What's going on

Harvey's off-season, that's what! After racing XC at Alafia, I took the Halloween trip to Ellijay, came home and cruised right into post-season laziness. I did that for a couple of weeks until the anti-slug came out and got me moving again. I want to make a good run at Florida's winter enduros and time off followed by a full buildup has been the ticket the past few years. I'm in the middle of my 3-month weight program and have finally made good on my threat to take up running. I have decent running shoes now, so no more foot cramps. I eeeeaaaasssed into it to acclimate my muscles, and this morning did my longest run yet: 6 miles at a sub-8 minute pace. I know you runners out there are shaking in your shoes hoping I don't get serious about this. Don't worry - it'll probably go out the window in a month. I do intend to keep it up at least once a week. It's a nice diversion, a great way to exercise my dogs and it's so freaking easy to do: Lace up shoes and go. It's going to be my goto method of exercise when I'm travelling without my bike from now on.

I've been playing around with Facebook for the past month or so. Eddie O turned me onto it the last time I was up his way. Man, what a great way to keep up with everybody in the MTB community! It's waaaay easier than updating my blog and reading a bunch of other blogs. I fully intend to keep this blog going, but look up my profile if you want to keep tabs of me there.

In the short term, I'm looking forward to hosting Eddie and Namrita's winter training camp. I doubt I'll get to ride with them much during the week since they'll probably wait until noon to start and I have that pesky job thingy, but the weekends will be fun with people who don't cringe at the thought of a 4-hour ride.

I mentioned the Alafia XC race and even put the result over in my sidebar. My second time lining up against all the fast guys was just fun as at Tallahassee with the added benefit of familiarity with the "resting to puking up a lung in 30 seconds" concept. These two races were enough for me to decide whether to upgrade or downgrade my USAC license in '09. I'm going back down. I'm 42 years old, will be training less next year and will still be focusing on enduros. The real reason is that it's an extra $90 for what would equate to a status symbol for me. I won't race any national events where there's a pro class. I might race a few AMBC races, which is the only time it would make a difference. With the likely chance that I'll race the full FSC next fall, there's no pro class so I can race the fast guys in 19+, or play with slightly younger (than me) guys in 30+. I'm not going to go into my age group until I need to, but a few more podiums (and maybe even the top step) would be fun before I start getting old and slow.

I will be racing for the original Team Green in 2009. They have graciously accepted my services for another year and I'm happy to give even though my plans are kind of vague. I know that I'll race the 6 Hours of El Lagarto in January, 12 Hours of Santos in February (title defense!) and the Squiggy Classic 6 hour in March. After that I hope to hit up select enduros in the southeast, a few hundies and maybe some XC, probably finishing up with fall XC in Florida. A lot of this depends on the availability of cash, so we'll see as the year progresses.