Had a BLAST but Kill the Fun Runs

Sat night rained a bit. Luckily the tent was already set up, in a great little neck of the woods. Sunday started out foggy but it cleared soon. I got on the trail and it was unbelieveably dry. I did one practice run and realized my legs were close to toast so I decided to stop riding. I came back up the lift and waited for Stephen. We had talked about going over to the other side of the mtn. because i had not been on that side. We started down a run which was pretty beat up and Stephen fell down a root stair drop. A couple of turns later I went over the bars and had the pedal smack me in the back of the head as a rock snapped my front brake mount like a twig. Stephen had an extra brake so he helped me set it up. It was not as strong as mine but it worked.

Race run came along pretty quickly. It was super clean and the only problem was that i was a little gassed on the fire road. All the lines came together and it was probably the fastest I ran some of the harder sections. I ended up getting second with a 5:44. The winner had a 5:35, which would have won in the next class up as well. It was a really great weekend (breaking shit aside).

Today I could still visualize 95% of the run and it is a lot of fun going back over it in my head. Kind of a way to escape from life for a bit.
Steller weekend.

Thursday and Today

Thursday was cool. Pivot cycles out of Arizona came to Burke Farm and had a demo set up. I got to ride the 5" all mtn. bike, their 6" all mountain bike, and their 29'er. The 6" and 29'er both felt tall (as does my specialized XC FSR). Both the 5" and 6" bikes seemed like you could ride some really gnarly downhill trials. I tried slamming them into everything that I could find and they did well. The 29'er did seem to be harder to climb with but maintained traction in the corners very well. The bottom line, however, is that none of them knocked my socks off. None were a must have bike. Still I did three loops on the Perimeter Trail and got a good workout in.

Today Sal and I got up and rolled out to Snowshoe WV for their first downhill race of the season.
This weekend is different because its the first that (so far) is completely sunny and dry warm blue skies. SO GREAT!!!
I got here a little late and was on trail by 10am. I did one run with a friend of mine Shawn. After that i hooked up with Stephen and we did a bunch of runs together. We helped each other with lines and did one fun run on a non-race trail. After lunch I tried a new line and hit a tree square on and then hit another when pushing hard down some steeps. The first crash of the day, however, was a pretty high speed front end washout in a right hand turn with a root in the middle. Crash right in front of 3 of my friends, which is ok. I also bent my pedal spindle (destroyed) and used my body armor for the first time. I hit my right arm and shoulder pretty hard on some rocks and the pads definately helped. By the end of the day I did something in the order of 8-10 runs and felt pretty good and fast on the course. Stephen really helped my find some better lines, and I think i helped him out some too.
GREAT DAY !! I wish this was my daily life, job, or something... its heaven on earth (even with the bumps and bruises).

Fuel For the Road

I got home from work tonight and had my regular afternoon bowl of cereal. A little while later I was getting ready for my road ride (solo) and came across the water bottle and Clif Blocks that I won @ the Downhill. I ate the C.B.'s and filled the water bottle. Once on the road I felt super great. Fast and Strong- it might have been the ZERO wind or maybe the Fuel I ate before the ride.


Today was really humid. When I took my first drink, alot of the ink from the logo came off on my hands. Figures. At least is works, which is more than i can say for the Subaru bottle i got at the Shoeshow DH last year- it must have been a dribble joke bottle.

anyway i rode for just under an hour, conservativly about 16 miles.

I decided to put a more appropriate logo on the bottle when i got home.

Follow up

Last year I had a guy- Luke, who was right behind me the whole series and he finished just about 4 points behind me (out of over 800). He came down to Massanutten (that i missed while in Italy) and was also at Seven springs. I beat him by .5 seconds. I think the Trek could very possibly saved me that half second. Behind him 5th place was about 6 seconds or so. I am glad that I beat him because I won some cool prizes. Nice pair of socks, good pair of fox kneepads, and a tube. First place was a carbon bar and case of red bull and two tires. Second place was a tire and some other stuff. I should have gone 3 seconds faster... shouldn't have checked up before the rock garden. Here is the clip.

Result: OK

The 30-39 sport class went off just after 12 pm. Course was pretty dry and I ran all my dry lines except one rock drop off and the garden exactly the same as yesterday. When I came across the line I finished in 2:34 and change as 2nd. As the rest of my class came down one more guy finished with a 2:33 pushing me to third. First place ran a 2:32. I am going to check expert times to see how far off that class I am and the times of the guys in my class that finished behind me. Finishing third is an indicator to me that I am in the correct class (unless all 3 of us should be in expert). Some video to come soon thanks to Sally.

