Tuesday, December 30, 2008

F29er 1 super rad 23.1 pounds racing bike since i'm so fast...

perhaps the worst picture of the coolest bike ever:


and one from our nightride around the park:

Sunday, December 28, 2008

09 cannondale caad9 + DURA-ACE 7900 review

here you will find a review of my 09 cannondale caad9 featuring the new DURA-ACE 7900 chain... okay, so i have sram rival otherwise but the new DURA-ACE 7900 chain is pretty awesome. i also really really really really really really really like being on the road bike again with sram rival. i like the new lever shape a lot. it reminds me of the sram red that i had on my supersix last year but well, actually i think its the exact same but it cost a lot less. so basically the bike is:



2009 cannondale caad9 56cm frame
sram rival shifters
sram rival front derailleur
sram rival rear derailleur
fsa slk light 34/50 crank
shimano 105 11-25 cassette
shimano NEW DURA ACE 7900 chain
tektro junk brakes
c3 junk handlebars and c4 stem. the stem is actually okay, but the bars will be replaced soon
thomson masterpiece post
bontrager inform rl saddle
king cages
conti grand prix 4SEASON 700x25 tyres
chris king/mavic open pro wheels (custom built by me) with spoke washers. yes, spoke washers. if you haven't heard of them, you're probably not classy enough to have them. so thats it. oh, and no you can't put spoke washers on your mavic ksyrium. good try though

so, the new DURA-ACE 7900 chain is pretty awesome and well, it only took 10 minutes to put the chain together using a sm-cn79 quick link. i've gotten two rides in so far totaling about 45 miles and i'm really enjoying the new DURA-ACE 7900 chain. i love love love my sram shifters and stuff and while i really really like sram's pc-991 hollow chain on my mountain bikes, i found that their pc-1090 chain wasn't so good. it seemed to work about as good as a shimano 7speed chain on a 9speed drivetrain. with the chain cut too short. and rusted fraying shift cables. however the new DURA-ACE 7900 chain seemed to work super wicked super awesome good on the 105 11-25 cassette. it silently glides from cog to cog and chainring to chainring without effort. i think shimano does a good job of making chains and cassettes. however, their new DURA-ACE 7900 shifters are well, about as exciting as sram's pc-1090 chain... and their new derailleurs look, well, like XTR. boring. oh well. thankfully we have both sram and SHIMANO to choose our parts from. so my bike is really awesome and weighs 17.1 pounds which isn't so bad for a alloy bike with junk heavy brakes, alloy bar, and heavy winter 700x25 tyres. i think it will be 16.5 pounds with some nice sram rival brakes, bontrager xxx lite bars, and conti gp4000s tyres. alright, i'm off to work on reading jacob florence's blog. it is the most boringest blog in all the internets you know??

Saturday, December 13, 2008

saturday morning ride. commute

mid-day edit: you must click this. yes, you have to.

after sleeping in until 7am i woke and realized i would not be riding my planned route over rich mtn and down the front side but rather using an old friend, much shorter route up jordan v cook and throwing in a snowy lap on rocky creek before stopping at stick boy. i was out the door at 8am and crossed 105 at 9:06am. by then it had warmed considerably to 31deg F from the 20deg F when i started. okie dokie, here's the proof:



comments are welcome by the way. feel free to tell me i'm wasting my time. or that stopping at stick boy won't help me win the biggest loser v2.0 contest. or that i'm awesome. really, write whatever you want. unless you're J-Flo

Thursday, December 11, 2008

trainer riding. checklists. noah.

to start things off:

way to go noah. first loser at cyclocross nationals!!! woooo hooooo.

results here

moving on...

since noah sailed away on his boat, boone continued getting rain. about 178" of rain fell in the last 24 hours. well sam and i decided to ride trainers after work. sam managed to get everything on his trainer riding checklist

[ ] bike
[ ] shoes
[ ] heart rate monitor
[ ] base layer
[ ] post-ride snack
[ ] helmet

but like this guy:



he forgot his bib shorts. i told him if he didn't want to ride the trainer he could have just said so. dragging his trainer, shoes, helmet, bike, etc to boone JUST to intentionally 'forget' his bibs because he didn't want to ride with me wasn't necessary.

