35

Monday and the first half of the H2H race season is in the books. I did 4 of the 5 races with the following results:

Wawayanda: 6th
Lewis Morris: 6th
Stewart: 15th
Kittatiny: 7th

Yesterday was the state qualifier so the field was bigger, maybe 35 if I had to guess. I had a solid race and was holding on to 3rd into the second lap until I started to cool off a bit. Felt very good for much of the ride. I still wouldn't call it a perfect race but I'm getting closer.

Cycle 35

Victim: Summit, male, 30-39, black, not fat, married regular. Smells like onions or garlic. It's kinda nasty this morning. I'm still feeling overheated from yesterday and this train car isn't nearly cold enough so the onion/garlic smell is a bit much today. Kinda making me feel ill. Otherwise totally quiet and sleeping.

Assessment: Bad due to the stink. Otherwise good.

Blow Up Dolls

Let's just kick it off with our new team mascot



Here's my race recap. This is taken entirely from the various posts I made in our team forum. So the team guys will have already read this. Anyway, to recap, I think I have mental problems...

My time last year was 1:53:50. This year it was about 1:39:50. That's a 14 minute improvement. My goal this year was to be under 1:40, shooting for 33 minute laps. My laps were 33+, 33-, and 34-. I wanted to start out slow and steady, not blowing on the first 3 climbs - I did exactly that, and after that 3rd climb on the first lap the only person to permanently pass me was Kirt, at the start of the 3rd lap.

In short, I knew this course wasn't great for me. I had a few goals and I hit them. I paced myself very well, managed to reel back in a ton of riders. Never pushed past the breaking point. And yet, I still feel like that race where it all comes together just hasn't come yet. When I was done my legs hurt. Squatting down to get some carrots in the fridge Monday morning while I was packing my lunch, my legs let me know just how unhappy they were. I feel like I raced at my limit, right where I should have been. I had a strategy, stuck to it, and beat last year's time by 14 minutes. And yet, I dunno, I still felt lethargic out there. I don't know if my warm-up isn't right, my pre-race meal, my race nutrition of choice, or what.

Oh and another thing. I joked about one of the experts pacing me through the race. Well just into the second lap, Marc Lewis passed me and we went back and forth the rest of the day. Marc used to work at Planet Bike and used to race expert-level on the Specialized team. NORBA denied his expert application so he was in sport class. Literally for the last 9-10 miles, we paced each other around the course, and at the end we sprinted out the fire road to the finish. He bailed at the end and I took the spot ahead of him, but I'm pretty sure he backed off the gas and let me have it, though we were hammering at a pretty good clip. Regardless, his pressing me at the end is why I managed to keep it under that 1:40 time.

Still, it was a fantastic day. I got to see everyone from the team (except Steve!!!!!), plus a whole lot of other people from the site. These races are turning more and more into really fun events and even if I have the crappiest race, the before/after is really a lot of fun. Good stuff.

The BBQ after was good times. While I wish more people could have come by, my wife would have punched me if the whole team showed.

So I looked at last year's results for sport here. This is a PDF so don't click if you don't want it to open Adobe Acrobat.

Anyway, if I take my time and add 2:00 (like the results from '07) I get 1:41:50. Using last year's results that would put me in 6th place for a combined class. Given they split the class this year, and using last year's rider ages, that would put me in 4th place.

Regardless if I came in 4th (or by some miracle 3rd) this makes me feel better about yesterday's race now. I also had a faster race yesterday than Rave had in '07. Rave won the series (before the PayDirt points were applied).

Another moment I just remembered from after the race. Ben and Chris were with me at my car after the race, talking about how it went. I said, "I think today I finally felt those extra 10 pounds a little bit out there." Ben just half-smiled and shook his head knowingly. I think I should get a little more serious about dropping that damn vacation weight now...

More Bike Stuff

Wednesday morning. This heavy dose of biking is catching up to me right now. Consider the lineup:

Thursday: Race pace with 3 expert+ riders
Saturday: Hour preride, 18 miles, road
Sunday: Race
Tuesday: 26 minutes of short-burst intervals
Wednesday: 8x5:2 for a total of 40 minutes of high-end intervals.

That's 4 high-quality workouts in 7 days, for a total of 5:20 of solid, quality biking. Total hours for the week were about 7:00. The other 1:40 was the pre-ride on Saturday and the warm-up Sunday. Make every ride count.

So I'm tired. And I weight 194 this morning. I broke out the online food counter (fitday.com) again Monday because it's time to do a little defragmentation on my eating habits. So I should see the 180s again before long. This is just something I need to do once in a while.

The recurring saddle sore on my left butt cheek is half back again today. I'm wearing a red shirt. Does this effect who sits next to me? I am sitting in the back of the train so it's more than likely the person who sits here will only have my balding head to assess me with.

Cycle 12

Monday morning. I have trashed my body this weekend, racing Lewis Morris yesterday then having some of the team over for some burgers and beers. Then I stayed up too late and didn't get enough sleep. So I'm tired and likely look like ass sitting here. Black pants and light blue shirt. I shaved Saturday. I am reading State of Fear by Michael Crichton (thanks FatCat). I can't get enough of this book.

Victim: Summit, which is the first time a victim has taken that long to get on. It's always been Murray Hill or New Providence before. White, male, by Summit the men don't care if there are 2 big guys in 1 seat. Tough to call age but I'll say 40-49. Not fat. Marrier, regular. Plays on the Blackberry reading email or perhaps blog entries about train experiments. Dressed in a suit and tie. The tie is orange, like my bike and jersey. He is reading Thirteen Moons.

Assessment: Quiet, space respectful, couldn't ask for anything more. Good cohabitant. The only issue was an occasional space violation from the puffy shirt sleeve which is always annoying.

Cycle 13

Post work Monday. I have added a new option to the list today.

Victim: Evacuate. A young boy sat with me. He was with his brother, father, and grandparents. I got up so he, his father and brother could all sit in the 2 seater. The grandmother insisted I take the seat the father was going to take but NFW was I going to let her stand.

Assessment: Standing in the vestibule is fine, especially when you're doing the right thing. The guy behind us was sitting on the outside, blocking anyone from sitting with him. If he wasn't such a dickhead he would have gotten up and let the 2 grandparents sit there. But 35 year old, healthy white men need to sit and make 70 year old men stand. What a dick. I hope he gets herpes from screwing his secretary.

Cycle 14

Tuesday morning. I'm normally on the left side but today I'm on the right. I am wearing brown pants and a yellow shirt. I wonder if color has anything to do with it. Not if you read THIS.

Victim: Woman, white, not fat, 50+, non-regular, married, New Providence. This woman has been riding the train since I've been commuting to the city since November 2004. She and her friend come in every day together. Same train, same stop. Completely unremarkable. I think I need to redefine "regular" because she is on the train every day yet has a ticket, not a monthly pass. I can't tell you how much more that would cost but it's a lot more every month. She's probably one of these assholes that tries to cheap out and pay only 1 way. In the end that costs the honest people like me more money. Dick. For FatCat, she has never been confused with a high school or college pole vaulter ever in her life. She has a Blackberry. She opens up Readers Digest. Wow, I haven't seen that in years.

I read a PM that Steve sent which made me actually LOL. The woman looked around confused. Actually I don't think it's Reader's Digest. But same general shape.

Assessment: I am now going to classify this into 3 types. Good, Bad, and Indifferent. I think those are self-explanatory though I considered just Good and Not Good and decided that in order for me to be a good and fair arbiter of seat mates it would be unfair to classify someone who was passable as Not Good. It would be more accurate to say Good and !Good, but I think the nuance would be missed by most. I could use Good and Other but fuck it I've gone on long enough. Today's contestant was Good.

Cycle 15

Victim: Nobody.

Assessment: Good.

Cycle 16

Victim: Murray Hill, woman, not married, not fat, 19-29, non-regular. Blonde hair, just past shoulder length. While she is thin she does have solid calves, suggesting she was possibly an athlete at some point. Attractive yet hammish in that "I don't know how to be elegant so I come off a little gaudy" way that so many mid-20s women do. Wearing a long black (rain) coat and has a red umbrella. Wears a ring on her right hand, middle finger. Has a black hair clip/band. Big silver bracelet on her left wrist as well as a red banded watch. Breaks out a dark red mini iPod. Has a green purse and another bag. Obviously she likes colors but the black jacket suggests confusion at some level about that. Wears a perfume that reminds me of TD (Tackle Dummy - she played rugby) from back in college. I don't like it. Her name could be Shelly or Sandy. Her iPod is playing Boyz II Men. WTF? Her head routinely drops down and picks up as she struggles to stay awake.

Assessment: Perfume bad. Jacket arm rubbed my arm which is annoying. Just closed her eyes and listened to the music which is fine. But the perfume was too strong which makes her Indifferent. Not bad, as such. Just not good.

Seeya Pappy

It's utterly shocking for me to be sitting on the train and realize it's Thursday morning right now. Things are a little bit back to normal, whatever that means. I woke up, ate breakfast, and reviewed a few Mandarin podcasts on the train to Summit. But my brain isn't quite ready for that so I figure it's about time to sum up the last 5 days.

Saturday, I don't remember what we did in the morning. Maybe went to the Chinese market up on 46. After Julia's nap we went up to see my parents at my aunt's house. They were basically tending my dying grandfather, or more accurately my step-step grandfather, my step father's step father. I got to see him for the last time still breathing, but he'd been unconscious for a week previous to that so he was more or less already gone at that point. I don't think he had walked or spoken in a month. His health had been failing for a year.

Sunday I rode my bike at Wawayanda for 2 laps of the sport race. Despite all my hand-wringing I managed a 6th place finish, which helped me hit my goal of a top 10 finish. In driving up to the race, I was thinking of Pappy, aka Budsy. I don't think I ever called him Pappy until maybe the last 2-3 years. So to me he'll always be Budsy. My step father will always be Bird. Bird's brother will always be Tubby. And their sister will always be plain old Kathleen. She used to have a nickname but I forget what it was, maybe Skitso. She was a bit neurotic.

