Christmas Eve

Almost time, for those with kids you know the shuffle of running around picking up last minute things. Dennis and me hit harbison this morning hoping to get in a good ride hitting and hit all the trails but I ended up having to cut it short to run and get a few last minute items for my son. We ended up doing lost creek and the outer less spidey or crocked pine, but we dropped what hammer we could muster there on the back stretch to as Dennis would say make sure we leave it all in the woods. Also ran into Jason and family in the front lot and was good to see ya.
You know how it is, doesnt matter what or how much you spend, after you start getting things wrapped sometimes just didnt seem like he would have enough toys to open so had to do a couple little last minute pick ups. Christmas sure is about them kids, nothing like that excitment they have ready to tear into some presents :) . Our little girl is only 20 months but this year she's actually starting to get the hang of this christmas stuff and goes around saying Ho Ho Ho, in the cutest little voice. Cant wait.

Merry Christmas

Carolina Adventure World - New Trailsystem

Eager to check out the new trail system at Carolina Adventure World Tom and I headed out this morning to give it a go. They just opened up the MTB trails this October and heard they were trying to get riders out there to start working the trails in so we had to check it out.
http://www.carolinaadventureworld.net/new.htm
Gotta say this place will rock pretty darn good once they get it packed in a little more and a couple of the inner loops drasticly need blown and cleaned up a bit but definately think it has potential to be pretty awesome. Even though there isnt alot of total mileage its pretty much climb and descent from one section to the next but the elevation changes are enough that you definately have to put forth some effort on some of the climbing. I know its not the mountains but its pretty hilly and kinda gives you an in betwen mix like Lynches Woods/FATS. It has some real good flowing sections and berms that had it been a little dryer and cleaner bet you could really rail. Drainage isnt so well though, not sure the last time Winsboro got rain but the trail was pretty wet in the clay sections and my low knob fast traks were turned to slicks. Trails B & D which run you thru some hardwood sections were rideable but covered really bad and we had a hard time following the trail in several sections, in some it was like riding thru a pile of deep raked leaves but full of twigs. Tom had one catch in his derailer that either that or in addition to that casued shifting problems for him the rest of the day.
A couple of the staff had asked us to give them feedback on the trails so hopefully they will followup on our feedback and go thru and clean/blow off some of the littered sections.
Go check it out and help work this sucker in, always great to have another good riding place in our vicinity. Heck, lets make it a group ride :), Im ready to go back, just dont want to hit it after a rain for sure.

Stats: Forgot the cycle computer, but we must of been poking, spent three hours out there and only did two loops due to the trail conditions and trail unfamiliarity.

Priorities - Husbands of the year

And who says some wives wouldnt be willing to rough it on a MTB camping trip....

This United Kingdom fella only got honorable mention for husband of the year. Ya know, that kinda does look like it could be SID fork, so ..... ya never know.

followed closely by the United States

and then Poland

>

but third place had to go to greece

it was very very close but the runner up prize was awarded to ...

Serbia

but the winner of the husband/partner of the year ... is Ireland

The Irish are true romantics. Look he's even holding her hand

Race to the River

It was a great day today and things panned out way better than I had set expectations. I managed to pull out a 1st place finish in my class (30-39 Sport) and 2nd overall for sport. The second overall was somewhere around 30 seconds difference but I just couldnt real him in.
Heading into the race my plan was to go as light as possible with hopes of placing somewhere in the upper half of riders. I did a little gambling on the gear trying to shave any weight I could and just took my sons smaller cammel back with NO tools or xtra weight whatsoever. I thought this being the last race of the season I would go all out and make it thru problem free or have to settle for last if anything went south.
It was a brisk morning starting out but didnt take long to get into a groove and warmed right up.
From the start down the gravel road to the single track I managed edge into second position entering firebreak. After a couple of turns I couldnt hold back the urge and even though I knew it was early decided to drop my first hammer and take the lead before entering the flowy section. I was determined I wanted to pick my own lines thru there and not fall victim to the follow the leader role. Having nudged up to front so early I just kept thinking I better keep laying it down to put some distance between us before I start to back off. Unbelievably the legs were feeling fine and breathing wasnt to labored so I pushed it all the way thru the connector to the slight uphill climb right before the stewardship downhill. It was there where I backed off and let my breathing and heart rate stabilize. The plan was to regroup and save the next hammer for the downhill and get into harder with no one ahead of me. Having passed a couple of the other class riders along the way to here there was one more about to enter the downhill section and had to drop hammer two here to make an unannounced pass but then I was good. Next up was someone inside of harder I caught up with that didnt want to have to follow all the way thru so had to do another awkward pass. This is cool I was thinking, I'm usually one of the ones riders being passed but having efficiently worked thru a number of riders it kinda worked as a mental boost so just kept laying down what I could. By the end of lap one things were looking good and started thinking I actually have a chance at a podium position if I can keep it going. Trails were nice and fast especially consideirng all the leaves, aside from the usual wet spots and creeks.

Lap two was another good one, passed some more other class riders and was stoked that I wasnt dualing it out and fighting anyone off. Kept thinking I was hearing someone just enough behind me that I was able to keep at bay by dropping the hammers when I could and concentrating on trying to be efficient.

Lap 3 things were to good to be true, still nobody had passed or came to within the uncomfort zone. This was it, now or never, I may not have another chance this close within grasp I thought. Lap 3 I dropped all I had left to keep the pace going the best I could and by that last firebreak hill climb after the creek the legs were on fire but the end was just around the corner.

Never felt so good to finish. Was one of those good riding days, good energy levels and boy how nice it is to know the trails, I think that helped sooo much. Where I usually have a few wrecks today was able ride my own race.

Think my time ended somewhere around 1:23:15 +- .xx
Avg 12.8
Max 25

Modified Race to River Preride

Today was finally able to complete a full preride of the upcoming race to river course. This was my third attempt and both previous times I got flats on either front or rear and wasnt able to complete the full course. Ive had a rough time lately with tubes and before either of the first two attempts with flats I went thru another set when I went to head out one saturday and found my rear tire had been shreading knobs down to the white threads and was forced to get a new tire and went back to a 2.2 on the front and just rotated the 2.0 to the rear. Then after this weekends trip to Tsali I went thru another 2 tubes and was forced to hike a bike for a mile or so to get back to the campsite. That was the final straw so now I'm running the stans juice with rim strips. What a major pain that first tire was to get going until I figured out the best combination needed to build my rim up in the center. After trying combinations of the recomended 3/16ths weatherstrip, felt, two runs of velox the trick that seemed to be the best balance and still be able to seat the bead was just one strip of 10mm velox under the rim strip. This was my first ride since the ordeal but tires held up fine and did seem to have a confident conforming feel to them.
Ran into Jason on lap two up by the Gazeebo and was good to see him again. We were talking and it seems like its been months since we rode together and was good to ride again. I guess riding with Jason again I had to rekindle the bushwacker name and I ended up cliping a small tree that sent me for a spin and down hard on my already sore left knee. Was fine right after the incident but as the miles tacked on it started hurting whenever I put to much pressure on it and for the climbs there at the end I could only work on keeping it spinning and didnt try to hammer anything.
Good ride and good company for awhile anyway, still not sure about the distance of this thing though, I ended up logging 26.65 and the only extra I thought I did was starting the ride from the front lot instead of Gazeebo? The race (sport class) shows its only supposed to be 4 laps of 5 miles each so go figure.

Tsali Trip

Last weekend was an awesome trip up to Tsali trails around lake fontana. Got to enjoy 2 days of riding bliss on some of the sweetest trails I have yet to ride. We left out Saturday morning around 7, drove around 3 hrs to finally setup camp at the Tsali campgrounds right there at the trailhead. Upon ariving the mood was instantly set that this was truly a mountain bikers oasis as the whole campground was full of tents and bikes everywhere with a constant shuffle of riders coming and going from the trailhead. Wanting to get right in on the action we opted to hit the bikes for a loop before unpacking and setting up camp. We headed out and did Thompson loop and Mouse before coming back for some late lunch and setting up camp. The scenery around this place was absolutely breathtaking and I only wish I could portray how nice it was. I kept thinking now this is what its all about and it definately had my blessing for being rated in the top 10 U.S. trails. This being my first "real" mountain ride my adreniline was high riding the along the narrow ridgeline overlooking the cliffs. Sure I have had rides with a section or two putting you on your toes on the edges but this was the best with several sections of the trails keeping constant reminder that any bad judgement call would cost you dearly.
After getting camp setup went back out for one more shorter ride thru the Mouse Scenic route just to take in some of the scenery one more time then it was back to hit the showers and head out to the get some real food at the Nantahala Recreation Center.
Next morning we werent in any real rush to get moving since it we were waking up to what was supposed to have been somewhere around 33 degrees and we wanted to let that sun come out a little. Day two of riding we got to hit the Left and Right loop which surprisingly up'd the ante from what we rode the day before. Left and Right loop were the icing on the cake in the form of both the trails and surrounding scenery. The trail conditions were good other than a bunch of whoopty do's with low spot mud holes but they were short enough that it actually added to the experience. One thing we learned after day one first loop was that our white lightning chain lube didnt hold up worth anything out here and we had to swap to a wetter condition lubes.
Day two I had one endo crash going thru a creek crossing where it was around a corner and when I made the turn there were a couple of guys waiting for me to clear before proceeding but they were standing on the side I would of normally picked for the line and when I went right I had to crest over a big root which upon clearing found there was a crater on the other side which stopped my front wheel in its track and over I went. Was kinda funny, one of they guys standing there actually caught my bike as it was being flipped right at him so that atleast kept it from landing on top of me :).
Cant wait to do something like this again!

