The Tao of Duckman

That Sham-Wow Guy Annoys Me........

2011-06-15T22:13:00.001-04:00

Ah the things that goes through one's mind whilst riding in circles. After 18 months away from mountain bike racing, heck forget racing, from my mountain bike period! After 18 months away, I jumped back in head first at the H8R 8 Hour Race at Haw Ridge Park last Sunday. Part of the three race Tennessee Cup Series, the H8R featured some really nice singletrack that ranged from fast and flowy to hilly, rocky, rooty and dry, dusty slick. Having not trained a bit nor barely even ridden my mountain bike since a bad road crash a year ago, I was looking to just see what would happen if, and get my feet back in the endurance game.

I got there the night before the race and since I have ridden and raced at Haw Ridge bunches in the last 10 years, I felt no need to pre-ride. I put the Honda into caRV mode and sat down with a good book to read and waited.. The threat of storms (something East Tennesseeans take very seriously now in the wake of some recent deadly ones) had me a little nervous and I surveyed the area for the best tree to park my car under.I figured the one most likely to be struck by lightning or a tornado would be actually the one that would be spared so my logic seemed sound and I felt safe. Night y'all..

Sunday, race day. I was looking forward to getting on my bike and to see what I had left in the tank, so to speak, after not riding (I have ridden, lots, just on my road bike not my mountain bike. I wasn't sure what to expect). With raceday formalities despensed of, we lined up and hit the trail at 9:00am. I went into the woods about 7 back from the front and was greeted with a really rocky and rooty climb that should have been no problem but it drove me batcrap crazy! I couldn't find a rhythm and felt like a monkey f..... uh, err, nevermind. I slipped a few places due to my riding like a bull in a china shop and settled in somewhere... I don't know where. I was pretty much alone which was fine with me. I was trying to figure out where the heck I left my technical skills. Oh.... 18 months. Uh, yeah. Well I have some stuff to work on and a little rust should be ok huh? *******!
I rode the first two laps non-stop and stopped on the third only long enough to change bottles. My pit crew was nowhere to be found, oh, I am my pit crew. Well nevermind. By my third lap, I felt much smoother on the rocky, technical parts and the big-ring stuff made me smile (uh..... big-ring. Yeah. After riding only singlespeeds for the last 6 years, I added a 2x9 drivetrain to my 2011 Vassago Optimus and I love it! Make all the jokes about female parts and my manhood if you wish. It's my bike and I'll ride what I want).

I began to really groove on my third lap, just in time for my legs to begin to complain and for a couple of blisters to form on spots that never used to get blisters and I got a little sloppy and bounced off a few trees slalom style (except these trees don't break away like poles on a DS course do.

photo courtesy of Elizabeth McCalley

At the end of my third, not knowing where I was (dang I need a pit crew to give me info), I stopped for some food, real food that I could chew. I was off my bike for about 10 minutes and headed out for lap 4. By now it was hot and my pace had went from "Greyhound" to "Dachshund" and I was just trying to be consistent and smooth, wasting as little energy as I could for the next 4 hours until the race was over. Lap 4 was slower significantly than the other 3 and I had to stop again at the end due to severe pain in my nutsack and my shoulders were getting really tired. I was paying for my time off my bike for sure.
I set out on my 5th lap and got about a mile in and nearly crashed twice, once hard, because of stupid stuff and I said enough. I turned and went back to my car and called it a day. My experiment was over and I got what I came for.

I ended up 8th in solo and know that I just need to ride more and ride my mtb more to get back to where I was before my time off. With that, I have two more long events (a 6 hour and a 75k monstercross race) with the option for a third depending on schedule conflicts, planned for this year. I am doing a full load of cyclocross in the fall/winter and then we will see about a bigger schedule for next year. My main thing is to have fun and remember why I race in the first place. The past year has been very hard for me personally and I am thankful and blessed to just be able to ride my bike.

Everything else is just a bonus.

Run, Bike, Run, Puke..

2010-12-12T20:47:00.003-05:00

It's officially the crap season in North America. It's cold, dark at like 3:00pm and cold and wet and dark. For solar powered lovers of outdoor exercise and related Tom-foolery that poses a bit of difficulty to our lifestyle. Given that and my need to punish myself physically and have fun, I accepted my sister's invitation to enter the Double Trouble Duathlon at Bays Mountain in Kingsport, TN yesterday. After signing an affidavit that I would not have to run any, that I was merely going to be a hired gun on the mountain bike leg, Megan entered us and it was on.

The format was a 5k run, 15k bike and 5k run. The bike portion was hilly but skipped some of the nasty climbs at Bays Mtn and I was looking forward to getting out there and playing some. Megan warmed up while I played on my bike.

And took time for some candid shots with my peeps.....

Soon it was time to get serious and race. Megan lined up with 40something other competitors and they were off. She would be out for about 30 minutes and then it was my turn to unleash the devastating power of the Pato.

She had a decent run considering she hasn't been running much lately (the Archer kids rarely overtrain...... :p) and she came in with a respectable (and injury free) time.

Now it was my turn to do what I do best. I took off and immediately caught several riders that had the nerve to get out of the transition ahead of us. On the first climb I caught 7 more and over the next few miles, I caught more. Fifteen total. I was having a load of fun. Granted, many of the people I was passing weren't strong in cycling and could assuredly whip my butt if we were running. But we weren't running and that is the difference. I had some strong friends of mine out there with about a 9 minute head start and my goal was to catch them but it wasn't happening. I got off the mountain and back to the valley road and just cruised into the transition.

Megan took off on the second run leg and she pretty much left it all out on the trails. I am proud of how she can dig down deep and deliver the goods when it counts. She did great! We ended up 15th overall and 2nd in Co-Ed and had a load of fun in the process. I can't wait for the next one!

Thanks Megan for inviting me and many thanks to Varinka for the pics and the cowbell ringing that could be heard all over the valley. It definitely helped! I'm glad you were there.

El Pato Rides Again.......

2010-12-12T14:54:00.000-05:00

Ok so I am a little behind in blogging about the life and times of the greatest female impersonator and legendary cycling icon - me. I am sure nobody has lost any sleep over it. I have been doing some bike racing believe it or not, in the form of the Mud, Sweat and Gears series final on Dec 4.

Here's the 411:

The final round of the Mud, Sweat and Gears cyclocross series rolled into The Farmhouse Gallery in Unicoi TN amid cold, frigid air and snow. Ok fine. Cross people are used to crappy weather and we wear it like a badge of courage. The unfortunate thing is when it "warmed" up enough to rain. Rain @ 34 degrees pure sucks but at the same time is strangely fun. My agenda was the Masters 45+ race then Singlespeed later in the day. I got dressed and got my bike and tried to warm up before the Masters race which was pretty much a joke. It was cold and I am a baby. I tried to channel some toughness from Jens Voigt and suck it up and really it wasn't that bad. The bad was coming.

I got a decent start, 4th or so and really didn't feel that great. The course was really nasty in places and very slick. I ride great in stuff like that but I managed to get caught in a few mishaps when others around me had problems and I faded to 10th by midpoint of the race and that is where I stayed until the end. Soaked and cold, I went to the car to warm up and get my clothes for the next race... Uh..... about that.

It seems that I brought only enough warm stuff to stay warm if I stayed dry. If this was my first year of doing stuff like this we could excuse me and say ok, lesson learned. But since I have been racing cross for 6 years and racing and riding my bike in crappy weather for much longer than that, I have no defense excpet to plead temporarily stupid. It's ok my sentence would be carried out quickly and my suffering was ensured.
I had 2 hours to contemplate putting wet clothes back on and racing again. The rain never stopped and neither did the shivering. I was shivering at just under my threshold pace and warmth was something that happens to "other people". Time ticked away and I was doing more waffling than a politician a week before election day. Finally as they called singlespeed to the line, I was getting my bike off the car and airing the tires. Wet clothes in the cold is tough. I rode to the line with no warm-up and expected to die quickly but I was going to die on my pedals and not like a little girl cowering in the front seat of my car with the heat on.

Jens would be proud.

At the start, instead of falling over in a hypothermic state of shock, I got the holeshot and led the first lap. I went with it and tried to formulate a strategy but I knew I had a couple of really strong guys behind me. I had to push hard if I was going to stand a chance to win.

By now, the course was waaaay sloppy and I was happy to have the fat tires of my singlespeed and disc brakes.

I got passed by my friend and Pro 1/2 racer Mike Seek and we traded spots back and forth but he eventually got tired of playing with me and rode off. I wasn't cold anymore at least. As the race got into the final laps, I crashed on a sloppy off camber and slid on my stomach all the way off course. I laughed. Another buddy, Steve Stidham, got by me and paid me back for beating him in the Master's race earlier. On the final lap I made an effort to catch him back but my legs said no and I settled for 3rd place.

Brown is the new black. I'll be warm by Tuesday.

Roast Duck. It's What's For Dinner.

2010-11-15T21:53:00.000-05:00

Saturday was round 7 of the Mud, Sweat and Gears Cyclocross Series and a beautiful day graced the event held at Steele Creek Park in Bristol, Tn. I have been trying to do three races: Masters 45+, Singlespeed, and CX4 to pimpslap myself into fitness. Last week the classes were spaced with about an hour between each. This week to allow time for collegiate races, the Masters race was first and the SS/CX4 races were at the end of the day and back to back.

I have learned from past experience that my body responds well to tough love when it comes to training. Having said that, I have never done back to back cx races before. On one hand, the back to back races in question are only 30 minute races and that was an hour and a half after the 45min Master's race so it's not that bad. On the other hand, this is cyclocross and my inner child was about to throw a tantrum.

After warming up a few laps on the Dwayne Letterman designed course that included one set of barriers and several off-camber down/up combos that would surely cause some consternation from the masses. I went to the line and, hmmm.... Seems a bunch of people got there before me and I was on the second row. Crap! I fought hard to get as close to the front as I could and I did ok. I was sitting in the top 5ish and stayed there until we got to one of the short n' steep dips. Somebody messed up and we suddenly had a donnybrook, a free-for-all. I scrambled to get going again asap and don't really know how many people passed me or where I was for that matter. I was irritated but hey, crap happens. I regained composure as quickly as I could and started searching for friends I could kill, hahahaha... The first buddy I saw was my brother from another mother - David Hayter. I watched him for a lap and saw that he was weak on the long climb from the finish line to the top of the course. I attacked him there and got a nice gap between myself and him plus several others that were behind us now. I was on the rivet and waaaaaaay down deep in my pain cave. So much so that about 2/3 of the way into the race, I blew a corner and allowed two people to get close and eventually past me.... CRAP! I buried myself to try and get those spots back but to no avail, I ended up 9th.

I had about 1.5 hours until my back to back SS/CX4 events so I ate and hung out with cowbell in hand to cheer on some of my peeps. I wasn't sure what to expect, I left pretty much all I had out on the course in the Masters race. Hmmm. This was going to be interesting.

I grabbed my singlespeed and went for a ride around the venue and when the Pro 1,2 race was over, I hopped on course to see how I might feel. Having spent more time on my singlespeed in the past few years than any other bike, I always feel better and more relaxed on it. I love my Vassago. They nailed the geometry on them perfectly. Nothing handles like my Optimus. Therefore, I felt really good in the off-camber parts and the short, steep up/down stuff in the woods. On the downside, my legs were CRAP.
On the start, I went as hard as I could but didn't get a very good one. I was discouraged and resigned myself to the fact that it was what it was and I just need to deal with it. I did manage to catch and pass a few people and by the end of the race I had worked my way into 4th. Now for a jersey change, a quick swig of water and slam a Hammer Gel and a bike change.

I didn't even bother with riding a hot lap before the CX4 race. I was as hot as I could be and I knew the course like the back of my hand. I just rolled to the start line and waited.......
At the start, I did a solo break off the back and found myself alone and DFL by the time we got to the top of the hill. I contemplated quitting but then I remembered how much I'd hate myself later for that and figured I'd get all the pain and suffering over with in one day instead of dragging it out over several weeks. About 1.5 laps in and I started catching and passing people. This fueld me a little and I pushed as hard as I was able at that point. I caught a few more and made it up to 19th by the bell lap. I had no chance of catching anyone else but for craps and giggles I still pushed hard in the final lap and even sprinted across the line.
I thought I was gonna puke....

It was a good experience (that's easy to say two days after the fact) but I was really trashed afterwards. I am excited to see how much fitness I gain by the time round 8 rolls around Dec 4.

I heart cyclocross....

Climbing hurts but couches can kill........

2010-11-07T20:43:00.002-05:00

Pain comes in three's

After last weeks triumphant return to racing for me, I knew I had a looong way to go to feel like I was in somewhat decent shape. From riding my bike all summer at pretty much a tempo pace, I have a good base but I lack high-end fitness that you need to do well in racing. Above all other forms of bike racing, in cyclocross there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide.

Round 6 of the Mud, Sweat and Gears Cyclocross Series rolled into Johnson City and Winged Deer Park Saturday. The threat of snow and frigid temperatures got me really excited and reminded me of the State Championship race at this same venue just 10 months prior where it snowed 4 inches. The snow held off but the cold was there to stay. Ahhh cross weather.....

My goal after last weekend is to race my way into decent fitness and try to do well in the upcoming State Champs race in January. With that in mind, I signed up for Masters 45+, CX4, and Singlespeed. The classes were staggered just enough to give me about an hour between each race. Just enough time to get cold and suffer more when it was time to race again, yummy! Having said that though, I don't think I am ready to go 1:45 at or above my AT just yet, nope I think I might just puke if I tried that. After a pseudo warm-up, I took the line for the Masters race where I got the holeshot -yay me! I have learned from nearly 30 years of racing (good GOD I am old!!!) motorcycles and bicycles that the start is critical. Get a good start and go backwards if you must but it's a lot easier to stay at the front if you are already there. Plus you stay out of all sorts of trouble by getting a good start.