So I tried, but I couldn't win one for the Budsy, as the silly expression goes. I had kept it all out of my mind until the very end of the race, when it was just suddenly there. There was a guy in my class ahead of me, and it was all I could think about to catch him. I poured it all out there trying to close the gap, and eventually I did. When I passed him he was toast, and I continued to give everything I had for the last 100 yards to hold him off, which I did by 5 seconds. It turns out the guy wasn't even in my class.

Then I blew up. I rode down a fire road, got off the bike, sat under a tree, and cried. Crying isn't something I do very often, unless the dark chocolate runs out at home. So I was a little surprised at myself when I found myself sobbing under the tree. Nobody likely saw me, but if they did I'm sure they would have called me a big pussy for crying after a bike race. So it goes.

I didn't know it but he was dead by then. We knew it was only a matter of time the night before, but you don't know if that's 4 hours or 4 days. Well it turned out to be 4 hours. I told him he could go, that he had a good long life, which was true. I doubt he heard me and if he did he would have told me to piss off. But that was my peace to him, I guess. We all need to say goodbye one way or another. That was my farewell. If he had made it another day I was going to head up again Sunday after the race. But after a phone call I found that wasn't necessary.

Monday we spent the day with my parents. The amazing thing about a 2 year old is that they're oblivious to this stuff, so life just goes on. Of course, that's what we need during these times. So we just hung out, Julia demanding that grandpa walk her up and down the hill incessantly that afternoon. We washed the car, ate salsa and chips, drank coffee - just stuff to do while enjoying the beautiful day. At one point I asked my mom to make me a coffee and Nat admonished me for not doing it myself. But that's one thing Nat doesn't understand about the culture. At times like this, you need normalcy. For my mom, being able to take care of her son in any way is normalcy, the way things should be.

Tuesday was the funeral, where it became clear to me that I'm the "now" generation. You know how you were young and your relatives would get together and if something needed to be decided it was your uncles who discussed it? Well that's me now, just that there are no other uncles in this picture. The older generation is gone, our parents are now grandparents, and you're the one who needs to do the right thing when it needs to be done, like spending the day drinking coffee or walking the elderly back and forth to their cars during the viewing or giving up your train seat to the old man or pregnant woman.

So that's life. It's ironic for me to write that given I ride a bike as a hobby and post pictures of 17 year old pole vaulters. But the way I see it a person can do the right thing and still be a goofball. You still need to enjoy yourself.

I also got to see 3 of my cousins that I hadn't seen in like 15 years. One is a drinking and drug using neurotic, one is a snippy little bitch, and the 3rd is just the sweetest little girl you could ever meet. It's hard to believe the first and third are sisters. I'm the oldest of the bunch by 8 years, so to me they're all still just little girls. When we're all in our 50s they'll still be the same.

So that's that, 4 of my last 5 days. To top it all off I woke up yesterday, got on the scale, and saw 200. What a kick in the balls after that weekend. So I went on red alert and ate nothing but dandelion flowers all day. It worked, as I managed to pare off 6 pounds and this morning I'm back down to 194. Talk about a yo-yo. Monday 195, Wednesday 200, Thursday 194. I think I'm going to stay red alert for a while though, because I look like a fat slut in this picture, apologies to all the fat sluts out there:



It's hard to look at that picture and think, "By golly, there goes a top 5 sport class racer. I can just see it." Christ, it's hard to look at that picture at all. That's all the reminder I need to stay on red alert. I need to get serious about paring off this vacation hangover weight. I'm starting to sound like Joel Fleischman (how pathetic there's no picture of him?) or one of the Sex in the City chicks.

Anyway, so long Budsy.

Now What?

My seven weeks is up and the seven weeks blog has run its course. That puts me back here again with blogging. What's the difference? This is a blog about a guy who rides his bike but has other things happen in his life. The other is just a training blog for the benefit of the readers. I think I get more feedback here and it's more colorful. Plus Terren, Matt, and sometimes Cliffy & Woody read this as well.

How did the season go? Quite well I think. This was my first season racing XC with no real biking background to speak of. I've been biking for 7-8 years but at a casual level, meaning I would be off the bike from October through March and sometimes August as well. I did 5 XC races and 3 enduro races plus one charity event.

The enduros verified what I've come to conclude, that I'm not at that level yet. The first was Granogue where I cramped fantastically. Then there was Rattling Creek where I was doing OK but 3 flats knocked me into a DNF. Then the 24 hour race where the heat cut the day short. In all, I'm just not ready for that stuff which is fine.

The XC races began in early summer with Lewis Morris where I came in 31st. After that was Blue Mountain and a 30th place finish. Things came together after that at Jungle Habitat where I landed 7th. Then at Tymor I came in 16th with a broken chain. Finally I ended the season this Sunday at Ringwood in 6th place.

Considering my background and start to the season, I'd say it was a very successful year of biking. I learned a ton and managed to do well at the end to boot. Now the winter is coming and it's time to keep that mojo rolling. My motivation will obviously be higher coming off a season ending race like I did.

Now I have a lot of bike building and maintenance things going on. Repacking hubs, building wheels, tweaking the new build to make it right, and so on. I need a race-capable fork on the hardtail and I'm building a set of light UST tires this winter. Plus I'm going to address the nickel and dime things to get the bike weight down as much as possible. I'll also want to race 2 bikes next year, the FS Specialized and the HT Trek.

Right now I have to organize my offseason goals and go from there. Losing weight and getting in the 170s is my main priority. I want to stabilize 2-3 months before the first race which is late April. So that means my weight loss needs to be more or less done by early February, in theory.

There are other details like abdominal work, learning to spin better, working on bike skills, and a list of things I can't remember right now but losing weight is the #1 item on the list. That will address the ever-important power:weight ration, or PWR as it's called.

That's my bike life right now. I'm happy the racing season is over because it consumes you. Race days are long and cost a lot of family time. It's hard to go on group rides because you end up going too fast and aren't much fun to ride with. Your week gets structured around racing. It's nice to be free for a while.

Having said that I can't wait for 2008 to start. The ultimate goal is to compete for the overall Sport 30-39 H2H series win next year and to collect a podium or 2 along the way. And the more aggressive cherry on that would be to move up to expert the following year. Is that aggressive? Yes. But given I've gotten myself up to 6th place in the course of 5 XC races this season, I think it's not entirely impossible though maybe unlikely.

Oh yeah and my daughter is sick and not letting us sleep so much at night. But at least she waited for the season to end to start vomiting randomly.

Yeah it's good to be back here Walter. See you clowns at the picnic this Saturday.

I'll Race Anything That Moves!

So another race in the books today. Here's the race recap post on the MTBNJ board:

http://www.mtbnj.com/forum/showthread.php?p=36010#post36010

For the 2 of you not on that board I recommend clicking and reading. It's actually worth something this time. I never really thought there was much in the way of race tactics in a mountain bike race but there certainly is. Good stuff this Monday morning.

So now I'm itching to race again. There's a race up in NY state maybe 1:45 away. I discussed it with Nat and she's basically cool with it if I can honestly say the race is worth it for me. I don't know what the course is like so I can't say. Right now I'm 50-50. I need to balance my desire to do a race that eats a huge part of the day with my need to spend some time with the in-laws who go off to Taiwan the next day.

But right now I'm itching to race anything that moves. I'm hoping I get to work and there's a special Mountain Bike Race Day going on in the courtyard in Brooklyn. I drove home like Mario Andretti yesterday as the desire to go faster temporarily consumes me. Channeling Clerks, I'll race anything that moves!!!

It's nice to see all this training pay off though I have to credit Ben with giving me 2 pieces of advice. The first was to practice my race starts as such. Go really fast for 1 minute to simulate a race start. Then fall into a tempo pace for 5 minutes. This is basically what I did. Fly out of the gate and then let things settle down after that. The guys who are faster will pass you quietly and the chaff of the field will never catch you.

The second thing is that if you catch someone, pass them immediately. There's a reason you caught them. Don't fall into the lazy trap of being complacent and going slower than you should. As simple as it sounds it happens a lot. You come up to a guy slowly and are afraid that you will pass then crash or pass and be passed immediately. But it rarely happens. The guy you caught is often times going slightly faster than he should because he heard you coming on and started pressing. So chances of him catching you are slim once you go by.

So another race in the books, this time with a good result. At most I have 2 more races in the next 3 weeks then the season is over and I can fall into the long dark winter holding pattern. I have a much bigger base than I did at this time last year and I know what I need to work on. So even if my 2007 has not been amazingly productive I've seen a nice ending at least once and I've learned a lot along the way.

Chain Stretcher

Another tough race this weekend. Recap here:

http://www.mtbnj.com/forum/showthread.php?p=33830#post33830

Training blog link here:

http://www.mtbnj.com/forum/showthread.php?p=33895#post33895

Hit 186 over the weekend but 187 again today. I remain fairly confident that I will start to slide again but I'm concerned my body is going into shutdown/survival mode at times which would be a very bad thing. I've found it really easy to eat sparsely and it may be too much of a shock to the system. I need to keep a more consistent calorie intake I suppose. My wife thinks I'm eating too little. She may be right.

I probably need to choose either weight loss or racing for the next 5 weeks. It's really hard to do both. At the same time life is like a vice and it's hard to get enough sleep between biking, child, and work.

I'm still totally exhausted today. I've never had my legs be sore 2 days after a race like this. Work woke me up again at 1:00 last night and I'm about to flip my wig with these people. They called 6 times Saturday night. Fucking assholes. Just totally fucking clueless dick bags.

