School'd

The Wilderness 101 is one of my favorite races out there.  Something I always want to do well at.  So after a one year hiatus, I set off to Coburn Friday afternoon with my parents, they to run Aid Station 3, and me to race. I was hoping to better my previous time of 9:59:22 by a lot, considering that in 2008 I cut more than an hour of my previous time of 11:04:58, and (if I may toot my own horn a bit) I am a lot faster now than I was two years ago.  My though was that if I cut more than an hour off again, I would be in good shape.  But, the Wilderness (and also the wilderness in general) always has something in store for you that you didn't know about.  As Tomi says, there's always something to learn out there in the woods...

Race Day:
5:00 AM wake up, eat oatmeal.  Realize how damn cold it is outside.  Not really cold, just cold for the summer (like in the low 50s). Somehow, there was a nice pocket of wet, cold air hanging over Coburn Saturday morning.  I warmed up in my TSE hoodie that I brought.  Close to the designated 7:00 AM start, we all started massing on the road.  I rolled up next to Vegan Rob, and he told me that he wanted me stuck to his wheel like poo.  Good advice, should have taken it.  The race starts with a 2 mi neutral roll-out, then a 5 mi climb to spread things out.  At the top of the climb, I found myself riding with some old friends, including young local, and ridiculous technical rider Madison.  This kid grew up (is growing up?) riding these trails, and it shows.  After successfully navigating the corner of death, we formed a group of about eight or nine; four on geared bikes with big rings, and four or five on SS.  For some reason all us gearies sat on the wheels of the SS guys.  I think it was because we were more than happy to have them help us up little climbs as well as keep us from hammering our asses off on flats or descents and wasting all our energy so early.  I ended up letting them go after Aid Station #1 due to a mandatory nature brake.  I never really caught Madison again, although I tried to make up some time on Detweiller, he just gapped me again afterwards.  Damn.  I did catch one of my other paceline mates, Joel, after cleaning 3 Bridges trail in its entirety for the first time.  I was happy about that because it's always good to impress the crowd that gathers there.  I managed to make it through the rock garden with my minimal trials skills, hopping over the last big rock in my poorly chosen line.  Joel dropped me up the next section of road, but I caught back up to him on Little Singletown, which I remember being one of the highlights of my first 101.  I pulled him into Aid Station #2.  After a bit of solid food, and some fresh bottles, we kept going, eager to hit the hard climbs ahead.

Then the danger began.  Once we hit Greenlee (the longest climb?) I started to fade.  I got passed by a lot of people.  I caught a lot of them down Croyle.  Then we hit Seeger (the hardest climb?).  Seeger is steep and long.  About 2/3 of the way up everything shut down.  My head dropped, a bit of tunnel vision set in, and I had to stop.  I ate about half a flask of Hammer Gel because I didn't have any real food with me (oops...).  I knew I was in trouble when I was having trouble turning over my easiest gearing of 27x34 not because my legs were tired, but because I was having a hard time staying upright on my bike.  I wish I could relate in words the soul-crushing bottom I hit, but I can't.  Madison's dad caught me once I got going again, and we rallied down Telephone.  I cannot express my undying love for Telephone.  It is so much fun.  I then struggled my way on to Aid Station #3, where my parents were.  I ate a lot of food there, mostly Pringles.  I knew the next part would be super fun, so I was excited to begin it.  Once I hit Sassafrass, the fun began.  Fun in the form of the hugely steep descent.  I was hoping to overtake any folks on the upper parts of the trail so I could rip it at my own speed, but I ran into a dude just as it started dropping down.  We locked bars a bit on the hairy corner and he ended up on top of me cursing.  After apologizing profusely, I let him go.  I totally took him out, and I feel bad about it.  My concentration slipped and I started braking [harder] after he did and was going too fast to cut a tighter line when I realized it, and kind of plowed right into him.  No one was injured in this stupidity.  I didn't even have any cuts.  I would like to say, that he was going down anyway, so I just cushioned his fall; his helmet did end up caught in my bar end.  I caught up to him again on the Lewistown Contingent sweetness, but let him go, figuring I could get him again on Beautiful.  Ah Beautiful.  The perfect trail in any direction.  Cleaned it this year.  And No Name, what to say about you?  You have no name, and you are loads of arm pumping, finger numbing fun.