I had no intentions of staying at the front this day however and about half a lap in, I started making my way to mid-pack where I would set up shop for the next 40 minutes. I felt - meh... Not bad but definitely not good. Perhaps the only thing I had going in my favor was I was there, doing what I love and I was no longer cold! In fact, I was starting to roast and my tights were causing me problems on my remounts by getting caught on my seat several times and subsequently ticking me off. I pushed hard until the final meters of the final lap and then sat up and rolled across the line in 10th place. I headed to the dirty orange box that I drive to rest and get some fluids before the CX4 race.

I didn't get such a good start in the CX4 race and that was fine with me. I still felt some of the effort from the Masters race and was thinking that I was happy that this was just a 30 minute race instead of 45. By now the course was getting slick in some of the off-camber sections and in one corner I went down. It was nothing spectacular, I just fell over like a dork, costing me time and nearly costing me positions. I was determined to defend my 14th place or die. I just kept telling myself that I am training and these races don't matter, heck none of it really matters in the big picture. I don't have anything to prove... Try telling that to a competitive soul on a course with other people on bikes. I pin a number on and I change. Who doesn't?
Despite falling and having a few wardrobe malfunctions, I had a decent race and as far as training goes, I was having a great day. After the 4's I went to get a Coke and a smile and chill out until my final event - Singlespeed.

In SS I got a second place start right behind my pal, Neo-Pro Wes Lamberson who races for Union College. I knew I'd be following him only as far as I could so I just tried to settle in second and that soon became third then fourth (dangit) but I managed to stay there for the remainder of the race. At that point it was all about blue-collar suffering. I began to get real sloppy and fudged a few corners and tripped on the barriers at least twice. Training, training, training, I'm only training, I'm only training.... I kept telling my legs to shut the **** up (thanks Jens) and push onward. I pushed as hard as I could until the end. Everytime through the Redline run-up (a steep bank that was kinda slick), I attacked it like my life depended on it as opposed to a death march or crawl up it. Fitness is coming back to Duckman's house one way or another!

Three races hurt and I was really knackered at the end of the day, only speaking with one syllable words and using a lot of hand gestures. I was happy with how I did and am anxious for the rest/recover/rebuild cycle that brings on the gains in performance that I am expecting. I will get a chance to gauge my progress next week at Round 7.

Until then, Arriba, Arriba, Arriba!!!

I put the "Suc" in Success..

2010-10-31T20:52:00.000-04:00

My return to racing came this weekend in round 5 of the Mud, Sweat and Gears cyclocross series in Johnson City. I was looking forward to returning and especially since this was Halloween and Spooky Cross! My 6 month no racing mandate had passed to allow my skull time to heal and although I have ridden a lot since the wreck, my race shape was expected to be lacking. Boy was I not disappointed.

I rode around to warm-up before the Masters 45+ (my 44th birthday was Saturday so that meant my "racing age" for cross is now 45, I am officially old) and I was thinking about how the pain was going to feel...ugh. Hey, this is cyclocross, it hurts! Deal with it. The Dwayne Letterman designed course was fast and flowed really well and included two trips through the sand. It was fun. At the start, I was sitting on my top-tube and mentally prepping when the USAC official said "Ok gentlemen have fun" and everyone took off! CRAP! No ready, set, go; no GO! no fanfare, nope, just a sweet little, soft spoken lady saying ok boys have fun. I was expecting cookies and milk later..... Consequently I buried myself deep in anaerobic hell trying to get into a good position on the first lap. 45 minutes later I rolled across the line in 16th. Whatever. It was training for me and my first race in almost a year so I didn't really care a lot about position.

My next race was a few hours later so I went for lunch. Maybe a burrito complete with jalapeno peppers wasn't the best idea before another anaerobic effort. That's all I will say about that for now. Readying for the CX4 race I was rather upbeat and looking forward to it. This time I was going to be ready for the start lady. If she even passed gas I was outta there like a thief on a new bike. I got a much better start and was in 4th place going into some dips and swoopy turns on the upper end of the course. I bobbled on one of the dips and almost crashed. I saved it but lost all my momentum and went from 4th to about 15th just like that. CRAP! I buried myself again trying to regain some positions and it was about then that mr burrito came back and merely suggested that I might want to eat something different before a race in the future. I rode around (some say there was a race going on.. hmm, I was riding my bike in circles and trying not to puke) and crossed the line in a dismal 21st. I was pretty unhappy with that and had to remind myself that I knew it was going to be bad, to suck it up and put on my big boy panties and deal with it.

After a birthday dinner with my sis (and a beer..yay) I rested and considered my plan for Sunday's Tornado Cross on the campus of King College in Bristol.

Sunday morning I woke up and my legs felt baaaaaaad. After getting to the venue and registering, I got on my bike and rode for about 40 minutes to try to warm-up and get my legs moving. They were pissed at me and not talking. The course was interesting with a swampy section and some woods complete with good, old fashioned singletrack. King College is a beautiful campus and a great place for an event like this. I only did Masters 45+ since I figured I had done enough for the weekend and I took the line not really knowing what to expect. We had a actual whistle to start and that went and I went - not so hard this time. Still, I found myself in second (for 45+, 35+ was out there too so I was about 8th or 9th in the field and I tried to go hard as I could but still remembering that I had 40 minutes left to race.
I got passed and was comfortably in 3rd for most of the race until 2 laps from the end and I messed up coming out of the woods and got tangled up in the marking tape - doh! My buddy Dwayne the saw blood and put in a dig to catch me and I dug as deep as I could to prevent that from happening. 1.5 laps later I sat up and soft pedaled the final 100 yards to finish 3rd.

Overall I was happy with the weekend. I knew returning to racing would really suck in one aspect but it still is a whole lot of fun and that's why I do it.

Things that go bump in the night...

2010-07-19T23:17:00.001-04:00

You know how those worse cas scenario questions play out? You get a nearly impossible situation and are supposed to figure out what you would do. What would you do if you were descending a mountain road on a road bike at say 40 mph and suddenly someone threw a bike in front of you?

That question was presented to me on Jun 24. I was on a weekly group ride with the folks of Johnson City Cycling and we always go over Buffalo Mountain in Johnson City. This particular night it was sprinkling slightly and there was some lightning off in the distance causing a few to turn back. That is the last thing I remember. The next 36 hours of my life may or may not ever come back to me but eyewitnesses and painful scars (oh and some scary MRI scans) have helped me put together what happened.

As we rode on that evening, the rain never really materialized after a few sprinkles. By all accounts it was a pretty typical ride and we reached the base of Buffalo and everyone climbed their own pace and we regrouped at the top. The roads were damp in places but by no means all that wet (or so I was told). We rode off the mountain. Here's where things for me get a little weird. I have been riding and racing bikes for 22 years and some rules I never break....ever. One of those is on wet descents I always mind my own business and I don't follow wheels, especially in corners. Not having the luxury of knowing what happened exactly I am still really troubled by the crash. I just don't understand how I got where I was just before another rider lost it in a left hand corner and his bike slid right in front of me. I tried in vain to bunnyhop the bike but I failed. I had zero time to react and hit the road at 40mph head first. Road rash on my head, hands, knees and shoulder says I never even had time to take my hands off the bars. The other rider, as far as I know, had road rash and that was all. I layed in the road unconscious as friends watched over me and called 911.

Day 1 - ICU......

Day 3

At the hospital, road rash was treated and stitches were applied to my left eye and chin. A MRI would show several facial and jaw fractures and a subdural hemotoma. I was admitted to ICU and that is where I stayed until Sunday. Sometime on Saturday, I became somewhat aware of what was happening to me. Still very foggy and very much in pain, I learned of the crash, the damage to my face, the bleeding on my brain (which had THANKFULLY stopped) and the amazingly wonderful job my Bell Volt helmet did in saving my life. The rest of Saturday and Sunday were spent with me becoming less "foggy" and starting to improve. By Sunday evening I was moved out of ICU and by Monday I was released from the hospital. I had a prescription for some wonderful pain meds and some good old R&R. After couple of days of that I was climbing the walls. I don't do idle time very well.

I figured out by using some math equations that I hadn't used since college that at the point of impact there was over 10,000lbs of force on my head and neck. I got scared... really scared. I have crashed a lot over the years and have had a lot of broken bones and assorted injuries. Never broke my head before though.
I felt very blessed to still be around to bitch and complain about how much pain I was in and how my fitness was abandoning ship like rats from the Titanic. Over the next week I healed a lot and was able to return to work the day after Independance Day. By the following Sunday, I was ready (physically, amazingly) to ride my bike again.
Mentally however, was a slightly different story. I was scared. I still had skull fractures that were healing but made my melon weak. Crashing was not an option. If I hit my face (before this crash, the last hard crash I had on the road was over 10 years ago so the odds were decent.... still I was scared ****less) I would be screwed to impressive levels of screwedness. A mile into the ride I wanted to turn back. I was nervous, my legs felt like crap and my balance was screwed up... I was scared... I went on and was flanked by some good friends that made sure I kept myself out of too much trouble. We rode for a couple of hours and although I felt better at the end, the fear and uneasyness never left me completely. I made it though. I dealt with the fear pretty much how I always have, I punched it in the face.

I have ridden a few times now since the accident and every ride feels a little better and my fitness is (sloooowly) returning. I rode the exact climb and descent that almost killed me and although it was scary and I roasted my brake pads all the way down, I did it. My prognosis is good. The fractures in my skull and jaw will all heal without the need for surgery. My brain has a small amount of blood between the halves that should go away on its own. The damage emotionally will also heal with time too. I have scars on top of scars on top of scars....Nothing new there, skin heals too.... My fitness will return and hopefully I can improve (I lost 11 pounds but unfortunately most of it was muscle...) on it. Time will tell.

I want to thank everyone that helped me that night, that prayed for me, sent me encouragement and helped me and continues to help and encourage me to this day and forward. I have a great circle of friends and I appreciate each and every one of you...

Day 5.. Going home......

Lastly, I can't encourage all of you enough (and hopefully this is preaching to the choir), please wear a helmet. Make sure everyone you ride with wears a helmet, a properly adjusted helmet and for God's sake make sure your kids wear helmets when riding bikes, skateboards or anything else that can cause serious damage. Helmets save lives..

Oh yeah... Mountain bikes... I ride those too.

2010-06-20T21:08:00.000-04:00

I have spent so much time on the road recently that I almost forgot that I ride mountain bikes too. In fact I ride them quite well and have fun doing so. I loaded up my 2010 Vassago Optimus today along with the first Chupacabra in existence that the really cool people at Vassago sent me to build, ride and give my opinion on.

So here goes.

The first thing I noticed when I unboxed the Chupa was the beefy chainstay bridge and chainstays. The welds are all clean and rather industrial looking - I like that. It is definitely an aluminum bike, no questions about that. A couple of additional frame notes are it has a built in chain guide mount at the bottom bracket and replaceable horizontal drops. Not having been briefed on the target market for this bike, I am thinking it may be more for the all-mountain crowd. there seems to be decent clearance for biggish tires and a rather beefy headtube/downtube junction for a long travel fork (I have no specs on it so I don't know yet what Vassago recommends).

After building with a fairly high-end set of components: Thomson seatpost and stem, Easton Monkeylite bars, White Bros Rock Solid carbon fork, Formula Oro Puro Brakes, Middleburn crank, DT Swiss/Stans wheelset, Chris King headset and of course WTB tires and saddle and Ergon Grips, I loaded up and headed to the trails at Warriors Path State Park. II have ridden hundreds of miles there and knew it would be a good place to see what the Chupa would do. I also took my Optimus along to compare the two.

I hopped on the Chupa first and rode around the parking lot some to make sure I tightened everything (you never know) and then headed into the bush. The first thing I noticed was that this was definitely an aluminum frame. It felt solid, not that harsh but a different feel than my Optimus or the steel framed Jabberwocky, both of which I have plenty of saddle time on. The Chupa climbs like a monkey with it's tail on fire. The beefy chainstays allow all of your energy to go to the dirt where it belongs. I felt like every pedal stroke was moving me somewhere and the bike had a nice quiet (gosh I love singlespeeds) and solid feel.

I got into some fast, twisty turns and the handling seemed to be typical Vassago. Forget the myth that 29er's can't turn well. Poorly designed 29er's can't turn well. Vassago's turn superb. I was railing corners like normal and had all confidence in stuffing a bike that I have only ridden a mile into a corner at speed.
Bumpy, root infested corners pushed the Chupa's handling to the limit. It didn't perform badly, just different than my Optimus. It's not a fair comparison really - apples to oranges. Still I had a lot of confidence based on my experience with Vassago bikes added to the secure, stable ride the Chupa was feeding me.

Rock gardens were no problem as were the many short and steep climbs at Warriors. The Chupa handled them equally well (unlike my legs that had 73 miles of mountains from the previous day and my gearing of 34X17 really caused me to grunt especially going up to the top of Ridgetop). The final trail at Warriors is Magic Carpet Ride. It goes down and has fast and twisty corners. The Chupa really shined here. It turns probably a little better than any of the other Vassagos I have ridden.

I didn't have time for serious, all-day miles so I can't comment on long ride comfort but my initial impression is that this is a fun bike and would be great built up with a 100mm or better fork and maybe a 1X9 drivetrain for some mo-betta serious trail riding and maybe even some dual slalom.

Pictures:

Chupa vs Optimus

Chain guide mount and chainstay bridge - beefy.

If some pain is good, more is better....