It's just time to find a new job. Anyone looking for a Java programmer who also writes a lot of scripts and does project management on the side, drop me a note.

ChrisG

"'Peace Is Every Step' is a good place to start with TNH. He has a huge catalog of books, many of which are just transcriptions of talks he's given over the years. -C.G."

I did find some online talks after I posted that day. I'm not sure I totally fit the groove of what he's talking about when he discusses mindful eating. To a point I do but I also needed to step back from food as a total gorge fest, which it was becoming for me I guess. Slowing down has been a great first step.

I'm just going to let this one stand as it is:

George

"LOL!!! You're killing me with the fat guy jokes Norm! Ok, let me take you back... Episode 5, 1995 - "King-Size Homer" (You'll have to imagine the inflection) Lisa calling down to Homer in the basement: "Dad, what are you doing down there?" Homer yelling back up: "Washing my Fat Guy hat honey" This was the hilarious episode (weren't they all) where Homer discovers that a body weight of over 300lbs is classed as disabling – so he desires to be hyper-obese. Homer then tells Bart the plan, who says he will help him. Lisa, positively objects to the fat plan on health grounds, asking if Homer has asked ‘mom’ The next set of events are well, just hysterical, I could describe each scene, but that would take too long. Instead I shall direct you to this little video clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0CA_wkSFb8 Well, that's my humerous contribution to the blog! Nothing else really going on... Work has been really busy, and family stuff, etc. Oh, I took Laura and Sam to a Redbulls game Saturday night, that was fun. Actually attending live soccer, football, baseball, hockey, etc, games is much more exciting and enjoyable than just watching on the 'ol box. Catch up with when get the chance Norm."

The Recap

Like I said to Sean Sunday morning, they didn't ask me to be on the team based on my results. The best I can do is go out there and hope to entertain with my race reports. So it goes. Let's see what I can do.

It's now Tuesday morning and most of the race reports have come in. I'm just sitting down to write this thing. Yesterday was a family day to make up for the lost weekend. I'm not hungover from the race, since I rolled for a mere 4 hours and 51 minutes of it. Pretty paltry total, at least in the scheme of most 24 hour races. But things are what they are, and the race went more or less as planned but with some unforeseen fluctuations of circumstance.

I didn't have a race strategy all week. It wasn't until Friday that I finally figured it out. My aim was to have 2 big rides. One would start on Saturday at noon and the other would start Sunday morning sometime. Saturday I would go as long as I could continuously ride. Then I would eat, shower, go to bed, and wake up early Sunday for ride #2. Sunday I would just ride as much as I could again. So that was the plan.

I had thrown out any notions of total laps. On Friday I rode the first mile of the course and it was wet and greasy. Sean confirmed it wasn't any better for the other 9.5 miles. So going for 10 laps was out of the question. I was just going to ride, that was that. I wanted to get a huge ride in Saturday and a decent ride in Sunday. Other than that, whatever. On top of this was the heat, expected to be 96 degrees with a heat index of 100+ or something.

Looking back, that was my mistake. On Tuesday, the high was 59 degrees. So in my mind it simply could not possibly be that hot. I never really acknowledged it was going to be brutally hot and I never adjusted my approach because of it. I just planned to ride, and whatever heat we were going to get would start to fade shortly into the race. Stupid, I know. But hindsight, you know.

I took it relatively easy on the first lap, getting off whenever there was a glut of people in a rock garden. I found myself trying to direct traffic a few times, suggesting people clip out because it wasn't worth the effort. At some point I passed Sean with his one crank. For a while I was going back and forth with one of Kirt's friends, his name was Pat. He warned me the descent down Ice Cream was tough but I failed to listen (or was possibly too tentative) and lost it on a wet root and of course landed on my left shoulder, going on 2 weeks injured now. I may have cracked my tooth at this point but I'm not sure if it happened then or not. Anyway, I kept it at a good pace for lap 1 and felt fine back at the pit. I pulled a 1:32 keeping it toned down and I felt fine. I drank 32 ounces of water and filled up my bottle. Woody said he never felt so lousy on a bike ride before so he was going to pass on lap #2.

The climb on lap 2 wasn't too bad but I felt a little more drained than on lap 1. That was a hint of the heat but I wasn't listening so well. I felt fine, kept a steady pace that wasn't too fast, and did my thing. In all I cleaned more on lap 2 than the first lap just because there were fewer people out on the course. When I did have to walk, I was able to walk briskly up the hills and never had to stand there and catch my breath. I was still moving efficiently and I said to myself that 7 laps was certainly reasonable.

At some point on lap 2 I dropped a level though. Things started to get more difficult and I found myself putting a lot more effort in to clean that same hills and rock gardens. Passing the aid station, I saw a guy being treated for heat exhaustion. It may have been shortly after that when I regretted not stopping for a little water at that point. I started to get the chills slightly which meant I was overheating. I was overheating because I wasn't able to sweat enough to cool down, which was due to my being dehydrated. The strange thing about this lap was that nobody was passing me. Only 1 person on a 4 man team went by the whole lap. I wasn't going that fast at all. I think it was just so brutally hot out there people were just taking it easy.

I finished off lap 2 without much trouble and decided to take a longer break after this lap. When I sat down to figure out how much water I was short, I couldn't add up the numbers properly. Every time I did it I came up with a different total. So I sat down with a quart of ice water and rested. It was about this time Sean came in and threw in the towel for the day. He was toast. His one-legged first lap had drained him big time and he was cramping on lap 2, so when Steve asked him what he needed his reply was something to the effect of, "New legs, new arms, lungs, etc etc."

After a while I sat down again to figure out my water situation and came to the conclusion that I was close to a gallon short on how much I was supposed to be drinking. Sean looked at my notebook and started laughing at me because it was so incomprehensible to read. Eventually I figured it out. I had done sweat rate tests in the past and needed to maintain about 55 ounces an hour. After my long rest I was at a total of 144 ounces when I should have been over 220. After about 45 minutes I went out for lap 3.

This time the fire road climb was hard. I immediately wondered if it was a good idea to go out so soon. But I sure as hell wasn't going to lug myself up that half mile of hell then go right back down. So I kept at it and did the slow and steady thing. I was fine for the most part and did my best to encourage the people I met out there. Even though I was slogging along at a less than stellar pace, I was passing a decent number of people. Each time I would pass someone who was obviously not having the time of their life, I would do my best to encourage them and suggest they take their time and be safe.

I was having a tough time drinking anything and I knew it was only a matter of time before my body just shut down and refused to go anymore. I finally got to one hill I cleaned easily the first 2 laps and had to walk it. That's when I admitted to myself that I wasn't having fun anymore. So I dialed it back even more and just made as much conversation as I could along the way.

At the aid station I found Kirt. I knew he was cramping before I even asked. Woody had long since dropped me so I decided to stick with Kirt and help him get out of there. The reality is that it's a considerably easier to pull through the shit when you have someone with you and as much as he appreciated my help having him to talk to was a great lift to me as well. So we trudged our way out of the woods and shot the breeze along the way.

When I got back to camp I was done. I didn't have enough left for a 4th lap and Sean had called in and gotten a weather report which said major storms were on the horizon. I may have been able to rest up for an hour and do a 4th lap, but I wasn't thrilled with riding in the rain and it ran exactly counter to what my ride plan was. I specifically said to myself I wasn't going to add another single lap at any point just for the sake of riding one more lap. So I threw in the towel, ate some solid food, and hit the showers.

So that was day 1, in the books. A few adult beverages and a nice camp fire littered in with some good conversation and the night was a wrap.

Overnight saw the opening of the skies worthy of Biblical description. It probably downpoured for 5 of the 7 hours I laid in my tent. Of those 7 hours I may have slept for 4 of them. I woke up for good at 5:00 when a branch fell down and slammed my tent platform. That actually woke all of us up for the day and just before 6:00 we went down to the canteen for some coffee and breakfast and then to check the results board.

I guess it shouldn't have been a surprise but the results were at a considerably lower pace than the previous year's. Both solo and team numbers were off pace. With the heat and rain the weather obviously wasn't playing along. And the course was a bit longer and tougher than the previous 2 years. So those 3 things in combination meant a lack of posted laps this year.

I decided not to go out again for 2 main reasons. The first was that I didn't feel terribly good. That in itself wouldn't have been a big deal especially in a race like this. The second was that the conditions were bad enough that I would never ride in them if there wasn't a race going on. I wasn't going for a podium or a personal record or a goal and I wasn't on a team, so I had no compelling reason to press for 1 or 2 more.

It wasn't an amazing showing by any means but when I look back I'm pretty satisfied with the single ride on Saturday. I was able to ride longer in the heat than ever previously and I only caught 2 tiny cramps during that 3rd lap. Neither of them were so bad to stop me in my tracks and it wasn't until later in camp that I had the single worst cramp of my life. After reading some of the other reports I think I help up really well in the heat.

So from here on in I'm going to just crank out the season as best I can. At this point I just use Saturday as a training ride and go forward with some of the shorter races and see how the rest of the year goes. I'm pretty sure I'm going to close the season again with the All-A-Muchy 50k on the first Saturday in October. So from here until then it's a matter of nailing down the most efficient training plan I can and hoping I don't totally toast myself in the process. This year hasn't gone nearly as well as I had hoped so hopefully I can cash in on some of these training efforts with a good run or 2 at some of the H2H races as well as the 50k. This year has been a learning process to say the least. This past weekend is just another lesson in the books.

Why Do This?

I sat down to have a beer last night after my ride. It was an enormous Sierra Nevada Bigfoot Ale, which I still don't like after letting it sit a year. I have 1 more left which I'll probably wait another year to drink. It's supposed to get better with age but if you don't like it to begin with I don't know it that applies.

It's probably my last beer before the race. I may of course partake Sunday night when I get home but right now that's so far in the future it's hard to think about. I try not to drink too much but over the last few weeks I've been enjoying myself a bit more than usual. Between the 24 and 50k I may scale it back to minimal consumption again.

