Disaster at Granogue

I have been waiting for this day for over a year now. Over 2000 base miles logged in for the season, a top 5 in the Camp Hilbert endurance race, a Top 3 at Leesburg Baker's Dozen, one of my top goals for the season was to go out and crush it at the MASS Enurance opener, to top that this would probably be my last MASS race, so this was important. I set the race bike up with a brand new Set of Maxxis Ignitors, they stuck to the greasey mud at granogue like velcro.

Last night we went out to a graduation party, that had an asian theme. Erin's Aunt Judy pretty much always goes overboard on these types of things. You see they had these killer Korean Ribs that she has to drive 30 minutes away to pickup from a shop that only sells ribs to Korean Americans, so she has to camp out in the parking lot until she runs into a stranger who speaks English and Korean and then has to beg them to go inside in pay for them. I guess thats life in Princeton.

Well anyway a few hours later I started experiencing some explosive diareaha, about 2AM I headed out to pick up some medicine from WAWA. As i approcahed the cashier things weren't feeling right. I could tell I was going to blow chuncks, but I was really hoping the make it home. I drove for a bit, but had to pull over open the door a blow some chunks, I did that a few times, but I was paronid a cop would pull up and want to investigate a DUI so i tried to keep driving with the window open. I let it rip one more time, but out the window. It should be noted that things down below were not looking to good either. Anyway,after hosing the car down at 3AM, that was pretty much it for the evening, I figured I would have to Bail on the endurance race. I was really pissed. When I woke I decided to head on down, and if things would hold out I would race. I got to the race rode around and things seemed ok, so i was going to give it a try. The race kicked off and everyone took off, I let the top 10 go, usually I can sprint with them, but i figured given my status i would make it a race of attrition. Turns out It just wasnt happening, I start falling to the back of the pack, i was winded on all of the climbs and soon the entire sport class would pass me. After that I finished my lap went to my car and laid down for about 30 minutes. I thought for a bit, i never really quit anything before and it was pissing me off quite a bit. So i saddled up and headed out for 2 more extremely slow laps, Its was quite a humbling expereince trying to keep pace with some of the slowest riders in the field, riders who have laps on me, riders who i can usually lap multiple times.

It is what it is, the course was beautifull so i stayed positive and enjoyed the ride and tried to mingle as much as possible with others. I particularly enjoyed it when the Expert Women kicked off. Oh i hung with them for a while, believe me ;) Another reason I kept on going was that regardless of the place I came in, I would score points for the Team competition. All enurance points are counted regardless of when you come in, as long as you finish.

After finishing I rolled up to my car, changed and grabbed a cup, as the Beaner Keg had arrived. I layed down on the grass and told tall tales of my epic day in the saddle while sipping on some victory.

On The Rocks

French Creek was a blast this weekend. First off let me say that it was awesome to see everyone again! For me it started out with marking the course on Saturday, with the Bean's crew. We headed out on the trail around 5:30, and soon found ourselves getting soaked in the rain. We pushed on putting up arrows and tape and the rain didn't let up. Before I knew it, I found myself riding with mike in the dark and in the rain with no lights, the epitome of Zen. It was kind of sketchy riding those trails, clearing rock gardens and logs that you really could not see. After climbing our soggy asses up the last big climb, we beat it on the road and headed to the bean's camp where we were welcomed with food and some beverages from our sponser Victory brewing. We were joined by some other friends and definately blew it out harder then I really needed to.

