Well, needless to say Saturday was supposed to be a several hour ride that turned into a 6 hour ride. It was one of those days on the mountain bike where the weather is great riding is beautiful but luck just doesn’t always go your way. I was reconing a route with a friend and we got out 3+ hours and thought we were on the tail end of our ride when the trail (that the map said connected) suddenly dead ended… This left us with one option, turn back. The day ended up being 6 hours long with nearly 2.5 hours of hike a bike because of terrain(jeep roads tend to be that way). Water ran out at approx. 4 hours and after that you’ve got nothing else to do but grunt through it and get the day over with. What an experience and I learned that St. Mary’s falls is BEAUTIFUL! Check it out.

Yesterday i was back out on the bike again for the first time since RAW. I waited until I was antsy to get back on the bike again and I must say that was a GREAT idea. It was a beautiful day out and I took a nice easy stroll around lunch time. The legs felt great and the rear end has officially recovered from the race. I’ve even lined plans up for a 4 hour MTB ride tomorrow with a good buddy. It will be nice to hit the dirt once more because since i began training for RAW I have not got on the dirt other than taking the road bike over Gold Camp road or riding on the bike path.

Well, I have been a bit MIA for a while but I wanted to give you a final recap on RAW. It was a great race. We had a great time as a team, worked very well together and had an amazing crew (thanks JJ & Lance for the ice cream at 8pm that I was really craving). Our overall finish time was 43hours 57min which brought us in as the first team and ultimately meant we set the new course record by nearly 4.5 hours and beat our own personal goal by over 4 hours. My legs held up very well throughout the entire race until about 39 hours in when Halsey and I came off of a 4 hour shift. I made the bad decision to take a nap and woke up with my legs feeling very heavy and stiff. Before that Halsey and I came off of a 4 hour leg where combined we average 25mph and were both feeling great. Below is a brief analysis of my data throughout the race. Unfortunately I am missing anywhere from 60-90 minutes of data because my PowerTap head unit went dead and I was without data for this time. So I believe total time would be closer to 12 hours of saddle time but I am not 100%. I do know that Avg speed would be higher because the portion that I did not have a system for was in the dessert and was pancake flat.

Halsey taking a quick cat nap. We had a great first leg and were first in time and 3rd on the road when we pulled off. 101 right now and we have 2hrs til we are on the bike again.
Brady Irwin

Team meeting this afternoon. Ready to go!
Brady Irwin

Alrighty, we are at one day before the final push out for Race Across the West. Yesterday was our van inspection, bike & gear inspection and our rider meeting. Today is quite a bit more relaxed with our own meeting to get the crew and the riders all on the same track for the start of tomorrows race and then Photos at 2:15.

Well, today we are in the car for day #2. Yesterday I drove fom COS to Duango to meet the rest of the team and once we were loaded up and swung by the local bike shop to pick up a new set of riding shoes (Halsey's check bag with his riding shoes was lost…) we were on the road. Our evenings goal was initially Flagstaff but the drive took a bit longer than expected and we ended up Just outside of Kayenta, AZ (all 3 hotels in Kayenta were full).

Today's drive has gone pretty well we arr about 3:30 out of Carlsbad, CA (final destination) and have been going since 8 this morning. We are still in AZ but have to be getting close to CA.

This morning we did get up a bit early and Austin, Halsey and I got a quick hourr ride in which was great and definitely good for stretching the legs. Halsey and Austin were definitely feeling the fact that they were at 5000ft though and I think are looking forward to being back down near sea level tonight.
Brady Irwin

Well, I got up early this morning and got an amazing ride in! 3 days completely off the bike always seems to do AMAZING things to my legs! I’ve got all sorts of snap right now and I think with the endurance block I got in the 2 weeks prior have given me a whole new gear. BRING IT ON!

Well, the past couple of mornings of sleeping in until 6:30 has been great! Unfortunately that ends tomorrow. I go back to the routine of getting up at 5 in order to get at least 2 hours of riding in before work and then the evening rides again. The one bonus is that this time is that I only have to do this through Saturday then it’s a couple of days off the bike again for some much needed vacation. Work has been busy for me since January with camps and a couple of days of R&R with my beautiful wife is greatly needed. My goal is 16hours in the next 4 days so let’s see how it goes! 🙂

Alright, so i’m going to have to side track here a bit from training because this is much more important! We had an appointment yesterday and Katelyn is growing quick! She is estimated to be 5lbs 11oz. and needless to say momma is beginning to FREAK out! I am keeping my fingers crossed that she does not come too early and that I will be back from RAW by the time she delivers. My birthday is on June 13th though which is the day I get back from the race and if Janelle were to deliver that day I think it would be the best birthday present EVER!