Sunday, September 14, 2008
Good ol' Michaux Riding
Now this is something I haven't done in a while. Went for a solid 2hr ride w/ Matt today. I gave him the grand tour of half of the Pine Grove SP area. Rode from the Furnace Stacks, up Creek Trails, to Michaux rd, then up to Brett's where we played on his rock and hit Derailleur Trail up. When we got out of the singletrack onto the road I almost ran over a 5+ft long black snake. Friggin huge it was! Unfortunately as soon as Matt got his camera out it scurried off into some hidey-hole and we couldn't find it despite poking around for a few minutes. We then headed up Ridge and Woodrow to Deer Bingo. We were followed for a bit by the tree sanctuary guy. I don't think he liked us on his road. Then it was onto Rattlesnake v.1, where I rode like a girl, and Rattlesnake v.2, where I rode like a girl and crashed on the hardest switchback (those of you who have ridden know). I have an ouchie on my forearm and a bigger ouchie on my leg. Ouchie. Then went down corkscrew, and down trail to nowhere to the bottom of woodrow. Then up the logsled connector, up logsled and down community to home. We proclaimed it a good ride and so it was. Next time Matt gets a tour of the Piney Mountain Ridge stuff...
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Doing my best Roadie Imitation
I did my best roadie imitation today, kitting up in the most Euro looking thing I could find and hitting the road with the good ol' Scott Slowster. It's actually the speedster, but it's a tank of a road bike. I like passing real roadies on their expensive carbon rigs with. Especially wearing my mtn shoes. Anyway, went out over Waggoner's Gap, then around and back over Doubling Gap, which I have never done before. On 944 on the way back I got mauled by a veritable horde of gnats or maggots or some small bug that I absolutely killed as I rode through their masses. It felt like getting hit by tiny pebbles. For 10 miles. All this after last nights crazy highliter party... oh yeah...
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Shenandoah 100
So, as you can probably tell from my lack of significant postings in the last few weeks, school has started. Which means I have work. Which means I don't have time to sit around on the interwebz. Yet here I am. Anwyay...
Labor Day weekend found me headed south of good ol' Carlizle and into the mountains of George Washington National Forest in Stokesville, VA. Yes, the Shenandoah Mountain 100, the final major race of my 08 season. I was super excited because I had heard so many good things about this race. Long, hard climbs, then miles and miles of sweet singletrack descent. Well let me tell you, it lived up to it's expectations. The race started at 6:30 and a mass of humanity on bikes (450 people !!!!) left the camp and bottlenecked their way down the road. I tried to line up behind the fast guys, but forgot that the start went to the right and not straight out of the campground. Plan foiled. Found myself somewhere in the middle. Rode the first climb with some Henry's guys and a C3-solay guy that I regularly race against in MASS XC races We picked a lot of people off on the climb. Then I was met with the inability of anyone from PA, or the area where the trails are found, to ride technical singletrack. the first singletrack had a few short technical uphills and there was a line walking up each one of them. It was a sad day. Once I got past the walkers, I flew down the ensueing descent catching and passing more riders. What a good feeling that is.
Sunday Morning roll out 6:30AM
After that there was more climbing on the road, as well as some more sweet singletrack, including a long singletrack climb that I walked up because there was a huge line of people walking up it. After Aid #2, I headed up the hardest climb of the day Dowell's Draft. To put Dowell's in perspective: it is far from the longest climb of the course, and it is not the steepest either. What makes it hard is the fact that there are 4 or 5 false summits, and the road gets steeper after each one. It was a mentally and physically demoralizing climb, and I ended up walking some of it. I can honestly say that it was the only time I have wished to have that 22t granny ring on my bike. But, the pain was all forgiven on the descent. A 6 mile technical bench cut singletrack raceway where pushing speeds of insanity was not uncommon even for me. I latched onto two other riders and we absolutly flew down, passing numerous large groups of people who promptly moved when they turned and saw our lightning-quick approach.
The next section passed without event, another climb, this time up some cool singletrack whose beginning was marked by a super steep (read: unridable) rocky stair case section. And yet things kept getting better. The descent into Aid 4 was absolute magic. I didn't think the descents could get any better, but they did. This one was long, smooth, fast, and flowy. I caught and dropped (like it was my job) the C3-solay guy. I dropped all the people I had ridden the climb with. After Aid #4 was the big climb of the day. And I do actually mean big. it was 18mi uphill to Aid #5, then another 6mi to the top of the climb. Big. I latched onto a group of 2 other guys and we pace-lined up the early slopes of the climb. Then I set out on my own in the ultimate test of survival. I had never spend 2hrs climbing before so I had no idea how it would be. It was long, and mentally draining.
