Taper Day

Xterra Lory is tomorrow and I'm feeling nice and rested.  Maybe too rested.  Does it count as a taper if you go into it straight from recovery from your last race?  I've had maybe one hard run workout in the last 3 weeks, been on my bike only once for a short spin and managed to fall and skin my shin while straddling the bike.  I've been to the Rez and skills masters but no hard interval sessions.  The was partly due to needing to recover from the last race but also due to going on many hikes.  Hard to let summer slip by without hitting the high country for some hiking.  So tomorrow will be interesting.  I'm at least hoping for some improvement in the run.  At least it's the shortest, easiest of all my races.

And I got my invite and secret squirrel password code to register for Xterra Nationals so I don't need this race to qualify.  But a race is a race and I want to do well.  I registered for Nat's. as soon as I got the code because they were only giving me until Sept. 2 and then they were going to roll my spot down to the next person.  So now all that's left is training.  I have 4 weeks and I'll get in as much as I can manage after recovering from Lory which hopefully won't take as long as after the other races.

Spent the day feeling antsy, packing up the car, chores, letting dogs in and out for the millionth time.  So I decided to wander the 2 blocks to the end of the street to watch the USA Pro Cycling Race.  It was fun to see but I'm glad I didn't invest anything more in it than a 2 block walk.  I shot some video and almost got run over by a motorcycle.  Hope they were a little more careful with their driving to the finish up Flagstaff which had a zillion more spectators and way narrower, steep, winding roadway to pass through.

The lead breakaway pack




The main peloton




I shot a few photos of the stragglers.  The shots aren't that great but I love how they show off the hills in my neighborhood.

And speaking of pro road racing, I'm hoping upon hope that Lance Armstrong doesn't decide to enter Xterra Nationals again now that he's banned from racing or rather banned from races that USADA has jurisdiction over and I don't think Xterra falls in that category.  He's already slumming it at a low key mountain bike race in Aspen today and a running race in Aspen tomorrow.  I really really dislike him and don't want to have to deal with him and his entourage at Nationals but I guess that's all out of my hands.  I did see a good article about his fall from grace.  I'm sure there are zillions of articles but I like that one in particular.  A quote:

The most important lesson of the Lance Armstrong story, though, is the hardest to prepare for and guard against: our own gullibility and willing complicity. What is astounding and disturbing is that one man – a dominant personality as well as a dominant athlete – was able to enforce his will, isolate, bully and silence his doubters and critics, and win the world's top cycling event year after year and make people believe in him, despite there being, apparently, dozens of witnesses to its utter phoniness. Too many people had too much invested in the Lance Armstrong story, and the power of persuasion followed the money.

Actually I never liked him right from the start and was never sucked in but I think I'm in the solid minority on that one.  As far as I'm concerned his bullying, ruining of lives and careers, arrogance, use of cancer victims for his own ego and career advancement, and role in keeping drugs prevalent in road cycling are far more bothersome than the doping but I guess you can't strip someone of their titles and ban them from racing for being an asshole.