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 ...
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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.)
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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