LOTOJA TRAINING RIDE #7 – THE NON-DOT WAY

Here I am at NON-DOT MTB race #3, Aliso Woods.  It’s 630, and I’m scrambling to put up our canopy and bike rack so I can get registered for the 730 start.  I want to spin a bit to warm up before I get slayed… there will be 4 current or former National Champions lining up plus the rest of the gang.  The Aliso course features Rocket a 1/4 mile trail of very gnarly rock, we get to hit it 3 times.

What could be better for LoToJa prep?

90 minutes at the limit.

On my hardtail.

Pretty much any road ride could be better.  I’m fatigued from Thursday’s Market Ride, I should be out for a gentle spin.

But, I love the NON-DOT crew.  The name NON-DOT comes from their forays into Moab.  The Slickrock trail is marked with white dots… going non-dot means going your own way, where the essence of Moab calls you.  I get that, and these guys put on a fun MTB series I like to support.

It’s kind of like my training.  All my experienced LoToJa friends are out doing 100+ mile rides at tempo every weekend.  I’ve done a few, not enough according to them.

We’ve been racing every month since January.  I’m super burned out, just wanna park the bike and surf.  Little motivations like the MTB race get me out…

… I need to get more miles today…

… It’s 1pm.  I’ve got 5 hours before taking my mom to the movies…

I’m going to head out for a few more hours, just spinning… spinning over to the bike shop to get my front derailleur adjusted.  On Thursday’s Market Ride it went whackadoo and was clicking on the crank each rotation in the big ring… I had to small ring it at 30+mph, right up to the sprint, it probably helped keep my cadence really high… dumped it into the big ring for the final mile.  #worthit.

Do these LSD miles even help?

I dunno.

…LoToJa, could be once in a lifetime…

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