Randomness

Tomorrow morning Chuck and I head for Tsali for a couple days of real mtn biking. Chuck's not been riding a whole lot since going out of the country on TDY. I think that the climbing is gonna have him sucking some major wind, or barfing up a lung. One or the other.

Other than still looking kinda nasty, my knee is all better... no pain.

The Stan's conversion has performed flawlessly. I'm not sure I've noticed any major difference in the ride quality though. No gains in speed or anything. I have found that the tires do seem to perform better at lower pressures. For my size, 30-35psi seems to be a good range. 40psi, and the tires don't grip as well. But interestingly enough, with tubes and 40psi, the tires hooked up great.

I'm gonna be racing again on the 8th of October in a local charity race. I'm really looking forward to doing a lot more racing in the coming year. I've kinda gotten addicted to it. Go figure.

I'll be posting again when I get back from Tsali.

TTFN

Post race action

I've been taking it easy since the race. My poor knee(below is a pic of the carnage-it ain't pretty. Consider yourself warned.) needed a little R&R. It was sore on Monday, and thankfully has gotten better each day.

Thursday was my first ride since the race, and it went well. No knee pain or discomfort. Thank God! I even managed a good attack. I threw down and got a 2 minute jump on the others.

Ow!

Starting Monday I'll be working on endurance training by logging some serious road time. I'm gonna follow the training regimen in Chris Carmichael's book The Ultimate Ride.

Florida State Championship Series: Race #1- A race report

After many months, my first race arrived. It's been a long road to get here, but it's been a fun ride... pardon the pun. So, why don't we get on with the details of my first(the first of many) race.

My original plan was to leave on Friday, but that fell through, so Saturday morning I departed for Tallahassee. In trying to get all my gear together for the race I realized something...I have a lot of sh,...crap.

Gawd, I sure do have a lot of junk to take!

The plan was to meet up with Pat for a pre-ride of the course. Looking back, getting more ride time on their trails would've been a good thing, but what's done is done. Considering that the race would consist of 2 laps of the 6.5mile course, more time on the trail would've definitely been a good thing.

Pat, Cal, and myself got registered and headed out for our recon of the course.
It wasn't even the race and already I was a bundle of nerves. I was struggling along at a snail's pace, or at least it seemed that way. It may have been because Cal, who is super fast(he'd go on to take 6th place in the 40+ expert category, riding a single speed!), was the one in the lead. Anyway, to add insult to injury (or in this case, add injury to insult), I'm zooming down this descent and I drift to the outside as I get to a turn, and to my horror I see numerous holes...and that's all she wrote. Down I went. My knee was scraped up pretty good, and I was shaken. It wasn't till later that I discovered my helmet was cracked. Things are not off to a good start. I go for a good meal Saturday night, and figure that a good night's rest will do me good. I'm in a funk, and I need all the help I can get.

Sunday morning I get up feeling better, or at least in a better mood. After some pancakes at Village Inn, I'm like a new man.

A day at the races...

It's 8:30 and I'm 1hr away from my start time. The butterflies are starting to make their presence known. I get the bike ready, and fill up my Camelbak with energy drink. Going into this I thought I'd save some weight and just go with a water bottle, but after the previous day's ride where I hardly touched my water bottle, I knew that would be a mistake. It was too hot to do something stupid like forgetting to drink. I do about 15 minutes worth of warm-up and then I head over to the staging area because my class will be going in about 10 minutes.

As ready as I'll ever be.

Beginner 30-34 has just taken off. Beginner 35-39 is called to the line. We've got 2 minutes to wait, which seems like it takes forever. Those damned butterflies...there must be a flock of them. I'm tensed up; my arms, my neck...I'm trying to relax, but that's a lost cause. 15 seconds to go. The horn sounds and I'm off. I get a decent start, but I couldn't tell you what place I'm in at this point. From the starting line we make a hard left and ride around the perimeter of a BMX track. We enter the BMX track for a lap before getting to the singletrack. Trying to ride a BMX course fast enough to maintain your place, but at the same time trying not to go so fast that you're catching air and risking wadding it up, is quite a trick. By the time we enter the singletrack the riders had spread out, which surprised me. Other than 3 riders in front of me, I didn't see anyone in my class for almost the entire first lap. I was keeping the closest rider in check, not letting him get more than 20 or so ft ahead of me I exit the first bit of singletrack and come to one of the many climbs on the course. I'm in a good position to overtake the guy right in front of me, but I'm surprised at how close the next two riders are. I manage to pass two of the three riders, but I can't get to that third guy before the climb ends and turns into a descent.