I woke up pretty sore from the wet night epic and a little hung over-but racers were about to arrive and I had to get everyone parked in the limited space..That seemed to work out fairly well, I liked that job-you get to talk to everyone, but everyone thinks the parking nazi knows whats going on-

The Race

I lined up with the Sport S2 guys, it was good to see some friendly faces. We took off on the fire road climb to the single track, Kevin from sickers started to make a break and I went after him, I put about 20 yards on him and hit the single track first,immeadiately passing the last S1 racer. Kevin was right on my ass. I probably didn't need to go out so hard, but oh well too late now. I let Kevin pull ahead for a bit, but I kept him in check and was able to keep the gap tight on the down hills. I was starting to regret riding the night before and drinking all that beer. I was suprised to look over my shoulder and see Matty mo hanging on after all of the bitchen Ive heard from him on hour training rides. He closed in for a bit and we started to pass some more S1 Riders on the down hill, I took the bad line to pass and matt followed.Mistake #1 It totally derailed us and resulted in a crash, Kevin was no longer in sight, So i put the after burners on and was able to shake Matt off my tail. Perhaps i got a little bit to aggreseve but Mistake #2 came along and resulted in a wicked crash and battle with a tree, this put me down for at least a minute and really killed my momentum. Matt wizzed by as I dusted off and tried getting back on the bike, cramping ensued-but I fought it off. 5 minutes later and i was able to start kicking the throttle full again as the pain of the crash disintigrated. As i Hit the Fire Tower Paved Climb, I could see Matt about 100 Yards up the Road, he didn't look like he was enjoying himself, I looked over my shoulder and saw the pack behind me, not where I wanted to be. Shocks locked out I started to stand up and let it rip, About half way up the climb I caught Matt. He responded by staying on my ass. I was able to put a gap back on the pack and as We hit the first false peak, I was able to pull away from Matt for a bit. I was back in the game. The road leveled out and I let it rip, I think I was able to get out of sight for a bit, but it wouldn't be for long, I threw it in the big ring and started ripping it up, but someone must have crashed through the course markings and ended up following the S1 guys in front of me......Mistake #3as we sat there with dicks in hand, there was matt again, We fumbled around for at least 2 minutes before navigating back to the trail. I pushed on again and started to get out of site for a bit. I got to the woooden plank bridge that ran over a real mud section, when another S1 rider just layed his bike down in front of me....damn this was a really fast section and now I was Picking up my bike and running across the thing cramping up...more time lost and you may have guessed I got to reunite with matt again. I tried like hell to put the gap down again, but matt started to reel me in on the Last Orange Climb. At this point I was sitting in 3rd Place when another rider past me, putting me into 4th. I let him pull away on the climb but once we got to the top I started to pull him in. I could clearly see I was a better decender. Every downhill i got closer and closer. Finally i was able to pass on a techy section, it was big ring from here on out, I hammered down with this dude only 2 seconds behind me when some wicked branch caught my bike, it hit me like a rubber band and stopping me dead in my tracks....i got lucky cause the guy behind me caught it too, I remounted a put the hammer down and was able to finsh third. The last mile of the race was quite the wicked sprint for third place. My legs didn't let me down, but it was a real crappy performance with all of the crashes and missed turn. Regardelss I was very happy to beat all of the riders from bikeline and guys racing that crushed me last year. I hate these short events, Im looking forward to the marathon at granouge next week!

The Beaner's

The beaners kicked some serious ass this weekend, preliminary calculations may put us at least a thousand points above bike line with 6 Podium Finshes! Not bad with a lot of our crew not racing.

Leesburg Baker's Dozen

I headed down to VA this weekend to try my first 13 hour Solo race. Hung, with Jamie, Ted and Dean, as well as a big crew from Bike Line and the Spot crew, I saw the Carters on the start line as well as topher and company I went back and forth with Jamie, topher and some other dude that hangs with topher for a few laps, got a little help with my wheel from Austin but I didn' get a chance to link up with Mike C.

A big thanks to Fat marc for hooking me up with a coke when I needed it, It totally turned my race around.

The race started at 11AM, about 5 PM i decided to check the results, turns out I was sitting in 5th place out of 30 somthing which was my goal. I totally planned on chillen and taking long breaks for the remainder of the night cause I was smoked. But around 6 PM or so, I caught some wicked second wind and hammered down a superfast lap, that put me into 2nd place. I couldnt just chill now, as darkness fell I tried to keep consistent lap times, I fell into 4th place. I think I was about 8 minutes out of 3rd, my body was wearing down. at 10 PM I was only a few minutes out of 3rd and again at 11PM with only one hour left in the race.

