I know it has been a couple weeks now since I wrote my last blog.  Sorry for the lapse, since then I’ve raced four times in Florida and returned home to a snow storm.

I’ve been training in Florida for just over a month.  On January 15^thI headed out to Solvang, CA for our second training camp.  The problem was that week had some of the worst rain storms in California of the year.  We ended up riding several days on the trainers due to all the rain.  I returned to Floridato do a couple more weeks of training and some races.  The first weekend of racing was a criterium in a down pour which I finished in the pack.  I set my teammate up for the sprint and he ended up 4^th.  The second day was a road race and I pulled out with one lap to go.  A break of 20+ guys got up the road and I decided I had, had enough training for the day.  I was happy with my first two races and where my fitness is for this time of year.

The next weekend would be my first chance to test my time trailing fitness.  On Saturday we would have a nine mile time trail.  It was quite windy that day and with several good riders like Phil Gaimon from Jelly Belly and Bobby Sweeting, local pro Grant Potter I knew I had my work cut out.  I was more interested in testing my threshold power for which I knew would take about 20 minutes to do the TT.  Going out was a strong tailwind so we flew out, and on the way home the head wind was tough.  I had borrowed some one’s Trek TT bike and I had only ridden it for 30 minutes before the TT.  With great surprise I was second at five seconds to Phil Gaimon and five seconds ahead of Grant Potter.  I was happy with the result and felt good with my time trail form.  I still have a way’s to go to be where I want my time trail form to be, but it was a good start.  The next day was the Gainesville crit, a fast four corner crit in the old part of town.  Again the big local team of Zmotion was there with various local riders and some Pro’s mixed in.  I attacked several times, but nothing really stuck.  Phil Giamon got away solo and won.  I set Gavin up again for the sprint, but it was a long way from the last corner to the finish and he ended up 7^th.  Again overall felt good about my form and where it is at right at the moment.

I got home like I said to a snow storm, so Gavin and I loaded back up in the car and headed down to Jackson, Mississippi to train till the roads are clear again in Memphis.  I’ll be home for just over a month then I’ll be heading out to my Dad’s camp in AZ mid March.  Then from Arizona I’ll be heading out to California to do Redlands.  

From Redlands I’ll be heading over to Europe with the National Team to be doing a Nations Cup stage race with the National Team.  Then back to the USto do the Tour of the Gila with Trek Livestrong.  Then back over to Europe to either be doing another stage race with the National team or the Olympia Tour in the Netherlandswith Trek Livestrong.

From that I return to the US to do Nature Valley, then U/23 Nationals and Fitchburg.  Then I get a couple week break and do Cascade and the Tour of Utah.  As of right now I’m also scheduled to do the Tour of Missouri.  But, we’ll see how tired I am by then.

Again I trust every one’s training is going well and I look forward to writing more from the road and seeing some of you at some of the races.  Thanks for reading and stay safe.

Nathan Brown

Trek Livestrong/U23 Development team Presented by Radio Shack.