This past weekend I participated in my third Iceman to close the season. It feels like its been a hard, stressful and long season, so it was finally nice to hang up the bikes this week and finally take some time off. However the first thing I felt like doing was going on a run Tuesday..JPG)
Iceman is always a crazy event. This year proved to be no different. Hurricane Sandy threw a giant wrench into any plans bringing heavy winds and rain across the region in the days prior. The weather was suppose to be cold but sunny for the race. However some of the rain stuck around and turned to snow Friday/Saturday. To my shock I woke up Saturday in Traverse City to see 1-2 inches of snow. The weather was right around 32 so it really wasn't going to accumulate to anything more but melt. I could go into tons of details of the race, but I'm not. I started bad, lost some time being near some fluke crashes, witnessed a very severe accident that I had to report so medics could come, then had my rear derailleur break down on me @ mile 22. I still finished in 2:05 8th in class, not near my goal but I will take it since the course was longer and slower then the year previous. Overall I was better then last year to. The mechanical was a real heart breaker though, it killed my hope of breaking 2 hours and getting on the podium. Luckily learning from 2010 I had a multi tool and was able to do the repairs fairly fast. Overall though I couldn't help to smile most the race though. With the snow on the pines and ground it was awesome racing through a winter wonderland. I'm gonna be honest and say my motivation and focus was lacking to prep for this race. Next year I need to change some things up to focus on this race better.
The season was very successful though, I finally won a TT, won a group finish sprint in a road race, helped my team win a 12 hour MTB race, and won the Cat 3 Michigan point series. I can't complain, my leg is healthy and I made it through the season. I think that's why I had trouble getting ready for Iceman, for me the season really ended 2 months ago. It also makes next years focus very different. Next year I think I will race less and just focus harder on certain events. I would also like to dabble in XC ski racing, running and maybe triathlon / xterra. Either way the focus will just be having fun and competing.
