For the love of Training?

The older I get the more I think about why I ride and how it makes me feel to finish any type of workout or race.  The races now a days, seem to be more relaxed, don't get me wrong, I will be shaking in my shoes this weekend at the Mohican 100 start.  Besides the 100's though everything else seems more what happens, happens?  I still race hard and put 100% in every time but as I do this more I realize that I am the only one I have to satisfy with the results, no one else really cares.  So I do this for the love of the ride and I love to ride.  These past 3 weeks were loaded with rides that saw me on the MTB a lot.  I trained through the last WORS race and kept the hammer down in search of a new peak in my training.  Playing the fine line of giving it all I have but not diving off the other side into just completely drained and wiped out.  I think we hit that and the icing on the cake was the 6 hr ride this weekend at the Northern Kettles. 

If you have not ridden there, I recommend it!  There has been a lot of work put into the trails and it made for a good time.  I usually do not like doing laps, but the trails were long enough and technical enough to keep me entertained for the entire 6 hrs.  Also Matt Shriver and rkL kept me entertained for the first few laps.  This weekend was the first time meeting Matt.  I know he has a long list of accolades and it was nice to talk with him!  Very likable and made the circuits very enjoyable!  I wish him luck in all his travels and hope he continues to find time for the bike! 

So either way, I capped off my training block on Saturday and it is now time to rebuild and get ready for the Mohican 100. Last year I had to DNF due to the tornado warning and the mud sucking the will out of me.  This year looks to be set up different with very warm temps and sun!  I am running a pretty conservative set up and after using this weekends race to dial in nutrition a bit more I think I am ready.  So here we come Ohio!