Jonny Has a Bike

2009 Cranky Monkey #1 - Wakefield

2009-07-27T19:54:00.000-04:00

Sunday was a day of realizations at the Cranky Monkey race at Wakefield Park. Warming up a little around the parking lots before the race, I couldn't tell how my legs were feeling, but thought I'd be okay. I had done an easy lap around Rosaryville the day before and was feeling pretty strong, and I was hoping Sunday would be no different. After feeling so tired during the previous Sunday's 90 mile road ride, however, I still wasn't too sure I was completely recovered after doing so well at the Iron Mountain 100K two weeks earlier. My mental state was somewhat of a wait-and-see at the starting line. My first realization of the day occurred about a 1/4 mile into the single track, as I was constantly braking so I didn't run into the guy in front of me. Realization: be more aggressive at the start and avoid being slowed down by riders less able to carry momentum through the turns and technical sections. After another 7 or 8 minutes behind this guy, I finally called out, "I've _got_ to get around you guy. Can I get a pass?" He was very kind and immediately pulled to the left to let me go around on the right. After that I was pretty quickly able to make it back up to some faster guys ahead of me.

The temperature in the woods wasn't too bad, but every time we came out into the open and the sunshine my core temperature quickly climbed to uncomfortable levels. The water stations then became not so much opportunities to hydrate as to douse my neck, back, and front with cold water. I was able to pass one or two competitors at the water stations on the second and third laps, as they slowed way down to collect themselves. The trail itself was in really good shape, with just a few slippery roots in some turns that had stayed damp. Except for those turns, I was able to rail everything pretty hard.

Starting the second lap I was surprised to see in the distance Evan going back into the singletrack at the end of the road section. I was doing better than I thought if I was able to catch even a glimpse of Evan. I also had my second realization about that time: yogurt, even if eaten 2 1/2 hours before the start of a race, doesn't make a good race day breakfast. Oh well. In the tight singletrack on the second lap I could tell I wasn't as fast as on the first lap, but my legs were holding up fairly well and I was able to keep close to the three faster guys in front of me, who I was later to learn were 4th, 5th, and 6th on that lap. I saw Tom Mackay had pulled out at one of the water stations, so that brought me closer to the front, and I also passed one of the guys I'd been chasing as he nearly stopped to take some fluids. It was then that I believe I moved into 5th place. John Claman bobbled the big (but shrinking) log-over in the woods, and I was able to slip by him for a while. But he had just been pacing the guy in 3rd, and at the first opportunity he went by to reclaim 4th, and shortly after that, 3rd.

Passing the timing tent to begin the 3rd lap I had another realization. I was getting beat up by the roots, and the core muscles around my middle were fatigued. I had chosen to use the rigid fork for this race, but I'm so much faster with the suspension fork, I really should just keep it on the bike during the racing season. I also soon realized that my gear choice was a little tall, as I wasn't really spinning out anywhere, and my legs were becoming fatigued from using more strength than a smaller gear ratio would have required. If I do this race again, it'll be with a suspension fork, and 34x20 or 32x18 gears. At this point in the race I decided that my goal now was to keep my current position. I was able to keep 4th place in sight, and we'd been passing the tail end of the expert classes fairly continuously since about halfway through the 2nd lap, so I new I hadn't slowed too significantly, and I couldn't detect anyone coming up behind me except for the 3 or 4 "sport" class racers that would pass me during the 3rd lap. So the 3rd lap was all about keeping it together and just keeping a good pace without blowing up. I succeeded in that, and finished the race in the same 5th position I'd held for most of the 2nd and 3rd laps.

All in all a fun race, and I had a good time. Next up, the Wilderness 101!

New Parts

2008-10-03T20:46:00.002-04:00

I love it when new parts are delivered!

Geolocate this post

Posted with LifeCast

New Parts

2008-10-03T19:20:00.002-04:00

Geolocate this post

Posted with LifeCast

Something New

2008-09-25T18:28:00.002-04:00

I thought I would try one of the free mobile blogging applications for my iphone. It's not very sophisticated, but then neither is my blog. Sophistication requires a time investment I just don't want to make.

So then... What's news? I'm waiting anxiously for my phil wood Ti bottom bracket to come in from Speedgoat. Apparently the whole company took the week off for interbike. Even before that, i'd already been waiting for two weeks. Meanwhile, the Middleburn cranks that I ordered just last Thursday arrived yesterday. I'm really itching to get all that new stuff on my bike.

Posted with LifeCast

Cranky Monkey #3, 8/24/2008

2008-08-24T21:13:00.004-04:00

My training plan for the 3rd race in the Cranky Monkey series ran thusly: work 12 hour days and don't train for 5 weeks, and do a ride at Gambrill the day before. It worked out better than I would have thought. Why, I don't know.

Prior to the start, race director Jim Harmon told us, "It's a really smooth course, you're gonna love it!" Maybe he hadn't ridden it, or rode it on a 5 inch trail bike, because while a good bit of it was pretty smooth, the descents beat the crap out of me with the rigid fork. The spokes were crying in pain, ping! pang! in time to my own grunts and bursts of profanity as I used what little skills I had in an attempt to keep a light grip, arms relaxed, and let the bike move beneath me as well as I could. Thank goodness for big, fat, high-volume tires and tubeless conversions that let me ride with less than 20 PSI of pressure. Slowly I'm learning to ride quickly with a rigid fork and not feel like tenderized meat afterward, and I definitely noticed an improvement this race over where I started several months ago, but my shoulders and neck were still tight and sore for two days.

Atypically, I got to the race venue an hour early, despite it being an hour and 20 minute drive; time enough that I didn't have to rush, and was even able to do a little 5 minute warm up. Not that it helped any, but I was conforming to tradition and conventional wisdom. Lined up at the start, the siren went off, and after some gravel and pavement I got on the trail about half-way back (possibly further) in the pack. As usual I didn't feel like going into oxygen debt right at the start. My legs had no snap in them anyway, and I was somewhat regretting the ride the day before, when I'd felt so fantastic, but I kept a fairly decent pace and tried not to use up too much of my reserves muscling up the steep climbs, of which there were far too many more than I remembered.

I started feeling better on the second lap. Well enough that was able to continue passing people, some in my own class, and keep my pace up. Well enough that my second lap was only a few seconds off the time of the first one. As happens in many mountain bike races, after a while I was pretty much keeping myself company, occasionally passing someone. One guy on a geared bike who should have been in the expert instead of the sport class did pass me on the second lap, but other than that the only people I saw were the ones I passed. Uneventful, really, that second lap; but fun, and painful, and wonderful. I somehow ended up in 4th place out of 15 for the second race in a row. It was a good feeling, and satisfying.

Eight racers in DCMTB jerseys showed up Sunday. Tom, Mike Scardaville, Matt, and Eric battled in the expert class that's become so fast, and Tris battled back problems in sport women. Lynne crushed the rest of the expert women, as usual. If she gets any faster someone is going to sign her up for a pro team. She also finished 1st in the points series total. Other series total top finishers: Tris finished 4th in sport women, Tom Vaughn 4th in expert men 35+, and myself 4th in singlespeed. Six podium appearances Sunday. Way to go DCMTB!

Cranky Monkey #2 - 2008

2008-08-10T20:49:00.005-04:00

I decided after the first lap of Cranky Monkey #2 at Fountainhead Park in Virginia that the trail there isn't such a great singlespeed race course. Especially riding fully rigid and having your teeth rattle about in your head. The whole thing is just roots, direction changes and short, steep hills, with very little chance to stay in the saddle and pedal, and taken all together it worked to minimize the advantages of riding a singlespeed. Having said that, it was still a lot of fun to race today.