I never made the podium before in any race and I knew this was my chance, I headed out without making a pit, after 12 hours of riding I gave it everything I had. I passed mulitple riders on 2 and 3 person teams, halfway thorught the lap I passed what I think may have been the Solo Rider ahead of me and took third place...... His lights quickliy faded to the rear and I continued to peddle as fast as i could...it was kinde of crazy,allmost midnight and i was actually racing not just trying to survive I ended the Lap at 11:50, Not really sure where I was, and not sure if the guy behind me was going to chase me I headed out for another lap as the post race party began....this was the lonely lap. I was the last one on the course but, when I rolled in to finish the lap and the race I clinched 3rd place, which is the best I have ever done in any race. Everyone was already showered shaved and kicken back eating pizza by the bonfire. I rolled up still in my gear and hit the pizza.....now that was kick ass!

The Road

Dan: "I don't need no Stinkin Electrolytes"



Bob hits the Climb (He's confued by the deraileurs)



Cody clears Alpe de Huez



The only one to keep me company on the way home.....

Quantifying improvement

I have had my new Garmin Edge heart rate monitor now for almost 2 months and I am starting to see some results. You don't need a high tech piece of equipment to train, but it sure does make it easier to do things right. Last year I used a very basic HRM and after a while I stopped using it. The Edge makes it very easy for me to maintain target Heart rates during workouts and gauge how well the workout went. Below is one of my basic interval workouts, one from Yesterday and the other from a few weeks ago. the Interval consisted of 6 minutes in zone 5 followed by 2:30 rest repeated 4 times. After a few weeks i have gotten a little bit better. Time to step it up.

Camp Hilbert VA

We headed down to VA for some racing action this weekend, very nice. Iwas fortunate to have the company of two very cool riders from PA who kicked some ass and It was good to actually get on some dirt with all of the snow we had this month up north. I opted to sign up for the 5 hour race. We were 30 strong at the start line and we were set to head off one minute behind 30 sport riders. I wasn't planning on taking off fast but with 60 riders on the trail I didn't want to get caught up in the carnage. The starting siren rang and I tore off with the lead seven riders like it was a short track race.

We ripped by dozens of sport riders, which I thought was unusual. On the first lap my heart rate started climing from 175 to 180 to 188 and it stayed high through the 2nd lap, I actually taped the side of the HRM a few times and adjusted the strap on my chest as I have never seen my heart rate stay so high for so long. After a few laps I settled in. During Lap 5 I had a horrible crash. I think I was zoning out when my front wheel went off of a ledge.
I sumer salted over the bars hard and the bike launched into a tree, I was sure that if wasnt hurt bad that the bike would be toast. I got up dusted myself off and adjusted the levers on my bars and I was off. I was able to chase down one more rider and secure a fifth place finsh. 48 Miles of single track and sunshine, a good day. Time for some recovery.

Discharge!

After 4 years of active duty service and 4 years of inactive service in the Army I have finally received my honorable Discharge. Many dudes I served with got yanked back, and a few made the ultimate sacrifice. For those who are still serving I salute you!

Recovery........

The Sky Is puking snow right now, and as much as I would like to be tearing it up on the mountain bike Friel has ordered me to rest.......so after a little spin on the trainer for some active recovery its to time to indulge......

On a Long and Lonesome Highway, West of Emmaus

Yeah... I Iike the Metallica version.....After completeing my saturday morning ritual of drinking massive amounts coffee, i began to apply the layers for a February Road ride...
I left the house at 10 with plans of riding up to Emmaus to meet Dan and Company at South Mountain Cycles for a road ride. As I made my way down my street I linked up with two riders, from the neighborhood that I have never met before. We chatted it up for a bit and I told them of my plans to meet Dan at SMC, Jacob asked if he could tag along, Sure no problem.