2010-06-06T18:28:00.000-04:00

Ok so I literally decide just a scant few hours before the start of the 2010 Tennessee State Criterium Championships held today in Johnson City, TN to pin on a number and have a go. Nevermind the fact that I haven't raced a crit in a year, nevermind the fact that I haven't raced a bicycle period since January at the TN State Cyclocross Championships. I am not known for good decision making.
I got interested when I went with my little sis to a 5k race she was running in yesterday and then we drove to Carver's Gap on Roan Mtn to see the finish of the Roan Groan. I have been not that interested in racing at all this year and have been riding my bike just to be riding my bike. The fitness I have comes from a pile of fairly easy endurance miles with some tempo along the way but very little intensity. So I do the smart thing: I register for Cat 4 and Masters 30/40+ thus guaranteeing myself 80 minutes of redline, on the rivet effort. That is provided I could hang with the group and not get pulled (by being lapped).

Cat 4 was first so I rode around downtown JC for about 40 minutes before the start to warm up. I lined up with somewhat decent expectations of finishing in the group. Sitting on the line I looked around and saw about 60 Cat 4's and got a little nervous. I hate crashing and I hate crashing more because somebody causes me to crash. With a field that big, a crash was almost assured. We started and I tried to go to the front but the pace was kind of slow and everyone bunched up there. Ther was bumping and pushing in the corners for the first few laps and I wasn't interested in doing what it would have took to stay up there and out of trouble. I drifted to the back of the pack and stayed there for the most of the race. A nasty headwind on the front stretch really slowed me down when I lost touch with the pack and with 9 laps to go, I got pulled.. Crap!

The Master's race was an hour away and I barely had enough time to re-pin my numbers and eat a Cliff bar. I lined up after taking a look at the revised course (a section was removed from the earlier races because of cars parked on the course). I really liked the new section. It had a few left turns and was narrow and technical and very spectator friendly. On the starting line, I noticed I was waaaay out of my league with quite a few Cat 1 and 2 racers there but I didn't care. To ride faster you have to ride with people faster than you. The start came and the first lap was brutal, about 30mph. I was worried that I wouldn't be around for 2 laps if that kept up but the pace slowed to about 25-26mph and I was able to hang on for a little while anyway.
I lost touch with the pack and hooked up with a smaller group of about 5 and we tried our best but the end was swift and inevitable. We got pulled after 15 minutes into the race....meh.

My goals for the race(s) were to A: have fun, B: not crash, C: finish in the top 20. I made good on A and B and even C in the Masters but missed it in Cat 4. I was 16th out of 20 in the Masters and 39th out of 54 in Cat 4. Not bad for not training any for a race like this...

If You Don't Break A Sweat, You Are Doing It Wrong...

2010-04-19T20:09:00.005-04:00

I will begin this blog entry not with some lame excuse about where I have been for the last two months, nor will I whine and complain about having a hard time, fear over pork futures, uncontrollable diarrhea, erectile dysfunction and/or mental defect or reason of insanity.

Nope, none of that. I will get right down to business. Unless you are as unfortunate as my pal George in Vermont or my punk sister high in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California, Spring has basically sprung and riding is once again good. I have changed up my typical spring this year. In years past, I would ride my ass into oblivion, throw in a few 6-12 hour death-on-a-stick training races and try to be somewhat fit for the summer and early fall primetime racing months. This year, I have no spring races scheduled and have been focusing on just riding my bike. I started riding my bike 20something years ago because it is fun (plus I was tubby) and I found myself getting away from the fun aspect and that is just wrong. I have been doing 2-5 hour endurance rides, mostly on the road with a mix of terrain but still somewhat climb heavy because I like pain.

I have enlisted the services of Varinka Williams, a friend, riding pal and she has become my psuedo-personal trainer. She is helping me straighten up my crappy eating habits and helping with my motivation. The goal: the 2013 Cyclocross Worlds in Louisville KY. Yep I am focusing the next two years of my racing "career" on going to the Cross Worlds in the best shape I can be in. I still will be doing some endurance off-road stuff, just not anywhere near as much as in years before.

Speaking of Kentucky, Varinka and I went to London last Saturday and did the Redbud Ride. 104 miles of rolling hills and pretty Kentuckyness via bicycle.

Look closely and you will see how hamburger is really made..

No blog post would be complete without a pic of me taking a pee..

Tricycle derby.... fun times..

I got layed by some lady at the church sag stop.... Uh, that didn't come out right.... oh well.

We were supposed to do 104 miles but that became 107.5 when we missed a turn (wasn't my fault I swear) and we rode around for a bit until it just didn't feel right and we turned around and found our way with the help of a few others that were lost too..

Fun with food...

Varinka "chicking" a dude on one of the few 20% grades we found in eastern KY..

It was a really fun event and just what I needed right now. I feel like I am right where I want to be right now. Many thanks to the organizers and volunteers that made the Redbud Ride cool and to Varinka for telling me about it and hanging out with my sorry butt through 107 miles of east KY wilderness..

Before I go, I want to show you my new bike. This one is a bit different than the ones I normally ride:

I got a sweet deal on this 2006 Honda 599 "Hornet" from my buddy Mark Prince. I have always wanted a street bike and just never got one.

As much as I love bicycles, this thing freaking rocks!

Don't mess with Scotland...

Redrum, Redrum, Redrum...

2010-02-11T09:40:00.004-05:00

Poor Jack Torrance all holed up in the mountains in Colorado with a ginormous amount of snow, Olive Oyl on his case all day and his kid running apeshit wild over the place. It's no wonder he went nuts. One thing can be said about this winter in North America, all the Meteorologists, Almanacs, Wolly Worms, groundhogs, and old people with their gout acting up were right.

This winter has been a doozy.

It has been tough to be an athlete in this stuff too. I have been on my trainer more than I have been outside and now that my days are temporarily free due to being unemployed, I have a lot of time on my hands. This can be good and bad. I am used to being really busy and my mind doesn't do downtime very well. I have been planning how I am going to spend the rest of my life both on and off my bike and looking at options like school (hmm, wonder if I can get a mountain bike scholarship...hmm...)

Now that Cyclocross season is over (for me. There's a few races I could still hit but cash is an issue right now) and it continues to snow every few days, my riding is gone to base building mode and I have managed to get some good rides in depsite everything else. I have even been in the mountains some which is something I don't normally do in January.

Slick roadie tires and snowy mountain roads make for a haaaaairy combination!

Steep!

I went with my buddy Bob Lamberson to Tsali a couple of weeks ago and we were blessed with a great day to ride:

Really, even though I am making the best of this like everyone else in the country, I am over winter. Instead of Groundhod Day, I am going to make Save This Kitten Day. That is, if I don't see Spring soon, very, very soon, I am going to shoot this kitty.

Ready, Set, Slop

2010-02-02T14:54:00.002-05:00

The 2009/10 Tennessee State Cyclocross Championship Race rolled, er, slid its way into Winged Deer Park this past Sunday amid what was touted as the "Storm of the Century". Overnight, rumours ran rampant about massive snowfall amounts, enough to lose Gary Coleman in. Bread and milk shortages, random senseless acts of senselessness and up to but not including total anarchy.

I woke up Sunday determined to stay snowed in. My January so far has been total shit and there is no way I was going to take a chance on having fun on the last day of it. My fate was sealed when I turned on my computer to watch some of the live coverage of the Cyclocross Worlds going on in the Czech Republic. After watching that for a bit, I loaded up my Vassago Optimus mountain bike ( I figured there was a better chance of taking it with the conditions than there would be on my cross bike) and headed out.

I got there in time to get registered and ride a few laps of the totally covered-in-snow-and-slop course and at that point almost went back home. It was tough. By normal standards it was nothing too technical and would have been fast. Add 5 inches of snow and it was like riding in deep sand and someone ran the Pamplona Bulls through with a bad case of diarrhea. I talked myself into staying and chatted with some of my friends until time for the race to start.

I got a crappy starting spot and came off the line in nearly last place. Fighting for a good position before we entered the course off of the starting straight, I managed to get a decent spot. There was zero places to pass. I went out in the deep snow, out of the racing line (if you can call a shit colored wet line in the snow a racing line) and ohboy that was tough. There was absolutely no settling in on this course. No place to recover. By the second lap I was so far deep in the red zone, I thought I was going to puke. I had made it up to 7th behind my buddy Rich Kidd and had brief moments of thinking about challenging him. Rich is strong and a good bit younger than me so I doubted I could make a pass stick but I still tried to get close enough.

I dug too deep too long though and settled in somewhat in the last half-lap and cruised on home in 7th.

I was happy that I did go out and try. I had fun and that's something that I really needed.

Many, many thanks to Dwayne Letterman and all the volunteers that work selflessly to set-up and take down the courses and all the other myriad of tasks that go into putting on a MSG race.

Racing Age - 44

2010-01-01T12:53:00.002-05:00

I renewed my USAC license this week. I paid a fairly large sum of cash so I could pay more large sums of cash all through the year to travel all over the durty south and punish my body in various and sundry ways most of which involving a bicycle. One of the unique items on my USAC license is my "racing age". It isn't my current age or my DOB, it is listed as the age I will be on December 31, 2010. Obviously it is assuming I do not die in a firey plane crash or by being run over by a Buick full of blue-hair old ladies on their way to the Golden Corral any given Sunday after church.

My racing age is 44. It's a good thing I am not sensative to such things. Obviously USAC is not operated by women (no offense ladies) because you would NEVER see age on the damn license anywhere. It's more likely run by mean, older brother types. You know the ones that like to snap towels on your ass and push you down stairs and stuff like that. I wonder why they stopped at racing age? Why not have racing weight? Skill level? Riding ability? Special requirements?

Mine could look like this:
Racing Age - 44
Racing Weight - Fat
Skill Level - not the best
Riding Ability - Some days I suck, others I rock.
Special Requirements - I need a cold beer at the end of every race that lasts up to 2 hours. One beer per racing hour after 4 hours up to 12 hours. If I win, I need 5 or 6 more beers and maybe an Irish Car Bomb or some Tequila to celebrate also I will require someone to cart my fat, alcohol reeking ass back to the motel, RV, tent, et cetera from which I came so I can sleep it off. I need a massage before and after any race and at Cyclocross races where the ambient temperature is less than 50 degrees, I need a hot towel at finish and some hot cider with a shot of spiced rum.

Hmmm..... I can see a flaw in that system. Maybe we should just stick with racing age.

Merry Christmas and Thank You

2009-12-24T21:06:00.003-05:00

I wanted to take a moment to wish all of my friends, family, and wonderful sponsors and supporters a most heartfelt Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2010.

I have taken some time this holiday season to reflect on 2009 and in particular what I can do in 2010 to make the world a better place for me, my son, my family, my friends and everyone else that I may encounter. 2009 was fairly hard for me but in retrospect it was nothing compared to what could have been. There are no bad days really... Just good ones and great ones. People have come into my life this year and others have left. Some stayed only for a few minutes others remain still. I am thankful for everyone. For my friends and family, you guys are awesome! You have been there for me when I needed you and that is the greatest gift of all. I am thankful even for my enemies for you have challenged me, pushed me to be better, stronger and more resilient. Thank You.

My association with Vassago will continue for 2010 and I am thankful to have such a cool bunch of people supporting me in something I love to do so much - race my bike. 2009 is what it was and I am only looking forward to 2010 and I'm currently looking at the events I plan to do. There will be a mix of 6 and 12 hour endurance races along with some shorter XC events, some road events and of course Cyclocross.

Up next for me is the Tennessee State Cyclocross Championships at the end of January and the very next week my mountain bike racing begins with the Snake Creek Gap TT Series in Dalton GA. I am working on building fitness and hopefully will have the form I want to have by the time the "A" races roll around in April and March.

Livin' La Vida Fuerte

2009-11-07T10:36:00.002-05:00

I don't know where I am going but I am making damn good time!

While I continue down that path that most athletes travel every winter (unless you are fortunate enough to follow summer around the globe or live in a place where it doesn't get cold and dark at 4:30), I am defiantly trying to hang on to the fitness I gained this year. After my first cyclocross race last week, I got a good look at just how much I suck after just a few weeks of reduced activity.

I have been here before and I know like the Swallows of Capistrano, my legs will return. Still, knowing that doesn't make it any easier to take. I am not the naturally fit kind of person. I have to dig and fight like hell for any kind of form and if I stop training for a week, it's all gone. Depressing, yes but it's the life of any single-parent, 40something, 40 hour a week working, weekend warrior athlete.

I am already looking at 2010 races and waiting for dates to be posted to start figuring out what I am going to do. The rough draft is 12-20 races with a mix of endurance, XC, Cyclocross and Road races. So far I am confirmed for the Snake Creek Gap TT series in North Georgia in Jan, Feb and March and the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek in April. On my short list are:

Knobscorcher, 12 Hours of Tsali and Dirt, Sweat and Gears, Discburner.

There will be more but for now that's where I am planning on going. I don't want to do the long trips that I have done in the past couple of years because driving sucks and I am trying to stay relatively close to home so I can have more time with my son and we have a few trips planned for funstuff too. We'll see how it goes.

In the meantime, I have about 6 cyclocross races to keep me mentally and physically on the right track (and Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners to blow it all to hell).

Guilty by reason of insanity or mental defect.

2009-10-31T21:56:00.002-04:00

Today was round 3 of the Mud, Sweat and Gears Cyclocross series in Johnson City, Tn. I missed the first two rounds and with it my chance at doing well in the series overall. That combined with my life story of late kinda resembling a screenplay for a new disaster movie and consequently

me spending a lot of time off my bike in the last 5 weeks set me up for what was sure to be a real hum-dinger of a sufferfest. There was also a chance of rain which meant that it was going to pour at some point... it just does. Still, I loaded up bikes and gear for the deal and headed out for Winged Deer Park and a day of self-inflicted punishment. Being that it's Halloween and Spooky Cross, I decided to do something a little special

The first race was at 10:30 and the field was huge. I got a good start, 4th or 5th going up the hill and into the first turn but I knew I wouldn't be able to stay there for the whole race. I started feeling my inactivity real quick and began to fade to eventually finish 16th - still in the upper half of the field though so I was happy.

The course was really tricky with a sandpit with three turns in it (didja ever try riding in deep sand and changing direction?) plus several really extreme off-camber parts that were slick even when dry much less if it got wet.......

The rain came and was cold and steady making the course evil. Several people went down, some of them really hard (one guy probably broke a collarbone). My next race was on my singlespeed and it still had fat mountain bike tires which would serve me well. I usually ride good in slop which was another positive. I hate being cold and wet at the same time though and that was nearly a deal breaker. While I waited for my race, I looked through the car for my balls plus all the warm clothes I could find. An hour, One arm warmer and two knee warmers later, I headed out to get wet and try to get my mind right for the next 30 minutes of my life that were gonna be a bit uncomfortable. I had to ask myself why do I keep putting my body through this kind of torture. I mean days like today are exactly why couches were invented. Hmmm..... Think I'd rather suffer like a dog for a half-hour in a muddy and cold field than get fat on the couch.

I took the start for the singlespeed class and we got about ten feet off the pavement before I got a money-shot of slop right to my face rendering me blind for the next hundred or so yards. I think I got passed there and when I regained most of my sight, I was in 4th right behind my friend Mike Mefford. I felt like that was a good place to be and tried my best to stay there but kept getting crap in my face and messing up my contacts. The course was really slick and the off camber sections were pretty much a free for all. I even crashed once and slid to the bottom on my stomach, fun times.....

I ended up 6th and happy that I stuck it out. I knew this race was going to be particularly hard on me and I wasn't disappointed. Still, it was fun and after a hot shower and some food, I forgot about all the pain. Maybe for the next one, I can take some fitness.....

Hmm..........

Sometimes you gotta swing for the fence.....

2009-10-21T19:43:00.002-04:00

I have been debating whether or not to write this blog entry but I thought why the hell not, I am among friends right?
On Sept 11 (oddly enough) my wife and I decided to end our relationship and go our separate ways. This was not a decision that was made in a few minutes or even an hour or two. The decision to part came after 5 years of counseling, trying to work it out and eventually facing the reality that "It just ain't happening". The details thereof are really not important and I am exceedingly happy that we can remain good friends and make the best of a bad situation.
It was a hard decision in the begining but as things went along, I realized it was the only decision I had to make and in the end, I truly believe that the lives of me, her and our son will benefit in a positive way.
For me, my job now is to focus on single-dadhood and give my son the best of me. I am excited about it and plan to face it like I do any challenge I have ever faced - Wide Fucking Open. I only know one way and that is to throw all I have into it.

I intend to continue racing and riding bikes although at this point I am not sure what next year's schedule will look like..... I am not really worried about it. Bike racing is and always has been something I do for me. I have fun with it and am fortunate to be associated with some really cool people that make some really cool bike stuff. I will continue with them as long as they want me around. Bikes and racing will always be there. No worries.

For those of you that have sent me notes and messages of support.. I thank you.

Rock on good people....

Upside down and backwards.........

2009-10-10T08:26:00.002-04:00

I went to the 12 Hours of Dauset last weekend with my buddy and longtime teammate/racing partner Bob Lamberson and his wife Anet. The weather was perfect, the course was well groomed and pretty damn sweet. I had great legs and felt like it was going to be a good race. Approximately 2 hours into the race however, things went to hell quick and left me wondering if I was even going to say anything about it or just pretend it never happened.

Here's how it unfolded.

I arrived at Dauset trails in Jackson GA Friday night under the cover of darkness, kinda like a trail ninja, yeah that's how I roll. After putting the Honda into RV mode I got some sleep. Saturday morning greeted us with a perfect day for racing. After breakfast, me and Bob took off for some riding and looking at the course. The trails at Dauset are typical middle Georgia: sandy over hardpack with plenty of roots and rocks here and there. While you don't have the 30-45 minute climbs that you find further up the Appalachians, there are a lot of little climbs and rollers but this course, by way of comparison to some of the others I have ridden recently, was really tame. I heard a 1000 feet of climbing per lap and I am sure that was true, it just didn't feel like that much.
My back had been bothering me for the 2 days prior to the race, so much so that on Friday I wasn't sure I'd be able to race. Oddly enough, it felt fine while I was riding. Walking or sitting around caused problems, riding, no problem. Soon enough it was time to start. We agreed that Bob would go first and then me. I was fine with that since my back was bothering me and I hate running anyway (all Goneriding races begin with a LeMans start, another reason to hate the French!). After the start, I had about 40 minutes before I needed to be in staging waiting on Bob. I figured he'd do about a 45-50 minute lap and when he rolled in at about 47 minutes, I took off. Judging from the riders I had seen come through before him, I calculated that we were around 15th overall and most likely either leading the Duo or at worst in 2nd. Not really a big deal with 11 hours of racing to go but nice to know at any rate.
I felt great! I immediately passed two people that had left a bit before me and that felt good. I tried to lay down a fairly solid lap time but not kill myself in the process. In a lot of ways doing a Duo race is harder than just going solo. You tend to ride faster than a solo pace and you have only enough time between laps to get cold and stiff. You recover a bit maybe but it ain't easy by any means. I rode fast enough and came in without any problems in about 48 minutes.
I refilled my water bottle, ate some grapes and that's about all I had time for before it was time to go back to staging. Bob's 2nd lap was about the same as his first and I went out for what I assumed would be another great lap. What I didn't see coming was the freight train that would end my day approximately 2 miles into the lap. What happened exactly, isn't important. I had a major mechanical failure. The type that could happen to anyone at any time. The reason I am being tight-lipped about it is how in this day and age people bash everyone's stuff and that just pisses me off. I love my sponsors and they make good stuff and they have been good to me. Shit happens and what happened in Georgia was just a thang.
Having said that, I have gone for about 5 years without even so much as a flat tire so I was kinda pissed off that my day was now over. I had 5 miles to go to the end of the lap and I could ride my bike (albeit slowly and very carefully) way faster than I could run so I did. I got back and made the hand-off to Bob and he knew my day was done. I returned to the pits and considered my options. I could sit there and stew for the rest of the day; I could take my cross bike off the car (I had my cross bike instead of a spare mountain bike because I was planning to do a cyclocross race the next day back in Tennessee) and give it a try; or I could go home.
I actually did try the cross bike but that wasn't going to work so I headed home. I set out for a great weekend of racing but ended up back home before the damn race was even over.
Bob went on to finish the race and due to his efforts "we" ended up 7th in the Duo class. Anet won the Female solo in Viking fashion, she killed everyone! Great job Anet!

After a five hour drive home with some of my favorite music and a three hour mountain bike ride on Sunday, I was back in a decent mood by the end of the weekend.

Wild Chimps and Other Scary Things

2009-09-15T22:13:00.004-04:00

The Black Bear Rampage was the first mountain bike race for me since the 12 Hours of Tsali way back in May.It has been a strange summer indeed. Last year, I was racing on average about every two to three weeks and this year it's been three months between them and that's just weird. Heading to the Ocoee Whitewater Center on Saturday, I got excited. I was ready to ride! After finding a safe place to park (the WW Ctr was too damned spooky!, I went to the Thunder Rock Campground and poached a parking place, hey the campground was full. I woulda gladly paid if I actually stayed in it), I got the Honda in RV mode and put Talledega Nights in my laptop (always cracks me up) and settled in.

Sunday morning was a bit cool and it's no secret that I am a baby when it comes to cold. I'll suck it up and ride in it but I will bitch and complain every step until I get comfortable. After getting dressed and enough nutrients packed in my water bottles for 4 hours in the woods, I set off to try to warm-up. I had been here before at the 2008 Cohutta 100. I knew the start was going to be a roughly 2 mile road climb that was gonna hurt. I wanted to be ready because my goals for the day were: Stay with the leaders up the road climb and into the singletrack, try to find a comfortable spot to hang out for three hours or so and then try to surge towards the end and pick up as many spots as I could. I wanted to podium but being realistic, this was my first mtb race in 3 months and even though I have done lots of road riding in the mountains and several short track races, there is no substitute for off-road endurance racing except doing it. I was just going to have fun.

At the start,I asserted myself near the back of the lead group of 10 or so and the climb with cold legs really hurt! Kinda like being punched repeatedly in the testicles by a wild chimpanzee.... uh or something like that. Over the top and into the singletrack, I tried to keep contact with the leaders but it was clear after the first 4 or 5 miles that they weren't going to be worrying about me that day. I faded some and found a pace that I could live with for most of the race. I still planned to try to speed up some towards the end of it but for now I was on cruise control.
There were sections of the course that were fairly rooty and rocky. My summer of mostly road riding cost me a little of my rigid singlespeed riding fitness and that manifest itself mostly in my arms got the shit beat out of them. My triceps ached by the midpoint of the race and that hasn't happened in a long time. It took me a crazy long time to warm-up after the start. My inner child was throwing a fit because I was doing something that I hadn't done in awhile but I've never been much to bow down to my personal frailties and I just ignored it and rode on. Finally on a long climb, oddly enough, near the 20 mile mark, I felt good! I passed about 7 people on my way to the top, many of which just passed me a little earlier. Unfortunately only one was a singlespeed so from that I knew I was probably outside the top ten. I didn't let it bother me and I just kept going and kept trying to keeo my pace as high as I could without doing serious damage to myself. I felt moderately good and had plenty of energy. Through the whole race, I only walked one climb and it was one that pretty much everyone I saw was walking so I was cool with that.

With about 10 miles to go, we went back through the Whitewater Center and I was "smelling the barn" so to speak, or maybe smelling like a barn, both I guess. Rolling through the final 10 miles of singletrack, I accelerated a little and had a little fun. I was a little disappointed that I wasn't closer to the front but it is what it is.
I ended up 14th in the singlespeed class and was on my bike for 3:50. Not a bad time and not a bad result really but I think I'll go back next year with a better plan. It was a very fun race and the course was a sweet mix of mostly singletrack with some fireroad and just a little pavement.

Next on my agenda is the 12 Hours Of Dauset where I will be riding on a 2 man team with my long-time pal and teamate Bob Lamberson. I am really looking forward to riding with Bob again. Our paths have been kinda funky this year and we've hardly ridden together at all.

Peace.

I am the Eye of the Hurricane

2009-09-12T09:03:00.002-04:00

With so much going on in my life lately, both good and bad, I kinda feel like I have been in a Cat 5 storm just hanging on for dear life. I call it Hurricane Juan Pablo, don't ask me why. It's my story and I can name the damn storm anything I want. Oddly enough, I am calm and have clarity in my thoughts that I have not seen in years. I feel like I am the eye in the Hurricane.

I am leaving today for my first mountain bike race in 3 months, the Black Bear Rampage held at the Ocoee Whitewater Center and Tanasi trail system near Ducktown, Tn. I have ridden these trails some when I did the Cohutta 100 last year and they are really fun. I am looking forward to getting back to the business of bike racing. Tomorrow's event is a 40something mile romp and should be a hoot! I am hoping the form that I have discovered in the last month's worth of weekend deathrides and weeknight short track races will see me through to stand somewhere on the podium by days end.

At any rate, it should be fun and I am looking forward to it and to next week's 12 Hours of Dauset where I will be teaming up with my buddy Bob Lamberson for a 2 man team.

Until then, Ciao my peeps!

Deathride.

2009-09-06T20:11:00.003-04:00

"You rise, you fall, you're down then you rise again. What don't kill ya, make ya more strong."

--James Hetfield.

I know some of you have probably written Duckman off and who could blame ya? I have gone "off the grid" for awhile due to several factors including but not limited to: personal calamity, shitty economy, stress, lack of audience participation, and I lost my supply of give a f**k. Can I get a witness?

One thing I didn't do in my sabatacal is forsake training and riding. Nope fish gotta swim and Duckman's gotta ride. I have missed racing this year, really missed it but in it's absence I have substituted a sometimes weekly ritual simply know as................. Deathride.

My buddy and creator of some hella-sweet MSG Cylocross courses, Dwayne Letterman has a knack for putting together tiny goat-path mountain roads in such a combination that they are a lot of fun and pain to ride. As always, what don't kill ya, make ya more strong. These rides not only build fitness and character, they also make memories.

Some of the places you have never heard of: Flag Pond, Oak Hill, Shady Valley, Bald Mtn, Windy Gap, Baileyton, Indian Graves Gap, Oak Hill. Some you may know such as Beech Mountain, made famous by one dude from Texas with the initials LA, thinks he's pretty good on a bike or something ;).

Each one has it's own brand of suffering. Baileyton is mostly flat to rolling but average speed can be in the 20+ mph for 2 hours or more making what hills are there really painful. The mountains are what they are and that's where the real fun and blue collar suffering comes into play.

Beech Mountain, North Carolina - Good enough for Lance, good enough for me.

We have some steep stuff around here and those rides are always my favorites. There's nothing like the feeling of being 40 miles from home on the wrong side of a mountain in some little place that's not on any map and forget cell phone coverage. You are tired, hot and hungry, the tank is near empty and you still have to climb up and over the fuggin thing to get back. Yeah, dog! Fun times!

Sadly, all things must come to an end, if only for a short time and yesterday's ride over Spivey Gap, Bald Mtn, Windy Gap and Sam's Gap was the last one for the season as things now will get a little busy with Cyclocross and a few late season mountain bike races to take up the weekends. Even though I have missed the racing scene this summer and missed seeing friends that I have made through racing, missed tasting all the different kinds of dirt from different places across the south, I have really enjoyed the fun, comraderie and mindless suffering that has come from Deathride.

Viva la Deathride.

I will be getting back to racing beginning next week with the Black Bear Rampage in Chattanooga and then it's off to Georgia and the 12 Hours Of Dauset the following weekend. After a week or two off, then Cyclocross kicks in and that will put my butt on a bike with a number plasterd to my back all through the fall and winter. God I love racing!

Peace y'all.

3:10 to Yuma

2009-07-12T23:19:00.002-04:00

I decided after much waffling, to enter the Tour of Possum Creek Omnium this weekend in Yuma and Gate City Virginia. It has been about 3 years since I last competed in one and that was as a Cat 5. You see, when I quit road racing in 1998 I was a Cat 4 and heading for Cat 3 the next year. I got tired of it though and changed over to off-road. In the years since, all the races I have done have been with a USAC one-day license which allowed me to still compete in the Cat 5 (or beginner) class. This year, I renewed my USAC road license and when I did, I was put back in Cat 4 since you can never go backwards with USAC. Cat 4 races are typically longer, faster and harder than Cat 5 and as you go on up through Cat's 3,2 and 1, it just keeps getting harder and the competition much stiffer.
Given that knowledge plus the fact that this was my first road race in a few years (Crits don't really count because you don't get the full effect of the suffering potential that's available in an Omnium. An Omnium is a mini stage rage typically with a road race and time trial on one day followed by a criterium the next day.)

In short, I had high hopes for the weekend but deep down I expected to suffer like a dog. I wasn't disappointed.

Saturday morning was a 56 mile road race in Yuma. The course was two laps of a 28 mile loop that was fairly flat with a few small rollers just to make it interesting. We started and for the first dozen or so miles, the pace was like a club ride. There were a few hard accelerations on the backside of the loop but other than that, the first lap was a cake walk. Lap two would be different there were a few small attacks from the beginning of the lap and the pace picked up significantly over the first lap. I felt really good and my plan of staying near the front of the group but out of the wind was working well. The further we got into the 2nd lap, the attacks got harder and went from feeling good to hurting pretty quickly. One attack split the group and I managed to stay with the leaders although I was now officially suffering. In the last ten miles of the race, I found myself at the very back of the pack (we were all back together since the chase group caught back up). I knew that there would be an attack at one of the two small hills at the end of the lap and I had about 5 miles to make my way to the front to be in a good position to react. I didn't feel so great, the heat was bad and the effects of the hammering going on was really taking it's toll. I found myself in perfect position right on the front at the base of the hill where I felt an attack would come so I gave it a Hail Mary, swing for the fence attack from the front. I got a gap and then I had a massive cramp in my left hamstring that shut me down. I made it over the top alone but it didn't take long for the group to catch me and spit me out the back. I was really mad because I felt like I had a good chance to finish on the podium and I cramped. I drank a lot but maybe the heat and the pace (24.5 mph average for the 56 miles) caused me to underestimate my fluid needs. I wasn't the only one. I cruised across the line with my buddy and only "teamate" for the race, David Hayter, and he was cramping badly too.
I ended up 19th in the RR. Not what I wanted but it is what it is.

The TT was hard to get motivated for. Time trials hurt. It's just you and the clock and you have to go WFO for as long as it is. This one in particular had several small but fugly hills that really hurt and the pavement on half the 12 mile course was so rough it made it hard to stay in a aero position for very long. On top of that, my lack of preparation for this event included setting up my bike with TT bars but not spending enough time on it riding in them. The end result was I was unconmfortable. As I warmed up on my trainer, I contemplated the tree trunks I had for legs and the pain I was about to experience). As expected, the TT didn't go well for me. I got caught by my 30 second man, my minute man, my 1:30 man and even the dude that started two freaking minutes behind me, caught me! I suck at time trials (for now. heheheheh). I finished 12th.

Sunday brought a new day, tired but sorta rested legs and a better attitude. I spent the morning with David helping Super G move some of her stuff into a new storage unit and then headed out to Gate City High School for the Criterium. The course was one of the shortest and most dangerous I have ever seen in 20 years of abusing myself on a bike. It was barely .5 miles long and had three 180 degree turns (one of 'em was kind of off camber) and a nearly 360 degree round a bout (that one was actually not bad). I warmed up amid the heat, it must have been about three thousand degrees out there and watched the end of the Cat 3 race where one of my friends crashed twice. Kudos to him for not giving up although I am sure that second crash really hurt! I had shit for legs and I really didn't want to crash so I played it safe and just hovered near the back of the field. There were a few crashes (one right in front of me but I was able to avoid it) and a few DNF's so when the dust settled, I ended up 9th and that combined with my results from the previous day gave me 10th OA.

I am ok with that.I wanted to podium but this was my first road race/omnium in three years and my first Cat 4 race in 11 years. Despite doing a lot of riding and racing this year (the mountain bike races I do don't really give you the fitness for this stuff and cyclocross gives you the intensity but it's just not the same either) I just haven't trained for this kind of racing. So given that, I am not unhappy with how I did and besides, I had a lot of fun and that's what it's really about anyway.

Peace.

Long Dry Spell...

2009-07-08T20:13:00.002-04:00

It's been about 7 weeks since I last raced, the longest period of time (not including winter) that I haven't been on my bike in a race somewhere in about 3 years. Oh I've been riding, a lot actually, just no races. I usually hook up with the TCRC on weekend rides, the kind where you show up with some cash in your pocket and head out into the hills or mountains, stopping at a store hear and there to refuel. Those are fun rides and with the abundance of mountains we have here, great training. I also kick in one or two high intensity rides a week, either with a group or alone. These are shorter than the weekend stuff and waaay harder.
Even though I have a couple of long off-road races on my schedule still (both are in September), I am mainly focusing on fiitness for the cyclocross season coming up in October and running through March. I really like 'cross racing and I'm looking forward to it this year.

This weekend will be something totally different from any of the races I normally do. I entered the Tour of Possum Creek Omnium held just across the border in Virginia. It's got a 56 mile RR on Saturday morning, a 22 mile TT Saturday afternoon and a criterium on Sunday. I haven't done a omnium in a lot of years and I'm looking forward to it. I rode the RR course last night and it is fast with only a few hills. It plays into my strength as a rider and that's my ability to put power down for long periods of time. We'll see how it goes though, I haven't done a road race in a few years, the dynamic is a little different than mountain bike racing. Plus I have no team around me so I will have to rely on my ability to hang with whatever group goes up the road and look for opportunities to get away by myself near the end.

At any rate, it will be fun. I've missed racing and I'm ready to go!

For Haven.......

2009-06-28T22:38:00.003-04:00

Some of you know of this, many of you do not.

Two very good friends of mine Kris Fowler and Misty Bateman, owners of Vassago Cycles, have a very sick young daughter - Haven. For two years now she has been battling a rare and terminal form of cancer. She has been treated at Johns-Hopkins Hospital where she is right now with her family. She is undergoing a very agressive chemo threatment that will require her to be in a "clean room" (read completely sterile) for 5 months as her immune system is completely destroyed and allowed to renew itself, hopefully disease free.

Please taken a moment to say a prayer for this family, add them to your prayer list at church, spread the word.

Thanks

http://haveyroo.blogspot.com/

Riding, rednecks and things that go bump in the night.

2009-06-27T17:02:00.003-04:00

Today's group ride with the Tri-Cities Road Club was a little different flavor than last week's climbfest. We rode a route that I had not ridden in about 10 years that was full of rolling, small hills that you could absolutely hammer on if you had a good group of people. You could easily (well, sorta easy) do the whole 48 miles in 2 hours if you played your cards right. Mmmmm. Can you say big ring?

We left from Kingsport's Meadoview Convention Center a 9:00ish and headed out towards Baileyton. My legs felt a little like a pair of dead carp for some stupid reason. I have ridden nearly every day this week but not hard and not for long so that shouldn't be an issue. I am stressed to the gills right now with various things, maybe that plus the riding had something to do with it. Anyhoo, it took me the better part of an hour before I felt really warmed up and like riding.

On some road, somewhere, (I don't know the names of these places, I just know where I am when I am there) a nice paceline developed and we were tooling along at around 25mph. I got to the front and pulled for a really long time and finally my legs showed up for the ride. Pulling off, I saw that our group had lost a few off the back, oops, so I tucked in behind the last rider and thought I'd ease up on the next pull. Everyone else pulled really hard too and by the time I got back to the front I figured, when in Rome.............. So I let it rip. It felt good and made me feel better about not racing this summer (I have been really bummed about not having a race to aim for. September seems so far away right now.) because this was fun!

At the mid-point of the ride we stopped at a store to regroup and grab some drinks. I remember the days when I first started riding (many moons ago) and I'd leave the house on a Saturday morning with friends, a bike and a few bucks in my pocket and we'd ride all over hellandback stopping at these little stores along the way for such treats as Moon Pies, anything made by Hostess and who could resist having a Coke and a smile (whoever coined that phrase had to be a cyclist because a Coke under the right conditions will definitely put a smile on your face.)
The return trip was a bit more hilly than the one out and it didn't take much of a 25+mph paceline to make my legs start bitching. Still, we hammered pretty good on the way back until I think everyone was pretty well trashed.
It was a great ride...

One thing though, file this under "S" for Stupid, On the way to Baileyton, some tool riding in the back of a pickup tried to dump a whole gallon of gasoline on us! Luckily we just got a little of the mist from it but shit! I can never get over how damn stupid some people can be. Just a few weeks ago somebody threw a natty light bottle at me (rednecks usually have bad aim, this one didn't do anything to change that opinion) and then just a couple of miles down the road TURNED INTO HIS DRIVEWAY! I already had his tag number and now I had his address, if I was the type, I'd go back there and give him his bottle (someplace rather uncomfortable for him perhaps) but I let it go...... after I called the cops and told them the whole thing FWIW.

Never, never, never underestimate the power of stupid!

M is for Mountains.........

2009-06-21T20:24:00.002-04:00

Hello, my name is Brian Archer, some know me as Duckman, and it has been 4 weeks since my last race. I am dealing with it the best that I can but it hasn't been easy. I just take life one pedal stroke at a time.......
It was hard talking to my friends on their way to the Cowbell Challenge Marathon/XC that was held this weekend at Fisher Farms in Charlotte. I always love going to Charlotte to race for the competition and the races are always fun and challenging. Due to working too much and having too little money, the Cowbell just wasn't in the plan for me this year.
Instead of racing, I hooked up with the TCRC Saturday for a fun day in the mountains of Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. I rarely go on group rides anymore since I am always training for a race, racing or recovering from a race. None of those are very conducive to group ride etiquette. I was looking forward to this one for the fun of riding with a group also for the route - US 421 over Holston Mountain, is one of my favorite roads to ride around here.
We met in Bristol and headed out promptly at 9somethingish. The first dozen miles were rolling hills through farmland and we all hung out and chatted about whatever. The climb up Holston Mtn came next and there we kinda got strung out a little as everyone climbed at their own pace.
At the top, I turned and rode back down a couple of miles until I caught the last riders up and I rode back up with them. I love climbing Holston. Since I work in Bristol, it's nothing to go over there and ride it after work. The climb proper is about 5 miles long and not very steep, something like 5-7% overall but it will get your attention.
After grouping up, we headed off the mountain and into Shady Valley and then on to Damascus Virginia. The run into Damascus is a total blast. Slightly downhill the whole way, we rode in a paceline and pretty much maintained 30mph the whole way with speeds sometimes edging near 40. Of course it's not hard to go that fast downhill, it's still a lot of fun. Not often do you get to break the speed limit on a bike. In Damascus, we got some food, water and made a couple of bike repairs before heading back over Holston again and home.
The ride back (uphill all the way) was waaay less intense than the ride in. It was hot now and really muggy. We just chilled, so to speak, and cruised back over the mountain. It was time for some real food!
4.5 hours and 70something miles of riding with friends..........Good times.

Missing in Action

2009-06-10T21:36:00.002-04:00

That's me. Like many, I have been hit where it hurts by a shitty economy and the trickle down effect of cutting back to survive. I am one of the lucky ones (relatively speaking) as my job is relatively secure (that could change at any moment) although I have had to work much harder and longer to take up the slack left from people that weren't so lucky and were "cut".

Therefore, my racing has suffered as the number of available weekends that I am not working plus the disposable income that just isn't what it used to be have caused unavoidable changes to my racing schedule. Gone are the Disc Burner (held last week, heard it was a great one..), the Cowbell Challenge, and ORAMM plus a couple of local road races that I had planned on. This has put a huge hole in my summer at least as far as racing goes. I am still training hard and hope to add a 100k mtb race that looks like will happen just a few miles from where I live. There's a Omnium road race in July that I'd like to go to as well. Beyond that, I am basically training for the Cyclocross series that begins in October and I plan to do well in that this year. I am looking at the 12 Hours of Dauset in September and maybe the SM100 Labor day weekend. We'll see.

For now, I am training hard, saving cash where I can and just riding the storm out. Hope all of you are doing well.

Later.

12 Hours of Tsali

2009-05-25T22:43:00.006-04:00

This was my 5th trip to the 12 Hours Of Tsali at Tsali recreation area in Western NC. I like this race because it's put on by good people and usually has a fair amount of competition, plus it's just fun. After getting 3rd last year, I was looking to step up a couple of steps this year. This is my 9th year at the endurance game and although I have stood atop the podium before on teams, I have yet to win a solo race. I wanted this. I had a decent build up to Tsali although a main race that I planned to use for a tune up on my fitness was the DSG debacle two weeks ago where I ended up pushing my bike half as much as I rode it. I tried not to let that bother me and look at it objectively.

I arrived at Tsali Friday with my family in tow for this one. This is the first time this year I'd have family plus a lot of friends at a race. Doing these things self-supported isn't a huge deal but it sure helps to have some help and encouragement. After getting camp set up, we turned in for some rest.

