Attack of the Crappy Hard Tail

While on break from the road season I have dusted off ol knobby, my gary fisher big sure thats been collecting dust in my garage buried behind all my road bikes waiting for its time to see actual daylight. I live near Gambrill which is where a lot of dc area riders come to play. I was reading all the reviews about it online from mtbr.com and everyone seemed to complain that it was too rocky and they had to hike their bike up some of the trails which I thought was funny. I was vrey happy to tag along on a ride yesterday with some co workers and friends of co workers out into George Washington National Forest in Virginia and west virginia. Lots of steep fire roads and technical up and downhill single track.

Now most all of my monetary assets have gone into my road bikes. While I had the big sur in colorado I upgraded most of the parts on it from nice hand me down xtr stuff. Its only v brakes and the crank has been "fixed" many times by beating it back into alignment with my hammer. Its a midlevel bike for 2002 and def old by todays standards I am well aware but....meh... I kinda like rockin out on it.

It rained al of sat night so the trails were very soggy with lots of wet rocks. Trying to ride a line on wet rocks is like riding a bare rimmed bike on ice and trying to make it go the direction you want....it never happens. So sometimes the line you chose ends up pointing you directly into a giant tree which I oh so gracefully missed and chose to go over the handle bars instead as my buddy witnessed. After some more steep fire roads we started up another really rocky and mostly unrideable single track (not dc rider friendly!) with lots of hike a bike. Yea it sucks at times but the descent was quite worth it. This trail that goes along the ridge doesn't get that much use. The bryers and brush were creeping in on the sides which made for a unique experience since your preview of the trail up ahead was limited to about 30 feet. So when you start rocking it surprises can come up pretty quick. I took out a couple of dead branches which in turn took me out too. The best was turning a corner to find a huge dead pine tree laying diagonally across the trail. Its funny how you can hit some of the toughest tech spots only to endo on a big water bar. My buddy and I were rollin pretty fast and I hopped the first water bar, I halfway tried to hop the second one resulting in a giant nose wheely. I see tire, dirt, sky, then rock to the face and shoulder. It didn't help that I hit my right shoulder hard earlier in the ride. Check my collarbone- not broken- okay good. My awesome tattered wtb seat is caved in on one side and my der hanger is bent. Horay for bike mechanics to the rescue! The best part was we thought the trail was still rolling on but only 100 feet later we were spit out on the fire road back to the lot.

Yep, awesome ride. Now I am going to explore Greenbriar and Green Ridge trails next. I also herd theres some stuff at Sugar loaf mtn too.

Meanwhile I will enjoy my breakfast of black coffee and a bottle of aspirin...

A Gap of a Whole Season

I still really haven't got the hang of this yet and its been more than a year. Last post was what, in Feb? Wow that's pretty bad. Well the 2009 cycling season has ended but it was definitely my best yet out of my total four even though I had some major setbacks. I broke my thumb in an early season race at tour of Walkersville and had to get thumb surgery. They had to reattach a major tendon that connects to my thumb bone and to do that they put two 4 inch rods into my hand- 3 inches in and one inch just hanging out. Needless to say it sucked but the worst part was not being able to ride outside. So I borrowed a computrainer and rode in the garage and continued my routine of plyometrics. I came out with some pretty good form an was able to hang at the front of some local races. My hour of pain and power on the trainer gave me great intensity for any race under two hours but over that I would start to cramp (which was a huge problem for me this season an cost me at least one first place). So with that I went to Fitchburg and raced the Cat 2's. I did ok in the time trial but I decided that I wanted to Green Jersey. First stage a break went up the road and I bridged up the major hill through the S/F area and the break stuck. I collected about all of the points available that stage and had a comfortable lead and ended the day in third. Lost the jersey in the road race, guys got away and were never seen again. I took back the jersey in the crit but it wasn't easy. The guy had teammates who were not going to give it up easy. I crossed the line with a second green jersey to take home.

The next weekend I placed third at Mt Nebo and the next day I won a little road race way out just north of Pittsburgh in a town called Butler. A great course and I hope that more people will come out for next year. The grand prize was a nigh time plane ride for 4 people but you had to win the kom AND the overall, I only got 2nd in the KOM, Dang! After that I did some more local races and placed well but the heat and humidity started to get to me. I will never forget the misery of the Page Valley RR, it was over 100 degrees and I suffered. I made the break that won but couldn't even keep the pace which wasn't that fast....frustrating. Ah well lessons for the future.

At this time I was approved for my cat 1 upgrade which was the goal of the season and I was very happy to get it. I was worried from my broken hand that I wouldn't be able to.

