Semi-Car-Free

I'd find it pretty hard to get around LA and Orange County without my truck. It would be a nightmare getting to most trailheads. I do commute 2-3 times a week in the summer so I'm semi-car-free for a few months out of the year.

Anyway, the C.I.C.L.E. folks are having a celebration of car-free transportation in LA this weekend.

Innovative training

Lynda's on the leading edge when it comes to training with various power devices. She also has some innovative x-training workouts for the recovery week after a solo 24. Imagine my surprise last weekend when my two hour ride was to be followed by 4 hours of airsoft x-training.* =)

After a round of North Hollywood shootout

* Not an actual workout...yet.

When pimps clash

Both Dicky and Kerkove recently mentioned something about pimping via blogs. What happens when two pimps have different views on a particular piece of gear? Is there a pimp of all pimps to consult? Maybe some ultimate pimps?

Grand pimps?

Temptation

I struggled with temptation yesterday.


I've been craving chocolate a lot lately which is weird

because that's never happened before.

I gave in and had two of the four....

Enjoying the ride again

I've been "actively" recovering for the past week and it's time to get back to riding. My next big adventure is November 3-5 in Costa Rica.

"Ride as much or as little, or as long or
short, as you feel. But ride." -- Eddy Merckx

"Ride a bike, ride a bike, ride a bike." -- Fausto Coppi

A new team

I'll be joining Bernice as well as former WS teammates Monique Sawicki and Jason First on Team Sho-Air. The team has dominated the local endurance events and is looking to become a regional powerhouse in every race format from XC to 24 hour solo. The team will be more balanced than the XC focused beginner, sport and expert weighted Platinum Performance Team. Sho-Air will a very strong, well-rounded team once a few of Sho-Air's semi-pro riders like Manuel Prado and new addition Ty Kady make the jump to the pro ranks.

Sho-Air supports its racers like no other team I have seen except for perhaps a few of the factory MTB teams. I won't have to worry about my bikes, replacement parts for everything I break, racing gear, entry fees, race expenses...I can focus 100% on training and racing. It's a SWEET deal. Maybe I'll get to team up with another new team addition, Johnny O'mara, for something like the TransRockies Challenge. Next year is going to be exciting.

24 Hours of Adrenalin, Hurkey Creek -- 2006

Deciding to race La Ruta later this year and having already been to South Africa in April left me only one option for this year's 24 hour solo race, Hurkey Creek. Moab, the Kona G 24 and the WSC at Conyers would all bust my budget. I had no problem lifting my self-imposed one year ban on Adrenalin for last year's WSC Kerkove banning because I was eager to try my hand at solo racing again.

I was wondering if I still knew how to race a solo 24 as I stood at the start line with a couple minutes to go. It was a year and a half since I had done the Nationals race in Spokane and almost two-and-a-half years since I last raced Hurkey as a solo.

My main challenger for this race was me, the old me that raced Hurkey and did 20 laps. I knew there were other solo racers lined up, but that didn't concern me and I wasn't going to change anything. I was just going to do my own thing; kick my own arse like Lynda and I planned.

A few minutes before the start

This race was much smoother than last time, especially during the night. I use to dread the night laps. There's hardly a soul in sight and the cold eventually gets through the extra layers of clothes. The night is isolating and difficult. Setbacks that are small during the day can get blown out of proportion and become "disasters" in the darkness that can crush the competitive spirit -- it's more fragile at night. I usually use my mp3 player during the long dark hours to distract myself, to give my mind something to do during solitary confinement. Lou and I had an experiment going for my night laps this time and I think it worked well. So much so that I was enjoying the ride and sang songs to myself until sunrise.

The biggest difference with this race was an absence of light issues. Woo hoo! I've had issues with lights going out during a race on every single solo 24 that I've done for the past two and a half years; April 2004 at Hurkey was the last time I had a issue free night with respect to lights. I have to thank Gillian, Bernice and Scott, from Sho-Air, for a well lit night.

Settling into a rhythm

Once the sun came up, I put the mp3 player on and listened to the new tunes I downloaded a few days before. There's nothing like some good metal in the morning to get me going. I always look forward to sunrise as I can get back to eating some of my favorite race food so it's a nice boost (my stomach can only take certain things at night). I crashed on the second downhill on the first lap after sunrise and tweaked my right wrist enough that I had to take three Advil to deal with the swelling.

I had lapped myself and the field by midnight so I just needed to keep the wheels rolling for a few more hours. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be smooth sailing because the pain in my feet increased as the sun got higher in the sky. It got to the point where the pain in my big toes masked the pain in my wrist. I had to spend extra time in my pit on some laps in order to get a quick foot massage -- I had an awesome crew.

I made my goal

Sherry, Suzanne and Jason had everything I needed as soon as I asked for it. I never had to worry about anything and I could focus 100% on riding. I'm totally spoiled now and I don't think I want to do another solo race without this crew. They are the BEST!

The crew

A full list of people that made this race possible and some extra photos are here.

Numb fingers, or lack thereof

My middle, ring and pinky fingers are usually numb for a few weeks after a 24 hour race but last year was the worst; my pinkies weren't normal for a couple of months!! It's usually a result of too much pressure on the ulnar nerve.