A couple more climbs and I'm getting in striking distance of that next rider. I come to the spot where I had wrecked the day before, but this time I stick to the inside and have no problems. By now my butterflies are gone, and I'm feeling pretty good. I've passed a couple of riders and I'm maintaining a good pace. Right around the corner and I'm on the back tire of that guy when all of a sudden he just pulls off the trail and gets off his bike. Not sure what happened, but I'm not gonna question it, I'll take all the help I can get. We finally get passed all the exposed climbs which were tough, due to the heat. It was already pushing 90 degrees and it wasn't even 10am yet. After passing some riders from the 19-29 and 30-34 categories I'm feeling really good about my effort. But, oh how things change. This course is pretty technical, mainly roots, but there are a couple of STEEP walls that you have to go up. If you've got speed you can get up them fairly easy. I come up on one of those walls and another rider was parked right in the middle of the trail, trying to walk up the wall. No surprise, I just had to hit the brakes and walk up as well. In trying to climb up it, I can't get any grip and I slip and fall. What made it bad was I fell on the same side that I had injured the day before, including scraping the same spot on my knee!
To top it off, one of the riders(from my class) I had passed earlier on got around me. The fall ticked me off, but that guy getting around me flat out pissed me off. I get back on my bike and I make it my mission to get reel that guy back in.

This was lesson 1 learned. I shouldn't have concerned myself with losing that spot. As it was, I pushed too hard. I pushed, and never caught sight of him. I still managed to lap some riders from other classes, but I was suffering towards the end of that first lap. At one point I was wishing that Martians would land and vaporize me, saving me the trouble of trying to finish the race.

The next lap I struggle to maintain the pace, but overall the last lap goes by without any great drama. Towards the end of the last lap I get passed by a rider from the beginner 40+ class, only to pass him back, and that kinda gives me a renewed feeling and I finish the race feeling pretty good. That said, I was ready for the race to be over. I don't know how I would've performed on a third lap.

It's over, thank God!

I wasn't prepared for the intensity of a race. My last hard ride at home, my HR averaged around 165bpm, with a max HR of 186-187. My average HR today was 177, with a max of 192.

Time to get off this bike!

There were 14 riders in my class, and my effort was good enough for 7th place. I felt good about the results. I had given it my all, so I have no regrets. Considering what my HR was averaging, there weren't many more RPM's left in the engine.
A mid field finish in my first race was a major victory for me. This time a year ago I weighed over 300lbs, and wouldn't have even contemplated competing in a race. This was the first of many races to come. Sure it was painful, but the feeling of accomplishment far outweighed the pain.

I've got good strong legs, so I just need to work on my aerobic engine. I do that and I think my fellow racers are going to have to look out for me.


How about a couple of random pictures from the race?

Expert women.


One of the many Sport classes.


Pat, gettin' ready to rock n' roll.


Even the kiddies get into the act.


Todd May, the owner of Higher Ground Bicycles, and "The Burro"

The Sport and Expert classes went at 11:30 and I sure did feel bad for them. By the time they headed out the temperature was pushing 100 degrees. As a matter of fact, it was 100 before the race was totally over. I was shocked at the number of riders throwing their bikes down and either laying down or sitting with their head in their hands. One guy dropped out of the race. His wife and kids poured water on him, trying to get him cooled down.

Suffering from dehydration.

It was a great time, and I look forward to my next race, along with better and better results. I hope everyone enjoyed this, I sure have talked about it enough.

Tomorrow is the big day

Tomorrow is it. The day has finally come. This afternoon I'll be pre-riding the course. After that I'm just gonna chill out and try and get a good night's rest.

I'm keeping this update short and sweet. My next update will be a complete race report.

TTFN

Dopers Suck!

I just heard that Canadian pro MTBer Chris Sheppard got pinched for doping. What possesses some athletes to want to win so bad that they'll take drugs to give them that edge?

Dopers Suck. Plain and simple.

