There's a cross practice at the end of the rainbow...

Indeed there was last night.  Attended my first official cross practice, which I had been planning on doing a month ago.  Not having a bike built up kinda put a stop to that.  Now that I have a bike, though, you will see me at practice every week from now until the end of the season.  Now that I have my cross bike built up, I can race too, and I did that last weekend.  Last Sunday (had to work Saturday) I pulled on the colors of the Dark Side and let my legs do the talking at Day 2 of Charm City Cross.  I suppose that's my home course now.  Well, since I didn't race the MAC opener at Puma Cross, or Day 1 of Charm City Cross, me legs managed to talk their way from a start in 105th to a finish in 78th.  There's only so much you can do when you're starting two rows from the back.  I would have almost rather started twenty or thirty feet off the back of the pack, but the officials were standing there and looked like they would have none of it.  It was a fun race though.  Had to wait a lap or two until the pack thinned out (and I remembered how to race cross) before I could start making moves.  After a complete screw up over the barriers first lap (hope nobody saw), I remembered how to do it and felt pretty damn good doing cross-type things that I don't normally do during the year; like dismounts, remounts, and carrying my bike over stuff.

Dark Side!

A pink staircase run-up should be a must at every 'cross race

So I've started training again, because it's 'cross season, and I'm sick of sucking (results wise) at 'cross.  It's time to pony up... Whirlybird is next weekend (held at my high school wrestling rival school... boo ANC), and it's off to the races from there, literally.  I leave you with the money shot, courtesy of Ms. Geology (other photos courtesy of her too).

Oh Shenandoah, I long to see you, and hear your rolling river

This year marks the first year that I have really begun to fully enjoy myself at 100 mile races.  I had a blast at the Wilderness, and an even bigger blast at Shenandoah this past weekend.  Shenandoah is a race that will definitely be on my calender next year.  After that, who knows.  The unfortunate thing is that it conflicts with 7 Springs, which is another race that I like.  Maybe one of them will have the heart to change, although it's not like I would attempt to do them back-to-back.

Chris Scott tried a different type of start for this years Shenandoah 100, staging riders by expected finish times.  I lined up with the 8hr group.  Lets be clear here.  I did not expect to finish in 8hrs.  I just wanted to avoid the logjam in the singletrack that I was sure to get stuck in if I lined up in my actual group of 10hr.  I lined up next to Madison and his dad, and followed Jim up most of the first climb before moving ahead of him.  I hit the singletrack and got stuck in a little traffic but generally made it through pretty quickly.  I got into a good group on the roads and we began really trucking towards the next section of trail.  Instead of walking most of it like I did two years ago, I made it up all but the steepest parts of the first singletrack climb.  I guess that was when I realized I was riding pretty well.  On the next descent (Wolf's Ridge I think...) I made a rookie line choice and ended up on my face and having to eject my bike behind me.  My bike was ok (had to re-adjust one of my Ergon's), but my knee was a little banged up.  It felt fine, though, so I kept trucking on, eventually catching Jim and following him down the descent at a slower pace.  Jim is a good wheel to have on the road, and probably kept me from blowing myself up too early by chasing too hard.  Chasing what, I don't know, but chasing nonetheless.  We eventually got into a bigger group that included local superstar Jon Williams, and rolled into Aid Station #2 together.

At Aid Station #2, everyone stopped, except me.  My plan was to hold of on stopping until Aid Station #3.  I had enough Hammer Perpetuum and Hammer Gel to last until then, so I was just going to go.  As I was nearing the top of the short road climb after Aid Station #2, I made another rookie mistake by trying to double shift while pedaling under load (Andy Schleck style) and lodged my chain against my drive-side chainstay.  Twenty minutes later I had taken the chain apart, untangled it, and put the chain back together (the latter took much longer than it should have), and my knee had swelled up quite nicely from the crash.  After a minute of pedaling I knew it would be slow going.  Any pressure I put through my left knee was met with a nice shooting pain.  I hit the next climb (Hankey Mountain/Wild Oak Trail... the real shitty climb) and started to soft pedal.  Some kind soul (bless you kind soul for I know not who you are other than that you had sweet mutton chops) gave me some Vitamin I about halfway up the maintained road part of the climb.  Once that kicked in, my legs started spinning more freely and I started ratcheting up my pace.  I knew that utter sweetness awaited me at the top.  I ripped down Dowells Draft like a kid in a candy store.  That trail is truly too much fun.  It is also where the lessons of fast descending finally sunk in: keep a cool head, keep loose, flow like water, go fast.  Fast made all the difference in clearing the first set of loose drop-offy switchbacks.  Fast made the bottom part more fun.  Fast is good.  When I got to Aid Station #3, I did my thing and left, eager to hit the next bit of singletrack.

