Saturday, February 11, 2012

Anniversary Weekend (Berrman Trail Weekend)

181 days till Leadville Trail 100

Well, I figured out that I am not a very consistent blogger, however, I have some good stuff to catch up on.

Christmas 2011
The entry deadline for the LT100 Lottery was January 31 and the "winners' will be announced Feb 15 or 16.  Supposedly, they have about 12,000 entries for 1,700 spots.  The first number may be a little inflated but you get the point.  I, however, should have nothing to worry about as I have 60 volunteer hours from last year and the race director Shannon assures me this will get me in.
Who Knows but its the Cardinals

Mrs. Paschal and Darla



Just did this one to make her mad

WOW, were they in high school?
Training has been going good although it is a little hard to stay motivated and keep pushing in the middle of winter.  Last weekend was my 16th anniversary with my beautiful wife Darla.  She is a tremendous supporter of the accomplishment of this insane goal, without her support this would definitely not be possible for me.  So, I organized a weekend getaway to the middle of nowhere cabin to get her "away" for the weekend.  I also invited our friends the Paschals and told Brad to bring his MTN bike as we would try to ride....well as luck would have it, we were very close to the Berryman Trail in MO and got to ride it everyday of the trip (Well, one of us rode everyday).

The second day I felt the need to record a little video before going out for a ride, I am really excited, enjoy.


Then there was the video after, little better mood and Brad feels the wrath.....


Just a few select pictures from the weekend of riding the Berryman.  Also, the girls had a nice relaxing time at the cabin, my wife was happy even though a lot of MTN biking was had on her getaway weekend.

Brad figuring out where we are...
View from the living room (Superfly!!)
The riding was very wet, on Sunday, I rode and averaged about 8 miles an hour with a lot of mud, wet leaves, and water.  I also had to stop a lot to wipe off the glasses.  This speed in these conditions, I was pleased with as during the Berryman Epic in October in perfect conditions I was riding slower (cramping).  I am starting to feel really good on the bike and more powerful.  The long grinder climbs on the Berryman were no problem this weekend, I never even thought about dismounting and my heart rate stayed in the 150's on most of the climbing (that's good).  My weakness on climbing is still the steep grade (well isn't everyones?) which pegs my heart rate and zaps my power.  Unfortunately (or fortunately),  the LT100 has a lot of that type of climbing.....if it were easy.....I also leave for Georgia next week to spend 5 days in the mountains climbing with some boys from Edwardsville including Gibbs my coach.  I am kinda looking forward to that but thinking it is going to really push my limits as all the guys going seem to be cyclists....(if you know what I mean).  I rode with a couple of these guys two weekends ago on a "Easy" no drop ride with a lot of wind.  We averaged about 20 mph and I was hanging on for dear life at points with most of the guys talking while riding like, "hey, hows the kids?" and I am saying, "gasp, gasp, I,,,,, cant,,,,talk,,,,,,,gasp, ,,,,,right,,,,,,gasp,gasp,,,,,,now"  Evidently, Gibbs thinks I can hang, at least for a while.  This trip should help my climbing skills!


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