Ahhhhhh, The Off-Season

I know, it's been like 2.5 weeks since my last post. Since then, much has happened. As you probably already know, I won collegiate MTB nationals for the second year in a row (XC and Omnium). The race was muddy and cold, which was expected.

Since Nationals, I have been on the off-season program... which consists of doing whatever the hell I feel like. If I had hair, I'd be "letting it down right now" , but since I don't, I'll just "grow out my leg hair", instead. Now, whenever I look down at my legs, I no longer feel like a cyclist, but just a normal dude, it's kinda wierd. For the first week, I did absolutly no exercise. I did a ton of homework to catch up from all that I missed at nationals, and have been trying hard to make up for lost party time during the season. Lynch and I have decided that we're Mexican's for many reasons, so now the only drink we consume is tequila... which always leads to a crazy night. I'm already feeling pretty much over all of that though, and starting to feel the riding/training bug coming back.

I'm also pretty much over running. I did a few hard days of running over the weekend, and my legs are destroyed. I don't know what I was thinking by doing such hard epic runs. I'm actually writing a research proposal that has to do with how damaging eccentric (lengthing muscle, from downhill running) exercise is to the muscles. Everytime I feel pain in my legs, I think about how all of my sarcomeres (contractile units in muslce fibers) have been ripped apart. At least in a few more days I'll be over this DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), and will be reaping the benefits of the RPE (repeated bout effect). I will then be able to run way more without the soreness the next day.

Next weekend I'll be joining some friends for the biggest epic mountain bike ride I've ever done. In honor of Brian Smith's 30th birthday, we will be doing the White Rim trail with a little bit extra in Moab, UT. Why is this ride so epic? It's 120 miles of mountain biking... so somewhere around 12 hours of riding. Also the guys that are doing it are all fast pro mountain bikers, so it won't neccesarily be an easy pace. Yesterday was my first time wearing chamois' since collegiate nationals. I went out for about a 2 hour ride and by the end of it I was wasted. It kinda made me a little worried about next weekend... which will be like six times longer at a much higher pace. My guess is that many of the other guys on the ride will be in my same boat though, seeing that it is the off-season for most everyone except crossers. I'll be fine.

Well time to do some HW and start my week!!

Cheers to Monday!!