Bakers Update

Reading back over my previous post, I can tell I wrote it while exhausted. So no one thinks I was less than enthusiastic about it, the Leesburg Bakers Dozen was a great race, and I had a lot of fun hanging out with the rest of the DCMTB/City Bikes team and racing around the course. It was fast, had enough log overs to make anyone happy, and had a few surprisingly technical spots. The parts through the pine trees were sweet. I think someone mentioned DCMTB/City Bikes had 18 riders in attendence.

Loren had a good race, turning in consistently fast lap times, and Mike had some fast laps too, even without considering the broken collar bone. Without our mishaps (my botched first lap with the bent rim, Mike's crash and having to pull out of the race, my flat tire on one of my night laps), we would easily have been in the top ten. As it was, we pulled out 13th place out of 48 teams.

Having raced for five hours and enduring two days of feeling like warmed over death does have it's advantages. After a full three days of recovery, and I needed every one of them, I went out this afternoon for a training ride through my normal route along the long rolling hills to Westminster and back. 32 miles, 1 hour and 34 minutes, 20.3 mph avg. Faster than the last time I rode it by 0.8 mph, and not far off my fastest average of 20.5 mph. I had to work hard for it though. I put out a very big effort today, which will hopefully pay off on Sunday. My left leg felt weak again -- I'm not sure what that's about, but I'm hoping it gets better, as I was having to put a lot of concentration into working through it, leaving less for other tasks.

With Mike's broken collar bone, he reminded me that he won't be able to race Lodi with me and Steve Viers. That's the second teammate we've lost. If we can find another before the race in two weeks, I hope we can keep him healthy enough to at least start with us. Maybe we can cryogenically freeze him and thaw him out just before the race, like Han Solo.

Leesburg Bakers Dozen

(A Trip Though Hell)

The Race

I've had better races. For this one Mike and I teamed up with Loren. As the first man out Loren turned in two good laps as planned. Mike went out next and was apparently doing well, right up until he went to pass someone at the end of the lap and took a header into a suddenly discovered tree. I guess he didn't hit it directly head on, because it was his shoulder that was most damaged. He was lying on the side of the trail for several minutes after that. I knew something was up after looking at my watch, and then Larry Camp came by our campsite that was along the course and yelled out, "Scardaville hit a tree hard!" Mike came in a few minutes after that and I went out, a little sooner than anticipated, but we were making sure we were ready to ride after everyone's first lap, so I was ready.

I went out with a lot of energy, though I could tell right away I hadn't had enough recovery time after my hard training ride on Thursday. The trail was a lot of fun though, and I was passing a lot of people, as difficult as that was to do on this course. About 10 minutes into my first lap I hooked the end of a fallen tree that was sticking out into the trail and banged up my knee and scattered my wits a bit. It looked like someone else had already hit it, so I spent a few minutes doing trail work moving the tree out of the way so no one else would get hurt. The crash deflated me a bit. Then, on the big drop-off about halfway around the course, I took a line to the left and my rear wheel landed hard on the edge of a rock. That dented my rim pretty well, so that it was leaking air (I was running tubeless) for the rest of the lap, and I had to pull over every few minutes to put more air in it. Luckily I always carry two CO2 cartridges with me. I was supposed to do two laps, but stopped after that one to make some repairs.

Loren was ready when I pulled in to the campsite, and went out for his lap. While Loren was out Mike decided, after having a few Advil, that he wanted to try a lap and see just how much it was going to hurt. While Loren and Mike were out having fun I pulled the tire off the rim, bent it somewhat back into shape and tried to air it back up tubeless. I couldn't get the bead to seat well enough, and ended up putting a tube in it. The wheel wobbled a bit after the operation, but was good enough to ride on. I was ready to head back out when Mike finished up his first lap, but the ride must have made him feel better because he cruised on through with a big smile and two fingers held up indicating he wanted to do two laps. That was a good sign, since I'd been a little worried about him.

