Enjoying The Ride

12 Hours of Temecula #2

2008-06-19T06:00:00.000-07:00

Heidi and I headed out to Temecula anxious to try out the mile of new singletrack that Jason added to the 12-hour course. Jason's route changes always make for added fun.

Going into the race we had heard there were going to be several co-ed duo teams, maybe one or two from out of state. The only thing I knew for sure is that we'd be racing Sarah Kaufmann and a guy from Bear Valley Bikes. Sarah, a fellow Wallenfels athlete, is very strong so I knew that we'd have an exciting day.

It was a very close race with the lead changing a few times. I didn't used to like races that were so close, but with all the XC racing I've been doing for training it doesn't really bother me anymore. We alternated laps and as the heat got into triple digits we built a small lead; a lead we were able to keep till the end. We couldn't let up though because Sarah's team was keeping steady lap times.

We had a fairly smooth race: two crashes and a wrong turn for Heidi, while I had one crash and 2 bee stings. =)

At the line checking number plates looking for the other co-ed teams

Waiting to unleash the beast

Riding on the grass felt strange and it was better to ride it fast

Still looking fresh on her penultimate lap

Has she hit the grass yet?

Sarah made the last lap look like nothing but a thing

Heidi had the fastest female lap of the day.

I think eveyone had fun
Thanks to:
Heidi for being such and awesome racing partner
Michael D for the great support
Lynda for the excellent coaching
Jason & Heather for putting on a fun event
The Sho-air/Sonance/Velosport sponsors
Michael Darter, Michael Mcclure & Pookgai for the photos
and
Special thanks to all the co-ed duo teams that made it an exciting day!

Big Bear Shoot Out

2008-06-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

I think I might be getting the hang of this XC thing...

Three Sho-air riders on the podium at the Cal State XC #4

Extremes

2008-05-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

I've started doing more endurance events since my last post. My last two duo events with Heidi were completely different.

24 Hours of Adrenalin, Hurkey Creek - 4/26/08
- Trail conditions: dry and fast
- Temps: 90s
- What I learned: I can race on watermelon alone
- What I loved: the heat
- Support crew: Micheal D
- Mechanicals: light issues
- Scenic factor: 4
- Fun factor: 6
- Pictures: plenty
- Result: 1st

12 Hours of Weaverville - 5/24/08
- Trail conditions: mud fest
- Temps: 40s
- What I learned: check the weather forecast
- What I loved: mud, rain and more mud
- Support crew: none
- Mechanicals: busted chain
- Scenic factor: 10
- Fun factor: 10
- Pictures: none
- Result: 1st

We repeated this about 24 times

Helping out Manny who was doing the 8-hour as training

Watermelon is the BEST!!!

Rare image of the secret handshake during transitions

Heidi hammering out the last lap in the heat

I'm doing my part....

24 + 2 hours after the start

Thanks to: Micheal Darter, coach Lynda & our sponsors

A little XC

2008-03-11T06:00:00.000-07:00

I went out to Bonelli Park on Sunday to try a cross-country race. I think I've done two or three of these events in the past five years. I'll be doing the Cal State XC series this year, in addition to my endurance events, to help the team accumulate points for the state co-ed title.

Heidi, a two time state champion, gave me plenty of tips Saturday on our pre-ride. I felt the course was good for me because it had a couple of climbs with a nice grade so I was really looking forward to it.

Feeling good on the first lap

I had a good first lap and was a bit surprised about the pace. It seemed much slower than I imagined it would be. I rode into the feed zone at the start of the second lap too fast so I missed my bottle and my backup bottle was nowhere in sight. I had planned for the possibility that I might blow through the feed zone so I arranged to have someone stationed a little further up the course. Total miscommunication on my part fouled that up; there was some ambiguity as to whether it was the start or end of the second lap that I needed my insurance. =) So I continued on with the second lap feeling fine, but everything caught up with me halfway through the last lap -- total meltdown! I was spinning in the granny on the hills begging for water from friends that were passing. That'll teach me not to slow down a little for a few seconds. =)

Absolutely drained!!!

My race didn't turn out so well, but the team had an excellent day. Team Sho-air fielded 40 riders, had 21 podium spots with 7 class winners including Heidi -- yeah!

Heidi powering up a climb

Thanks to:
- Team Sho-air/Sonance/Velosport and all our sponsors
- Heidi for the post race smoothie and fruit that brought me back to life.
- Michael Darter for the pics

Team Sho-air at the 12 Hours of Temecula

2008-02-03T14:09:00.000-08:00

I learned my lesson from last year's experiment of trying to do this race solo without sufficient miles in my legs so I opted to ride duo like I did two years ago. My partner for this one was former Backbone racer Heidi Volpe. This was her first endurance race and my introduction to a more holistic approach to racing. =)

It rained all week leading up to the race, but unlike most courses in SoCal that turn into mud holes the Temecula course actually gets better with moisture. It turned out to be a fun day in the sun.

The Heidi pre-race aromatherapy routine. There's nothing like a couple of essential oils in the morning to give my brain a jumpstart. Smelled flowery with a soupcon of tea tree.

Shooting the breeze with Tinker; talking about race schedules for this year. Sounds like he's going to be at some new events in '08.

John and Lisa brought their sportsmobile in case conditions got bad. Lisa did an awesome job of keeping track of our lap times and those of the other co-ed teams. When John wasn't busying giving tours of the sportsmobile he kept the secret no-name tea brewing.

The sportsmobile made our pit a very popular place. I think John was giving a tour to a different group every time I got back to the pit after a lap.

Getting the vital energy from the veggies. =) Heidi left some cut cucumbers out for me after one of my laps. What was I supposed to do? Eat 'em?

Lisa and James taking a much deserved break. James kept the bikes in perfect working order.

There was enough time for me to go out and do a 13th lap, but with the strong winds and rain I didn't feel like it was worth the risk, especially since it's so early in the year.

All the cheers at the award ceremony were for Heidi, I was just along for the ride.

There are plenty of folks to thank for this one:

-Thanks to Heidi for agreeing to race with me and for putting a different twist on endurance. I had a blast!! I think I heard talk of a full on mobile spa setup for our next race. =)
-John, Lisa and James for giving up part of their weekend to come out and take care of us.
-Lynda as always for helping me get back into shape. It was my second week back on the bike due to a series of colds & bad weather but she had just the ticket to get me going again.
-Tim & Sherry from Switchback Cyclery for going over the bike and getting it race ready.
-All the Sho-air/Rock N Road Cyclery & Sho-air/Sonance (formerly Team Velosport) sponsors.

12 Hours of Temecula

2008-01-28T12:30:00.000-08:00

Heidi and I had a great time Saturday at the 12 Hours of Temecula. The conditions couldn't have been better; the sun was out for most of the day and the course was the fastest I've ridden in years. We missed Dave & Lynda as well as Bern & Josh, but there were plenty of friends out for a good time.

Race report and pictures to follow but here's how the laps went down:

12 laps was enough for first

Happiness

2008-01-23T21:30:00.000-08:00


               Happiness is

         1ne -- A style of riding.

         2wo -- A general disposition.

         3hree -- A 16 point scrabble word?

I've been somewhat preoccupied with word values lately so
I'll have to revisit the idea sometime.
(6 pts, 6, 16, 20, 10, 8, 9, 9, 9, 9, 2, 3, 10, 2, 10, 6, 5, 12)

I wonder how these 4our variants of happiness are scored in Chinese?

TransRockies 2008 -- Entry for Sale

2008-01-11T05:00:00.000-08:00

Friend and two time TransRockies winner, Marg Fedyna, has a TR entry for sale.

Cost for an '08 entry: $1943 (1850*1.05 gst)
She'd be willing to sell her entry for $1750.

Introducing...

2008-01-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

HHHH hhhh hh hh hhh.

E eee eeeeeee eeee E eeee eeeeee eeeeeee Eee eeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeee eeeee. Eee, eeee E eeeeeee eeeeeee Eeeeeeeeee eee Eeeeee eee eeeeee'e ee eeeeeeee eeee.

Iiii ii iiiii iiiii iiiiiii ii iiiiiii iiiiiiiii ii iiiiiii iiiiiiiii iii iiiii iiiiiiii ii iiii iiiii. Iii Iiii iii iii ii iii iiii ii iiii iiii.

Dd dddd dd ddddddd dd dddd ddd ddddddd ddddddddd dd dddd ddddddd (ddd dddd ddddd ddddd dddd ddd ddd Ddddddddd-dddd dddd dd dddd dddd ddd’d dd dddddddd).

Iii'i iiii ii iiiii iiiiiii Iiiiii Iiiiiiiiii!!!

The new Sho-air XC acquisition and I will be riding as a team at the 12 Hours of Temecula

Carbon Relief

2008-01-09T19:51:00.000-08:00

For multi-symptom burnout

For instant relief use:

Before work
On weekends
When you need relief

Directions: Use everyday while symptoms persist. If pregnant

ask a health professional before use.

Overdose Warning: May cause prolonged euphoria, exhilaration and general well-being.

The new ride for '08

Big Picture

2008-01-08T22:11:00.000-08:00

2008 is still a patchwork of events. There's not a definite plan yet, no overall sequence of challenges. Besides races, I want to fit billiards into my sport calendar and I'm hoping to enter a few scrabble tournaments -- I started playing again over the holidays after a 10+ year hiatus.

Too bad there's no triathlon of sorts that includes all three; start off with a 8-12 hour race followed by a day of billiards and word games. In the event of a tie, the winner could be determined by percent completion of the NYT Magazine crossword puzzle in half an hour. =)

It's all still a jumble

Merriment in St. George

2008-01-07T21:30:00.000-08:00

Bern and I will be headed out to Utah on Friday to ride with Lynda and company at Camp Lynda -- "a no-nonsense self-supported binge training mission". I think there will be much more merriment than punishment, but what do I know.

I hope there's a billiards place in St. George so Bern and I can work on the 9-ball game. Depending on how things progress we might even try this in August.

I don't ride for $$$, but billiards is a different story

Back to the Source

2008-01-06T20:06:00.000-08:00

2007 was a great year, but something was missing. It just wasn't the same without the adventure that is La Ruta de Los Conquistadores. I missed the rugged jungle terrain, the torrential rains, the intense heat & humdity and hanging out with friends. La Ruta ignited my passion for racing and the first one was definitely a life changing experience; the race brings out the beauty of the human spirit. To this day no other race has giving me such intense adrenaline rushes.

I've done it four times: 2002, 2003, 2004 & 2006 and the plan is to head down to Costa Rica in November for the epic adventure then spend some time afterwards in Panama. My goal is to improve on my best finish to date, 25th overall in 2004.

A very muddy day 1 (2002)

Really hurting on the long climb on day 2 (2003)

Having much more fun on day 2 (2004)

20" Fun

2007-08-24T13:03:00.000-07:00

Cross training earlier this year was a nice change of pace. Thanks for letting me borrow the blue banshee Sauce.

Lou and Eric at the Transrockies Challenge

2007-08-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Congrats to La Ruta Lou and Eric for finishing second in the open mixed category!! Here's Lou's race report:

I don't want to bore anyone with a long-winded detailed report from this year's Trans-rockies, but there were a few memorable moments I would like to share.

Eric and I flew direct from San Francisco to Calgary this year and this happened to be the one time on the way to a race we did not receive our bikes. To make a long story short we spent at least 5 hours on the phone to United Airlines call-centers in India and Manila the day before the race. Somehow between San Fran and Calgary our bikes were lost in space and no one could tell us where they were. We got lied to, hung up on, and were really frustrated by "baggage supervisors" before finally receiving our bike boxes at 8:50 pm the evening before the race started. We were staying with Drew (announcer) and his wife Joanne in Invermere and they offered to loan us their bike so at least we had a backup in case the bikes had not shown up. Eric and I were both really happy when they did show up though, because Joanne's bike was way too big for me, and Drew's bike was more of a freeride bike and too small for Eric...