Casualties:
2 tubes
bottle of chain lube
bruised knee (from endo crash)
broke off my big toe tonail

Wednesdays Spills

Headed out to Harbison yesterday afternoon with the intention of getting some hammer out and having a good steady ride but had a couple new spills that broke up the momementum. Was rolling around just fine thru the outer sections but once again spider woman put it on me. First was thru the rock garden where I kept fumbling around with multiple stop/restarts. I seem to still not have the nack for getting recliped fast enough on the eggbeaters and end up missing my oportunities to make the most out of the stop/restarts that seem to be my norm lately thru that section. This go round I was to frustrated and just did the walking shortcut and bypassed a few sections after the third stop/restart. After leaving the rock garden and making thru the riverside section, up and down thru the creek/low section and was heading up that last sharp right climb to the back side of spidy I somehow managed to hit that corner climb at a bad angle and just hit the dirt. It wasnt like I didnt see the fall coming and thought I was gonna be able to get loose from the bike but my left shoe wouldnt unclip so down I went. To add insult to injury as I lay on my side my left shoe still didnt unclip. It must of been a site I was laying there for awhile twitching the left leg/foot around like some sort of spasms trying to release and nothing. I had to take my freakin shoe off to get out of this one, pathetic. Dont know if it was the downhill angle I was laying with my foot and bike still up the hill or the newness of the cleats/pedals but i never had to do that one before and hope not to repeat. Glad I was by myself, ya'll would of been doggin me to get with the program and come on already :)
From there thought I was in the clear and stayed on the outerloop sections till I hit that new kiddie single track trail. Was going around the first section and there has been a downed pine for awhile and the thing is half rotted but I managed to hit that baby wrong and racked the family jewles something fierce. So after pacing around grunting for a couple minutes I had enough and the thought of riding around on the seat over the roots and such was not gonna happen. For another first I left the trail and cut thru the woods to hit the gravel road and head back, didnt even want to ride the trail out.

Guess I was due, it's been awhile since I had back to back bad spills just hate that I had to cut things short with my tail between my legs and head back to the lot. With the odds that these types of rides are getting fewer inbetween I'm confident I'm ready to climb back on the horse and reset the clock next ride.
On a good note I did run into Toby S out there on the long dirt road climb back by Stewardship then back at the lot. Hadnt seen him out there in forever and was good to see a familiar face.

Stats:
Distance: 22.55
Time: 1:54
Avg: 11.7

Stretching

Never heard this perspective before ...
"
Stretching Pros and Cons

Researchers at the University of Sydney in Australia reviewed the world's literature and concluded that stretching does not prevent muscle soreness that follows vigorous exercise (1).
Athletes train by taking a hard workout, feeling sore the next day, and then taking easy workouts for as many days as it takes for the soreness to go away. Since stretching does not reduce muscle soreness, it does not help you to recover faster from hard exercise. The best way to recover from exhausting competition is to move with little pressure on muscles, such as cycling on a stationary bicycle (2).
Stretching does not prevent injuries (3). Muscles and tendons tear when the force applied to them is greater than their inherent strength. Anything that makes a muscle stronger helps to prevent injuries, but stretching does not make muscles stronger or faster.
Even though most high school and college coaches have their athletes stretch before games or races (4), you should not stretch before competition because it decreases muscle strength (5) and impairs your ability to run fast (6).
However, stretching can make you a better athlete.
Muscles attach to bones by long fibrous bands called tendons.
Stretching lengthens tendons, and the longer the tendon, the greater the force a muscle can exert on a joint (7). So stretching a tendon to make it longer allows an athlete to exert more force around a joint to help him jump higher, run faster, lift heavier or throw further (8).
(References: 1-Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2007, Issue 4; 2-American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, June 2007; 3-Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine, March 2005; 4-Clinical Journal of Sports medicine, May 2006; 5-Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies. April 2006; 6-Sports Science, May 2005; 7-Journal of Sports Science, February 2006; 8-The American Journal of Sports Medicine, February 2006.)
"

Tsali - MTB Camping Trip

Anyone interested in a weekend of "Smoky Mountain Zen"? Some of the Cycle Center guys are planning a trip to Tsali Oct 25-26. Check out the writeup, it got 7th of the top 10 US trails (West & East Coast) to ride and looks like we would be in for some great rollin sweetness. I talked to Eric and so far it looks like its just the regulars that would ride out at Harbison (Eric, Harry and Erin).
Ive been wanting to do something like this ever since the mtb fever took hold and already cleared it with my better half, bought a tent and I'm ready to go :).

Something like this could be just the thing to add that sense of adventure back into our otherwise familiar routines.

http://cyclecenter.com/merchant/194/files/cyclecentercamping.pdf

http://www.bikemag.com/features/onlineexclusive/021306_best/

Dont let the cost of gas or supplies be an exuse and would be more than willing to carpool/share as needed.

Saturday Steam Ride

After raining all day Friday Tom and Dennis thought of mixing it up and heading down to Manchester for an early morning Saturday ride. Had been anxious to go there since hearing about it months ago and was eager to go. Got to the trailhead around 7:30 and headed out for campbell Pond. Even though they indicated how much better Manchester drains after the rains I was still surprised at what good condition the trails were and think we only saw an inch of standing water in one spot all morning. Guess I spoke to soon when I mentioned the fall weather was finally here cuz it was a thick one out there today. When we got to the end of Campbells pond Tom made joke about the steam radiating off him. I'm not talking the squint your eyes and look real close either. It wasnt so striking as you would get with setting dry ice out in water but darn if it wasnt obvious everytime we stopped.
The dirt/sand was fine but the roots and logs were definatley on the slick side. Unlike the predictable slide I'd come acustomed to with my tires on the dry roots when they hit these babies it was instantanious slippage if you hit them off camber. Forgot how nice it is to ride unfamiliar trails and whether it was my riding unefficiency on unfamiliar trails or having to stay alert thru the tight tree lines I was having to work and feeling it.
Dennis brought the heat today and on our second lap thru Killer three he kept a fast pace making sure he left everything in the woods this ride. I may have drew into closing range a couple times but didnt think twice on making any moves as I knew I wouldnt of been able to maintain his pace today. Should of known he came to ride after on our first trail he showed he could take a good hit and ready for more when he went to clear a down tree and his front sprocket hooked in and caused him to do an endo face first into the ground :)
Looking forward to the next time we can get out there, thats some nice flowy trails with enough technical to keep you on your toes for sure.

Wednesday Fall Ride

Yes :), fall temps have arived. Left work early to try and make the most of a mid week ride before darkness set in and was able to get a nice 23 mile ride in without being soaked. After the sun started going down actually experienced a chill of the cooler air rushing over my arms. And like Tom noticed the other week I too saw a couple leaves falling this trip.
Hit the trailhead around 4:40 and ran into Mark (Roadie from Blythewood) who had his geared 29'r in leu of his single speed so we set off for a nice brisk duo ride. Was running good all the way to the rock garden but ended up with another discraceful hike a bike thru the technical once again. This rock garden seems to be getting more difficult for me and lately I have been mangling it more than making it. I could of swore I used to be about 50/50 thru there, anymore it seems I can only pull it off 1 out of every 5 or more attempts. This is agrevating and I'm really clueless on how Im fumbling this so much. After spider woman (no inner) we road the outerloop back thru crooked pine and then did the Midlands again once then Mark had to bail and I just road a full firebreak one more time.

Tom - got your other reply and Saturday sounds good to me. I should be able to make whatever time ya'll want to start since Saturday mornings are my typical ride morning.

Stats:
Distance: 23.19
Time : 2:00
Avg : 11.5
Max : 23.5

Saturday - Get some hammer out

Was a good ride today, seeing Monty' hammer slinging reply posting set the mood going in and I got pumped to let some hammer out too. Might of started out a little harder than I should of but with the cool air and the company I havent ridden with in awhile(Tom, Monty and Dennis) was feelin good. Taboot, the fellas let me start the ride in front this time so with all this going on I just couldnt hold back the urge to let some hammer out. Was trying to hold a brisk pace and was feeling good with the effort but didnt take long when my darn pocket water bottle popped out and was playing catch up again. Luckily for me the pack held up at the crossing over to lost creek and I was given another oportunity to hang with the pack. The duration to this point was still to short and the stop I had to make to retreive the bottle had me feeling like more hammer must sling. So after a quick regroup we headed out the connecter over to stewardship where we could let some more hammer loose thru stewardship over to the gravel road. Was rollin good all the way to harder section when the darn bottle came out again. This was when I cussed the darn thing and swore to myself I wont try this 24oz size again. I had tried a 20oz bottle the other week and didnt have any problems, dont know if was the extra height sticking out that cause it to come out to easy or what , but psychological or not I'm sticking with 20oz or smaller bottles for the pockets from now on.
It was a darn brisk pace all the way thru the connectors, into spider woman , thru the inner loop before we all did a check point stop right before the rock garden. To this point we were averaging 11.3 which included inner loop. This must of been a turning point though, we ended up taking a very extended break talking about running, races, you name it and by the time we got moving again to hit the rock garden it was pathetic. We must of looked pretty bad, usually you stumble once, maybe twice, but this was bad. I know I had to stop and restart 4 times and not to take it from anyone else it seemed one of us would have to dimount, let someone around, then that person would dismount, and so on... Kinda like some sort of chinese fire drill to make it thru the rock garden. By the time we cleared the rest of spider woman it dropped our average down to 10.8. Boy, its usually the inner loop that kills your average, but nope, this time we got shut down from the rock garden.
From there continued the outerloop thru stewarship, eagle trail , back over to lost creek. Riding to lost creek I got separated from Monty and Dennis and Tom had to bail but after waiting a few minutes outside Lost Creek realized they must of headed out so ended up riding Lost Creek solo and met back at the lot aftwards.
Overall great ride today and was able to drop a couple hammers too.

