Today was nice. I was up and around early took the kids to school and then was off to Branched Oak lake for a couple hours of Mountain Biking. The trails were in great shape with the exception of a few low spots and all the damage done to the trails by the horses.

The plan was to get out and really get one last good push in before I start to taper for the race this weekend. I really wanted to get out and spend most of my time at race pace. For the most part I did this. I did notice that my fitness may not be quite as good as Ithought it was once I got onto a trail with a lot of climbing like I had today.

I did realize today though that I need to try to get down to the lake more often to train. It's going to really help my skills more. I need to get better at descending. I still feel like it is a weakness of mine. I did have my first real crash of the season on one of the descents today. The trail in this section is pretty much a rut and I was on the side and going around a turn in it my wheel slipped into the rut and I went straight down on my head and shoulder. It's funny that when you go down like that it feels like it is happening in slow motion. Nothing hurt though for me or the bike. The only thing I got was a nice deep scratch on my ankle and a torn sock.

All in all it was a real good day of riding. The weather is supposed to suck tomorrow so I'm playing it by ear on wether I ride or not. I'm trying not to taper to much. In the past I haven't ridden very much at all during race weeks and then I get to the race and feel sluggish. I plan to still ride almost everyday this week. I'm just not going to do anymore race pace or hard long rides.

Tomorrow though is also my first day back to work. Not really looking that forward to it. I was enjoying the extra saddle time but I guess I got to earn the money to pay for it. Later.

Harp