8 AM this morning found me wolfing down a bowl of hot cereal, then racing down to the car to put a pair of cleats on a brand spanking new pair of biking shoes, to go with a new style of pedals (Crank Brothers) that I had ridden for the first time the day before. I was hoping everything held together, as I'd also installed a new bottom bracket to go with the pedals. At 8:08 AM I was on the road, and after an hour and a half drive I arrived with not much more than 20 minutes to put shoes on, hit the porta-john, get my race packet (thanks for getting that for me Mike!), get everything together, and make it to the line for the 10 am start. No warm up and cold legs is not how I would normally want to start a race, but what the hell, I could warm up during the 2 mile road start. I was on the front line for the start, and a few guys went off quick, spinning like mad. I have a pretty fast spin, but without warming up I just wasn't feeling too spinny. After the first mile (is it really 2 miles?) I was near the rear of the class of 15 or 16 riders, but was able to make it to mid-pack in the second mile, and was positioned about where I wanted to be going into the woods. Although, after going fast on the road, a few of the guys in front of me were slowing me up on the trail. Whatever, I had determined not to blow myself up in the first few miles, choosing instead to keep a good steady pace and let the engine warm up for a bit.

My legs were feeling good for most of the race, and as the first lap wore on I passed 4 or 5 singlespeeders, until by the end of it I was somehow in 4th place. I didn't know it at the time though -- I thought I was somewhere in the top third but didn't realize how far up I'd gone. I managed to pass Jonathan Seibold somewhere near the end of the first lap as well, before passing one more guy. During the second lap Seibold recovered from going out too hard and about a third of the way into it I looked back to see where people were and there he was, chasing me down. "Damn. Okay, I can't let up. I have to keep on pushing hard, see if I can hold onto this position until the end." For most of the rest of the lap I was looking back periodically. Sometimes I wouldn't see anyone, and then there he'd be, and I'd think, "Damn, he's closing on me." That lap seemed like a long one, with me and my sore back trying to hold onto our gains. As I came to each hill I'd think, "This race is going to be decided on the hills. I have to gas it and give it all I've got." Surprisingly, my legs always felt strong, and even on the steepest hills that were near impossible on a singlespeed I was able to jump off and run up the rest of the way. I can't remember ever having that kind of fitness. Up the last of the hills I pushed hard and kept pressure on the pedals, and was finally able to make some distance on Seibold, but he pushed me to give it my all that whole lap. I didn't know it, but I must have been closing in on third place, as I finished only 24 seconds behind.

So, I got to stand on the podium and collected a 4th place finish pint glass. Sweet! There was a bit of a mix up with the scoring, as originally I didn't even show up in the singlespeed class at all. Several of the guys let me know this, and I was able to straighten it out with the scorer. Apparently they had recorded my number as 386, but the number they gave me was 286. There weren't a whole lot of DCMTB/City Bikes jerseys there today, I think a total of 7 altogether, but we had 5 people on the podium. Tris Newbury took 4th in women's sport, Joel Gwadz dominated the clydesdales to take 1st, Tom Vaughn battled the expert vets to get 5th (and that's a hard class to race in to be sure!), Lynne Oliver stepped on the gas for her third lap in the women's expert class to soundly beat the woman she trailed for two laps, and I held a steady pace to wind up 4th in the singlespeed class. Great job everyone!

Bakers Update

2008-04-23T23:33:00.005-04:00

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

2008-04-20T23:22:00.005-04:00

(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

2008-04-13T21:25:00.013-04:00

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

2008-04-05T23:01:00.003-04:00

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

2008-04-01T22:10:00.004-04:00

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!

A New Wheel and a Good Crash

2008-01-13T20:21:00.000-05:00

A plan long in coming finally bore fruit last night, as I stayed up until 1am rebuilding my rear wheel using the existing DT Swiss 240S singlespeed rear hub (a very light hub), new DT Swiss Supercomp 2.0/1.7/1.8 triple butted spokes with alloy nipples, and a Stan's NoTubes ZTR 355 29er rim. After a little refreshing of the wheel building process from Sheldon Brown's website, the whole thing came together remarkably smoothly. Well, I did end up fishing 5 nipples out of the rim. Grrr... I used the NoTubes yellow nylon tape without the rubber rim strip and the Olympic valve stem to seal it all up. A brand new Maxxis Crossmark tire seated and sealed quite nicely after dropping a couple ounces of Stan's tire sealant in it. Pop! Pop! The tire seated in the bead quite audibly. I put 40 PSI of air in it and let it sit overnight and it was still nice and hard in the morning. Whoop! It was a really fun project and I was very happy with the final results.

This morning, after getting maybe 5 hours of sleep (lights out at 3am, up at 8am, with poor quality sleep thanks to a cold I came down with Friday night) I got up and readied everything for an outing at the Frederick Watershed with Mike and Tris. We got rolling on the trail at maybe 10:45am and did a short approximately 14 mile ride. I was surprised by how out of shape I was, but not unhappy with the speed I was able to keep up while on the move, and quite happy with my confidence and handling skills. The new Crossmark showed itself to have a good amount of traction, but the trails were mostly tacky, and just about any tire would have fared well. It seemed to be a fast roller, despite having mounted it backwards (oops). I was running the tire with 28 PSI, something I would never have contemplated while using tubes. 35 would have been the minimum I would use in the Shed with tubes. The tubeless setup showed it's merit, as I felt the tire hit the rim twice with no ill effect, after mis-timing some hops.

In the last mile or two of the ride, I decided to get a little jump off a rock on the right side of the trail. A pretty small drop really. I'm not entirely certain what happened. Tris was behind me and said my rear tire landed first, as it should. What I think happened is that the trail bent to the left there and I needed to be going that direction immediately after coming down from the drop, and had my tire turned a bit in that direction. Unfortunately I didn't adequately gauge the firmness of the trail where I was to land, and my front tire went into some soft clay type mud, which for some reason crossed up my front wheel and effectively stopped forward motion immediately. Except for me hitting the ground of course. It happened so fast I'm not certain of anything, except that my face and chest hit the ground pretty hard. It happened so fast I apparently didn't even have time to take my hands off the bars, and somehow the impact with the ground sprained the last two fingers of both hands. I got off light really -- a little bloody scrape on my nose from my shades, the lightly sprained fingers, and small scrapes on my right forearm and left shin. Oh, right, and lightly bruised ribs high up in my chest. At least I hope they're lightly bruised; I probably won't know until I try to get out of bed in the morning.

In spite of that, I had a really fun time today. I was riding aggressively and well, I was with two really good friends, the temperature wasn't bad at all (not much wind helped), I had a great new extremely light wheel, and my low back (SI joint/sacrum problems apparently) was much better than it had been in a week and a half -- life was good to me today. Now, to get over this cold and really start training for the season ahead.

DC Cyclocross Race

2007-10-29T22:54:00.000-04:00

I guess it's a bad habit of mine to start things late. I forgot until Saturday evening that my bike was still set up for mountain biking and would need some wrenching to be ready for the 'cross race Sunday. Unfortunately I didn't get home from Bill and Kim's until close to 12:30 am, and I thought it best to get some rest rather than try working on the bike while already half asleep. I got up when the alarm went off at 7:30 am, which as it turns out wasn't quite early enough. Took a hot shower, threw my stuff together, and was rolling by 8:10. It's a long drive to the middle of DC, and I pulled into a parking spot in the race venue at 9:25. Quickly taking the bike off the rack and throwing my shoes on, I raced up to the registration tent to pick up my number. Mike Klasmeier was there, trying to tell me I didn't need to change anything on the bike. Riiiight. I basically told him he was nuts and raced back to the car to get to work. 9:40 am, and my class (men's C) started at 10. My heart was working now -- if I executed the gear swap perfectly I figured I could just make it.

Okay, first things first, swap out the rear wheel for the one with the 'cross tire and 21 tooth cog on it. Second, replace the 32 tooth chainring with the 42 tooth. Excellent, I didn't lose any of the chainring bolts! Next, the longer chain. Things are looking good. Loosen the bolts for adjusting the eccentric bottom bracket and get the chain tensioned just right. Only one thing left to do. Swap out the tire and tube on the front to the Michelin Mud2. Oh, and air up both tires. With those two things accomplished I took a look at my watch. 9:55! F@$!, I still had to get my number on! That took about two minutes, including shedding my wool top because I could tell by the way I was already heating up that it would be too warm for racing. So, in jersey and tights I rode as quickly as I could toward the start... wherever that was. Even though I helped lay out the course the day before, no one had mentioned where we would be starting. This was cutting it too close, and I had to make a stop at a porta john on the way there, because there was no way I would make it through a 40 minute race with an overfull bladder. Ahhh... that's better.... What's all that yelling and hoopla? Finished with the porta john I picked up my trusty yellow Gunnar singlespeed, and watched with some chagrin as the tail end of 70 riders turned off the road onto the first dirt climb.

