Group rides...

It's hard to improve on the perfect single speed, I've upgraded my SS situation with the carbon version. I'm hopefull it treats me as well as Stumpy...


The heat has been oppressive in the North East of late. Temps in the high ninety's and eight percent humidity have really sucked the life out of me in the past week. This week was supposed to be a final push for the upcoming races on my schedule but was a complete wash. With the exception of this weekend.
Saturday, Jocelyn and I decided that if we were going to get out at all, we better do it early. Not 8am like I tried and failed at on Thursday. SIX!!!! Who rides at 6am? People who live in the desert maybe. It's been so hot so that when I suggested it she just groaned "I'll do it". Jocelyn is not a morning person. A couple strokes of the keys and I posted the ride on Facebook also just in case anyone else wanted to join in our sleep deprived suffer fest. It turned out it was just her and I but we were fine with that. We rode all our favorite trails and Jocelyn even turned me on to some super sweet single track I'd never seen before. This early Saturday ride was great, getting me home like a normal person at a reasonable hour to do some chores. I may make it a regular thing.
Sunday morning we headed up to Stewart to ride this years Dark Horse 40 course. A big group ride was on tap. I often don't do group rides but I rode with a few guys on Tuesday and had a ball, so I figured, why not? Stewart lends itself to a good group paced ride because the trails are so fast and flow well not to mention the 40 course was marked so if anyone dropped off the pace they wouldn't get lost. Roger Foco, Gordon and I ended up floating off the front after a while and proceeded to lay the smack down on the course. We all traded pulls the whole time only slowing to get by the small groups of preriders that we would come up on once in a while. About mid point of the second 20 mile lap the pace was starting to slow so Gordon got to the front and put in a monster Jens Voigt type pull snapping Rog and I out of our funk. Gordon was all business, Laying a solid pace down that had me thinking that if he had gotten in to the race he may have been a lock for a top ten finish. Shortly after, we finished in the rain, it felt refreshing on this hot and humid day.
The whole experience of the day had me thinking that if I could ride like this every week I'd be a very dangerous person on the XC circuit. Hmmmmm, maybe a group ride isn't so bad after all.

It's a hundred in the shade...

Just when you think you're starting to gain some momentum by putting in some consistent training hours, mother nature strikes again.
Winter was a bitch with freezing cold temps holding on till late April, it seemed. Spring was a wash (pun intended) with what would turn out to be biblical rains on a daily basis. Now the oppressive heat of a north east summer. Come on already! Freezing cold and fourteen inches of snow sounds good right now. At least I could go outside in the winter. I will never bitch about the winter again. NEVER!

Overgeared again....

It's a strange feeling when your legs give out before your cardio, too big of a gear can cause this to happen. I've been over estimating my fitness a lot lately


Goal #1: Ride cross country race like it's a 20m short track...

Goal #2: After cracking, finish the best you can...

I've not done much cross country this year so I lack a good bit of pop, I wanted to race this way to work on that but also because I need to know what it feels like to crack and come back from it right now.
For me, endurance racing is all about avoiding the rough patches. I often come up on guys who were super fast at the start of an endurance race who look like crap four or five hours in. My goal in the endurance game is to avoid that. Training is part of it but pacing is crucial.
On the other hand cross country racing is about postponing the walking off a cliff feeling. If you can do an hour and a half at full speed, you'll win a lot of races. Right now, I have about 52 minutes in me. Don't get me wrong, it's getting better. Two weeks ago (Lewis Morris) I lasted 40 minutes then had to slow down so much to recover that it wasn't even worth finishing. This week at Fair Hill was better. Upon slowing, I was picked off by a few riders, dropping me to about 23rd place but was able to recover at a pace that somewhat looked like racing. The good news is, in the last 20 minutes I dug deep and managed to work my way back to 18th place. So I got through it, and from experience I know it will only get better. Room for improvement? Yes, but I can only go up from here and I'm okay with that....

Back to my roots (and rocks)

Pic from Lumberjack 100, (nothing at all like Cannonball)

Been back at Cannonball lately. That's what it's all about. This is where I got my start and learned how to ride a mountain bike. Trial by fire most would say. These trails are ultra technical and super raw. The challenge is to stay on the bike, that's how you go fast here. Smooth is fast. Perfect is fast. Almost Impossible to be perfect here. Once in a while it all comes together and it seems effortless, other times the trail reduces you to a blubbering mess. What makes riding here great is you're 'on' the whole time. No sections of easy fireroad to rest on, if you're moving you're working hard. If you want to clean these sections you've got to work and the rocks just keep coming. On my typical ride here I'll often go through everything I might go through in a long race. Feeling good? It will not last. Cracking? Suck it up cupcake, it gets better. Dizzy? Better eat. Feeling like a rock star? Flailing like a idiot? Whatever, just keep plugging away. The ultimate goal is true trail dominance. It's something you strive for but it is unattainable. In the long run the mountain always wins!