The rest of the race went as planned, and I picked up the pace after Aid #6 for the last 13mi to the finish, which by the way included climbing 1/3 of the way back up Dowell's. Final finishing time was 11:13, which is in the range of what I expected to get. It was probably the most fun race I have ever done. Yeah for fun races. Yeah for long singletrack descents. Yeah for bikes.
And done...
Labor Day weekend found me headed south of good ol' Carlizle and into the mountains of George Washington National Forest in Stokesville, VA. Yes, the Shenandoah Mountain 100, the final major race of my 08 season. I was super excited because I had heard so many good things about this race. Long, hard climbs, then miles and miles of sweet singletrack descent. Well let me tell you, it lived up to it's expectations. The race started at 6:30 and a mass of humanity on bikes (450 people !!!!) left the camp and bottlenecked their way down the road. I tried to line up behind the fast guys, but forgot that the start went to the right and not straight out of the campground. Plan foiled. Found myself somewhere in the middle. Rode the first climb with some Henry's guys and a C3-solay guy that I regularly race against in MASS XC races We picked a lot of people off on the climb. Then I was met with the inability of anyone from PA, or the area where the trails are found, to ride technical singletrack. the first singletrack had a few short technical uphills and there was a line walking up each one of them. It was a sad day. Once I got past the walkers, I flew down the ensueing descent catching and passing more riders. What a good feeling that is.
Sunday Morning roll out 6:30AM
After that there was more climbing on the road, as well as some more sweet singletrack, including a long singletrack climb that I walked up because there was a huge line of people walking up it. After Aid #2, I headed up the hardest climb of the day Dowell's Draft. To put Dowell's in perspective: it is far from the longest climb of the course, and it is not the steepest either. What makes it hard is the fact that there are 4 or 5 false summits, and the road gets steeper after each one. It was a mentally and physically demoralizing climb, and I ended up walking some of it. I can honestly say that it was the only time I have wished to have that 22t granny ring on my bike. But, the pain was all forgiven on the descent. A 6 mile technical bench cut singletrack raceway where pushing speeds of insanity was not uncommon even for me. I latched onto two other riders and we absolutly flew down, passing numerous large groups of people who promptly moved when they turned and saw our lightning-quick approach.
The next section passed without event, another climb, this time up some cool singletrack whose beginning was marked by a super steep (read: unridable) rocky stair case section. And yet things kept getting better. The descent into Aid 4 was absolute magic. I didn't think the descents could get any better, but they did. This one was long, smooth, fast, and flowy. I caught and dropped (like it was my job) the C3-solay guy. I dropped all the people I had ridden the climb with. After Aid #4 was the big climb of the day. And I do actually mean big. it was 18mi uphill to Aid #5, then another 6mi to the top of the climb. Big. I latched onto a group of 2 other guys and we pace-lined up the early slopes of the climb. Then I set out on my own in the ultimate test of survival. I had never spend 2hrs climbing before so I had no idea how it would be. It was long, and mentally draining.
The rest of the race went as planned, and I picked up the pace after Aid #6 for the last 13mi to the finish, which by the way included climbing 1/3 of the way back up Dowell's. Final finishing time was 11:13, which is in the range of what I expected to get. It was probably the most fun race I have ever done. Yeah for fun races. Yeah for long singletrack descents. Yeah for bikes.
And done...Sunday, August 24, 2008
Moved in
I am now moved into my new room in 2527 W. High. It's pretty sweet. Classes start tomorrow and I have Physics first. It should definitely be interesting. Moved in yesterday and went out to Rillo's (a fancy restruant) where I had the single best cut of meat I have ever had. It was friking amazing. I almost died when I ate it. The room as seen from the webcam on my compy:
It's pretty nice. In other news, one of my cycles that starts with a V should be arriving at a place sometime this week. This makes me happy. The Vassago, though, has to be postponed due to the lack of availability of the sweet Orange color that I want. They have black in stock, which is nice too, but I figured that since Don bought a green bike, and Brett has a shiny silver one, I need an orange one to round out our insanity. It will be soon though...
It's pretty nice. In other news, one of my cycles that starts with a V should be arriving at a place sometime this week. This makes me happy. The Vassago, though, has to be postponed due to the lack of availability of the sweet Orange color that I want. They have black in stock, which is nice too, but I figured that since Don bought a green bike, and Brett has a shiny silver one, I need an orange one to round out our insanity. It will be soon though...