Jacob was pretty much a pure roadie and could really put the hammer down, we made our way up Rte 29 and 27 Miles later we were at South Mountain Cycles. We rode the Powder Valley loop and in between some of the big climbs I got to chat it up with Some people that I hadn't had the oppurtunity to talk too. Jacob linked up with John and they talked about some roadie geek stuff. It seemed like worlds were coming together today. After the group ride was finshed, we headed back home. Taylor gave us a much better route for the way home. It was way more scenic, had way more climbing and was loaded with Zen. Zen and pain, Jacob really turned the screws on me. It was 35 degrees and I was sweating like a hoar in church. After 5 hours and 45 minutes of riding we hit the intersection where we met and went our seperate ways......now its time for some beer.

Early Season Race Schedule

Milestones for March, April and May.

11 March Camp Hilbert 5 Hour Race VA
21 April Leesburg Bakers Dozen 13 Hour Race VA
29 April Greenbrier Challenge Marathon MD
06 May Michaux Maximus 50 Miler PA
13 May French Creek XC PA
20 May Granouge Marathon DE

Early Dismissal

I got some looks from the neighbors today, its not too often that I get to ride in daylight midweek, but we were released from work due to the dangerous driving conditions.


I got home and jumped on the bike, the roads by my house were clear but as I got closer to the farms it turned out none of the roads were plowed which added to the fun and intensity of the workout. Prior to leaving I suited up with some wool socks, chemical toe warmers, my sidi shoes and two pairs of outer booties. The wind was blowing something fierce as I passed the corn fields.

I headed down to Spring Mountain where the lifts were turning and the locals were enjoying some of the goods, I started to head back to the house, as I made my way up a hill a guy shoveling his drive way cheered out load and yelled " all right yeah man dedication woo hoo!" I guess he must be a rider also. Time to drink some well deserved cheap Canadian beer with a side of bacon.

2007 Training Plan:Drinking Beer and Single Speeding

Im begining my second year of Racing and I pretty much threw the Mountian Bikers Training Bible and my Heart rate monitor out the window....actually I just can't seem to find the heart rate monitor, so i need to buy a new one. My strategy is to make training as enjoyable as possible, so Instead of freezing my ass of on the road I have been putting in high volume on the dirt, mostly on the single speed.

Ive been on the Single speed for 5 months now, all dirt miles have been without gears. It seems to be working out well. Today was the first day i busted out my geared race bike. What a wild feeling going back to the gears. My latest aquistion is picutred above.

Keeping It Simple

No More Gears Until April! I am approaching 30 days of single speeding and it has been a truely enlightening expereince. I have been riding some pretty rocky trails in the Lehigh Valley and Jim Thorpe, PA area on a rigid fork. Running Tubless tires at a low pressure has made for a sick combination. With all of the leaves and Fallen branches the Single speed has proven to climb like a Mountain Goat on the fall trails, while erasing any feellings of racer burn out from the 06 Season.

Will I ever run Gears again??

Letting it rip on the Downhills......

I had an interesting Race today. No, it wasn't a fierce battle for first place, at this moement I am not sure where I placed. I ended up chasing a younger guy today, The class was 19-34 years old, (usually I race 30-34) he started to loose me on the climbs, but he just didn'thave confidence on the downhills where i would catch him. It was a three lap race, after the first lap I decided that i would let him pull away on the climbs and catch him on all of the downhills. I would save my strength for the 2nd half of the final lap. The plan was working pretty well and I was able to keep him in check until we hit the first major downhill on the second lap. The lead racer from 34-44 yr olds caught up to me, unfortunately he was not a very good downhiller. He passed me and as we hit the down hill he was going much slower then I was capable of, which was inhibiting me from catching the guy in front of me. Just when it could not get any worse he lost it and crashed, i was able to stop in time but it led to a dismount and a loss in time. The guy in front of me was no longer in check, but I did not quit the chase. Generally speaking, when out of sight you are out of mind, it usually works to the leaders advantage, but today it was going to work for myself. I raced through the remainder of the 2nd lap, hitting the down hills very hard.