The rest of the race passed without incident, I was determined to finish faster than before, but time kept ticking away.  I knew I could make good time once I hit Little Poe Trail (the last trail before Aid Station #5).  I got complimented on my line choice by the guy following me.  I rolled right through Aid Station #5, and hit it hard down the rail trail, managed to catch one guy and rallied all the energy I could up Old Mingle, managing to drop the guy near the top.  I, like many others before and after me, walked most of Fisherman's Path, and began to hammer the last bit of rail trail as hard as I thought I could.  Not even a quarter mile from the final just-wider-than-my-bars bridge and the last tunnel, some guy blew by me like I was standing still.  Now, I have one goal for these finishing bits, and it's pretty simple: no one passes me with out having to really work for it.  I don't care if frikin Fabian Cancellara came by me, he's going to have to work for it (although probably not much).  Anyway, no one passes me.  So when this guy passed me, I attacked to jump on his wheel.  He looked back, and jumped himself.  I jumped again, and grabbed his wheel, surprising myself that I had the energy to attack that hard.  I thought I was already going as hard as I could.  When we came to the bridge, I backed off because he was going way too fast.  It took us three or four minor crashes to get across. Once across, he mumbled something to me along the lines of "well that was stupid,"  so I let him lead into the short tunnel with the rocks.  He got off the line, and drifted to the center and ran right into the big, square, mid-thigh height block about 6 m from the end of the tunnel.  I took advantage of this and attacked out of the tunnel as hard as I could.  I knew there was only 1 mi left until I was done, so I put it all out there.  It was enough to put 40 sec on him, as I'm sure he was riding as hard as he could to catch me, but like I said, no one catches me.

So that ended my day.  Vegan Rob gave me more good advice to prevent my fueling issues (note to self: listen to Vegan Rob's advice, he is good people), and I tried to put my life back together after completely shattering myself to finish in 9:36:50, a whopping 23 min faster than two years ago.  Not really the result I wanted, but I am happy about it.  I had fun, and after all, that's what it's all about.  I also overcame my inability to ride technical singletrack smoothly after 60 miles of climby roads.  In fact, I felt absolutely fantastic after the route turned skinny and rocky.  That is the best part.  The singletrack always killed me at the 101, but no longer!  Now it is the fun it's supposed to be.  So now I recover and look ahead...

Moving is next on my list, the the Rattling Creek Marathon, Shenandoah Mountain 100, and cyclocross!  Life is full of surprises, and you should learn from all of them.  I learned a lot at the 101 this year, and as a scientist, that is good enough for me.  Happy Trails!

Like Raystown, but slower

Headed down to Fair Hill yesterday for the Classic, or more accurately the Fair Hill 50.  Riding 50 miles at Fair Hill should be a fairly easy thing, right?  Not too much climbing, no ridiculously gnarly trails, no descents that make you scared for your life.  Fair Hill, though, has a way of wearing on you.  50 miles there is hard.  The first lap, I felt like I was dragging a 50 lb weigh behind me for a while.  Second lap I started riding lighter, and was climbing very well.  Looks like this week of interval work helped.  I should be running in tip-top shape for the 101.  Not much more to say, going to take it easy and taper for the next two weeks.  Not much more mountain bike racing this year...

Updated with picture:

Photo by Tom Burrows

Cyclocross is a silly, expensive thing

I finally took the time to survey the damage on my 'cross bike today.  I say damage because it sat out in a bit of rain for a while during Transsylvania and didn't get any TLC until it was too late and un-ridable.  I'm still trying to remove one of the brake arms from the brake boss on my fork; much WD-40 has been involved, but to no avail so far.  I am now beset with a laundry list of parts I need to get her ready for 'cross season, so I may be resurrecting a few parts from last year to save a little money.  We'll see how that goes.  But in the meantime, my 'cross bike is nice and clean and shiny.

I secretly wish all my bikes were this color

For now I'll bide my time and see what my new team manager can hook me up with.  Oh yeah, I don't think I mentioned it, but I'm joining the Dark Side for 'cross this year; I'm riding for C3.  You've all seen them, and now I'll be sporting the sweet black kits.  Look for me near the front of a MAC race near you!

In other news, I got my plaque from the Hoo-Ha finally.  Looks like I finished 3rd after all.  For a while I thought I was sitting pretty in the dick spot (4th place), but they must have fixed their results.

It's heavier than it looks...

A good solid block of metal for a good day on the bike

Gonna hit the sack now, I need to prepare for what looks to be a rainy training ride tomorrow in preparation for the Wilderness 101 at the end of the month.  Maybe a rainy ride is what I need right now...

Good Day

And a good week too.  Ms. Geology and I spent the week looking at apartments in Maryland because of her new teaching job down in that area.  We settled on this

View from the back of the complex

No, this isn't the view from our porch (we have one though), but if you walk out the front door turn left (east) and walk a mere 50 m or so, you'll see this.  I'm pretty excited.  We're pretty excited, and there will definitely be more on that in the future.

Today was a day filled with sports.  This morning was the first mountain stage of Le Tour, then I went for a ride, and although I didn't put out as much energy as Andy Schleck on his perfectly timed attack for the win today, but I can take solace in the fact that I felt good during my sprint intervals.  Small victories... small victories.  After that was the final minutes (probably more like the final hour) of the World Cup.  Good job Spain.  Good job Netherlands.  See ya'll at the Fair Hill Classic this weekend!

Bottom of the Barrel

I hit the bottom of the barrel hard last weekend at the Long Pine Classic. Didn't even finish the race. I've been excited by this race for a year now; it's my "home" course, it has classic trails, it's raw, just like racing in Michaux should be. I really love this course, and Michaux in general, so needless to say I was a bit disappointed that I didn't finish the race.