Laughing, already enjoying this, I started that same climb 10 or 15 seconds behind the last rider and with zero momentum. But this was the beginner/casual/learning class, and though I have only been on the bike a handful of times since the hundred mile race in early August and this was only my second ever cyclocross race, I still had a lot of dirt experience on the majority of these guys. It wasn't long before I was passing the true beginners, those who probably have never even been in a race, or never trained specifically for racing. The course was a great deal of fun, with it's up and down nature and all the turns in some sections. I was more comfortable carrying speed through them than most, and it was a blast to catch and then pass people going into a turn. But my legs were feeling pretty leaden after just the first lap, and I was fervently wishing for some of that stamina back that has been slowly draining away over the last few months. With my one gear I was losing some time to the riders using geared cyclocross bikes (almost all of them) on the long back section. Not so much on the slight rise, but on the gravel decline before getting back onto dirt. But I have to say I had as much fun on the last lap as I did on the first. I caught up to young Jake -- doing amazingly well in his first C race -- on the next to last lap. Hopefully I provided some encouragement to him to dig down and keep up the pace. He stayed with me for a while, and even passed me back up when we got to the straighter back section, but near the beginning of the last lap I gritted my teeth and pulled out a burst just before a turn that hurt like hell but sent me past him and 2 other guys. He must have stayed close behind though, because he finished the race in the next place after me. Kudos to him! I just have to encourage him to ride his singlespeed more. :) I ended up in 37th place, having passed 32 riders, not quite half of that huge field.

So, I found a way to make Sunday a rather exciting, and extremely fun, day. Next Sunday I suppose I should have my act together and start closer to the front and see how I do. If I'm able to train better next year than I was able to this one, I'll either race with the masters 35+, or with the killer B's. I wonder which would be more fun? Because that's what these cyclocross races are all about to me, having fun. It's the end of the year, the mountain biking season is all done, and the desire to train for 8 or more hours a week is long passed. The only thing left to do is enjoy myself and gain some weight. I'm not even sure I'll bother buying a 'cross bike (singlespeed to be sure) for next year. Maybe I'll just use my mountain bike again like I'm doing this year. It'll handicap me compared to everyone else, but what the hell, I love riding my Gunnar!

My First Cyclocross Race

2007-10-01T22:15:00.000-04:00

I wouldn't say I got up early for my very first cyclocross race (Ed Sander Cyclocross, Lily Pons Water Gardens, Adamstown, MD, Sep 30 2007) , but I did manage to get there in time to check in, get my number, get into my shoes, and make it to the start line. In the rear of the men's cat 4 (c) (the newbie category), looking at the backs of about 70 other guys it turned out. The whistle went off and the mass finally moved forward after several seconds. Suddenly we were racing! Damn, this was fun stuff! I was able to move past a lot of people in the first half mile by being a little aggressive and knowing when to hit the gas to make the pass. I noticed right away that most of these guys bled off a lot of speed going through the turns. Definitely not mountain bikers. I was able to make a lot of passes by going much faster through the turns, either waiting behind a wheel and diving to the inside as someone took it wide, or taking an outside line and then making sure not to give the guy going inside too much room to straighten out the turn, forcing them to let up to make it around. The competitiveness of the race was exhilarating!

On my second of four laps I went through a very gravelly sharp turn a little too aggressively and slid out, in the same place I watched 20 or 30 other guys slide out in the later races. I really didn't feel like sliding in gravel, so I came down (gently!) on my hands and only briefly touched down on my right hip. It was only a second before I was picking the bike back up and getting ready to mount... and then I noticed the chain had dropped off. As I was riding singlespeed, This Was Not Supposed To Happen, in addition to being a real pain in the arse. I lost probably 10 or 15 positions while I worked on getting the chain back on (my punishment for putting a ramped and pinned chainring on a singlespeed), then I was back in the game. For the final two and half laps I worked on gaining back positions I'd already taken and trying to conserve energy for the steeps on the back half of the course -- not really a great cyclocross strategy, but I'm definitely at the bottom of the cyclocross learning curve, minus bike handling skills.

Finally the race was over. My legs didn't have much left for the steeps, but my energy systems were really just getting to the point of max output and I was feeling pretty darned good at the finish, which is not how it's supposed to be. Hmmm... I need to work on that. I placed 32nd out of 83 starters -- not too bad considering I started in the back, it was my first race, and I had the mechanical. I managed to bruise the inside of my left calf pretty good somehow, but got through my first 'cross race pretty much unscathed. What I need to do now is work on my mounts, and make the bike more reliable. For the bike I ordered a 42 tooth rampless, pinless Salsa chainring and a new chain. I'll also be putting v-brakes on the front and using a lighter tire next time. Hopefully I'll still be able to stop without disc brakes when things get wet. Mentally, I need to discard notions of conserving energy and just go as hard as I can all the time -- it's only 40 minutes after all.

It's fair to say I'm hooked. :) Now I know what all of the excitement is about when 'cross season approaches. Perhaps next year I'll build up a decent singlespeed 'cross bike, but for now I'm very comfortable with the converted mountain bike, heavy as it is. See you at the races!

A little ride this afternoon

2007-09-30T00:01:00.000-04:00

Saturday. I didn't really want to get up at 7am, but my suddenly overactive mind wouldn't let me go back to sleep. After fighting it for an hour I finally gave up and crawled out of bed. The first thing I did (after feeding the cats) was a short 30-minute high intensity workout to try and raise my anaerobic threshold. I'm in pretty poor shape for racing, but I'm just going to go out and have fun. I'm always competitive once I'm racing, but I've never been upset if I don't place well once it's all over. It's just not something I want to stress over. After the workout it was time to eat some breakfast and work on getting my mountain bike ready for the cyclocross race. That included putting a 'cross tire on the spare rear wheel, and initially on the spare front wheel. I'd wanted to use the front wheel I bought from Mike Scardaville since it's so much lighter, but after removing the disc brake from the front of the bike and getting all set up to install the old v-brake from the old Trek Fuel, I realized I didn't have any brake posts for the fork. Sigh. After searching for brake posts for 30 minutes, back on goes the disc brake, and the new 'cross tire on the normal front wheel for this bike. I should just spring for the IRO Cycles Rob Roy singlespeed cyclocross frame this month. It's only like 279 bucks.

I finally finished working on the bike at about 1:30 in the afternoon. I took a huge load of recyclables to the county dump, went to the Common Market in Frederick to pick up some groceries (organic, naturally), then headed over to Bill and Kim's. Kim and I talked for a while, then decided to go for a short motorcycle ride (Bill was on his own tortuous ride somewhere near Charleston, WV at the time, on his way to Kansas City, MO. Crazy place to ride to on a motorcycle if you ask me). We didn't get rolling out of the driveway until about 5pm, so it was definitely going to be short. I asked Kim to take the lead, since she was the native and knew the roads around there well, and she did so readily, setting a very nice pace. Not slow (never that), but safe and definitely within reason -- a very happy pace for me. Within the first minutes of the ride I knew that's where I needed to be right then, sitting on that bike I've so quickly become comfortable with, the power at my command, sense of being in control of my life in that little space of time, my mind by need present and focused. It was amazing the sense of being unburdened of worries and stresses I immediately felt. Over the next hour and 40 minutes and 60 miles of following Kim around the back roads northeast of Frederick that wonderful feeling persisted. The weather was a perfect 68 degrees with clear skies and I thoroughly enjoyed the entire ride. Why had I almost completely stopped riding motorcycles the last two years? It's clearly beneficial to my mental state. Maybe I had just been stuck with a motorcycle that wasn't right for me, as this VFR so clearly is. Hindsight.

After a mediocre dinner at Famous Dave's that took much too long, with help from Kim I got the new Givi luggage rack installed in under an hour. It was a whole lot easier than installing a Givi Wingrack (that's a pain in the ass). The new rack isn't too bad looking minus the bags, unlike the Wingrack. With the bags the bike is, well, wide. I can live with it for now (forever?). Maybe some day I'll get the factory bags, which I think fit tighter to the bike and don't stick out so far. I'll have to take a picture later. For now, there's this one.

