Gravel Conspiracy 2014/Health

I have no pictures.  Almost not worth putting anything up with zero pictures.  Have to post something if only to tell you that you should do this event next year.  Seriously.

This was a bit different thing for me than the last couple of years.  Lots of endurance riding over the summer and these stages were looking a bit less like tests of endurance and more like tests of speed.  After studying the routes I had a good idea of my time goals/pace for each stage.  Keeping up with those timelines became a major battle with the persistent headwind over the weekend.  The only one I really 'missed' was day 1 because of a road that didn't really exist where I stopped, looked around and left a huge 'tree arrow' to help others.  The stages took me 3:48 (with approximately 20 minutes of screwing around), 6:50 and 2:58.  So, a handful of minutes faster than what my pretty aggressive goal times were (3:30, 7, 3).  Feel great about that.

I'm going to race this weekend for the first time since before the Almanzo.  Could have virtually any fitness level and a couple of CX races will certainly expose whatever that level might be.

My health continues to be less of a problem.  I still have some days where I think I've gotten it wrong, but if I stick to the foods which I know are OK things seem all positive.  I have lost 12 lbs since March primarily on mexican, BBQ, thai, steak and french fries.  CX requires a lot of power at times, but also has many punchy accelerations and climbs.  Who knows!  Regardless, I'm looking forward to having fun this fall.  Hopefully building momentum which will allow me to train much more again next year and build on the base I redeveloped over the summer while not racing.