Saturday morning brought near perfect weather (unusual but very nice) for the 11:00 start. After going over my plan with Nancy and instructing her on when I'd need what, I checked my bike over got my stuff together and took my bike to the start. This race always starts with a rather unpleasant 1/4 mile run up a hill - yay. I got a decent start ( I don't run. That's why I started riding bikes!) and I spent the first 30 minutes trying to keep myself reeled in and not fall into the trap of racing with people on the first lap of the race (something that's amazingly hard to not do). I felt great and despite my efforts to hold it down, I turned in a 54:00 and change first lap. Too fast for all day so I worked on slowing down. I set my computer to show avg speed and tried to keep it at 10-11 mph. Without any incidents (except for a black snake, more on him later), I rode right into my 2nd lap. I was now pretty much alone except for the occasional team guy passing me or me passing some slower riders (I didn't waste any effort to get around them but I didn't waste any time riding behind them either). I felt good still and was climbing well.

It was getting hotter by now and I am not used to heat yet (we haven't had any.. just cold and wet) so I was trying to be sure I got enough to drink and plenty of electrolytes. It's a tricky game, racing in the heat and getting enough nutrition and fluids in you but not too much. Deep into my third lap, I came around a corner was was greeted by a huge black snake (I assumed it was the same one I saw on lap one). He was fairly aggressive and struck at me (even though I am certain they are harmless, you have a 3' black snake strike at you unexpectedly and see how loud you scream) I figured he was probably pretty pissed by now having seen a hundred or so bikes come by his little spot in the sun. I had slowed enough that I still felt comfortable despite the heat but I started walking a couple of steep places to save my legs for later.

Lap 4 is when it all went to hell.

I started the lap like I did the 3rd, with a fresh bottle of water and pacing myself in the heat. I had went through my first 3 hour bottle of Perpetuem and had a fresh one for the next three hours. I was feeling fine for the effort I was putting out and really just trying to cruise for the rest of the race and let attrition do it's thing (on everyone else, I never considered it would be me tanking). In the middle of a crappy little climb in a ditch, I got hit with stomach cramps so bad and so quick, I thought I'd look down and see an alien popping out of my stomach. It hurt and I was about 5 miles from the finish line. Decisions had to be made and quick.
What happened next is...uh.......... better left out of the public domain. Let's just say I found myself on the course and cramp free a few moments later and I finished that lap feeling pretty bad. I stopped for the first time in the race and sat in my pits for about 20 minutes hoping I'd feel better.
I never did really and I went out on my 5th lap unable to eat anything without feeling sick. I knew that unless I got to the point where I could get some nourishment back into my body, I would be digging myself into a deep, dark hole and things would end badly for me. The first thing to go was my climbing. I started really suffering on even the easy climbs and found myself pushing way more than I did a couple of laps earlier. I tried in vain to eat something. I ditched my "plan" that had worked for me in all the other races I have done this year and started trying anything. I grabbed some Twizzlers before my 6th lap and that worked ok but it was too little, too late. I was deep into my pain cave and digging deeper.

Going into my 7th lap, my pre-race goal of 12 laps was gone, my mid-race revised goal of 10 laps was in the process of being bitch-slapped and now I was just looking at finishing that lap. Not even a third of the way in, I started to bonk and by the time I got to the mid-point of that lap, I was in a really bad place. My blood sugar was probably about 7, I dunno but I was shaky, disoriented and feeling like crap. At the end of the lap, I looked at the standings and saw that I was in 5th, 10 minutes behind 4th and almost a full lap behind 1st. There was no point in going on and doing more damage to myself (it was now getting dark and the potential for serious damage would go up exponentially).

I stopped after 7 laps, 8 hours and about 80 miles of racing. I would end up 7th in s/s and 14th OA for Solo 12 Hour. Not what I wanted going in but it is what it is.

Did I mention the snakes? I saw no less than 5 black snakes (or the same snake 5 times) during the race. I know that at lest three of them were different because one was really big and the other two were about 6 miles apart from each other. The most freaky sighting was the big boy (4 feet long) had climbed up a tree and his head was about handlebar high right along the trail.
Odd.

As for what made me sick. I don't know. I had been using the same fueling plan all year and it's worked for me over and over. I didn't try anything new. I was hotter than what I am used to and maybe that had something to do with it but otherwise, I don't have a clue as to what happened.

Next time................

Dirt, Sweat and Gears 2009

2009-05-10T20:05:00.005-04:00

I tried to think of a catchy title for this post that of caught the feeling about this year's DSG race in Fayetteville, TN. Some on the short list were: Armageddon's Death Race 2009, DSG 2009 presented by JIF, Somebody Shoot Me, Screw bikes, I'm making pottery! Yes it was a tough one, most if not all in attendance agreed that it was by far the worst conditions they have ever ridden, er, I mean dragged a mountain bike through the woods in, including solo Pro winner Jeremiah Bishop who managed to do 4 laps in the muck. In the end the 400+ racers shared a kind of kinship having survived the ordeal and I am sure stories will be told for years to come about Dirt, Sweat and Gears 2009.

Here's mine.

I had never done this race (now in its 3rd year) although it's not far from where I live. It just never worked out for me. I made it a point this year and headed out early Friday towards Fayetteville to get a pit spot and to ride the course. The weather had been horrible for about all of Tennessee for the last month with rain and lots of it. I had already heard the stories from the last DSG race and about how bad the mud was but hey, this was a new year and the forecast was decent. Still I couldn't help but notice as I drove up the cumberland plateau that water was shooting out of rocks in ways that just didn't seem natural, plus there was water standing all over in fields. They had a lot of rain recently. I got to the venue, set up my stuff and grabbed my Jabberwocky for a ride. The first portion of the course was in a field and it was wet in places but not bad. On to the singletrack and there was more wet, actually it was quite slick in spots especially on some of the numerous techy climbs that made getting up them difficult. I got a hint of the sticky side of the mud and had to stop once to clean out my chainstays.

The course was really rocky. It's been a while since a race course has really challenged my skills like this one did. They all challenge my fitness but let's face it, most of the races I have done recently have just not been that technical. This one was different and reminded me a bit of the 2000-2004 Snowshoe West Virginia course which stands in my mind as the most evil course ever. It had a lot of rocks and the mud covering them that demanded your attention.

After my lap, I went back to my pits and had dinner and just chilled out for the evening. I formulated a plan of action for the race and called it a day. There was a lot of technical climbing and the only thing that bothered me about that was my gearing choice of 32x19 might be a little stiff. Talking to Dicky, I learned that he, DJ and Fuzzy all were using 20's or 21's confirmed that I was gonna suffer on Saturday. Little did I know then, by race time my gearing wouldn't mean anything. One thing I did decide was to keep my WTB Weirwolf/Nanoraptor combo instead of changing to meatier Prowler/Exiwolfs. My rationale was that the smaller knobs may not pack up as bad with mud.

Saturday morning, I was up early and trying to get a weather forecast on my Blackberry but the stupid thing wouldn't connect so I started listening to people around me talking about a big storm coming through at about 9:00. After the usual pre-race prep, we lined up for the start and sure enough, 8:55 am local time, the storm hit and it rained for the next hour. We started the race with a LeMans start (I am actually getting better at those, although the run at DSG was a short one) and I worked my way into a decent position before the singletrack. There was water everywhere and people sliding all over. About a mile into the woods I went down hard on a small but steep descent. I jumped back up and got going having lost a dozen or so places. Virtually all the climbs were unrideable because of traction issues so I was just trying to finish the first lap and not stress too bad about who was riding what. The rain was coming down good and the mud, although slick, wasn't too sticky at that point. Near the end of our first lap something happened that sealed our fate. The rain stopped and the sun came out.

That was probably the worst thing possible.

I rode through my pits and changed one bottle for a fresh one ( I had another that was untouched) and went straight out for lap 2. My first lap was about 1:40 and I figured the second would be about the same so I should be fine with the two bottles I had. Boy was I wrong. Going through the field I already could tell something wasn't right. My tires were loading up bad with mud and I had no traction at all. I was having trouble riding a straight line (I had already dropped the pressure in both tires to about 20lbs each). Into the singletrack, I had major problems. I couldn't ride a lot of the stuff I had ridden just a couple of hours before. No traction and my tires were packing up badly. I wasn't long before the mud started packing up on my bike causing major handling problems and eventually getting so thick that the wheels stopped rolling.

I had ridden peanut butter mud before but this stuff was incredible. On another steep descent, I crashed hard again. This time I saw stars and impaled myself on a small stick. It hurt! I got up and assessed the damage and walked the rest of the hill. Unable to start back up because of the mud, I continued to walk...................For the next three hours! By now the mud was unbelievably thick and collecting on bikes and bodies at an amazing pace. Pushing my bike, it gained roughly one pound every 5 to 10 feet. I'd push until the wheels stopped rolling, clean off the mud with a stick, carry the bike on my back until I couldn't anymore, set it down and push again. I'd repeat this over and over. At one point, my bike easily weighed 80 lbs and I was scooping off mud in 5lb handfuls at a time. I came across a number of riders calling it a day and quitting. I determined to finish the lap and then decide. The further I went, the more clear the decision was, I was done. I kept telling myself to keep going, not to quit. At one point, the course comes right into the start/finish area and it would be easy to stop. There was food and relief at hand but I forced myself to go back into the woods. The odd thing was that even though my last lap took nearly 4 hours, I only got passed by a couple of people. It was the most impossible and surreal situation I had ever been in on my bike.

In the last mile of the lap, I was finally able to get back on my bike and ride something. It felt good to pedal again after walking so long. Bonked and sore, I rode through the finish and called it a day.

After sorta cleaning up and getting some food, I checked the results just for fun and was surprised to see that most of the field had only one lap, there was quite a few two's and very few three's and four's. Jeremiah Bishop won the Pro Solo with four laps. My two laps placed me in 6th place in my class and in the top 25% overall. It didn't matter much at point, I was just happy it was over.

I felt bad for the promoter because the venue was great and the course was good. It would have been a good race if it was dry. Most of the feedback I heard from others was positive though. I'll be back next year. The weather is what it is and as they say, that's racin'

I snapped this as soon as I got off my bike. I guess the look on my face says it all......

My Optimus went from about 20lbs at the start of the race to 80lbs at the end (and that's afer being cleaned off I don't know how many times). Through it all, I had no mechanical failures whatsoever. Completely encased in mud, my drivetrain still worked. God I love singlespeeds!

Randomness

2009-04-25T12:44:00.002-04:00

With no significant racing activity going on for me right now and lots of boring, domestic, daily drudge type stuff taking over, I have been at a loss for things to write about lately. Just because there's six weeks between races ( I should have been at the Cohutta 100 today but I had to work) for me, doesn't mean I've been sitting on my can doing nothing. I have been training as much as my screwed up schedule will allow and trying to get plenty of stress-free, quality rest (which is sometimes a joke around here) since some of my training has been very, very hard.
Just a few miles from where I work is Holston Mountain, a nice 6 mile roadie climb that goes up hwy 421 to Mountain City and eventually into North Carolina. I have been hitting that thing as much as possible to get some hard, fast and dirty climbing fitness. I have been using my geared road bike some but also my singlespeed. With 48x18 gearing, the singlespeed is a beast on Holston. One time up has been all I wanted up until now. Today I will do two trips up the mountain and hope for the best. My goal is up and back 2X in 1:30. We'll see how that goes.

The TNR ride is a roadie ride on Thursday night that I did all last year. It's really fun and I always see alot of my friends there. Sometimes I really like riding with people (most of my training is done alone) and the TNR is mucho fun. The only problem now is that it begins at 6:00 and I don't get off work until 5:30 (in another city - 20 miles away). Getting there in 30 minutes with traffic is nearly impossible. I left work Thursday precisely at 5:30 and headed towards Johnson City. I was already changed, tires pumped up, water bottle filled, all I had to do was get there and get on my bike.
I was 5 minutes late and not a soul to be seen was in the parking lot. I got on and chased without a warm-up. Five minutes, ten, fifteen into the ride still nobody. Damn, how fast were they going? I thought. Finally, I caught a couple of riders off the back of the main pack and I managed to bridge up to within a minute of them. Since I was on my singlespeed, I was at a huge disadvantage on the flats so I tried to make all my time up on the climbs. Twice, I got close enough to try and seal the deal but both times, I missed. There is a longish flat portion before the final 2 mile climb over Buffalo Mountain and I knew I couldn't do anything there so I tried to recover some (I had thus far ridden my ass into the ground and was cooked) so I could make one last stab on the mountain. By the time I got there, I only caught a couple more people and the main pack succeeded in eluding me.
It was a great ride though and kinda gave me a hint at my current level of fitness. Sadly, if I am going to continue being late and chasing, I will have to bring out my geared bike. My singlespeed just isn't geared high enough to do anything on flat roads. At first I was kinda bummed because this is as much as a social ride for me as it is anything but I think I am going to like chasing rabbits - it's fun.

Tomorrow is a big ride in the dirt. I am trying to really finish my current training schedule strong in preparation for the first big races (for me) for 2009 - Dirt, Sweat and Gears, 12 Hours of Tsali and the Cowbell Challenge.

Helter Skelter

2009-04-13T07:50:00.006-04:00

"When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide Where I stop and turn and I go for a ride Till I get to the bottom and I see you again Yeah, yeah, yeah"

That song was in my head yesterday (not the Beatles one but theMotley Crue version 'natch) somewhere during my first ride back after a week of couch surfing and basically doing nothing except being sick. Rob Morley and me decided to think outside the box a bit and what we came up with was a wicked variation on the hill repeat theme - we did mountain repeats!

