Ayden and I went on a recovery ride last week after my race.  Nothing beats riding with your son under the summer sun.

Recover rides require naps as well...

Well, it had been four weeks since my last race but I had been putting in some pretty long rides on my own.  I have actually found some consistency in my training and am looking forward to this four week countdown to THIS.  After church on Sunday I drove between rain showers over to River Falls to try my hand at the Trek Border Battle.  It’s a race that pits Wisco riders against Minn riders.  So I do not need to mention how fast the race was.

I showed up not expecting a smooth race because of the four week lull in races.  The sun came out and made it for a rather nice day and my body responded as well.  At the start I purposely put myself in the back so to avoid the ever dreaded rush in the front that gets your HR in the red.  Nice pace out and up the monster climb and I found myself feeling good and ready to race.

I worked most of the race in a small pack of three riders.  We would pick off some riders here and there and found ourselves catching the elite woman.  Top riders from the 35 and older group caught us and before we knew it traffic was the name of the game.  The course was a blast but probably a bit too short for the amount of racers.

I finished smack dab in the middle of the pack.  Check it…  I feel good at where I am at after this last race.  Looking forward to putting on some miles these next two weeks.  See ya on the bike.

Single Swizzle

Sturgie

Sneezing fit while eating green beans.

Chicago Rock 'n Role Half Marathon.

Trying the Kenda Small Block 8s.

In a nut shell here is what the Sturgis family has been up to as we begin to wind down our summer.

Ayden, well, is becoming his own little person now.  Attitude is the name of the game and he sure knows how to work the crowd to his advantage.  The kid never naps because he constantly wants to be doing something.  He and Mom have spent some amazing time together this summer and now if he needs something mom is the first one who gets his attention.  Its not fair and yet I can understand.

Nikole has done her share of parenthood and then some.  She wakes every morning with nothing on her agenda and basically asks Ayden what he wants to do.  So they end up doing some of this and some that.  Some shopping, some farmer’s market, and some swimming at Fairfax.  It’s great to come home to a wife and son with rosy read cheeks taking a much needed nap and recovering from an eventful afternoon.

Nikole has managed to work in some running and went and raced in the Chicago Rock ‘N Role 1/2 marathon a couple of weeks ago.  We left Ayden with the grandparents and we got away for a long weekend of hanging out in Chicago and running a race.  Nikole had fun but realized that she needs to work longer runs into her training and get out on a more consistent basis.  But still, to run that far amazes me.

I got back from New Orleans and was able to get back on the bike and pick up where I left off.  I finally feel like I’m somewhat in  competitive shape.  There is four weeks left of training before the big one.  I’m going to test my conditioning this week here.  We will see what happens.  I will have a full race report early next week.  Until then…

Single Swizzle

Sturgie