Hello Friends,

Here's my update for the week of October 18th 2021!

This week I did way more than I should have considering my body is falling apart. Sometimes my stubborn mind thinks I should just push through it, and this time that was a bad idea. The week was littered with normal rides and client rides, and a big race followed by and ONB for ICEMAN on Sunday. The weeks totals were around 140 miles in just under 10 hours and just shy of 8,000 feet of elevation gain.

Saturday's race at Peak2Peak was setting up to be great, I had a wonderful warm up in, the sun was out, and the body was feeling pretty good. Then it happened at 12:48, two minutes before the race was suppose to start, it started down pouring. At this point I was OK with it because I was warm and ready to go, just like everyone else. Then an announcement was made, we are delaying the start...I heard a lot of grumbling from others that were ready to go.

This was not good, I needed to be racing to stay warm in this weather as the temps dropped into the 30's with rain and no sunshine. My body started getting cold despite what I did, and by the time we started, I was jaw chatering cold. 1 minute after the race started, I had brain freeze from all the cold water. This has never happened in my life, it was such a weird feeling. This was a sign of what was to come. Long story short, my whole body was froze on lap two. It was a mud fest, but I did not let myself quit. The third lap downhill was epic, and the licorice at the top of the hill on lap 2 was magic.

Despite the crappy race performance, this brings up a good conversation point. How to ride in the mud! The first thing you want is a good set of tires made for mud that will get you a little better grip, and also that will shed the mud off the tire so you don't have 10lbs of mud on them. Once you have that, here are two tips for riding in the mud beyond that. One, when you are going into a corner, use the Backboard as Scott Cervin says. If you try to rip around a corner taking an inside line in the mud, you are going to slide a lot and it could lead to you ending up on the ground or off the trail. Use the berm of the corner to maintain better traction. Number two, and I may catch some heat for this one, but if there is a non muddy line that is not the trail, take it as it will provide a lot more stability for you on the bike. There were quite a few of these spots at the P2P race where you could get off the singletrack just a little bit in order to avoid a mud pit in a corner. And for anyone that gives me heat, you are giving a lot of other racers the same heat.

The video of P2P will be out soon, so stayed tuned!

No Strength training here other than some body weight exercises I just started doing 2x a week. The hardcore lifting WILL start back up soon after the last big race is done.

ICEMAN is coming up, and if you have not had a chance to pre-ride the course, you may want to watch some video of the first few miles to get familiar with where the sand pits are and what lines to take through them, check out that video here. Aside from that, once you get to Williamsburg Road, the MPH go way up and you can expect nothing but speed the rest of the way home. Good luck to everyone taking on the ICEMAN next weekend.

A little side note, Lowell is this weekend and our friend Jason battling pancreatic cancer is racing again. This will be the last race this year for Team Cancer Be Damned. If you see Jason, send some healing energy his way as he battles it out to try and claim the overall win in the MGRS in the fat bike category!

I continued with body work during the week. This involves different things from static stretching later in the day after workouts, to the massage chair, to a foam roller, to a handheld rolling pin, and my favorite the gun! You know the new device everyone has, that hypervolt. I don't have one of those, but I do has a jig saw and you can buy all the attachments for under $20 here. I also do dynamic stretching before hard workouts to get the blood flowing better and more muscle fibers recruited to reduce the risk of injury.

Make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel so you don't miss all the epic MTB action! If you are stuck inside, find one of my longer fat or XC racing videos to watch will you train indoors. Check out some of the new videos below!

Here is the video of my relative from long ago racing a mountain bike!

🎥 Bear Claw Epic XC MTB Race 2021 - Come Race with Me - Elite Cross Country Mountain Bike Race

Bear Claw Epic XC MTB Race 2021 - Come Race with Me - Elite Cross Country Mountain Bike Race

Always on my list for racing, the BEAR CLAW EPIC!

The weather had cooled down a bit, which made for a good race and great dirt conditions with some rain in the previous days.

Click here to watch the video

It is that time of year when the sun goes away early. But that doesn't mean you can't ride, you just need a set of bike lights, these lights here have you covered!

Enjoy Your Weekend & Be Great,

Rob Martin

Bike Life with Rob on YouTube

Grab my $10...on sale for free ebook, Getting started in MTB - Your 1st 90 Days

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Cycling Coaching and Training Plans <<<---- Be YOUR BEST ALWAYS!!!

Enjoy, Rob Martin