I've tried using Specialized Body Geometry gloves and they help for rides up to 12 hours. I thought about using Ergon grips, but I didn't like any of the models that I saw at The Path Bike Shop. Mike, a riding buddy, has some old cowhorn handlebars on his MTB commuter that he wrapped with road handlebar tape and that gave me the idea to wrap some over my grips and part of the bar ends. Tim suggested that I remove the grips completely and use 100% tape when I dropped the bike off at Switchback for a pre-race tuneup.

The tape was an EXCELLENT choice for the rocky Hurkey Creek course! My fingers weren't numb at all anytime during or after the race. I'm so glad I don't have to deal with that problem anymore.

Tim's handiwork

Thanks!

Thanks to everyone who made this past weekend at Hurkey Creek possible:

- Monica for helping with all the pre-race preparations.
- Sherry, Suzanne & Jason -- a simply amazing pit crew from Switchback Cyclery.
- Tim from Switchback for getting the bikes race ready. Great handlebar setup. No hand numbness!!
- Gillian for lending me the "lucky" L&M light.
- Bernice for the emergency backup light and DMS.
- Scott from Sho-Air for the backup L&M battery, it was greatly appreciated.
- Lynda for the awesome coaching...my legs still felt good after 21 laps.
- Lou for the great racing advice you always give me.
- Everyone out on the course who was cheering me on.

Going over last minute details with Suzanne & Sherry while Tim makes some adjustments to the S-works

Jason made sure the bike was in tip top condition every lap

Stop by Switchback on your way to Blackstar or Maple Springs.

One of my inital laps

After 21 laps

Fun with the Switchback gang

It's time for some weekend fun with Sherry, Suzanne and Jason from Switchback Cyclery.

The Run

It's a bummer that there's no runner's high after a Le Mans start.

Pretending

I came across a few race pictures from last year while doing some clean up of the one folder file system. I'm having a blast, despite having several bike issues, in one of the images, but I'm only pretending to have a good time in the other; I'm just trying to get through what turned out be my worst executed race of 2005.

Focused & enjoying the ride or frustrated & hating it?

Having a hell of a time or having a hell of a time?

Mecca

I have to make a pilgrimage one of these days.

A full day of racing

There are a few 24-hour events coming up. The Sleepless in the Saddle is this weekend, the 24 HOA at Hurkey Creek is next weekend and the WSC is only a few weeks after that. Then there's Moab to round out the year.

Who might we see at the local Idyllwild event? I think Desert Dan Cain, who has pretty much wrapped up the 12 Hours of Temecula series, is on a mission to stand atop the podium at this one. I heard rumors that Manny was going to ride solo, but he's confirmed that he'll be racing on a team.


Desert Dan

is looking to give this fellow


a run for the money.
If Manny were racing solo then it would be even more interesting.

What makes a good team?

Marg has a few suggestions on teammates and I have some good advice from friends, but other than that I haven't found much on the web about MTB racing with a partner. I'm not talking about the type of team that races at a 24-hour event. That's totally different from racing together on the same course and at the same pace, similar to what's done at the TransRockies.

Adventure racers have the challenge of always racing together so I've been browsing AR sites looking for tips. I found a few including this one.

More We, Less Me

I'm toying with the idea of doing the 7-day Transalp Challenge again. Blair would make a good TA partner, but I think he wants to race in the masters category next time. I bet he and Dave would make an awesome masters team.

Only in California

One of these three is not like the other... =)

La Ruta de Los Conquistadores 2006

It's official, I'm going back to Costa Rica this November to race La Ruta after opting to pass on last year's event. I thought I'd better get it in now as I probably won't be able to participate in '07 even though next year's race is supposed to be a special one; one day longer--four days of fun! The Ironbike race will be a top priority for me next year since I missed it this year. According to Lou, it makes La Ruta look like a walk in the park but that's a future post.

This year's race is looking like it's going to be the best ever. Frischi is returning to defend his title. Jeremiah Bishop and Tinker will be there too. In the women's category Rebecca Rusch and Marla Streb will be gunning for the top podium spot while La Ruta Lou will be going for a historic four-peat.

Check out Frischi's gearing for La Ruta

The La Ruta website has a couple of new videos and even a forum. We'll see how long the forum stays up this time. The last time there was a forum, the '02 race, it was taken down during the race because of a controversial decision made after 100 racers missed a turn on day one; many angry racers were posting their thoughts on the matter.

One of these day's I'll have to find and post my '02, '03 & '04 race reports. Here are a few La Ruta race reports by:
- Rich Dillen
- Tinker
- Jesse Epstein
- Brian Kimler
- Mireille Montminy day 1, day 2, day 3

Some cool photos:
'04 La Ruta pics
'05 pics from Ecosport Adventures

A couple of La Ruta videos including one of Brett Wolfe and a tico

La Ruta links at Peak Life Adventures

Thoughts of some folks that have done it here

My favorite quote about the race was made by Tinker: "It's not about how you feel in the beginning; it's about whether you can suffer for so long," Juarez told Sports Illustrated after the 2001 race. "As far as the races I've done, this is the toughest. The bottom line is I came here thinking I could win. But that was hard-core." -- quote taken from here

Weekend in pictures

Inkblots

The image below isn't one of the standard Rorschach inkblots. What do I see? The Le Mans start of a 24 hour race as well as the mass start at La Ruta.