Speaking of the 50k, the 24 gives me a good springboard to get ready for that. I'm going to try peaking for that event, which equates to 50% of my normal volume 2 weeks before and 25% the week of - at least that's a classic taper approach. I'll probably lay out that plan next week but I suspect a return to intervals. I may even rig up the trainer since riding intervals in the dark for an hour isn't my idea of fun. Plus it's getting cold fast these days, not to mention the rain.

But that's too forward looking right now. After work today I'll go home and further prepare for the race this weekend. I have a huge security blanket in Steve who will be in the pit for the race. I hesitate to say he's "my" pit crew because I suspect he's going to help out whoever ends up in the pit, be it Sean or Woody or whoever. He's also there to support the mtbnj.com team which was announced yesterday.

I'm getting way off track here but the mtbnj.com team is why I left the EdgeCrusher team. I'm really looking forward to 2008 and whatever that brings in terms of bike racing and the camaraderie with the guys on the team. I know George still reads the blog so maybe it comes together a little more now as to what my motivation was. As you can see we have some strong riders there. George has been nothing short of great with his support this year.

None of this has anything to do with the 24 this weekend which is what I should be obsessing or at least thinking about. I am, but not much. It shouldn't take me long to pack since I've now gone through the motions enough to be able to throw it all together pretty fast. I'm charging my lights now and Steve is bringing his as a backup. The Princess is going food shopping either today or tomorrow. Other than that I just need to collect stuff and put it in the car.

This has become another dumb entry about details again. It was supposed to be about why I do these 24 hour races. Well I've said it before but I'll repeat it. These races are a way to force your hand into doing something out of the ordinary. Otherwise life becomes one mundane work week after another mundane work week. If you remember the insanity of all-nighters in college you know what I mean. Did anyone really want to stay up all night? Not really. But at the same time, wasn't there part of you that enjoyed it? That looked forward to it? That wondered what you were going to do with yourself after the last exam?

That's it for me. This whole mountain bike scene is really a shakeup for me and my lifestyle. I've never been one to get in ruts but the reality is that a routine is a rut much like a ritual can become routine which can become a rut. Getting out there for the occasional insane weekend breaks me from that. It makes the mundane work week more enjoyable. It breaks up the monotony and leaves an impression I won't soon forget.

So that's it, that's why I do this. Getting ready won't be an issue other than finding the time to take care of details while Julia is still awake. I don't want to do it all tomorrow morning though it wouldn't be the end of the world if I wait. The remainder of the details are in the bank, more or less. I have my lists and notes from last year so I can use that as a base and make better notes for next year.

So that's that. I'm off tomorrow so no blog entry, no fat guy updates, no obsessing. I have some feedback to reply to which I'll get to next week. For now I just want to pound out my work details and get home as soon as I can. I'm also off until next Tuesday so I won't be on the blogosphere until then. When I do return, hopefully I will have great tales of adventure to pass on.

Hippie Parenting Plan

I don't know what I've done to deserve all this good Karma but man, people have really come through in my time of bike need. Through the course of the last day and half I've had since the shock shit the bed a lot of different people have stepped up with offers of help and suggestions.

Scott offered me the use of his Fox Vanilla shock from the parking lot Sunday. Then he later offered to help work on mine if I wanted to try and fix it. Jake offered his bike. Steve called Cycle Works to see if they can hook me up. Then he offered his bike. Jeff offered a solid suggestion of how to get my fork back together in time. Kirt offered one of his forks. Then Zoller offered an old fork of his. Wow, all of this in a day. You guys are awesome even if some of those mentioned don't read the site. Thank you, you all collectively rock.

I decided to go with Cycle Works because both Steve and Jake give them a lot of praise and they're one of the sponsors of the site. Plus they were able to get me in and turn it around in 1-2 days. So that erases one major item off the plate which leaves exactly zero major items left. Sure we have 408 minor items but nothing major. Just me, my bike, and a few days until the big weekend.

This week is going to absolutely fly by. Work is busy, it's a 4 day week, and I have a lot of little things to think about. Thankfully it's little things to think about and not worry about. Thinking is always better than worrying. I only have 1 ride this week, a 1-2 hour cruise on the road bike either tonight after work or tomorrow sometime. The weather is crappy so I may be left to squeeze it in when I can, or possibly skip it if I have to. Not thrilled about that but I'm not getting up at 5:00 to ride in the rain. Legs feel good, I think the rest week thing is coming around right about now. It's Tuesday which is a bit early but I'm feeling pretty good. All in all coming into this big race feeling very good. As long as I keep the legs fresh this week Saturday should be fun to watch.

I'm still debating the pre-ride. On one hand I should probably save my energy. On the other hand I should ride my bike with the rebuilt fork at least once before the race. I also struggle riding after days off and if I don't ride Friday that will be at least 2 days between rides if not 3. OTOH there's plenty of time to warm up Saturday, and Friday may only serve to get my bike muddy. OTOOH, there's also the consideration of my even getting fatter if I only ride once this week.

To that end I've temporarily scrapped my mad rush to drop pounds the last 2 weeks. If I pare down my eating my rides suck. So I'm going to try to hold the fort in the 189-192 range until after the race then I can worry about dropping down later, or after the last race of the year.

Still feeling good Tuesday morning though Julia is sleeping awfully these days. I may be forced to go upstairs to get some quality shuteye the rest of the week. It's really bad right now. I think our Hippie Parenting Plan is suddenly not working. Rats. You think you give these kids all they need then they cry for more. More more more. What next? College?

I need to give Steve some direction as to how to help in the pit area for the race. It looks like at least Sean, Woody, and myself will be racing and Steve, Jake, and Brad will be at the tent some of the time. I'm a Top Down Approach guy so I look at the big ticket items first. That means:

1. Food
2. Water
3. Bike

I'm probably going to keep a running total of how much food & water I consume so when Steve shows up he can help me keep tabs on that. I'm probably going to need to eat 250-300 calories an hour and drink 36-48 ounces of water, depending on the heat. As for the bike I just need to keep it rolling which means, more or less, a clean drivetrain.

That's it. Friday I need to go food shopping which will likely happen early. Oh and I need a shitload of ice. Ice is freaking key for this event. I have 2 coolers, one of which is going to be dedicated to ice. After that I need to register, set up tent/tarp, maybe do a pre-ride, then head home for the day. I'd like to do the full weekend camp thing but I can't burn that much mojo with the family just yet. Maybe next year.

In all, as long as the fork gets taken care of, this week should go relatively smoothly. Famous last words, I know.

Was It Fun?

I want to address Maurice's comment first because I wasn't clear at all about one aspect of Saturday's race.

Maurice

"Hey Norm. Did you have fun during what you rode? How did you feel while riding? Mechanicals suck, but they happen (tubeless? I've got a pair of XT/816 wheels laying around, I'll do a nice price for you). I tackled NMBS #6 and my rear der. shifter kept getting stuck the entire race. Then I did the short track and the effect was that of getting my lungs ripped out of me. But I had a heck of a time. Wouldn't change a thing. I'm way tired from the driving/racing/riding but what a blast. Plus what an inspiring moment watching the pros race. 4 seasons ago I weighed 180# and thought Chimney Rock was not a place for bikes. Then I entered my first race..."

Without question this was the most fun I've had at a race yet. I felt good, no cramping though the legs were working hard and getting tired. But that's racing. You ride, you get tired, you sweat, bleed, vomit, shit yourself - it's what you do. Coming down the big fat bomb of a downhill where I got flat #3 was just absolutely fantastic. Pure unadulterated good old-fashioned speed. Good stuff. So when I wipe away the disappointment of the mechanical, it really was a good time out there and to use a cliche, I can't wait to go back. But, you know, maybe with those tubeless rims next year.

One thing I didn't mention yesterday was after the race, I was hanging out with Jay Dodge and Tim Dickson. Jay was first in the vet class and Tim was 3rd SS. When I went to get changed Tim was sitting on a picnic table resting and he gave me the thumbs up as I walked by. It was as if, by finishing, I was being accepted into this fraternity of "real bike riders". Quite frankly it made me feel like a poser, as if I had no business being there at all.

So I didn't enjoy the post-race as much as I should have. Jay and Tim are fantastically nice guys but I honestly felt like a total loser hanging out with them. Reflecting on it, there is now nothing I want more than to finish a race like that because I don't want to be the tool who can't ride a bike without having something go wrong. So it really serves to motivate me more.

After my brief foray with trashing the whole season I was once again looking at the race calendar yesterday to see what the next race is. For better or worse that would be the Darkhorse 40. So all indications are that right now I'll be there. But on what bike?

Jake

"your welcome to the fuel or the mary. as for the DH40, i've also decided to call it. my reasons are similar to yours...my fitness level just isn't there to do it. and i'm 200lbs."

It looks like I'm going to grab the Mary and run it for a bit at LM this weekend at some point. If it all feels good I may very well jump in the SS class for this race. Am I an idiot for entering the SS class on a bike I'm going to ride once or twice? Almost surely. But to be honest this race holds no appeal to me so I need to make it interesting at some level. Jake has a 32/20 on it which might be a bit light for Stewart. But then again do I want to push a gear that's too big for me? Who knows. Maybe I ride it this weekend and decide the old rigid Trek or the Stumpjumper are better options for me. Totally up in the air right now.

Another option is to go for a big ride at Allamuchy instead. Too many conflicting thoughts. Completely undecided but something that nags at me is that I hardly have room to be disregarding a race of any kind. 40 miles is still 40 miles. I have all week to think about it.