Stats
Dist: 23.69
Avg Speed: 10.9
Time: 2:11
Max Speed: 24.7

Saturday Morning Ride Anyone?

Anyone up for a Saturday morning ride at Harbison this weekend? I saw there was another running race posted but figured there might be some bike riders out there somewhere looking for some trail time :)

New Shifters

Since I have had my bike I have been plagued with shifting problems under loads both with the front sprockets not wanting to upshift or skipping right past the middle ring on the way back down. If it wasnt the front causing grief it was the rear skipping past one of the center rings only to slam into the next adjacent gear. Well... I finally hope I have seen the last of these problems for awhile anyway when this last trip to the shop they upgraded my Deore grade shifters and derailers to Sram X.9. I am now running XT Cassett, Sram chain, X9 front and rear derailers and shifters. I have only been able to take it out once on Saturday for a test ride but boy what a difference and I never imagined what a difference to the Deor shifters this would make. It now seems very crisp and spot on shifting compared to what I was used to and I love it. The thumb only shifters took a little getting used to and I still find myself releasing off the brake levers out of habit when I went to shift but figure this will pass in time. Between this and my pedals all this also helped nudge my anchor down a tad and I've now broke the sub 30lb weight barrier coming in at 29.97lbs. I know it aint much but I'll take whatever I can get. The last time I had it weighed it was 31.69 with my old pedals and tires.

Thanks for the heads up on the Monday ride Tom but I wasnt able to make it. I definately want to try and hook up and do some sort of group ride though, its been boring as hell for what seems like the last month I've not been running into anyone out there.

Columbia Kids Triathlon

Saturday we took Christopher out to try his first Triathlon and he had a ball. At first he was a little hesitant on doing anything other than the bike portion as he's at a phase that if he thinks he might have a hard time with something he would rather not do it. After we encouraged him and explained how thats what makes you better and he will feel great once he does it he was psyched and ready. We entered him in the age 6-7 short course which consited of the regular 6-7 bike and run but only one lap of swimming. This was one level up from the mighty mights and being the short swim he wasnt eligible for actual placement but we mainly wanted him to have him enjoy the experience.

His swim went better than expected but he doesnt like to put his eyes in the water without a mask so he just exhausted himself paddling above water for the whole length. When he got out and had to run to his bike I was able to run down with him and help him dry off and get his bike gear on. Gotta say I was one proud dad down there, it was a trip standing with him panting and tired but anxious to get going. He took off great on the bike, like dad he rides an anchor and I felt for him but he moved on out just fine. He had to ride two laps around a neighborhood block and when he pulled in you could tell he was tired. I helped him park his bike and then ran with him back to the same line he just road where he had to take off for one lap of running. Again the proud Dad moment, he took off running all the way till he was a tad away from me then slowed to a fast paced walk for a bit and just kept looking back to see if I could still see him then he would pick it up again. When he was all done I asked him about that and he said thats how he made new energy out there to run again :).

The whole thing was great and we all enjoyed it very much and can only hope he wants to do this again.

Sunday Stroll with new Pedals

Headed out to HSF for a morning ride to finally try out my new pedals Tonya got me for my birthday. Having shed the combo platforms/spd's weighing in at 568 grams I was eager to lighten the load and put these babies on. After some normal back and forth between the frogs and egg beaters I ended up getting a set of Eggbeaters SL Stainless which say they weigh in at 260g. Hard to believe I saved over 300 grams just on the pedals but I'll take it however I can.
Last night I mounted the pedals, setup the cleats and was ready to roll this morning. Gotta say I like them alot and where I thought it was going to be too little with just a couple of prongs carrying the load I dont notice any drawback whatsoever and seemed to pedal easier. I did have a couple moments of fiddling around trying to engage but I'm sure thats just the unfamiliarity of switching from those beasts of a pedal that I could slam down anywhere around the 4" circumfrance of the platform and in they would slide. Also had one fall where I couldnt get out in time on spider inner loop climb I just started spinning and lost momentum and down I went in the brush.
Figured I'd be doing the solo ride since my timing lately has been hit or miss on hooking up with any of the usuals but ran into a guy (Mark) I used to see all winter that was on a single speed today so we ended up riding. Sorry Tom, missed your message otherwise I would of called. You may even know this guy from around your neck of the woods as he lives up in Blythewood somewhere off 21. Says he does alot of road riding and dont quote me but could of swore he said he did 22 centries last year, something like he set a goal to do one a month but then really got into it and rode all he could find.
The overall pace today was just a steady roll where we only averaged 10 mph. Weird, as slow of a pace as it was my heart rate was thru the roof today and even the easier climbs I was pushing 184 which is about 14 bpm higher than what I have been running so I wasnt complaining any on the slower pace. Just a good base miles ride, right.

Stats:
Total Miles: 23.47
Avg Speed: 10

Speed Lessons

Been quite the hectic work schedule lately working 60+ hours the last couple weeks and has been taking a toll on family and trail time only to get a ride whenever I could manage. Hit HSF yesterday afternoon to try to add a few miles on and ran into Monty on Spider Woman. Seems like forever since I've seen him out there. After catching up on some conversations and all we headed out for some brisk riding. He warned me he was riding pretty strong and all but I like those rides anyway and said I'd do what I could to not keep him waiting to long at the checkpoints.
Fast paced it was indeed. Been so long since Ive ridden with him almost forgot why his blog is called "gone in 60 seconds", thats about the time I could manage to keep him insight! It was a good speed lesson and even though I didnt ride alot of miles I definately had to push way harder. Sorry Monty, I know you were saying things a couple of times I just couldnt muster the breath to speak let alone conversation. I think I pretty much rode at what would be my race pace and my heart rate was staying up around 170-180 whenever I glanced down. Had it not been for the long shop talk breaks we kept doing at checkpoints I know my avg heart rate would of been alot higher.
Did end up setting a new personal high average speed for this ride of 11.9 . Definately need to do this again!

Stats:
Distance: 19.87
Avg Speed: 11.9 (new personal high)
Avg HR: 155 (although way skewed from all the long checkpoint breaks)
Max Speed: 26.3

Saturday Ride - Close to being chicked by track team

Headed out for an early ride this morning to get back in time to run some errands and although the temp was nice it was pretty thick this morning. The trails were pretty damp too and this was the first ride in awhile that I had to hose the bike down afterward to get all the clay and sand off.
Pressed for time and the damp trails stayed off Lost Creek and the inner loop and did an offshoot of the Race to the River ride but added the long fireroad climb and an xtra crooked pine.
On the long fireroad climb behind stewardship ran into a "PACK" of woman runners, must of been between 20-30 of them , maybe some track team or something. This was the last place I expected to see anyone but sure enough there they were and I had come up on the first pack on one of the climbs. Now, you know you run into a pack of all these woman running up the hill and I gotta pass and try to not bog down into low gear and have them take me on the climb or nothing :) so had to suck it up and let the heart rate spike to keep my momentum and come out on top. Although I was panting like a mother when I cleared them I was able to pull it off ok. Whew, its one thing to be chicked by a girl rider but I dont even know what you would call this had it had turned out different.

My last ride I tore the sidewall on my front tire and had to pick up another but ended up having to get what was available and had to settle for a 2.0" instead of my preferred 2.2". Although I guess it must roll better not sure if I like this or not yet, seemed a little twitchy and played on my subconcious thru spiderwoman and it was a pathetic attempt thru the rock garden. Ya, thats it, it had to be the new tire :). Anyway I'm gonna keep this but think I definately prefer a little wider front profile.

Overall
Distance: 25.73
Time: 2:20
Avg Speed: 10.9
Avg HR: 147

Anniversery

My first year has finally come to an end today and its been quite adventurous along the way getting into this awesome new pastime. I can only hope for the years to come I keep the same enthusiasm and enjoyment that made it a great year.

