THAT Felt Ggggggggoooood...

What a perfect day here. 70+ degrees, sunshine and dry single track. Mmmmmm. Tasty. After a Friday night of mucho bike maintenance, Soprano's watching and crime fighting, I was ready for some good single track riding.

I plan on using the Dos for most of Lodi so I dialed it in and went to the "Lodi like" trails of Boyce Park. I think I got the Reba where I want it and everything is shifting fine. Not crazy about the front shifting of the SRAM X.0 twists. Rear is great though. The Salsa Relish shock is doing what it's supposed to do and getting full travel or damn close.

As I think I've said before the Dos Niner is no full suspension BUT it's also way more comfy than my previous hardtails. A steel or Ti hard tail 29er MAY be equally as comfy, but I have no way of saying (yet).

The Dos Niner and the Black Box.

All in all I got about 18.5 miles of single track riding and a little over two hours of saddle time. Legs were not as spanky as I would have liked and with the race coming up next weekend I may need to watch my time this week to make sure I'm good to go.

Found out my man J. "Love2Ride" B. is going to be at Lodi. Looking forward to hooking up. Lodi is going to be like a who's-who of Mid Atlantic MTB freaks. Should rock.

Got a chance to try out my new Bikeman.com bib shorts today. WOW! Super comfy and no plumber butt!

For the first time I mixed up some Perpetuem in Gel/Paste form. It freaking ROCKED! I think is was as tasty or TASTIER than some of the gels. Tastes much better than in liquid form. I mixed 3 scoops with water to the consistency I wanted then put in a Hammer flask.

Just in case you want to know what we mid pack shlep endurance racers eat for a post ride meal, here it is...

You got your 2% cheese sandwich on whole wheat, with Roma tomatoes, baby spinach, spices, a shot of red wine vinegar (or "douched" as Double K would say) and a side of mixed nuts. For liquid refreshment I made up a Java Black & Tan. 1 cup milk, 2 tea spoons sugar, ice, shot of Espesso Hammer Gel and 4 shots of fresh brewed Starbuck's espresso. Ohhhhhh yeaaaahhhhh! That'll kick you in the junk!

I'm eating freaking bird food trying to get faster, freaking FatMarc is downing hot dogs for post ride meals and is still fast as shit. Go figure!

After that I was ready for cleaning up the Dos and mucho yard work. Fired up the leaf sucker. Oh yes!

Wifey and I are going to Piper's Pub with my man Jimmy P. and his wifey to celebrate his 40th B-Day and help him get a "drink on" to forget that his job just got "out sourced" to freaking India this week. Who knew a graphics job could be "out sourced" to another continent??? Oh well looking forward to a good meal and a nice tall Franziskaner Weissbier, tis the season!

Later.

The Cycling Equivalent To A Flogged Bishop

Took the Dos Niner to Boyce Park to ride some single track tonight. Damn, I didn't really have my legs I think yesterday's 2 hours of Western PA White Trash Hill Climbs took it out of me Still got a nice 14 mile ride in though. After about 5 miles when I realized that I must have left my legs at the side of the road last night I just went into cruise mode an enjoyed the perfect spring evening. I'll rest Friday and get some nice mileage in on Saturday.

At one point tonight I was heading up a nice single track climb, a turkey is running down the trail and two dee are standing to my right looking at me. I felt the a freaking nature boy. Beats last night's road kills. But still doesn't come close to Double R's Bald Eagle photo op.

Issue: The right of way on trails. Rider going up hill has the right of way. So dude on the blue Trek that shot me a nasty look tonight when I was climbing and he had to stop. Tough. It's the "law". And to the helmetless dude that I didn't yield to. Tough. No helmet, no rights. That's how I roll. Seriously what are people thinking riding without a helmet. I've brought this up before. All it takes is one jagoff (WPA jerkoff) to bust his head open in the park and start suing the county, etc. for bikes to be banned. Put a lid on!!

Realized I may need to play more with the Reba. My Fox 100 on El Santo is SO good that any other shock just doesn't seem as plush. Might need to check out the negative air too, that might help. I also had to stop and let some air out of my Ingnitor 29ers. Just were'nt hooking up in the corners for me.

Music: iTuned the new Rakes cd today. Good stuff. Imagine The Cure circa 1980 meets Fraz Ferdinand in bed with the Futureheads. Really good. Tad short in length but the song Retreat is on my list a fave singles of the year. I believe this cd came out ages ago in England, but just now availabe here. I've had the bad as remix of Retreat for some time.

Now I'm just gonna go listen to a mix on iPodious.

Later.

I Suffer From D.O.C.A.

Great road ride tonight. Hit all the major climbs in my local post work loop repertoire. Legs felt pretty spanky. Pefect night for riding. Could have been a tad warmer for me, but It was base/jersey/shorts weather. Got 2 hours/31.5 miles in.

I'm suffering from D.O.C.A.- Delayed Onset Chap Ass. What's up with that? Saturday I forgot to take my Juice with me. Felt fine the whole race, on the trainer Monday but today at work I started Chapin' up and then tonight's ride made it worse. Gonna put some of the Juice on now, since it has some shea butter in it to help moisten up the bun brothers and keep them from getting any worse.

Hitting the trails tomorrow night on the Dos Niner for some big wheel lovin. Speaking of that. Me and B-Man were down in the basement working on bikes yesterday (ok I was working on El Santo and he was playing with some Elmo toy), he puts his hand on the Dos Niner's wheel and says "BIG wheel daddy!" I said "you know it son", then I sat him down for a little father-son chit chat on the benefits of the 29" wheel and why the Salsa Dos Niner rocks. He seemed a little glazed over at the time, but I think we made some real progress.

Later.

The Rehab Continues...

The rehab of El Santo continues from Saturday. Yikes!

Riding some of this...


In conditions like this...


Will get you thi$...


Yikes! Now I know why on lap 5 my wheel wouldn't turn. I thought I just had some mud clogged in the stays but here the pads had warn so far down, I mean COMPLETELY THE F*CK OFF!!! that when I applied the rear brake the pad spring got all jacked up and left me a tad f*cked in the brake department. Yoi!!!

