er on wood at Ray's. I'll get more into my 29er experience in a later post, but let's just say it certainly didn't feel natural to jump on a 29er and race. I don't mean that to sound negative, I just don't have a feel for it yet. My Airborne Goblin is suppose to arrive later this afternoon and I plan on logging as many miles as possible as soon as the trails dry up. So stay tuned for 29er adjustment updates.
Video updates: I just entered a video on the WORS (Wisconsin Off Road Series) Subaru Cup video remix contest. Please, please, please follow the link and leave a comment and/or "like" my video to help increase my chances of winning :) Feel free to watch as many times as possible, too.
I just started cutting the photo shoot footage for the up coming "making of" video for the Ian Hyland/Airborne photo shoot. As I shot a TON of footage, I'm not sure how this video will take to complete, but I'm working on it.
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