It was this time 1 year ago my wife and I decided to pick up a couple Schwinn mountain bikes from Target to give what at the time we thought to be mountain bike riding a try. A couple of $200 mountain bikes in hand we gave Saluda Schols a try and was like wow, cool and all that stuff. Then after hearing from a co-worker that Harbison had some good trails took my son out there for a ride to check things out and was blown away thinking alright now this is the deal. Remember heading out on the weekends for long grueling rides just to complete a 4 mile firebreak ride or parking in the back so I could do stewardship not able to do anything longer. The Schwinn took a beating and didn’t last 3 weeks before heading up firebreak climb across the river/road area the rear derailer launched into the spokes and broke the derailer and 2 spokes. It had been 3 weeks and I was hooked and luckily for me Targets return policy of up to 30days let me return the bike for a refund and I was able to persuade Tonya on letting me get a real bike. Sure I know the Trance isnt no high end rig but coming from a Target store wanna be mountain bike I couldn’t of been happier.

Pedaled around for a few months thinking I was doing something, then for Christmas got me some clippless pedals, shoes and other riding gear and thought I was finally bumping things up a notch, but still just a strolling to get 14 or so miles in on a weekend . Didn’t have a cycle computer then so don’t know the real speeds or times but it had to be snails pace. Pretty much continued at this pace and intervals throughout the winter but by the end at least I was able to make it thru spider woman only worrying about crashing on the rocks, still no inner loop though.

By far the biggest eye-opener of the year came when I heard of the Harells Wednesday group ride starting up and decided that would be awesome to try. I had heard it was a brisk ride and intentionally packed plenty of hydration thinking it could be rough and I may need this. That first ride was the dang toughest ride I had ever done by a mile. I remember grasping for air, cramping and literally laughing at my predicament where I couldn’t even drink my dang water because I couldn’t stop breathing so darn hard or afford to stop cranking and returned home with the pack still almost full. It wasn’t a matter of trying to keep up, but rather trying to keep everyone in sound distance so I could find them, it was really pathetic but even with all the suffering endured I loved being forced to push it so hard. I was just blown away in all aspects on how these guys were able to do that.

From that turning point entered into 3 sport class races to get my feet wet and establish some baseline rookie year numbers. My race results aren’t pretty but atleast now I have new goals to work towards improving on and the events have been some of this years greatest experiences.

For next year a few of my goals will be
- Increasing my general riding avg speed from 10.4 to 11
- Ride Lost Creek clockwise in 30 minutes or less
- Be able to clear Spider Woman rock garden the majority of the time
- Improve my race times by 2+ minutes
- Be able to hang to within “sight” distance of the group rides
- Ride 50+ miles in one outing

40.54 Mile Season Finally

Two days short of my first year of riding decided to go out with whatever I could muster and hit Harbison this morning for one last rookie ride. A late night last night listening to live music and a few drinks at the "Dam Bar and Grill" put me a little behind schedule and wasnt able to hit the trail head until 10:30 but was ready to set a new distance personal record or drop trying.
Rode at a steady pace and hit every trail and fireroad I could to keep it going, even tried to head down that section of the bluffs that has the sign saying "Now leaving HSF", only to come to what I thought to be a dead end at the bottom of a ravine. That section isn't bad just wish I knew if there was another way out and after gazing around a bit had to head back out the same way I came in. Wasnt in any rush and hit a couple sections I hadnt been just to see where they led and the first part of the ride was able to add a little exploration to the mix.
When I was at 30 miles decided to do spider woman again and thats when I realized I the miles were starting to take a toll on me, hit it the more familiar clockwise direction and very quickly found my lines drifting all over and reaction time sloppy. By the time I got to the rock garden it put it on me good and although no crashes I was bouncing all over and at that hardest section had to dismount and just walked across. After getting out of there things started really slowing down and just stuck to the outerloop trails.

Heading in for this ride I was just focused on being able to maintain energy to make the distance but I soon realized I have other problems to deal with once I past the 30 mile mark. Even though its just another 10 miles past 30 I found those the hardest 10 miles I've had to ride in awhile. Also found my left foot starts going numb, my hands start cramping and my seat starts killin me. Just when I was set on upgrading my pedals to something lighter now I'm going back and forth and my need to get a better seat first.

Stats:
Distance: 40.54
Time: 4:08
Avg Speed: 9.7
Max Speed: 23
Avg HR: 148

Saturday Group Ride

Good Saturday ride this morning. Hooked up with Tom, Dennis, Joe and Barret this morning around 7 for a beat the heat ride. Well, it was a good idea anyway but darn it sure felt thick this morning even from the getgo and just rapidly got worse. Think if it wasnt for the endurolytes and gels I would of tanked but they somehow kept me in check thruout the day even dropping 5 lbs of fluid from the event.
Soon after we pulled out Tom blew a front tire flat going down that Firebrake downhill creek crossing section where you really get flying but somehow he was able to save it from a nasty crash and Barret had a spare tube to make for a quick change and we were off again. Good Save Tom, that could of been a rough one.
Hit the bluffs, then off to Spider Woman counterclockwise with inner loop, couldnt of been more than 30 minutes into the ride and thats when started really feeling the heat and pretty much stayed soaked the remainder of the day.
We hit that long fireroad at the back of stewardship today but this time we were going the other way to let us rip that baby down hill. Feeling good and enjoying the ride and all it was here I tried to get a piece of Joe. Joe was in the lead so I started jokingly shouting outdaway, outdaway and felt the need to get a little hammer out. It was another flash of forgetting the caliber of riders I'm with, Joe was ever so gracious to move over to the side to let me up, but not let me by, he was ready to bring on some hammer of his own. We were off..... and moving too, hit a new max speed of 31.2 and was a good burst of hammer, but ever so short lived. Only could hang for a tad and Joe quickly put me in my place , but it was fun while it lasted :) .
Somewhere around the 24 mile mark we were running out of hydration and most everyone had other things to do so we ended up back at the filling station and talked shop while Tom, Joe, and Barret packed up.
Dennis and I wanted to get some more base miles and ended up doing one more clockwise outerloop (less spidy) to make sure we got our 30 in. This was the first real ride that I actually got to talk with Dennis any and was really good meeting/riding with ya. Hopefully will have plenty other oportunities. Dennis, if you make your way to this post, your number came across as restricted on my cell phone so I couldnt get it, give me a call sometime if your want to ride.

Stats:
Distance: 33.91
Avg Speed: 10.6
Max Speed: 33.91 (Trying to take Joe on )
Avg HR: 149

Wed Crap Ride

Not sure if the rain was going to hit or not still decided to head to Harbison for the Wednesday ride, but it was a complete no show for anybody else last night. The lot was pretty empty and didnt even run into any of the Cycle Center guys. Ended up a solo journey but atleast the weather ended up being more pleasant to ride in than I have had in quite awhile. Guess the nearby storms cooled it down and kept a steady breeze all evening and never ran into a drop out there. While it wasnt any hammer down ride I still managed to get in a 22 mile ride on just a half pack of hydration. Lately the heat/humidity had been taking a toll on me and I had resorted to taking some electrolyte tablets and hitting the refill station just to make it easier (atleast psycologicly).
Saw one big black snake crossing the stewardship trail that luckily for me was just far enough ahead that half of it cleared the trail just in time for me to get by without having to run it over or anything. It was a good size one and glad I didnt have to deal with any outcome that may have resulted.
In hindsight I think I may have faired better with the snake though. Somewhere on firebreak I recalled something flew up and was bouncing around on my feet and legs. At the time I just thought I somehow got some kicked up branch or pine cone. Thing was whatever it was it caught my attention because somehow it lingered just long enought that I was like wow, whatever that was it bobled around enough that I thought of how you would juggle a soccer ball around on your knees and feet to see how long you could keep it going. Well, when I finally got back to my truck and stopped all I could smell was shit. I was like what the hell! Then the disgust came instantly on, sure enough that was a pile of shit strung together with pinestraw. I kid you not there was a freakin loaf still intact and full sitting dead ontop of my shock. The rest of it what was left was all over my tires, frame and legs -- DAMMN . Anyway grabbed the nearest stick and and started getting what I could off. Also, for those with young kids, I was also very glad I keep a pack of baby wipes in the truck and damn near emptied the pack doing cleanup. Guess the rule of taking out what you bring in doesnt apply to the dogs, ... to bad.

Stats:
Distance: 22.02
Time: 2:00
Avg: 11.0
Avg HR: 147

Back in the Saddle

Back from vacation I was aching to get back on the trails so headed out Thursday night for a slow ride after being off the bike a week. Boy what just a week off will do, ended up doing about 22 miles but it felt like 30 and felt it all Friday.
Our next vacation I sure would like to take the bike to hit some trails somewhere. For financial reasons we opted to do the drive vs airlines and heading up thru the Virginia/West Virginia mountains I saw a couple of guys with some Azonic Downhill bikes and camping gear that looked like they were gonna be having loads of fun. I can only imagine how you really would need to have downhill bikes to conquer those decents off road, looked like there could be some really knarly shoots to let'r rip on and the climbs even if I had a 20lb bike would be beyond my grasps.
But seeing all that wide open mountains sure does get you daydreaming about how it would be cool to take some sort of long weekend or vacation and do a wilderness adventure with just the bikes and packs.

Hit harbison this morning still feeling a little tight from Thursday and didnt know how it would fair out but once I got moving dont think it had any adverse effect at all execpt towards the end of my ride when I wussed out and stopped short of 30 again. I was able to set a new time trial record on Lost Creek this morning and beat my previous 32.12 by a minute for 31.11 with avg speed of 11.0. I know it aint no call the neighbors news or anything but its a step in the right direction :). With my rookie seaon coming to a close next month Im setting my second year goal to get this sucker down to atleast 30.0 minutes - I think I can , I think I can..