Mike came in and I took off with renewed energy. It was by far the hottest day of the year, and I couldn't drink enough water to keep myself hydrated, feeling dry-mouthed the whole time I was out. I felt pretty fast on my first lap of this double, but had to dial it back a bit on the second one. Luckily I had no accidents or mechanicals to slow me down. My second lap was about 33 minutes, so my first must have been 31 or 32 minutes. I'll have to wait for the official results to know for sure. By the time I had finished both laps, probably an hour and five minutes, I had just about finished off the 40 oz. of water in my Camelbak, the heat and low humidity were sucking that much water out of me. Loren did another single after me, then Mike did another double. It's too bad about his shoulder, because otherwise he seemed to really be on form. That last lap, his fifth, put a hurtin' on his shoulder and he had to call it quits after that. I'm glad he stuck it out that far, otherwise I'd be a lot more tired today, but it was good that he didn't try to ride any of the night laps, when the potential for crashing and further injury were too much to risk I thought.

So it was up to Loren and I to bring it on home. I had the first lap where lights were required, and turned in about a 34 minute lap. Since we were a duo team now and doing single laps, there wasn't a lot of time between laps to recover for the next one, no more than 35 to 40 minutes to drink or eat some calories, take electrolyte pills, and just relax. It stayed in the 60's right through midnight, so at least we didn't have to fight getting chilled between laps. After Loren's second night lap he said his legs were cooked and was calling it a day. This was at about 10:15 pm or so. So, what to do? I went out and did a slow lap (it's funny how your mind will run in circles when you're that tired and just trying to keep going), making it back to camp about 10:55 pm. I was totally beat by this point, and weary beyond anything I've experienced in the last 7 or 8 months.

Riding a rigid bike was really beating me up and taking more out of me than I had reckoned on. I've only had the rigid fork on for a couple weeks, and have a lot to learn it turns out. I was getting into all kinds of funky in situations I wouldn't have thought twice about with a suspension fork, doing a number of nose wheelies before I figured out how the bike was going to react coming off the back side of obstacles. The worst wasn't the big obstacles like you might think, which I could prepare for and unweight at the right time to avoid any shocks. No, worst were the really fast sections of hardpacked earth, the cowpaths. Sharp transitions there of only a few inches were very jarring at high speed, and sent shocks traveling up the frame right into my arms and shoulders, neck, back -- pretty much everywhere. It was a little better after making an adjustment to tilt the front of my saddle up so I wasn't supporting so much weight on my arms. Also, as I was getting the crap beat out of me, it was a strong incentive to learn to relax and let the bike move beneath me, and keep a looser grip on the handlebars and let my arms flex. Anything to take the sting out of riding fast on a rigid fork. My body and my reflexes have still have a lot of adjustments to make for this kind of riding. Time will tell whether my body will let me keep racing with a rigid fork. I may have to pull out the suspension fork for Big Bear -- that trail can be scary enough with a suspension fork, I hate to think what it's like rigid.

So there I was at camp, with my helmet off, feeling like I'd spent all day being pummeled by invisible fists and trying to decide what to do. If I was going to ride until the end of the race I would have to do another two laps, based on the current time (no one could leave for another lap after midnight). As Mike pointed out, at the least I had to ride up to the scoring tent and cross the sensors with the team's chip. So I put my helmet back on, turned on my light, and started the pedals turning again. I rode across the sensors... and then kept on going, mostly from momentum. This lap actually felt better than the previous one. I was just keeping the pedals turning on the flat sections, not putting any force into them at all and conserving my energy for the few passes I had to make and the tiny little hills. Back at the campsite once again it was 11:40 pm. I sat there for just a couple minutes, and it started sprinkling. Well, that settled it. I had about readied myself for a last lap, but I didn't think it would be prudent to be out there in the dark, as tired as I was, on wet rocks (the few there were) and logs. So, I crossed the sensors and turned in the team's chip at 11:45 pm. It was all over. We were in 13th place out of 43 teams as of about 11:15 pm. By stopping 15 minutes early we may have lost a place or two; I didn't have enough wits left to see how far behind us the next place team was.