Here are some thoughts I sent to someone in a message this morning:

"I'm probably an idiot for even considering a new bike for that race. But I have to be honest I'm just not stoked about that race at all. But then who am I at this stage to shrug off a 40 mile race of any kind, even if it's all downhill? The sensible thing to do is to probably put the Resolutions back on the bike I'll be riding 2 weeks later at the 24, pump them up to 50 PSI, and stiffen up the rear shock quite a bit.

"Hmm, that's the kind of nonsensical rambling I usually put on my blog. But that probably makes more sense than running new tires on the Stumpjumper, riding a totally new bike, or riding my old full-rigid Trek with gears."

But hey another comment popped up so let's forget that for now:

ChrisG

"Another spin on the idea of being in over one's head is being ambitious. My take on things is that you are categorically NOT screwing around, the organization and focus you demonstrate is evidence of that- but you're still just getting started as a racer, so there is an interesting relationship occuring between your training, your mindset, and your race experiences. I think you're setting yourself up for a lot of satisfaction in the long-term, but that will mean weathering the steepness of the learning curve you're currently encountering on race day."

Good thoughts, and great usage of the expression "learning curve" there. This is something I've come to realize lately as I find myself inching up that curve, much like I was doing in the first 5 miles of the race Saturday. It's kind of neat to see the progression, like "hey check it out I think my pacing and calories are actually right today. Can you believe it?" I've gone through these things in other walks of life before, with hiking for instance. Experience is the best teacher, as they say. Or the best lessons are the ones we learn the hard way. Having said that I haven't learned anything in a particularly hard manner yet. Let's hope that doesn't change.

A lot of these guys have 10 times the races I do. Some of them literally 50 times. When I line up at the LMC any number of people who don't really know what they're doing will be there. Saturday, every single person out there knew what they were getting into. When they staged the racers into expected finish categories (honor system) I just moved right to the back. There weren't many of us back there. Most of those guys have been there before and are ready to lay it on the line. Right now I have to realize I'm just out there for the ride. Maybe I actually race the bottom of the Bell Curve someday. Not today.

Without question I need to step back and realize I've only done 6 races ever. I have a bunch of charity rides in there but really they amount to little when you compare it to the races. It's going to take time to learn a lot of valuable, and sometimes painful lessons. The guy Jay I mentioned earlier told me he's 47. There's a lot of riding and racing for me between now and then and it would be silly of me to blow up when I'm really only just getting started.

Good stuff all. Thanks for the comments. Some more random ramblings from an email I sent to someone else. Yes it's sad that I'm quoting myself but hey, full disclosure you know? Some of the comments are repeated:

"What is fun is certainly subjective. Some people like brutal pain but you need to do well. I like pain if I make something out of it. If I trash myself for.a DNF that's silly. I agree a lot of it is when you look back. It's why I keep going back. Now I just want to train harder. I want to hit 35 miles before I DNF. Then 40. Then I want to finish. I also think it evolves. But some people aren't having fun. And I have to not do that. It's unhealthy.

"The guy Jay Dodge won the vet class and he told me he's 47. Man that's a world of riding from now until then. The point is to be riding still then. Not to blow myself to the point I quit before I'm 36. So a lot of this is me saying to myself, OK I gotta make sure I don't burn out. I'm not smelling the roses by any stretch but I'm also not puking on them. It's a good mix for me right now.

"Hey I know I'm not going to win anyway so why not do it slow and steady?"

The smelling versus puking on roses comment sums it up nicely right now.

I did get on the bike this morning. I was going to do my Warren 35 loop but once I got going I ran to the hills. Then I ran for my life. I don't know any more lyrics than that. It's been a long time.

Holy shit the guy who just sat next to me smells like he's been drinking all morning. You don't usually get that from the button-down shirt and tie set. Goddamn he stinks! And he needs a shave to boot, not that I'm one to talk on that front.

Anyway I did my favorite up-down-up-down route this morning. 22 miles with about 100 feet of vertical per mile, including 2 monster climbs. At the top of the last climb I was at a 14.1 average. I finished at 15.8. I think we can get caught up with averages sometimes but on the other hand, a ride like this can end up being too easy if you don't press the pace on the rollers and flats. I think hammering for the last 20-30 minutes to bring up the average helps keep the ride as a solid training ride as opposed to a too-casual morning spin. It's also like "in session" intervals.

I'm making a push to drop weight again. To hell with this "performance eating" horse shit. So I'm going public with my daily numbers in an attempt to embarrass myself into not eating like a cow. This morning I was 212. No no, not really. It was 191. I need to be in the 180s consistently by the 24 hour race though. I'm carrying too much useless fat up the hills.

Title Goes Here

Today's generic title is brought to you by the fact I have no one expression that precisely sums up my weekend. A lot of different things come to mind. Here are a few:

Disappointed
Shit Happens
Out Of My League
My Cat's Breath Smells Like Cat Food
There's Always Beer
Something Will Always Go Wrong

All of them convey some thought of how my weekend went. I think of all of them, I keep going back to the last one. No matter what, it seems like something doesn't go the way I had planned or hoped. Enough of the vague language. Let's get to specifics. First the (half) ride link:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3494608

I arrived at 7:15 Friday night and things went well enough from the door. Did my registration, talked to a few people including Mike the promoter, then found my way to a cabin which cost all of $5. The cabins at the girl scout camp were nice, recently built structures with mattresses and electricity. The girl scouts here have it better than the boy scouts in Allamuchy. I slept well.

Woke up at 6:00 which gave me plenty of time to eat breakfast, have coffee, and get ready for the 8:45 meeting. Nothing of note, everything fine to this point.

At 9:00 we started, the second MASS race I've done with a start as expected. The course started with a huge climb up a fire road. This was one of the 2 major climbs of the course. I think the majority of the first 5 miles was fire road, much of it climbing, and some of it excessive because the course was poorly marked and many of us missed a turn. You can see the nub on the map of the ride. When we finally hit the singletrack it was nice and tight, albeit rocky. At the first real technical section I almost went OTB as I was too tentative. I managed to catch myself and was OK after that.

This course is made for my bike, for a change. A lot of rocks on the singletrack which is made easier with the dual suspension. I still stood for a lot of it because I try to be on the more aggressive side with this stuff. That would come back to hurt me a bit later.

At around mile 11 we hit the first checkpoint. I was averaging maybe 7.6 at that point which was as I had hoped. The goal was 6 hours which would be an 8 average. The big climb to start pulled that down and I was also looking for a negative split on the day. So I was well within my hopes at that point. My stop was almost exactly 5 minutes, also as planned.

Somewhere at mile 8 or so I ran through a yellow jacket nest and got stung twice, once on the left calf and once on the right ankle. After that my left calf was doing all sorts of fucked up things. Half-cramps and half-twitchy, it didn't like the sting though it seemed to settle down after about 30 minutes.

At mile 13 I got my first flat, front tire. Kenda Blue Grooves. I had changed out the rear tube the day before which I found flat when I was getting ready. I was running 40 PSI. This added 10 more minutes of down time, total of 15.

At mile 16 I got my second flat, front tire again. At this point I assumed my race was done because I was going on my last tube at the 1/3 point. I checked the tube and found a small gash. No snakebite pattern so it wasn't a pinch flat. I ran my fingers on the inside of the tire. Nothing. The first flat was a slower leak. I felt it getting soft for a while and it eventually got sloppy so I had to change it. I didn't look for the hole because it was a slower leak. The second was much faster. Having lost a little juice here, this stop cost me more in the 15 minute realm. Total stopped time 30 minutes, already double what I had planned for the day.

So I got moving again, trying to take it as easy as I could on the rocks. Coming into checkpoint 2 there was a 2 mile downhill which you can absolutely bomb down. Absolutely. Bomb. Not even thinking about the flats, since I had gone 9 miles flat-free, I did what begged to be done. I bombed.

Enter flat #3. I didn't find it until I had refilled my bottle, my camelbak, and had a few snacks and drinks. I got on the bike and it was flat again. Front tire again. Who flats the front 3 times in 1 year, let alone 1 ride? In the 16 months I've had the bike I've gotten 4 flats before these tires. All of them in the rear. In 42 miles I've gotten 4 flats on these Blue Grooves, 1 rear and 3 front.

So I stared into space for a little then admitted my reality and threw in the towel. Some days it works for you. Some days, well it just doesn't. This day just didn't. That's the way it goes.

So how did I feel? Well with all the standing on the technical stuff my muscles right above my knees were really starting to get tired around mile 15 so I had to take it a bit easier on the technical and try a little more smooth and steady through the rocks. That seemed to work as I felt better after that. I didn't cramp, though my legs were pressing at various points.

My fueling was good as I was taking in about 250 calories per hour. The Perpetuem works so well that for 2 hours after my ride I still felt really good, like getting on a bike wouldn't have been a chore at all. After that I started to fade a little. But I think I had enough of the right calories and salt.

Water was still low. I did the ride, then drank a quart of water on the ride home, and still weighed 4 pounds less when I got home compared to when I woke up Friday. I sweat like a monster, more than anyone ever. When people say they are heavy sweaters, they haven't seen me. I literally lost 3 pounds yesterday mowing my grass for an hour, and I drank a quart of water. So I think my water intake needs to be better still.

But I think pacing, calories, and salt/electrolytes were all good. I just need to work on the water a bit and go from there. When I called it quits I was at a 7.9 average on the day (according to my bike computer not the GPS which seems to estimate low in the woods). So I was sticking to my pacing plan very well. My overall time would have suffered because I added 25 minutes changing flats and would have tacked on another 10 at the next stop had I kept going.

At this point I have to consider tubeless tires. While it's not a slam dunk I do need to think about it. I'm concerned that it just won't hold up to the way I ride. Then again, neither did tubes this weekend. But before now it was fine. Something to think about.

So even though I think I would have finished, I really don't know. On Monday morning I'm still disappointed. The course profile showed that coming out of CP2 there was a huge climb then it gradually went down for a long, long time. I really wish I could have stuck around long enough to see how it all would have worked out.

