Single Track & Cycling Gods

Today the cycling gods smiled upon us...

The amigos and I along with Turbo spent a very hot and humid morning whipping up some dirt on the single track trails of Murphy-Hanrehan Park in southern Twin Cities. We spent about 2.5 hours churning our way through the woods of the park.This trail is my favorite to ride. It isn't by any means the most technically difficult trail in the area, but I have managed to fracture some ribs here in the past. Today, Bob managed to do an endo and messed up his front wheel along with a shoulder and I was nearly taken down by a large buck in velvety antlers. The reason I love this trail so much is that it has a beautiful flow to it and it is perfect for anyone with a single speed mountain bike.

The best news of the day came while I was home having a beer in the garage and cleaning the bikes up. The big news is...Our essay, or I should say, Matt's essay (he's the Amigo's creative genious) was accepted by the the Chequamegon race committee and we were able to get into the big race. I'm not sure how many essays were submitted, but they only accept the top 50. So now after a couple of months of waiting, we are in and the real serious training can begin.
My goals...keep my heart healthy, gear down the single speed to build strength, hills, hills, and more hills, speed and endurance. Finally, sub-three hours. Last year I took nearly 30 minutes off of my previous year's time and finished at 3 hrs 6 minutes. This year I'm looking at 2:55 or under. Ambitious but doable.