If anyone is doing the Fontana Race today/tomorrow good luck, I know Harry was going but didnt know if anyone else was heading up.

Stats:
Distance: 25.1
Time: 2:13
Avg Speed: 10.9
Lost Creek Personal Record : 31.11 / 11.0

Stump Jump Pics are in !

Just wanted to let everyone know the Stump Jump pics finally showed up. Jason, check it out, you have quite a few out there, also seen a few of Toby. Im still checking them out myself but wanted to get this posted incase people hadnt heard. Monty, do you recognize Shifty anywhere, maybe you can print that so you'll be good and determined to blast him on your next race:).

http://stumpjump.org/

Tubes - Not the wheel kind

Today my daughter had to have her ear tubes put in. We had to be at the hospital at 6:45 AM for the surgery that they put her to sleep to install. Goes without saying that we were a nervous reck this morning, just the thought of having to operate on a little baby (15 months old) let alone your own is quite upsetting. We were having last minute second thoughts on the ordeal as for once she wasnt even sick now so it was like we are going to let them put her to sleep and go thru with this and she feels fine. But on the other hand she literaly gets an ear infection every 3 weeks on average ever since last October so we knew we better just go on and get this over with. Well, the doctors at Providence Northeast were great and did everything well to make the most of the experience. Cant believe how quick the whole thing took and we were in and out by 9:00 AM. For the babies, they dont use any IV or anything and they knock them out with gas, so atleast she wasnt poked and proded while she was awake any and that was nice. The doctor also made us feel good about the choice when he said she had gobs of jelly like substance behind her eardrums instead of just fluid and he had to use a special instrument to remove. I know this is Nasty, but he said that stuff had to have been built up back there for a long time and she definately is much better off and should also show a night and day difference in her hearing. Its amazing how quick after the whole thing she is back to normal, the doctor said it would be about an hour for the antethisia to wear off but she should be fine after 10. Darn if he wasnt spot on, now she was extremely upset and crying the entire time after she came too up until the ride home when she fell back asleep, but boy it was like a light switch and she was fine and back to herself after getting some brunch. The rest of the day she was playful as ever, glad that is over.

Since the baby was doing great I ended up taking a late afternoon ride to clear the mind and glad I did. Ended up being a good ride and mixing it up to hit all the trails including inner loop. Ran out of water and had to hit the filling station for a refill but was feeling ok and planned on pushing on to make it a 30 mile ride. Late in my ride I ran into Tom, Dennis and Eric who were just finishing up with Lost Creek and gave me an invite to ride with them. Didnt know how long I was going to be able to keep going but was good to talk with Tom who I hadnt seen all summer. Followed along with them for just a short way down Stewardship to the long fireroad climb but by then the legs were pushing their limits and told them I better brake off and start heading back. Gonna have to try and make another ride with them on a fresh start when I can hang and not have to ditch out but did enjoy the short bout anyway. Ended up taking the longer way back over the gazeebo area back across firebreak and crooked pine to finish at 30.91 miles.

Dont think I'll be making a group ride for a week, were going on vacation this weekend and since I rode tonight were gonna be trying to get some things done the remainder of this week, you guys tear it up and hopefully nobody feels the need to bushwack or crash once for me :)

Stats:
Distance 30.91
Time: 2:52
Avg Speed: 10.7
Top Speed: 25.7
Avg HR: 151

Saturday Struggle

Tonya had some errands to run this morning so I didnt make it out to the trail until around 11:30 ish and should of known this was the wrong time to start a ride going in. It was hot and humid but figured Id try to get some miles in anyways. Ran into Harry in the lot that was finishing up with this weekends Friends of the Forest group trail maintanance and was about to start riding too so we decided to ride together. He had been out there all morning opening up that new section of trail leading away from the lot. I wasnt feeling any need to get out any hammer myself and really wanted to do a controlled ride over speed anyway. He also said they had been checking out the downhill section of stewadship and seem to be leaning on keeping it open if they can maybe just putting some whoopty do's in to force slow downs rather than cutting a whole new section of trail that is pretty much the same slopes and terrain to work with. We will see though, they still have to present their case to the forestry board which is concious of the safety issues that section presents.
That new section of trail they just opened at the front lot flows pretty good, it was like riding thru baby powder though but once it starts to harden up it oughta be really nice. I think it is a big improvement over what we were riding thru and definately adds some nice flow thru that front section now.
We ended up doing a variety of routes today including the spiderwoman inner loop to finish up with a Lost Creek counter clockwise run. On Lost Creek Harry hit something and tore his rear tire sidewall and started spewing air. We looked but darn if we could ever see what the heck it was (we ruled it hitting some small stick just perfect, there was nothing else around?). After a quick tire patch we were off but really feeling the heat by now and the last half of lost creek was a pure struggle for me. We both ran out of hydration and were set on getting back to the lot for some liquids. Bringing out anything close to an aggressive ride wasnt even a thought that crossed my mind and I just did what I could to keeper rolling. Funny how these things work, some days you can go strong others you just dont have it, this was definately the latter.

I did end up getting a good idea from Harry on fixing the broken visor instead of the tape I had riged up. Hit the parts store and got me some velcro strips and I'm gonna give that a shot. Big improvement over the tacky factor.

Stats:
Distance: 25.02
Time: 2:27
Avg: 10.1
Avg HR: 154

Whipped by Crooked Pine :(

Before I get into my rounds with Crooked Pine overall ride was a good steady pace up until the storms came in. Joe, Barret(still on the spelling?), Harry and I were the only ones around at 6 but Harry said a couple other Cycle Center riders were coming out around 6:30 so we decided to do a quick warmup and circle back to the lot and pick up any late comers. After everyone showed we had a group of 7 although we were all scattered out and not really riding in a full pack for alot of the ride. Me and Barret pretty much stayed together but the rest were in a couple other packs. We didnt do spider woman tonight and that helped me log a faster average than usual but I really need to work on getting the average up with spidey included.


On to my bought with Crooked Pine. I basicly took a cut'n on this one tonight fella's. Its humiliating I know and wish I could be saying I took the lick'n on spider woman or something but it is what it is.
Round 1: This was supposed to be our warmup now before circling back to the lot. Were doing Crooked Pine from the fire road entrance side and somewhere before you get to the first bridge I hit some limb,branch or I dont know what. I didnt even see it coming till a millisecond before the hit and then it was just a blur but this smacked me on the head, nocked off my glasses and helmet. I just saw a quick flash then scrambled to keep from going down while trying to get my gear back on and straight. But, it did NOT take me down , so Im good im thinking , just a little shaken and surprised where the heck this came from and just slowed pace long enough to regain my bearings and all. Unfortunately though this was making my eyes burn from sweat or something and the rest of the ride my eyes stayed watering and burned. Round 1 goes to Crooked Pine.

Round 2: On our outer loop ride heading the clouds were moving in and it was getting really dark out there in sections under the canopy, then up the midlands switchbacks its starts storming and raining pretty good, well at the top Barret and I decided we werent gonna continue on the full outer loop in this rain and lightening and made a b-line right to head back on Midlands to firebreak. Then we thought we'd take the short cut thru crooked pine one more time in an attempt to get to the lot the quickest route. by this time it was raining and lightning pretty good and my visability was beyond bad between the watering/burning eyes, darkness setting in and the raini hitting the glasses. I'll be darn if it wasnt around the same spot as the first round incident around one of the turns I barely saw one of those vines that do a sidewase U loop hanging out just a little to much but I wasnt able to avoid it and sure enough this thing was right at head height and it looped me right around the neck. Now I wasnt blazing or anything but I had some speed so Im locking my chin low to keep from getting strangled or anything. The way it had me I new there was no way of twisting loose so once I felt it away from under my neck I put everything I had to try and ride thru it hoping it would rip the vine out or something. After about 5 feet it didnt give anymore and took me down off in the bushes in what must of been a sight. That was a sensation I hope not to repeat. Stunned I just laid there in the brush with this vine wrapped around me then heard Barret checking if I was alright and the lightening popping around and just thought I better get off this ground before one of those strike something close to us. The lightening was close, one popped while we were there and startled Barret enough he dropped his bike right out of his hands. Anyway, Round two definately went to Crooked pine too. But, I did take time to curse and move that vine well off the path for any other riders or my next time :).

Stats:

Distance : 19.05

Time: 1:42

Avg Speed: 11.1

Max: 22.8

Saturday Ride - New HR Max

Anybody up for a Saturday morning Harbison ride tomorrow? Was going to try and hit the trails by 8:30 and aim for 30+ miles.