New Bike

2007-09-25T23:08:00.000-04:00

I got a new bike a couple of weeks ago. No, it's not a bicycle. It's a replacement for the motorcycle (Suzuki Bandit 1200S) I sold to my friends Bill and Kim. The Bandit, though fun to ride in many circumstances owing to it's awesome low and mid-range torque, just never really inspired me. And it showed in how much I'd ridden it in the last two years. Since buying the Bandit in early 2004 I'd put just a little over 11,000 miles on it. Something was missing. The desire to ride I'd had in the early years when I had my first VFR800, that yellow beauty, had faded since it's demise and the subsequent purchase of the Bandit. I'd been considering letting the Bandit go and giving up riding motorcycles altogether, since I'd been spending most of my free time riding bicycles anyway, and Bill said they were considering buying the Bandit from me to have as a spare and commuting bike. He had been sending me ads for VFR's for at least a year, since he knew I really wanted another one if I wanted anything -- and his perseverance finally paid off, for I got a sudden and powerful hankering to buy one.

Hunting around, I found a silver 2003 in Alabama with 16K miles with all the after market additions I might want. Sargent seat, Helibars, factory bags. I was in negotiations with the owner for it, but Friday morning Bill sent me an ad he found on Craigslist for a silver 2003, with only 836 miles! And it was a 100 bucks less than the one in Alabama. And it was in Gaithersburg, which is a hell of a lot closer. I emailed the owner as quickly as I could and we made plans to meet up Saturday afternoon so I could look it over. The bike was so perfect it could have just come off of the showroom floor. I fell in love with it right away and took it home (well, to Bill and Kim's).

I picked it up from Bill and Kim's house Wednesday evening and rode it to work Thursday and Friday. That Saturday, a week after getting it, the three of us went on a leisurely 370 mile trip into West Virginia, taking a whole 10 hours. It was quite a bit more sedate than we would have gone in the past, I know. None of us were in a hurry, and I did most of the leading since I had a sorta plan about a route. And I'm just not so anxious to take the risks I would once have. I was immediately comfortable on the bike, just as I was on my first VFR. I was afraid the position would be too low and bother me too much, but that really didn't turn out to be the case. In fact, after switching to Bill's brother's 2000 VFR with Helibars for part of the day, I don't think I want to add them to mine. The stock position just feels right; comfortable enough, with a better feeling of control. I was hurting the last few hours to be sure, but still, being able to ride 10 hours on a bike after not riding for about a year... really says something positive about the stock setup.

The VFR definitely loses a lot to the Bandit in torque, but makes up for it in being easier to ride quickly, with quicker steering, much lighter feeling (though it's not really), and that awesome V4 sound that I love so much. One thing I hated though is that damn lean-surge at constant throttle. The VFR's have a fuel saving mode, that when the ECU detects constant throttle at certain RPM's (below 7k?) it leans out the fuel mixture, which for me causes quite a drop in horsepower, a problem unless you're riding on very level road. Inevitably the ECU would go into that lean mix mode, the HP would drop, I'd have to give it more throttle, the bike would surge when it came out of the lean mix mode, I'd have to get back off the throttle to maintain my speed, and then the cycle would repeat. Over and over, all day long. The only time I wasn't affected by it was when riding on the more exciting roads, where I was either on the throttle or brakes a lot more, or outside of that RPM range where the lean mix mode would kick in. A Power Commander is definitely on my list for immediate purchases, which will get rid of that problem.

I just really enjoy riding the VFR, and I'm looking forward to many future trips on it. With my best friends certainly, maybe alone sometimes. Riding it is somehow therapeutic. Riding my mountain bike is therapeutic too, but in a different way. Spending time on the motorcycle gives me a feeling of independence, of being in control of my own destiny, of responsibility for my life. I'm almost always calmer after getting off of it. Truly, if you want to ride and not crash, you really have to pay attention to the world around you. Staying alive is your highest priority, and it's your responsibility. You must be present when riding, or you won't be riding long. Perhaps it is being forced into the present for extended periods, giving my mind a break from all other stresses, that gives it it's therapeutic aspect. I'm glad the VFR is back in my life.

Pictures from Texas at Easter

2007-04-25T20:01:00.000-04:00

I finally got around to downloading the pictures from my camera, including these from that ice event in Texas over Easter weekend.

Increasing My Endurance

2007-04-22T20:35:00.000-04:00

I'm worried I'm not really in the kind of shape I need to be in to be competitive in my class (singlespeed or expert, depending on the race). Circumstances have somewhat kept me off the bike; I also just haven't been as dedicated to putting in the time, truthfully. The weather hasn't helped, but that would be true for everyone. Hopefully this year, instead of waning as the season wears on, I'll get stronger and finish at my peak.

In any case, I have three races in the next four weeks staring me in the face. Greenbrier, 12 hours of Lodi, and 24 hours of Conyers. Although, I don't think anyone has registered for Conyers yet, and I'm therefore not on a team, so it's not a sure thing I'll be going. Sunday I had the day free to do any kind of training I wanted. My first thought was to go around Greenbrier as many times as I could as race prep. But my biggest worry is my endurance. My skills have improved this year over last, no worries there. The most sensible training was therefore a long, hard road ride.

After spending a couple hours cleaning up the bottom bracket of my road bike and getting everything back together, I drove to Frederick to ride "Catoctin Climber" from "Scott and Jim's Favorite Bike Rides" (ride number 7). This is a 46 mile ride with about 5,000 feet of climbing, and the hardest in the book according to Scott and Jim. It was a late start; I clipped in at about 1:30 PM and started down the road, thinking, "This is going to hurt. This is going to be painful." But, that's what it will take if I'm to finish a 100 mile mountain bike race, or 4 to 5 laps in a 12 or 24 hour race. The first climb did hurt, coming as it did immediately at the start. But the hardest climb, Harp Hill (the steepest section of road I've ever ridden on my road bike) was just that. Hard. I wouldn't say it really hurt. The most tortuous part of the ride was the last 7 miles or so, when my lack of endurance was really showing. I just had nothing in the tank. It wasn't helping that I was dehydrated and my stomach was wigging out. Getting hydration, food, and stomach right has always been the hardest part of any long ride for me. The best part of the ride was after turning into Catoctin Mountain Park. No cars, little wind, it was a bit of uphill, and quiet like I haven't heard in too, too long. That section was too short to bring a lasting peace, but it was good to catch a glimpse. It makes me realize I haven't been on a backpacking trip in much too long. I did get chased by a menacing looking black dog on, I think Harmony road, the one before Harp Hill. He came from out of nowhere; never barked, though I caught snatches of a snarl as I managed to outrun him, having worked up some speed at that point.

So it was I finished the ride almost exactly 3 1/2 hours after starting, for an average of 13.4 mph (for all of you with calculators, I sneaked in an extra mile after I took a wrong turn -- I was tired). Pretty darn slow. Well, it's a start to increasing my endurance.

A Good Ride After Work

2007-04-10T20:51:00.000-04:00

2 hours and 20 minutes of solid riding at Patapsco deserves a post-ride beer. I was flowing well, and my legs were with me for the entire ride. I may be in basic shape for Greenbrier after all. Not podium shape, but good enough to at least finish.

I suppose the weather will keep me in tomorrow. A good thing, since I haven't done my Taxes yet and I won't make any progress tonight. It will be painful I'm sure.

Another pic

2007-04-10T08:45:00.001-04:00

The camera phone really doesn't take very good pictures, but you can get a sense of what Easter in Texas was like this year.

2007-04-10T08:41:00.000-04:00

More pics from my trip to texas.

2007-04-10T08:21:00.001-04:00

A New Bike?

2007-04-08T09:24:00.000-04:00

I've recently been on a quest to lighten the Gunnar, my trusty, always ready to ride singlespeed, after I weighed it as 27 Lbs. Much heavier than a singlespeed should be for me, when I only come in at 136 or so myself. So now making it lighter has become my obsession, something to keep me up late at night combing through forums, comparing the weights of different components, and making notes of weights -- and prices of course. An expensive obsession to be sure.