In better news: Big shouts out of congratulations to Andy and Jeff for their top 10 finishes at the Cohutta 100 race. Way to go guys! Check out their blogs for some great race reports and photos.

Time for some shut eye. Trying to hit the road for a couple hours post work tomorrow. I hate work. Just thought I'd mention that? But gotz to pay for brake pads right?

Later

p.s. photo props to: Me, Dennis Smith, & Chris Heerschap. Thanks!

HOLY 35 SECONDS!

Got a look at the enduro results tonight. It appears I made it to 3rd place at French Creek by only 35 seconds. To think I was standing there for nearly 15 minutes instead of putting in a 6th lap. BBBBBBUT being that I thought I was about to finish in like 5th place all this is just crap-ol-la and I should just be happy I placed, and I am.

Got a nice spin on the trainer tonight followed by 20 minutes of cross training mowing, trimming and seeding the lawn. I mowed the lawn in my helmet/jersey/shorts/bike shoes to make it feel like I was doing a real bike work out. I'm kidding of course, but it's a thought.

I've been downing Airborne all day/night to ward off illness. Has like 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 mg of Vitamin C and other vitamins.

I ALWAYS seem to end up sick post race week, and with the cold and rain on Saturday I'm in the danger zone.

Got my Bikeman.com bib shorts today via UPS. Sweet! They fit so freaking good, and best of all NO CHANCE OF PLUMBER BUTT!! Thanks Al!

Also got some brake pads ordered up. Hope I can get them by week's end and get El Santo back. He's in a sorry state right now. Cleaned etc, but my pads are screwed and I think the calipers are bit frozen up from the mud/no pad issues. Checking the M.A.S.S. message boards, it doesn't seem like I'm the only one that's having issues.

Cape Epic mountain bike stage race is going on now in South Africa

Check it out!

Later.

French Creek 6 Hour Enduro: 4.22.06

Took the day off from work Friday to pack my stuff, do some last minute prepping to the bikes and drive out to French Creek State Park. I left noon Friday and made it to the camp site in about 3.5 hours. Checked in and started setting up the E. for camping mode. That took about 5 minutes.

I spent my time listening to iPodious, doing some reading, eating dinner and napping. The weather forecast was for some rain, but none yet other than a few sprinkles and that was fine by me.

Went to bed around 8. At 10 I woke up to some light rain. At 11 p.m. I woke to heavy rain. The rain would not stop until arrived back in White Oak on Saturday night.

Woke up Saturday a.m. around 6:30, chamoised up and headed to the race staging area to register, set up my pit supplies and get the El Santo ready for the coming 6 hours.

A group of what looked to be 20-25 Endurance racers set off at 8:00 a.m. for the what would truly be an epic 6 hours on the bike. Rain, wind, and cold temps hovering in the high 30s and 40s.

The course was a nine mile loop that started on a paved park road, headed though a couple dirt paths that lead to a muddy hike-a-bike climb up to the start of the single track.

The single track consisted of rocks, roots, rock gardens and mostly middle ring climbs. The first lap I was surprised how well the trails were draining dispite the constant rain. This would change througout the day as multiple laps from the endurance class, beginners, sport and expert/elite classes would hammer the trails into a soggy river of mud, rock and roots. Dry this course would have been great.

I was feeling pretty good even with the cold rain and my plan was just to keep hammering laps out at my pace, try to push when the trails or roads would allow and only stop to check in, and if needed grab a gel or bottle.

Coming up the paved park path to the check in early in the race. Photo by: Dennis Smith

My descision to use my 4" travel Salsa El Santo proved to be the right one. The Fox 100RLT and Manitou Swinger 3-Way were eating up the rock gardens. I had a couple dabs here and there but this was my first time on the rocks since last year's 24 Hour Champion Challenge. I was shocked (no pun intended) at the times that I would lose my line in a rock gardens but just keep pedeling and the Fox and Mantiou would come to my rescue. I ran the Fox at 80 psi and the Swinger at 120 main chamber/125 SPV.

The mud and rain just kept getting worse. By the time the Experts started, I found many of the climbs unrideable or slow going.

Approaching the staging area just as the experts where getting organized. The the group parted and I heard many shouts of encouragement from the racers in including one Fat Marc. Thanks! Photo by Dennis Smith.

I was able to check in and get out in front of the Experts but once they caught me I did my best to let them by or walk the climbs so they could make it up. They have a LOT tougher race if you ask me. Two laps to get it done, heart rates pegged. Plus it's not often you see a group of 140lb. guys floating over rocks and mud. I can make up my time later.

As I started walking one hill I saw the familiar red, white and black colors of Bikeman.com and expert racer Josh West. So I let out a GO BIKEMAN! As he climbed we exchanged hellos. I would see Josh again later as I was again walking a hill letting the experts pass. I commented to him that "I do actually RIDE my bike sometimes!" Tried to catch him post race, but out of team kits, everybody looks the same!

By the end of my 4th lap I was really losing brake power. My pads were going. Shit! Thanfully not much speed was had through the muddy down hills. I contemplated switching to the Dos Niner but figured one bike is already jacked up from the mud, jsut go with it for another lap or so.

As the end of lap 5 approached I knew I had plenty of time (about 13 minutes) to get out for #6. The question was did I need to. What place was I even in? So I spied Fernando, an old 24 Hour teammate of mine. He checked the standings and it looked like I was gonna end up around 5th, even if I went out.

5TH!!!! I thought. How much freaking faster do I need to be to place. Eeessh. But I had fun, it was some good training, etc., etc., But it IS a race with the goal to win, or get on the box. So a little dejected and freezing cold I waited till 2 p.m. on the nose and crossed the line, seemingly in 4th or 5th, BUT...

Fernando (as he done just minutes before with his wife sending her for an un-needed last lap) had misread the score sheet and I actually finished 3rd. On the box. Sweet!

The bad part was this: Since I didn't think I did that well I was was just hanging out at the awards, bundled up in my coat etc., not a thread of Bikeman.com clothing on. So when they called 4th place I politely clapped, then they called third... ME?! I was so shocked I actually asked the woman if she got it right. She did. Felt bad I didn't have any kit on to give my bad ass sponor their due props. Sorry!

The second place kat did it on a kermit green Niner single speed. And first place went to Mid-Atlantic/East Coast endurance pro Rob Lichtenwalner.

I got some eBayable booty (Set of Kenda Tubless Tires), M.A.S.S. medal and 31 sweet M.A.S.S. Enduro Series points. I thanked the dude for the tires, told him I apprecated it and he tossed me a C-Word (Cannondale) t-shirt too. Nice.

Equipment rundown: Nutrition was pretty on. Heed in my pack. 3 scoops of Hammer Perpetuem in my bottles and two flasks of Hamemr Gel. Anotherr gel flask and bladder would have been needed for one more lap.

Except for my pads wearing down to metal and a slight shifting problem on lap 5 in the muck the El Santo worked great and my new 2.1 Panaracer Cinders hooked up on everything but 1 or two tight mud slick corners. I was shocked. In all honesty the tread pattern doesn't look that different from the Fire Pros (which don't work well in PA mud for me) but the Cinders shed the mud and grip the wet rocks and roots just fine for me. Nice improvment. Thanks Panaracer!

So that's the report. Now lets Photo Blog!


Another shot later in the race. Even muddier. Is that possible???


The drive home was 3:45 of this! Yikes!


Then I almost ran out of freaking gas!


6 hours of drinking out of THIS. I'm on "Colon Blow" watch.


6 hours of wearng these. I'm on "Anal Parasite" watch. FYI that chamois is white. NOW you know how the blog got its title. Or was it from the water bottle photo? Hmmmm.

Time to rest up, recover, get the bike back in shape by ordering some freaking disc pads, and start focussing on the 12 Hours of Lodi Farms in two weeks.

Later.

Super Short Recap

Rain.
Cold.
Mud.
Rain.
Cold.
Mud.
Got 3rd.
Recap/Picts etc. tomorrow.
Did I mention it was wet, cold and muddy?

Gotta go. I need to order some new disc pads. PRONTO!

Later.

Almost Forgot...

The new Twin-Six site is up an running. Check it out for some cooler than Eph jerserys and Ts. Not to mention there's cool photos and inside, highly personal info about people like me and Kerkove! Now I KNOW you're there. Later. JM

Über Quick Post

Quick 12 miles single track ride tonight on the El Santo. Bike was great, legs felt great, and the new Panaracer Cinders look to be sweet and tacky. Soon as I eat I'll be putting some fresh "put my mind at ease" tubes in them so as to have one less thing to worry about on the starting line. Still may end up on the Dos Niner, either way I know that I'll be on a great bike.

The trails were so dry tonight I could have used road slicks. Too bad the race looks to be the complete opposite of tonight given that there's like a 99.9% chance of rain. Bring it on! I've waited since September for this and trained nearly 200 hours since November. I don't care about placing, just about knowing that I did my best and had some fun.

Good luck to Andy and Team Green Jeff racing down in the Volunteer State this weekend. Good luck! Enjoy those new rides.

Gotta go. Have a great weekend. Will post again Sat. night or Sunday.

Later.

Dropped On Climbs 75,000 Times

Not too much going on tonight. I got thrown a C-Block with some baby sitting, so I was hanging with B-Man again. Which is cool. Played some baseball/hockey/golf (at the same time) and once again watched some bike racing- at his request I swear! Wifey can even back that up, 'cause he was asking for more when she got home. So HA!

Once Wifey go home I moved the second bike mount from the Subaru to the Black Box. Then chamoised up and did a fast 30 minute spin on the trainer listening to iPodious. This actually worked out well for me this week, kinda forced me to take it easy. I'll still end up with 3 days with some saddle time before the 6 hour race on Saturday.

Did some more organizing for Friday's trip out to French Creek. Still can't make up my mind on which bike to race. Course is supposed to be rocky and the weather looks to be muddy. At 6 hours not sure if I'm better off with the lighter, simpler Dos Niner with it's big wheels to get through the mud and over the rocks, or the El Santo with 4" of front and rear travel to smooth out the rocks. El Santo means more moving parts and stuff to get gunked up. The Dos is sporting a SRAM X.O/X9 drive train which is known for working through mud a bit better than the Shimano stuff. I'm gonna use one as a back up anyway. If I get out there with some time to kill Friday and I'm feeling spanky I'll take a pre ride if the course is marked.

I used to dread mud races, but after you've done 3 Granny Gear races at Snowshoe in complete ankle to calf deep mud, and big as F West Virgina rocks, other courses don't seem as intimidating. I just hate the thought of blowing through parts due to the mud with a 12 hour race in 2 weeks. Oh well, that's why they are there, ya can't take 'em with you.

Gonna take the El Santo out tomorrow night for an hour or so. Then home to finish up the packing and stuff my face with some pasta.

Later.

Rest, Prepacking and B-Man

No ride or workout scheduled today. Tonight was B-Man night. We did it all. From playing hockey with golf clubs, to sticking rocks in a mole hole in the yard. Real guy stuff, macho shit.

Get this sappy, funny bit:

I discovered that OLN ON-Demand shows a 20 minute (combined) recap of Paris-Nice. I turned it on for a bit this evening and B-Man started shouting "bike racing daddy!!!" and pointing at the tube. Then when they showed Boonen raising his hand in victory B-man does the same and starts screaming "HE WON!! HE WON!!" He also totally geeked that the winner gets a stuffed lion.

THEN post bath he said he wanted to watch Thomas the Tank Engine, but then when I put in on he started crying for bike racing. SOOO I go to put the race on and he starts jumping up and down on the couch, again shouting "BIKE RACING! BIKE RACING DADDY!!!" But in the 10 seconds it took me to get the remote, he caught a glimpse of Jimmy Neutron and it was over. We watched Jimmy, Carl and Sheen... poop.

Have to do some schedule juggling tomorrow. Was supposed to mountain bike to dial the sleds in for the race, but Papa-O' can't hang with B. So I'll do some packing and then some trainer time to get some efforts in the legs when Wifey gets home around 8 or so. No big deal, I can get them out on Thursday.

That's all I got.

Later.

A Turn of A Pedal In Anger Still Turns

Perfect weather to start off Race Taper Week #1. Ohhh Yeahhhh.

Got the road bike out for a quick 31 mile/1:48 road ride. Started with Climb Option B. Still a 2 mile climb up from the river valley, but a little more gradual. Legs felt real good tonight and I was having one of those beautiful "Zen Rides". Good tempo, great weather, focused on the week's plan and Saturday's race, you know the kinda of ride I'm talking about.

THEN at about mile 18 or 19 some freaking D.B. in a pick up truck full of red necks pulls along side a screams something about how I should get off the road and use the rail trails. Now I've become a gentler rider in the past few years and have chose to not say to much in return to said D.B.s, BUT recently I've been a bit stressed on the road with all the recent tragic stories and tales of road rage. So I IMMEDIATELY let loose with a high spirited suggestion that he should move along and proceed to have large amounts of intercourse with himself. He just speeds off making sure to kick up some gravel on the side of the road at me.

My heart rate shot through the f-ing roof! I just turned into freaking monster on the climbs I was attacking them like a f*cking fool, muttering f-bombs to myself the whole way.

I once read a comment by one of the great cycling "journalists" of our time, where he commented how he does not turn pedals in anger. Well tonight for at least a few miles I went from a beautiful Zen state to complete rage on the bike, turning pedals with thoughts of kicking that gun loving-grade school drop out-sex with his sister-dog tied to a tree outside the trailer-14 year old daughter knocked up by her cousin-McDonalds eating-bad beer drinking-NASCAR loving-ass hole right in the freaking teeth with a toe spiked Sidi.

Sorry if I offended anyone with that rant. But damn that felt ggggggggoooood.

I've heard tales from some locals who had the chance to ride in Italy. They spoke of shouts of encouragement, cars waiting for THEM, and friendly waves from motorists. Sounds like heaven!

Don't get me wrong, I've encountered some really great people on the roads too. But it just seems the bad ones always out-weigh the good ones. Why are motorists so angry? I'm not in their way. Are they jealous of my freedom on the bike? Of my fitness? Do they think because I'm out riding my bike that I must be some uppity rich guy and not just an almost half way normal guy who loves to ride and race bikes and just happens to have a credit card company dumb enough to issue him a card, and doesn't care about taking some debt to his grave if it meant he spent his life enjoying the outdoors on a bike?

After I got my HR down I mellowed out again hit some farm roads, enjoyed the spring sun shine casting the shadow of my legs spinning again open fields and got back to having fun riding my bike. Aside from that incident the ride was tits. Felt real good on the climbs.

Hit up the Evil Empire (Wal-Mart) for some race/camp supplies today. Man they had and 18 pack of Red Bull for like $19. Freaking SWEET. I didn't buy it, but I'll be back.

Weather for Saturday, looks like it might be on the wet/cold side. Bring it on! If it looks to get muddy I'll go with the Dos Niner for simplicity, more tire hook up and the better mud shifting SRAM drive train.

In other news. Wanna see a World Champion mountain biker eat some mud? Check it out then!

Be careful out there.

Later.

The Pro Peloton According To Wifey....

Not much going on this Easter Sunday. Up early with the B-Man for Bunny Basket Time and egg hunting. Good times. What does the son of Chamois get in an Easter basket? Homemade Rice Krispy Treats made my Wifey, stickers and other little treats. Dude got like 3 or 4 Easter baskets this weekend. Being a kid rocks!

Post "Java Slam" I loosened the legs up for 35 minutes on the trainer. REAL easy. Just an excuse to listen to the new Ladytron MP3s I downloaded from emusic.com (site and deal rocks if you're an indie hipster like my own self) CD is great. I've been a fan of theirs for a while. New Wave-Euro-Synth pop with some Shoegazer in it. For some reason no matter what they sing comes off sounding a tad perverse. I dig.

Then it was off to Papy-M's with B-Man for Easter dinner. NO HAM! I REPEAT- NO F*CKING HAM! I'm 34 years old and I felt the need to fake a "Ham-ism" and lie on Easter Sunday to avoided the salty pig. Nice. "How's the ham Jase?" "Real good, mmmmm" Then I conveniently "forgot" my leftovers. But if you have family, and I assume you do, you know there's no way to just say "no thank you" after someone cooks up something special for a holiday meal. It was appreciated, but just not on my food radar right now.

Then it was home to watch the Amstel Gold race on OLN with B-Man and Wifey. I really enjoyed this race today. It reminded me of yesterday's road ride. Narrow roads, misty grey and steep climbs.

CSC's Fränk Schleck got it done.

Dude has a sweet pedal stroke and was hauling some serious ass.

Also super impressive was T-Mobile's German turned Swiss- Steffen Wesemann.

Photos from Cyclingnews.com, thanks!

Wesemann busted out some serious solo breaks and pulls today. Strong looking rider. Same age as me too. I like seeing the "older" guys do some damage and not just 25 year old Belgians.

Wifey's take on the race after two hours of viewing was this- She likes Wesemann because he looks more "normal" and she said he was "hot". Fränk Schleck, although the winner, had that "scrawny, sickly look that most pro cyclists have". Ironically I've been trying for that sickly look for years yet she stays with me. Hmmmmm...

Post work road ride tomorrow. Nothing major. Wifey is sick so I'm keeping my distance from her and trying not to get run down so I can avoid taking a cold into the first race of the year. That would suck.

Later.

Ride Of The Midget

I finally got to ride today. Not forgetting stuff is cool. Took the Trek 2200 out for some nice time on the road.

I was prepared for a long ride so I had the CamelToe® filled with HEED (yes, I put it in my pack), a T6 Bottle of Perpetuem and and two filled Hammer Gel flasks. After road riding without a pack for a while now I felt like a freaking skinny tired tank. The ride starts with a 1.5-2 mile climb with some sick grades in spots. I felt like I had a midget on my back weighing me down, laughing in my ear and mocking me for wearing the pack. That climb kinda sucked.

Somehow I made it to the top, found my legs, ditched the laughing midget prick and continued on. Hit some new roads that were pretty cool, but may have been better on a mountain bike rather than the roadie. STEEP, narrow climbs with a healthy dose of loose gravel, pot holes and cow dung. Sweet! Cornering was slow going.

Hit one narrow farm road called Slaughter Hollow Road. Real nice, I rode that one with one eye looking for sheep loving red necks, wielding axes and looking for some fresh, shaved legged meat.

At mile 44 I was back at the car. That won't work! Who the F rides 44 miles?? So I pass the Black Box and head up hill #1 AGAIN. This time feeling much better. How F-ed is it that after 44 miles and about 3 hours of riding I felt better this time than the first. Rode up the hill, down another then did a U-turn and climbed back up and cruised at a modest 40 mph down to the Black Box. Ended with 52.5 miles, 3:20.

All in all- a good ride. Not great, but good. So much climbing that cruising along at moderate speeds just doesn't really happen. I can only hope that all that climbing in 39/25 will make climbing in 32/34 feel like nothing. One good thing is what goes up usually comes down which is fun, although I have a very Jan Ulrich style of descending- Sink like a stone and just as graceful! It was also nice that after nearly 3.5 hours in the saddle I still felt good at the end.

Used the new Greyhound Juice warming stick on my legs today. Good stuff. This version is for warm weather but the warming effect is still pretty intense. Shit, the cold weather version must just melt your skin off. I also used the new Greyhound Juice Anti Friction chamois cream too. My butt and it's two chamois sharing friends are happy I did. With climbs like today's, there's a lot of weight shiffting in the saddle and I had no soreness from rubbage at all in the end. (no pun intended)

Observations: What's up with all the dead possums? Every ride I go on I see like 3 or 4. What, do they just hang in the middle of the road begging to get hit or what?

Time to get my plan together for the race week taper. I find these weeks hard. Taper weeks and recovery weeks are the worst for me. At least with recovery weeks my body usually feels like dung, but with taper I'm all jacked up to ride/race and forcing myself to focus on the impending race is hard. Getting better though.

Hope you all had/are having a good Easter weekend. Sunday's goal- avoid ham. Ham is more evil than peanut butter. My fingers swell up like sausages, andit makes me super thirsty. Not a fan, so it's easy. Unlike the smooth, salty, sugary, creamy goodness that IS peanut butter.

Later.

I'm a Moe-Ran

God damn sometimes I amaze myself at my utter lack of intelligence. (I'm sure you're not so shocked).

The B-Man and I were off today, so we slept in ('till 7:30!) and by 8 he had his Lazer lid on wanting to be pushed up and down the front sidewalk on his bike. So I put some pants on, grabbed my bean-pot full of Starfuck's™ and out the door we went for some Grommet pushing. After about 5 minutes the rain chased us back in to hang and watch Sponge Bob 'till it was time to load up the gear to head out to Pappy-M's.

Packed up the Treks (his and mine) and headed out. When we to Scottdale the weather looked to be clearing up and I was pretty geeked. I planned on adding some new roads to my loop and was hoping for 50-60 miles.

Here's were I'm an idiot- I pack all the gear for a long road ride: rain gear, CamelToe®, bottles, gels, shoes, helmet, gloves, I had it all. EXCEPT my jersey and shorts. SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET.

Now I remember a day when I didn't need all this shit to ride my bike, BUT I CAN not and WILL not ride 60 miles in T-shirt and jeans. That just will not happen. So ride aborted. F*ck.

Wifey is working late today so I may end up with ANOTHER night on the trainer and prep for the road tomorrow. I smell century. Oh no that's just some tuna.

In good news: I registered for MASS Enduro #1 today and am also expecting a box of goodies from Bikman.com world HQ today. Combine that with not being at work, and spending some quality time with B-Man, the Grommet and my Dad and you got the makings of a Good Friday.

Later

I Love Lamp

Easy spin on the trainer tonight just to loosen the legs up. I have plans for big mileage on Friday and Saturday so I just rode Booger (my lime green/rusted out Jamis Nova) on the trainer, watched Paris-Roubaix (again) and rocked one of my mixes on iPodious.

I've come to the conclusion that Skippy = Satan.

Ever since I became addicted to PB&J sandwiches and Skippy a few months ago I just can't seem to shake a few extra lbs., no matter how many freaking miles I put in. So for a few weeks I'm officially OFF peanut butter (AKA The Legume of Satan). To exercise the evil, creamy goodness I wanted to throw a virgin jar into a volcano but since we're short on both of those around here I just chucked an empty into my neighbors yard. Should work just fine.

Need some ride inspiration? Click here for some.

Weather is calling for some off/on shower and warm temps tomorrow. Ratz! Looks like I'll need to strap on the Salsa rain jacket and lather up the chamois good to ward off the chap-ass.

Later.

Link Update...

Two new links from some other bikeman.com team members. Check 'em out

First is Matt D., great clean looking site called Bucket Republic. Glad to see I'm not the only one taking pictures of food. Good stuff.

Next is Long Tall Steve with Mister Misanthropic. Steve has ruined my day because upon reading his site I IMMEDIATELY saw a quote that I am kicking myself in the ass for not coming up with first. It sums up the feeling of a day gone bad...

"It's 68 degrees and sunny outside. I'm not going to ride my bike today. Fuck Everything!" - LT Steve

Brilliant! I look forward to reading more from these two. Enjoy.

Later

I Give Almost Nothing...

So an off day of training leaves little in the blogging dept. I apologize.

I did add some links today. 1st up is the site for Reevax, a Belgian team dedicated to marathon and mountain bike stage races like Trans Alpes, etc.. I followed them last year via their web site and their insite into the European marathon mountain bike stage race scene is pretty cool. Check 'em out. Hard to believe how popular the maraton races are in Europe. Hope they can get that big here.

Next is Napfgeist from Switzerland. Another interesting prospective into the scene in Europe. If you REALLY want to you can Google the site and have it translated. I'm going to see if I can get by without. I smell international incident.

INFO REQUEST: East Coast Peeps. Can anyone give me some beta on the French Creek race course for the 22nd? I hear there's a lot of rock. Rocks like Seven Springs? Big Bear? Snowshoe? Trying to decide 29er soft tail or 4" FS for the 6 hour enduro. Thanks!

You may (or may not) be wondering where the spin mixes and Podcasts went. 1st I had some issues with storage for my Podcasts (not enough MB) and then I started seeing some .gov agency peeps from D.C. looking at the site. Now these just may be some .govs that happen to dig the Chamois or they may have been ready pounce on me for a some sort of ©opyright issue. I really don't see how. No money was made or lost my versions of songs that were mixed into large dj mixes and could hardly replace buying it etc. BUT you never know. I just know I hadn't been that paranoid since a few late night parties back in art school. Sometimes freedom is just a word.

Anyway the mixes are still around and will be appearing again soon just maybe not in a links section. You may have to work a little more to enjoy the Sounds of A Soiled Chamois.

Might just spin indoors tomorrow. I'm trying to plan a Good Rideday multi hour road bike session.

Later.

Raw, Spent, etc., etc.,

This is about how my legs feel after the 4th day on the bike with some serious hillage (not sure that's a word, ok I KNOW it's not a word but I'm using it) on the road bike tonight.

The first climb was a newish one for me. It shoots up for about 1.5 miles of steep grade. Then you're rewarded with a sweet slight down hill on some good roads, ONLY to have to go up another hill of about a mile or so. I normally love these climbs but I was feeling the previous 3 days as soon as I hit that first climb.

Just when I started to warm up I hit some construction. DOH! Had to stand there and chat with the flag man for close to 5 minutes until it was good to go. Just long enough for the legs to start cooling down.

During the ride all I could think about was dinner. Passing about 3 houses that were BBQing didn't help. I just wanted a big ass plate of whole wheat pasta, with broccoli and olive oil. That's what kept me going tonight or I would have packed it in on the first climb.

In the end I finished with 33.5 miles/2:02. Got 1 wave, 2 positive honks from motorists, 1 "go Lance" by two overweight High School kids and someone passed and yelled something but I couldn't make it out since they were eating an ice cream cone and their face was stuff with vanilla soft serve. I just smiled and waved. Beats getting a Big Gulp thrown at me like KoKo. That's freaking priceless. Then again if I saw KoKo out on the road I'D throw a Big Gulp at him too. Or a can opener.

Glad I pushed through. I guess you need to do that or you can't improve or get stronger. No ride tomorrow. Gonna chill my ass out and let the legs get some mojo back.

Saw in the comments Napfgeist from Switzerland was busting my balls about busting Sauser's balls a few posts ago, and also recommended Sauser's site too. Speaking of Euros. Ton of peeps from Europe hitting the site in the past couple days. France, Spain, Bosnia, Switzerland, Germany . Pretty cool. Noticed some locals too. Cool.

As promised, here's the B-Man ripping it up this weekend...

Here he is being guided by Pappy-M. Dig the Salsa bell and Lazer Lid. Ride on B-Man!

Later.

If you got meat, don't let it loaf. If you don't got it, don't let whatever you have loaf.

Good Monday

You know heading back to work isn't so bad when it's 60 degrees, sunny and you have a bike on top of your car, all prepped for a post work booty shake on some single track.

Got my second big ride on the Dos Niner tonight. It continues to impress. For my style of riding I can find no negatives with the big wheels. If I was more of an XC geek rather than XXC geek, maybe I would. Or if I had ever actually been fast in the first place.

The only thing that I will say, is that when I learn to ride it like a hard tail and not a like my El Santo it becomes super comfy. The wheels and the 1" Relish shock add comfort that no stock hard tail (that I've ever been on) can. It won't let you get lazy like a full cush will but it's a great happy medium amd small roots and rocky sections just go away. I'm thrilled with it.

I really thought the ride was gonna suck, since I ate some dirt within the first mile. I was carrying way too much speed into a corner and the next thing I knew my shoulder and arm where taking soil samples. I popped up and checked the Dos and the T6 Argyle for damage. All was good so I hammered on and the ride was blissful.

Ended with 2:05/18.2 miles.

Other news....

Just about all of us have seen this. No words needed. We've all been there on some level. Good luck Georgie.


More news....


Looks like I got selected Blog of the Month from BikeBlogs.com. Thanks a bunch. Hope anyone new to reading the Chamois finds it at least mildly entertaining and helpful in some way.

As I've said here many times, I'm no pro, I just enjoy riding and racing my bike for long periods of time in between working a full time job and being a husband and father. At some point (about a year ago) I got the idea that people might actually find the shit that happens to me interesting. I'm now SURE that it's not interesting but I enjoy writing about it anyway.

If you do want ride vicariously through a pro, check out Christoph Sauser's web page and diary. I've been hooked on it for months. Even though I JUST made fun of him here the other day for his Euro shoes and the baggies he was wearing on them, he and his web page rocks.

Later.

Sunday: Make Up Day

So the weather was dark, gray and cold as hell on Saturday a.m. so I opted for time on the trainer and getting a good sweat on in hopes of a nice road ride today. And my plan worked perfectly! I loaded up the E. with my bike, B-Man's Trek "Grommet",all the goods and B-Man of course and headed out to Pappy-M's in Scottdale.

Temps where a crisp 40ish at the start but the bright sunshine made it seem a little warmer and provided some snap in my legs. Within the first mile I ran into a roadie and we had one of those "Hey it's one of "us!-Where ya heading?-Wanna ride together?" moments that cyclists so often do. So we rode a few miles together. He was heading to a group ride and asked if I wanted to go. Cool offer, but with B-Man at my dad's and my route planned in my head I declined and told him maybe another time. He also mentioned that they do some group rides on Tuesday's and Thursday's, about 6 or 8 guys. I told him I remember a day growing up where there wasn't 6 or 8 cyclists in all of Scottdale!

Cool to see people other than myself taking advantage of the endless back roads that that part of the county has. Ride on people! As I've said before I spent all my teens and early twenties wanting to move closer to the city, now I wouldn't mind moving back there at all. Wifey's on the same page too. I need some space away from people.

Back to the ride.... I was feeling real good. Felt like my legs could have gone all day and whish I coulda got another hour or two in, but sometimes family duty calls. Hit a variety of steep climbs and felt strong. This was one of the first rides that I felt like all the leg presses and stair climbing paid off. This was also a good ride to gauge my fitness since I know many of the roads well I was able to remember points at which my quads would normally start to burn and note to myself the positive difference.

Nutrition was on with my bottles of Heed and a good Hammer Gel mix of Espresso and Banana (my fave)

Not a good night for Scottdale area possums. 3 fresh possum road kills sighted. My condolences to the area possum families.

Ended up with 2:20 and a little over 42 miles. Hope to hit the trails with the Dos Niner tomorrow.

B-Man was giving the Grommet a work out today. Cool thing to EVERY time he got on the bike he asked for his helmet. Gotta couple pics on my dad's digital that I hope to post later. He wasn't pedaling yet but was having a great time having me push him around the yard. That's my boy!

It was great to get a awesome ride in after yesterday's plans fell through. The sun was actually bright! I tell you when the sun hit my pasty skin that peeked out below the knee warmers it REALLY glowed bright white. Eeeesh I need som sun!

Time to cap off the weekend by watching Roubaix at 6 on OLN and cook up some J-Man-Mexicana.

Later. Hope you all got some miles in this weekend! (and J.B. I hope you're recovery is going well!)

Nice.

Nice. Christoph Sauser not content to just rock what looks like a pink Specialized in a horrorific gear combonation, was also sporting some hay-noose So-Euro-Pro shoes with So-White-Trash-Jason-Like shoe covers. I love it! $5000 bike, $200 shoes and $1.99 shoe covers. Sweet!

The weather has once again gone from 75 to of or being like the witches teet. Might hold off the road ride till tomorrow and just listen to a mix on iPodious on the trainer for an hour or two.

Later.

El Caliente Snot Rocket!

FINALLY got a ride in on my new Dos Niner. VERY impressed. Spent two hours riding 16+ miles of super twisty single track with it. I could not believe how fast 2 hours went!

I was a tad nervous about this ride. I mean I sold my beloved Titus Ti frame to get the Dos. What if I hated it? What if I saw no advantage over a hard tail 26er? What If I hate the SRAM stuff? What if the Reba sucks?
Well, my mind is SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSO at ease right now.

So as not to jump the gun and start getting all cow-eyed after the first ride I'm gonna break down opinions into a few sections over the next couple months. We'll start with my first impressions and dialing it in.

El Caliente Snot Rocket! Ride #1:

The fist thing I noticed on the Dos was I felt very comfortable. The bike just felt "right". I never felt like I was riding some freak of nature side-show bike, it felt very normal. I adjusted to the SRAM XO Grip Shifts pretty quickly (from Shimano Triggers/Rapid Rise on the El Santo) and I like the solid click of the shifts. I did need to spend some time making some adjustments since I was having some trouble in 2/8 and 2/7. Got it going with some barrel adjustments. Not being the most mechanical guy and being new to SRAM, this took a while, but I was able to do it on the fly and not have to waste time.



The front derailleur may need adjusted a bit too. I found it hard to just twist and have it click right away, some times I needed to make small twists after the initial shift was made to get the chain not to rub. This all may be me getting used to the the new shifting and the cables stretching etc. I need to look at it more.

Some of the knock on 29ers is their ability in tight, slow speed single track. I found the big wheels very easy to maneuver through tight switch backs and turns. I had one slow speed spill due to some new trail, a bit of mud in the Ignitors and tight off camber turn. Other than than I felt way more confident on the big wheels. More stable, balanced and in control.

Climbing went very well. Tonight I felt that it climbed better than on my El Santo. I may have just had some good mojo tonight too. My Dos Niner is also about 2lbs lighter than the El Santo too. On one steep, loose rock climb I felt the front end wanting to come up a bit, but admittedly this is the first time I've done this climb since last year so it may have been a lack of focus. On root covered climbs it just rolled right over them, the big wheel patch hooked up and the 1" cush from the Relish Shock provided some extra traction.

The Reba 29er felt real good too. It's set at 80mm right now and I can't really say I missed the extra 20mm all that much. On one big log pile I missed the extra give a bit and should have unweighted the front just a little earlier. The wheels helped me correct my error and get over fine. Other than that I'm real impressed with the smooth action so far. The lock-out on the right side of the crown is SUPER easy to access and turn. More so than the Fox manual lockout and I don't regret not getting the remote at all. I've not used a Rock Shox fork in a few years so I'll be interested to see how the Reba holds up over the season.

One thing I loved was the ability to roll over roots and small logs like they where just a minor nuisance. On certain trails I just kept thinking- "This feels like cheating". I felt like I was using less upper body strength, letting the wheels and the Reba do the work. Over a 100 miler or 6 hour race this is going to be huge. I still need to get it on some rocks to see how that goes. Hope the mountains dry soon.

On a service road climb I locked out the Reba, stood up and hammered up the hill. Felt like I was on a CX bike or road bike. It just took off! NICE!

With both the Relish and the Reba I'm currently just going with the recomended PSI for my weight. Feels good for now. Plan on experimenting a bit in the near future.

I don't think the wheels and the Relish will match the comfort of the El Santo of muliple hours on technical single track. I mean 4" front and rear on the El Santo is like floating on air. But I will say that it's WAY more comfortable than ANY hard tail I've ever been on. If I had to have ONE bike, right now I'm almost certain it would be the Dos Niner. I'm sure this will be the weapon for the Mohican 100 and the Wilderness 101.

As I said much of this is just first ride bliss. I will keep posting and noting as I ride the Dos Niner and the El Santo more on my training loops. Right now I do not regret my decision at all and can't believe I ever scoffed at the idea of 29" wheels.

I'm also lucky that each time I head out on trails I have my choice of great bikes.

Hump Day Chamois Time

The weather here has turned cold again and I'm not sure I have any more "nipple" rides in me so it was an hour on the trainer doing threshold intervals, listening to the new Morrissey (9/10 stars) and continuing to watch Flanders. Weather is supposed to warm up a good bit tomorrow so I'm hoping to FINALLY get the Dos Niner out on some dirt.

BIKEMAN.COM TEAM SPONSOR PIMP WARNING!

Big Al let the team in on some of the comp products we'll be getting the hook up on today. Sweet!

Panaracer Rubber:

I'm going with the Cinder 2.1. Weight should be on par with the Maxxis ADvanatages I used last year. My back up choice is the old standby Fire Pro XC. I will be using the Maxxis Ignitor 2.1 29er on the Dos Niner.

Slick Willy Lubes:

It's KY for your bike chain! Looks to be good stuff. Even if it's name is the derogatory nickname of my fave president. Check it out - Buy if you dig.

And possibly my butt's new best friend: Greyhound Juice

I'm going with the Anti Friction Chamois Cream since it seems like it could have other uses too... Ahem, *cough-cough* (mind out of gutter) like helping the chaffing from hydration packs and nipple chaffing (I kid you not) during 24 Hour races and more.

Also going to try the Warm Weather Muscle Warming Salve.

That's it for tonight. Thanks to all these sponsors for helping out Team Bikeman.com this year and a shout out to Big Al for coordinating it all. Once these products are in hand and get some time on the bike with them I will be posting my thoughts and impressions of them. The season is nearly upon us. Hope to bring home some quality. upper half of mid pack results, ha!

Later.

Enter: One Shaven KoKo

Ohhhhh boy, what a week for my man KoKo. First he get's stung by an insect whilst road riding and apparently his leg is now like big kosher ham. Then he throws some gasoline on the cycling fire and decides to make with the shaved legs. Hmmm, not sure that was met with open arms by Double K. Can't help you out with this one brother. Good luck. I'm sure I got blamed, ha! Put her mind at ease and tell her that this fills the void of you wanting to wear her underwear. HAA!!!! Sorry Double-K.

Remember this Dave, it's this one...

Ha! Funny thing, as I've said before I've had my legs shaved for so long I forget what it's like to have 'em bushy. Just a personal pref. That and it fills the void of me wanting to wear Wifey's underwear, DOH! I've said too much.

No ride on Tuesday. Chilled with B-Man, Listened to the new Moz all day, and stood in the basement gazing at the Dos Niner. My luck, 2 new bikes and the weather turns from 70 to 30 and crap. Trainer tonight.

Later.

Bunch of Random Blathering...

Not too much going on. Got an hour on the trainer in just spinning 90-100 rpm. Wanted to keep the legs loose after Friday's 3 hour mountain bike ride and Sunday's 3 hour road ride. They felt really good so I must have recovered pretty good after those rides.

Added some new links to the right. Product reviews that I've recently done for Bikeman.com. Right now there's the Lazer Genesis helmet, the 2006 Salsa El Santo and Hammer Nutrition. Check 'em out if you're interested in any of those goods.

Also check out the Bikeman.com Vedor Links. This is every brand Bikeman.com carries. If it's on the list they can get products from them easily even if you don't see it on the Bikeman.com web site.

Lastly I puts some new spin mixes on. Vol. IV and V. These are big files since they are coninuous DJ cross fade mixes I made. Between 30-40 megs so you better have some cable or DSL internet. Vol. IV is more of an indie pop mix (real music with vocal and everything, ha!) and Vol. V is more hipster doofus chill out music. Hope you enjoy. Here's the set list for Mix IV:

Chamois Spin Mix Vol. IV
Miracle DrugA.C. Newman
Kicks In The SchoolyardThe Rosebuds
Not Even JailInterpol
The Boy RacerMorrissey
MeantimeThe Futureheads
C'mon C'monThe Von Bondies
Lose ItSupergrass
All For You, SophiaFranz Ferdinand
No Good TimeGraham Coxon
Nimrod's SonThe Pixies
False AlarmSloan
Shake The Dope OutThe Warlocks
IHOPLuna
Sphagnum EsplanadeThe Shins

Hope you enjoy, and check out these artists for some great songs.

Vol. V has stuff from Primal Scream, Stereolab, Dntel, Postal Service, and more. Has both aggresive noise and dream pop with beeps, blips and noise. Do not adjust your head phones it's SUPPOSED to sound like that.

This scene with Boonen hammering up the cobbles of the Koppenberg climb during Flanders yesterday was amazing. He was putting the hammer down, people screaming, Belgian flags waving. It was balls!



I watched this again tonight while spinning. When this climb started, I could just feel my legs moving faster. I couldn't help it. Then after about the first 14 riders the others started freaking walking, people screaming at them, I even saw some riders throwing fists at each other! You KNOW this climb mus be hard if pros are WALKING!

From one great Belgian, to one jack-ass of a Belgian. Filip is back. I wonder how the other racers reacted?


I guess he would have made the climb with EPO?

That's it. Tomorrow is no bike. B-Man time.

Quick Update

Just a little update to let you all know what's going on.

Tom put me to the head of the line bypassing his high roller clients for little ol me and did a freaking power build on the Dos Niner. Everything is freaking tits!

It's freaking sweet. Would have loved to have rode it today, but I had it in my mind I wanted some serious road time in and so that's what I did...

Hauled nuts for 3+ hours and just under 50 miles. I hit some serious climbs with some gradients that where so steep my arms hurt more than my legs from pulling on the bar to haul my ass up!

Today I got more time rocking the new Lazer Genesis lid.

I can't say enough about this helmet. 110% better than last years Lazer Blade. Stay tuned here for a full length review.

I will have more impressions on the Dos in the coming days too.

Later.