Epilogue

I awake in my own bed, my right shoulder so weak and sore I can only just move it, and not with much range of motion. I'm exhausted. Not post SM100 exhausted, but I definitely feel like I spent myself the day before. I'll spend the rest of the day napping to the sound of rain, eating occasionally. My whole body aches, and I don't have as much of an appetite as I think I should. My weight is good though, so I don't worry much about not being hungry -- I probably had enough calories between laps to replenish a lot of what I was burning. The exhaustion is a good thing, because I'll be stronger after I've had a few days to recover. I'll have to hope my body adapts to the new way of riding. I'm looking forward to the 12 hours of Lodi in two weeks!

A Spring Camping Trip to Luray, VA

Last weekend Vin pitched the idea of a short camping trip to the GWNF outside of Luray, VA for the weekend, and I thought it a great idea. As it turned out we were the only ones that had any interest and didn't have other commitments. The plan firmed up during the week, and even though the weather forecast wasn't very propitious, we decided to carry through. I think we both were looking to get out of the city for a while and leave the stresses of daily life behind, and so even if we ended up sitting in a tent for most of the weekend reading to the sound of rain, it would have been worth going. Things turned out okay though, and I enjoyed the trip a great deal.

We left Vin's place in DC about 6:30 PM on Friday and stopped in Front Royal for a short dinner at a gas station/Blimpie sub. As we were leaving there it started sprinkling. By the time we left Front Royal behind for the last leg of the journey to Luray, it was pouring so hard our maximum safe speed was 35 mph or less. That continued for a good half hour or so, and I was wondering what the rest of the weekend had in store. If nothing else it would be a small adventure, something I'm always up for. The deluge petered out shortly before we got to Luray, but since it had just finished I was hoping to setup camp at Camp Roosevelt. That was unfortunately closed until May 1st, which was quite surprising. The alternative was a primitive campsite off of Crisman Hollow road I was expecting to be a mud pit. We arrived at a campsite we had used before, but while there was some mud, it wasn't as bad as I had feared it might be. We set about making camp and settled in to peruse some biking mags with a couple of beers for company.

The next morning Vin drove us into Luray, as I had forgotten an item of vital importance to mountain biking. I was both surprised and not, as I often forget things if I'm not working from a checklist. So we found ourselves at Walmart looking for a helmet that would fit me. I tried the adult and junior sizes but both were much too large for my very small head. It was looking bleak, but Vin finally spotted the "commuter" helmet with an adjustable head band, and while quite heavy, it fit okay. Back at camp we had a quick brunch and geared up for a ride. The day had turned gorgeous, one of the best of the year so far, and I was quite comfortable in just a short-sleeved jersey and shorts. The ride from the campsite to the ridge top of Massanutten mountain on the road was a nice warmup, and we passed some Harley riders taking a break up there who were impressed that we had ridden up the hill. In truth I was feeling fantastic; the legs were fresh, the day was warm and working it's way to sunny, and I was on the mountain bike taking a ride with a good friend.

The ride to Kennedy Peak was a great deal of fun. It's a very technical ascent, and though I didn't clean as much of it with the rigid fork as I might have with a suspension fork, I was having a blast. I think it's going to take a good year of riding the rigid fork before I'm as proficient with it as I was with the suspension fork, which is fine. Vin, on his Raleigh and also fully rigid (not a Redline like I was thinking in my last post -- two syllables, starts with an 'R'... I was close) was having a great ride as well, and cleaning sections I didn't. I attempted the last steep rocky climb to the peak, but finally gave up after a 50 yards, and turned the Gunnar downhill to start the steep part of the descent back to the road at the bottom of the mountain. Going down that technical descent was more fun than any riding I'd done in a long time. The less technical but bumpier and fast section that followed was the first extended downhill I'd done with the rigid fork, and I realized that I would probably never be as fast on rocky downhills with it -- it just gets to be too punishing on the hands, even with just 20 psi in a fairly fat front tire. While I'm thinking about that, the Mountain King on the front performed superbly on this ride, proving itself an excellent match to such rocky terrain. The Crossmark on the back I was less happy with, not feeling I was getting the traction on the rocks that I could have, the price I pay for a light, fast rolling tire with low knobs. Some of that I think was due to having put the handle bars down a little lower than I'd had them, which was taking some of the weight off the rear tire when I was out of the saddle. Anyway, I found that when I could let off the brakes, the hands were much happier with the bumpy ride. After the steeper downhill sections, it was just some really nice mountain biking, real mountain biking, back to the road, and I enjoyed that a lot too. Both Vin and I agreed it was a mighty fine mountain bike ride and a fantastic day for it. We spun our legs out a bit on route 675 into the valley, and arrived back at camp a good 2 1/2 hours after starting the ride.

