Hematite

Have to open some of these entries up with a little geology quip... so there you go. My geology quip for the month of august. I also know that I will have to define most of my quips so here you go: Hematite Fe2O3, comes in specular (a shiny silver color, extremely friable, whole sample extremely weakly magnetic, powder strongly magnetic), as well as a dark red variety called "red ochre" (dark red or brown, almost imperceptibly magnetic). End nerd-out moment for the day...

To explain my nerdiness... I raced the Iron Hill Challenge last weekend (see... iron...). It was a 4 hr Endurance race. The last of the MASS Endurance series it was, and a good race I needed to put out. I had 4hrs to put as much time on my rival Anthony as I could to get as many points and finish as high as possible. I knew the race was going to be fast, and I knew it would have a lot of long flatish big ring sections. This would not suit my riding style all that much. Not enough climbing at all. I put out my best effort though. The race started and I shifted to the front of the pack as Hebe and Lichtenrob went off to do their race leading thing. They did that very well. I hit my rhythem pretty well. My first 4 laps were under 30min, and went by fast. My last 4 were just over 30min. My climbing speed dropped after than because I was powering through the flats and false flats so much. The downhills were super fun though... that made up for the big ring challenge pain...

I ended with 8 laps. That was respectable and about what I expected to get. It just wasn't enough. Anthony pulled out 9 laps (I think... final results aren't out yet). Combined with last weeks 3hr tour of far northern PA, I dropped back th 5th in the final event (well...I'm not doing the 24hr solo at 7 springs). I suppose I can accept that.

Now I must go back to the olympics, or star wars; whatever I ws watching on the boob tube. I move back into school on Saturday. Yeah for back to the grind. Next event is what should proove to be the funness... the Shenandoah Mountain 100. A big party. Should be super fun. I'm focusing on being fully recovered by then so I have about a week and a half.