overdue update

Lets see how much I can remember from the last 4 months?
Winter came in Wisconsin, but not in the usual way.  It was a mild one and the cross country skiing was less than ideal or non existent for most of the winter.  We did make a few trips up to Hayward and Cable, WI to ski on the Birkie trail - which was great.  That trail is a bitch though.  Constant up or down.  You get really good at climbing on skis though.  It's a great leg workout and really helps you carry some strength through to the cycling season.
Jane and I did ski Kortelopet (the half birkie for you non skiers) at the end of February.  Similar to a lot of my adventures in new sports/events I go into a race like this with a laid back attitude.  "I'll just get out there and see how I feel" So I was content to start at the back of wave 9 with all the other first time racers.  But once you start moving you can't help but want to go fast and pass people.  The race was so congested from that far back that you had to go the pace of the person in front of you on the climbs.  Halfway in it opened up a bit and I could move around better.  At this point I felt I was really skiing fast and was feeling good.  I did take a couple falls and one was pretty spectacular.
Considering all the above I had a respectable time.  Good enough for a wave 4 start next year which is probably where I should be.

I've been hitting the gym up a bit trying to build some strength back into my left leg.  At the end of fall it was still noticeably weak.  Leg workouts and core strengthening classes have definitely made me more solid all around. So far this season I can notice a difference.  Hopefully I can maintain good strength throughout the summer and stay in the habit of lifting weights and core workouts.  I did get the hardware removed from my left leg.  It has set me back a bit in limiting my riding for about 2 weeks, but it's been almost a month now and things are great.  I can jump on my left leg and not have it feel "weird."

So on to riding and racing.  I'm basically trying to attempt what I wanted to do last summer.  Which is simply race a lot of MTB races and have fun.  There will be a road race or two thrown in for fitness, but I want to get the epic 29er flying this summer.  Really fast.

Here is the tentative schedule:

4/29  Decorah, IA MTB TT
5/5-5/6  La Crosse Omnium
6/3 - WORS - Wausau
6/9 - WEMS Endurance Series - Levis Mound
6/17  WORS - Camrock
6/24  WORS - Eau Claire
7/1  La Crosse YMCA RR/Cedar Rapids MTB race?

7/4-7/8 Vacation.  Camping/MTB/Kayaking in Hayward/Cable
7/14-7/22  Vacation again.  Copper Harbor Camping/MTB/Kayaking followed by Madeline Island and Bayfield

8/12  MN MTB - Border Crossing
8/18-8/19 WORS - Subaru Cup - Pro XCT stop

9/15-9/16 Chequamegon 40

So from the looks of it, June will be really busy.  July will have a bunch of down time, but hopefully still getting in lots of good miles and hours.  Then in the middle of August is the big race - the Subaru Cup.  Would like to podium for the overall there.  I'd like to fill in the schedule with something early August to help ramp up to Subaru Cup.  We will see what develops.

I did get into Chequamegon again.  The good thing is that they now have starting gates instead of leaving your bike at the start line at 5am to preserve a good spot.  So based upon last years result, I'll be in wave 3. Which would be about 300 people deep instead of 1000 like I started last year.  Also I'll have the fitness of a season of racing and I won't be coming off a broken leg.  On paper I should be a lot better than my 2:36 from previous.