anyways i rode the trainer on my own even though its about as fun as a root canal. i went with max's suggestion of a 10 minute warmup, 10 minutes around 168-170 bpm, 5 minutes around 120bpm, then 3x 3minutes at 170+ doing the hardest work i could sustain for three minutes. it was quite difficult. i haven't done much interval type stuff this year although i can tell i need to. i hope to race the charlotte short track series (at least three of four events) so i think this interval sillyness may be a good idea.

welp, gray's anatomy was a re-run so i had some time to blog tonight in between conti tire researching and cooking veggie stir-fry. whew, busy schedule. thanks for reading. oh, i should be blogging again next week with a report from the megan carmody cocktail party. oh, you didn't hear about it?? yep, you're not invited

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

blogging off season. entering base 1

okay. if you haven't noticed. i haven't been blogging lately. and for good reason...

after a long hard season of racing, i mean blogging, i knew i needed a break. i've needed to put my feet up

give my legs and typing fingers a break from all the work. long hours on the saddle, and blogging take a toll on us all. and so i entered my off season back around september. i also stopped bike racing around october. i got into a race with no results (IRON MTN BIKE RACE)and finished fourth overall, and a cx race at hawksnest (scroll down, i promise its there!!!) and finished one spot behind victory. i mean one spot behind megan. oh well. at least i beat sam hutchens:



CONGRATS GOES OUT TO SHAW BROWN



for winning the NC CYCLOCROSS CX4 CHAMPIONSHIP.

you may better recognize him with his STATE CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY:






anyways, realizing i didn't have any state championships coming up for my own, i moved deeper into my off season. riding some. no heart rate monitor. no gps. no data. it was quite difficult, but even more though, i had to take a break from my blogging!!! so after a quick teambuilding training camp this november

i've gotten back into the swing of things. i've even begun planning my 2009 season and started planning which events i plan to 'peak' around and how to structure my blog posts for the coming year:
April 5th - Dragon's Back XXC??
April 19th - GSC #2 Columbus??
April 25th - Cohutta 100
May 3rd - SERC #4 Ducktown, TN
May 10th - Stumpjump Spartanburg
May 23/24th - BURN 24hr SOLO??
June 7th - SERC #6 Clemson
June 14th - SERC #7 Athens
August 1st - Wilderness 101
September 6th - Shenandoah 100
September 19th - 12 Hours of Dauset

my goals for the year are to have at least 189 blog posts, 276 pictures posted from races, average 378 words per post, top 5 at the BURN 24hr SOLO, get on the podium at least three times (XC races), upgrade to cat 1 (expert), and win a sport xc race.

lastly, i need to wish my boys good luck (they are headed to the usa cycling cyclocross national championships in kansas city):
NOAH

J-FLO

RYAN FAWLEY


blogging will continue rather slowly for the next few months as i progress through BASE 1, before moving into BUILD 1. so thanks for reading, and knowing i won't post again for a month or two, happy new year

Monday, October 20, 2008

moses cone. lunch. calloway peak

darcy and i started our sunday running at moses cone trails. we ran around the lake, up the maze, down from the apple barn, then an extra lap around the lake for a total of 4.8 miles. we ran about 10 minute miles. not bad since we haven't gone running in weeks.

we came home, ate soup for lunch, then headed to the boone fork parking area on the BRP. we hiked up the tanawha trail past nuwati trail to the daniel boone scout trail. turning uphill for 2.7 miles brought us past beautiful rocks, trees, and even some icicles hanging in the shade. the views from the top were quite amazing, and made me happy to live in the high country and be able to see this stuff any day i want. now for the photos:








Saturday, August 30, 2008

shenandoah 100 tomorrow

wish me luck tomorrow. my first shenandoah 100 is coming up and the weatherman says blue skies, sun, and warm temps. i'm excited about it but i know my time will fall somewhere in the 'i just came to have a good time' category. either there or with the 70+ age group...

Monday, July 28, 2008

ORAMM 2008: off road assault on mt mitchell

yesterday was my second oramm. the route was slightly different than in 2007 when we turned on the blue ridge parkway instead of crossing it. the route wasn't much longer but it did include a 10 minute downhill followed by another hour long climb.