The first day was fairly short, but had a brutal 50 minute very steep hike-a-bike section which was pretty crowded. We ended up in 3rd place behind Wendy Simms and her husband Norm and a Swiss team we called "the towers". Trans-alps and Cape-Epic have banned towing for safety reasons, but it is still allowed at the Trans-rockies. In my opinion towing is lame, ridiculous, embarrassing, and should not be a part of mountain biking. The stronger team mate has either a pvc pipe with a bungee cord or a dog leash attached to his/her bike and the weaker partner has a hook on the handlebars so that they can easily "hook-up" or unhook depending on the terrain. Many of the mixed teams were using this method, which made it very satisfying to pass and beat them. Wendy and Norm and Eric and I were the only teams in the top 5 not using the towing system.

The second day from Invermere to Nipika Resort was the first day we beat "the towers". We caught them and were riding together in a group with 2 men's teams on the flat road when we hit some small hills a few kilometers before the finish. On the climbs we dropped the men's teams and the towers and ended up beating them by about a minute. Wendy and Norm won again (as they did every day).

Looks like Lou is having a good time. (photo from cn)

Nipika is a really nice wilderness resort owned and operated by a couple from Invermere. The man, Loyd was cooking hamburgers and brats at the finish line which was very welcome, because the food served at breakfast and dinner was quite lacking this year (and that's all I'm going to say about that..) We actually spent 2 nights in Nipika this year because the course had to be re-routed due to forest fires in the area. One memorable event in the evening at the award ceremony was an auction to raise money for Al - the course maker - and his family. Al's 1-year-old daughter has a very rare aggressive form of cancer and the family has had to re-locate to Calgary so she can receive treatments. Al and his family had no idea what was coming. Nipika resort had donated 2 vacation packages and there was a free entry for next year's Transrockies. A helicopter ride across the rockies with dinner at a nice restaurant for 4 people was auctioned off and then Chester and Heinie were generous enough to give a free team entry to the Transalps with airfare and accommodations. 20,000 dollars were raised for Al's family, pretty incredible!!

The fourth day went from Nipika to White Swan Lake and in this stage we ended up 3rd again.This time beat by (Wendy and Norm off course) the Silver-towers from Banff. They were super-efficient with the dog leash and this day had a lot of gravel roads which made towing efficient and speedy. We were still in 2nd place in the GC. That night I was so tired I almost missed the award-ceremony, but I was very glad I went. I am one of only 3 participants that have done all 6 years at the TR and this evening we were each presented with a huge Campagnolo corkscrew engraved with our names and Transrockies 2002-2007. 4 people, including Eric, have raced 5 years and they received a belt buckle.

Day 5 went to Elkford. We beat the silver-towers by only 11 seconds. They were both very good descenders and almost caught us at the end. In Elkford we were able to go out for pizza, a nice change from the race food....

The 6th stage was the longest day. It was 116 km with 2300 meters of climbing. It had 2 long, steep technical climbs and ended with a quite annoying down-hill. The trail was overgrown with bushes that slapped your face and made it hard to see. It was also really rutted and had several waterbars across. The waterbars proved to be the most dangerous obstacle and 4 people had to be helicoptered out during the race after crashing hard. We got 38 more seconds on the silver-towers. The swiss towers had now lost about 20 minutes.

The last day which ended in Fernie was a very short one. With only 930 meters of vertical climbing in 48 kilometers we knew it was going to be a fast start. Since short races are not my forte Eric lined up early while I went for a 20 minute warm-up on the road. The race started out like a total sprint. I was hyperventilating, legs burning, anaerobic for the first hour. FINALLY, after the check point at 30 km we hit a 150 vertical meter hill and we were able to drop 2 fast teams. We were now right behind the swiss towers... We had 8 minutes on the silvertowers in the GC and I was hoping they wouldn't be able to make up that much time. Right when we hit the single-track with 6 km to go my rear-dérailleur was pulled into my spokes and my wheel locked up. In a panic I yelled for Eric and he turned around to see what was wrong. I had to run up the trail lifting my bike since the wheel wouldn't turn, until we could find a spot to try to repair the damage. Eric had to take the wheel off to get the chain loose and bend the rear-dérailleur out from the spokes. I rode as hard as I could to the finish, shifting only my front, hoping that we hadn't lost our place. We ended up 2nd with only about 2 minutes to spare!!

Great race with an awesome partner. Eric was superstrong after training-camp trans-alps and we had a really fun time, feeling good and strong for the most part with only a few minor spills and not one single flat tire this year.

Fully Loop with Bern

2007-08-20T21:23:00.000-07:00

We did a couple of early morning laps at the Fullerton Loop with the new jerseys just for fun.

Something Different at the 24 Hour Nationals

2007-08-05T20:28:00.000-07:00

I'd been thinking about doing this race as a duo with Bernice since she was training for the Old Pueblo race back in January. The 12 Hours of Weaverville race in May was a test run for us. That went very well so I signed us up for the 24 Hours of 9 mile. We did well and brought the mixed duo national title back to SoCal.

Thanks to so many people this race was one of the smoothest I've ever had. The only issues I had were a busted cleat and a slightly chipped tooth. =)

Thanks to Scott and Justin from Sho-air our bikes and gear were shipped to and from Wisconsin with ease. That makes traveling more fun.

Thanks to our host families in Wisconsin we were able to take it easy and relax before the race. Pam, Matt's aunt, let us use her house as a base of operations and she had an excellent dinner waiting for us upon arrival. Donna, Craig, Doris and Dillon welcomed us into their homes which were only minutes away from the venue.

Pam, in blue, is an excellent host and perhaps the competition next year.

More of our host family: Dillon, Matt, Donna, Doris and Craig

Thanks to Ron Sawicki for giving Bern and I a crash course in Magura brake maintenance. Thanks for the new rotor too! Congrats to Pua for winning the solo women's title!!

Thanks to Shawn and all the great guys from Stadium Bike for allowing us to pit with them. Shawn kept our bikes in good working condition between laps and was always asking if we needed anything.

Thanks to our awesome support crew, Matt and Jenna, for taking care of us during the race.

Matt and Jenna having a little fun before the race

Thanks to Lynda for the excellent workouts leading up to the race, my legs felt great the whole time.

Thanks to Bern for agreeing to team up with me. You ROCK! (Check out her race report.)

I couldn't have asked for more from this team.

Thanks to everyone at Sho-air, Rock N' Road Cyclery and all our sponsors for making this race possible.

Special thanks to Michael Folan at Infinit Nutrition, the drink mixes worked great!!

2007 24 Hour US National Championship in Pictures

2007-08-01T22:24:00.000-07:00

Bernice, Matt and I headed out to Wausau, WI this past weekend.

The team: Me, Matt, Bern and Shawn from Stadium Bike and Jenna (Matt's cousin)

The pit. All three teams we shared a pit with made the podium in their respective categories!!

The best pit kitchen I've ever seen.

I'm glad to be done with the Le Mans start.

On the podium with Bern.

Sporting the Stars and Stripes.

We couldn't have done it without these two taking care of us between laps.

Race report to follow...

Lou's 12 Hours of Weaverville

2007-05-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

It was my first time racing the 12 Hrs of Weaverville this past weekend! I was hoping to add to my list of funny/silly comments from guys I passed, but I actually didn't get any this time... I got a cool comment from a Los Gatos high school sophomore that I caught on my 9th and last lap though. When I passed him he asked: are you on your 8th lap? No, I'm on 9 I said. WOW, are you going to worlds? The kid then said he would be in Mark Hendershot's pit at WSC and that he was riding Mark's old bike. I don't think anyone ever wants to ride one of my bikes when I'm though with it.....

It was a pretty small field that took off at 8 am, only 5 women racing in the solo category. The course was one of the more fun loop courses I have ever done. It started with a 3 mile fire road climb which got fairly steep at the top. After that it was all fun, fast, flowing single track in the forest. AWESOME!! My plan was to use this as a training race for WSC and I wanted to try to keep my laps as even as possible. I felt pretty good the whole time, although it was really hot for a few hours and I slowed down a little bit. I was sucking down lots of Gatorade and Thermotabs and that kept me from cramping.

I finished in first place at 7 pm feeling good with 9 laps, 2 laps ahead of next woman. My lap times were between 1.07 and 1.17.

Thanks all of you for your help and support!!

12 Hours of Weaverville

2007-05-29T20:00:00.001-07:00

I initially had planned on racing solo but after talking it over with Lynda and Bernice we decided that it would be best if Bern and I teamed up for a duo. I hadn’t raced duo since Dean and I teamed up early last year at Temecula. I had a great time then and I was looking forward to having a great time at this one.

Bern, Josh and I headed out for Lou’s place before making our way to Weaverville. On Friday we hung out, got a little DMS on the legs and pre-rode the course then had dinner with some of Fuzzy’s friends at one of the local Mexican places. The course reminded me of a mini Cascade Creampuff with a fire road climb followed by some beautiful singletrack. Fuzzy pointed out details of the course and specifically mentioned a section where riders tended to flat...I should have been paying attention.

While hanging out and flipping channels we got some words of wisdom from one of the hunting channel's taxidermy tips: "Keep skin to skin and hair to hair." Fuzzy pointed out that it's been his motto for some time! =)

We took some pre-race team photos before the fun began. I noticed that Sloane Anderson was racing and we chatted briefly. Once again I was glad the race didn’t have a le mans start. I thought I’d try and do Josh and Fuzzy a favor by going out a little fast and having some of the other solos follow me. Sloane and I were riding together for most of the climb until I backed off a tad. I was having a great time down the single track until I got a small gash in the sidewall right were Fuzzy told me to be careful. It was big enough that the Stans couldn’t seal it but small enough that I could put a tube in and it wouldn't bubble out. I’m glad I didn’t gamble like I did at the Vision Quest in March when I didn’t take levers, CO2 or a tube!!

Ready to ride. Sloane in the background.

Ready to roll. Fuzzy and I need to get with the program and go sleeveless.

Fuzzy on an early lap before an old tweak started acting up and interfered with his race.

Once again Lou made this one look like a walk in the park and cranked out 9 laps for the solo female win. Josh was 2nd behind Sloane. Eric's solo record of 12 laps will hold for another year--Eric sitting in the background.

Bern and I were alternating laps until I determined that if I rode for two consecutive laps on one of my turns we could challenge the two leading men’s duo teams. That proved to be a good move and we ended up riding 10 laps and finishing ahead of all the other duo teams.

Post race photo-op with Bigfoot.

Bern and I didn't have to use our secret weapons: A Big Ol can of Whoop Ass & a can Pimpjuice. The Red Bull was enough. =)

I think I’m going to being a little more selective about my races and start doing ones that have fun courses. This one ranks high on the list and I hope to be back next year.

I’ve got to thank many folks for making this race possible:

- Monica for everything that goes along with pre-race preparations.
- Lynda, my coach. Great idea to use this as a training race.
- Lou for letting us crash at her place.
- Eric for support in the pit.
- Bern for dealing with all the pre-race logistics and for being the "director of entertainment" on the drive.
- Fuzzy for inviting us to a great race and grabbing us a pit area.
- Tim & Sherry from Switchback Cyclery for getting the bike race ready.
- Mr 24, Jeff Kerkove, and Steve for the Ergon grips. I love these things!
- The folks at Sho-air and Rock N' Road Cyclery
- All the team Sho-air sponsors

Also thanks to the California Loving pimps Dr Dre & Snoop Dog for getting me through this one.

8 Hours of Hurkey Creek

2007-04-30T21:09:00.000-07:00

During the Spring, the folks at Adrenalin hold an 8-hour race in addition to their normal 24-hour event. Four of my teammates and I thought it would be a perfect time to test out new gear, nutrition, pace...

Here's a few pics of the fun in the sun:

Bern is always smiling

17 year old Matt in his first 8-hour race (finished 8th of 36). He'll be racing at the WSC in September.

Josh led out the solos for almost two laps before cramps set in. Thermotabs dude! He still managed to finish 5th or 6th.

Sarah (aka Single-speedin Sauce), my athlete, riding steady

Lou getting in some heat training for the Creampuff 100 race in July. Sleeveless was the smart choice.

Man it was hot and I wasn't quite ready for racing in the high temps...97 degrees in the shade!!

