The coolest greeting card ever...

Maiden voyage...

My Tomac Carbide SL arrived last Friday. I took my last personal day of the year from my day job to get in a long solo ride, and upon my return I was greeted by foreign tracks in the driveway.... and this....
The following week was a planned rest week anyway so it would be a perfect time to build a bike without being in a rush to get it together for the next ride. No midnight oil this time. Take my time. By Wednesday I was ready to go, I thought....
The rest of the week was spent dreaming about taking this 23.2 lb monster into the woods. I'd hit a couple (easy road) recovery rides on it and thought I had it dialed but my first excursion into Wawayanda on Saturday had me scratching my head. I'm a 23 inch top tube with a 110 stem guy. I never waver from that. Never!! Every bike is slightly different and little changes can make a huge difference, I know. So I swapped the 110 for a 100, raised the bars a half inch and swapped the Fox fork for the Specialized brain. It won't work I thought.... I was dead wrong!
What a difference. The minute I hit the single track on Sunday I was in love. My buddies and I were meeting at 10am at Jungle and I rode down early just to see how it would feel. I'm amazed! The Tomac Carbide SL is hands down the best bike I've ridden on the tight and uber technical trails of Jungle Habitat. After about 15 minutes I found myself hitting lines that were impossible at speed on any other bike. That confidence had me off the brakes at points that usually require heavy braking. On the rare occasion that we would pause to grab a bottle or regroup I would check the rear shock. The recommended pressure for my weight on Tomac.com was right on point. I never bottomed but hit full travel. Perfect.
These trails are bony and can be rough on bike and body, the kind of place that can leave you feeling defeated and wanting to take up spin or some other sport. The nimble Carbide and I quickly made great friends. It's rare you find a bike that handles the tech this well and has no problem motoring on the road also. I think I found the perfect do it all machine....

Many of you are still racing, my "off season" is coming to an end....

Jocelyn rocked it at the Cathedral Pines 6hr last week. Winning the SS womens and making a dent into the SS mens. Nice job Joc!

First off I'd like to thank my new sponsors for showing their support. Tomac bikes and Gu energy labs. I'm grateful for the support and am looking forward to 2012...I'm stoked to have you on board...Awesome!!!

I'd like to use the phrase off season to describe me laying on the couch, taking in a movie or maybe getting together with some non biking friends. This is not my reality. My laying on the couch follows me splitting wood for three hours straight or exhausted from the gym or waiting to go to a 7:30 yoga class, I get up at 4:30 BTW. The movies are Net Flix or some cheap slasher flick (can't tell you the last one I sat all the way through) and the friends are the local freeride crowd. I should ride with them more, it's eye opening. The point is, during the off season at some point I realize I'm actually training more than normal. This is all because I stop writing my workouts down. The training log causes me to realize that I'm doing too much. Crazy? Maybe. I just love being active. I'm enjoying it. Even if it's working me over. Let the structure begin.

The first week of December has long been marked on the calendar as the official start of my 2012 season.
I'm looking forward to March where I've worked out the logistics of my West Coast campaign. I'm front loading the season. Don't want to say too much but things are gonna get a lot tougher. Racing super fit competition in March will hopefully jump start my season. I require a few races to get my season on track.
At the end of April I'm registered at the Cohutta 100 (NUE series #1) in the open class. That's right, no single speed this year. This decision was easy. The single has treated me well but I have a "been there done that" feeling that I can't shake. I haven't even been on the single since the last short track race back in the beginning of October. I won't be at singlespeed-a-palloza to defend my three time title either. Hopefull some local will step up. Rog? Sean? James? Ron? Maybe Thom? I hear of a comeback.

How many NUE's will I do? That depends. In addition to Cohutta we have a cabin booked at Mohican and Jocelyn keeps talking about unfinished business at Lumberjack. Probably the W101 and Shenandoah also just because those races are so good. Who knows, with any luck I may be making a trip to Georgia for the finals. Well see....