View Larger Map

we got rolling around 8am and i tried to keep in front of the huge mass of slow people. old us 70 was an interesting way to get up to kitsuma as it was truly an old road getting reclaimed by the forest. i'm convinced that unless you're the first five riders to reach kitsuma it becomes a virtually impossible climb.

i was able to climb all of the switchbacks on kitsuma except the last two. it seems like that effort may have put me in a bad place later in the day. cresting the top i shifted and unlocked my shock and soon enough we're pausing for the first short steep climb. another few short steep climbs and its time for one of the best downhills around. i ride a few switchbacks, passing some people in these corners, then take the low road when the trail split and passed a few more people. i followed amos ivey and we talked briefly about actually riding switchbacks instead of walking them...

we start pedaling up mill creek road and turn onto singletrack. after a short hikeabike theres more technical climbing (i made most of it) its time for grassy forest service road. this is where my right knee began getting shooting sharp pains. i kept trying to eat and take my tylenol and soft pedal my way to aid station #2. once i got there i took some advil, got my bottles, refilled my camelbak and got ready for curtis creek rd (mile 26 to mile 36):






curtis creek rd. people who have ridden oramm know all about it. 9.2 miles. 2572 feet climbing. gravel gravel gravel. i stopped once we reached dirt, took off my helmet and attached it to my camelbak. my gloves were hanging on my shifters to dry out.

all i did was pedal, curse my knee, drink water, eat, and take endurolytes (not enough!!). i kept telling myself negative thoughts about the climb ie 'two more hours of this road!!!' but soon enough a walker told us there was only another mile. reaching the aid station #3 we were told they are out of water. i get like a 1/2 liter of water from a guy from biowheels. i was told this was the second year in a row that aid #3 ran out of water. oh well, should have gotten there quicker. i tried not to sit around and got back on the bike. descended the forest road and caught some asheville guys and tried to hang with them on the climb to the parkway. i popped my red bull with about a mile until pavement. i got a full let me repeat full camelbak refill at aid #4 and then made my way to the hikeabike up to heartbreak ridge. after that i made my way to the front of the few people about to roll and hit it. heartbreak ridge is really an amazing thing, except that my hands, arms, and legs were all cramping. i'd love to ride heartbreak ridge on its own one day...

i had a couple scary spots where my fingers cramped and couldn't pull the brake levers. oh well, who needs to slow down... so i made a wrong turn once we reached the trail from earlier in the day and ended up at private property signs. ooops. backtracking got me to an orange flag that i didn't see and back to the star gap trail or whatever its called. aid station #5 brought some more water and a banana and hope. the pedaling up the random forest svc road was tough. it was hot and not shady very often. i met up with kip clyburn and his BMCC jersey and it took a second to realize we knew each other and had ridden about 5 laps together at the BURN 24 race in may. we were done talking and caught some other guys then had to walk up to the railroad crossing bridge thing. some more granny ring pedaling got me to kitsuma. i walked the first few switchbacks and actually managed to ride some of the others. i had to walk a bit of the flat spots because the roots sent cramps through my legs when trying to pedal and reaching the final stretch of downhill was pleasant. i caught the asheville guy i rode with earlier and we paced each other back to town. he told me i could take the stage win but i was hoping for a sprint finish. oh well. crossing in 8 hours 14 minutes didn't really warrant a sprint finish. at least i beat my 2007 time by an hour and it was a tougher course...

hopping in the creek and laying in icy cold water was great. i reflected on my last 8 hours 14 minutes 14 seconds, 62.02 miles, 10,581 feet of elevation gained, innumerable leg, arm, finger, and jaw (yes, jaw while trying to drink from the camelbak) cramps, and the pasta i was about to eat. yum

Tuesday, June 03, 2008

burn 24 solo 2008

so i did the burn 24 hour solo race last week. it was pretty fun. i think the whole experience is summed up by the following picture:



i'll type more soon

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

burn24 rapidly approaching, this guy

so two things are of note and interesting enough to discuss:

1. the burn 24 hour race is going to be here in four days and 4 hours... i rode some laps sunday at the venue: 5 laps in 4 hours. i figure if i can do AT LEAST a lap PER hour minus sleep time (ie 2 hours total??) then i can bust out at least 22 laps. granted, thats counting on NOT having a mental breakdown, stroke, heart attack, delusions telling me to jump in the lake, nausea, out of body experiences and/or falling asleep while riding. my goal is 18-22 laps. i really want a top 10. we'll see.

