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So last night I began my preparation for my race on August 27th. I went out riding after work at a co-workers house. He has approximately 3/4 mile of wooded trails to ride. The previous days rain brought some puddles & other slick areas… after about 20 minutes of riding, it started to rain again. I rode another 20 minutes I suppose in the rain… all the while the trail was getting slicker & slicker, the soil at his place becomes very “greasy” when wet. Last night I did have a couple of slow-speed awkward tip-overs in the slop… but I would not consider these crashes. It took me a good 30 minutes to clean up the bike when I got home, it was totally covered in mud. I’m not much of a “mud bogger”… but they won’t cancel a race because of rain. So it was good experience last night.

So with 2 months to go before my race & last night being only the 3rd time that I’ve been on the bike this year (with almost 2 years off from riding entirely before that), it is obvious to me that I am very rusty, out of shape & that I need a lot more seat-time on the bike before I can honestly think about doing a race.

On a positive note, the suspension changes & jetting changes that I made a couple of days ago had the bike handling better & the motor running stronger then my first 2 rides this year.

Over this last weekend I made a decision. I cannot let this summer go by without me entering a race. At this point, I’ve only ridden my bike twice. That’s a far cry from my riding expectations this spring. No excuses, I just have been splitting my time with working on the computer in various ways, just hanging out & a little bit of “bike-time”. But that changes now… a goal has been set.

On august 27th, I will be entering a race, a race that I hope to go into with a “just for fun” attitude this time. No real pressure, but only to have a good ride, good time & a strong performance on my part. To achieve this goal, I will need to start riding regularly. This means about once a week of riding, and also making sure that I am exercising most days of the week & to start eating healthier again. This will put me in better physical condition for the race, plus it should make me more relaxed on the bike; allowing me to ride at a faster pace while maintaining control better then I currently do as well.

The race that I have chosen is a WI District-16 Hare Scrambles race outside of Hixton, WI. It should take about 2 hours to complete the race of all wooded trails. I am excited about it when I stop & think about it, but I also have memories of just going into survival-mode in my previous races. I know that doesn’t sound very heroic, manly or exciting… but before, that’s what all of my races ended up turning into. This is primarily because of my lack of endurance in that long of a race, my lack of confidence & aggression on the bike in an actual race. Going back to my goal that I have set for myself, I hope to make this race a different story. Its all about having fun without putting pressure on myself to excel, plus using these next 2 months to come into the race more prepared & ready to ride well & more aggressive for the duration of the race… riding more for myself & to have a good time.

Tomorrow night I begin my new attitude of riding at least once a week. It should be good, riding, getting exercise & balancing my time between my family, the computer fun & my new goal.

Brandy & I went to the races this last Saturday (6.4.06) @ Road America, just outside of Elkhart Lake, WI. She has never seen the Pro’s race in person… she had a good time!

The day kind of reminded me a when the circus comes to town… there were all kinds of shows to watch. what I mean is this; of course the main attraction was the road races… but as a bonus, the 2nd round of the AMA Supermoto Championship took place there as well… plus after the road races where done, there was a Sidecar race & even some kind of an event where RollerBladers did a couple of laps around the 4 mile road course. Also, you can’t forget some of the odd creations that went around the track during the spectator Track Lap. So there was plenty of unique sites to see throughout the day.

But back to the beginning… on the way up there that morning, I missed my turn somewhere in Fondu Lac… so we ended up taking a different highway… which turned out to be extremely slow, stuck behind a bunch of slow-asses going 5 below the speed limit through the no-passing zones… so needless to say, I was pretty stressed out by the time that we got there, about an hour later then I had hoped. But shortly after getting through the track gates, my mood turned back to good. I have to admit, that I find walking through the pits to be pretty much as much fun as watching the actual races. I get into the mechanicalness of it all… the smell of the race gas in the air, watching the teams work on the bikes & hoping to spot the factory racers in person.

Brandy seemed to really enjoy seeing the Pro’s in person… she got the autographs of Factory Honda racers Miguel Duhamel & Jake Zemke… and also her picture standing next to Factory Yamaha star Eric Bostrom. I believe her favorite racer is Suzuki’s star, Ben Spies… she thinks he’s hot… we spotted him eating like 10 feet away from us. There were numerous other stars that I spotted… but she didn’t recognize them w/o me pointing them out.

The races themselves were good as well. The perspective is a little different compared to TV… at the track you really only get to see a single corner/straight-away or a section of about 3 corners only… so unlike TV, you kind of watch them scream by… then wait a bit for them to come around again. This wasn’t so much the case with the Supermoto guys. You could see pretty much their entire track. I’ve never been to a supermoto race… this was pretty cool as well. It was really impressive watching them “back it in” to the corners. One observation was how hard the dirt sections were. No wonder they do get traction on the dirt sections with street tires… almost like concrete… I’d hate to crash on that dirt.

So anyways…. yes, we had a good time at the races, smelt some more race gas, saw a few hotties in the pits