After the stupid crash I caused on the road (no one injured, sorry TransSylvania Pete), I started up Bridge Hollow which is a fun, technical singletrack climb.  Then it was down Johnson Draft, which is another killer descent.  I stopped for a bit at Aid Station #4, even though I really didn't need to.  It was nice to see Ms. Geology and my parents helping out there, but I needed to move, so I did.  I moved out onto the open road for the long climb.  The infamous 20 mile long climb which, although not very steep, offers up a continuous false flat-to-easy climb for about 10 miles, then 4 or 5 miles of rolling, but still climbing overall, roads, then 5 or 6 miles of steady moderate-grade climbing.  When most people look at it at first, it scares them.  In truth it's the easiest part of the whole course.  The only thing that really starts to hurt is your ass from sitting on it too long.  Alternating between sitting and standing is the key to keeping sane riding the long road sections.  I settled into a good pace, with a good group on the false flat section.  Once the climbing got more intense, our pace quickened slightly, but not too much, and people started falling off our group.  When we hit the really climby last leg, our group, formerly about a dozen people, was down to 2, me and a singlespeeder whom I had seen earlier and passed before my chain/knee incident.  The first time I saw him I wanted to punch him because he looked like Evan Plews (the link explains itself... and if you were there you can definitely sympathize).  He was not Evan Plews, just a pretty solid rider who was taking it easy after trying to chase back to hard from flatting.  Very nice guy.  I let him go up the steeper bits so I could maintain the same pace, and so my spinny geared ways didn't step on his singlespeed-ness.  Near the top of the climb I upped my pace to make up some time and caught him before Aid Station #5.

After Aid Station #5 and another bottle change, I began hammering for home.  A short descent and a medium length climb later I was headed down Wild Oak, the last long descent in the race.  I definitely learned the lesson that faster is better when coming down the technical upper sections of this trail.  There were two moments that I remember thinking to myself, after skipping over something hairy, that had I been going any slower I would be rolling down the mountain.  Speed is good.  Skipping over death rocks and death roots is good.  Making it down the mountain in one piece, on my bike is good.  Speed is good.  Speed is fun.  That feeling of cleaning something that you rightfully should have is an awesome feeling, as is ripping sweet singletrack.

I rolled through Aid Station #6.  It was time to be done, and I wanted to beat the myth that your Shenandoah 100 time is your Wilderness 101 plus one hour.  I hit it as hard as I could up the Hankey Mountain climb (version 2), ripped down the next descent, and hammered the slightly rolling roads just before the campground.  I dropped down through the campground with some dude on my tail.  He jumped out ahead of me onto the campground road, but missed the turn into the field.  Sorry dude.  I did my trademark manual over the jump in the field (a la the road in R.B. Winter at TransSylvania) and rolled into the finish with a time of 10:18:17, well under my goal time.  I was happy.  I am still happy.  Cross is soon.  It is fun.  You should come.  Some Shenandoah pictures are included below courtesy of Bob Popovich.

Coming off of Wolf's Pond

Ended

Peace...

Rattle and Hum

I suppose it's good to make big changes in one's life every once and a while.  I think I've made the biggest change yet in the last few weeks.  No, I didn't get a sex change; I just got a job.  A big one.  Not big as in 75k per year salary big.  Big as in it's currently Saturday 5:40AM and I am up to go to work.  I have already worked at least 45 hrs this week.  I don't know how long I'll be working today.  I'm not riding as much anymore because I simply don't have the time.  Most nights I'm not home until 6:00PM, and I really don't have the energy to go out and ride for 2 or 3 hrs.  I may put an hour of hard effort in, but that's it really.  So there goes the cross season, right?  I'm hoping not to have to give up racing. My work will get lighter as the year progresses.  In the winter I may not be working at all.  I'll probably be adopting the Vegan Rob training plan.  As for now, I'm riding when I can, and trying to get parts to build up my cross bike so I can hop in on some road rides.

I am still racing, though.  Last weekend I hit up the Rattling Creek 50.  It was fun.  Those trails rock.  It was nice to see people.  I'm not super pleased with my time (5:33), but I had a good time ripping those trails.  Next weekend I will not be working Saturday, but driving down to Stokesville, VA for the Shenandoah Mountain 100.  That is the funness.  Lets just hope my lack of riding recently hasn't put me in a huge hole; one that I can't crawl out of after 60 miles in the VA mountains.

Oh, and if you go to the Dickinson Website and refresh it a few times, you should come up with a picture of me and Zach.  Interesting stuff.

Zzzzzzzzz...

So ever since the 101, I've been super tired all the time.  Today, I went in to the doctor, and she prescribed a large blood panel testing for the usual things that can make one tired: Mono, Lyme, Hemoglobin count, Vitamin-D, Vitamin-B12, etc.  That's about 7 different sized vials of blood that came out of my arm.  Yay.  As a consequence of this tiredness, I haven't really ridden this week, and while I was hoping to get in a ride this afternoon, I'm beat.  I probably should have a nap, but I have a job interview to prepare for.  That's right! Tomorrow, 3:00 PM.  Until then, I guess I'll just sit around and drink OJ to build up some blood.  Maybe I'll go eat some meat...

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...