Lou, Sarah and Bern on the podium again (they were all on stage at Sea Otter). I believe Lou was 3rd solo overall (both men & women). Sarah is amazing on a SS -- I can't believe she's only been riding for 8 months. Bern had another solid ride and enjoyed every minute of it! =)

Friend Desert Dan Cain never really let me out of his sight all day. Amazing considering he was self-supported. Ya gotta pit with me next time Dan.

I have so many people to thank for this one:

- Monica for everything that goes along with pre-race preparations.
- Lynda, my coach. Legs felt great the whole time but heat really threw me a curve ball.
- Sam from X-fusion. He was Lou's support but he helped out Matt, Sarah and I on every lap. I won't mind putting X-fusion forks and shocks through the wringer. =)
- Gillian (aka Lucky) and former WS teammate Andy. They were the pit crew for Josh and Bern but they really helped me out...much appreciated. You ROCK Gilly!
- Keith B for support in the pit and some of the photos.
- Tim & Sherry from Switchback Cyclery for getting the bike race ready.
- Mr 24, Jeff Kerkove, and Steve for the Ergon grips. They worked great!
- The folks at Sho-air and Rock N' Road Cyclery
- All the team Sho-air sponsors
- The volunteers at aid #1 & #2 that gave me ice cold water every lap

I'd also like to thank Metallica and Iron Maiden for providing an awesome soundtrack for my last few laps!!! =)

Riding with elan

2007-04-24T22:18:00.000-07:00

I recently started commuting to work again after several months of mostly mtb riding. I didn’t think I’d ever miss it that much, but I'd rather spend four hours on my bike than two in my truck any day! I love the fragrance of the roses that fill the air of the residential streets I use as shortcuts and the smell of fresh cut grass as I whiz by the public parks along the main streets. The ride home is the toughest because of the BBQs that are fired up in backyards…steak, chicken, ribs…

The workouts that Lynda has as part of the rides are also great: single leg drills, a few sprints... Anyway, what if you had "ride with elan" as part of your workout? Hmmm. Elan -- distinctive style or flair. So I blew kisses at the ladies stuck in OC traffic as I passed. What a reaction! I like riding with elan. =)

Sho-Air and Friends at Sea Otter

2007-04-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

The Sho-Air Rock N' Road Cyclery Team had a nice showing at Sea Otter this past weekend:

Manuel Prado 1st in Semi-Pro XC, 1st in 19-29 Time Trail, 13th in 19-29 Super-D
Johnny O'Mara 1st in 44-49 Expert XC
Ty Kady 2nd in Semi-Pro XC
Louise Kobin 2nd in Pro-Expert SS Women
Bernice Pierson 4th Place Beginner-Sport SS Women
Cameron Brenneman 2nd in Masters Cat 1/Cat 2/Cat 3 30+, 8th in Pro-Expert SS
John "Fuzzy" Mylne 15th in Pro-Expert SS
Josh Smith 22nd in 30-34 Expert XC

There were also a few "casualties":
Tim's rear got caught up in the spokes during the XC race and it was game over. It was just one of those days for Eric as well.

Friends Heather and Sarah also had a good day with a 3rd place in the 40-44 Sport XC Womens and a 2nd place in the Beginner-Sport SS Womens categories respectively.

I did my second road race and was 9th in the Masters 30+ Cat 5 category. I had a great time.

Lou

Sarah and Bern

Urban x-training

2007-04-10T07:00:00.000-07:00

Been so busy at work that I needed to get out and have a little unstructured fun. I hadn't done any urban hucking since I lived on the west side as a student back in the day; I'd have a little fun on the UCLA campus after class. Sauce and I met up in downtown LA at Starbucks around 6:30 for some pre-ride caffeine.

Still half asleep sporting the favorite STR shirt but ready for some urban fun.

There's plenty of stuff downtown to ride through, ride down or jump off.

Testing out the breaks on the Metro stairs.

One too many hucks. =)

It's all about timing.

Just getting warmed up.

To be continued with shots of bigger air and maybe even Sauce doing a table top...

Boggs II in photos

2007-04-05T07:00:00.000-07:00

8:40 start and no lemans! Woohoo!

Getting the legs going

Sarah cruising on the SS (34:18)

Enjoying the ride

This guy was hanging out near our pit all day

Last lap

Sarah was right behind me on the last one near the finish

Sarah is taking a power nap while I watch riders finish

Maybe it was the soothing music that made her sleepy =)

1st place SS woman, 4th solo woman overall

2nd men's solo, 4th solo overall

Thanks to LWcoaching, Sho-Air, Rock N'Road Cyclery, Specialized and all the other team Sho-air sponsors ... it was a blast!

Slacking

2007-04-03T07:00:00.000-07:00

I've been a total slacker with the blog the past month. In fact, beside my training, I haven't really had time to check out any of the cycling news sites, blogs or forums. I logged into mtbr yesterday and apparently that was the first time since early February, the third to be exact, according to the "Welcome, mp3"

I did the Boggs II race up in NoCal this past weekend; fun course, great people and excellent weather. I still have to write up the race report so in the mean time here's a Boggs II race report from my friend Sarah.

Benefit Rides

2007-03-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

There are two benefit rides on Saturday: The Broken Man Ride and The Jax 2 Jax 4 Joe Ride.

Support a couple of fellow cyclists this weekend.

Louise Kobin's Alaska Ultrasport 2007 (Part III)

2007-03-15T07:06:00.000-07:00

Eric and I got to Nikolai just as it was getting dark. We ran into a guy on a snow machine pulling a sled with 2 kids and we stopped to talk for a few minutes. Nikolai seemed so depressing to me. The town has 100 people and is really run down. The homes are mostly little shacks. We rode by "The Nikolai international airport" sign on our way to the checkpoint. Our last checkpoint was at the home of Nick and Olene. It felt good to get inside and it was extremely hot which felt good at first, but was not so good for sleeping. There was a big rack over the woodstove for us to hang our clothes on to dry. Dario’s wheel was also hanging there, without the zip ties, so apparently Eric’s trick didn’t work. Nick said Dario had pushed his bike the whole way from bison camp (43 miles) and he was now sleeping.

Nick and Eric in Nikolai

A few minutes after us, Alan showed up too. Jan got there before us, and had actually taken a shower! I couldn’t wait to eat so I could shower too. Olene heated up spaghetti and moose sauce for us. It was pretty tasty to get some real food, but I was feeling really bloated so it was hard to eat. Olene got me a towel and I got in the shower. As I was taking my clothes off I noticed my legs looked like they belonged to someone else. I had huge indentions in my calves from my socks, and my legs were so swollen they looked like tree trunks. My stomach was really jiggly and I felt like I had fluid in my lungs too. I actually found a scale in their bathroom closet and decided to weigh myself to see how much fluid I had retained. I weighed 120 pounds, which is at least 10 pounds more than I normally weigh.

Eric and I used their daughter’s bedroom. There were no covers or blankets on the bed, but the bedroom was like a sauna so it didn’t matter. We actually cracked the window to cool it off a little. I could not lay flat because my lungs made this crackling sound every time I took a breath and I was so congested, so I propped up my sleeping bag up against the wall and sat for most of the night. I probably had 3 or 4 pretty bad nose bleeds that night, from coughing or blowing my nose. I just sat there and ate cough drops, blew my nose, and marveled at how my lungs sounded. We only had 50 more flat miles to McGrath, but I was worried about all the fluid in my body and what it would do to my heart and lungs. Eric was also pretty restless and coughing.

I got up several times during the night just to walk around. At 4 am, Nick was up drinking coffee and checking his computer for other racers. I was able to use the computer and it was really nice to check the Alaska Ultrasport web-site and get messages from people thinking about us. Kathi did a great job updating the web-site.

Around 7 Alan, Jan, and Eric were all up and Nick made us breakfast of eggs, bacon, and wonder bread toast. Dario was up too. He had decided to scratch since he didn’t have a wheel. He was coughing and looked like he was in pain every time he coughed. After breakfast we got dressed. It was 80 degrees inside and horrible to put all of our winter clothes on. I had bike shorts, thick Patagonia fleece tights on, my windproof tights, sock liners, thick socks, and boots on my bottom. CLEAN tank top, expedition weight underwear, heavy vest, winter jacket, and down jacket on top. I was sweating as soon as we started riding- it was negative 27 when we left- so I stopped and took my down jacket off. It was really hard and painful to breathe because the air was so cold. I had to keep stopping several times to make adjustments of my goggles, balaclava, and add hand warmers, and also to cough. Every time I stopped I was freezing. After about a mile we got onto the river that was going to take us to McGrath and the temperature dropped. I had to stop to put my down jacket on again. Eric asked a couple of times if we needed to turn around, and it was so painful to breath that the thought entered my mind, but I also thought we were so close I did not want to give up. At one point Eric stopped to put air in his tires and when I had one of my violent coughing fits, my nose started gushing blood. I got frozen polka dot blood spots all over my boot and there was bright red blood in the white snow.

After a few hours of riding it started warming up to negative 15. I was pretty comfortable riding without my down jacket, but now my left knee started to really bother me. It had been hurting on and off since Puntilla, but I was always able to get it to feel better after 15-20 minutes of easy pedaling. I took more ibuprofen and tried using mostly my right leg, but with the platform pedals I was still forced to use my left leg, and my knee was really painful. I had to get off my bike on the smallest inclines because I was not able to push down with my left leg. In Nikolai I had cut up 2 super size snicker’s bars, and I kept eating the frozen pieces and I drank my protein shake. Once I finished my 400 cc Nalgene bottle that I carried inside my vest pocket to keep it from freezing, Eric refilled it with water from his camelbak. We rode for several hours in the sunshine and I was dreaming about steak, baked potato, salad, and red wine. I wanted to ride a little faster but my knee wouldn’t let me. I had turned my GPS off, because I didn’t want to be starring at the distance the whole time.

On the way to McGrath

Sometime in the afternoon we saw an Alaska Ultrasport sign posted in the snow showing us to get off the river. The sign said 9.6 miles, 15 km. After that we saw several signs counting down the distance. I think I cried the last 4 miles. I was just so tired, and in so much pain, and so happy to be finished, and happy to be alive. One reason I finished the last part was so that I wouldn’t have to come back next year and do it again.

Around 5 we arrived at Peter and Tracy’s house in McGrath. Jan and Alan were there. Dario had flown from Nikolai. Masuro had made it in earlier in the morning and Jose had been hanging out for a couple of days waiting to continue on to Nome. I took the best shower of my life and was able to put on clean clothes that we had sent out from Anchorage. My pants barely fit, since my legs were so swollen. After the shower I sat down at the dinner table where Peter fed us pork, homemade mashed potatoes, salad, and broccoli. I was also able to get my glass of red wine!!!!!!

Peter and Tracy's house in McGrath

I was still only able to whisper and I didn’t sleep well because of my arm and my coughing and congestion, but it was great hanging out at Peter and Tracy’s. They took such good care of us and Peter made his famous mancakes for breakfast and I drank lots of coffee. We stayed for 2 days before flying back to Anchorage. Although this was the hardest race of my life, it was also one of the most awesome experiences, and I am so happy I was able to complete the race. In the beginning of the race I thought I would be able to ride it alone, but I would not have been able to finish without Eric. It was a really great experience to be able to ride together.

Louise Kobin's Alaska Ultrasport 2007 (Part II)

2007-03-14T07:00:00.000-07:00

The spot where I had to bivy, was also the section where Eric Johnson fell through the ice up to his waist a couple of days later. He was able to get out of the water and off the river. It was negative 25 when he got into his sleeping bag and blew his emergency whistle. Luckily, another racer behind him, Jose Diego, heard him and was able to take Eric.s location with his GPS and get to Rohn so send for help.

Finally in Rohn

After a little while I came around, but I had lost my voice, and I could only whisper. The Rohn cabin is used as a checkpoint for the Iditarod and the 5 people using it were all checkers waiting for the dogs to come though. There was a giant pile of food for the dogs outside and they were waiting for more supplies as well as veterinarians and doctors to fly in the next few days. There was a tent with a small woodstove for the Alaska Ultrasport racers, but they were kind enough to let me crash on one of the bunks for a couple of hours. We spent the rest of the day in Rohn, hoping I would recover so I could continue on the next day. I didn’t see how it would be possible, since I was coughing like crazy, had no voice, and had a hard time breathing. We had some soup for dinner and went to sleep on the straw in the tent set up for us.

Rohn Sleeping Quarters

At 9:30 pm I was awakened by the excruciating pain in my arm again. It felt like someone was using a blowtorch on it. All I could do was to kneel in my sleeping bag and shake my arm around until the pain subsided again. Since we were in a tent with 3 other people and it was probably negative 20 inside the tent, I couldn’t walk around to relieve the pain so I just sat in my sleeping bag for 2.5 hrs shaking my arm. It was a pretty miserable night, I got up and walked to the out-house a couple of times just to make time pass, but I was glad to be alive.

Around 7 in the morning I hoped the Iditarod checkers would be awake in the cabin, so I got up. They were still in bed, but said they were awake and told me to come inside. Jasper, the cook, made a big thermos of coffee and then started on breakfast. I sat and chatted with Lisa, Jasper, Stephanie, and David, and Terry and learned a lot about the Iditarod and about what they do during the sled dog race. After a little while Eric came inside too, and we had delicious blueberry pancakes that Jasper made. I still had no voice and felt pretty weak, especially since I hadn’t slept much, but it was nice and sunny outside, and I was ready to try to move on, so after goodbyes and picture taking we left Rohn around 10 in the morning. The temperature was 23 below zero when we took off.

Jasper inside the Rohn Cabin

I moved very slowly. I had no energy and there were a lot of short steep hills that I had to walk up. We had to get up one frozen waterfall and I was wondering how the dogs made it up. Alan Tilling and Jan Kopka who had arrived at Rohn several hours after us were right behind us and passed us pretty quickly due to my snail’s pace. Every so often I had to stop to cough violently, and the stuff that came out of my lungs was brownish green. It’s pretty hard to cough, spit, and blow your nose while wearing a balaclava, goggles with a piece of neoprene glued to it covering your nose, as well as a face mask. This also makes it difficult to eat and drink, especially since I was wearing glove liners, mittens with hand warmers and had pogies on my handle bars. The cold air made it hard to breathe and my lungs really hurt when I tried taking a deep breath. We had hoped to be able to go a little bit past Bison camp, the next unmanned checkpoint which was 45 miles away from Rohn, but after a while it became apparent that my slow pace was not
going to let us get that far.

On the river

It took us 12 hours to get to Bison camp, which is a walled tent with a big woodstove, a little table, and straw on the ground for sleeping. The tent is there for bison hunters but there is a sign that says anyone traveling the trail is welcome to use it as long as you restock the firewood. Bill Merchant, the race organizer, had flown out the week before and left blocks of ice to melt for water, a cooler with food, and a couple of Coleman stoves with fuel. We were actually lucky to be a little slow, because when we got to Bison camp the fire was going and it was nice and warm and there was hot water on the stove. We shared the tent with Masuro from Japan, Dario from Italy, Jan, and Alan. The grease in Dario’s free wheel had frozen and his cassette just spinning around and he had been pushing his bike almost all the way from Rohn. Eric zip-tied the cassette to the spokes of his wheel so he would at least have a fixed gear. Masuru told us he only carries a 0.5 liter thermos for fluids but that it had frozen on the way to Rohn. He said it was no big deal since it was so cold outside and he wouldn’t dehydrate.... Uh-huh!! The conversation at Bison camp was hilarious with all of the different nationalities and misunderstandings due to language barriers.

Jan, Eric and Lou at Bison Camp

After I had two cup-o-noodles I got into my sleeping bag, as Masuru and Dario left in the dark and cold to continue on to Nikolai. At this time the temperature was 32 below zero. I was very congested but I actually managed to get a few hours of sleep that night. Unfortunately the rest of the group were probably not as lucky, since Eric said I snored louder than a 350 pound man and that I would stop breathing for a few seconds only to snort louder than ever.

In the morning I had a few packs of oatmeal and some hot cocoa before taking off. Alan left just before us and Jan left at the same time. Now we were on the Farewell Burn, which is a large area that was hit by a fire sometime in the past. The Burn is wide open and since there had been very little snow this season, grass and dirt was sticking up and it was really difficult to ride over this terrain since it was very bumpy and rough. We were able to follow tire tracks, but Peter Basinger said he fell about 100 times, because he couldn’t tell were he was going, and there was ice under the thin snow. I kept getting left behind Eric since I was so slow, but he stopped and waited for me. We ran in to Alan after a while and rode with him and Jan. As we stopped for pictures with Jan, Alan got ahead of us, but we soon caught him when he had a flat tire. Not very fun fixing a flat in negative 20. Later Alan told us that he thought the ice on his rims was slowing him down and he decided to get his knife out and scrape it off. His snow rims are drilled (have big holes to make them lighter) and the tube was poking through the whole and he slashed his
own tube!!

The third and final part tomorrow...

Louise Kobin's Alaska Ultrasport 2007 (Part I)

2007-03-13T05:00:00.001-07:00

I have been thinking about the Alaska Ultrasport and wanting to try it since the first time I heard about it over 5 years ago. Even with all the information and stories I have heard from Eric I could never have imagined how brutal this race was going to be. It didn’t help that I had a cold before the race started and the morning before the start I woke up with an ear infection. Luckily I was able to start taking antibiotics right away.

Start at Knik Lake

Janice and Steve Tower drove us to the start at Knik Lake and just getting out of the car I found it hard to breathe because of the cold air. I’m not exactly sure what the temperature was at the start, but probably between -10 and -15. The race started at 2 pm outside a small bar, and the 33 participants lined up by an Alaska Ultrasport sign. At the start signal we started pedaling, skiing, or walking across the frozen lake. On my snow bike I had a rack in the rear with my negative 20 down sleeping bag, 2 Nashbar bags with extra clothes, and my down jacket in a compression sack under my saddle. On my handle bars I had a mount with a GPS and a LED flashlight and I also had 2 additional bags for food, goggles, extra gloves, toe and hand warmers, camera etc. I also carried my thermarest under my handle bars and I had a small frame bag (can’t fit much into the triangle of a 14" frame) with my stove, pot, spare tubes, and nalgene bottle.

Loaded Bike

After we crossed the lake we got onto trails in a forest. We ran into several dog sled teams tuning up for the Iditarod which starts one week after the Ultrasport. The dogs were so quite you could barely hear them. I was so excited about finally riding in the snow I was pushing fairly hard. I had to ditch my jacket and was riding comfortably in a long sleeved shirt and vest. It took Eric and I 5 hrs and 20 minutes to get to Luce’s which was the first CP, 50 miles into the race. It is a weird experience riding on a frozen river in the dark with nothing around but wilderness and all of the sudden you see a neon sign which says "Luce’s". Luce’s was a small bar/restaurant where we were able to refill camelbacks, dry some clothes out, warm up, and use the heated outhouse. I was so pumped up I was ready to leave after downing 2 bottles of juice and eating a snickers bar, and I might have been slightly impatient when Eric wanted a few more minutes to warm up before getting back on the bike. We still only took a 40 minute break before starting back on the river toward Skwentna, the 2nd CP. It was dark and cold, but the river was hard so we were making good time, although I was marveling at how slow we were. It took us 12 hrs to go the 90 miles to Skwentna lodge which is a small bed and breakfast in a town of 11 people. It was nice and warm inside and we hung our wet clothes by the woodstove and then sat down at the table for some food. The guy working the kitchen told us that it was his grandparents’ lodge which is frequented by hunters in the summer. Our cook was 18 years old and had grown up in Skwentna but was leaving for the military next summer. Nice kid, and he made awesome hamburgers and then he offered us a bed upstairs. Although I wasn’t sleepy, I knew we had to rest a little bit and we laid down for a sleepless 3 hours. When we got up at 6 am, I brought in half of a frozen PB and J sandwich from my bike and put it on the wood stove. I had it with a cup of tea as I was getting dressed and got all of my stuff ready.

Shell Lake Lodge

We left around 6:30 in the morning and our next CP was Fingerlake, approximately 45 miles away. Halfway to Fingerlake is another lodge at Shell lake where we stopped to use the outhouse. No reason to go outside unless you have to..... We arrived at Fingerlake at 2:25 in the afternoon. We took our clothes off to dry and sat down for an awesome meal of rice, beans, chicken and tortilla. This lodge is used for cooking classes and is pretty upscale by Alaskan standards. Still no indoor plumbing of course. Here we were also able to get our first drop-bags and I grabbed some ho-ho’s, trail mix, Reese.s cups, batteries, and more toe and hand warmers. Again, I was way too excited to hang out and we left within an hour. Poor Eric, he knew the race hadn’t even started yet, and I was barely sitting down because I was calculating how fast I was going to make it to the next check point..... Riding to Puntilla lake became a bit more difficult with deeper snow and a lot of getting off and on the bike. The constant getting on and off the bike is very tiring when you are wearing tons of clothes including heavy winter boots, have a hard time breathing because of your facemask, and there is a giant sleeping bag to throw your leg over. With 5 miles to go according to my GPS I decided to take Janice’s advice and "when in doubt, let air out". All of the sudden it was much easier to control my bike and I felt like I was flying down some steep hills (at a speedy pace of 7 mph). It got pretty windy toward the end, and had started to snow a bit when we finally arrived at the cabin at Puntilla Lake around midnight. A few people had passed us and we had caught some of the leaders so the cabin was full. People were spread out on bunk beds, a small couch and some cots. The checker at the lodge was great and made me a huge bowl of clam chowder which I wolfed down while laying on a cot. I tried going to sleep on the bunk bed, but after a couple of hours I woke up and my right hand was paralyzed and I felt like the my arm was on fire. It was so painful I had to get up and shake my arm around until the pain subsided and I was able to move my fingers again. This happens to me after almost every 24 hr race and I always attributed it to my camelbak pressing on my brachial plexus. It always makes it impossible to sleep for more than an hour or two.

At 4 o’clock am I climbed up to the top bunk and woke Eric up. I told him I was ready to leave because I couldn’t sleep anymore. Eric said it could be a 24 hour trip to Rohn, the next checkpoint, and that it probably wasn’t a good idea to leave since the weather was pretty bad. Also, there was no trail over Rainy pass because the snow machines had not cleared it for the Iditarod yet. Our options were to bushwhack our own trail for a few miles through the windy and cold pass or to take a 30 mile detour. I spend a few more miserable hours sitting up in bed to keep my arm from killing me. In the morning we were told that we could have breakfast at the main lodge. I was in so much pain I couldn’t think about food. All I wanted to do, was to get going. I was even thinking about going for a hike because it seemed like moving around made my pain disappear. I came to my senses and had pancakes, sausage, eggs and coffee with Eric and 2 other racers, Jim and Jacques. After breakfast we went back to the little cabin and packed up our stuff and left around 10:30 am.

Hell's Gate

The riding up Hell’s gate, the detour, was pretty good. We were riding through frozen marsh-land and since there had been little snow this season the alder bushes were sticking up and we had to ride through them. I was a bit worried about getting a flat or a stick in my derailleur. After just a short bit of riding I realized I could not carry my camelbak, because it was making my arm hurt while riding. Eric took my bladder and I just strapped my camelbak to my sleeping bag. This worked out great except now it was pretty hard to drink, especially after Eric’s hose froze up and we had to stop and open the top to drink out of it. By dark we just made it onto the river and my GPS showed 25 miles to Rohn (as the bird flies).

