We woke up today and got right down to business. Our mission: get a preride in and get some rest and relaxation. Some good food was in order today too. We headed out to check out the Moonstone trail. We found it with some help and it took us up and up. And up. The views were spectacular and the trail was super sweet. Since we really weren't sure where we were going we decided to head back down. It's going to be a ripping descent tomorrow to finish off the day! We followed up our ride with some of Boomer's delicious gluten pancakes.

This afternoon we'll go get our packets and get the prerace briefing. Then it's a good dinner and off to bed.

We(Boomer, Danny, me) arrived at our condo in Breckenridge yesterday afternoon. It was good to get into town in the mid afternoon and have some time to pick up groceries(over 200 bucks!) and set up our bikes. The weather is great here(temps in the 70s). Maybe even a little chilly at night(below 40). We did some easy pre-riding today. This is what a lot of the good stuff looked like today. There were some rougher sections too.
And I anticipate much rougher. Getting pretty excited for the race. The trails are phenomenal, as are the views. Hopefully, I'll be able to sustain the excitement and motivation throughout the week.
Time to get some grub and relax tonight. We'll get another nice little ride tomorrow and then it's race day! Super pumped!

Wilderness 101 Report

To put it short and simple it was not a good weekend in PA for me. The drive up there was long and wore us all out. It was a fun drive with Kyle Taylor, Andrew Sorey, and Ben Gabardi(Andrew Sorey 2 hours before leaving, "hey Ben I know you just got back from a stage race in Canada and all but how about you hop in the car with us and head back that same direction for a hundred mile MTB race. Doesn't matter that you never ride your MTN bike. It's all fire roads anyway." Ben, "OK! That sounds like a great idea.") We all crammed into Kyle's Honda Fit with 4 bikes(all 29) on top. How does 22mpg in a Fit sound? Yeah that poor little engine was struggling.
We did a pre-ride the day before the race. The fire road promised to be fast up and very fast down. Unfortunately, my legs weren't feeling like they were ready to race. I could only hope they'd feel better tomorrow.
Race day: We got to the race site an hour before race start. Nice to actually not feel rushed. My day was going well until we lined up for the start and I realized my Ipod was dead. Seriously!? I know some people don't believe in riding with tunes but it helps me when I'm alone in dark places.
We rolled out and 10 minutes in began the first climb. I was sitting comfy top 25. Then I started tumbling backwards. My legs just weren't up for anything. Basically I felt this way for the next 9 hours. I had some bright spots. Catching up to Sorey and Gabardi was nice. Really brightened the day. But that was about it. I dropped my gels in the wrong Sag, mile 70 instead of 50. I didn't grab enough liquid at the aid station. Things were just adding up in a negative way for me. I was basically pedaling just to finish. Baggy shorts were passing me like crazy(that's never good for the mental state).
If you wanna know about the course: Super fast and smooth fire roads(hit 45 mph). Some super fast single track and some of the most technical singletrack(rocks! which we don't have in MS) I've every ridden(I have done Ouachita Challenge, Cohutta, Syllamo just for reference). It would have been a great course if I was having a good day.
Anyway, i thought I was getting close to the finish. Then mile 101 came... and went. Hmmm? Then a fork in the road. No signage. No good. If I have one complaint regarding this race it was the signage. Some of the signs were right at the corner only. Some earlier forewarning and bigger signs definitely would've helped. A few other riders I stopped from going off course agreed.
Finally, I finished 108 miles after I started. Apparently nobody in our group had a good day on the bike. Ah well. Next year.
Next up: Breck Epic Stage Race

Serious lapse in blog posting. Anyway, I've got Wilderness 101 coming up. My Specialized Epic is at Specialized(for the second time). Hopefully it'll be back by Wednesday. It should be a rocky course from what I've read. Choosing to run the Continental X-King in 2.2 ProTection. Wish I had taken a picture, but one was 574 grams on the Park Tool digital scale. I rode them today(Lake Lurleen outside Tuscaloosa, AL), and so far I'm really happy with them. More grip than most tires I run for sure and they don't feel too heavy. I like to go with a beefier tire a lot of times to avoid flats. You're not fast if you flat. I'll see what I can do about posting a little more often.

New Bling! Time for a new chain and I thought a gold one would look pretty sweet(indicative of future performances?). It's a KMC x10 Ti Gold. Hopefully it'll last.

Cohutta 100 Race Report

I was heading into this race pretty pumped up. I had a good dinner Thursday night and a pleasant ride up on Friday morning with my partner for the weekend Boomer. We got checked in, went for an easy ride on some of the singletrack and found some good grub.
My troubles, however, started Wednesday on my easy ride. I noticed some BB creaking issues. Bikes do have a million working and sometimes rubbing parts so noises are part of things sometimes. I decided to take it apart, re-grease, and have all back together on Thursday. Done deal. Creaking, however, continued. It got worse on our pre-ride Friday.
I woke up Saturday morning, predictably, 30 minutes before my alarm. It's always tough to sleep the night before a big race. Bagel and banana down along with other pre race rituals(yeah I take a shower before I race).
It was freezing at the start. Something like 45 degrees. I was cold getting up the road climb the begins the race. I settled into a nice group and watched a few folks ride away. Some riders are just a step(or few) above me and it's best to let them go. I made up a few places and lost some places in the singletrack. The first few minutes of singletrack are always sketchy for me.
Once I hit the gravel I settled in for a nice long day. Kyle Taylor caught up with me and we rode for a while. More and more people seemed to be forming in our group including the women's race winner Amanda Carey. I felt good about being around her knowing that she would probably finish in the top 25 men and was keeping a steady pace(I think she finished somewhere around top 15 men!).
Our group was rolling along well. It began to split up as we hit more climbs and came across Aid Stations. I skipped the first two. At one point I even passed Eddie O'Dea and began to worry that I may be pushing a bit too hard. I snagged some water from the helpful volunteers at the 3rd aid station and carried on.
Things were going well until folks began to pass me I had previously ridden by easily. I couldn't even hold their wheel, but I felt alright. Remember that creaking BB? Well now it was beginning to seize up. At that point I broke down mentally. Suffering is key late in a race, and I just couldn't find a reason to suffer. I stopped and had a pity party for a little while. I took breaks at the aid stations, even indulging in some Oreos. I came across David Ansel's coach(Andy Applegate). I spoke with him a bit, and he was quite positive. Really put me in a much better mood to finish the race. He had a worse go at it than me having what he said to be his worst wreck in the 20 years he'd been riding. He was limping on in with good spirits so why shouldn't I? I finished something around 8:23 in 32nd place. Well outside of the top 25 and shy of my 8 hour goal, I was frustrated but oh well. Some things just don't go your way. Syllamo 125k is next! Redemption?

Rain, rain, go away! I had to hop on the trainer last week and it's happed again this morning. I don't mind rain but downpours and lightning I don't do. In the end it didn't really matter. Despite 3 days "off" my legs felt pretty terrible. I say "off" because I spent Saturday traveling to Boston(after riding that morning), Sunday walking around Boston, Monday watching Parisa in the Boston Marathon and walking something over 10 miles(I was getting cramps! from walking!), and then Tuesday traveling again. To add to it sleep was a bit hard to come by. Oh well... tomorrow should be a better day. Albeit on the trainer the way things are looking.

Everybody likes pictures and we all like to know what bike our competition is riding so here is mine and mine in action at the first race of the year (SCRCS Tuffburg 1st place). The wheels and tires are what I trained on in the winter. Specialized Captain rear and Purgatory front. I'll run Specialized Renegade Controls in a 1.9 width or Conti Race King Protection in a 2.2 width for most races this year mounted on Stan's Podium MMX wheels. You can find more pictures, weights, and other bike nerd stuff on the Boardtown Bikes blog.

Ouachita Challenge Race Report:

I had done the 80 two years before and the 60 the past year so I knew what to expect. I barely snuck into the top 25 last year and was really hoping I could eek out a top 10.

I got started in the back of the pack on the roll out. Lots of knobby tires buzzing along sounds pretty sweet. I tried to make my way towards the front, but apparently everybody else had the same idea. I knew there would be some hills to help break it up and sure enough. A few guys in front of me let some gaps open up, and I was able to work my way up into the top 10. I hit the single track in good position. I didn't want to get caught behind people that would slow me down, but at the same time I didn't wanna be "that guy" either. A little gap opened up between me and the Competitive Cyclist guy in front of me(Noah Singer maybe?). Rocky stuff isn't exactly my forte. Mississippi just doesn't have anything like the Ouachita Trail so I was doing my best to go fast without flatting or planting my face on a rock. A guy behind wanted around and so I let him go when we hit the first short gravel road/aid station(Chris Renshaw I believe). There was a bit of single track and he kept a great pace so I was happy to follow. Then he stopped to get a feed. Yeah stopped.

So I just kept on rolling up the climb. He caught me on the rockiest part. I bobbled and had to unclip and walk. BLAH! I could see the group in front of me walking too, though, so I didn't feel too bad. Chris caught me toward the top of that climb and went around me at another rocky section that I failed on. Dang Mississippi and our lack of technical singletrack. Chris seemed to have better skills and a full squish 29er(an orange Intense) and was able to get away from me. Still I felt like I was holding a pretty good pace up hills and even descending pretty well. I opened up some space on the guy behind me but figured we'd probably rejoin at the gravel road section.

I popped out onto the gravel and kept looking back. I slowed and he(Tracy Martin I believe) finally popped out. I figured he'd bust his butt to catch on so we could work together but no dice. He took his merry time. Finally, he caught up and we traded pulls until we caught another rider. Somehow I popped a spoke on the road. Second time that has happened so it's probably time to rebuild my Stan's Podium MMX. I gapped the other two in the first short section of trail but had to stop and refill my bottles. The volunteers were great and filled my bottles while I took a nature break. I hopped back on and chased after the two riders that passed while I had been stopped. It didn't take long and I was up and around them.

This is when things got tough. Nobody behind, nobody in front. I just kept telling myself somebody in front may have blown up, flatted, mechanical. You never know so you gotta chase. Who knows who is feeling good behind you too. I was also fighting cramps on my inner thy. Standing up helped and finally they subsided a bit. At some point I passed Aaron Elwell fixing a flat(apparently he had three flats). I was alone for a while but finally caught Noah Singer. I was so pumped! Definitely gave me a boost of energy.

I was starting to run a little low on caffeinated gels and I popped the big one at around mile 43. Little did I know that those last 17 miles would be a bit slow going. I popped out to the second to last aid station. I had lost my other two bottles so I was down to only one. Filled it with water and the guy said I had a ten mile loop back to them. Dang! I thought it was fire road and pavement back. Oh well. I kept telling myself to keep pumping along and I may catch somebody. I was in a dark place, but I tried to stay positive. It started to turn from "who can we catch?" to "just hold this position."

About 5 miles of singletrack and some gravel later and a volunteer pointed me in the right direction and said that three were ahead of me. "Must be a group of three and then some more in front of them" is what I thought. I turned onto a fire road and saw three guys! Immediately I thought "I gotta catch them! and I can beat them!" along with "#$%^ this is going to really hurt!" But they turned the opposite way. Not the three guys ahead of me. I'm not going to lie: I was a bit relieved. I stopped at the final aid station, got some water, volunteer poured some on my head(felt great! awesome volunteers!) and trucked on in. I kept looking over my should but there was no one.

I finished and was handed a check, a trophy, and had my picture taken before I even realized how I'd finished. I had to look at the check to figure it out. 4th! I was super pumped. I grabbed some grub and waited around for my fellow Boardtown Biker Zach McCool. I must have missed him come in, but he had a great race as well finishing 29th.

Next up: Cohutta 100

Just a photo today. This is from the previous weekend's Southern Cross. I'll give a race recap tomorrow.

Steady Tempo ride today. 1:45 doing my best to hold the power steady. That's right POWER. More detailed post tomorrow.