Marysville - I almost rang the bell

Things started going bad during my 9 hour solo effort at Marysville at the 5 hour mark. by hour 6 I started questioning my existence and I swore I would never do an endurance race again.

I was trying to go back to an all liquid nutrion plan, and it wasn't working...but i didn't quite realize it until it was too late.

After things went bad I rolled into the pit and sat down in the chair. I didn't think I was going to get back up. I grabbed a sandwich from my cooler and a coke feeling sory for myself. I saw a former teamate that i dropped hours ago roll by and It just pissed me off that I was going to quit so I got back on the bike feeling like ass. I dumped the bottles on my bike and filled them with water and shoved some pumpernickel pretzels in my pocket.

I rolled out and by the end of the lap, i was coming back to life. I was able to get back into position catching the folks that rolled by me during my break down.

The course was wicked cool, lots of steep ups and downs, and logs everywhere.

I was able to maintain a top ten finish out of 30 somthing.

Really though, the best part was camping and throwing down some beers with everyone.

Trans-Sylvania Mountain Bike Epic

Oh Man MTB Stage Epic Coming to state college next year! Who's in?

Time To Vist PA!

If this mofo keeps running ill be their by Friday night!

A little Exploration

I made a little trip to Mom and Dad's farm in NY this weekend for Fathers day. I have only been there a few times since they setup camp so I packed the bikes for some potential Exploration.

I rolled in Saturday morning and saw dad cruising on his latest acquisition, a 1952 Farmall Tractor.



This thing is pretty cool - It runs awesome. I got to take it for a quick spin.


I spent some time on Sunday exploring on the Mountain Bike, my Dad's cousin has a big piece of land across the street. If you look at the picture below, he owns a big chunk of that hill across the street from dad's house. He had a road put in from where his current house is that goes to the top of the hill where he will build another house.





The road doesn't really have any switch backs and it goes straight up. I road up it on Sunday, and I almost didn't make it. I actually had to put my foot down.


The View from the Top was nice, if you look above my bike you can see the dot that is actually my parents house.



There are bunch of double track trails cut up top, but It was really water logged from the rain, and there was a lot of dead fall, so riding was dificult, but there were some kick ass climbs.



After screwing around on the MTB for a few hours, I switched over to the road bike. I need a bit more time to explore as, a lot of the roads I mapped out on google were actually private dirt roads, but I think I will be able to piece some nice stuff together.

Beating The Weather....Its just a few Flakes

This is amazing, I totally imagined moving back east to suffer through a Hot Humid Nasty Summer, but except for one hot weekend in may, its been bouncing from the 50's through the 70's up here in New England and Very wet. I really like the temps, but the Precipitation is a bit challenging.

I am taking advantage of the flexible work schedule. This weekend was a bit crappy so I knocked out some work ahead of time Sunday, The Radar was looking good for Monday so I jumped back on the bike after forwarding some of the stuff I worked on and answering a few emails.

I watched the Radar on Tuesday and hit the trail when the hourly forcast allowed sometimes taking a few drops of rain.

Wednesday was nice all around.

Today called for significant rain right around our group ride time this evening, so I opted to throw down a big effort in the AM - and meet with some customers in the PM.

Looks like Friday will be solid rain - but 13 hours of singletrack in sofar this week so it might be time to chill

Heading to Ma and Pas in New York, might be able to get in Some Climbing on the Road Sunday in the Catskills...

Next week...maybe Marysville 9 hour Race

11 hours of single track Screw it....im gonna put on a pot of sauce

I put in some quality time on the bike this week - 11 hours of Single Track by COB Thursday. I took the day of Friday.

Today I was thinking of hitting up a 75 mile road ride with the local club, which would have been pure abuse. They were Rolling at 6 AM which means i needed to be up at 4:30 to do my coffee breakfast, clear the system ritual...i couldn't get up that early so I decided to roll with some Mountain Bikers at Wompatuck.

I totally missed the start time, so i went out on my own, flatted instantly, the nozel for my can of Big AIr was jacked....so it was back to the house and on the road bike for a solo effort.

I felt pretty whooped, I guess i needed more recovery time....if I went out on that group ride it could of went really bad!


The Food Channel was on when I got home --- Rachel Ray was whippin up some meatballs....i looked real cool in my lycra watchin Rachel Ray when the wife Walked in on me....seriously chicks dig that stuff.

After takin the wife out for lunch....I was on mission to make some sauce....

\

If there is one thing I learned - browning the meatballs is an art.




The Freinds of Wompatuck Published the Race Map for this Years Landmine Mountain Bike Race. Its a 25 mile loop - with an Enduro option for 50 Miles!



Its going to be a sick race, and knowing the trail is going to be a huge advantage, so the plan is to try and hit at least one lap of the race course each week, if not set a side a day where I can do the 50. Things are pretty chill - Tommorow is going to be another Rest Day, but on the bike with the wife at the Blue Hills -

Later

Pete is a fan of Teflon Tape

I was getting this wicked sick (yeah i know) creak coming from the lefty and the project 321 adapter that makes it fit so nice on the mamasita. It was really buming me out. it has a big psychological effect on my riding, everytime it creaks, i think about it blowing to pieces.

I thought i would try to grease the heck out of it today. I broke it down than applied a real thick coat of grease on the spacers when I thought about the Teflon tape solution for my EBB creak on the Sir nine. So i wiped down the the spacer removed the grease and wrapped it tight with some Plumbers PTFE Tape.



So no more creak!


I removed the nine speed chain and put a new/used BMX chain that i had lying around - It fit so snug, its about a milimeter tighter then the 9 speed chain, making it the perfect fit without a chain tensioner.




I tried throwing down a four hour ride to day, but it turned into a one hour ride as the rain started to become overwhelming. Im glad i got out for a bit anyway.