2. this guy (matt hadley):


and this guy (daniel sessford):



just finished 8th and 10th respectively at the 1st stop of the canada cup mtb series. way to go guys. they also stayed on my floor and hung out, trained, and cooked a rad dinner for me and darcy while they stayed in boone, nc recently. they're friends of friends that race bikes and we met up at the serc #4. they got 1st and 3rd there, but the canada cup had some bigger fish racing. great job guys, eh!?

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

rainy sunday trail running...

54 miles. 6hours 25minutes. thousands of feet of elevation gain. the burn24 is coming quick!


View Larger Map

Friday, May 09, 2008

SERC # 4 Ducktown, TN XC

at the serc #4 ducktown, tn race:



yes the 2nd place kid is 13 and the 1st is 18 but they're future u23 national team.... it didn't bother me too much. i haven't really been training for xc races so i was very happy with a 5th place finish.

now its a 7 hour training ride sunday getting ready for the burn

jg

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

4.22.08 maiden voyage

my fly new bike:

three top road, view towards todd, nc:

me on three top rd:

the peak, ashe county, nc:

me climbing snake mountain (from nc-88), nc (2000 feet, 6 miles, 44 minutes):

snake mountain, nc:

boone pave, umm.... gravel:

raysweather.com photo of the day april 25th, 2008:

Monday, April 21, 2008

2008 cohutta 100 mtb race

so my cohutta 100 began with a busy friday afternoon and a new saris bike rack arriving in a box for my car. my carpool buddy, ryan fawley, put together the bike rack and we got the car loaded and rolling around 5:45pm. we had some delicious quizno's and then made a stop for gas/potty break then arrived at the ocoee white water center around 11:00pm. we set up our renegade campsite behind some trees just out of the parking lot and went to sleep. we were very glad to see our friend rebecca t's car that had our race numbers/registration. thanks rebecca!!!

the bike race began with chilly temperatures, but warm enough that a jacket would be overkill. so i settled into the middle of the pack at the start line, unfortunately not being able to see floyd landis, chris eatough, harlan price, or any of the other pro's. the start reminded me of well, atlanta traffic. we stood up to pedal, clip-in, and then almost run into the person in front of us. blah, 300+ people starting a 100 mile race in a single lane of pavement was no good.

after a few miles of rolling two/three lane highway we turn hard right into the forest and onto singletrack. the singletrack was fun, but muddy due to the storms the night before. i began thinking negative thoughts about my choice of semi-slick tires but after a few miles of singletrack and a short steep that allowed us to pass a half dozen racers, i got settled with the traction that was provided. they hooked up a lot more than i thought!!! after nearly an hour we reached a creek crossing with large boulders set in it to make a sort of natural bridge. just before reaching this three fast guys (pro's who were late for the start??) passed and then managed to find themselves soaking in the creek and well, i rode right past them!! there were some spectators standing around and i'm pretty sure thats the only reason i had the skills to pay the bills. crossing the ocoee river and turning uphill led us on more amazing singletrack and to the first of many forest roads.

step 1: climb a big hill
step 2: descend a big hill
step 3: repeat for 60 miles

the only things to mention during this stage of the race are the rest stops, #2 and #3 had ziplock bags full of goodies for me!!! and i met a guy named mark from OMBA near macon, ga. we rode together for a majority of the race. the mechanic at rest area #3 was awesome. he lubed/cleaned my chain and sent me on my way with a smile. somewhere along the route i noticed a sign for jacks river trail and it reminded me of my boys (bobby, frank, jd, james) and their high school hiking trip to north georgia. it turns out that was the SAME jacks river trail/falls. i love those guys. after aid #3 we descended the long descent that is visible in the course profile:



after a long pavement/gravel/hot/dusty stretch i met up with mark again and we pacelined until i had to pull off to the side and pee. thankfully the inconvenience meant i was drinking enough (unlike my first endurance race, 07 ORAMM) so i didn't mind stopping. my nutrition plan was to eat two packages of shot bloks and drink a bottle of 2 scoops sustained enery/1 scoop heed and drink as much water as i could make myself every two hours. i was thankful for the two extra strength tylenol i took with me as well. i hit those around the 4 hour and 8 hour marks.

