Bummed

For the second time in the past 1.5 months, I'll be moving on the same day as a race. On March 1st (the day of the St. George race), we moved out of our SLC house and into a temporary place in Midway. I was so disappointed to miss the "Desert Rampage" race that I considered having all of my family and freinds show up to move our stuff while I went down to race, but for some reason my wife thought I should be there to help with the move. Whatever.

I recently found out that we'll be moving into our new place in the U.C. on April 12th, the same day as the Cholla Challenge in Hurricane. Even though I think that the Cholla race course is about as interesting as watching paint dry (with the exception of the first mile), I was really hoping to test out the race legs, but I guess I'll just have to wait.

Since I can't race down south on my mtb, I've actually been considering checking out the Hell of the North race this weekend. It may not be a mountain bike race, but hey, it has a stretch of dirt, right? My main hesitation is that I've never done a non-hillclimb road race, and I'm not sure if racing slick tires on a gravel road with a bunch of cat 5's and citizen riders is the best introduction to road racing. Has anyone done this race that can offer some insight as to how much carnage this race involves?

In other news, this past weekend was too cold and snowy to ride, but not cold or snowy enough to get any good skate skiing in. Rather than get on a trainer (which I'm incapable of doing once I get my first taste of outdoor riding in the Spring), I pulled out the snowshoes and checked out the backcountry behind our temporary condo. My buddy Chad will likely ridicule me for doing so due because in his words, "why would you snowshoe if you could ski?" Well, I'll admit that Chad has a valid point here, but I do think there are a few decent reasons for pulling out the snowshoes every now and then. I think snowshoeing offers a unique workout that I don't think you get from skiing or cycling. From what I understand, us cyclists lack the "weight bearing" exercises due to the low impact nature of our sport. Consequently, many cyclists end up with weak bones and tendons. This snowshoeing trip seemed to provide a workout that is similar to running without being nearly as boring or shredding my knees. Also, I don't see getting my 3 year old on backcountry skis anytime soon, but I could definitely see her on a pair of snowshoes next year! Regardless, I'm sure I'll be wishing for a set of skis every time I get to the summit of a long trek on my snowshoes. Here are a couple pics: