Thursday Catheter Bag Ride

I'm thinking of using a catheter bag on rides from now on. Not that you care, but I should not have to stop for TWO road side nature breaks during a two hour road ride. Eeesh!! I think I need to scale back my post lunch water consumption. From 1:15 p.m. to 5 p.m. I drank about 64 oz. of water and ate nothing. Not only does it make for annoying road side pee breaks, but I believe it's flushing too many nutrients out of my bod before my bod has a chance to use 'em and pump them out via my sweat.

I've noticed this pattern before. Too much peeing and the next thing you know I'm cramping even though I hydrated and took in electrolytes during the ride. I should have ate some salted pretzels or something later in the afternoon, as I often do, but I was pretty busy at work and forgot. I think I'll try to scale back some of my afternoon hydrating, or drop a Nuun or Zym tab in my bottler to add some electrolyte giddy up to my pre-ride bevies. I'm also gonna get the latest in anti Nature Break Technology- The Uro-1000™ Catheter Bag! Time to get tapped and get rollin'!

All pee talk aside, sorry about that by the way, I had sweet ride tonight. Same 31 mile loop as Tuesday, but I did some of it in reverse. Including going UP the new smooth as silk, sweeter than double fudge puddin' 1.5 mile stretch of pavement that I bombed down the other day. I say GOD DAMN! It's just as sweet going UP. Yeah, I was going 15 mph slower on the climb, but it was ass buttah smooth.

Luckily the cramping I had in my calves was pretty mild and came in the last 15 minutes of the ride. Not stop worthy or anything, but a cramps nonetheless. I'm not one to cramp too often, so I'll use this as a warning sign and make some adjustments to my routine.

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Today I was checking out the Solos that have signed up for Big Bear so far.
Looks like Tinker is coming! Sweet!

Hey, if you're gonna get your ass kicked, get it kicked by a legend, right?? No word on whether Blog Father and Tinker teammate Jason Sager will be there to hand up bottles of Mona Vie or not. I'm sure other big names will be showing too. Should be epic. Maybe there could be a second solo division for Non Pro Sons of Slack. We could say the first three non Pro, non podium Solo finishers race for a Case/12 Pack/6 Pack of beer? Any takers? I wonder if Laird would approve?? Better yet I wonder if he'd pay for it will some of our entry fee dough?? HA! Then again, maybe another sponsor will step up with such a prize. Again, any takers? Maybe I just better plan on enjoying a couple beers of my own here at home as I recover. They'll taste damn sweet regardless of where I place.

Time for bed.

Later

Wednesday Tid Bits

Why is it that sometimes once the race season starts I end up working out and riding LESS?? The combinations of taper, recovery, weather, travel, racing, work, family etc., can often have me in the saddle less in May than in March. Sucks, but that's just the way it is some weeks. That's why I can never complain too much about my placings at the races. I have to do what I can with what I got. And that AIN'T much people! Doing what I can with 7 to 10 hours a week.

My right arm continues to hurt like a mo-fo. At least I think I know what it is. It appears that's it's not just a sore forearm from the braking and pounding over 46 miles at French Creek. It seems that I must have knocked my arm against SOMEthing during the race, since I have swelling, and some slight bruising. For the life of me I can NOT figure out where or when I did it during the race. The only thing I can think of is that I knocked it against my frame during one of the hike-a-bike climbs. Who knows. Hurts like a mo-fo, so I hope it goes away soon. It's not that bad, just in a bith of a location. I currently have ice strapped to my wrist as I type. Yeah, that feels just great.

Speaking of self induced hurting. My single malt scotch loving friend Rich B. has succumbed to the siren's song of Endurance Racing. Don't fight it Rich. It's too strong. Rich will now be throwing down in the Enduro Single Speed class at Granogue. Welcome back Rich, it'll rock! Speaking of Granogue you have registered right? Good.

More than anything I've been finding racing the enduros a better value. Yep, that's right. Value. I figured that Saturday's race at French Creek was about .69¢ a mile for me. Sport racers were racing at about $2.78 a mile and Experts at about $1.39 a mile. See it's more cost effective to race longer. Not to mention more fun! If I'm driving 4 hours to a race I sure as hell am not going to do only 1 lap! If I lived closer I might be more tempted to do XC races, but I don't. So I don't.

I'd love to see Western PA get some Enduros going. There are some in the W.V.M.B.A. Ultra Series, but 3 of those are in Virginia, and 2 are in deep ass West Virginia. So they're really no closer than driving to French Creek or to Marysville. There are a lot of great trail systems around here that include places like Seven Springs and Laural Mountain. Hell you might be able to do a series JUST a Seven Springs. Maybe a Marathon, a 6 hour or 12 hour, and then finish the year with the 24. Mix up the loops, etc., Do it as a points series. Ah, what do I know? I'm just bored and typing out my ass.

I leave you with this....

Later.

The Road More Traveled

Today was the COMPLETE opposite of yesterday. Yesterday was rainy, cold, warm bath and razor blade worthy. Today was warm, sunny, and frolic worthy....

PLUS! There was a ride!! I hit the road for 1:50/30.5 miles. The legs felt pretty good. My right forearm still feels like it got smashed under a tank, but I'm sure it will be fine in time. At least I hope. Doesn't affect me too much on the bike. More off the bike.

This time of year is my absolute favorite time to ride. The temps are moderate, the smells of spring are still kicking and many races still await. There are more miles to ride. More chances to try to better myself as a racer and more experiences to have.

The above pic was a welcome sight! The road was being worked on through all of the winter and early spring. The surface had been so bad during the winter, that I could get full travel on the Mamasita's Reba! It's now done and sports a new, fresher than fresh black top. A smooth twisty, low traffic down hill that gave me ample opportunities to double the posted speed limit and have a friggin' blast!

Not sure if I hit 150,000 watts tonight or not? I'm thinking nnnnnno. But I still had fun out on the roads via the Campeon. Another ride, another chance to mentally recharge. Thank God for cycling!

Later

Rain, Ropes, Attics & My Deuter

Wow, today was THEE stereotypical Western PA "rope to the attic" Monday. Gray, rain, high 40s, and it's friggin' MAY!!!!! What. The. F*ck?? Combine all that with the second day of not riding (Monday is always "off" and a Wifey "gym day") and I would have been happy just to stay in bed all day guzzling some sort of cough syrup/vodka cocktail. OK, that MAY be a little strong, but you get my drift.

Recovery from the race is just fine. Legs are fine and I look forward to riding tomorrow on the road. My forearms, especially my right one, feel like someone smashed them with a hammer. Damn! All that "brake pump" must have taken it's toll on my chick like arms. Not to self- either don't brake as much or WORK OUT MORE!

I did get to hang with B-Man and watch him whack the whiffle ball over the fence a few times tonight. I was shocked how he was smacking the ball around. Very proud. I cooked up a quick tasty meal of lemon pepper chicken breasts/brown rice & green peas. Mmmm. I got hold of some Tyson frozen chicken breasts yesterday. Good stuff. Some of the tastiest individually frozen breast I've got my hands on. Yes I know, I know, I just made a reference to my hands on frozen breasts. Dooley noted.

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I was geeked to come home from work to find a box from Deuter USA (pronounced doy-ter). I have been lusting a new hydration pack for racing. In particular the Deuter Hydro M2. After making contact and talking with a rep of Deuter I was given the chance to use the M2 for racing this year. Very happy!

The M2 is a small-ish race pack. Holds 2 liters of fluids, and has enough cargo room for Co2, Tube, and a battery on night laps. It also has what Deuter calls the Air Stripes Back System. You can check out the graphic below (click to enlarge).It basically has two padded foam strips that not only add comfort, but keep the pack off your back to add ventilation to keep your back a tad cooler.

The M2 comes with the cool Streamer 2.0 bladder too.

The best thing (in my opinion) about this bladder is that you can open it up and clean it with no problem! You can get your whole hand, etc., in it too scrub it out. I think that's a nice feature. I'll be anxious to see how it handles a crash though. EDIT: I just did a test to see how well the pack would hold my current 50 oz. CamelBak bladders. It took 'em like a champ. Nice to be able to have addition bladders chilled are ready at races.

I'll keep you posted on how the pack fits, and how the bladder holds up. The biggest concern for me in looking for a new pack was it's stability on my back in technical single track. Last Saturday at French Creek my current pack was flopping all around, and sliding from side to side on the rocky descents. It was really annoying! I'm hoping that the M2 will help solve some of those problems. I thank Deuter for letting me try this pack in '08. I'll keep you posted on how it fits and holds up.

By the way, you may be asking why I wouldn't use the kick ass pack that Ergon has? Well, that's simple. Ergon's pack is an incredible design that would rock for an all day, self supported type ride/race. I do mostly (lack luster) lap racing. I can use a smaller "race" pack. It just needs to hold a couple bottles worth of hydration, a few small items like a tube/Co2, my Switchback 3 battery at night, and HOPEFULLY not slide around on my back.