The first thing I did was ditch the Nevegal on the front, which never had as much grip as I thought it should anyway, and replace it with the Ignitor I originally had on it. I also replaced the WTB tube with a Salsa (Kenda), and tossed the extremely heavy Continental tube that was on the rear wheel in the trash, replaced by the WTB one. That and removing the rock ring, which I've only really needed at Michaux, got me down to ~25.6 Lbs. Better.

Early last week I ordered a new WTB Shadow V SLT saddle to replace the heavier Speed V I'd been using, a Chris King stainless steel cog to replace the heavier Surly, and a WTB Nano Raptor 29er racing tire to try out. I put those on during the week, and Thursday after work I went to Gambrill, anxious to see what the recent changes would do to my ride. Brrr! The (hopefully last) big cold front had blown through and it was down to 40 degrees by the time I got on the trail at 6:29 PM; it would be 35 by the time I finished. My fingers were numb after the first 15 minutes (isn't this April?), but it didn't take me that long to figure out the Gunnar was feeling exceptionally fast. I'm sure some of that was the decreased weight, but the Nano Raptor with it's lower weight and very low rolling friction probably accounted for most of it. The bike accelerated much more quickly too, which surprised and delighted me. I was having a whole lot of fun! I had been concerned the Nano wouldn't have enough grip to satisfy me, but I didn't have any problems with it at Gambrill, though conditions were admittedly ideal -- dry and with most of fall's leaves swept away.

I finished the ride with the tough climb back up the blue trail to the lower parking lot. The time was 7:29 PM. One hour! I was frankly surprised. That was certainly the shortest time I'd ever finished a long yellow loop (previous best an hour ten?) and I'm not in nearly the shape I should be in at this point in the year. This weight obsession could turn out to be a very good thing. What to replace next, and do I have the money for it?

2007-04-08T08:52:00.001-04:00

Easter in Texas. I sent that from my phone. Once I download some clearer shots from my camera I'll post them. Crazy.

What's new

2007-04-07T00:28:00.000-04:00

I've been thinking about trying to spend some time actually posting to my blog. So... I upgraded my blog to the new layout system, picked a new template, and then played around with colors and fonts. I think the only thing I ended up changing was the page background color, which strangely wasn't included in the "Fonts & Colors" settings screen; I had to edit the HTML (CSS?) for the template.

If I think of it and have time I'll make a real post. I did set up the mobile blogging feature just for kicks. Might be fun.

Baby needs a new pair of shoes

2006-08-06T21:31:00.000-04:00

I finally stopped by the Chevy Chase store on the way back from the Cranky Monkey #2 race today, and picked up a new pair of Specialized Pro Carbon shoes. My left foot felt funny for a week after the 101 and I thought maybe it was permanently damaged. It's finally feeling better but it was time to spend some money on my poor feet. I spent over an hour deciding between the size 41.5 and 42, but finally went with the 42. The 41.5 was squeezing my toes together, and if I'm going to spend 8 or 10 hours in a pair of shoes I want them to be comfortable.

The race. I wasn't expecting to do well; after all I did race for almost 11 hours last weekend. After an abysmal start where I gave up a lot of time on the leaders, I clawed my way up to 5th by the end, passing Rickyd on the last lap and barely holding him off at the line. He pushed me all the way around that last lap, and it was the fastest lap by far for both of us. Competition is a good thing. I started off feeling pretty slugish, but managed to warm up and feel a bit better for the last few laps. Usually I like climbing the hills, but I didn't have much for them today -- luckily there wasn't much in the way of elevation gain. I was really quite surprised to find out I'd finished in 5th. Actually what surprised me more was catching up to Ricky, for I didn't think I'd see the front of the pack unless they came around and lapped me. I'm quite happy with 5th place today.

Long Time No Post

2006-06-27T21:29:00.000-04:00

A lot has happened since the last time I posted here. I've been doing other things with my time I suppose. Reading novels mostly, an old habit renewed, to the detriment of this blog among other things. It's too bad, as there were exciting and wonderful things to report. To recap:

12 Hours of Lodi
A big ride - SkyMass
Virigina Mountain Bike Festival
24 Hours of Big Bear
A lot of being lazy

12 Hours of Lodi - May 6th & 7th
This was a fantastic race! The course was drier this year than last, though it wasn't bad last year. I just love this course! Twisty tight singletrack heaven! I brought both the geared and the singlespeed bike with me, not yet having the confidence that I would remain fast on the singlespeed throughout the race. My sport class teammates: Mike Scardaville and Matt Donahue, two fast guys and good companions. Matt got us going with the Le Mans style start, Mike pulled the middle leg, and I claimed old age and went last. It was clear pretty early that we were outclassing the rest of the sport class, which really surprised us. Sure, we were each near the top of the sport class in our age groups, but never thought we would dominate the class so thoroughly. Neither Matt nor Mike had ever raced expert, and I had just started in that class myself late last year. At any rate, with good luck and fast laps we prevailed and took 1st in men's sport, some 15 minutes ahead of the other City Bikes team with Mike Klasmeier, and an astounding hour ahead of 3rd place. I was able to put in four really fast laps on the singlespeed, my fastest being I think 51 or 52 minutes, and that was a real confidence boost. I knew then that I could definitely ride as fast on the singlespeed as on the geared bike in that terrrain. But how would I handle the rougher terrain of Big Bear? Or the endless, and endlessly repeating, climbs of the Wilderness 101 or the Shenandoah Mountain 100? Hmm.... that I don't yet know, but I suspect there will be a lot of suffering and a great deal of mental toughness required.

SkyMass - May 20th & 21st
Mike, Tris, and I went camping in the GWNF, at Camp Roosevelt, one weekend in May with a big SkyMass ride planned for Mike and I. It turned out to be a great ride for me. I felt awesome the entire 6 1/2 hours and 94 miles. I charged up every mountain and had a fast cruising speed on the flats. I could hardly believe how strong I felt. Was it the caffeine in the Espresso flavor Hammer Gel? For those not familiar with SkyMass, it is basically a route usually started in Front Royal, Va. that goes up Skyline Drive to mile marker 34, down Highway 211 to Luray, Va., then up over Massanutten to Fort Valley road basically back to Front Royal. In spite of finishing the ride strongly Saturday, Sunday I didn't have much energy for the mountain bike ride we went on. I was able to take the singlespeed up the big road climb and enjoyed the downhill, but we all agreed to finish the day lazing around in camp.

Virginia Mountain Bike Festival - May 27th - 29th
All of the old gang together once again, and it felt good. John and Jen, Vin, Mike and Tris, and myself (the newest of that group), spending time together around the camp fire, on the trail, and all the times in between. I really do enjoy their company. Many others from MORE were also there and I always enjoy spending time with fellow MORE members JoeP, Joe Foley, and Matt D.

Well, the timer has rung and it's time to get the laundry out of the dryer, and then go to sleep. I'll have to finish this up later...

Greenbrier

2006-05-12T01:24:00.001-04:00

4/30/2006
So, the race at Greenbrier last weekend, it didn't go quite as planned. It was a beautiful day and I arrived fairly early, making sure I'd have time to chat with friends and watch Mike and Tris start the Sport category races. I was feeling good as I warmed up later, preparing for the 2 PM start for Pros, Semis, Experts, Clydes and us singlespeeders. That is the latest I've ever started a race, and I was a little concerned because I would be needing my caffeine lift about that time and breakfast would have worn off hours earlier. In an attempt to alleviate those disadvantages to the late start I had stopped at Dunkin' Donuts on the way to the race and purchased a small coffee, and brought some of my homemade energy bars.

I felt a little unusual lining up with all of the other singlespeeders; somewhat out of place, like a neophyte sneaking into a meeting of the cognoscenti. But the ones I know seem to universally be an easygoing friendly breed, and I was put at ease as I chatted with RickyD, JoeP, Camp and others.

