The end of the mountain bike race season is always bittersweet. On the one hand my entire life has revolved around bike riding for the past 9 months.  Every decision I have made has had bike riding and racing weighed into the equation. 

Time Off The Bike by Andy Schultz

The end of the mountain bike race season is always bittersweet. On the one hand my entire life has revolved around bike riding for the past 9 months.  Every decision I have made has had bike riding and racing weighed into the equation.  I have flogged and tortured myself with countless intervals, all in the name of being faster. Training at The Cycling House has enabled me to race faster and learn no coaching and training techniques. All of a sudden I don’t have to do that anymore and can live a semi-normal life.  On the other hand, my entire life has revolved around bike riding for the past 9 months and because of that I am riding faster than I ever have in my life.  What am I supposed to do, let all that fitness evaporate?  A lot of racers would just keep things rolling along and jump on their cross bike.  However, in an effort to avoid becoming completely one-dimensional in my life I’m going to skip the cross bike and spend my fall in the hills, on foot, climbing mountains and fishing in high-elevation lakes.  Although I still ride my Saris Cycleops Powertap unit that The Cycling House provided me. The Cycleops 2.4 SL is what I train with.

While I do have a lot of fitness, I can tell you that it doesn’t directly translate into hiking fitness.  A couple of days ago I spent the day climbing Gray Wolf Peak, a mountain in the Mission Range in Montana.  I have spent the last two days with both hands on the handrails, lowering myself down each step on staircase and otherwise hobbling around like an 80 year old man with a broken hip.  Give me a few more days though and I will be back on the top of my game, looking for the next adventure.

So what’s next?  Well, I still have a couple of mtb races to do this fall for fun and a lot of work to finish up for the City of Durango.  I’ll be down at Interbike, tackling a few more mountains, and who knows, maybe Owen Gue will convince me to try my hand at dodging some sharks on a surfboard.  And before you know it, it will be time to head back to Tucson, AZ and setup the ol’ Cycling House.  Until then, here’s to new adventures.

Andy finished up 4th overall in the NMBS Pro Mountain Bike Series.