Seven Lame Ass Springs 2010

Yesterday was the practice day for Round 2 of Gravity East Series @ Seven Springs. The day started off great when, at sign up, the USCP rep said I had to race Cat 3 (beginner) because it was my first year as a member. Furthermore, I would have to race 3 times before I could move up. I geared up and went to practice. This course is little more than a dirt sidewalk when dry. It has a couple of jumps, a rock garden, and a stray root or two. This is EAST COAST DOWNHILL!! Why can't a venue at in the "premier" DH series have a course that is more technical?? I actually emailed the guy who runs this thing and he had no good reasons, in my opinion, why they don't have better trails- he said that they couldn't run two chair lifts (so as to access the North face of the mountain); but they have a lift for the stupid bob sled ride. So disappointed.
I rode this course last year so it didn't take long to get most of it down pretty quickly. Ate a great lunch (thanks Sally) and rode some more. At the end of the day I got online as was able to upgrade my DH rating to Sport class (Cat 2) and I also got them to change my class for this weekend. Sally got us a reservation at a B&B, which was much better for sleeping then the tent, (especially since it rained all night).


Today:
I knew to wait until the end of practice to get my runs in because the hardpack dirt would dry out quickly. Some dudes were covered in mud but I got two runs in and kept my new white steed clean. There are a couple of slick rocks and ruts but the course it really trying to dry out. The New Rig is good. I am still getting used to the feel of it in the air but the initial ruff ride was due to too much air in the tyres.
Alot of the guys that I was really close to (time wise) in my class last year are here so I will need to put a clean run together to do well. I will post results later.

Breaking In

Yesterday was pretty hot (about 90), so at about 8:30 i went over to Burke Farm and took the Session out for its maiden voyage. The suspension needs to be broken in but my initial ride was pretty rough. Hopefully the forks will smooth out. the "new" style flat wide bars might take some getting used to. Rode in the woods until dark (30 mins).

2 Person Race

Today Brian and I met at 5am and went to the Blue Ridge Mountains. We left my truck at the bottom on White Oak Canyon and then took is car up to skyline drive and parked at the trailhead on the top side. After assembling the bikes we raced down the mountain. Only the beginning wasn't down and some of the middle wasn't down. Brian got a jump on his XC bike (thru a really rocky trail with some ups in it) and had a good lead going into the fire road section. After the fire roads it wasn't long before I caught him. The trail had a lot more steps than I remember. Many had turns that were so tight i couldn't make them. I crashed four times, came to a complete stop 2-3 more and broke my rear brake lever. It was humid and i was sweating my balls off. It was a great time. I ended up beating him by a much larger margin than i thought possible. but it wasn't about winning, it was about going out and having a good time.

Work and Play

Today i had to go into the office and didnt finish until almost 2. Come home eat like a pig, sleep like a dog and then wake in time to do a ride with Brian. It was humid as it gets. somewhere around 20 miles. good ride and hard. We used the ride to plan tomm AM. We are getting up early going up to skyline, and racing down White Oak Canyon trail. It has a flat top, flat bottom and a good middle. I will be on my 54 lbs Giant DH comp (i am sort of proud of that fact) and Brian will be on his 19lbs. hard tail XC bike. I have to wait on the Trek becuase the front wheel got messed up in the shipping... hopefully it will be resolved by next weekends race at seven springs. For tomorrw, I cant wait- as long as we dont get busted it is going to be a great 15 minutes.

New Bike Week

Last year I told myself that if i placed #1 in my DH class i would get a new bike. At the end of the season I had the most points; but i was DQ'ed for not having a year lisence. Does this count? Regardless The BIKE STOP got me a great number for a Trek Session 88, so after a long winter i asked and was told they had only one left. Two days later it was gone. Eric then called his rep who found 3 larges. It showed up on Tuesday with a severly bent rotor, and that was replaced yesterday. I picked it up late last night and hope to ride it today...Its super cool but has super thin tube walls so I am going to rig up some protection for it. I usually just race on the weekends and look forward to what a 14+ lbs. weight loss can do to my times.

I like posting about my cycling/training everyday if possible, but if I am going to choose between riding and blogging, I will pick the former. Tuesday I went out with Sally and then Brian for a medium paced ride. It was good because I wasnt sure how my achilles would do. It got tired but didnt seem to regress. The weather was hot, but it seemed nicer in the shade. Maybe about 14 miles?
Yesterday I thought I was doing a 17 mile ride with the Wenesday Group ride. Turns out it was a 35 mile ride. Add to that the ride I did to and from the meeting point and it was close to 40 miles. That is pretty long for me at this stage of fitness. Hot again and since i thought it was a shorter ride I only took one water. I blew up about 4 miles from home but it felt good to leave it all out on the road.