Update:
Good ride today, ran into Harry in the lot when I pulled in who was just out for a ride himself and Monty ended up being able to make it. In hindsight should of known we were in for a ride when he pulled out the RacerX instead of the SS. The 3 of us started out far from a warm up pace and quickly realized this wasnt gonna be any easy cruising today. This quickly turned into a grueling struggle to try and keep him in sight which after just a short pace into Lost Creek ended in a loosing battle, so I had to set a new mark on trying to keep pace/view with Harry.
It was a quick pace thru the outer loop and spider woman with inner and after spider woman the heat, legs and pace was telling us this was gonna be a rough one to pull out the 30+ goal. We took a breather exiting spider woman for some gel shots and think both Monty and Harry were about out of water here so we set aim to finish the complete outer loop and hit the water station before we start dehydrating. After cresting midlands mountain I didnt see either one of them the rest of the ride back to the lot, I can only imagine how hard they were pushing it. Back at the filling station we all had to refill with some water (this was the first I had almost completely drained my pack which was somewhere between 70-100oz).
Back at the lot we had to take a refuel break and eat a hammer bar and Monty gave me a couple hammer electrolytes or something to the like to help finish out the day. What were those, Im gonna have to get some of those as they did prevent me from any cramping and kept me going.
Monty had other things he had to do and so after the refueling break Harry and I headed out for one more outer loop to try and get some miles in. We made a pack that it would NOT be at the same feaverish pace, the heat and humidity was beyond taking a toll. When we finished the reverse outerloop we were still just around 28 miles and this just wasnt going to do. Darn it, we felt like we earned a 30 mile mark today so we headed down the dirt road and around the ranger station just to get us there. Still ended up 0.03 hundredths short, but hey, Im calling it 30 mile day anyway.

On the spiderwoman inner loop I also noticed I hit a new max heartrate of 190. It may have not been the ultimate climb/sprint option , but since this was the highest Ive seen yet Im plugging this into the monitor now. I know after cresting that inner hill that set this new high I was feeling like I had no more to give and even coasted down the descent still in granny not enough energy to make a shift fearing it would only result in having to drop it down again on the slightest whooptyDo.

Overall Stats:
Distance: 29.97
Time: 2:44
Avg: 10.9
Max Speed: 27.2
Avg HR: 151
Max HR: 190

Wednesday Pinch Flat

It was a groupless ride tonight, this was the first time I had been out that I didnt see anyone of the usuals. We did have one of the cycle center guys show up that had caught wind that we have a good ride going and I told him he must of jinxed it cuz this was a first not seeing any of the other fella's out here. It was Harry the guy that smoked the 50+ age group along with most of the younger sport classes too at the RTR. At the race I was ontop of the midlands switchback climb, saw him down below crossing the bridge right before the climbs and he still blew by me to hit spider woman first so I knew he better lead this one tonight. It was just the two of us tonight and we did the full outerloop with Lost Creek and spider woman (no inner) but on the way back to the lot he took us thru Crooked Pine back thru the switchbacks and a new fireroad climb I dont think I've climbed up before.
On Lost Creek about middle way where you shoot down a rooty drop then have a quick up against a root section (where Jason, Tim and I saw that family stopped that day) I had my first pinch flat. My front tire hit that root pretty good and I must of had my weight forward cuz as soon as I crested and turned it just made a loud woosh sound and went instantly flat. This was a weird pinch flat as it was closer to the backside of the tube and only one spot but it was definatley a gashed open. Talk about breaking pace of a ride, I told Harry he could go on so he doesnt fall out of groove but he hung back and helped too. I thought I was set carrying my pump with me but after about 5 minutes of having no luck getting it to work ended up putting a single can of CO2 in there and took what I could get out of it. Guess I'll need to get a reliable working pump now and have been carrying this heavy piece of junk for nothing.
Overall a good paced ride tonight and Im getting a little more comfortable in my new Bontrager rear tire and its unmistakenly a noticeable improvement in rolling resistance over the excavator. Real glad I swapped this out for the dry season and Im definately gonna get an easier rolling front.

Stats:
Distance: 22.51
Time: 2:07
Avg: 10.5
Max: 23.2
Avg HR: 153

Saturday Test Ride

Had the kids yesterday morning and couldnt do the normal Saturday morning ride so instead took my son to Gamestop for a DS game and hit Harrels to get a new tire. I havent had the Excavators but a couple months and love them for the downhill sections but definately can feel them on the rooty climbs and wanted to try something a little less knobby. Could only swing getting one tire this week and thought I'd see if getting just the rear would make any difference. After going back and forth and asking Toby and Dan all kinds of questions I ended up getting the Bontrager Jones XR . This 2.2 is narrower than the kendas 2.1 but thought Joe had mentioned once it worked pretty good for a rear tire. I was also wanting to see what the Maxxis Crossmark looked like too but they didnt have any of them.
After Tonya came home I was able to swap the tire and head out for an afternoon ride around 2:30. It was a welcome sight to see our trails are finally showing some sings of moisture but they must of also gotten some winds out there as there was one tree down on Lost Creek and 2 on spider woman.
Started out with the intent of trying to ride aggressive to see how the tire would do but barely a mile in my ribs were hurting with every root impact or when my heart would get racing. Think I may get this checked if it doesnt get any better next week but that darn right rib from the catawba wreck is still bad and now my left upper side around my heart has been bothering me and cant tell if its just a sprained muscle or I'm just being overly nervous but in either case it has been making for unpleasant riding when you start getting jared around over the roots and such. Ended up just taking an easy ride to try and get some miles in. I do think I noticed a difference in the tire too, it did seem to roll easier but my confidence in leaning into it will have to wait till I get more of a feel for it, I had finally gotten used to the excavators and didnt attempt to push any high speed turns as I would with it yet. The Jones did seem to make climbing easier and had no problems with straight line grip whatsoever. Next I want swap the front for something that matches up to the same type/condition tire but not sure if I should go with the Bontrager version of the front for this rear or try somehting different. Anybody have any suggestions on something that would go good with this and still be fairly grippy for the turns but also a little less rolling resistance than a full knobby.
Im trying to decide between the Conti Mountain King, Speed King, or the Jones XR matching front.

Stats:
Distance: 24.2
Time: 2:24
Avg: 10.0 (slooow ride)
Avg HR: 153

FATS Ride

Plan on Heading down to FATS tomorrow morning for some Brown Wave surfing if anyone feels like the same. My friend Jay is moving to Germany at the end of the month and he has been aching to try out FATS before he leaves. Says in Germany its mostly climbing and fireroads and will long for the sweet single track we have here in the US. The last time we road together was at the stumpjump race so looking forward to the ride. One of his other riding buddies Tim will be joining us and we plan on meeting up around 7:30 AM at the gas station at I20 and US 1 if anyone else would like to come. Hope to be at the trailhead around 8:30.

UPDATE:
Good ride , and got away with only one crash today. Running just a tad behind we didnt start our ride till around 9:00 AM. Hooked up with an out of towner from Virginia that wanted to fall in so there was 4 of us that started the ride together. Did all 4 trails starting with Deep Step. Tried it counter clockwise today and was feeling good and swooshing right along that sweet roller coaster. Got a little carried away and on one of the jumps came down right in time to nail another tree, this time it was just a little sappling a few inches wide and I was able to avoid a body shot. It did stop the bike and I went tumbling a bit but aside from getting hit somehow on the ankle and gouging the tree it was nothing.
After Deep Step headed to Brown Wave for some surfing then back tracked the other half of big skinny and great wall. After Brown Wave (counter clockwise) Tim was getting tired and headed back to the truck.
That section of big skinny heading to Brown Wave is pretty impressive too and you can get some good flow going all most as good as on the wave.
Dont get me wrong, I undeniably know my place in the pecking order when running with the big dogs, but I could definately notice a big difference coming off such rides and I was tearing up some single track with these fellas. I know I wouldnt of been able to pull any of it off if it hadnt been for our fast paced group rides and struggling to keep up with the speedsters, Thanks Fellas. Today I actually had oportunities to rest while waiting for the pack to catch up and that sure does make for a nice breather compared to rolling up later only to take right off again.
This place rocks, wish it was a little close so we could hit this one more often.

Stats:
Distance: 26.7
Time : 2:20
Avg Speed: 11.3
Max Speed: 24.1
Avg HR: 150

Wednesday Ride & New Toy

Didnt see any of the usuals I'm used to riding with out there tonight but fortunately recognized a couple Harrels Jerseys in the lot and after going up and introducing myself found it was Joe and Barry (sorry if the spelling is wrong) . I had been on one ride with Joe before but didnt recognize him until he was putting on his helmet and last time he pretty much stayed in the front of the pack and didnt really get a chance to talk with him. After talking a bit found Barry was relativly new to mountain biking too and has just been doing it a couple years and shared the same experience of strugling trying to keep the 'A' team in sight when they decide to bring on the hammer and they welecomed me along for the ride. That was good cuz if they were gonna be tearing it up I would of let them ride and left it at a good meeting them not wanting to slow them down or anything.
My kids got me a new HR Monitor (PC-9) for fathers day and was anxious to try this thing out today.
Joe led the way tonight and mixed it up real good for us. It was a good steady pace tonight and we even got an inner spider woman loop in, although I had to climb in granny :( . We hit all the main trails out there tonight along with some good fireroad climbs ( 3x on that fireroad back by stewardship to keep looping back to other trails). On the last fireroad climb Joe called for an "attack" and had to try to bring out some hammer although mine was more along the lines of a tack hammer tonight but still made for a pushed climb. Also got the chance to hit a new fireroad I hadnt been on that took us over to Lost Creek. Joe had to pull double duty bike mechanic as barry kept having rear derailer problems and Joe finally did a complete re-adjustment mid stewardship for him.
I really like this new HR monitor and now I have something else to get into logging some stats. Although I'm not yet sure how to make best use of it, its like a new toy and maybe as I start getting some historical data I hope to atleast start seeing some patterns of my rides. Lookout Jason, I'll probably bombard you with questions for awhile :) . The first being the zones, do you need to worry if your running in the Power Zone to much or is this just a guideline. I mean I dont want to have a coronary out on the trails or anything. The watch default set my max rate at 186 which is higher than if I use the formula to figure but Im mainly wandering if the goal is to be able to ride hard without pushing your max HR as best you can. Tonights ride showed I was in the Power Zone 75% of the time for 1:39, and I dont want to be stressing the ticker to any unsafe levels or anything. Just currious.

