Planning ahead...

Ok, so not getting to ride so much this month is starting to affect my brain. I've now begun plotting ride ideas, options, goals etc for 2009.

First up will be a Mountain Cross Series in February 2009. Why not? I can't completely die in the middle of winter. This will be a new format for me, and to make it a bit more challenging for me, I'm considering racing this series on Copper, my single speed. WHAT? Yea, why not? It's got a lighter frame and it's a shorter frame, so getting off and getting it over the barriers should be a tad easier than with Ritchey. This means I need to just ride my bike, and I need to get out and go to the local park or somewhere and start figuring out this quick dismount etc. I'll add that to my list of many things to do.

Next, I've been thinking about the road rides that I essentially ended my riding "season" with a few weeks back. As you may recall I rode ~50 miles through Bradshaw one Sunday followed by a 40-mile ride on the Parkway the next. I really did enjoy these. There was just something rewarding about covering that much distance using only my power - no gasoline, no car etc. It was a sense of accomplishment that I thoroughly enjoyed being able to talk, well brag about. I'm looking forward to more long rides in 2009 including a metric century (~63 miles) and a full 100-mile road ride. I'd love to be able to do this ride, but I'm not sure I'll be up to 63 miles on the terrain of the Parkway around Floyd by then. Plus, I'm not sure about my race schedule for next year yet (see next paragraph). Oddly enough, I wouldn't mind trying a long distance end-to-end, multi-day road ride, but let me ponder that thought for a while.

Having mentioned racing brings me to mountain bike racing. I'm not sure I liked having the Derailler Series split up after all. It seemed like the season drug on forever. With that said, I'm not planning to do the MW Race this year. The course there is horrible, the volunteers this year were awful and they screwed up the entire thing by misdirecting the racers. They don't deserve to have a race, so I'm not wasting my time to go there again. I'm also not planning to ride the PoMo again. I did it the first year just to say I did it. It was a great accomplishment. This past year, I'm improved my time greatly without trying real hard. I was just there to finish. This in my opinion just isn't a mountain bike race. I will just go watch this year. I'm 50/50 on whether I want to go back to Danville to race. It's a long drive for a race that I've not enjoyed for two years now. I'll have to get back to you on that. That leaves 3 Derailler races - Bedford and Lynchburg.

Regarding Bedford, I love Falling Creek and I want to continue to support Kenny Palmer. He's a great person and has done great work there. I will definitely race there and/or Montvale should he have races there. Lynchburg, I have unfinished business at Peaks View Park. I've been in three Derailler races there now, and I'm just downright angry at the place. It's a fun place to ride; but when it comes to racing, it seems to kick my ass every year. The first year as a beginner was just hard. The second year as beginner again, I broke my derailleur; and last year, my first race in sport class, I was out of my league. I want to go there and have a good race. The other race in Lynchburg is on Candler's Mountain. Given the huge area to ride and the varying degrees of difficulty, this place is probably the hardest course of all. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed my race this year even with all that transpired; but I really want to go do that again and get back before the finish line is dismantled. 4 and 1/2 hours after starting then I didn't even get to cross the finish line was hugely disappointing. I do hope they have this race again, but I do hope they learned some valuable lessons from their mistakes.

Ok so that leaves me with three races. Three leaves me a race short of being counted in the Series standings, so that may bring Danville back into play. I guess it will depend on how many races they have this year. I'll figure out series participation once a schedule of events is set. Anyway, I also want to do the Carvin's Cove race in 2009. I missed it last year because I was out of town. I might have to consider going to Greensboro again and maybe another race in North Carolina. It would also be interesting to see if I could wander into a road race in 2009, but I highly doubt that would happen. Those chicks are just wicked fast.

Who knows? It will all depend on life, work, money, etc. I'm just daydreaming now. =)