How didn't I finish the race you ask? Well, coming down the descent after the last Beginner/Sport split (on Ridge Rd.) about half way through the steep, rocky ATV-width trail, I hit something (no I wasn't riding the front brake) and ended up catapulting off my bike. I landed perfectly with my head tucked, on my shoulder and right palm and rolled over my shoulder right to my feet. My bike was six or seven feet behind me. I think that's the furthest I've ever flown. So, time to assess the damage. Little cut on my knee, brush burns on my shoulder, right palm swollen a lot. Can I move my fingers without pain? Yes. Can I move my wrist without pain? Yes. Good. Not really any worse for the wear, I went to get back on my bike, which as usual had a bent dérailleur hanger. As soon as my right hand touched my bars I knew my race was over. There was no way I could put any pressure on my hand. Cringing, I made it down the rest of the descent and onto the long road climb to the last checkpoint. Pickle caught me on the climb after flatting before, and he rode with me until the checkpoint. When we got there, some adrenaline had kicked in and I could put a little weight on my hand, so I decided to continue for the last 2.5 miles of the race. As soon as I hit the singletrack after the power line, I knew I was not getting back in a reasonable amount of time, so I turned back to the checkpoint, hitched a ride back, and began icing my swollen hand.

Since I crashed pretty hard, I spent today pulling every single part off my bike to check for cracks.

Stripped Flash 29er frame... ~3 lbs of awesome (includes BB and headeset bearings, dérailleur hanger, front dérailleur and some stickers)

And to perform some Lefty maintenance.  I think I was only running about 1.5" of my 3" of travel at the race (bearing reset time!)

A fully extended, reset Lefty.  Exactly 140 mm of travel.  Switch the damper out and you could put this on a RZ140 and I think that's pretty cool

So.  My Lefty's back in tip top shape.  I'm going to do some experimenting with the travel to see if I can squeeze another 10 mm out of it.  90 mm of cush up front instead of 80 mm could be cool.  I also picked up some new wheels (No Tubes 355 29er's with American Classic hubs) from a very nice person in Boalsburg (thank you very nice person) so now I have a set of race-only wheels to make my bike the proper weight!  I'll post more pictures of my bike once I have it built up again in a few days.  It's going to be shiny as hell, just so I can get it dirty again!

What do you love about the Tour?

Why do you love the Tour? A bunch of pros weigh in...

That Old Time Feeling

Sometimes when you do a race you've done a bunch of times before, it gets boring.  Well, no matter how many times I do it, I don't think the MASS Festival and Stage Race Weekend in Marysville, PA will ever get old.  It is by far, one of my favorite races out there.  The course is not rocky, does not include long climbs, or epic views of stunning landscapes.  It's not blazingly smooth, fast singletrack with perfectly built corners.  It is a wholly different thing.  It is Marysville, and that's it.  And I love it.  I think this past weekend was the fifth or sixth time I've done the race, and it was definitely the best.  The stage race format was back for the first time in a while.  Friday night was the usual Night TimeTrial, Saturday was the main event, the 8 hour two or three person relay and solo race, Sunday was the solo short track and team off-road madison.  It was a fairly amazing weekend.  I of course raced solo; solo NTT, 8 hr solo, and solo STXC.

The NTT was, as always, fun.  I don't think I've ridden at night since about March, so it took me probably 15 minutes to "remember" how to do it.  But the race was over in 19:30, so that didn't amount to much.  I finished in  10th, about 2 minutes behind the leaders time.  I can live with that.  It was, though, only a warm up for the next day's adventure.

The solo race went really well.  I had a solid race for 8 hours; no cramping even though it was freaking hot out.  Strangely, I kept getting tired.  Not physically tired (well, that too), but sleepy tired, and I kept loosing concentration.  I had to hit that lovely Espresso Hammer Gel (it's caffeinated) about once an hour, then had to bring out the Coke (the soda...) to keep me going for the last two laps.  My last lap, I hit that point where I was having trouble riding clean, so I hit some more Espresso Hammer Gel, and made it home.  I finished 9 laps in 8:35, an effort good enough for 5th place, and the bottom step on the podium!  Pretty exciting.  Definite props to Hammer Nutrition for making the caffeinated gel.  It's a pretty good thing to have around.

Also powered by apple sauce

And cold water dumps

Rewarded by solid riding

Sunday was equally fun.  A standard short track, started by a very big gun.  Thirty minutes of pure pain, quite a nice change from the previous days fun.  I had another good race, fortunately.  On the second lap I got pooped out of the lead group, which included people lots of fast guys.  I had them in sight until I tried to make an inside pass on a tight corner and took an one of the women out.  It didn't affect anything, and she went on to finish 2nd in the women's race.  I went on and finished 6th in the men's race, so I did pretty well.  I'm really happy about my racing this weekend.  It may be some of the best I've ever done.

Short Track start

Rob went off early and held on for the win

Racing fast is good

Anyway, next up is the Long Pine Classic.  A race you should Register For!!!  Seriously... It's a lot of fun.  See you ALL there!