GRAVEL GRINDING

LT 100 - READY OR NOT
With 120 days before the start of the Leadville Trail 100 ( really 104) Mt Bike Race I thought - man, there's still 4 month before the big race. My good friend and many time leadville participant, Mike Johnson has one of those countdown things to Leadville on his blog and when we broke 100 days I thought maybe it is time to dig out the Mt Bike for the season. Last week when the damn thing said less than 90 days - we said it was time to get serious about Leadville training. So Mike put out the word that the adaptation was going to begin this week end.
GETTING CAFFEINATED AT CUP OF JOES

Four Bike Tech Racers - Kathleen Porter (first time Leadviller and my fine training partner), Pete Berendzen, Mike Johnson and I answered the call.We headed west out of Cedar Falls with a goal of riding 4 to 5 hours and earning some Dirty Cup points. The weather was fantastic, the riding was great and the convenient stores were aah convenient.
While we were riding several things occurred to me.
1. There's a reason why we like to ride our X Bikes.
2. How is this gravel grinding going to help with our preparation for the Memorial Day Races.
3. No matter what kind of training/racing you've done you are never really prepared for leadville - except, maybe in Dec and Jan.
4. But what really occurred to me is that there is no better way to spend a Saturday morning than riding a lot of gravel with your friends on your 62 birthday.
We met our goals and immediately started making plans for for the Memorial Day Races.
John