after all the gravel roads i managed to move a bit farther forward in the pack (from the last 1% to the last 3% or so) and rode with a nice guy with a twinsix bag for a while. he said he was from memphis and now lived in chattanooga. anyways, if you read this chattanooga guy it was nice riding with you. he bid me adieu after i kept shifting to my big ring (even at 9 hours with 20 miles to go i figured there's some way to finish sub-10 (my goal)).

entering the singletrack i tried to act happy and excited (there was an aid station with lots of people looking at me) and then caught some guy in a blue kit on a gary fisher (i think it was a fisher) and he told me to pass. i didn't really want to but i did and after a couple doubletrack style switchbacks i looked back and he was a few hundred feet back. i kept pushing and only managed to catch a few of the women on the last bit of singletrack (incredible by the way, have i mentioned the quality of the trail yet??) some kid along the way said 8 miles to go and its mostly downhill. i think someone told him that line because it made me feel better and smile but i am pretty sure i did a lot of climbing still beyond that point. cruising down some amazing stuff i rode last may (SERC race) i dumped out on gravel and some spectators told a car to wait so i could make the turn without coming to a complete stop (thanks!!) and i got into the big ring and started hammering. i'm sure all the paddlers that were driving by thought gosh those bike guys are idiots, and well, they are right.

anyways, i caught a guy with a number plate and his girlfriend/wife (who didn't have a number, maybe she was pacing him to the finish??) and then saw one more racer far ahead. i quick check of the right side rear wheel revealed we were in the same category, men's open 100, so i continued charging. nearing the bridge i had to scrub off some speed to not go over the handrail into the ocoee river below, and i knew the other racer could hear me now. i stood up and sprinted across the bridge, legs telling me to sit down, mind telling me to keep pushing and he almost cut me off!!!! i was about to pass on the inside and he nearly got me into the bridge hand railing!!! (rubbin's racing right dean??) and across the last hundred feet i was standing and sprinting and i passed the guy. i never got to tell him good job afterwards, but i did get a cool 'finisher's mug' and met up with ryan f. he grabbed me a soda and i got some BBQ chicken and rice. bliss at last, sitting on the ground, 10 hours 30 minutes after we started.

we watched the awards for some of our friends, dejay birtch 2nd singlespeed, rebecca t 5th woman (first woman singlespeed rigid), and honorable mention goes out to ryan f. he got 11th on the singlespeed. first time racing singlespeed since last summer!!! drew finished ahead of me, though not as quickly as he'd hoped, but he was fighting stomach problems and puking. so i think finishing at all was pretty dope.

i've got to thank columbus bike racing team for helping me get to events and KENDA for giving me awesome tires that turned out to work great (despite my first evaluation one hour into the race), my pseudo-coach max shute, shaw and sarah brown at boone bike for letting me have saturday off to race, my future in-laws doug and diane alexander for letting us crash saturday night at their place and supplying pizza and breakfast, and new leaf adventures for putting on a super-cool event. i will be back next year for sure. for now its a week of rest and then xc racing back at the ocoee white water center for the SERC #4. then a few weeks of preparation and long rides to get ready for the BURN 24 SOLO.

2008 cohutta 100 results (if they ever post them)

as always, if you've made it this far, thanks for reading and hopefully you're not too bored.

Monday, April 07, 2008

2008 dragon's back xxc mtb race

so its time to write about the dragon's back xxc mtb race. to start, the xxc part just means its an extra long xc race. er, it is supposed to take twice as long, er is 34 miles instead of 18 miles. does that describe what's going on?

the trip started picking ryan fawley up from ASU and hitting espresso news for some coffee. we stopped at exit 72 in VA for subway, and found a little caesar's next to subway. so we got subs, then got a hot'n'ready little caesar's pizza. the subway made for a great breakfast... so we roll into the camp area after drifting through plenty of turns on this peanut butter forest service road. sleeping proved difficult as rain dripped through the tent and kept me awake most of the night.

morning was a welcome sight. ryan had gone to sleep in the car as he didn't have a sleeping pad. after subway, some coffee (thanks aran) and registration i suited up for the next six hours...