So yes I'm disappointed. But I also know that this is the way it just goes sometimes. If I don't get another flat all year I will have paid my dues all in one weekend, though I suspect that I'm going to find a thorn or defect in the tire. It does seem like something always does go wrong. But at least this time it was mostly out of my hands. Sometimes all you can do is throw up your hands. And drink beer.

Another thing that strikes me is that Maurice was being really kind when he said something to the effect that you need to get better at the short XC-type stuff before you tackle the enduro stuff. Translation: You're out of your league. Nothing could be more apparent on Saturday morning as I stood around with these guys. I have more body fat than any 3 random guys there combined. Sure there are a few loads like me that try but bail after 20 miles. But for the most part the guys that finish are all really, really strong riders. Even the guys who come in 50th are far, far stronger than I am. So I need to fully understand this when I go out for these, that I'm really riding totally solo, not against the field.

What does this mean for the rest of the season? Well I drank beer Saturday and took yesterday off the bike. Then I drank beer last night and I'm off the bike today. On the drive home I asked myself what I was doing it for: classic disappointment questions. Without question this was the most fun I've had at a race yet, at least up until the run of flats. And even after the second flat it was still really enjoyable. But when you get it sucked out of you by a wrong turn and 3 flats, it puts a damper on the whole memory.

I decided on the ride home that the Darkhorse 40 was a silly race to bother with. I don't know what my reasoning was at the time but it didn't seem to make sense then. But then yesterday I took apart the headset and fork on the old Trek and adjusted it because it was too tight. I raised the handlebars so the cockpit is almost the same as the Stumpjumper. Now if only I could get a wider set of handlebars I would be all set there. I'm going to swap out the WTB Velociraptors and put on either the Kenda Small Block 8s, the old Specialized Resolution Sports, or the pair of Panaracer Fire XC Pros Kirt gave me. I'm leaning to the Resolutions right now.

Then I'll take that out Saturday and see how it feels, probably at LM because that resembles Stewart more than any course around here. Meanwhile I'll probably put the Small Block 8s on the Stumpjumper and run them at like 50 PSI, then I'll firm up the suspension and maybe take that out Sunday to see how we do. Or maybe I'll pester Walter or Jake into letting me borrow one of their bikes for the race. Then I'll make a decision on which bike to run. I may wait until race day to register just so I have the option to bail if it rains.

Yeah so I guess I'm not giving up entirely. I gotta say I'm seeing more and more 29ers out there these days. I'm really starting to get interested in that now, I have to admit. My wife guaranteed I would have a new bike within 2 years. She may just be right after all.

So yes I was disappointed but I'm not giving up on the sport. At least not yet.

Just About Nothing

Well the week is just about over and I have nothing else to talk about. I worked out all of the details yesterday so now all I need to do is put it all together and pack the car at some point tomorrow. I have the whole day working from home to do that.

So that's that. Other than sleeping as much as I can (8 hours last night) and eating well there's really not much else to do. Not looking forward to the drive because I'm bound to get caught in traffic somewhere along the line. But it is what it is. And since the promoter reiterated today that you can't get there before 7:00, it probably works out well. Drive is 162 miles in 3 hours.

I mentioned yesterday I was pretty tired, and on the way home that was pretty evident as I had trouble staying awake. A day later and I feel better, much more excited about the weekend now that I'm on a day off. While I won't be 100% fresh and rested by Saturday I'll be close enough which is all I'm looking for.

Steve

"the problem with multitasking is get get many things done wrong more quickly than it takes to get one thing correct. i didn't mean no light, what i meant to convey was a solid light instead of blinking. ask sean, i remember reading in one of his posts or ride across the country blog, about that. right now, i am just regurgitating second hand information while reading a contract (which i can't afford to get wrong). anyway good deal about the light, besides being a safety item, it is also the law."

Law, shmaw. I don't need no stinking law. I'll have to ask Sean but I did look online today and couldn't find anything. Damn hippies shouldn't be riding at night anyway. The light I have has like 6 settings and I choose the one I would call "scattered". It's not a steady blink but a rapid sorta mess of blinking. Think bird shot.

I wrote out my race checklist with Scottie Pippen last night which I should publish at some point. I debated playing ball at all so I asked my wife who unhesitatingly replied: Yes! My yesterday addition was a bag chair so that when I wake up at 5:30 I have somewhere to sit for the next few hours. The camping really is minimal but there are still going to be damn near 12 hours to burn between the register and the race. Maybe I should bring a book. War and Peace. Great way to prep for a race.

I seem to have settled on 192 as my stable weight for the race season. Some fluctuations in the 190-193 realm but 192 or 191 is where it always ends up at the end of the week. On one hand it's disappointing since I did see 182 on the scale one day but on the other hand my average weight then was 185. The 182 was merely a low point. Plus this is at least 10 pounds lower than my "operating weight" last season. At this stage 10 pounds a year is the best I can hope for and still keep a heavy riding load.

So put me in the camp of people who have now experienced a slight rebound from off-season weight loss as well as not being able to lose weight in-season. They say you store a lot of water and "waste products" in a time like this and I'm inclined to agree, especially since I basically packed on this 5 pounds on my sick week. I didn't really eat 17,500 extra calories that week. So it seems I'm retaining water and "other" stuff, whatever that exactly means.

People that go on juice fasts (jumbo shrimp) see weight loss in the 5-10 pound realm in as little as 3-5 days. Apparently this is water and waste. Alright I can buy that but what the hell is your body doing storing up this "waste" in the first place? As it is I eat a clean, minimally processed diet. How is it that my body feels the need to retain water and extra shit? Seems pretty fucking absurd to me. Perhaps the theory is flawed.

I'll try to bring the camera out to the race this weekend but I'm bad at pictures. I can't take the blogs where a guy will post 12 pictures of his mundane road ride so I shy away from them. But a good smattering of pictures makes any story that much more enjoyable. Also, if I bring my wife's camera and break it she'll be pissed. How do you bring a camera on the ride and be sure it won't get beat up?

Getting humid but not too hot. Should be good for the weekend ride. Over and out. May or may not post tomorrow as I will have no train time to waste away. Enjoy the weekend.

Ducks

Third Party brings up a good point about something I might have forgotten in my race prep. First and foremost I need to thank my wonderful wife for allowing me to go out and do the race this weekend. Making coffee and a bagel - fine, half a bagel - doesn't cover the amount of rope she's giving me in the next 5 weeks. For those of you scoring at home, that's enough rope to ride about 190 miles (all off road) in 3 different states over 5 weeks. Goddamn that sounds like a lot. So even though she doesn't read anymore I'd like to thank Nat for being such a great wife and mother.

I must be growing up or something because I ironed out all the details of this race already. I'm pretty much set to go, save for a few precious details like the fact I'm sitting on a train and it's only Wednesday. So here's the play-by-play, skip ahead if you get bored because this ended up being pretty involved:

Work from home is already arranged. At 4:00 I head west, young man. Route 78 gets sketchy as you get to PA so I cut out on exit 7 in NJ and pick up again in PA because there's usually a backup at the toll booths when you cross the river. Aim to hit the girl scout camp at just about 7:00, which is what time it opens for people to show up. Directions already printed. I should send them to the blackberry to be sure. Or I can publish the address here and call someone if need be. Here's the address:

88 Hemlock Road
Halifax, PA 17032

Who wants to be my directional backup?

The race is at the girl scout camp, which is also where the camp sites are. Talk about convenient! For better or worse, the girl scouts will have been removed by then. You can get a bunk in a cabin for $5 or a tent site for $10. I'm opting for the tent site which should prove to be slightly more quiet. You can check in for the race Friday night between 7:00-9:00. I'm already registered so that should be straightforward. After check in I do the tent then crash out for the night.

Wake up at 6:00 and eat breakfast, then maybe try to find a cup of coffee. Get ready with the bike and so on then find a small corner where I can sit and take it all in. Pre-race meeting at 8:45. Race starts at 9:00. Smart, steady pacing starts at 9:01. One line in jest, but really all the other plans are secondary compared to that one. I may want to break out the old HRM again at some point to learn to pace better. But not this weekend.

There are 3 checkpoints (CPs) not 4 which means it will be slightly harder to get away with only bottles. I'm going to mount the lower cage and put a small bottle there but not sure if that will be useful or not. I may need to strap it down. Something to consider. I will pre-bag the Perpetuem and refill the bottle at each CP. The big bottle will have 400 calories which is good for about 90 minutes. The small will have 400 as well but will be a backup. I will only refill that if I need to. In all I will take 3 bags in addition to pre-filling the bottles for a total of 2000 calories. I don't think I'll use that much but an extra bag of powder costs me an ounce or 2. Probably have 72 ounces of water in the bladder, figure that gets topped off at CP2.

In theory that's 1600 calories and 214 ounces of water over 6 hours for a total of 265 calories and 36 ounces of water per hour. The calories is about right but I won't need that much water. The bags will be pre-salted and I'm going to pop 3 Endurolytes at each CP and maybe 3 at the start line.

I'm really thinking out loud here. This isn't exactly interesting copy or anything. Breakfast is TBD but figure at least 6-8 cups of water and a moderate-to-solid breakfast 2-3 hours before start.

From start to CP1 is predominantly uphill so figure 1:45 realm for that. From CP1 to CP2 to CP3 is standard rolling so expect 1:30 for each of those legs. CP1 and CP3 are the same spot, so from CP3 to the end is predominantly down, they estimate 30-60 minutes for the last 8-10 miles. I'll play it safe and say 60 minutes. Add 15 minutes in theory spread across all 3 stops and you have a 6 hour target. That's not a goal, per se, because I don't want to push myself to cramping and I really have no idea what the course is like. The goal is to finish. But if I come out of CP2 in 3 hours I'm probably going to keep that 6 hours in mind.

