Pisgah Monster-Cross Challenge http://www.pisgahproductions.com/events/pisgah-monster-cross-challenge/. Yep. Those four words scare me. And thus brings me to another 2016 goal: Do a race which the thought of makes me very uncomfortable.
Let's start with the basics...70 miles and 11,000' of climbing. Did I mention I live in Northeast Ohio? We have some climbs, probably more than someone not from the area would guess, but we lack miles and miles of long climbs and long descents. Hm. And I'm definitely lacking in miles and miles of gravel in my immediate area. I can find some east or south of me but that will probably mean driving to ride--which is a timesuck. Yep, getting more uncomfortable. Pisgah National Forest. I've rock climbed there. Once. I remember the drive in being very, very, long and slow with lots of extra gravelicious potholes that we had to dodge in order to avoid taking out a tire. Right. But I've got six months to get in some climbing miles and work on my gravel handling skills. Or so I keep telling myself. So why am I doing this? I love gravel riding. Some of my favorite races over the last couple of years have been gravel rides. They're not road racing so I don't feel like an roadie poser. They're not mountain biking and don't require as much technical finesse, which I still lack. But there can be some technical terrain to keep it interesting. And my cross bike, Jake the Snake, is just so much fun to ride. Jake loves the gravel and just seems to excel as soon as it gets a bit hairy. Yep, gravel riding is fun.
In other exciting news, I was able to complete task #1 in Simplification 2016--I cleaned out a kitchen cupboard badly in need of cleaning. I even gave a few things away. Whew. This month's task is to weed out unused cookbooks. Spoiler Alert: I already completed this one too! Turns out it took less than ten minutes and I probably should have done it a long time ago. The result in both cases is that I can now open those cupboards without fear of something falling out and hitting me on the head. Yay, me!
Finally, I wanted to share a great recipe that I found. http://peasandcrayons.com/2012/08/madras-lentils.html It's super easy to prep and even easier to double. Serve over rice or quinoa and feast for many meals. JMac approved!