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.

In the End

I expect it to work out for the Simpson children. No idea why that popped out and not sure how accurate it is. But that comes right after Millhouse bites the dust in one of the Halloween episodes. Maybe next year on the trainer I'll catch up on all my Simspons episodes, all 17 years of them or whatever it is. Man I don't look forward to that thing right now.

One of the reasons I don't like committing to rides is because my weekends, and my life for that matter, are not stable at all. So on Monday my next 2 weekends basically looked like this. Short off-road ride and Lebanon 52 this weekend then whatever next weekend. Now I'm meeting up with someone at Hartshorne tomorrow, doing Rattling Creek next weekend, and whatever Sunday. I really like to be dynamic, which isn't very good for other people making plans nor my reliability.

I'm stuck right now in Tire Madness again. I will more than likely race different tires an all 3 upcoming events but what tires are still up for debate. I'm pretty sure I'm going to pull the Kenda Small Block 8s out for the Darkhorse 40 and I'm leaning to the Kenda Blue Grooves for the marathon next weekend though I could be swayed to run the 8s for that too. The Nevegals are an option as well but I don't think I need the traction as much so the slightly faster rolling Blue Grooves are more likely. For the 24 I will likely go back to the Specialized Resolution, or maybe give the Kenda Dred Tread a shot. That's the new Tinker tire from Kenda that I'm excited to try. Also getting set of the Kenda Karmas just to round out the experimentation of it all. At some point I also need to try the Specialized Roll-X as well.

Tires are to me what purses and shoes are to many women. I find myself changing tires every week these days. My naked wheels are on the basement floor right now waiting for the latest shoes to be put on. Incidentally my front wheel is 2.5 pounds and the rear (with cassette) is 3.5 or 3 pounds 10 ounces I forget. Man that's a fair amount of rotational weight, especially that rear wheel. Slap on the 1.5 pound tire and a few more ounces of tube and that rear wheel is over 5 pounds. Those are some of the details of the dump truck.

George believes I do crush edges:

"Hey Norm, I have to echo most of the previous comments...great race report, really. Your posts are always insightful and quite humorous as well! A few things I would like to say; All your posts are underlined by a sense of modesty, I think you sometimes don't give yourself the credit when it's due. But that is also a good quality to have in my book, like you say..there are a lot of douche bags out there...lol! Let me be the first to say, that yea man, you do crush edges. "Edgecrusher" is a fictional concept from Fear Factorys 1998 release, Obsolete. Edgecrusher is one of the good guys, who stands up for what is just. The reason I chose the name is because for me, Edgecrusher is a state of mind, where you refuse to give in, put forth the effort, and always try your best. That is the racer mentality, that is you, as well as many other good guys and girls out there giving it everything they have. It doesn't really matter where you finish, it matters that you finish. So, you do crush edges Norm...and since the H2H races are class/age specific, 31st of 52 is a good solid result, and to finish 76th out of 155 riders was a well done effort and a real good accomplishment. I want to say that you are representing the team very well, and I sincerely thank you for that. Any team would surely do right by having you on their roster."

Rock on George, thanks for the kind words and good to hear you enjoy reading this mess. I try to be entertaining but sometimes I get carried away by tires or salt intake and so on. I do try to be modest because I think it's a good thing. I know how much work I put in and for a recreational bike rider I know I'm pretty fast. But there are a lot of people putting more work in, and these races show that as a competitive racer, I'm just average. I'm cool with that and don't need to trumpet myself up as more than I am.

I didn't know there was a story behind the team name. That's cool. I'm happy to have carried the Edge Crushing mantle thus far and for the next 6 weeks, I will keep doing that. Hopefully I keep representing well over that time.

Walter added a comment yesterday about the logistics of the race next weekend but I don't want to get into that just yet. Micro planning 8 days in advance will only lead me to second guess myself all week. Though I will say I'm hedging to work from home next Friday which would make going out the day before a lot easier. Didn't I just say I wasn't going to get into this?

So Hartshorne tomorrow and a few road hours Sunday. Some dad required stuff on Saturday after the nap and Sunday is free. Should be a good weekend overall. I need to stay away from too many Scottie Pippens though (Michael Jordan here). I had 2 last night and boy do they pack a punch.

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.