I began the Third Lap, and as we hit the first long climb I saw the guy in front of me cresting the peak. I locked out my front and rear shock, stood up and began to mash down on the pedals. If I wasn't going to catch him, I was at least going to turn the screws and make this guy hurt trying to shake me. We hit the next down hill, where I didn't quite catch him, but he was within reach. We started to hammer it out again. The trail opened up to a field that began to slope downward to a more technical dowhill... I put it in the big Ring and passed him. I started to put a gap on this guy when I discovered an arrow that was knocked down, i ended up missing a turn at the bottom of the hill. I lost my advantage, as he did not miss the turn and pulled ahead on the climb.

We started into the last climb of the race, which led to the last long semi-technical decent of the race. I locked out again stood up out of the saddle mashing down on the pedals. I could see him, and was slowly closing the gap. We both knew that if I peaked that hill before him, he was done.
It didn't happen, he got to the top about 15 seconds before me. As i peaked the hill I could see him slowly picking his way down the best line of the trail....I through it in the big ring and started bombing, I knew if i was going to beat this guy, I would have to pass him on the gnarly line. Of course i caught him on the most difficult part of the trail, I yelled "RIDER on Your Left" and slammed through a rock pile as though it did not exist.......now it was game on. No brakes and pedaling as fast as i could, it wasn't long before I was out of sight and rolling across the finish line.

No podium finish, but sometimes you don't need one to have a great race!

Wait its not over yet........

3 Short Track races, 6 Cross Country Races, 2 Six hour races, and 100 miler. I just raced in the last race of the Mid-atlantic superseries at Bear Creek followed up with a short track race yesterday. Just as I was about to completely switch gears to chill riding up pops another race on the radar screen. The Panorama Paranormal in VA. A 6 hour race starting at 4PM riding in to the darkness........looks like its time to put in another rode century this weekend.

The Blue Ribbon is an International Sign of Quality

Just wanted to take note.....

