It ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take, and keep… moving…forward.

-Rocky Balboa, the greatest motivator who ever lived.

It’s time to take a break from training and hit the road for the first test of 2011, a 6 hour MTB race at Solavaca ranch near Glen Rose, TX. I’m hungry for some competition, heck, I’m just plain hungry. P90X and riding in the cold have trimmed all that holiday fat off and worked up quite an appetite. Should be a great day to race with ample sunshine and temps in the 35-60 degree range.  Been a while since I’ve done a 6 hour race, the last one being at San Angelo in October 2008. The key here is to not pace yourself. Sure, you might blow up and bonk after 4 hours, but that is a chance one must take.

You have to be willing to lose the race in order to win the race. If you are not willing to make that risk, you will never win the big races.

-I have no clue who said this, but it is true

So that is the game plan. Someone on the DORBA forum challenged who would be the one to crank out 11 laps. If I have any say, it’ll be ME! Proud Mary is dialed in with gears and a squishy fork (apologies to my hardcore rigid SS fans, but the course has some fast sections that favor tall gears) and ready to rip it. Win or lose, should be a great time and some great preparation for the Warda 12 hour coming up.

Now for some unrelated news. This past week I got a sneak peek at my new mail order girlfriend. Her favorite color is blue. She is old school, but new school. Hard, yet soft. Elegant and refined, yet gritty. She is a smoking hot redhead.

Colleen is likely to harbor feelings of jealousy towards this beauty, much like the wife did towards the leg lamp in Christmas Story, but that’s tough luck, because I won her fair and square, and I expect her to provide years of faithful service. Here is a little sneak peek for those of you a little bit curious about this new female figure in my life:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check back in next week for a race update and more info about the new girlfriend.

-Caveman