It is time for race #2 already! Wow time does fly when you are having fun, and summer time in Colorado Springs is about as fun as it gets. The added daylight hours and warm temperatures mean big weeks of riding for me. In the winter time it takes 30 minutes just to plan my riding clothes to match the route and temperature and then actually crawl into all those layers. I create a load of laundry every ride at some points in the Winter. Summer time and you throw on shorts and a jersey and swing your leg over the bike. The good life.

I have always thought of racing as my lifes personal "Lap Button." It is the end of one period of time and the start of another. It creates a segment of my training and life that I can look at, analyze, and evaluate. The beautiful part of summer is that I get lots of Resets! It really does feel like life becomes so much easier to manage because I am dealing with smaller segments of life in between the reset. During the actual act of racing a mountain bike, life is really simple, you have one objective and that is to move the bike down the trail as fast as you can. The rest of life is much more complex with not nearly as clear of a direction as to what is the best thing you should be doing right then and there. There are always choices, and often times several good choices of how to be productive in your days and weeks, but still rarely in the rest of life do you get the same single focus of "Stay within these course markings and go forward as fast as you can." I believe that the Lap Reset feeling I experience has a great deal to do this. I always find it much more clear after a race as to what my priorities are and the order I need to take things in the interval of life.

It is back to Bear Creek for race #2 of the Ascent Cycling series. This is a classic and the trails of Bear Creek park were all initially laid out specifically to be a city park MTB race course. Although I believe most of us do not get as excited about searching for balance and traction while drifting through the gravely corners of Bear Creek as we do when it comes to pummeling rocky trail in Palmer, I have never once finished a race in Bear Creek and had any other thought except how perfect a Wednesday night race course the little dreadnought of trails make for us. I do find that the trail layout here makes for a better race workout then the trails of Palmer. I see a much more consistent effort on the power meter even though it is still a punchy race course. The fitness gained from the effort at Bear creek quickly will pay dividends for many of us that have battles coming up like the Firecracker 50, UCI Pro Race in two weeks, or Leadville Trail 100.

Bear Creek is also great for spectators. If you have not been out to a MTB race this season or ever this is a great one to come scope the action. The riders make fairly short loops and a good bit of it is visible from the front hillside. There is always an impromptu convergence of rowdy spectators up at the top of hill right in front the start finish. Go up there yourself and heckle at the lycra peacocks.

It is summertime in Colorado, it is mountain bike racing, be a part of the action.