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Clone Wars made me cry inside
Just got back from seeing the new Star Wars flick, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and let me tell you, I am crying inside. All the acting and dialogue was very un-Star-Wars-y. All of it, from Asoka's cute little quips (my new word for the week apparently) to Yoda's normal Yoda-talk. It just wasn't right. The worst part, by far, was the animation. I will try to remain calm about this. I HAVE SEEN BETTER ANIMATION OUT OF FOUR YEAR OLD VIDEO GAMES!!! Obi-Wan's beard looked like it was made of lego blocks! Come on animators, you have to be able to do better than that! Ugh. This is far and away the worst Star Wars movie yet. Yes it was cute, yes it had funny moments, yes it mildly entertained me, but it was not what I was looking for in a Star Wars movie. I will even go as far as saying that it was worse then Episode I, which is pretty bad in and of itself. If you want to be mildly entertained and have $10 lying around that you're not really intent on using for anything important, then by all means go. If you want to watch a proper Star Wars film, pop in a DVD of Return of the Jedi and be happy. Or even Revenge of the Sith. Hell even Attack of the Clones would work! Ugh. I'm going to cry myself to sleep now... inside that is.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
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.
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.
Friday, August 15, 2008
Cycles that Start With V
It's that time of year again. Time to start thinking about next year. I still have 4 more MTB races (Iron Hill 4hr tomorrow, Shenandoah 100 in two weeks, Terror of Teaberry two weeks later, and Bear Creek two weeks after that) to fly through, but I am starting to think about my next adventure. I'm going to attempt a full season of cyclocross this winter. I'm on a team, which shall remain nameless until further notice. I'm getting a cross bike. It is from a manufacturer that starts with a V. It will also remain nameless (unless you guess that is).
The second adventure in store for this winter is my temporary revocation (is that a word???) of my citizenship in Gearsland and my perminant revocation of my citizenship in Small-Wheels-Land. To make a long story short, to buy the aforementioned cross bike I need to sell my Intense, which has been oh so good to me, at the end of the racing season. I will need a mtb for the winter. Easiest, cheapest, and best solution: 29er singlespeed. From another manufacturer that starts with a V. This one even has a classic literary connection. I will soon be aquiring a Vassago Jabberwocky. It's steel, it's rigid, it only has one gear, and it makes me super excited for riding this winter. Thus begins my quest to relearn how to ride a bike in preperation for next season where it looks like I'll be riding some form of 29er hardtail (with gears). So that's fun...
In other news, this is the last day of my job/internship with the PennDOT Materials and Testing Lab, Concrete/Petrographics Section. I'm torn with how to feel about this. On one hand, I'm free of obligations to the state and getting up early. On the other hand, I loose a source of income which has supported me all summer, even with my racing addiction. On the third hand (huh?) it means I have to go back to school soon, which poses a whole other set of problems. Ah well, a bunch of us went out for a few beers at the Appalachian Brewing Company (which is right down the street) after work yesterday, so I had a nice little send off, nothing too ridiculous though. I am ready to be out of here though; this is not a job I will probably be coming back too, not my kind of geology, and not enough of it at that. It was fun though...
I suppose I should go see if I actually have any work left to do today...
The second adventure in store for this winter is my temporary revocation (is that a word???) of my citizenship in Gearsland and my perminant revocation of my citizenship in Small-Wheels-Land. To make a long story short, to buy the aforementioned cross bike I need to sell my Intense, which has been oh so good to me, at the end of the racing season. I will need a mtb for the winter. Easiest, cheapest, and best solution: 29er singlespeed. From another manufacturer that starts with a V. This one even has a classic literary connection. I will soon be aquiring a Vassago Jabberwocky. It's steel, it's rigid, it only has one gear, and it makes me super excited for riding this winter. Thus begins my quest to relearn how to ride a bike in preperation for next season where it looks like I'll be riding some form of 29er hardtail (with gears). So that's fun...
In other news, this is the last day of my job/internship with the PennDOT Materials and Testing Lab, Concrete/Petrographics Section. I'm torn with how to feel about this. On one hand, I'm free of obligations to the state and getting up early. On the other hand, I loose a source of income which has supported me all summer, even with my racing addiction. On the third hand (huh?) it means I have to go back to school soon, which poses a whole other set of problems. Ah well, a bunch of us went out for a few beers at the Appalachian Brewing Company (which is right down the street) after work yesterday, so I had a nice little send off, nothing too ridiculous though. I am ready to be out of here though; this is not a job I will probably be coming back too, not my kind of geology, and not enough of it at that. It was fun though...
I suppose I should go see if I actually have any work left to do today...
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