We headed to the base of Holston mtn where we parked and after a short warm-up, we hit it for the first of three reps to the top and back. Holston is a respectable climb, about 6 miles long and around 5-6% avg grade. It won't kill you but it will get your attention. The first lap up is pretty simple, anyone can climb it once. Lap 2 was about cold reality and finally lap 3 was, as Rob says, all blue collar. It was pretty rough. Probably not the best first ride back after a week off. It's my way of showing my body that I am not dealing with a full deck. Ah the life of manic-unstability.

The whole workout was only a little over 2 hours and although I wasn't wiped out at the end, I didn't want anymore either. I'll definitely add that one to my bag of evil tricks.

My view of Rob (who is younger and a lot lighter than me) leaving me to suffer alone.

Third lap. Blue collar suffering and character building............

.......An attempt at a artsy shot........

Couch Surfing.....

2009-04-10T19:55:00.002-04:00

That's what I've been doing all week. I felt it just as I woke up before last Saturday's race, the beginnings of a "bug". I race anyway and felt fine during and after. Sunday, I went out for a couple of hours on the road and felt fine. Monday morning was a whole 'nother story though and it got worse before getting better. I did nothing at all for the next 5 days except work and come home to ride the couch until the next day. It's been a rough week and I feel like shit.
Now I feel bad because I have missed a whole week of riding. I need to ride, I have a physical dependence to ride my bike and if I cannot do so for a few days, things get bad.

At any rate, I plan to get back on the bike this weekend and hopefully back to my regular schedule next week.

Roast Duck. It's what's for dinner............

2009-04-05T18:54:00.005-04:00

I pulled into Warrior Creek Campground in North Wilkesboro NC early Saturday morning and readied for the first annual 6 Hours of Warrior Creek put on by the BMCC. I had ridden in the area before at the Burn 24 (Dark Mountain trails) and on the OVT and figured the Warrior Creek system would be similar with characteristic short, punchy climbs; steep swoopy descents and fast, rolling sections with lots of berms. I wasn't far off in my prediction as the trail was just that: fast, swoopy bermed descents, short, punchy climbs and just a tad of technical stuff to keep you on your toes. At the end of the day, I think I would have changed the name to the Ike Turner trails though. Riding there is one thing, racing however is another. I felt like I had been bitch-slapped for 6 hours by the time it was over! It was tough - but very fun.

Here's what happened.

I met up with a bunch of my buddies from home: Bob, Anet, and Wes Lamberson, their coach Andy Johnston, Ben Appleby, Michael, Greg, Anthony, Brad, Sara, Andy and Abbie, Eric the Wonderdog, it was nice to have alot of homies around for a change. I also saw Dicky sporting a trick, new Meatplow, Stephen, and quite a few people I have met through racing. There was quite a turn out for a new event. After all the preparations, I lined up my Vassago Optimus for the start. I was exceedingly happy that there would be a mass start as opposed to a LeMans start. Any day is a good day if I don't have to run. I was a bit worried when I heard that there was 1.5 miles of pavement before the singletrack though. Usually that means bad things for a singlespeed rider as even mediocre geared riders can use their mechanical advantage and get ahead of you only to stub you up in the woods at the first rock or crooked root they come to. Here was a different story though as the first 1.5 miles included a nice, long climb! Yay!

I lined up next to Bill Collie (another homie and really strong rider) and right behind Dicky. As Andy said in the pre-race banter: Go hard or go home! When we took off, I rode hard and crested the climb within a pack of about thirty that included some really heavy hitters and we had a gap of about 30 seconds over the other hundred or so racers that were behind us. I think every race should start with a climb and mass start! I was in some strange territory though. I could see just ahead of me people like Andy Applegate, Dicky, Will Black, Bill Collie. I knew I couldn't stay for long but it was nice to be there for as long as I could hang in I had a great start and the first lap had some traffic but mostly is was the easiest first laps I have ever had at one of these things. After the initial effort from the start, I tried to find my "all day pace" and get a look at the trails since I had never seen them before. I quickly learned that this was a demanding course with very little place to rest. You were either on the gas or bracing yourself against one of the numerous G-outs that tried to slam you against the top tube of your bike or jamming into one of the many bermed turns. I came through the Start/Finish area an hour and some change after I left it and recalculated my pre-race goal of 6 laps. I needed to slow down some and since my first lap was over an hour, 6 laps wasn't happening.

I went into lap 2 and backed off my pace a little. It was starting to get warm which was fine with me but I am used to riding in 40 degrees and wet. 70 degrees and sunny without being acclimatized to heat was kinda uncomfortable. I was still riding and climbing well but the course was already going to work in kicking my ass. It was tough. Into my third lap, I was looking at a part of my pain cave that I hadn't seen in awhile. It's a dark, hot, nasty place that isn't a lot of fun to be in. My shoulders and arms were tired and I was careful to not screw it up. About a mile from the finish was a couple of semi-technical rock gardens that weren't hard to ride but if you didn't pay attention, you could get hurt easy. After my third lap, I stopped in my pits for about 5 minutes to stretch my back and neck. It was about then that I realized if I didn't get my butt in gear, I would miss the cut-off and my chance at 5 laps so I took off. Somewhat slowly...

My 4th lap was all about blue-collar suffering. I was hurting and had to walk some of the steepest climbs because I just didn't have the legs any longer to keep my 32x18 turning. In my last lap, I noticed I didn't get passed a lot except for a few team racers. I guess the course was taking it's toll on everyone. Regardless, I didn't care much about that then. I was in a bad place.

I rolled across the line 7 minutes past the cut-off and ended my chance to do 5 laps. I was 25% disappointed and 75% happy that my suffering was over. I was cooked!

The fun wasn't over yet. The BMCC had set-up a nice barbecue/awards ceremony with free beer from the Blowing Rock Brewing Co that was really great. For a first event, the BMCC really set the bar pretty high with a great course, fun race and awesome post race eats. I can't wait to go back next year.

After stuffing my face with hog and filling up on Blowing Rock Bock, in my haste to get back to TN, I forgot to check where I finished -doh! I looked before the final results were posted and I was in 12th ss and 44th overall. That's fine. I wanted to better but i was happy with how I did and I know just where my fitness is right now. My next event is the Dirt, Sweat and Gears race coming up in May and it's my first "A" race of the year.

Congratulations to Andy Johnston and Wes Lamberson for their win in the 2 Person Male class and to Bob and Anet Lamberson for getting second in Co-ed. Great job y'all!

Touch of Gray

2009-04-03T12:16:00.003-04:00

Damn, has anyone seen the sun for longer than two or three hours in the last three months? I hate to be a little bitch but this is getting a bit old. Every day is cold, gray, wet and just maybe a glimmer of the center of the universe at one point or another. Five out of my last seven days of riding have seen me either cold, wet or cold and wet. It just gets old.

At any rate, I have the orange crate packed and ready to head to North Wilkesboro after work for the the innaugural 6 Hours Of Warrior Creek race that is tomorrow. This is the third and final race that I targeted specifically for training before the "season" starts for me in May. I hope that the training I have been able to do (which isn't much unfortunately) will prove to be working and I will see some improvement over the Heritage Park race from a few weeks ago.

Rain, cold, wet, whatever. It's racing and racing is fun. I'll have a full story when I get back.

Blue Collar Training

2009-03-22T21:33:00.003-04:00

Saturday brought sun and uh, not really warm temperatures to Tennessee. It wasn't wet though and it wasn't as cold as it has been so I took the opportunity, along with a few pals, to head to the hills for some mountain riding.

This time it was the road bike's day to get out and see the country side. The route for the day was a fairly short (50ish miles) trip over the border into North Carolina and back but it included two major climbs - Spivey Gap, and the much-feared Indian Graves Gap. A lot of work for such a short ride. It was sunny but pretty damned cold still and a lot of the descents were shaded which made it even worse. Still, it was better than the rain, ice and snow we have had off and on all winter.

Pretty much any trip from Tennessee to North Carolina is going to take you into the mountains and this route is real popular with the roadie crowd due to the good roads, relatively light traffic and fairly tough climbs to whip your butt into shape.

Not a big deal in a car but on a bicycle, to get to North Carolina from Tennessee will make you work for it.

At the bottom of Spivey on the NC side, we stopped to regroup and grab a snack. The Grand Finale of the day would be coming up in just about 12 miles - Indian Graves Gap. IGG is a true bastard among climbs. It is a stairstep climb with 4 steep pitches separated by some fast descents and rolling flat stuff. You cannot get into a good rhythm and you will hurt if you choose to go that way.

Something wicked this way comes...........

It's a good climb to train on though and one that I try to incorporate into my schedule as much as possible every Spring. After the first 3 steep parts, you have a little bit of flat stuff that lulls you into a false sense of security. The worst is still to come...

Tennessee is just beyond that ridgeline. The only way there is up and over.

I am almost afraid to say it but this trip over IGG wasn't as bad as it has been in the past. Maybe I am getting fit after all. I can only hope so but I am reluctant to say so just yet. I still have work to do yes.

It was a great ride. Cold yes but dry and sunny. I'll take it.

I took a break from riding Sunday to take my family to the NASCAR race in Bristol. I am not a fan and haven't been to a race there in about 25 years (uh, the place has changed a little). I will have to admit, it was pretty interesting and a fun day.

We had great seats, you could see everything.

Say Cheese.........

Nathan was hooked up. (The radios we rented were COOL! You could hear the pit guys talking to the drivers.)

The racing was pretty good and there was a gazillion people there.

2009 Optimus Ti - They're Coming!

2009-03-18T17:24:00.005-04:00

They're coming!!!!!!!!!

One of the questions I am asked the most at the races (other than why don't you ride faster? hahaha), is when/how can I get an Optimus Ti frame. Well here's good news for ya.

Do not hesitate if you have been riding the fence or wishing Vassago would do another production run of one of the most sought after 29er's on the market, well your time has come.

The 2009 Optimus will be available for shipping sometime in April. If you want one, you'd better get on the ball and email sales@vassagocycles.com to place your order.

Bad Medicine

2009-03-15T09:54:00.002-04:00

Bad medicine is always the stuff that cures what ails ya. The nastier it tastes, the better it is. I thought about that in the closing laps of the Dirty Spokes 6 hour race at Heritage Park in Watkinsville Georgia yesterday. I was definitely taking some bad medicine with the expectations of it making me "better", or killing me. You know what Nietzsche says about that.

The Dirty Spokes race was the second of three races I have targeted for early spring training. What that means for me is that I didn't really have any expectations for results or anything else, I just wanted to go and get some saddle time in a race environment. Having said that, I did have some goals for this race.

A. Not ride like a pissed off teenager for the first half of it and blow up afterwards.

B. Ride the entire race without having to stop (see A)

C. Have no significant crashes.

D.Finish in the top 10. (I know what I said about results but top 10 is always a secret goal of mine in any event - unless there's only 9 racing....)

E. Do 6 laps.

I made good on B and C and so so on A and just missed on D and E but all in all it was a good event for me. Here's how it happened.

I got to Heritage Park late Friday and quickly put the Honda into RV mode and tried to get some rest. Just before turning in, I checked the weather once more and it didn't look good. There was pretty much no chance of not getting wet during the race. After a night of weird dreams but amazingly good sleep, I woke up to 39 degrees but no rain -yet. I may bitch and whine about being cold but I can deal with it. I don't mind being wet, but I cannot stand being cold AND wet. So far, so good. I checked the radar once more and saw a huge green and blue blob over Atlanta and heading our way and I just tried to not worry about it. It is what it is. After signing in, mixing a days worth of drinks and finding a place to set my cooler along the course for easy access during the race, I got ready to ride. It was freezing.

As I was riding around, I overheard talk about how evil this section was or about the monster climb and how so and so was riding a singlespeed and that was just crazy on this course. If I had listened, I would have been convinced that there was no way I could do this race without certain death. but I have learned in my racing experience that one person's evil in another's playground and things aren't always that bad.

At 9:45 we lined up for a mass start. I looked around and saw about 100+ riders and thought about my plan for the start. There was no Lemans start which made me happy, I hate running. The truth is no matter how you start these races, there's no way to avoid a huge cluster**** in the first lap. That's just the way it is. I was shivering at my LTHR during the final moments before the start and wanted to get going so I could get warm. After we started, I did my best to get a decent position but not get to far up front so I wouldn't have to ride that hard and I could get a look at the course during my first lap. Going into the singletrack into trails I have never seen before, riding balls out behind 50 other people that I don't know can be kinda hairy. It wasn't long until we came to a techy spot and everyone stopped. Getting through that, I saw that there was a lot of roots and a few rocky spots and plenty of places to crash since everything as wet. We got to what I later would learn was the "monster climb" and there was a congo line going up it so I called up some cyclocross skills and grabbed my bike and started running through the woods with it. I passed several people and opened myself up a little breathing room. Despite my best efforts, I rode the first lap like a pissed off teenager.. It was either that or sit up and let dozens of people pass me and I wasn't going to do that. Things would settle down after the first couple of laps.

I got a better look at the course on lap 2 and decided that my gearing choice (32x18) was perfect although it would have been nice to have something a little lower for the monster (that damn thing hurt!!) it worked great for everything else. The course was littered with wet roots and rooty, technical climbs that required a little more that just pedaling up them. You had to move, shift weight, lunge and jerk your way to the top and that used up gobs of energy. I rolled through lap 2, exchanged two empty bottles for freshies and out I went for lap 3.

I had settled into a good pace and was thankful that it never really started raining. It sprinkled some and there was this mist off and on all day that made things really slick. I saw quite a few crashes and had a little trouble on some of the rooty climbs where there was no traction but overall I was doing ok. I had slowed from my earlier pace and by lap 4, I was starting to feel the pain of my efforts. I got a little sloppy and bounced off of a couple of trees but as still running crash free. I walked the monster because I didn't have the energy to climb the damn thing again.