My strategy for the race was simple -- don't slow the experienced SS'rs down at the start, don't blow up in the first mile, take it easy and feel my way around. With the terrain, I wasn't sure how I would hold up. I survived 25 miles and 3 1/2 hours at Michaux Maximus with much worse terrain and conditions the week before, and I figured I would survive the 17 sun drenched miles at Greenbrier -- but I did want to put in a decent showing with my new classmates. When the man shouted, "Go!" I was off at a pretty good clip. I settled back going into the doubletrack for the first climb, and let a few people pass. My carefree attitude lasted about to the technical rocky section, where my competitiveness kicked in. Or maybe it was my impatience at people moving gingerly through the rock garden. In terrain like that speed is your friend. The momentum you have will get you over the rough stuff and keep you from falling over. It's simple physics: rolling bicycles are stable; stopped bicycles fall over. At any rate I passed 4 or 5 people stopped or dawdling through that rocky section trying to pick a line or something. "Come on guys, just blast it!" I was thinking. About half way through the first lap, or maybe not quite half way, I passed RickyD, which I wasn't expecting. He wasn't having a good day at all -- some days are just like that -- maybe he's under some Greenbrier curse; his unfortunate hand injury last year, slow legs this year. About 3/4 of the way through the first lap I came up on JoeP. That didn't seem right either, I shouldn't have caught either of those two... maybe everyone was having a bad day.

I suffered through the rest of that first lap and as I started up the really steep hill on the second lap and got off to walk I saw... was that Camp? Naw, couldn't be. I caught up about 2/3 of the way through the second lap and was trying my darnedest stay on his wheel. Going through the downhill section that leads to the lake, being the really nice guy he is he pulled to the left to let me have the right lane to pass. Having that nice suspension fork I think I was having a much easier time of it than Camp on his rigid -- that section is quite bumpy. 20 seconds later I wished he hadn't given me room to pass, because as I turned onto the lakeside trail I knew by the squirminess that I had flatted the rear tire. Dammit! I haven't run tubes in 4 years, and it would seem learning what tire pressures are safe to run under differing terrain is part of becoming a more experienced rider. Obviously 30 PSI was less than what is required on rocky, rooty trails. Eight minutes or so passed while I was changing the tube -- trying to put that Continental 28" heavy (oh so heavy!) tube on a rim made for 29" was a new challenge I hadn't prepared for, but I eventually got things put back together and was on my way. Surprisingly I still wasn't the last singlespeeder, as I soon caught up to and passed a couple. But a flat tire wasn't the only trouble I was to have that day.

Going up the first climb of the third and final lap, my chain fell off. "What the hell?" I thought. "I'm on a singlespeed, that's not supposed to happen!" I popped the chain back on and finished the climb, and things seemed to be okay again -- until I came to the really steep section. I started mashing hard on the pedals to get up that first rideable part, and suddenly there was no resistance. "Damn chain." And then I looked down. And noticed that my new chainring was in a decidedly un-chainring like shape. In fact it was about as bent as it could get. Two chainring bolts had fallen out or come loose and sheered off, and my race was finished. So, I took the chain apart at the powerlink and took some shortcuts back to the start/finish. I won't say where I think I might have placed, because it really doesn't matter. I DNF'd, my first ever. I was disappointed at what might have been, but not very upset. I had proved to myself that I could keep up with many of the other singlespeeders and that mattered more to me right then than being able to finish the race. And it turned out that I would have a very nice race at Lodi the following weekend...

New World Record!

2006-04-26T22:32:00.000-04:00

Well, in a sense. In my world of one I just set a new record average speed for my after work training/time trial course. The course is the 32 miles from where I live in Sykesville to Westminster and back. I use average speed because I don't always take the same route, though the mileage is pretty close to the same. Sometimes I can't get across 32 to get onto Johnsville and end up going up to 26 on 32. The basic route is north on 32, west on 26, north on 97 to Westminster and back.

Oh, my average speed today was about 20.5 mph, 0.5 mph faster than a week after the SM100 last year, which was the first time I had broken (barely) a 20 mph average. Sweet! I'm faster at the beginning of this year than I was at my peak last year. I hope I can keep up the intensity during the year.

Something I wondered again today on the ride, as I often do. Many people I talk to say their training rides seem interminably boring, and they often take music along to help pass the time. For some reason I've never had this feeling of my road rides seeming to drag on so slowly. Almost it seems when I've finished an hour and 34 minute ride as today's ride was, that no time has passed at all. It's not that I blank it out, because I can remember events along the entire route today. Perhaps my perception of the passing of time is just different than many other people's. For instance, here it is 10:54 PM and it seems like only a very short while ago I had just finished my ride and it was 8:30 PM. Mayhaps that is one of the reasons I always end up staying up too late.

Official Results

2006-04-25T21:57:00.000-04:00

Cranky Monkey #2, Dirt Crit

Race	Date	Place	time
Michaux Maximus	4/23/2006	9th place out of 13	3:38:25
Greenbrier	4/30/2006	DNF (bent chainring)
12 Hours of Lodi Farms	5/6/2006 - 5/7/2006	1st place in the team sport class!	13 laps, 12:34
24 Hours of Big Bear	6/10/2006 - 6/11/2006	3rd place in men's expert!
Curse of Dark Hollow	7/25/2006	8th place out of 13	3:17:20
Wilderness 101	7/29/2006	20th out of 43, singlespeed	10 hours 44 minutes
8/6/2006	5th out of x	0:5x:xx

Survival in... Pennsylvania!

2006-04-24T21:53:00.000-04:00

An amazing story of travel in the wilds of Pennsylvania! A story of amazement and fear, pain and suffering, and ultimate survival. Travel along and read firsthand the horrors our brave adventurers endured...

In the two days before the start of the race it rained. Then it decided to rain some more. When did it stop? Oh, sometime in small hours of Sunday morning. I had been somewhat apprehensive about the race for the last two weeks, having ridden it three weeks earlier just to scout it out. The new singlespeed wasn't finished then and I was riding my faithful steed of the last 5 years, the Trek Fuel, really a wonderful full suspension bike. On that it didn't seem too hard... it was a nice day, dry trail, lots of gnarly technical stuff that put a big smile on my face, and I didn't get out of the middle ring for the 4 hours we were out. And yet... we were just loligagging. In a race situation I knew it was going to be a very tough course even without being wet and slippery, with very little opportunity for resting. As it happens I wasn't mistaken.

I got up early and hit the road at 7:05 AM. It was a pleasant drive with little traffic and I was feeling quite calm, much more calm than I usually am on race morning. I must have made a decision some time in the night about which category to race. Last year I made the jump to expert in the last race that actually had separate categories, and at the time I expected I would be racing expert from that point forward. The tough course which I was certain all along was going to be wet come race day (has it ever not rained before or during the Michaux Maximus?) had me nervously thinking that, maybe it would be okay to race sport one last time -- after all, I had never raced singlespeed before and that's what I was bringing with me. Frankly I was wondering if I would even be able to complete the expert course (about 25 miles) on a singlespeed, but by Sunday morning I found myself in more of a "what the hell" mindset.

I made it to the parking lot at 8:30 AM and pulled up behind Mike and Tris, my good friends and constant companions in racing all of last year, and I hope all of this one and many more. First things first, hit the porta-johns and the registration table. I made a good show of not knowing what category I was going to race, but in the end I circled "Expert" and "Veteran". Back at the car I went through the motions of getting ready. Lube chain, chat with Mike and Tris, put the water bladder in the Camelbak... uh... oh. Crap! It took me just a second to realize the water bladder, and my two bottles of Hammer Gel, were still sitting in the fridge! Not good. And the new water bottle cage I had purchased just the evening before was sitting on the livingroom floor. Hmmmph. There was no way I would get through even half the race without water and food. Luckily Tris had an extra 24 oz. water bottle, and an empty 20 oz. Dasani water container, and even an extra packet of PowerGel she was willing to part with, and Mike had an extra Clif Builder Bar he let me have. Having good friends race with you is a good thing; not only are they great company, but they can help you out in a jamb. Thanks guys! It wasn't the best situation -- having to stop and pull a water bottle out of my jersey pocket every time I needed a drink and fishing behind my back for food that was never where I thought it should be -- but it got me through the race.

The race itself... was fully as tough as I had expected. (Read Mike's story of it.) The start was a little odd for me. I made sure to start at the back of the Veteran class, not wanting to hold anyone up in my first race on a singlespeed and knowing I was going to be slower. But when the starter said, "Go!" and we went up that first 1/2 mile or so of road it seemed like everyone was moving in slow motion. It was a race, wasn't it? Maybe it was just all that time on the road bike, but after half the climb I stopped holding back and just let my legs dictate my pace and passed a good number of the Veteran class. I passed probably 3 or 4 more in the first section of trail (Shake and Bake), which is just one long, long rock garden, and did quite well for the first hour and a half while my legs were fresh.