6 days and counting

Race day is almost here. This is going to be quite the experience for me. I think I have a real shot at getting on the podium, but regardless this will be an awesome experience. Today was my last intense ride before the race. Pat, who is also racing next Sunday, was my riding partner for the day. He really pushed me too. I never fail to be amazed at how much faster/harder I ride whenI'm riding with someone...someone who is a strong rider. Pat pushed me for an hour of solid riding. I ended up with an average speed of 12mph, covering a distance of 12.2 miles. If I can do that, or very near it, then I'll have a race to be proud of...regardless of how I place.

Ohh, here's an update on the Stan's conversion. I found out that the tires do have different ride characteristics when they are tubeless, compared to tubed tires. I've been running the same pressure in these converted tires as I was running with the tubes(40psi). Last Thursday I noticed that in our dry conditions, hitting pine straw, etc. the back end was losing traction a lot. That never happened when I was using tubes. So I decided to drop the pressure in my tires. I'm now running 35psi front and rear, and I'm happy to report that the ride/handling is MUCH better. I think I've got the tires dialed in now, and everything is good to go. Being free from pinch flats, and thorn flats is quite refreshing.

Just over a week to go

Today I found out some more details on my race on the 18th. The course is 6.5miles, but we'll be doing 2 laps, for a grand total of 13.20miles. Looking at results from last year...the fella who won maintained an average of speed of 11.76mph. I started thinking that if I could shoot for an average of 11.5mph, I stand a good chance of getting on the podium.

I'll admit that after reading those race results I started getting some anxiety. So, this afternoon I got out on the trail, to hopefully dispel some of my anxiety. I can say that I do feel much better now. I'm gonna map out a 13.20mile course, but for today I did 8.83 miles and maintained an average of 12.3mph. My HR monitor showed an average HR of 165, max 181...so based on that, I had a little bit left in me that I could've used for an attack, or a final sprint. I really think that 11.5mph avg during the race is doable for me. Now I just have to make sure I can get enough time on the course to be comfortable enough with it to be able to squeeze every drop of speed out I can.

Creatures of the night

As I previously noted, I'm gonna be competing in a 12 hr race the end of October. In a 12hr race you're gonna do some night riding(which I've only done once before), so I'm gonna need some lights for the event. One of my teammates, Dave, loaned me some nice HID lights to try out. Riding at night is weird. Trails you thought you knew, become new trails.

What is Dave measuring?

Now I've got to dig up my own set of lights, and practice with them...because if I ride as lousy at the 12hr race as I did tonight-ouch!

Stan's NoTubes verdict: Part 2

This was a long time coming, I'll tell ya. I got back from my trip, and I was hesitant to do the conversion on the back tire after that first failed attempt. I was almost at the point where I was gonna leave the tube in for the race, then the decision was made for me...divine providence, if you will. I got a flat on Friday. So I thought, what the hell I'll go ahead and to the conversion, maybe I had learned enough to get it to seal up this time. Friday night I sealed up the tire, or at least started the process. Bottom line, I finally got it to seal Sunday afternoon. *sigh.

So, after much fussing, and pouting about the whole thing, I am running a total tubeless setup. My first foray into the woods with my new setup occurred this evening, and so far so good. I hope it continues to perform well...especially during that race. I don't want to be out of the running by a damn flat tire. Being bested by another rider is one thing, but having a mechanical do you in... that's wrong.
I'll give a more detailed report on them in a few weeks, maybe after the race. In the meantime, if you decide to use the Stan's kit don't be surprised if it takes you days to get the tire/s totally sealed, instead of the 30 min-1hr that is advertised.

Road rage

I went slumming yesterday... I logged some miles on the road.

Lovely, if not bland, blacktop.

What possessed me to head out onto the road? I did a HR test, and trying to do it on the trail would've been impossible. Here's the kicker though...6 miles later, and I didn't learn anything that I didn't already know.
I'm sure that riding on the road with a group can be fun, but riding by yourself...how do I put this? Umm, ohh yeah, it's...boring! That was the longest 6 miles I've ever ridden.

It's kinda tough trying to ride at speed and snap a picture.

On a side note, I have one more week of intensive training for my race, then it'll be time to taper and take it easy that last week. Ohh, I'm also signed up to compete as part of a team, in a local endurance race...the "12 Hours of Pinelog". It will be on 10/29. Should be fun.