Eric said we might have to get off the river and bivy before Rohn, but I thought we should keep going for a while to get as close as possible. I was never looking at my watch, so I had to idea what time it was. Time didn’t really matter anyway. It got really cold and at one point I stopped to get a body warmer out and stick it to my chest. It took me a few minutes to catch back up and I kept getting colder and colder. I also realized that I hadn’t had anything to drink or eat for a long time. Eric got my down jacket out for me and I felt warmer at least. According to our GPS we now only had 1 or 2 miles left when we hit some overflow. We could see tire tracks on the other side of the water, but we definitely did not want to risk getting our feet wet, or falling through the ice. At this point I was bonking pretty bad and was just waiting for Eric to find a safe way around the water. My GPS showed 500 feet... We had to drag our bikes up a steep little climb, and then we were 300 feet away.... I was sooooooo exhausted and cold and out of it but I knew I could drag myself 300 feet. Wouldn’t there be some light coming from the cabin?? No, that’s because there was no cabin where our GPS waypoint showed it was supposed to be. Eric thought we might have missed it somehow, so while I didn’t move he went back and looked around. No checkpoint, no woodstove, no hot Tang.... I realized that if we weren’t going to find the check point I was going to have to get in my sleeping bag because I could not produce any heat. I had no fuel in me and I was completely bonking and had trouble seeing straight. Eric told me to run around to try to get some body heat up while he got my thermarest and sleeping bag out. I had no energy to run, so I walked back and forth at a snail’s pace. Hardly enough movement to produce heat. I got into the frozen sleeping bag and was not the least bit warmer. I heard Eric breaking tree branches off to build a fire to warm me up. All I was doing was trying not to panic. We had no idea how far it was to Rohn and there was definitely no one else to help me out. Eric got the fire going and I felt slightly less cold, I started shivering. Then I heard he got his little isbit stove out and heated up water from his camelbak. I was able to turn over to my side and drink almost a full small Nalgene bottle of hot water and then he made another bottle that I put on my stomach. I finally started feeling warmer, but I was still really scared. It didn’t help that we started hearing wolves howling in the dark. At this point Eric had to go and find the checkpoint to see if he could get some help. He left at 6:47 am. I thought I could keep warm in the sleeping bag while he was gone. It is a strange feeling being completely alone in the wilderness, dark, and cold with wolves howling around you. I don’t know if I was hallucinating or dreaming but I thought I could hear cars and see lights and I had all kinds of weird thoughts going through my head.

I must have been asleep when Eric came back because I didn’t hear the sound of the snow machine. He said he found the checkpoint about 1.5 miles down the trail. I really would like to have a chance to continue the race but if I took a ride on the snow machine I would be cheating. I did not want to make things dangerous of more difficult for Eric so I was willing to drop out of the race, but I was so happy when he said I could try pushing my bike. Before I got out of my sleeping bag I mixed a packet of protein powder into the warm water bottle I still had on my stomach. That gave me a little bit of energy and more heat. I was completely exhausted but I was able to get on my bike and start pedaling very very slowly. Eric stayed behind and packed up my pad and sleeping bag. The 1.5 miles seemed to take forever, but finally I saw the little airstrip and then the lodge. Someone took my bike and someone else helped me inside. (As Eric was helping me edit this, he told me he was the one to lift me of my bike and help me inside). I was totally out of it but I sat down and I was helped out of my clothes and served hot Tang out of a mug. As the 2 women of the group took my long pants of, they laughed and said they could tell I was from California from my tanned legs. They joked that they should put me outside in the snow in a bikini and I could be an advertisement on their web-site. When they checked out my hands they noticed I had frost bite in my left middle finger. I had a big blister on the back of my finger, and the fingertip was hard and had no blood flow. Lisa, who used to be an EMT bandaged the finger up and said it might be OK if I was able to keep it from freezing again. Eric also had frost bitten his thumb when he was helping me out that night.

Vision Quest 2007 Photos

2007-03-12T21:02:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the VQ event from a couple of weekends ago. I've been super busy recently and I haven't been able to get in much in the way of blog entries.

I've been wanting to post Lou's Alaskan Ultrasport race report, but I haven't received the go ahead yet...sponsors.

Riding down the Motorway

Got my finishing feather

Giving Jeroen, my former teammate, an ice cold one

Hanging out with Sauce and the STR folks

Racing in the snow

2007-03-02T20:05:00.000-08:00

Congrats to my teammate La Ruta Lou and to Eric Warkentin! They finished the Iditarod Trail Invitational today...350 miles of snow and cold temperatures. Nice job for Jay Petervary too!

Lou and Eric, looks like Lou is enjoying the ride

Racing with teammates

2007-02-28T20:54:00.000-08:00

The Vision Quest and Counting Coup are this Saturday. Although some of my Sho-air teammates are on the injured list, I expect to be surrounded by black and white jerseys for much of the time.

I'll be somewhere in the mix

Tough work

2007-02-22T22:48:00.000-08:00

I met Jennifer Yanazoo, the Sho-air sponsorship contest winner, and her husband at today's photo shoot for Mountain Bike Action. She's a perfect fit for our jocular team. I like her view on mountain biking: "Riding is about looking where you want to go."

On a different note, smiling for the camera isn't easy especially when a photo shoot lasts for more than an hour and your facial muscles are totally fatigued! Hopefully the photographer can photoshop a grin or something on my mug for several images where I didn't have anything left, not even a fake smile.

I bet she practices that smile

Smile for the camera

2007-02-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

The team has a photo shoot tomorrow. I wonder if they're going to be playing this in the background. =)

Blue

2007-02-20T19:00:00.000-08:00

I wasn't too happy when I learned about the details of Lynda's crash at the OP race and that she won't be able to ride for awhile. In her words, "I have 2 palm fractures on my left hand, a crushed knuckle and a broken finger. My right collar bone is in 8 or so pieces – the Dr couldn't even tell. Pre OP tomorrow and surgery on Monday. "

Anything can happen

2007-02-18T21:45:00.000-08:00

That was the frame of mind that I wanted my Sho-air teammate, Bernice, to have during her second 24-hour solo race, the Kona 24 hours in the Old Pueblo. The week prior to the race we went over all the details of her entire game plan at Starbucks while we waited for Lucky, aka Gilly, to join us for an evening spin. She'd be racing a couple of the strongest female endurance racers around: Monique and Lynda, our coach. We went over numerous scenarios, but in the end it all boiled down to her just racing her own race and not worrying about things she couldn't control. The most important thing was for her to keep going because twenty-four hours is a long time and anything can happen during a race. Bern finished in second place. Woohoo!

Unfortunately, Lynda crashed and that took her out. Former teammate Monique rode for only a couple of hours before calling it a day--virus thing. It's early in the year so no big deal and I'm sure both will be back to rocking endurance events in the near future. I expect Monique to be on fire at the Vision Quest in a couple of weeks.

Unseasonably warm

2007-02-17T22:00:00.000-08:00

It was a perfect day for a ride with the temps in the high 80s. I headed out with former teammates Mike & Jeroen to do the the Harding-Trabuco loop. It took me an hour to find my legs then I really started to enjoy the ride.

Part of the VQ course in a couple of weeks

Got the pick from this thread

In the moment

2007-02-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

There's a myriad of possibilities during every moment of a race. At least it seems that way when I'm fully rested and prepared for it. Then I can be a little more creative on the course. I can respond to surges off the front or attack to find weaknesses. When I'm not feeling it then I don't have much choice but to hang on at a pace I don't like, one that I can't keep. There's not much freedom in that type of race and the fun factor isn't what it should be. It's more comfortable to be a master of one's own race than to be a slave to the whims of others and the temptation to stop racing creeps in. Fortunately, that doesn't happen except for some training races. It happened last weekend at the Boulevard road race.

I knew it was going to be a tough day when I was nearing the venue and I saw a sign about high winds for the next 30+ miles. The array of large power-generating windmills along the ridge across from the start/finish area wasn't encouraging either. That's about the time I saw riders from an early race heading out for another lap leaning about 75 degrees into the wind. Not looking good.

I was hoping for a gradual increase in pace off the start but it started out at full speed. I was about mid-pack and steadily falling back. Before I knew it I was DFL. I couldn't help but laugh since that's never happened before (well it has but it under different circumstances and it was only for a couple of minutes.) The only person behind me was a race official on a motorcycle. =)

The pack was flying in tight formation weaving its way to the base of the first climb. The first casualties were flats and dropped chains. I'd move up a few spots when I could, but it wasn't until the climbs where I could get up into the first third. Once we hit a flat or some rollers I'd start falling back again and I'd start praying for some climbing. My legs could handle the climbs, but they didn't have enough juice for all the surges...left everything at the Torture Clinic. Anyway, I lost contact when I slowed up to take a short breather in the feed zone. I tried to catch back up to the pack and for a moment I thought I had. They were only fifty feet in front of my wheel. For a brief moment, when time came to a standstill, I had a thread of hope -- the possibility of possibilities. The reality of the situation sunk in when the group began to pull away and the motorcycle passed me by. It was game over.

I made a few mistakes, learned a couple of things and I'm looking forward to the next one.

DFL isn't the best place to be

Style

2007-02-11T21:00:00.000-08:00


There's the ever popular
  

               Ride Ride Ride
               e            R 
               d            i 
               i            d 
               R            e
               ediR ediR ediR
  

Hammerheads prefer
  

               RIDE RIDE RIDE
               E            R
               D            I
               I            D
               R            E
               EDIR EDIR EDIR                
  

Domestiques have no choice but to
  

               RIDE RIDE RIDE
               e            R
               d            I
               i            D
               r            E
               edir edir edir    
  

Crit racers have to
  
               RIDE ride RIDE
               e            r
               d            i
               i            d
               r            e
               EDIR edir EDIR   
  
and of course everyone wants to avoid
  
               RIDE RIDE RIDE
                            R
                            I
  



What's your style?

Litmus test

2007-02-10T19:25:00.000-08:00

The new bike that the team provided was sitting at the shop since late November, but I was too busy to pick it up until last Friday. Since then I've been putting it through the wringer with some hard riding on some of the rockiest, most rutted, stutter bump hell trails and fire roads around. This bike sails over stuff that my S-works Epic has trouble with. It's not the climber that carbon hardtail is, but it's not bad with the brain.

I took it out on the Counting Coup course today and had an absolute blast. This bike needs to be rocked long and rough for an optimal fun factor. I'm looking forward to riding this bike at a few solo races this year.

Thanks to Specialized, the folks at Rock N' Road Cyclery and Sho-Air.

partner in crime for leisure time

Le Boulevard

2007-02-02T09:30:00.000-08:00

I'm headed down to San Diego tomorrow for a whole new experience. I've never raced road before. Everyone has been telling me to stay in the pack, suck wheel like it's going out of style and then go for it on the last climb right before the finish. Sounds simple enough.

Like the other two races up to this point the main goal is training, but that doesn't mean that I'm going to be taking it easy mid-pack. I prefer to be near the front. That's going to be a challenge in itself considering that my training this week has essentially been, "work your legs off at the Torture Clinic - save nothing for the road race." I like challenges.

I'll be keeping the following quote in mind, "while we stop to think, we often miss our opportunity." So no stopping, no thinking, just riding. =)

The plan: fly with the pack

Cruising with a Diva

2007-02-01T22:30:00.000-08:00

         Don't ride
                       behind me,
                                I may not lead.

                                Don't ride
                       in front of me,
              I may not follow.

          Just ride
          beside me
                          and be my friend.^*

*I modified a quote by an unknown author

Outlook

2007-01-29T20:00:00.000-08:00

I was planning on doing something different this year, the NMBS marathons, but those races no longer exist. I have to rethink my schedule and set my sights on something new.