After the race I hit the car, change into something that smells less, do the recovery drink, grab some water, then look for free food and, if I'm lucky, a nice cold beer. Maybe hit the road in the 4:00-5:00 realm and home by 8:00 latest, more than likely smelling awful.

So that's that. Details in the book, camp arrangements done. Registered already. Traffic detour worked out though you can never beat traffic. Now I just need to take care of the normal ride prep, the camp, and the cooler of food. Then I'm good to go. Right now, all those ducks are lining up nicely.

Today's ride was tough. No cannons, no shots, no fire, no snot, and certainly no shaving cats. Felt good from the go but it went downhill from there, my residual fatigue of riding hard 4 or the last 5 days starting to catch up with me. I did the long swamp loop which can be a bit of a black hole because a lot of it is flat so it begs to be ridden faster. Mentally you always think you're going too slow. 45 minutes into it I was good and done, ready for a few days off. So today I'm not quite as excited about this weekend because I'm pretty tired right now. Thankfully I've been at this long enough to know that this will pass and by the end of tomorrow I'll be worked up again.

I think being tired today tells me that 4 days a week on the bike is plenty. As I sit here I can't help but wonder how I was keeping up 5 days a week for so long. My rides now are more "complete" for lack of a better term. I ride hills then keep tempo with whatever the road throws at me. I used to do more intervals which are hard when you do them but then you rest completely in between. The "experts" say intervals are actually fairly easy to recover from in one day. Maybe my "complete" rides are more stress than I think. Who knows. I'm tired right now, I do know that.

Looking ahead to after the 24 I may look into the Ross method of 3/4 brutally hard days in a row followed by 3/4 days off to get ready for the 50k. That could be interesting for a few reasons, one of which is that by then the sun won't be rising until 5:50 and as I approach the race that will move towards 6:30.

ChrisG

"Definitely my pleasure to ride with you, Norm. Thanks as well for offering up the comparison of the three parks. I find it hard to believe myself that I've never ridden CR and LM, but I'm sure that will be changing before the season comes to an end."

By all means let me know and we'll make it happen. Of course with our schedules that might take the rest of the year to work out. Plus I need to get down to Allaire one of these days. I've been there before but it was also many years ago and all I remember was sand. And we need to do that 50k primer as well.

Steve

"Blinker in the rear? I think sean once mentioned that becomes a zone-in for drunk & tired drivers. Shave in the shower. Smoke 'em if you got 'em."

Never heard that before. I was riding at dusk last year and someone pulled up to me and told me I was going to get killed, that they could hardly see me. In fact the driver didn't see me, his wife did. So I went out and got a blinker. Haven't had any close calls since then. I can't imagine that not having a rear light makes more sense in any situation unless you're stealing corn from the local farmer's market. But again, what do I know?

I used to shave in the shower but I usually wait too long so I would make a big mess. On top of that I don't have a mirror and it ends up taking me longer and I waste more water to boot. I really should just shave at night but I get lazy.

George

"Norm...you never cease to provide the humor my friend! Too funny. I have now had my daily chuckle thanks to your insightful, yet hilarious discourse! On another note... Do you bring clean clothes to change back into for the ride home? Maybe have showers there? If not, bring a gallon/jug of water, some soap, and a towel or tow, or lots of baby wipes! So you can clean up a bit, and not feels so grimy on the ride home. It always feels longer going home, doesn't it? I can't think of anything else, you pretty much have it covered. Blazing Saddles, Spaceballs, Airplane...they were just awesome movies for sure. Oh yea, I do love Office Space...lol. If you could just pack the car the night before, that would be great...mmmmkay?"

I had planned on bringing a change of clothes but some wipes isn't a bad idea at all, especially for the nether regions which get lathered with Udderly Smooth before the race. Some throwaway water is also a good idea to wash off the legs at the very least. Might as well throw in a towel too. Good call, thanks.

Is the drive home longer? You know, I don't think so for me. I'm spent by then and it gives me time to just sit and be, to think, and most of all relax. At least for the first hour. By the end of a ride that long I'm usually stir crazy. But for some of it I get complete and utter down time which is a rare commodity for a bike-riding father of a 15 month old.

Fire away. Corrections and suggestions welcomed, as always.

Logistics

Let's kick Tuesday off with a comment.

Walter

"Norm, I know you are an early riser, but with a 9 am start and an almost 3 hour drive, you would have to leave bright and early. Plus I dont know how much time it takes once you arrive to get ready. Would you pack the car the night before or the morning of? I guess now that I think of it, you could probably handle a 4 am wake up. What about food, do you eat on the way, or before you leave? Just stuff to consider. I agree with you on the movies, Airplane, Spaceballs, Naked guns, all get better every time you see them, you always catch something new. Found Dyslexia For Cure"

You're right, absolutely. I'm glad you guys are here to point out my egregious errors in judgment. While I can pull off a 4:00 am wakeup, driving to the venue the morning of the race just presents problems. First of all who wants to get up at 4:00? Secondly, you won't drink as much water as you should because you're in the car and stopping to pee makes the drive that much longer and more tedious. Third, driving just tires you out which is a bad way to start a big race. Being at the registration earlier makes the process go faster. So yes, going out the night before makes much more sense which is what I'm going to do.

With that I will say I really enjoy planning for big days and events. While the race Saturday doesn't qualify as quite the same caliber as the 24 Hours of Allamuchy, it is an overnight, full day affair that takes more planning than hopping in the car and riding around Chimney Rock for 2 hours. As I have repeated, I look forward to it.

So the plan is to work from home Friday, which has been cleared with my boss. I'll leave around 4:00 and hopefully be out there around 7:00. I would prefer to leave later but I'd rather setup camp in the daylight so I'm not going to push for too late. There's local camping, the details of which I need to work out. I also need to register for the race but I'm going to save that until after I make sure I can camp somewhere easily. I also want to make sure that the forecast isn't for 99 degree heat or a torrential downpour.

I'll need food for driving out, breakfast, and driving home. And coffee. It would probably be a good thing to bring the cooler with plenty of water and food. After the race it will be nice to have some cold food and drinks to drive with. They supply dinner after the race but you never know what you get with that or even what time it starts. It would suck to have to wait 2 hours to get a burger.

I need on-bike calories as well as salt/electrolytes. Not sure if I'm going with just salt or both. The food will be Perpetuem. Also going to need the normal bike checklist stuff plus a printout of the registration. I need to take my list from Granogue and edit it to make it more complete and take out some of the overkill items.

Directions to camp and then to the race. Failing that I don't think there's much else I need. I tend to think in big steps. Basically as such:

* Register to race
* Prep to ride (standard)
* Drive to camp
* Sleep
* Drive to race
* Ride bike for 6 hours
* Drive home
* Eat and drink through all of it

If you can cover those basics, you're good to go. I really don't go crazy with the bells and whistles you get used to at home. Basically you need to get there with your bike and equipment, then from there you can more or less buy what you need on the fly or wing it. The race has 4 aid stations so even if you brought no food you'd be fine. If it's not too hot you could get away with bottles. I may even mount the lower bottle cage and bring a small bottle on the underside of my down tube and see if I can hop between aid stations on nothing more than bottles and use the camelbak as a camelbackup.

So now.

This is where I ask you for help. You come in at this point and tell me what I'm forgetting or fucking up in my plan. I look to you, my trusted readers to guide me in my usual errant ways.

Motionbased was never able to upload yesterday's file. I got impatient and mapped out the course on Bike Route Toaster and it came out to over 3000 vertical feet in 33 miles. My average was 15.5 for the ride. So really, less is more. My advice to me: Ride like that Saturday and everything should work out well. Take the hills as they come, don't plow up them. Slow and steady, nice and easy, everything will work out from there, cha cha cha.

On the bike again today. I had been falling into the habit of not getting myself ready to ride the night before which made getting out the door take longer. Last night I was good for a change. I packed my lunch and got both my bike clothes and work clothes ready. Then I proceeded to hit snooze to wash away any time I saved. When I got out the door, I needed to put my battery on because it's getting darker every week now. And then my backup rear blinker which I never got to last week.

As an aside, for those of you who ride the road at night (or early morning) the rear blinker light is by far the more important of the lights to have, in my opinion. Mine cost 6 dollars at Target. The front light systems are prohibitively expensive. But the rear blinker is a few bucks.

By the time I got rolling it was 5:17 as opposed to the usual 5:19. So baby steps here. I'm still getting mentally adjusted to the fact that it's squarely mid-summer and I'm riding in the dark already. Let's not forget the temperature this morning, a balmy 56 degrees at roll time. Upside? I got to take another rare summer hot shower.

The ride was basically up a huge hill, then down the other side, then back up a different way, then back down and home. I didn't have a lot of juice today so I didn't even average 15 mph. That's fine since this route probably had close to 2000 feet of climbing in 20 miles or whatever. Legs still tired from the weekend so tomorrow I'm just going to cruise control my big swamp loop for 90 minutes.

After the ride was another mad rush to get everything done. Walked in the house at 6:45 which gives me 33 minutes to get back out. Grind coffee in the basement, brew coffee, pack bag, eat watermelon, shave (huge time waster here as I should really do this at night), shower, post-shower, toast bread, get dressed, drink coffee and eat, breathe, fart, write senator, cure leprosy, shave cat, acquire cat to shave, and get out door. I forgot to drink any water but I managed to make my wife coffee and half a bagel while I inhaled my cashew butter and honey on toast and tried to enjoy my coffee.

Tuesday means that Saturday shows up in the 5 day forecast. Harrisburg looks fair for the week, some scattered thunderstorms which is typical for this time of year. Temps in the mid 80s down to mid/upper 60s at night. Really the forecast is exactly the same each of the next 5 days. No heavy rains and no mid-90s so we're good to go.

I feel like a breakfast sandwich. Food tastes too good sometimes. Be good.

