Hey Fellow Cyclists!

The ups and downs...

I came off the gravel races gradually getting stronger and hit the first mountain bike race of the year with a bang, getting 3rd place in the Elite category behind Wakeley, and a split second behind Marc Walters at the Rust Shaker. I felt strong in this race, and I would say that it was my strongest performance of my life.

This was great because I was now heading to the Whiskey Off Road in Prescott, AZ. The Rust Shaker went great, I felt on top of my form, and this gave me confidence going out to race this 50 mile back country race with many long climbs, including one that probably takes 50 minutes to conquer.

First, I have a few new videos below, one of an amazing product that helps with recovery, another going over another strength routine, riding bikes in Sedona, a recap of the gravel races, and then the Rust Shaker race. Be sure to check these out, maybe learn a new exercise, see a race course you want to race, or see if the recovery boots are for you. Videos are linked below.

Just another reminder that I have a new website, bikelifewithrob.com. It has the same stuff that the old website had, but the name just makes more sense. We will no longer be using ur bike life . com! Check out the new website, let me know what you think! While you are there grab the newly designed fat bike t shirt, and high quality loud bells for your bike so you don't have to yell at people ahead of you on the trail!

I think I will put a video out in the future going over the elevation tent and my thoughts on how to maybe perfect training with it, how it works, and what you can expect...

Back to the Whiskey 50. Friday we had a meeting going over the races, the fire nearby, etc, and then we had a short track road crit race. I was probably the most nervous about this race than any other race I have done. Something about a huge hill climb every lap and getting dropped just had me off. Long story short, the race went off and there was a crash in front of me and that was it. I did press hard up the hill and almost caught the tail end of the group but I thought it wasn't worth the effort and I would save my eggs in the basket for Saturday's race. I did two laps of the crit and then dropped out and watched.

The race was at 6pm in the evening, now imagine getting jacked up for a race and trying to calm down and get to bed to be up at 4 in the morning to get ready for the next race...lol...good thing I had good sleep Thursday night.

Saturday morning, temps are pretty cold, about 40 degrees and I decide to rock bib shorts and a short sleeve jersey. This was the right decision, 45 degrees in the dry air didn't seem as cold as 45 degrees in our humid air. This could also be because we only had cold weather in Michigan leading up to this race in warm Arizona.

The race leaves downtown Prescott and heads uphill for a long time on paved roads, and then hits gravel roads still going up, and then singletrack and continues going up. I fell off the front group around the time we hit gravel, my legs felt like they could go but my breathing was not keeping up. I feel the elevation tent helped, but I was still not ready for an effort like this between 6000 and 7000 feet.

Flash back to Friday when on the first hard climb my lungs felt tingling and so did my body from the lack of oxygen in the system. If you have ever pushed yourself hard in elevation, I think you know the feeling i'm talking about. This is when I realized that I should have done more training with the mask on as well as sleeping in the tent.

After the first long climb there was an awesome downhill that was pretty fun. As we went downhill, the temperatures went up. On the next climb I found myself in last place, but I was still determined to press on and pick people off as I went along.

After this climb, we went even further down and the hotness level went way up. Felt like 85 degrees when we did the turn around to tackle the biggest climb on the course, a climb that took me 51 minutes, a climb that ended me with a heat and elevation knockout combo. I did catch two guys before this climb, one of them passed me up this climb. I started to get that unsettled gut feeling but pressed on and up. A firefighter could tell I was struggling and he gave me a push up the hill, I wished he would have kept pushing!!

Eventually the dizziness set in and the feeling of, I am going to puke. I slowed the pace down to my biggest cog on the cassette and went into survival mode. The rest of the race went like this; kind of fast on the downhills but not too fast because I was feeling a little dizzy, and as slow as possible on the climbs because I thought that even high end zone 2 was going to have me puking or passed out. Remember there are pokey things all over the side of the trail here and I did not need to add that to the list of things I was battling.

I did press through and finish this race, it took 2 hours to stop feeling like I was going to die after I finished. I reflected immediately on the race and wished I wouldn't have done it. Initially it feels like a waste of money, time, and the last 4 months of your life. I kind of still feel that way, and have made a deal with myself to not race in elevation above 5000 feet again, and to not race in a place that is hot if I am not acclimated. IT WAS ALONG DRIVE BACK HOME.

My wife wanted to do MSB the weekend after this race and I really did not want to, but she wanted me to go with her, and I wanted to hang out with her. I signed us both up awhile before the race and upon arriving home after the Whiskey, I had no motivation or desire to race.

I did get to the start line of MSB, it started, I did not have the will power to do anything and was not with the front group right from the start. I was tired from the previous weekend bonking, all the driving, the disappointment, and the feeling of why am I doing this?? Luckily I was able to ride with a group and coast through the race, the atmosphere at MSB is a good one, and if you have not been there, I highly recommend you race it at least once.

I am not sure what the future holds at this point for me and racing bikes. I am planning on doing the LJ100 with friends and our buddy Jason who is still battling pancreatic cancer. I can't wait for this event and for him to try and conquer this epic race. This will definitely be something exciting to share next month.

My mileage and riding hours have been low since the Whiskey, I will probably continue to ride less in the next few weeks and start strength training back up on two days a week.

The last routine I did, I was using dumbbells and Kettlebells for 3 reps with heavier weight and different exercises. I am using the PowerBlock Dumbbells as they allow me to go from a really low weight, all the way up to 90 pounds a dumbbell. As stated before, I always start my strength workouts with a dynamic warm up which includes walkouts, a variety of different lunges, leg swings, arm swings, and a few other things. You need to get the blood flowing, the muscles warmed up, and more of your muscle recruited for a safer experience. If you do not feel warmed up properly, or you are over 40 years old, do 10 minutes of cardio before the dynamic exercises to get it right.

Strength Exercise List: Bosu single leg balance squats x 5 reps

Depth jumps x 5 reps

Bench single leg step ups x 3 reps

Hip presses x 3 reps

Weighted chin-ups x 3 reps

Bench press x 3 reps

Single arm rows x 3 reps

Weight crunches 45 to sit-ups to one leg planks to supermans

The 3 ab exercises are all done in a row without stopping along with the supermans. As I move through this workout, I make sure to increase the weight when possible! Remember, you should change your strength routine up every 6-8 weeks for maximum benefit!

Body work continues, and this is what it looks like. Body work 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. I have been keeping my Yoga practices on Wednesday's. As you also may have seen, I have added the Air Relax recovery boots to any post race and post hard workout recovery.

If you like YouTube, be sure you are subscribed 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!

NEW STRENGTH TRAINING VIDEO

ULTIMATE RECOVERY SYSTEM

RUST SHAKER MTB RACE - GREAT RACE FOR ME

MTBing in SEDONA!

RECAP OF THE GRAVEL SPRING RACES

Get the ebook now for free on Getting Started in Mountain Biking! It is great for the beginner to point them in the right direction, and also good for anyone on a bike as I take the guess work out of getting what you need to get riding!

Weather is starting to warm up and the sun is shining, grab some sun glasses that are affordable!

Enjoy Your Weekend Biking Adventures!

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