BTW, when you buy a Deuter pack, you get a free tube of BIG Nuun for hydration packs. I was glad to see they slipped on into mine too. Nice bonus.

Time to get the Campeon ready for a post work ride tomorrow. Rumor has it the sun JUST might be out and the temps MIGHT get to 70!! (Gasp!!) Maybe I stop with the rope to attic talk, at least for tomorrow!

Later

M.A.S.S. Enduro #1/French Creek

Time for Mid Atlantic Super Series Enduro #1 at French Creek State Park in eastern PA (where they talk funny and don't say thing's like "yinz", "crick" or "pop"). This was to be a 6 hour event that would have racers doing as many laps on the rocky 11.5 miles course as they could. The course had about 1,800' of climbing per lap and a big extra helping of rocky east coast single track. The race would end up being cut to 5 hours due to the severe weather that soaked the trails the day before. That didn't make the race any less difficult (or fun!) for sure! The don't call the race "on the rocks" at French Creek because of it's uber buff single track, that's for damn sure!

I took the day off on Friday to get some house stuff done, spend some quality time with Wifey (oh yeah), and then make my road trip to Rich B.'s digz. Rich was part of the Beans posse that was putting on the race and would not be racing, but handling the registration duties and more. Rich and his wife were also kind enough to let me crash at their place the night before, thus saving me either a wet night in a tent, or a stay in a cheezy, pay by the hour, stained sheet motel room. Thanks Rich!

I was up early in the a.m. to shove some PB&J bagel and java down my throat and follow Rich to the race venue. I had already gotten lost on the way to Rich's, thanks to a Google Maps misprint, and was not looking forward to cruising up and down Rt. 100 again. By the way, if Rich ever offers to make you some coffee, let him! Dude brew up some FINE Starbucks® java.

I really was hoping that things would have dried out a bit more overnight. But everything was still pretty damn wet. Oh well, the mud will just add to the adventure, right? The race director pushed all the start times back an hour hoping to give the trails just a few more minutes to soak in Friday's downpour. In light of that, the 6 hour enduro was reduced to a 5 hour. Drat!

Not that I minded only racing 5 hours, it's just that one of my only strategies of "passing" folks and moving up in the results is through race attrition. The more folks that DNF, the more chances I have for a respectable finish! HA! Oh yeah, like you don't do the same thing?? ;)

On the start line I didn't see too many familiar faces, other than some of the VisitPA.com guys, and Ben from Beans. In other words, I spied some of the area's elite SUPER fast guys that were about to open up a can of 5 hour whop ass. No matter, I had my usual plan. Ride my own pace, ride as much as I can, and see what happens.

So at the start I got in my zone, and started up the double track/service road climb. Hit the single track and just kept on climbing. Mud, water bars, etc., A couple dismounts, some traffic and then the first down hill. Weaving through the trees, bouncing over rocks, mud splattering, fore arms burning, and seat/nut slaps. It was damn fun. OK, the nut slaps were not all that fun, but I just thought of it as "rough" play.

Soon there would be a nice stretch of level single track to weave through. It was a chance to recover a bit, take in some fluids and get ready for MORE climbing and MORE of the aforementioned nut slapping descents. The more serious climb in the last few miles would have me hike-a-biking a bit, but I didn't mind. The course rocked (fitting pun, but not entirely intended). It was "REAL" mountain bike course, if that makes any sense? You might not ride everything, but wondering if you MIGHT ride it, added to the fun. It reminded me of a better, more rideable Snowshoe, WV, course. Complete with the prerequisite mud.

Once the other classes got on course things got a little less fun, but not too bad. The elites, and sport guys were out there hard charging looking to get it done in 1 or 2 laps. So I tried as best I could to let them through. If that meant stopping or walking a climb, so be it. Those guys are in the red from the start. Far be it from me to come in between them and a chance at time on the box. I respect them. The course did start to get a little more deteriorated now. The mud became deeper, the roots got slicker, and the "good lines" became more blurred from hundreds of racers.

One of my favorite parts of the course was sweet single track section that must have had a ton of honeysuckle blooming. That smell was the BEST! Not to mention honeysuckle gets me randier than a sailor in a 50¢ whore house. But YET again, I've said too much. Of course there was also a swampy part of the course with a wooden bridge over it that sort of smelled like The Home For Wayward Feces. So I guess everything evens out.

