Thursday, December 11, 2008

Time for my Annual year in Review

Related to the Biking and all that, hopefully I won't repeat myself. 2008 was a good year for me on the bike, decent off the bike in some areas, horrible off the bike in others.

First Some stats

About 402 hours on Bike, who knows the miles, it is all about hours, quality hours.

Trainer - 23 rides for 21.5 hours, less than 1 hour average per ride, longest ride 2 hours, Nice.
Road - 78 rides for 123 hours, just over 1.5 hours per ride, longest ride 3.5 hours
MTB - 109 rides for 215 hours, Just under 2 hour average, longest ride 5.5 hours, 13 rides over 3 hours
Cyclocross-22 rides for 33 hours, 1.5 hour average, longest ride, 2 hours, pretty much every race day warm up, race, cool down. 

That adds up to 232 days on the bike, so far in 2008 and about 1.75 hours per ride. Thats how its done.

Well on to less numeric things.

1. Best Training Ride of the year. Even though it included lots of double track, 30 mph headwinds on the downhill, scary High Tension power lines and a bit of mud on Stuckey, Day 2 of Camp Lynda was awesome. Great company, good bike time and I got to know the new Scalpel very well that day. I also learned that riding without my Ergon grips was  a bad idea. a close second is the Crest-PC ride with Ty, Shannon, Jen and Carl.

2. The 2008 Paz Ortiz Nemesis of the year Award goes to Chris Bingham. With the exception of Draper(more to come) every race post my first 08 win at Soldier Hollow that both Chris and I raced in I got 2nd to his win, if he didn't show up, I won. That is good fun right there.

3. Most satisfying 2nd place of the year.  Stan Crane Memorial. While I wanted to win for Stan, BK's message was more timely, well at least the 'Win Susan' half. It was also fun to see him so psyched on his home trail. I hope to have my revenge in 09.

4. I had 2 'Perfect' races in 2008. Soldier Hollow, I went to the front early and held on to the end even though I had Jack breathing down my neck for most of the race, i kept calm and rode my race. It was nice as it came after a string of last lap blow ups. The 2nd one was the Deer Valley national. Carl V and Sam M were the only locals in my category, so the rest were unknown, I rode conservative up little stick, which is way out of character for me, passed Tim Butler on the first part of the village climb and got around another rider at the first part of the snow top descent. I rode a good second lap and caught up with Carson C from Mad Dog (in another category), and we worked together on lap 3, I gapped him on the snow top descent and went in for a victor by almost 2 minutes.

5. Least perfect and Ironic race of the year would be the Brian Head National. I love that course, one big lap, lots of elevation and fun technical downhills. Before we all headed up from Parowan for the race, Alex G was putting stans in his tires, I gave him shit for doing it so close to race time. Fore Shadowing.  Racer and I were pulling the front group back about 2/3rds or more into the race,  We start going down Dark Hollow and I rip a hole in my tire, a small, sealable hole, except there was NO STANS in my tire. A few hours later after teammate Monique gave me a tube and air I limped into the finish. Dumbass.

6. Best Race trip of the year. This is a hard one, Jackson was great, but the Gooseberry ride the day after Cholla was better.

7. CX season, wow that was hard, 2007 I could ride at the front of most of the CX races. 2008 got a lot faster. I held on as best as I could, had fun and will be back for more in 2009.

2008 could be considered my best season on the bike, multiple wins, in a hard fought competitive category. But in the end it is about having fun and meeting people. I met a lot of new people this year, made more friendships and enjoyed the community again. The trails in Draper have been a big positive change, although I live in Sugarhood, those trails are a blast and the break from shoreline north. I didn't make it up to PC as much as the past due to these trails, well that and the gas prices.

2009 training begins in a few weeks, already got several St G training trips in the works, good times.

3 comments:

KanyonKris said...

You've had a good year. Always good to see you on the trail or road or at the races.

But isn't this a bit premature? I'm not ready to close the lid on 2008 yet. I'm sure I'll have a few more rides - they may not be quality rides, but hey.

UtRider said...

PRO
PRO
PRO

It's your destiny...

Lucy said...

I agree, your 2008 was your best year ever. At least it seemed that way to me when I would see you on the podium so often. Way to Bob-O.