Overall Stats:
Distance: 22.45
Time: 2:09
Avg Speed: 10.4
Max Speed: 25.8
Avg HR : 155

Eject Button Found

Good Saturday ride this morning with Jason at HSF. Jason had us a good route mapped out and we decided to do the expert RTTR course (of course at way slower pace), but it was a good route and put us thru spiderwoman twice which was just what I needed. Wasnt sure if it was the first or second lap but one of the loops I hit my fastest time shooting down the shoot to the creek bed right before crossing the dirt road and climbing back towards the gazeebo area. I recorded a 28.6 max speed today and was cook'n thru them sections the fastest of anywhere today. Its such a sweet feeling when your bikes suspension is soaking up the bumps and you can still feel your suspension remaining active and delivering your pedal strokes with efficiency all the while pushing you to the edge of your speed comfort zone :), awe.. Anyway, it was a nice downhill burst for me.
Our second lap thru spider woman the area where you have that long kinda steep climb (not inner loop though) there was a large woman walking right in the middle of the trail. about 15 feet back I started making noise, saying rider up and everything else and she wasnt flinching. Ok, better hit granny or I'm gonna have to fall or mow this fool down. Well, closed to within 2 feet and still nothing out of this lady and she was still smack dab center of the trail. Now this isnt like a straight away and I gotta make a move or cant keep enough momementum for the climb. Im less than a foot from this woman yelling, mam, exuse me mam, and finally something snapped and she jumped from being startled and let me by. Whew, glad this wasnt a time trial.
On the back side of midlands thru a choppy descent Jason was ahead and cooking thru this section and had to put some hammer down if I was gonna catch up. Well, couldnt hold her today and started to drift to much with a pretty descent oak tree approaching fast. All I could think of was if I hit this sucker with my shoulder head on its gonna break some bones or best case knock it out of socket and with some luck and twisting atleast was able to pull my shoulder in and take the hit where it wasnt just bone. This tree didnt budge a lick and I imediatley was snatched off the bike dead in my tracks with a thud only to watch the Trance crash riderless ahead of me. I dont know if it was because it was still a downward slope or what but when I hit I had to keep running about 20 feet and used another tree to grab and wip around to stop myself. I was ok, just shaken up and this also jarred my still healing sore rib from my catwaba reck and had to walk this one off for about 5 minutes before we could get going again. Shoulder is pretty sore where it took the hit but definatley feel lucky that I was able to do the last minute twist and didnt have to take it directly to the shoulder blade.
Wanting to get a 27+ mile ride in and one more climb I split off from Jason and took the crooked pine path back to get one last firebreak climb by the gazeebo. My climbing may be getting a little better but it is still my achilies heel.

Overall, good steady ride
Distance: 28.76
Avg: 10.2
Max: 28.6
Time: 2:47

Kiddie Pool & Ice Somebody

Just saw this news and thought Id post. I'm thinking we need this setup right before and after Spider Woman.

"Researchers at Edith Cowan University in Australia
showed that you can recover faster and compete at a higher level
by soaking your legs in cold water (14 degrees C) for five minutes
during rest periods between events (British Journal of Sports
Medicine, June 2008). The cooling session dropped body
temperature a half degree centigrade and the athletes were able
to cycle faster with greater power output. "

Long Week

Here it is thursday and I havent been able to hit the trail all week and going nuts. Hitting the other blogs trying to feed of just reading about riding I was able to get a little info and sounds like I missed a good Wednesday ride. Was good to atleast hear about a ride, although this is really driving me nuts now and hoping the wife can get home early today and give me a little trail time.
Been quite the week, think Monty's posting of car troubles were an omen for me as I had to drop off the truck on Tues for a check engine light/surging that started on my way back from catawba that I figured I would try to squeeze in and get back in time before Wednesday group ride. Also had a coupon for an $17.95 oil change and tire rotation I figured I'd let them change it since they had it anyway. Well, that ended up being a costly mistake, I usually run Mobil 1 Full Synthetic oil and buy this stuff at walmart in 5 quart jugs at around $23 bucks so I figured letting them upgrade the coupon to use this oil would be around $30 more (takes 7 quarts). Heck Id spend it anyway so didnt question a cost on it and left it at that. Well, today when I finally was able to pick up my truck, that oil change cost me $89 bucks. WTH, I was like I can get this for less than 4 bucks a quart at walmart and they charged me $10 per quart. Anyway, live and learn but definately wont be using anymore of them coupons again. The surging/light was the EGR valve and hopefully that is atleast fixed. With my deductable and taxes I guess I got off lighter than Monty and my total was $203. Kids are sick "again" this week and had to stay with both of them on tuesday and again today with just my daughter. Daughter has another ear infection and were now waiting to hear back from the ear doctor on scheduling her in for tubes. She gets these ear infections everytime she gets sick and we kept thinking she would be better off with tubes so she doesnt have to suffer so much, but now that we actually have to do it were a little nervous about them having to put her to sleep for the surgery, but keep telling ourselves its probably for the best. One more thing that kept us going this week were both my Father-in-law and Sister-in-law had surgery at the hospital to add to an already hectic week and I'm more than ready to hit the trails and unwind alittle.

UPDATE
Yahoo! Was able to get out and hit the trails around 6:30 this afternoon and get some ever needed trail time. Man, those trails need some moisture, its getting mighty dry and dusty out there. Feeling a little to upright in the cockpit lately I figured I'd try adjusting my bars down/out a tad to see if that would stretch me out any and see how the Trance would ride. I rode lost creek first shooting for a 30 minute or less ride but just couldnt pull it off. Ended up with my Exact same time of 32+ seconds, I just cant seem to beat this yet. Made my way around the outer loop and that sweet downhill section on stewardship I was cruising pretty good and at the bottom were a couple of young guys right in the middle of the trail standing next to there bikes chatting. I had plenty of time to react and all, it was just one of those things that had to slow way down and crank back up any momentum. By the time I got up the midlands switchbacks the winds were starting to blow and there was some rumbling above so I picked a clearing to get a better view of the clouds before deciding to ride spider woman or not. Well, I proved to be a slacker without the group ride and talked myself right out of doing spider woman and thought I'd just continue the outerloop. It never did rain a drop and the clouds looked like they were moving away I just took the easy way out tonight...
Wasnt sure if it was just the unfamiliar feel of the handlebar adjustment I made or what but it seemed there was a feel I was pushing the wheel out in the turns that I didnt like so while I debated the clounds and spiderwoman I tweaked the bars back to the original position. After the return adjustment I can definately say I like that original position better as I put her to test thru that new curvy section on the back of midlands just after spider woman. I only changed it like an 1/8 of an inch or so but something made it feel like it was handling different in the turns and in standing position. From there just continued the outer loop to crooked pine back to the gazeebo area and headed out the same way I came in.
Felt good to get out.

Stats:
Distance: 18.31
Time: 1:39
Avg: 10.9 (I gotta do something here, so close to breaking my 10.x syndrom
Max: 22.7

Saturday Ride

Hit HSF this morning around 7:20 for a planed ride with Jason and anyone else that was up for Jasons posted morning ride but must of just missed him and after what I thought was around 7:45 figured I might have missed a followup posting and they must of delayed the ride a little and figured I would just run into them on the trails and headed off. Later heard Jason was running a tad behind and showed getting to the trail at 7:40 so even with our times a tad off we must of just missed eachother and didnt run into any of the crew the rest of the day.
Wore a regular watch so I could do some resets on my timer without resetting the main one and headed off Clockwise hoping I may have a chance of running into Jason on his route around spider woman. Did Lost Creek first (Clockwise) for a 32:12 time and felt good about it as I was trying to use some tips I got from Monty and ride somewhere between a controlled ride and agressive and found it was easier on me and still had full reserves when done.
Cut across the connector over to Spider woman and ran spider woman clockwise including inner loop for a 23:40 time but in there I did a clumsy fall over the roots hooking into the inner loop and think I may have landed in some poison ivy, will have to see what turns up there and then wasnt able to pull off the rock garden today and had to do a little hobling over the rocks.
After that rode the rest of the outer loop back around thru crooked pine and over to Lost Creek for a Counter Clockwise ride at 33:45 . After the second lost creek run I still had plenty of hydration (filled that sucker full this morning) so headed off for one more outer loop (clockwise) but ended up bypassing spider woman and just did the full outerloop.
Luckily I didnt run into any of them snakes, but I did see that huge turtle Jason was talking about, I was thinking to myself what is this dam sea turtle doing hear this far inland, the thing was big for sure. That one was definately bigger than the ones just a few weeks ago I thought were big at FATS I had to keep avoiding on Big Step, thank goodness.