Photo from this site

a day in the life

2007-01-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

"Woke up, fell out of bed dragged a comb across my head"^*
Breakfast #1, WSJ -- outsourcing is up, take the bike gear out of the truck
Close call with a moron running a red, jerk
Boneyard on XM, scribble tunes to grab later
Breakfast #2, blah blah blah...easy ways to crash a Unix box...yada yada yada
Overpriced french roast & cyclingnews.com
Work, work, work
[Lunch]
Dicky's puzzle is coming together,
Mr. 24 has a unique prep for training camp,
Check tomorrow's workout
[/Lunch]
Simulations take forever
Summary for the boss, clock out
Traffic isn't so bad
All about climbing Kilimanjaro with Gilly; the mussels were great
Team meeting -- got new kit, gear on the way, met the latest addition
9pm & 55 is a parking lot, it's the OC after all
Have to nix the late night spin, core work instead
mp3: Prisoner, E=mc2, Happy, Trenchtown rock, I want to love you...
Blog entry draft & Limewire downloads (thanks Lou)
STR, Geoladders, check the weekend forecast:
Partly cloudy, Sat - art show then party, Sunday - golf
Gotta ride somewhere in there
ZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz

* From the Beatles, A day in the life

switchbacks

2007-01-24T06:00:00.000-08:00


 Sw
    eet!
        pedal pedal pedal
                         feather Sw
                                    itch
                                 back
                             duck            
                       lean
            b^unny hop     
   waaayy
       off the back
                  Woooooo WH
                                
                              OA! WH
                
                                      OA! whew! b
                                                  a
                                                   n
                                                   k
                                                  e
                                                d
                                           turn
                       off camber.....
                                      
                .....
   t t e  b m s                                 
  s u t r  u p                                
                                                 
yyy
   eee
      aaa
          hhh
       bb
         aaaaaaaa
             aaaaaaa
                  aaaaaby
                              damn that was nice!

On

2007-01-22T22:03:00.000-08:00

It's always a pleasure to watch a racer when she's on. This weekend I saw former WS teammate, Monique Sawicki, tearing up the course at the 12 Hours of Temecula. She was up front from the gun leading all the solos for the first lap until she had chain problems and fell back for awhile. I was riding behind Doug, the lead solo, when she came flying past on a climb. I had a huge grin on my face as I've seen both racers in action and I knew I was in for a nice view of a head-to-head battle. It lasted for a few laps until Monique rode away and continued on to the overall solo victory. Very nice!!

She wasn't the first female to win the overall in a solo 12/24 hour event. That honor goes to Rebecca Rusch who won the overall in Spokane last summer at the Round and Round event. I think we'll see more women rocking endurance events this year. I expect Lynda to knock some socks off at Old Pueblo in a few weeks; a follow up to her top five placing overall at last year's event.

Some heads are going to roll

Wrong legs

2007-01-21T20:15:00.000-08:00

I went to the 12 hours of Temecula this weekend to race solo. The only problem was that I took the wrong legs. My longest ride after La Ruta has only been 3.5 hours--been working on speed and power. Lynda warned me, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway. I can be stubborn at times. Not surprisingly, it didn't workout too well. I only managed five laps. =)

No big deal. I'm back to training on Monday and looking forward to a road race in a couple of weeks.

Riding with friend Dan Cain on my last lap

A first

2007-01-18T07:00:00.000-08:00

I just registered for my first road race, the Boulevard race down in San Diego. My heart starts pumping when I read this race report from last year. I decided to race Master 35+ instead of Cat 5. The former should be more experienced, stronger and most importantly less crash prone than the latter bunch. I can't wait.

Maybe I should watch this movie a few times over the next two weeks.

The opener

2007-01-14T17:32:00.000-08:00

The only reason I've been doing some XC races recently is for training. This race was a little different than the last one; my legs were trashed from my workouts at the Torture Clinic. I go twice a week for different types of workouts on an ergometer, a trainer and rollers. Anyway, rather than me hitting the trails or doing one of the local road rides like the popular Simi ride, Lynda scheduled a race to ensure that I'd give it all I've got on my Saturday workout. Training with a bunch of friends on the MTB is definitely more fun than riding alone and more dynamic than a road ride. It was good to see former teammates and many familiar faces.

Did I give it 100%? Ummm. Well, sort of. I didn't know the course. I didn't preride it nor did I download the turn by turn directions from Geoladders. So the plan was to just hang back the first lap behind riders like Doug, Mr Geoladders himself, then give it all I had on the last two laps. The bonus of hanging back was being shielded from the strong Santa Ana winds that were blowing riders off the course.

Near the end of the first lap Doug was battling it out with another rider, but I couldn't keep up when they turned it up a notch. I gave it everything I had and it was enough for a win in my category. Didn't catch Doug though, even with a broken front derailleur he was still a few minutes ahead; just one of those guy that keeps getting faster.

The team had a nice showing and everyone who raced made the podium. Ty, Josh, Todd and Bern placed first, Brad second and Craig fourth. Craig was also getting in some good training, but I think his legs were more thrashed than mine.

Training was the main goal, the win was a bonus

We're still growing

2007-01-10T20:37:00.000-08:00

The team just added three new riders to the roster: a couple of insanely fast guys and a future endurance star.

-Cameron Brenneman holds the VQ record for geared and SS bikes.

-Perry Paolini was formerly on Team Devo (a Maxxis blurb about some of the talent that started out at Devo)

-Matt Nourmohamadian is only 16 years old but I've seen him ride and I think he's going to rock the endurance scene down the road.

If you race in Cali you will be assimilated.

We are Borg

Tomorrow isn't just another day

2007-01-08T20:00:00.000-08:00

The past two weeks have been a bit crazy; two weddings and a funeral. I suppose change is the underlying theme. I couldn't help but wonder what my epitaph might say if I was the one being laid to rest.


 Rode it like he stole it.  --Nope
 Kept the rubber side down 90% of the time. --Nope
 Enjoyed the ride. --Nah
 Rode like every ride was his last. --Maybe

Is it possible for a ride to be unpleasant if I knew it was THE one, the final one? Even mishaps couldn't interfere with my having fun, they'd just be part of the experience.

I can't claim that I've ridden every ride as if it were my last. Perhaps it's something to keep in mind.

Making up for lost time?

Photo from these folks

If

2007-01-07T17:45:00.000-08:00

I don't like the word. Something definite becomes speculative, questionable. It's the root of many needless self-imposed limitations. I've heard it too much recently:

If it wasn't so cold out...
If my bike was lighter...
If I had more time...
If I were in better shape...
If I was sponsored...
If I only had a [insert training gadget here]...

A New Start

2007-01-04T21:36:00.000-08:00

This year is going to be different. I'll be doing some road racing starting in February and I'm excited about that. I still have to determine which of the local crits and road races I'm going to do. I did post a few of the MTB events that I'm planning on racing. My first event is a XC race next weekend in Fontucky; it's a training race.

Headed down a new path this year

Perfect

2007-01-03T21:05:00.000-08:00

Started thinking about perfection in sports after reading this paper in the current issue of Athletic Insight.* The perfect race. The perfect season. Do they exist? Yes and no.

THE perfect season, sure -- win every race entered. Rare, but it's possible. Of course the difficulty in pulling it off depends, for the most part, on the competition at the races. A perfect season, as opposed to THE perfect season, could be making the podium at every race. Maybe for the pros it's top ten in all their races or their target races.

I don't think there's ever a perfect race in cycling. Winning a race doesn't make it a perfect race. Assuming the athlete is fit, there's always something that has to be dealt with that might not have been in the mental rehearsal of the race: a flat tire, busted chain, crash... It becomes an exercise in adapting to the situation at hand. Adapt well and minimized the time lost or adapt poorly and reap the whirlwind. The former is made a whole lot easier by "trusting your gut" or "going with your intuition." Just trust the guy behind the wheel; don't think just do. That in turn is not much of a problem if the athlete is relaxed and enjoying the ride.

So
where E _t is the enjoyment over an interval of length t, T is the duration of an event and P is perfection! =)

Trust yourself

*The older issues, pre 2006, have some of the better papers as last year was pretty lame.

Keep the "good" fat, lose the bike fat

2007-01-02T20:19:00.000-08:00

There's plenty of benefits to having several teammates: group training rides, support at races, easy access to spare parts...

I've been tapping into the team's collective knowledge base about the various trade offs between strength and weight for race setups. Manny and George have two of the lightest bikes around and they've tried numerous combinations to see what works and what is just too light to hold up in races. I left the carbon s-works hardtail with Manny and Terry to brainstorm different options for shaving off another pound or two. A few days later Manny called me with a two-phased plan for losing a little ugly bike fat; it'll take two rounds because of the $$$ involved.

Phase one of the bike lipo is done and the feel is completely different, much better. I couldn't believe it was the same bike. Thanks to Manny I don't have to worry about forking over extra cash to get this book since the weight lost on the bike almost cancels the weight I've put on since my last race. I loath 21 day plans! =)

Benefit rides

2006-12-28T09:29:00.000-08:00

I don't usually get out for the road rides that benefit various causes, but it's a whole different story if I can ride my moutain bike. Last month I rode the Third Annual Tour de Tryptophan/24 Hours of the Fullerton Loop Fund Raiser. It was the first time I was able to walk a Le Mans start--I like that!!

I'll be out at Cook's Corner on Saturday morning with some Sho-Air teammates and plenty of other riders in support of Tom Ritchey's Project Rwanda.

Join us.

Mission Impossible

2006-12-18T20:30:00.000-08:00

While working with Lynda, I've really gotten to understand the importance of rest and easy days. If I don't rest and have a good time cruising keeping the TSS down then it's futile to attempt the intense workouts she has planned, it becomes mission impossible.

The goal for this past Saturday was a big IF workout. It was raining in Simi so the Coates gang and I ditched the ride last minute and did the Montrose ride in Pasadena instead. Once we got going my "mission" was to stay with this fellow -- not totally impossible. It would definitely ensure that I'd have a good ride. I was doing fine until I missed one of the accelerations. Bummer. Although it wasn't quite mission accomplished, I had a solid workout according to the powermeter so I achieved my main goal. =) Been taking it "easy" since then so I can hit the intervals hard this week.

It's impossible to be on fire all the time

Hundred and one or ten below

2006-12-17T20:00:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago it almost felt like summer with the unseasonably warm temperatures. This weekend it was the total opposite with a dusting of snow. I may have to break out the "winter" riding clothes.

I think these two are involved in a turf war again, over SoCal.

The original bosses of the Bloods & the Crips

Multiday race videos

2006-12-14T20:30:00.000-08:00

My favorite mtb stage race video has to be the old 2004 Addidas Transalp video. I think I watched it once a day when I was getting ready for the race last year.

The La Ruta site recently added the 2006 video. I was caught stuffing my pie hole at CP3 on the top of Irazul on day two.

TransAlp 2007 (part II)

2006-12-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

I forgot to mention that Jeantex also has a road version of the TransAlp. Interestingly enough, neither the road nor the mtb race will allow towing. I wonder if enough folks have been reading my three part series on towing at multi-day races? =) Part I, II & III

The rule really only affects the mixed category teams. So the mixed team race is going to be a lot more interesting this year; Jorg & Anna are going to have to figure something out if they want a shot at the podium.

The Rules:

Road TA -- Section 18 rule 5:
Both partners of a team can assist each other within the framework of the traffic regulations. However mechanical connections between the two bicycles (towing ropes or similar) are not permitted.

MTB TA -- Rule 6.5:
While it is allowed for team members to support each other by pushing or pulling manually, it is prohibited -for saftey reasons- to use any kind of device or mechanical aide to do so. There will be repated checks at the start and along each daily stage to ensure your compliance with this regulation.

Will Chester be consistent with the rules at both of his races? Could there be a similar rule going into effect at the TransRockies? Some mixed teams might need a new game plan next summer.

Update: The Cape Epic has banned towing as well.
Rule 16.4 - No towing between riders is allowed.

I don't really see towing being an option at the TransRockies Challenge next year, but there' s nothing in the official rules yet.

TransAlp 2007

2006-12-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

Registration for the Jeantex TransAlp started yesterday at midnight. It's different from previous years where teams had to download the application, fill it out and submit it as fast as possible. Now teams have four days to register. A lottery will determine which teams get entries.

Each day has its challenges

New training partner

2006-12-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

On Sunday, I went out to the Fullerton Loop to ride with a new training partner, Eddy Garmin. The plan was to ride three loops at a moderate pace. I thought my legs would be fine after Saturday's ride and that it would be no problem, but I was totally wrong. Eddy was at least a tenth of a mile ahead of me in no time and the gap increased as time went on. I got schooled on my own training loop.

Behind from the start

This guy is an animal. He doesn't feel pain at all!

On the redline

2006-12-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

Rode the Simi ride yesterday with Dustin and Nick. It was definitely what Dustin termed a "wakeup call." I've been easing into a normal training schedule after a couple of unstructured weeks. It felt good to be riding on the redline again, but I'm glad the ride ended when it did because I was spent.