Let's talk about rocks for a bit. You have your Gambrill type rocks, which are often described as catheads. They can be kind of annoying sometimes, but aren't really too bad, being often times rounded, or flat. They're not too big and have a kind of bulk to them that makes them not that difficult to navigate. Watershed rocks can be a little more exciting, and there are some really good technical rock gardens out there that are a lot of fun, but they're really just bigger versions of Gambrill rocks. Michaux type rocks are quite different. While you're riding them, and especially so if they're wet, you would swear that every single one of them is a flat blade of rock sticking up at a 45 degree angle from the ground and placed to cause the most difficulty in getting through them. And there's nothing small about them. They make for one really tough, punishing race... or a really fun ride. It depends on your point of view. Sometimes they coincide, as they did for me a few times Sunday. There is one ridge in particular that came just before where the expert and sport courses split that made me want to shout in joy, even wet as they were. In the last hour of the race however I would have been overjoyed not to see another rock for a good long time.

The race course was really in quite good shape considering the amount of precipitation -- all of the rain before the race, and a good 40 minutes of it an hour into the race. I can't recall any boggy mud, just some deep water puddles in those sections of trail the ATV's regularly tear up. The rocks weren't covered in slippery mud, though they were plenty slippery enough to make it more interesting than normal. There weren't any big climbs, just big climbs for a virgin singlespeeder. The one big doubletrack climb (Dead Woman's Hollow I think, maybe a mile plus, certainly not more than two) killed me on the singlespeed, but I wouldn't have thought that much of it had I been on the geared bike -- it would have been an easy spin right up to the top. A great one loop short course, it's not terrain I'd ever want to do an entire 100 miler on. I was pummeled enough in 25 miles.

It was that climb up Dead Woman's Hollow that made me start wishing the finish line was near. My legs, unused to the singlespeed way, were beginning to cramp and every turn of the pedals seemed to take all of my strength, all of my will, and all of my determination to continue. Unfortunately the race was to go on for another hour and a half! I ended up walking up most of the last half of that long climb, and quite a bit of the climbs that followed. Hammer Endurolytes (great stuff!) managed to keep the cramps at bay. I took one pill before the race and I think three during.

Nothing of any real significance happened during the race. The bike worked without a hitch, which you would expect from a hardtail singlespeed (ain't it great?!), even after I ended up going through the middle of some of those deep water holes that must have had the guys on geared bikes cringing. Mike's travails are evidence of what can happen in bad conditions on a geared bike. A minor thing, I had to start using two fingers on the right brake lever, as it started coming in too close to the bar and was hitting my middle finger; but I knew the rear brake needed to be bled again. There were many times when something significant definitely could have gone wrong, had I braked at the wrong time, had less confidence in my ability to downhill some of those sections with large rocks and panicked, or had tires that didn't work as well. I really think it's that confidence to barrel through the tricky sections and let the bike work, to stay loose and focused and not falsely think going slowly will save my bacon (it will do just the opposite) that has so far kept me from having a nasty fall in the rough stuff. Looking ahead and knowing what is coming up is probably also key.

So, the last hour and a half was one long suffer-fest. Determination is what kept me going more than anything, my legs having been spent long before the finish. I somehow managed to pass a few people on the last fire road climb, not really realizing just how close I was to the finish. Total time: 3 hours, 38 minutes, 25 seconds. Somewhere about 9th place (unofficial until tomorrow) out of maybe 13 that finished in the expert veteran (ages 35-44) class. Seems like there were more than that that started, but I'm not sure. As I gain my singlespeed legs I hope to do better in the future -- the unofficial first place expert racer (senior age group) finished almost an entire hour ahead of me. For some reason I'm not discouraged by that. :) It's quite amazing though.

Time for bed. I'll have to edit this post tomorrow. I can't wait for the next race! :-D

Adventure Around Antietam

2006-04-16T23:13:00.000-04:00

Ride number 8 in Scott and Jim's Favorite Bike Rides is Around Antietam. As of today I pronounce it Adventure Around Antietam, after the misadventure my ride became. What didn't go wrong today? Well, I remembered my biking shoes, and.... well I can't think of anything else. Forget map and cue sheet? Check. Pull valve stem out of tube after pumping it up before the ride? Check. Have batteries die in GPS with route after mile 28? Check. A route, by the way, with 44 turns on the cue sheet. Get lost out in the middle of nowhere at 5pm? Of course, what were you thinking? Menaced by a dog for 10 minutes? Yup. Have GPS come out of it's mount going downhill at 25 or 30 mph and go tumbling smash! crash! scratch! down the road? Uh, yeah, that happened too. It wasn't all bad. I did manage to eventually find Sharpsburg and a little gas station there with batteries and king-sized Snickers bars (the best decision I made all day!). The little Garmin GPS, battered and gouged as it was, came right back on with some juice and I was able to continue my route. The gas station dude even had a large rubber band I used to keep the tab down that is supposed to keep the GPS from coming off it's mount. I cut a little bit from the route, but even so what was supposed to be a 63 mile ride was about 69 miles. Coming over South Mountain the second time on Alt-40 hurt, and the last 5 miles I was lucky to pull out 17 mph on the flats. Well, if there had been any flat sections on this ride. Which there weren't.

Four hours after the ride's completion and I'm still smiling. There's nothing like a little adventure to make you feel like you've lived the day!

Maiden Voyage

2006-04-15T01:12:00.000-04:00

Friday afternoon I braved the roaming showers and drove to Gambrill to take the Gunnar on it's first ride. Gambrill because I know its route well and because it would certainly show the bike's character in technical rocky conditions -- which is descriptive of most of next weekend's race course. Surprisingly Gambrill was bone dry, as if it hadn't rained there in a week.

I really like the way the bike handles, and will probably like it more as I spend some time on it. I was a little afraid that because of the longer chainstays necessitated by the 29" wheels that I would have some trouble lofting the front wheel, a technique I've come to use a lot in technical terrain, but so far I've not noticed that it's much harder than the Fuel was. I need more time to know for sure. The Gunnar is so much easier to bunny hop than the Fuel -- the solid (and substantially lighter) back end comes up with an alacrity that was missing with the full suspension.

All in all the bike had a feeling of solidness, and preciseness, that was very refreshing and which made the Fuel, considered a pretty stiff short travel race bike, seem like a wet noodle in comparison.

The other thing I (again) realized during the ride is that riding singlespeed in that kind of terrain is very hard work, that my left leg is weak compared to my right, and that I'm going to need stronger forearms -- Popeye's would be about right.

Ride Around Marshall

2006-04-14T01:29:00.000-04:00

Sunday April 9, 2006

Sunday morning. It came a little early after a night of gazing dreamily at my new beloved, my yellow Gunner singlespeed with the big, beautiful wheels, clean lines and promises of sweet rides to come. The plan was a ride around Marshall, VA., some place I'd never been to. Mike Scardaville and I had been planning a ride in the Frederick, Maryland area with some big climbs, but thought it would be fun to ride with others. Mark Wigfield had sent out an email a couple of days earlier to organize the Marshall ride, but it didn't come together until late Saturday.

10:30 AM we make it to the community parking lot in Marshall. Mark is on his sweet new Trek 5000 all carbon frame. Damn that thing is light! It must be like riding a feather. Susan Driano was going on the ride as well on her yellow LeMond, and of course Mike was there on his cross bike. I wasn't sure what to expect out of the ride, but it was in a picturesque area. It was a weird temperature. Standing around we were hot, but when we got out on the road with some wind it was quite chilly. The first half of the ride was kind of flat, with a bit of up and down. I was feeling really good that day, and it showed in the second half of the ride when we encountered the two small mountain climbs. I just felt really good going up them. Well, not good exactly, because I was suffering; I guess strong would be a better word. And for someone who "wasn't in shape", Mark was damned strong and climbing like a demon. Man he made me work going up those two mountains!

The final mileage was 54.9 according to the GPS and I felt every mile. I was really surprised at how tired I felt. It took enough out of me that Monday was a long drawn out day of staring out the window and drinking cup after cup of weak and thoroughly sub-standard office coffee in an attempt to gain some kind of focus.

