Briefly, I went over my 2025 racing season in a recent post, but here is a more detailed version of what went down. It was early December and my training was underway, all was going well. I was averaging 5-6 rides a week and would throw in weight training 1-2 times a week. Unfortunately, due to a pilonidal cyst, my last mountain bike ride would have to be December 16, 2024 and I would be on hold for about a “month.”
The pilonidal cyst was removed December 17, 2024. Fast forward about two weeks, and I was driving up to Beverly Hills for my post-op appointment. It went well and my doctor told me 2 more weeks, I was super excited to return and kick some butt on the trails. The 2 weeks came and I was back up in Beverly Hills for my doctor appointment, it went wellish. I was told to wait 2 more weeks and return back. That was not the news that I wanted to hear, but as a good and cooperative patient, I waited.
A week passed and my incision started to get painful, it was not draining as it usually was and it started to swell. This led to an emergency visit to my surgeon, so back up to Beverly Hills it was. The drive up there sucks, especially when going back-and-forth and back-and-forth. The worst part about it, it was during the holidays. Anyway, enough ranting, at my appointment, my doctor poked a hole to drain the liquid. Once again, I healed too quickly and blocked off the liquid, so it was trapped inside my body. The hole that he poked started to make my incision drain once again, and I was on the mend. This little infection scare only added on a week to the healing process but at this point, it did not really matter, the racing season had already started and I was going to miss at least one more race.
Another couple weeks past, was today the day that I finally get cleared? It was mid-February at this time and the next race, number 3 of 5, was rapidly approaching. I went up to Beverly Hills for my appointment and this turned out to be my last from this surgery.
Yes! I was cleared to go riding, but I had a slight problem. The next race was only a week and a half away and I just spent two months off of the bike. Not only was it a risky decision to race because I am not in cardio shape, but since it was a lower body procedure, my leg strength was nowhere near optimal. These are two key components to mountain biking in general, and to race would be even worse.
It was March 2nd, race number 3 of the 5 race series. Intellectually, I chose to race. My confidence was already at a low because the recovery process from surgery went longer than expected. I was not feeling great at all and I was trying to force a good result. Every stage, or segment of timed trail, had at least one screw up in it that led to me losing around 30 seconds each. Me being me, I was super hard on myself, something that I need to learn not to do. Looking back on it now, I am pretty proud of what I was able to accomplish.
I placed 5th of 6 riders and I had some major screw ups that, if cleaned up, could have easily gotten me a higher placement. The first and most noticable thing that needed to be addressed were my clipless pedals. I like to ride with them loose so when I crash, the bike is not stuck to me but this race proved me otherwise.
The pedals were already a bit of a problem heading into the race but I tried to ignore that problem, that did not work. The problem that I had was that I was unclipping very easily. Unclipping means that when you ride, the foot disengages the pedal and flies off. This was particularly happening to the right foot. A little backstory, I have nerve damage on the right side of my body and already have a hard enough time trying to control it, but when trying to do it at speed, forget it. This made it super difficult to ride and if you watch the video, you can hear the frustration that I had with these pedals. Additionally, my riding was not of my standard. I was making a ton of mental mistakes and that led to physical mistakes.
All of these were mistakes that I could adjust from and make sure they do not happen again, so what was the first thing I did? I switched my pedals. I went from the Shimano PD-ME700 to the Shimano SPD, I am not sure which one exactly but they were a model that got discontinued back around 2018. I rode the previous model for 10+ years before making the switch to the Shimano PD-ME700. Out of the gate, these pedals were a problem.
I was thinking that they just had a learning curve and after enough rides, I would be fine. Again, I was wrong.
I made the change mid-season, so instead of just training, I was learning something new and not only training, but catching up from being off the bike for a few months. Three things were going on all at once, but it was not all bad. During that little transfer between races, I had some serious gains on the bike. There is an infamous trail near my house, the Luge, and I was able to put down some solid runs on that trail. I rode it a bunch of times because I think it is the closest trail in south Orange County to Vail Lake, other than Vail Lake itself.
Two weeks later, and it was March 23rd, race number 4 of 5. Going into this, I was feeling more confident but I was still nervous. I arrived to the venue in the morning, and went up for a warm-up lap on one of the trails that I did not know very well. An issue arose during that lap, but it was not an issue that would effect my race if left untouched.
The clipless pedals that I rode were old, like very, very old. They would squeak pretty bad on the rides leading up to the race. This was very annoying, so me being me, I decided to change this. Right before I went up for my race runs I chose to put chain lube on my pedals. The consequence to this was, my clipless pedals disengaged very easily and ever time that I bumped my foot or shifted my weight, I would slip into disengaging.
Despite not having a solid setup, this race actually went smoother than the last. I finished with a 4th place and I made fewer mistakes. I was decently happy but I still lost time doing stupid things. This was the last race for a while and now, I could address some of my issues.
This was a much needed break, not for rest purposes, but for training purposes. The next month and a half was grind time. With 2 weight room sessions and riding the bike at least 4 times a week, I was starting to get into shape and feel ready for the next race. During that time, a couple major events in the mountain bike world happened. Snow Valley bike park opened and the San Clemente pump track opened. This made me super excited as Orange County did not have a pump track. My skills would see huge improvements from this track.
I went to the pump track a few times, and on the third time, I decided to try something new. I wanted to manual between the rollers or “humps” on the track, only thing was, I didn’t know how. I tried not once, not twice, but three times to manual. The first attempt was small, the second attempt was smaller, so the third attempt, I decided, “hey, lets go bigger.” I think I went a little too big though, I pulled up to a great position, was shocked I was in a great position and then rolled up the next roller so I landed straight on my butt. It was like a cartoon crash of what not to do.
That devastated me, I did not know how I was going to race because the race was a few days away. It was super painful to walk and I got some road rash on my back. When I fell backwards, my heel slammed into the asphalt face of one of the rollers and was all bruised and discolored.
A few days after the crash, my intellectual brain came in and decided to send it.
May 18th, the finale race, 5 of 5. I taped my ankle up and took some Tylenol, the pain was there but not as strong. I went up to the top to warm-up on the hardest trail we raced that day. Before I even got to the trail, I put my foot down to avoid a wash out and saved it. The only problem about that was, it was foot that had the bum heel. Once my heel hit the ground, I instantly felt pain. I sat there for about a minute, wondering how I could even walk back to my bike, let alone race.
Somehow, someway, I mustered up enough strength and raced. The racing was a little better this time but I still had stupid mistakes. These mistakes are from probably from forcing a smooth and fast ride. Again, the mistakes easily cost me at least a minute and a half of stage time. I was feeling defeated after this one and was kicking myself for it.
I needed to remember, this was my first season racing enduro. I finished the finale race with a 5th place, not too bad for how poor my riding was at the time. About a week later the overall results came in and I finished 4th place overall. I was pretty proud of achieving that, even with 2 of the 5 races not counting because I was recovering from a past surgery. This result was huge and it fueled the fire that was burning inside of me to go out and keep kicking butt.