It took me most of the ride to get use to riding in such a huge pack at high speed. The average pace at Simi is similar to the top end at Bud's ride and there's at least 100 more riders. I was amazed at the speeds some of these guys carry on winding downhills; big chainring hammering as hard as they can to ensure they aren't slowing down. I was also surprised to see that a couple of the strongest guys that put the hurt on at Buds were in a world of hurt headed into the last climb--the 7 minute climb. Nick and I got separated from Dustin early on so we rode most of the ride together. Nick was keeping a good pace on the climbs just like at the 8-hour in Keyesville we raced in March.

I'll be back again next week!

It was a good hurt

Changes in '07

2006-12-06T21:59:00.000-08:00

With a new team comes a new direction. Most of my events next year will be target races for the team so my schedule will actually have a little bit of structure to it. No Ironbike, no TransRockies or TransAlps...maybe La Ruta. Still plenty of fun, just a little different.

Won't be testing this towing system at the TransRockies next year

Danke Shein

2006-12-04T06:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone that made this a fun year:

Monica for helping with all the prerace logistics.

My Warrior Society teammates for support at the races early in the year.

Tani and the great guy's at The Path for getting my bike race ready during the first half of the year.

Tim, Sherry, Jason and Suzanne from Switchback Cyclery for support at the Hurkey race and keeping my bike going during the latter half of the year.

Scott, Justin, Manny, Terry, and Bernice from Team Sho-Air for the awesome support the past couple of months.

Lucky Gilly and Caroline for being a great support crew.

Dean my training partner and duo teammate this year.

Lynda for the awesome coaching and everything that goes with it.

La Ruta Lou, my racing bud and unofficial coach, for all the great advice and for sharing your wealth of experience.

Blair, my Cape Epic partner, for the tips on how to race smarter.

Dr. Shane and Bernice for all the DMS that kept my legs going after weeks of training.

Desert Dan Cain for tips on how to deal with MTB shoe issues.

Angelika for all the help resolving the issues with my stolen bike.

All the Warrior Society volunteers.

Cycling Genius

2006-12-03T20:30:00.000-08:00

Besides being graceful while out of the saddle single speeders are cycling geniuses. They've realized that there's not too much difference in efficiency between sitting and standing before the lab rats figured it out. I'd better get with the program and check the Acme catalog for a nice SS rig. Who knows what I'm missing out on?

A Sho-Air Vision Quest in 2007

2006-12-01T06:00:00.000-08:00

Practically the entire Sho-Air team will be doing either the Vision Quest or Counting Coup in March. With 18 riders showing up to race I'm guessing there's going to be a lot of guys with black jerseys off the front. Wait a minute. With everyone racing who's going to do support? =)

The only person not racing the VQ will be Lou, but that's because she'll be in Alaska racing 350 miles in the snow at the Ultrasport. I don't envy her as that one is a little too cold for me.

Brrrrrrr!!

Photo from here

WSC headed out west?

2006-11-30T18:30:00.000-08:00

Rumor has it that the Adrenalin World Solo 24 Hour Championship is coming to California. Going by the '07 schedule the only question seems to be when. If it's in early September then Laguna Seca would be the venue, but if it's later in the month then Hurkey Creek is the place to be. I'm hoping for Hurkey (WSC was held at Hurkey back in '01) and Lou is wishing for Laguna. I'd prefer to ride in the mountains rather than a raceway.

The actual venue and date will be announced on December 15th.

I'm crossing my fingers

Fall Classic XC race

2006-11-19T15:30:00.000-08:00

I was out at the 6 Hours of OC course yesterday for my last race of the year, a XC race. I don't normally race the format, it's not exactly my cup of tea. I've only attempted one other XC race since the Summer of '03: Sea Otter last year and my rear-D spring broke half way through the first lap so I got a DNF.

Since I raced the 6-hour a month ago I earned some points towards the Orange County Mtb Series. I was tied for second with teammate Josh behind fellow Warrior Society member Rob Rust. So I thought I'd try to earn a few more points and get in some training. I wasn't expecting much seeing that I had only ridden about three hours in the two weeks since La Ruta. I didn't have a plan either until I overheard George talking to Josh about pacing a couple of minutes before the start. So my plan was to ride behind Josh for awhile until I my legs felt like they could benefit from a break--that would be the time to go.

These races are so brief that I don't see how a racer can compose an epic tale like some of the ones I've read on various mtb boards. Here's how the race unfolded: "Go", a lot of hard breathing, lap 1 done, have a few sips from the bottle, lap 2 done, change bottles, more hard breathing, lap 3 done.

My legs felt heavy the whole time, not much get up and go. A few more hours in the saddle and I'm sure they would have started to feel really good. They had enough juice to carry me to a first place finish in my category and third overall so it was a better than expected result. After the points were tallied, I wound up second in the series for my group.

Congrats to teammates Manny, Brad, Bernice and Matt who took first in the series in their respective classes.

Thanks to Chris, Sherry and all the Warriors Society volunteers for putting on another great event. What other event has plenty of free beer at the post race meal?

A sweep with Craig (L) & Josh (R) is a nice way to finish out the year

I celebrated the end of the season with Monica at In-n-Out afterwards. I've been waiting to have a double-double, fries and a coke for almost eleven months; I started racing in January.

Best burgers in SoCal!

La Ruta de los Conquistadores 2006 -- Highlights

2006-11-15T21:00:00.000-08:00

Wow, what an adventure! This year's La Ruta tops the three previous I've done. Definitely the most fun I've had since last year's Transalp. Some of the highlights:

*Toughest section: the new section between checkpoint 3 and 4 on day one. Searing heat, clear skies, a lot of bike pushing, had to fill up the bottles at a waterfall. I wasn't cursing Roman like I was in '04 when stage one seemed like it was never going to end.

*Best surprise: No cramps! I cramped on day one really badly during my last two La Rutas ('03 &' 04). Thanks to La Ruta Lou's advice on electrolytes I've been using Thermotabs since last year and I haven't had cramps since. Thermotabs rock and a bottle of them is only $6!

*Most fun: the jungle between cp 1 & 2 on day one.

*Least fun: the railroad tracks. I use to really like them but I hated those sections this year. They aren't like they used to be, they've been filled in with rocks so it's pretty boring and not as jarring as it once was.

*Biggest mistake: I took a full suspension instead of a hardtail. The latter would have been much better. I should have read Erik's '05 review on Marg's site beforehand.

*Worst luck: Tinker's roomate -- he happened to have his helmet off while pushing his bike on the new section on day one when he came upon the UCI observer. She disqualified him on the spot!

*Most flats: Had to be Jon Nutbrown, at least 10. Read his account on Marg's site.

*Best Hotel: Guayabo Lodge, good food and great views. All the non-Costa Rican elite riders (Tinker, Frischi, Craig, Leonardo et al) were staying there.

Leonardo (left) smoked the field and his coach (right) took the Master B category

*Worst crash: Jeremiah Bishop's nasty crash at speed pretty much right in front of the Guayabo. I saw him at the San Jose airport a few days after his surgery and wished him a speedy recovery. He was looking much better.

*Best conversations: 1) Talking with soon to be dad Tinker about Florida, fishing, next year's schedule and rides around LA over a couple of beers after stage two. 2) A three hour conversion with Leonardo's coach, Andrea, about training at the elite level, his plans for Leo and coaching the Colombian national team. It's tough training in Colombia (see bottom of page) so now he and Leo are based in Italy.

*SS award: Tim Dougherty was absolutely ripping it up on day 3. I've never seen someone ride a SS like that. It was amazing to see.

Rides like there's no tomorrow

*Best company: the La Ruta Champs.

Do they look like they're having fun or what?

*Firsts: I think this was the first year that someone with a 29ner did the race.

Results: I was 9th in the Master A, 36th overall and 4th guy from the States. No too bad, but my goal was to break into the top 30 again (I was 25th overall in '04). I'm happy with it. Sho-Air had a nice showing with Manny 13th in the open men's and Lou was 2nd in the women's category. Sho-Air sponsor Geoladders had Doug 5th in the Master B.

My left leg is always begging for attention

La Ruta de los Conquistadores 2006 -- Day 3 images

2006-11-13T21:30:00.000-08:00

Geoladders Doug & Tico

La Ruta Lou makes the best of it with only three gears for the entire day

Manny at the finish; 13th in the open mens after three days!

Marg unruffled by the tracks

I didn't really have to go for the sprint finish but what the heck, I may not be back in '07

The new La Ruta Champion with Roman, the creator of this hardcore race

La Ruta de los Conquistadores 2006 -- Day 2 images

2006-11-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

Tinker showing that he can still fly up the climbs

Manny giving chase

Jeff getting ready for the climb

Hillary setting a good pace up the volcano

Doug (Geoladders creator) definitely had his Wheaties for breakfast

Tom Ritchey smoked Doug and I on the downhill

Marg dancing on the pedals

Lou and I have done this part of the climb together since '03

La Ruta de los Conquistadores 2006 -- Day 1 images

2006-11-10T18:45:00.000-08:00

I found some photos of this year's La Ruta race. Unlike previous years, Ecosport didn't take as many photos of the riders. Here are some of the folks I recognized.

Doug from Geoladders

I'm sporting the new Sho-Air jersey

Three time La Ruta champ and new Sho-Air teammate, La Ruta Lou

It was fun!

Marg

is no stranger to this type of adventure

A thrashing awaits?

2006-11-01T07:20:00.000-08:00

I went for a spin this morning out towards the climb up the volcano Irazul that awaits riders on day two. I forgot how steep the climbs are here. Actually, steep is an understatement as they're basically walls.

I saw the article on cyclingnews that mentioned that this year's first stage is "expected to thrash the field." I like the stats they posted -- 48.5% mud. Nice! Good thing I brought my spikes since they help enormously on the mud wall hike-a-bikes. Those are probably the few sections where everyone will be going the same speed since ya can't really run up those things.

Sherry at Switchback gave me a strange look when I told her that I wanted to purchase four extra sets of brakes pads for my Magura Martas even after Tim had put brand new ones on. The mud here is worse than in South Africa and I went through a new set there about 20km before the finish on day one! The demand for pads was so high that if ya didn't keep a constant eye on your bike you might not have any pads the next time you hopped on it. Anyway, the mechanics will be putting a new set of pads on every day. =)

Tomorrow I'm off to the coast to see a bunch of old friends. I don't think I'll pre-ride the first part of the course. After three La Rutas, I know it doesn't really matter since the day is pretty much a climbfest.

"Now", with respect to heart rate and leg burn, usually happens less than 15 minutes from the start on day one, 25 minutes on day two and right off the bat on day three. There isn't really a warmup.

Day One Stats:
Length - 97. km
Total Climbing - 4420m / 14,501 feet
Paved - 8.3 km (8.5%)
Mud - 47.3 km (48.5%)
Gravel - 41.9 km (43%)

Note: VN also had an article on the stages.

En Route

2006-10-29T08:00:00.000-08:00

It's time to head out to Costa Rica after two long years. I'm looking forward to the challenge. Day one of La Ruta in '02 & '03 are probably still the hardest days I've ever had on a bike, much much harder and more painful than any day at any other stage race I've done or any 24-hour solo race.

Anyway, I'll be in San Jose for a couple of days before making my way to the Pacific coast to rendezvous with a couple hundred like-minded adventurers that are ready to test themselves against the terrain, the elements and each other.

Passport to self-renewal

Beauty missed while racing La Ruta

2006-10-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

The only bad thing about racing across a country is not having enough time to stop and take it all in. Going a week early or staying for a week or two after the race is a must.

Riding the wave

2006-10-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

Mountain Bike Action has a post on the 2007 Sho-Air team and the contest for a free bike, gear and $1K for racing. A third of the team wasn't mentioned in the article but what can ya do?

Everyone on the team is looking forward to riding a wave of fun next year.

Who am I?