When the race was 6 hours my goal was 4 laps, but aiming for 5 or more. Since the race was shortened, getting a 4th in was nice and felt like I was on pace to have got that 6 hour 5th lap no problem. Thing of it was, the fast guys turned out 5 laps on this course in the 5 hours! Many of the rest of us turned out 4. So I would have to take 4 laps, 45 mile miles, 7,200' of total elevation gain, and 7th place out of 13 geared, Male Enduros.

Not a great finish, but I was pretty damn happy with my skillz on the rocks (no crashes). Some of it was me, but much of it was the kickassness (I KNOW that's NOT a word!) of the Dos Niner and 29" wheels in general! I found myself behind some 26" wheeled guys thinking to myself "WHY in the hell are those wheels so small??" In the end, it doesn't matter all that much. Many of those guys wold smoke you/me on a $60 SmartyMart® Huffy.

I saw a couple other Salsa guys out there. One dude with an orange Dos Niner like mine had blown out a rear wheel and was doing the "walk of shame" back to the start/finish. He jokingly asked if he could borrow my rear wheel (as if? Ha!) I saw another dude on a sweet '08 El Mariachi! I have to say the paint and decals of the 08 E.M. is freaking classy. Nice stuff. Makes my Dos look like a street walking hoochie mama. Some might say that I'M sort of a late 30's, pasty ass white, bike nerd version of a hoochie mama, so I guess it works out just fine. Hooch it up, and shake what your mama gave you, right?

Damn fun race and now I look forward to racing/riding with some friends at Fat Marc's Granogue 4 hour race in 2 weeks. (Pre-register now! Fool!) Oh well, time to have a couple Dog Fish Head's, make some Mexican, and and watch some Giro d'Italia. Did you ever notice that you can sing the super lame Styx song "Mr. Roboto" and change the lyrics to Giro d'Italia? Example.... "Domo arigato Giro d'Italia, Domo arigato Giro d'Italia" Go ahead and sing it. It makes a suck song a little better. AND you can drive your spouse a bit crazy. ALWAYS a bonus! ;)

Later.

(BTW- sucks for Davey Z. at the Giro. Dude was in some argyled mustachioed pain)

Thanks to Dan for the action pics used.

Back From The F.C.

Short post...

Race was cut to 5 hours due to the later start due to yesterday's bad weather. There was a LOT of rocks, a lot of mud, a LOT of climbing and a lot of rocks! Did I say rocks twice? There were 13 in my cat. I finished 7th with 4/11.5 mile laps (46 miles). Felt good about the effort given the skills of the top guys and the course. I sorta maintained my mid pack status with the 7th place. There was to be 14 racers, but some dude didn't start, so that ruined my mid packness! What the freak? Show up dude. Some of us have to try to live up to our mediocrity!

Gotta go get some sleep. over 5 hours of racing, and a 4.5 hour drive. I feel like I got hit by a 2x4 about 50 times.

Full report, etc., tomorrow.

Later.

Game On!

THE FRENCH CREEK 6 HOUR IS GO!!! BIG rain moving in tomorrow, but looks like it should mostly clear out by Saturday. Sooo, it's all a go. The rocks, the climbing, the suffering, etc., JOY! I hope for some decent drainage and pray my brake pads hold through 6 hours.

Here's a look a the course (click map to enlarge)

The miles between Course Marshall 5 and 6 look to be the worst. Looks to be some steep climbing followed by some steep descending. I see some hike-a-bike in my future. Good thing my Lake shoes have a nice rubber sole!

Wanted to road ride tonight, but got rained out. So I hit the trainer for what WAS to be an hour of tempo spinning with the occasional big ring push. BUT since the Booger is all f*cked up, shifting wise from a stretched chain, worn cog, corroded cables, etc., etc., Shifting wasn't working out so good, so I aborted at 35 minutes, and got the Dos Niner as ready as I could for Saturday's 6 hours of pain.

These races are SO much easier to get ready for. Make a few bottles, an extra bladder, a few gels, some lube, some tubes, a tire pump, a cooler- done. MUCH easier than a 24 where I tend to pack every bike related item in the house!

Looks to be a nice turn out for the 6 hour so far and I'm sure more folks will show up race day. I'm heading out tomorrow afternoon to shack up Friday night with Paleo Rich. Hope to get the low down on the course and TRY to get a good nights sleep.

I'll be back in the 'hood late Saturday night.

Later.