the start was pretty unofficial. there was no gun, no whistle, people just started riding. so off i go. the road seemed to go by quickly. once we reached singletrack i could tell i my current gearing was not going to work, so i drop into my 22-34 and granny gear as far as i could. i rode a lot of the uphill that most people were walking, though i walked almost all the switchbacks, and passed probably 6 or 8 people before reaching the ridge. we'd just climbed from 1500' to 2800'. blah. i stopped and took off my jacket and made my way east on the ridge. this part is basically a blur of fog, wet leaves, roots, rocks and hallucinations. along the way i hopped off and walked some stretches that would normally be rideable, but knowing i had at least three hours to go i opted for walking (aka resting and fueling). i was popping bloks, bars, gels, and hammer HEED at random during my ride along the ridge. i wanted to make sure i didn't bonk later in the ride due to lack of food.

earlier at the start line i'd met brent jim and brad from paceline bicycles in winston. i rode with brent for a while. he'd said that they were sticking together and riding for fun, but it still made me happy when i dropped him. i think it was at this point when i noticed the dragon's scaly vertebrae remains showing through the dirt. essentially we'd been riding on what we thought was slate rocks just strewn every which way, then some were sticking vertically out of the ground and i realized it was some of the dragon's scales, well, maybe it was just rocks but either way it was OUR version of the cobbles. then i rode with chris davis from mountaingoatepics.com. his partners put on the off road assault on mt mitchell. we rode together for a while, but he left me on one of the climbs. at one point the ridge teased us with a wicked downhill that convinced me it was the descent to the road. it wasn't, and my time in my 44t was short lived. after the 18th climb the ridge had to offer, the trail opened up and it was time to descend for a while. we dropped from 3000' to 1400' in about 5 miles. that was the funnest part of the day.



the next 5 miles seemed to take longer than the previous 10 miles on singletrack. the surface of the road was either newly laid apple sized gravel, knee deep creeks, or jif extra creamy peanut butter. it really sucked. on a dry race day this part would be time to get with other riders and institute road tactics and pacelines and what-not. oh, speaking of paceline... i had not seen anything of those guys since my 'attack' on one of the ridge sections... we actually were forced to cross the same knee deep creek (ie hubs and bottom bracket deep) five times!!!! i knew my BB was toast before starting the event.... now it sounds like rice crispies when you first put milk on them. oh well.



i stopped at our campsite for water refilling and to look for my banana that i brought and forgot to eat for breakfast. my legs kept requesting that i eat a banana but i couldn't find one along the trail and THEN when i finally got to my car i lacked the motivation to find my keys and unlock my car. oh well. i hopped back on my bike and two guys standing around drinking beer who'd presumedly raced some xc category (started after we xxc started and had finished before we'd finished) set their beers down to clap for me and cheer me on. they could tell who was xxc because we had a number plate type thing on our bars that simply said XX. our race numbers were on our camelbaks... as i rolled past the start/finish many other xc racers who'd finished their event and were loading up to leave paused and clapped or at least gave some encouraging words. its silly how just a nice word or smile can make you hurt less and convince you its all worth it. anyways

i neared a xxc racer on the road and we entered the second singletrack climb together. i quickly passed this person (fully suited in dirt rag apparel. i wanted to ask if he worked there?!?) and soon found a 29'er full suspension guy with an awesome fender. i rode with this fellow for a bit and eventually passed on a section i was pedaling and he was walking. i also passed a xc girl which wasn't as nice since that didn't move me higher in the placing. it was nice to know she'd slow down the others when it was their turn to pass though!!!!! =) i passed at least one or two more people before reaching the ridge, i think they were both xc racers who were questioning their existence and current location on a 3000' ridge and the impending 1500' descent. i stopped and chatted with two event organizers at the T with the ridge trail and discussed the smiley face and sad face drawn on my grips. they wanted me to smile. all i wanted to do was catch the singlespeed XXC guy that was just a few hundred feet ahead.

i tried to force myself to ride some of the small climbs that my legs wanted to walk up, though my two feet took over on a few of them still. lactic acid is not your friend. passing another xc rider, he asked if the ridge was almost over. i told him yes, though i knew there was at least a mile to go until the downhill. the singlespeed XXC guy had held me off and i was worried that on the descent his 29er wheels may give him the advantage so i let it all hang out on super narrow super exposed trail. i also had to worry about the 29er full suspension fender guy. i did not want anyone to pass me, especially since the last passer was chris davis (mtngoatepics.com guy) before descending the ridge earlier. coming into a wet leafy rocky poorly constructed 'jump' i opted to walk and found the SS guy on the ground recovering from his attempted jump. i asked if he was okay and quickly remounted my bike and flew down the last few switchbacks and remaining trail. it was over before i knew it and i was crossing the road for the ring of mud, er fire, er mud.