Rattling Creek

I mentioned yesterday I'm going to race in the MASS Rattling Creek Marathon next Saturday, somewhere out in the sticks of mid-Pennsylvania, just north of Harrisburg. I'm not sure how the course shakes out in terms of terrain, but there's "only" 6000 feet of vertical in the 48 actual miles of the race. It is being dubbed an "easy" way to do 50 miles. Another account from the guy promoting the race said his GPS reported 5000 feet. While those are ballpark figures it does put it short of something like the 50k, which is a good thing.

I don't know about easy but it does look a little less brutal than some of the other half-century mountain bike races. From what I can gather a 6 hour goal is not unrealistic though I would do well to plan for something in the 7 hour range, just to be conservative.

I'm pretty excited and yet nervous about this race. I'm excited because it looks like a good race that should be something I can complete, yet nervous because I haven't done this much saddle time in quite some time. In distances like this I always seem to have pacing problems at the start so it's something I have to be concerned about. Plus heat, hydration, and fueling always become an issue with rides this long. Should be fun regardless, in either a good or painful way. I'm sure you'll read all about it.

I guess I'm looking to take the good vibes from the LMC race and either extend them or destroy them. Smart money is on destroy, though sooner or later I'm going to get this stuff right. This is a great primer for the 24 hour race in terms of fueling, pace, and hydration. Like I said, both nervous and excited.

When it comes down to it I don't have the confidence I'll be able to pull it off. Strange in a way when you consider that I'll take off for an 85 mile road ride with 7200 feet of vertical and have no qualms about that. But put it in the woods and it's a whole new ballgame for reasons I am yet to put a finger on. Mental blocks wear many different hats.

So it goes. Now the decision becomes whether or not to camp out there the night before or get up early and drive the 2.5 hours early. I should probably float it out on the message board and see if anyone else is going. The decision gets tougher since it's a Saturday race, meaning that Friday could just be a killer day of commuting in and out of Brooklyn then driving to Harrisburg that night. More than likely it has to be an early morning drive.

Today's ride was an hour plus on local roads. No link this morning for the same usual reasons, no time before work. To be honest I don't think linking these weekday rides provides much to the reader so I'm going to stop linking them. You can always find some/most of what I've been doing on my MotionBased account here. I don't log all my rides so if you do look don't be surprised if you see big gaps from time to time. I will continue to link the big rides though. They seem to be more interesting to look at than these weekday 20 milers.

As always I aim to serve the customers so here's more feedback.

Steve

"if this is beverly hills, mtbnj, i hope to be knocking boots with shannon doughtery real soon. good stuff, 3rd party."

You know I was always lukewarm on Shannon Dougherty. My favorite was Jennie Garth. The funny thing about those shows was that we all used to watch them in college. I don't know how it happened but slowly they grew into Must See TV until literally everyone was watching weekly. In reality it was probably just another reason to sit down for an hour and drink beer.

Jake

"i did see that guy, all yardsale'd out right @ the switch. i guess he came in too hot and couldn't get the red knobs outta the corner fast enough and swamped the bow resulting in him getting all tweaked."

You kids and your jargon. All I am reminded of is the Jive Scene in Airplane (YouTube link here). "Oh stewardess, I speak jive." A brilliant scene in a brilliant movie. Terren and I were discussing how it always seems better "back then" but I wonder, do they make movies of that caliber anymore? It seems to me the days of Blazing Saddles and Airplane are over. I don't think Blazing Saddles passes the PC Police if it's made today.

Steve

"*Today's installment of Beverley Hills, MTBNJ can be found here. That's just good stuff. Third Party, your sarcasm is being paged.* Huh. Nothing there."

Well it seems the Drama Pot has been emptied so there's nothing for me to stir. With that I'm going to have to close the book on the Beverley Hills, MTBNJ series and move back to my fueling, hydration, and pacing issues. Thanks for the usage rights, Third Party, and those who were not injured in the filming of this docudrama.

George left a big comment that I will give attention to tomorrow. In the meantime, good luck, we're all counting on you.

Race Weekend

In every race I have ever done there has come a point in the race where I declare, usually in a good amount of agony, "I'm never doing another stupid race again."

Until yesterday.

Let's start from the top, which isn't what those of you with short attention spans will want but you can skip to the bottom if you wish. The weekend didn't start with flying colors as I slept poorly Friday night and struggled to wake up Saturday morning. My 50 mile ride plan went on a diet and came out as my lean and sexy 38+ mile loop in reverse which I started around 7:00.

I shot out of the gate which often worries me because a) I should need to warm up, and b) it probably means I'm going to have pacing problems later. Well I tried to take it easy but inside of 20 minutes I was up and over a 17 average and by the time I got to Far Hills 9 miles away I was at 18. I kept at it and took what I had until the 1:15 mark when I was up at 18.4 for the ride.

"What am I doing?" I asked myself, literally out loud. Does this make sense to keep banging this out for the whole ride? I backed off for the last 50+ minutes and dropped down a bit and ended with a 17.9. Ride link here:

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3314744#

The idea was to go out and get a fair distance ride and throw in some hard efforts but not go crazy. For the most part I accomplished that only because I came to my senses at the right time and toned it down. My high-end was off, without question. Steady climbing and tempo were really on though.

The rest of the day was proper nutrition, proper hydration, and not overdoing it with yard work or anything that would just tire me out. Overall that plan went fine.

All that was left was the race. Now I have to admit I knew what the course was going to be this year. I had gotten my hands on a race map and I knew that a) the course was run in reverse, b) it was shorter by probably 3 minutes, and c) there was actually a tiny bit of connecting trail being used that I may have ridden once but that I was unfamiliar with. All in all I thought it was a good change because it took out the toughest climbs and made the nasty rooty downhill a climb instead. The same general rule of a negative split still applied though.

Race day was just normal wake up, blah blah blah. I think something happened with this particular race such that I no longer get juiced up and nervous for these things. I slept well, didn't really think about the race at all the day before and didn't lay in bed thinking about it either.

I think my morning ritual needs some fine tuning, though I hesitate to use the word "ritual" when it's just a training race. I did my toast, eggs, and cheese breakfast and drank enough water but not crazy amounts. Felt fine but not amazing. Got there too early and had a banana, some water, and chugged some instant breakfast before the race.

I did 15 minutes of trail to warm-up then spun around a little more. Given that this was going to be a 2 hour race I didn't want to put too much into it because that's a lot of time to make up lost ground early on but also a lot of trail to string yourself out on. So played it conservative all around as my helpful readers suggested last week.

Lined up with Jake, and we continued to bullshit until it was our turn to go. The horn sounds and I turn what I would call a warm pace into the start. Within 15 seconds I am passed by probably 25 people if not more. These guys come absolutely zooming out of the box which, given the nature of the course, is pretty fucking stupid if you ask me.

We go up yellow, then up orange, then down and up orange again. This levels off and then we start to climb purple. No matter the direction the course goes up more on the first half. On the purple trail I start picking them off, not one by one but like 5 at a time. I'm totally in my own race at this point. I don't pass people because they're there, I pass them because my pace is just faster. And of course some of them have blown up already.

First lap went well to that point. The start of these races always uses more energy because you have to navigate through the guys who really don't ride well. So you simply use more energy doing the same pace. I should have kept this in mind but I didn't, and on the back 2 miles of the course I sort of let it eat me a little bit. I was gummed up behind maybe 5 guys and these morons were riding their brakes on all the downhills scrubbing away speed for no good reason. So at the very end, at the hairpin turn before the wooden bridge, I passed the lot of them as well as a handful in front of them. Major power move to blow past them and then a few more guys ahead of them. A few guys followed me there.

Well this was stupid. I came across lap 1 at maybe 36:30 a bit winded and started on the climbs again. Some of the guys had repassed me on the fire road and when I hit the second part of orange I knew I had to dial it back on this lap or I could be in trouble. As I went up switchback it was painful and I wondered how the hell I was going to climb that thing again a third time.

In all the second lap was pretty uneventful. I ended up going back and forth with a group of maybe 4 guys on the second half. We kept passing each other and ended the lap with them out ahead of me. I didn't want to make the same mistake as lap 1 so I took it easier. Lap 2 I was at 1:14, pulling 37 minute laps for the race.

The third lap I let it just come to me. I passed the group of 4 guys on the purple climb for the last time, never to be seen again. They had collectively gotten caught up with each other and were all blowing up in unison. When I passed them they were probably going about 3. After that I was basically solo for the next 3 miles until I caught up with a Marty's team guy who was stopped on the last steep climb. He clipped in before me and I followed him up the hill. At the top I passed him, my last kill of the day.

Or was it?

Being a local team guy he must have known the course and of course I know the course also. He jumped on my wheel and tried to follow me down the steep descent. I could hear him back there but I had opened a gap fast. The rollers hurt so I took it easy to leave enough for the last mile. He was back there and trying to catch me, but there was no way in hell I was going to let him catch me.

I bombed down the end of yellow to the bridge where I had made my mistake passing before. In general I think it's a waste to look back because it only slows you down but I glanced sideways as the trail turned 90 degrees then 90 again. I saw him back there not that close but not totally dead yet either. I ran the rollers aggressively and dumped out on the fire road, where I gave everything I had in an effort to gap him as much as I could.

It worked, and when I crossed the finish line and stopped pedaling I cramped up. The balls-to-the-wall ending left my legs shot and they did exactly their job then said, "Fuck you we're done." Fair deal, you guys did well this day.

So there it is. I like it. The bike did well but again it's not a race bike as it's far too heavy. I ended up in 76th overall of 155 or so who started, I think 31st in my class. Nothing special but a fair showing.

Good stuff. I have to say I'm kind of bummed that there isn't another H2H race until September. Of course I may be doing distance races every other week for the next 6 weeks so my plate is full enough right now.