Entire ride ended up being solo today but still was pretty good and even though I didnt beat any of my previous times think I may be making headway on my endurance/control and felt I was able to keep it going without feeling exhausted at the end. It was definately a good idea Jason had to start early in the day.

Stats
Distance: 31.14
Time: 2:46
Avg: 10.5
Max: 22.6

Wednesday Ride

Met up with Jason and Tim in the front lot around six and headed out for Lost Creek. We started out at a good pace and when we stopped before crossing the road we all were already sweating pretty good and I had to start hitting the hydration pack. It was gonna be a hot one. We headed down Lost Creek Clockwise and after the first descent climb we all stopped a few minutes for more hydration and realized we were feeling the heat pretty good and had to motivate ourselves to get moving or we were gonna end up wanting to walk out if we kept still. We road at a controlled pace and ran into Adam somewhere in the middle going the opposite direction, awe nice, another exuse to stop. So after shooting the breeze a minute or so all took off. Told Adam we were the JV squad and with the heat if he was ready to hammer he might want to take lead but luckily he must not of been in hammer mood either and we just continued at a steady pace.
After Lost Creek Adam and I took the outer loop around and was going to meet up with Jason who took an alternate route for a spider woman run but guess we were to late coming around and never ran back into Jason. On our outer loop I had a good downhill run thru the stewardship downhill section and into harder, wasnt checking any stats at the time but it was just one of those runs you feel when you nail it.
Right before the midlands switchbacks I got called from work (I'm oncall for the next two weeks) and had to stop and call work back, never fails these oncall support calls come at the worst possible time and messed up our pace, Adam graciously decided to wait for me while I took the call and we were able to get going after about 5 minutes. Sorry Jason, this may have been the cause of us missing you too. Anyway, we road thru spider woman (no innner loop) and then headed back to the lot thru the rest of the outer loop. Passed Toby P on the trails but he wasnt wearing the normal Jersey and it was more a after thought when we passed that I thought man, I think that was Toby.
Ariving back at the lot Jason and Toby were heading out. Was talking to Toby about the Catawba race course and heard he did a 12 hour ride there. Man, I gotta quote Jason here and say "All Hail Toby". Dont know how he did it, thats one tough course and it wipped me after my measly two laps which was 2 hours at my slow speed which is a fraction of what he runs, Go Toby!

Todays Stats
Dist: 17.86 miles
Avg: 10.4
Max: 22.1
Time: 1:42

Catawba Riverfront Classic Race

Whew, tough riding today, wanted to get this posted while still on the mind then ready to call it a night. Gave the Catawba Riverfront Classic a go today and coming off a 27 mile Stumpjump race and a sweet 27 mile FATS ride figured it was as good as its gonna get going into this posted 18 mile ride (actually was two 9.5 mile loops). Ariving at the trailhead ran into Cycle Center Harry who was finished with his 50+ race (came in 2nd) and some guy named Brad that won the Harbison Sport 30-39 race. Not sure if there were any Harrels guys from earlier races as my race wasn't until 1:00 and I got there around 12:20.

No exuses whatsoever, just didnt work out like I was hoping. I went in with goals of finishing middle of the pack but ended up in the bottom, AGAIN. I left the trailhead before the protest window was over but current standings had me finishing 15th out of 18 with the last two guys DNF. I'm hoping the DNF's might have been from exhaustion rather than mechanical :). I'm getting a good initiation into this racing stuff and really starting to respect those who make this look easy.

Perspectivly speaking I thought the course was alot like Spider Woman with an xtra innter loop and reverse climbs out. This course beat me to death and I was grannying all over on 4 or 5 climbs atleast just to make sure I didnt blow up. It had a number of twisty, rooty, choppy descents only to force you to climb your way back up the same type terrain. Like mentioned coming off my last few long rides I figured I'd pack lighter this go round but after a couple of them tough climbs I was thinking, man I may run out of the goo and hydration on this race.
I was ever so relieved to find sections of the course that smoothed out more inline with a stewardship type trail and even routed us up a couple power line sections.

My first lap went good, I hit the woods around middle of the pack, passed a couple riders on some early climbs and didnt start to get passed till around 4-5 miles in. But boy, when I did start getting passed by a couple they were coming on strong and I just couldnt keep pace and with each climb they pulled away further and further. The first lap went good, there were no crashes or dismounts and aside from the normal drain of riding hard I was still in my ride. The second lap was when things changed in a bad way. About a mile in on the second loop I was getting a little maverick trying to get some distance between me and another rider who had been about 20 or so feet behind me for the last 10 minutes and on a right downhill section my front wheel washed out causing my bars to all the way right and I went down hard on my ribs righ on the bar end that was up. That one took the breath right out of me and just when I could manage to suck a lung full of air here comes that guy that was twenty feet back and lays it down right into me and my bike knocking me down again. Whew, ok, after a couple back and forths "you alright" we both got up and he came out ok and was off. Me on the other hand had my chain come off and get stuck between the frame and inner ring so after hobling off this turn had to flip the bike over and get it unstuck. Hated this, there was a couple other riders that passed me while Im fumbling with my chain, I had to get going.
Again, no exuses, I was able to push it harder and catch up to this last pack that passed until they just outdid me on the climbs which by now I am fully accepting this is my big weakness. The last three miles of the race was a good finish (which now in hindsight I realize must of been riders in another class) but there were 3 of us all within site of eachother and we kept giving and taking ground from eachother to within a couple bikes lengths. Alright, this is when I might have got a little cocky to myself, the guy ahead was rolling good but I knew I could take him in this single track I kept closing right behind him till he would pull away on a climb, thats ok, we still have a couple miles. Now, the guy behind me, I dube him Steroid boy, this guy is riding with no shirt as to show off his muscles or something but he keeps letting out these gorilla like roars. Im thinking is this guy trying to syche us out or does he just need a shot of the juice. Well, after about 3 or 4 of these Im convinced I aint let'n steriod boy pass me dammit and Im gonna give him reason to change his roaring to moans. Funny the things you find for motivation on your last leg of energy but that did it, I turned it up a notch and was able to pull far away from this jungle boy that I knew he was no longer gonna catch me. Then within the last mile I was able to overtake the guy ahead of me to.. We were both spent, and when I did pass he asked me what class I was in and when I replied 30-39 he said whew, "Im in 40-50, was just seeing if were gonna have to start racing", I gotta say I chuckled and just replied, na, no need buddy. It was a good finish and I still pushed it thru the single track to keep a distance, but darn if that sucker didnt take me on the final climb up the gravel road to finish ahead no matter how small a distance.

All in all I gotta say I had a good tough race today and even though Im at the bottom end I feel good that I put in my race effort. With three races I now have a good baseline for my rookie year.
Still waiting for official results to be posted online, hopefully will be on the results link from site http://www.charlottemtnbike.com/

My cycle computer Stats from today :
Distance: 20.38
Time : 2:05
Avg: 9.7
Max: 22.1

Flight Lessons

Took the day off and planed to hit the Charlotte course as a preride to see what type of trails the Sunday race was going to be like. After waiting around till 10:00AM to check the trail conditions online at http://www.usnwc.org/Trail-System.html was only disapointed to find they were still posting closed. Not sure how this weekend is going to be since there showing chance of rain for both Saturday and Sunday and there is no mention of racing in rain or shine at the catawba site. Guess I'll be keeping an eye on the usnwc site and hoping the weather holds out.
Well heck, went and took a vacation day just for this and aw be darn if this was going to ruin a planned ride but I had the yearning to tread new trails and didnt wanted something different than the familiar harbison so decided to use this as an exuse to go try out FATS.

Ok, Im syched now, after the hour ride thinking about treading new trails, got to trailhead around noon, woofed down a hammer bar and I was ready to roll. Not sure what to expect and by myself I packed heavy and carried an xtra tube (think Monty mentioned a pinch flat there so wasnt going to take any chances). Headed out and thought I'd try the Deep Step trail first since it showed to be the only one off the beaten path. WOW, freakin AWESOME, I was taking flight and getting air all over the place and not even trying. Heart and anxioty is in full gear now and Im grinning like a kid in a candy store, this is so sweet. Was wishin some of the other guys would of been around just to let out a little exuberant yells or something. Well ok, I couldnt hold it back and had to start letting out some brew ha's on several airborne ever so sweet landings. This place rocks. I can see how you could get yourself in trouble around here, even though this is by far the smoothest flowy course Ive riden just when your going airborne, up , down right and left there are a few places that come up on you before you know it and I had to lock up brakes a few times to avoid a wipe out or worse the local wildlife. Whats up with them turtles, I must of almost nailed 4 of them? These are some pretty big ones and the suckers would be right in the middle of the main trail. Couldnt tell if they were coming out from their nights sleep, laying eggs or just plain releiving themselves. Ya, tellin ya, It would be wet from where they were trying to crawl away from, craziest thing I have had to deal with on the trail.
Anyway, after Deep Step rode Great Wall, Skinny Loop then Brown Wave. Kudos to whomever designed these trails they sure knew what they were doing. Its a hard choice if I had to pick one trail above the rest but think that Deep Step and Brown Wave made me feel like I was flowing the best.
This was a whole different kind of riding experience for me that I think I could learn alot about being smoother and working with the bike if that makes sense. Anyway, hope to start hitthing these trails more often.