this section seemed out of place for the xxc course. maybe it helped split up the xc guys a bit but after the quality of what we'd just ridden, climbing out of a mudhole on slow singletrack only to be followed by a slow muddy road was not what i had in mind. oh well, BFH.

i overtook another xc racer while trying my hardest to catch another XXC. i couldn't catch anyone and when i pulled into the finishing area i could see someone fifty feet ahead and i knew it was too late. oh well. i hit stop on my garmin and it said 5:44 total time, i beat my goal of 6 hours. there were tons of people standing around eating, listening to music, drinking beer. harlan price was one of them. i heard he won the pro xc category. congrats harlan.

the boone bike contingency was strong in the XXC... darrell prillaman got 2nd (behind a semi pro), drew scharns got 3rd, smart tom got something like 6th, ryan fawley (appstate guy) got 9th, and aran cacciola got 11th. i don't think any of those guys were happy with their results but they all should be. i later found out i was 28th out of 48. although i later heard there were over 50 starters... that made me feel good. my first XXC race ever. my first mtb race of the year (since sept 22nd 2007).

gps info here

we rode 33.9 miles. climbed somewhere around 6500 feet. ascended from 1500' to 3000' at least twice. my average HR was 156bpm. descended one five mile (yes i said five mile) downhill. four gels, two clif bars, ten shot bloks, one bottle of sustained energy and heed, one camelbak, one camelbak refill. oh, and sadly, still, no bananas. i wish i'd taken some enduroltyes. at the end of my day i could feel me stomach churning trying to trick me into throwing up, but my legs still wanted electrolytes. oh well.

it was quite the experience and quite the place to fly the columbus bike racing colors. i'm glad i could do so and finish with a (somewhat) respectable finish. now its off to NUE stop #1 cohutta 100 then getting ready for my first solo 24 effort at the BURN 24. then its wedding time june 29th with my incredible fiance. =) for now its time to sleep...

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

china sucks



http://www.savetibet.org/index.php

this is such a mess. i hope the olympic games opening ceremony and torch running is a disaster. blah. thinking aloud...

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

31.08 miles 6:13:53 5200 feet climbing




so drew and i hop in the car and drive out 221 and park on the side. we descend/hike a bike for a while and start heading down yancey's ridge. after the third downhill (on the long loop) we turn onto the 'goatpath.' we take that down some killer switchbacks and take our shoes/socks off and walk across the wilson's creek. we looked around for a while for tr 257 but couldn't find it so we climbed the "rocky road bed." it wasn't very fun and i walked probably 20% of it. oh blah. so we sit on the ground and enjoy some wonderful clif bar products. mmm.

head over to 21 jumps/schoolhouse to crocker exit. my lefty starts making a clankity clank clank. guess i shouldn't have ridden the creek crossing that was two feet deep... my little toes were cold too and white by the end of the ride. so my submerged fork still seemed to work okay, but i had to ride part of the ride with it locked out. oh well. so climbing back up edgemont rd was okay except drew was being strong and sprinted and was waiting when we got back to the 21 jumps start area. we bomb down walnut bottom (watching for the tree that has taken me and matt shanly off our bikes) and popped out on anthony's creek rd. this is basically the end of the fun part of our ride...


we're about 22 miles in and about 1300 feet elevation. our car is somewhere around 4000 feet. so the next 11 miles held something like 2500 feet of climbing. i ran out of water before finishing my last clif bar. that made eating the last half of it quite difficult and i think led to the nauseu that i felt near the end of our ride. edgemont rd was in great shape and we switched from sitting to standing a few times and i put it in the big ring and some cog with probably 19 teeth or so and stood up and gave it all i had. we could see my car and well, drew was still strong and dropped me. its fine. i'm used to being off the back.


enjoy the pictures. so afterwards, i headed to mountain jewelers in newland to check out some wedding rings for darcy and me. no pictures of those yet... thanks for reading this.