Vin prepared a tasty and satisfying supper of red beans and rice with crab meat and shrimp that evening, and after some light after supper reading we were both ready to turn out the lights before 10 pm, helped along somewhat by a sharp drop in temperature and accompanying wind. We arose late the next morning to a dark day and overcast sky already spitting rain drops. We had planned another ride for today, but with the threatening sky and a day in such contrast to yesterday's magnificence, decided to just pack up and head back home. I didn't feel any disappointment at leaving a few hours early. With Saturday's great ride and hours and hours in a quiet and restful environment, the trip was a success. I arrived home at 4:05 pm and unpacked the car, and later had a good 45 minute zone 2/3 workout. Now it's time to turn out the lights on a good weekend, and bend my thoughts to preparing for next weekend's race, the season's first, the 13 hour Leesburg Bakers Dozen.

Now More Rigid

I got the new Salsa fork on the bike today and took it for an hour-long test at Gambrill, the rocky place. It rocked! It wasn't nearly as bad as I feared it might be. It's going to take me some time to get completely used to it and to re-learn how to do some things, but it was more fun than riding with a suspension fork. I wasn't able to go as fast on the rocky downhills, but that's okay. It felt like a rocket everywhere else, with nearly 2 lbs. taken off the front. I was able to keep the front wheel off the ground longer to clear obstacles too. Hopping logs was easier. About halfway through my ride I let some more air out of the new front tire I bought (Continental Mountain King 2.4", recommended by Jason Stoner) so that it had just 20 lbs in it. That helped, and traction at that pressure was fantastic. I didn't have any problems hitting the rim, surprisingly, but that may be in part because I wasn't bombing the descents. My hands, and the rest of me, didn't feel any worse than they normally would after a ride at Gambrill... though I was pedaling out of the saddle a bit more, and that worked the muscles in my back more. All in all I was very pleased, and left wondering if I'll ever go back to a suspension fork.

Rigid on Trial

I noticed a few weeks ago that the anodizing is being rubbed off the left stanchion of my White Brothers suspension fork, whether from a defect or a lack of proper maintenance I'm not sure. That was a bit disappointing from a $600 bike part. When you spend that kind of money on something you expect it to last. I was going to need something to use while the fork was getting repaired, and I thought maybe this was a chance to try a rigid fork. Actually, I was thinking about getting a Reba that was on sale and binning the White Brothers, since the repair will probably cost just as much. But then I thought about trying a rigid fork, after the subject had come up recently when talking to Jason Stoner during a trail work day at Gambrill.

During a ride at Gambrill on Sunday with John, Vin, and Dave, I switched bikes with Vin for a while. He was riding a fully rigid steel 29er, the brand name of which escapes me at the moment (I want to say it was a Redline), with fairly large WTB Exiwolf 2.3" tires. From the moment I started on it I felt right at home. It was so precise and efficient feeling, and I loved it. Plain and simple it was just more fun.

After asking around and doing some research, I settled on the Salsa Cromoto Grande to try my experiment on. It was relatively cheap at around 100 bucks, and everyone loved it. I had a bit of trouble finding someone with one in stock, but it finally arrived at my door on Monday. It's sitting on my living room floor right now, clamped in a mitre box so I can cut the steering tube down to size. I can't wait to go for a ride on it!