The last big race was Green Mtn where it was Pro/Cat1. This was my first race in just cat 1's and it was super tough. I could feel that my peak was waning a bit but thats ok because at that point I had accomplished all my goals for the season and then some. I suffered in the TT, crashed in the second stage but just a small one and had only one little scratch on me, (I was forced to run over a dudes bike in front of me when he went down). The road race was awesome! Dirt roads and a huge climb at the end. A finishing wall of 20%!!! The crit was super fast, one of the fastest ones I have ever done. I always stayed in tghe front third but just couldn't get up to the front to try for a preem but I stayed upright so I was happy.

While I was there I noticed that some of the Johan Bruneel Cycling Academy riders were there. I had been trying to get in contact with the cycling center for a couple of weeks since I wanted to apply for a chance to train and race in Belgium for next year. I talked to one of their seasoned riders Peter Horn who was very nice and forwarded my contact info to the Director...

That was the best outcome of the race for me, gaining that contact was pretty crucial.

So all in all it was a very good season. At this point I have only ridden about 4 times in the past two weeks and I have been enjoying it. Season five starts in November and I am already looking forward to it. I know that everyone says at this time of the year that this is it, this is the year. Well....it is! If I can include the huge miles I rode in Colorado with the intensity of this year- I think ti would make a good combination.

Bon Voyage

So today I head off to Espana for about 9 days of training. My buddy showed me the weather for the next week and its says its going to rain every single freakin day. Hopefully the Spanish weather men are worse then the ones here which if that were the case its going to be sunny with chances of dollar bill flurries, can't wait! Got the bike all packed, which was a fun one lemme tell ya. I found out the hard way that my pedals are permanently in my record crank, the threads spin with the pedal threads so i had to throw my old aluminum crank on there, hope everything works out well when i build it back up in Andelucia, otherwise i guess ill be renting a bike. Well since my flight doesn't leave till 11pm tonight its time for a pre Spain ride and hey look, the sunshine is beaming so ill be sure to bring some with me on the plane but I'm sure TSA is going to confiscate it...

Some of us have the luxury of never having to patch a tube cause they just buy a new one. I know plenty of riders who would never ride on a patched tube, hell I've raced on a patched tube....I've raced on a tire that had a dollar in between it and the tube to prevent it from blowing out...and it held! I am your typical poor, young, cyclist who cannot afford to buy a new tube every time that I have a flat (which Ive had about 4 in the past 2 weeks, they seem to come in spurts). So I will save all the flat tubes and put them in my "rubber bag". While I was still employed by a bike shop I bought a huge bundle of Rema circle patches, a box of 100 i believe, to battle the over flowing "rubber bag". So there I sat, watching the latest Burn Notice (Yes Ted king I do like to watch crappy drama tv!) patching my rubbers. Its a fine art really, one has to be careful to spread the glue all around the tube and let it dry a little bit before applying the patch. Once applied and ready to dry I will take the tube, inflate it and put it in my bathroom sink to check for leaks. Quality control is very important if your depending on this thing to get you home when your 50 miles away. Which is also a reason why I carry glue less patches in my saddle bag. Some of my tubes are even patched twice, blasphemy!!!! I bet you didn't know but you can patch a tube as many times as you want but I would say anything over 3-5 is time for retirement, unless your really sentimental about the tube in which case I would say make the whole thing one giant circle of patches! Trust me I have seen worse from being a bike mechanic but def haven't seen it all.
So, the next time your about to throw away that poor tube who was there for you on all those rides when you DIDN'T get a flat send it my way and I will make it roll for another day....or another 1,000 miles!

Riding is.....GOOD

Well the knee finally healed up a couple weeks ago so I have been able to ride pain free, from my knee that is. Spain is only two weeks away from today so very exciting. THe weather has been nice this past week compared to the bitter cold it has been. Yesterday I was out riding in shorts, shorts! In Feb! But it didnt last long cause today the wind is so bad that its dangerous to even go out and ride a bike. The thing to do back in Co on windy days like this was to ride the tailwind 150 miles out intot eh flast and have someone pick you up....never did get to do that tho....but I have been able to spin out my 53x11 from a wicked tail wind section. one of these days ill return CO!

btw

Oh i guess it would help if I said that it was my right Knee that i landed on and bruised.

Winter Setbacks

Havent been keeping up with my posts, Shame on me!
Been trying to get my winter training underway but have had some set backs. I fell on some ice about a week ago and has since forced me to take a rest week early since it hurts worse than 8 bitches on a bitch boat when i ride. Rode today and the pain was tolerable and mild, much better than it was last week but I will be sure to pay close attention to it. Not is not the time to develop recurring injuries for the upcoming season. So that coupled with the freezing cold and my already late start from completing my thesis from last semester has put me at a much later starting place than i was this time last year. I'm kinda frustrated about it but I know that this mean I will be much more fresh later in the season for races like Fitchburg and Green Mtn..... Booya! I have also started to lift weights at the local ymca. Ive gone a whopping two times but ive never tried lifting before for cycling so I know I can only benefit with the cycling specific exercises I have. Now I have to avoid all the other treadmill and spin bike gerbils and pick my gym times wisely, it can get pretty crowded!