2006-10-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

Bernice informed me that I needed to supply a bio for myself for my personal page on the Team Sho-Air site. So I cranked one out in an email reply:

Homey's been on a bike for as long as he can remember. After getting tired riding with the babes blading on the beach path in Santa Monica & Venice, he started looking for an adventure. He found what he was looking for after poking around the web: a race across a former banana republic. He's been hooked on endurance events ever since.

That was unacceptable for some reason. =) Ok so maybe I need more details about who I am. Hmmm. I thought I might find out a little more about myself from my UNIX box...at least it would be a start.

If you're not familiar with UNIX shells then skip to the next paragraph, otherwise...

[unix]


(bigmac)> whoami
mcorr
(bigmac)> whereis mcorr
(bigmac)>
(bigmac)>cd /
(bigmac)>find . -name mcorr
(bigmac)>
(bigmac)> finger mcorr

Login name: mcorr   In real life: Mario Correa
Directory: /user/mcorr    Shell: /bin/ksh
On since Oct 24 14:46:20 on pts/3 from Xanadu
Plan: Tomorrow to fresh woods and pastures new.
                      -Milton

(bigmac)>
[/unix]

That wasn't much help. Apparently, I'm from Xanadu and I like to hang out in the woods. Hmmm. Maybe Google?

I only found a bunch of folks pretending to be me. Bummer.

Fortunately, Bern came up with a bio for me. Thank goodness!!

Variety

2006-10-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

riding solo: relaxing

riding with friends: energizing

unfortunately both of the dirt divas I was supposed to ride with this week had a change of plan

the other mario must be in town

the above images came from this cool site

6 Hours of OC Race Report

2006-10-24T21:32:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Gillian and Caroline, my support for this race, everything went smoothly. Every time Gilly, aka Lucky Gilly, supports me at a race or I borrow her lucky light I've made the podium. I'm glad the streak is still going.

It was a fun course with plenty of climbing so I chose to ride the carbon S-works that I used at the Creampuff 100. I didn't have any major mechanicals although the grip shift would get stuck in some gears, but I just had to shift up to loosen it up then shift down. The temps got up to 92 degrees so it was great training for next week's race down in Costa Rica.

I'm a big fan of sleeveless jerseys for hot days since the Hurkey Creek race.

The only thing I did differently for this race was use the Chaser energy booster I've been testing out for the past couple weeks. Matt was also testing it out and we both decided that it's a keeper.

In the end, it came down to me chasing Manny, my teammate, around the course for a little under six hours. We both ended up with 9 laps and he crossed the line about a minute ahead of me. We each won our respective categories, expert 17-30 & expert 31-45. Lou won the female category and finished third solo overall with 8 laps; it was her first race as part of the Sho-Air team. I think ten of my teammates made the podium which is excellent considering that there were at least twelve of us racing.

My legs are ready for three days of grueling racing. Bring it on Frischi! =)

Props to Switchback, the Warriors Society and all the volunteers for putting on a fantastic race.

Bern, Lou & Mary

Eric (left) chose to ride a SS for this one. Second place & I "cheated" by using gears...I feel no shame.

Old School Race Report

2006-10-22T09:00:00.000-07:00

Thought I'd make a record of this weekend's race for future generations.

It was a good day to ride.

Thanks to Monica for helping with the "artwork."

Grassroots Podium Girls

2006-10-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

If there aren't any podium girls at today's race I'm going to make a few suggestions to Chris (WS) and Sherry (SC) for next year's race series.

Let's liven up the competition!

Getting ready for La Ruta

2006-10-20T13:46:00.000-07:00

Lou, Eric, Manny and others heading to La Ruta will be racing this weekend at the Switchback Cyclery 6 Hours of Orange County. I was hoping that Dave would be able to ride with us as well since he's in San Diego for a couple of months. Maybe I could talk him into staying and joining the team. =)

Afterwards, we're headed to see Eddie and the boys in concert. IM is pretty much the official Team Sho-Air band. Manny is going to have to pass in order to wrap up the Semi-pro Cal State XC Series on Sunday. Way to go Manny!!

Edward T. H.

Need a ride?

2006-10-16T21:00:00.000-07:00

Ever wanted to try MTB racing but never had the funding? Want to get a glimpse of what it's like to race worry free? Here's your chance to see (on a smaller scale of course) what my Sho-Air teammates and I will be a part of next year: bikes, gear, reimbursed race fees and expenses...the works. All you have to do is write up 500 words on how mountain biking changed your life.

More details on the Mountain Bike Action, Rock N' Road Cyclery, Sho-Air contest here OR you can check this out and just wait for the next issue of MBA to hit the stands. Note that there's no need to be a current racer or have past race experience you just need a good story and the desire to give racing a try. Simple!

On a different note, La Ruta Lou is latest addition to Team Sho-Air. I didn't have to do any arm twisting to get her to join. =)

Who's the joker that said there's no free lunch?

Update: The contest is for mountain biking not road riding. Sorry Jan.

Louise Kobin's WSC 2006

2006-10-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here is La Ruta Lou's WSC race report:

I just finished the 24-hour World Solo Championship in Conyers, GA and wanted to thank all my sponsors that helped make it possible for me to race! It was a brutal race and I was very happy with my 3rd place finish. There were some fast ladies racing this year, probably the strongest competition I have raced against in a 24-hour race.

The 8 mile course consisted of 2 loops that were about 4 miles each. The first loop was fairly smooth single track with mostly rollers. It had 2 steep climbs that were a couple of minutes each. After completing the first loop, the course intersected the field with the pits, which was nice for getting fluids and food. The second loop was much harder, with several short, steep, technical climbs. It was really rough and we had to climb and descend on bumpy, off-camber granite slabs. There were 2 or 3 sections where I got off my bike after the first 6 laps when the course got looser and my legs tired.

My plan was to keep my laps as consistent as possible during the race, and I was hoping that some of the competition would fade during the morning hours. The leaders went out at a fast pace as I predicted. I had a pinch flat on my first lap. It only took a couple of minutes to fix but was still a bit frustrating. Eric and Alex, my awesome pit crew, started out asking what I wanted the first few laps when I came by my pit, but after a while they realized I wasn't planning on stopping. They quit asking and just handed me my other bike so I could switch if needed and always had a new camelbak and bottle of sustained energy ready. The course was so challenging and I was riding so hard it was really difficult to eat. I tried eating a tortilla with eggs, but couldn't chew and breathe at the same time so I reverted to drinking my sustained energy. Before dark I ended up with another pinch flat and asked Eric to pump up my rear tire to 38 psi.

During the night I could feel I was getting a bit weak and realized I needed some solid "food". The only thing I could imagine eating was a Little Debbie Swiss roll, so I went through a whole box of those. That saved my life!! I did throw up once, all over my bike, but it didn't slow me down, I actually felt much better afterwards. Thanks for cleaning the puke off my bike and light Alex.

Life savers!

I never got cold, so I just kept my sleeveless jersey on during the night. When it started to get light again, I passed Monique Sawicki and a few minutes later Katrin van der Spiegel, the Australian national champ. I was still feeling fairly strong and kept putting time on Monique and Katrin to finish in 3rd. Sue Haywood lapped me sometime after dark. She looked incredibly strong and smooth when she passed me.

Rebecca, Sue & Lou

I ended up with 25 laps. 200 miles with 27,500 feet of climbing in a time of 24 hrs 48 minutes. Thanks to Eric and Alex I never had to get off my bike during the race. They had everything dialed in perfectly the whole time. Eric was in 2 different spots on the course every single lap, and whatever I needed was always ready! I have never before done a 24 hrs race without getting off my bike for at least a few minutes. I definitely need a little recovery time before going to La Ruta!!

Wasted leg Wednesdays are winding down

2006-10-11T22:40:00.000-07:00

Bud's ride is pretty much finished until next year. Only eight riders showed last Wednesday for two laps, but it was a leg burner. It's actually harder with just a few strong riders because there's hardly any drafting going on if someone goes off the front and splits up the group. I went with the attack and lasted for one lap before blowing up. It wasn't exactly how I wanted to finish off Bud's, but the Simi training rides are just a few weeks away. Woohoo!

Simi has many more riders and makes Bud's feel like a cruise

Experiments

2006-10-08T21:23:00.000-07:00

It's experimenting season. I'll be experimenting with several products over the next few months; products that I've never used before. New Hammer products, new drink mixes, new energy drinks...

These first two products I found Friday at a local bike shop during an unscheduled training break shortly after a piece of glass sliced a half inch gash in my tire. Note that I'm not affiliated with either product in any way.

The first one is Living Essentials Chaser 5-Hour Energy Drink. The claim is that, "it is a powerful blend of vitamins, enzymes and other energizing nutrients designed to help you get going fast, and keep you going for up to 5 hours." You get 5 hours of energy now, no crash later & it's sugar free.

I usually like to test this type of energy thing over a few weeks. I'll probably try it before a few rides, when I'm totally spent after a long day in the saddle to see how much longer I can go and on a day when I'm really tired and just don't feel like doing my workout.

The second one is Endurance Max Energy. It's basically liquid carbs with some electrolytes. I don't know if it'll be an improvement over my current gels, but maybe the taste will be more palatable.

Some experiments don't always workout too well. The folks at Hammer suggests avoiding mixing different types of sugars, but that's what I've always done; use hammer gel or sustained energy with say Cytomax or Powerade. Curious to see if there would be a noticeable difference, I decided to try Heed instead of my regular drink mix when I was getting ready for my solo ride at Hurkey Creek. It worked ok for about 5 hours but it just wasn't doing it for me so I reverted to my regular mix. That was a big mistake because I felt like crap within the hour. I may have another go at it this Fall.

Some experiments leave me feeling out of it

A Horse Race

2006-10-07T20:27:00.000-07:00

Looks like it's neck and neck in both the men's and women's elite category 11.5 hours into the WSC race. With some blazing fast times early on I'm guessing that some racers should start to fade and I think some have already started their downward spiral.

Monique and Lou are looking good, 3rd and 5th respectively, while Dicky is in 2nd behind Chambers.

Live updates at: Cyclingnews & Ride424

The end is in sight.
With less than 3 hours to race Monique and Lou have switched places. Craig Gordon has a lap on Chris Eatough. No word on Dicky. Exciting race!

Game Over.

That must have been some race to watch. Dicky, the Viking, rode to a win in the SS category while Lou placed third. Lou has been consistent for the past couple of years with a solid 3rd place each time. Unfortunately, I think Monique had a classic solo implosion; I'm waiting for the lap times to be posted.

Lou often gets mistaken for Christina Begy (from CN)

I didn't know a Sho-Air teammate was going to be racing (from CN)

Motivation

2006-10-03T22:30:00.000-07:00

What's better than an ultimatum for motivation? This fella, who is racing this weekend at the WSC, got an ultimatum from his better half. Ouch!

I hope he has happy legs and an issue free race, otherwise....

but....but....[insert racing mishap here]

Update: He won!

Vikings, Ninjas, Amazons and Cowboys

2006-10-02T21:18:00.000-07:00

The convergence of Vikings and Amazons this weekend in Conyers is looking like it's going to be a good one for spectating. Unfortunately, the ninja family is split between both coasts with most of the East Coast clan heading to Conyers while their left coast brethren are going to have an old fashion showdown in Moab.

Teamdicky will be fending off fellow Vikings as he attempts to best his previous lap record. In the woman's race, Lou and Monique will be racing the likes of Sue Hayward and Rebecca Rusch. If Marg and Lynda were also racing then I'd definitely have to fly out just to watch as that would be one for the ages. Dave and Nat Ross have a large field of cowboys to deal with out on the slick rock. Tinker is scheduled to be there too.

I'm not going to make any predictions about the races this weekend and next because I think anything can happen.

Who will be left standing?

Lazy Days

2006-10-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

Nothing can really get me going on lazy days. Red bull, coffee, ginseng, a double espresso...they're all useless when I'm not feeling it.

I need one of these bikes for lazy days so I can get in my miles.

Thumb throttles are awesome!

Semi-Car-Free

2006-09-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-28T21:45:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-24T11:16:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-22T22:30:00.000-07:00

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

2006-09-21T19:59:00.000-07:00

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