Chalk up one more really good training ride for the year. I feel like Mike and I are far ahead of where we were last year at this time in terms of fitness. It could be a very good year for racing...

Bike Pictures

2006-04-13T22:19:00.000-04:00

Here's the new bike.

100% Done!

2006-04-12T23:30:00.000-04:00

The new bike is now 100% done! If I wasn't so tired I'd take a picture and post it. Tomorrow maybe. Bleeding the front brake was a pain and required a lot of patience -- two hours worth to be exact. I thought I was done twice, but it wasn't until the third round of pumping up my forearms squeezing the bottle of brake fluid into the caliper that I finally got it right. But man is it sweet! I can't wait for the pads to bed in.

I rode it for the first time tonight, and I'm an extremely happy person right now. Or I would be if my brain wasn't flooding my bloodstream with sleep signals. I have my fingers crossed that the weather will hold out this long weekend so I can get some trail time on it, but the 10 minutes I was able to ride it tonight were enough for me to realize the Gunnar is going to be immeasurably more precise than the Trek Fuel I had been riding, and so much easier to handle while riding slow or stopped. Moves I didn't think I'd ever get down have suddenly entered the realm of the possible. I hope I remain as happy with it after I've put some time in on technical terrain.

I'm still a bit hesitant to commit to riding singlespeed at the Michaux race in a week and a half, as tough as that race is going to be, but I may enjoy the Gunnar so much I won't want to ride the Fuel any more!

New Bike is Complete!

2006-04-08T23:40:00.000-04:00

The new bike is finished! All that it needs now is to have the brake lines cut down and to bleed them. Other than that, 100% done! I'll post a picture later. Right now it's time to get some sleep and be ready for the road ride with Mike Scardaville, Mark Wigfield and company down in Marshall, Va. Something like 60 miles is planned.

A little Sunday Ride

2005-10-02T20:15:00.000-04:00

Sunday I supposed was the day to make up for being lazy all week and not riding, so I trudged on out to Schaffer, where I had a very good time on my about 2 1/2 hour ride. I met someone I knew not long after getting on the trail; Mark, who was on his cross bike, a Surly Crosscheck I think? We decided to ride together, but I was fresh and he had a killer big ride yesterday on a fixie and wasn't quite able to keep up. After he popped a tube (and cut the tire) following me off a jump -- I guess you can't do that on skinny tires -- we parted ways. Funny thing is I slowed way down soon after we split. Must have used up the initial burst of energy and then had to rely on different stores, which I haven't been working on since the 100 really. So I was slow for a while. I picked it up again after about an hour when the body started to work like the well-honed engine I spent so much time developing this year. As I was heading back out to the trail for the third time, after my second trip to the car to pump up the leaking rear tire, I met Mark again, this time on his Kona rigid singlespeed. He was heading back to the car and home, but finding someone to ride with convinced him to go out for one more round. He let me lead, since I knew the trails better, and I took us pretty much straight out to the long yellow loop around the field, taking just one of the off-shoots to the left to make it a little longer. After crossing the four-way intersection on the way out where the yellow loop intersects with itself my legs were pretty much spent. I was having a lot of trouble getting up the hills with any speed, and the way back to the car was often unpleasant and Mark certainly wasn't having any problems keeping up with me; I'm sure I was slowing him down. But there was still a lot of fun to be had for sure. I don't think I've ever been so tired that I didn't enjoy going downhill or carving up some fast twisty section. I wimped out in the last mile and took all of the chicken-outs where they existed; I was just too tired to be bunny hopping anything unnecessarily. I can't wait to build up a dedicated hardtail singlespeed, something that will be a lot more efficient than my full suspension rig, as I found out previously on JoeP's Monkey.

I got to practice my superman impression right after getting on the trail the second time with Mark. A very wide stack which I didn't slow down for -- brought the front wheel up, fine. Coming off the back side, here's what I think happened. I pushed off to bring the rear up too late and it coincided with the rear tire hitting the first log of the stack. So the rear end came up with about double the energy I had intended and I landed nose first with my feet still coming around and over my head. As soon as I realized what was about to befall me I let go of the handle bars and braced for the impact with the ground. Which was quite jarring, and which I came away from with surprising little damage. A raspberry on my left knee on the outside, a little bit of pain in my wrists from breaking my fall with my hands, a bad habit I've been unable to break. Nothing serious, except the injury to my knee was exactly in the spot I've been having trouble with on longer rides, and getting back on the bike and riding I realized there was some internal pain there. I still think it's something to do with my Ilial Tibial Band, or maybe my Lateral Collateral Ligament -- or is it the Medial Collateral Ligament? And I still think it'll clear up eventually as my body adjusts. But it wasn't bad and I just put it out of my mind and kept riding and didn't think about it again until I got off the bike back at the car.

Singlespeed School Begins

2005-09-23T21:47:00.000-04:00

Becoming Single

So, I finally decided to do it. I took all the gears off my bike. Not all at once, mind you -- I was a bit apprehensive. I had taken the big ring off months ago after talking to racing buddy Mike Scardaville about his setup and never missed it. Oh, okay, once or a few times during the Wilderness 101 while flying down some fireroad I wished I'd had it, but after upgrading to a 36 tooth middle ring it was the perfect setup.

But all the racing for the year was done after a long season that started in early April, and it was time to play around a bit. During the SM100 the left brake lever jammed open at a few critical moments (why brake if you don't absolutely have to?) on some of the downhills, giving me that "oh shit" feeling in the pit of my stomach while I contemplated how to avoid dying at that particular point in time. Luckily for me each jam was overcome by squeezing the lever with panic-stricken strength. However, that seemed to me like a really good excuse for taking the brake lever/shifter pod off for the front derailleur and brake and using only one chainring -- and I had just the chainring. A Surly 32 tooth stainless steel pinless and rampless. At the time I was thinking this was a setup I would keep for a while, after chasing friend JoeP up the first part of Hanky mountain 85 miles into the SM100 this year and realizing I could climb that in the middle ring even after being in the saddle all day. I liked the simpler look immediately; it was in some hard-to-define way very pleasing. The next day I took the bike to Avalon after work and... after the first downhill thought, "I wonder if I would be able to ride only in one gear." And that's what I did for the next 40 minutes, using the 17 tooth cog. To me, someone who had always been glad to have granny along, it was incredibly hard going up some of the hills that way -- but I did it. I only cheated on the flat road going from the Park & Ride side to the other.

With that positive experience I decided to make the leap and take all the rest of the gears off. In a flash of inspiration I had figured out a week earlier how it would be possible to keep the derailleur in position over one cog and use it to keep chain tension on what would become my full suspension singlespeed. The idea was just to take an old shifter cable and thread it through the part of the derailleur that the cable housing end goes into, with the hunk of metal on the end that would normally be in the shifter to keep the cable from pulling through. It worked perfectly, and with an 18 tooth cog and some aluminum spacers I had purchased some months ago I soon had a singlespeed. I was really surprised how much lighter the rear wheel felt even with that studly Novatec cog. The next day I took my new singlespeed for an hour long ride at Avalon and was immediately enjoying myself. I had a curious feeling of being unburdened, of feeling more free. It's difficult to capture with words, like fishing eggshell out of a cup with a spoon.

Some things were obvious even with that one ride. I would need some time for my body to adjust to the new stresses; my left leg was definitely weaker than the right, something that must have been masked previously by being able to sit and spin uphill; going up steep hills can become physically impossible, where they were possible with lower gearing; I was flowing better through transitions, probably for multiple reasons; I was faster in many situations, and slower in some; It was a new challenge and a lot of fun!

The annual MORE fall camping trip to Douthat was at the end of that week and I thought, "What the hell," and decided to take all one gears with me. I rode it an hour at Avalon, how much harder could the Douthat trails be, right? Actually what I was thinking was more like, "It's going to be a severely punishing and humbling experience." But I am stubborn in my own way, and as I suspect it is with a lot of us mountain bikers, driven to challenge myself. And besides, I figured a lot of people would get a kick out of seeing a cobbled together singlespeeded full suspension bike. I think JoeP did get a chuckle or two out of it; in return he became my first instructor in the school of singlespeed, though I don't know if he was aware of it.

To be continued...