Shenandoah Mountain 100

The Weather was perfect, Ernesto blew by VA ahead of schedule and by the time we arrived in Stokesville, It was sunny and the trails were pretty dry. The evening before the race we all gathered for a Spaghetti Dinner and had the Opportunity to meet the pro riders that were about to Kick our ass. Among the pros were Jeremiah Bishop, Chris Eatough and Susan Haywood from the Trek/Volkswagon Factory Team and Harlan Price from independent Fabrications. It was pretty cool when the Sun started to come up on Sunday Morning to be able to line up with the Pros, although this would probably be the last time I would see them until I crossed the Finish line. 630 AM came around and we were off. We took off on the paved contry roads like a roadie peleton for about one mile, as the road twisted and turned you could see the pros stretching it out and hauling ass.We rolled into the first fire road climb, about a thousand feet of elevation gain followed by some sweet down hill single track. We then hit the road for a few miles, prior to hitting pretty big hike a bike single track section. It was pretty steep, full of lots broken slate loose rock, and the entire field was pushing up the trail, so there was really no choice but to push.We slogged our way up to the top and were rewarded again with some Fast Rocky twisting Single track that seemed to continue forever. The next climb was long twisting fire road switch back with approximately 2000 Feet of elevation gain. I started in the middle ring and put the hammer down, it was also a nice opportunity to chat it up with some of the other riders. Again as we reached the Top we were rewarded with a long single track down hill that hugged the side of the mountain to the bottom. At the bottom of the single track we hit Aid station number 3, about 45 Miles into the course. These aid stations are unbelievable, the volunteers were working like a NASCAR pit crew, I rolled in, they stripped me of my, bike, threw it on a bike stand and started lubing the chain, while someone else filled my water bottles with HEED and another volunteer filled my flasks with hammergel. I shoved some Pringles in my mouth and I was off.I hit the road for a few miles when I pulled up next to some crazy guy on a fixed gear, turns out to be tomi mcmillar. After we got our introductions out of the way I suggested that we work together on the road for a while. As we hit the downhill, we had to go our own ways as the fixed gear just cant keep up with a geared bike. We then hit the single track again, we crossed a knee deep river or creek and hit the hike a bike section with a few ledges, for the next hour we pushed and attempted to ride the gnarly loose slate and rocks of the climb. After about 30 minutes of pushing and trying to ride, Tomi Mcmillar caught up and threw the hammer down on his fixie, I was very impressed. Again we were reward at the top after about 1000 feet of climbing with some sweet single track. We bombed down this rocky, rooty, fast, windy, off camber, single track at ludicrous speed. Somewhere in the middle of all of the twisting and turning I was unable to compensate on one of the turns and my hip caught a birch tree. The tree threw me off of the bike and down the slope into the rough. Ass, elbows and water bottles were all over the place. It stung pretty bad, and I thought that this might be the end of the race. I stood up gathered my stuff. I leaned on my bike, I felt a little nauseous . I was really pissed. I was having a great ride and I did not want this to be the end. About 10 Riders passed me and asked if I was OK. I remounted the bike and began to continue bombing down the trail. The initial sting wore away and I was going to be Okay.At the bottom of the single track was aid station number 4, the 57 Mile Mark. Again, on my arrival the volunteers rolled into pit crew mode, they snatched my bike, threw it on a stand, grabbed my water bottles and shoved a banana in my mouth. It was as if they were paid members of my staff….these guys were great! We then hit the fire road for about 18 miles, after a bit of some flat gravel road riding we began our 2500 ft acent up Shenandoah Mtn. This was the most difficult climb of the day, feeling a bit fatigued, for the first time, I had to throw it into the granny gear and slowly climb this beast. After about 30 minutes of climbing I hit Aid station number 5. Now let me tell you about Aid Sation number 5………They had Pizza……just unbelivalbe…Nothing says luvin like Papa Johns at mile 75. A little more climbing after aid station 5 and we began to bomb down some sick single track , roots, Rocks ledges, tight and twisty…it then turned to fire road at which point we hit mach one racing down the mountain. I could not believe you could get this much down hill on the east coast!At the bottom of MTN we hit Aid station number 6, the last aid station. We hit a small road climb and a fast road decent and then the final fire road climb. It was about thousand feet, but I threw it in the middle ring and put the hammer down,Granny gearing the last climb was a good idea, I was able to catch some riders that past me on the climb up Shenandoah MTN since I still had some rounds in the revolver. Somewhere in the Middle of the climb, Tomi Resurfaced, mashing his fixie into submission and passed me like a freight train. Once again another rewarding single track down hill ensued and we rolled into the finish. Just a hair over 11 hours. 150th out of 400.....movin on up.

That which does not kill me, only postpones the inevitable

5 Days until the Shenandoah Mountain 100 in VA.
It may be over by Sunday or Ernesto May Give us the Big FU!!!! Bring It Ernesto I'm putting on some fat tires!!!!

Iron Hill, Deleware=Fast and Furios!

Saturday evening I had no intention of Racing, I kicked back and drank multiple beers and ate some barbecue with my Fiance. I awoke on Sunday at 7:00 AM, headed down stairs threw on the coffee pot feeling sorta groggy. I sat back looked at my dirty unmaintained Cannondale Scalpel and said lets do it. Fortunately it was an early afternoon race so I had plenty of time to load up. I Threw the bike on the car and headed down to Delaware.

We did 4 Laps on this very fast course. I was able to eyeball the leaders rear tire for a better portion of the first lap, but eventually I decided to settle in to my own pace and maintained my position for the next 3 Laps. . A special thanks to Mike Faust for taking awesome picks of the race as usual, Including the picture of me above.

I think this goes under bacon....or beer