I realized about that time that I would finish lap 4 at about 2:15 which meant that if I was going to get 6 laps, I'd have to do two 45 minute laps in a row (the race ended at 4:00 sharp, If you started a lap before 4:00 but didn't finish it until after, it would not count). That wasn't in the cards for me.

Before my 5th lap, I switched bottles again, this time only taking one and I took a long drink from a coke I was saving for hard times. Leaving the pavillion to the booming encouragement from Bruce Dickman over the PA, I had a bit of the horse smelling the barn (or smelling like a horse in a barn, I dunno) experience. I rode and felt much better that I did before. That feeling took me half way through the last lap and left me somewhere about the time I fudged on a wet root and went down. Not hard but enough to mess up my tempo. I got up and rode another mile or so to this rooty climb and slipped on some roots and went down again, this time causing a bad cramp in my hamstring. That one pissed me off. I got up and just rode the remaining few miles to the finish.

Overall, it was great training and I would call it a success for me. The course as fun and challenging, especially for a singlespeed (but hey, we don't ride singlespeeds because they are easy right?) but it wasn't as evil as I was led to believe early on. The race organization was great and I hope to make it back to some of the other Dirty Spokes races later in the summer. I ended up 17th out of the 25 singlespeeds (dunno about the overall) and although I would have liked to finished better, I was fine with that. There's a lot of strong singlespeed riders in Georgia and it's always pretty competitive down there. I never really got warm all day. It was 42 when the race ended and still misty, no rain though so it could have been worse.

Many thanks again to my really cool sponsors: Vassago Cycles, Ergon, WTB, Crank Bros, White Bros, Carbo-Rocket and Under Armour. You all make really great stuff that continues to get the job done without fail. Good on ya all!

Next for me is the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek coming up in about 3 weeks in North Wilkesboro, NC.

Tan Lines

2009-03-09T12:11:00.003-04:00

The South was finally blessed with two wonderfully sunny and warm weekend days instead of our regularly scheduled snow and ****ing cold we have been getting and I took full advantage of it. Saturday was filled with spring cleaning and basic chores punctuated by random playtime sessions with the dogs, the boy and the wife. I got all my tools and work area in the garage organized, spare bikes and parts all serviced, organized and put where they go, and finally I cleaned and prepped my Optimus for a trip next weekend to round 1 of the Dirty Spokes 6/12 Hour Series next weekend in Georgia.

Sunday was the treat for all that work. I took my faithful Jabberwocky and headed to Warriors Path State Park for a ride. It was beautiful. No arm warmers, no tights, nothing but warm sunshine. I quickly got down to business. On the agenda was 3 race pace laps after a short warm up on Darwin's Revenge. After riding through Darwin's, I came back through the parking lot and did Darwin's again followed by the rest of the trails there in a clockwise fashion. Warriors is not an easy place to ride. It is very technical, very rocky and very rooty. Although there are no really long climbs there, there is a bunch of short ones (about 1400' per 8ish mile lap of them) and they get tough, especially if you push it. I rolled through my first lap in 1:00 flat which is a very nice time for a lap there and I then rolled right into lap 2. I backed off because I was riding too hard (I have a problem with that and it leads to me being in a really bad place after 6 hours of racing sometimes). Half way through lap 2, I got a little sloppy and made some blunders that I was very happy that nobody saw. Warriors is that kind of place, you let your guard down for a minute and you'll get a surprise and you probably won't like it.
I changed water bottles between laps 2 and 3 and rolled into my final lap. I was tired but I knew that this was good stuff. I suffered through the final lap and then hit the road for some cool down and spinning before calling it a day. Three laps in 3:35 and I was cooked! But very happy. I don't have the fitness I need just yet but it's coming along pretty well.

ADCWF Ride.

2009-03-01T20:33:00.003-05:00

First, I will preface this by saying that to my friends and teamates in Canada and the midwest will most likely laugh at me. It's ok. It's all relative. We don't have the harsh winters here that they typically have further north. It's no secret I hate cold. What I hate more than cold is being wet while I am cold. I seem to end up riding a lot in the cold and wet, hence the Another Damn Cold Wet Freezing Ride.

It all started with a email and text message campaign (doesn't anyone use phones anymore to talk on?) to get people involved in riding today. I couldn't get ahold of many of the usual suspects and the ones that did show interest only David and Ginger agreed to show up. I wanted a couple of hours of relatively easy pace and with the cold ( no wet yet), Buffalo Mtn seemed perfect. I planned to do muscle tension intervals and Buffalo is perfect for that.

David has been sick and decided (after seeing the wet move in plus cold) that riding outside today wasn't in his best interest. Luckily Ginger still went otherwise I'd have rode alone and had all the fun to myself. Ginger is a roadie by heart, a transplant from Alabama with her boyfriend Nick (who's a strong rider too but unable to come out today). The fact that she still went with the rain just starting to fall at ride time proves that there's a little mountain biker inside begging to come out. I was hoping that the pattern I have seen before would repeat itself and that is rain in Johnson City but quickly turning to snow on the slopes of Buffalo. It's simple, rain = you get wet, snow = you get wet only slower.

Sure enough, within a couple of miles from the start (all uphill in glorious warmth-building incline ) the rain turned to snow and we were golden - for awhile anyway. By the time we got to the top of the ridge and heading towards the fire tower, this is what the situation looked like:

The snow was coming down good (along with the temperature) and it got cold quick. We only went to the base of the final pitch up to the firetower and turned back. By the time we got back to the bottom, we were pretty cold but had a nice 1:38 of our lives not spent being sedentary.

Yeah winter here sucks but I guess it vould be worse. I'll be riding in shorts again by the end of the week while my pals in the Great White North and places that get real men's winters won't see dirt for another 3 weeks.

I love the South after all...

The First Cut Is The Deepest

2009-02-24T20:51:00.009-05:00

With Cyclocross two weeks dead, the time has come for me to shift my focus onto more longer, less intensive events. This is not to say they are any more or less painful, it's just a different kind of pain. I set my sights on the 12 Hours Of Santos as the first event of the year - a training race. The idea of racing for training is nothing new, pros have been doing it for 40 years. They will start out in the spring and race in select events to systematically coax their bodies into fitness. For me, instead of coaxing, what I do is more like bitch-slapping myself into shape. My last long race was last August at the Fool's Gold event in Georgia. Then a winter full of cyclocross where the longest race was 45 minutes, I headed out last Friday to leave winter's cruel grip with my destination Ocala, Florida where I would find sun, sand, palm trees and hopefully warmer weather - oh yeah and a bike race.

I got an early start so I could ride some on Friday and get a look at the course which contained the Vortex trail. I had been forewarned about the evil that lurked on the Vortex and I wanted my first peek not to be in the first lap of the race. It was a long trip and I was happy to have 7500 songs on my Ipod plus XM to keep my sanity. Still, I had to find ways to pass the time.

I made it in pretty good time although it is quite possible I may have exceeded the posted speed limit in several states. I met Bob, Anet and Wes Lamberson along with Michael and Laura Ritter and Andy Johnston. We set up a corner of Florida real-estate and went riding. Santos is a huge place built on an abandoned quarry. It had trails that ranged from dead flat and fast to rocky, steep and things that could cause you to die (not figuratively but really!). There was tons of jumps and a few sick drop offs if you are in to that. In short, it is a place to go ride!

On the 2 laps I got to pre-ride the Santos course, me and Bob hit the Vortex first. Not exactly fun after hopping out of the car after driving for 10 hours, it took me a while to get into the groove. My 32x18 gearing worked fine although I did have trouble with some of the abrupt climbs. Florida may not have the 45+ minute climbs that I am used to. In fact, the Santos course didn't have a climb more that 45 seconds but they were rocky, had little or no flow leading up to them and very steep. I'd have to say my first trip through the Vortex got the best of me. Onto the fast, flat stuff and it was fun and flowing. The course had a sort of Jekyll and Hyde feel for sure. There were a couple of sections that the trail was on the side of a cliff (not figuratively but on the side of a real cliff complete with pain and probable serious injury if you fell off) and that was just cool. Dangerous but cool.

After the ride, there was dinner and an early chill out to get some rest. Shortly after dark, Ben Appleby and his wife Erin arrived and the Tennessee contingent was complete.

Race Day

We awoke to sun and.........................Frost. Yep 28 degrees and frost. Florida is the sunshine state but it never promised to be the warm, sunshine state.

Frost

I got ready and tooled around on my bike to see who all rolled in overnight. I saw my buddy Marcel Aguirre from Tampa and a few others that I have met throughout the South from racing.

There were quite a few people there.

These socks make me feel special.

My Vassago was ready to race with or without me.

Soon it was time to get it on. We lined up without our bikes for the LeMans start. The runn (I know there's an extra "n", running should be a four letter word) was about 1/4 mile followed by another 1/4 mile sprint and then singletrack. The first lap was a huge traffic jam. I got my bike and passed as many as I could before the singletrack and then just cruised in a really long line of people. We'd go for a bit until somebody messed up ahead and then the deck would be reshuffled and on again we'd go. The first time through the Vortex was a real treat. I got knocked off my bike twice, banging my shin on my pedals once (that felt good) and I just tried to relax and get through it. It was a long race and there was time to just chill out.

Bikes waiting for riders.

650 miles from home, first race of the year, I played the caution card.

The traffic kept me from riding a lot of the techy stuff in the Vortex on the first lap but by the third, I had ridden it all and noted the places where I'd really need to watch it later. It was about then that I realized that the flat, fast stuff had a gritty under belly too. Since it was all flat, it was all pedaling with no place really to rest. By the end of the third lap, I wasn't feeling to great. Since I had already exceeded my longest ride so far this year by about 300%, I figured that I probably shouldn't be feeling so hot and I stopped in my pit to rest and chat with Marcel as he strolled through. After stretching, some food and a nap (hahaha), I headed out for some more. My 4th and 5th laps saw my average speed drop from 13 mph on the first couple of laps to under 10 mph on my 5th. I crashed once when I got sloppy and hooked a tree and decided to call it a day. I had done enough.

It was a fun but tough race. The Ocala Mountain Bike Club has done an amazing job of making Santos a great place to ride.

Of the rest of the Tennessee gang, Bob retired after 4 laps with a cracked fork. Michael finished the 6 hour race and then helped Anet who gutted out 12 laps to take second in women's solo! Ben finished 3rd in the 12 hour solo sport in his first endurance race. Very nice.

Sunday, I was up early and headed back home where Tennessee welcomed me with open arms

and snow.

Many thanks to Bob and Anet for their hospitality and the use of the USS Lamberson for the weekend, to Michael, Laura, Ben, Erin, Wes, Andy, Marcel and everyone else for the encouragement and comeraderie.

Thanks also to Vassago Cycles and their continued support along with Ergon, WTB, White Bros, Crank Bros, Carbo-Rocket, and Under Armour.

Special thanks to George at Bike 29. The wheels worked great! Thanks G.

photocredits: Wes Lamberson and Marcel Aguirre.

Life Comes at Ya Fast......

2009-02-18T22:51:00.002-05:00

Damn. The world's seemingly going to hell in a handbag (always been that way as far as I can see). People are losing jobs right and left and you cannot look in any direction hardly without being bombarded with something negative. Times are tough.

I don't know what that has to do with anything other than to say I have been really busy lately with life stuff and unfortunately my cycling exploits have taken a back seat for a bit. I still have managed to do the minimum with regard to training and making the transition from cyclocross to endurance. I know the switch from endurance to cross was tough last fall but I am hoping the other way will be a bit easier on me.

We'll find out this Saturday as I pack up the Honda full of Vassago bikes and sundry stuff and point it south towards Ocala Florida for the 12 Hours Of Santos. This is my first 12 hour solo race of the year and the first time I have ever done a 12 hour race this early in the year. Although Florida and the Santos course is way flatter than the stuff I am used to (<800 feet of elevation per lap), I am sure it will still be tough and by 10:00pm on Saturday night I should be tired.

I'll have a full story on the race and also the update on the Vassago Fisticuff that I promised I'd bring you. Stay tuned.

Love Hurts

2009-02-08T19:58:00.005-05:00

Bike racing is a lot like a woman (I know I'll catch hell for this from the women friends I have. Like I haven't endured your "man jokes". Deal with it.). When things are going good, they are really good. Neglect her a little (slack off training or practicing good nutrition for example) and she doesn't get mad or bitch and whine (hahaha, like most women :). No, she just straight up gets even with you.

Taking that analogy one step further, if bike racing is a woman, Cyclocross is a dominatrix. She takes you and for up to an hour at a time, beats you, whips you, makes you beg for mercy. Once you escape her wicked grip and vow never again to return, you inexplicably find yourself back at her doorstep like a stray dog looking for food.

Okay, enough analogies. Knoxiecross 3 and 4 were held this weekend at Melton Hill Park in Knoxville. I was there for my last 2 cross races this season (the series finale is in 2 weeks but I'll be in Florida at the 12 Hours of Santos). Winter hasn't been particularly nice to us here in the last month (I had to wear a hoodie and knee warmers just to ride my damn trainer in my garage) consequently my training has suffered. Although what I have done should be good for the enduro stuff, it wasn't enough for the high-intensity demands of cyclocross. This was also the first race for my Vassago Fisticuff and I was anxious to see how it felt on a race course.

I swapped out my everyday wheels for my tubies and viola,

a Fisti in race trim. I also assigned a duck for new detail. This one is number 7 I think (Yes I am a dork. Not only do I strap a rubber duck to all my bikes, they are also numbered.) Number 7 has been sitting on the toolbox waiting for his next assignment after a short sabatical. FYI, number 1 was retired after a career of twelve 24 hour races and many other events. He now resides on my wife's desk at work.

Now for the racing. The weather was awesome! No cold weather gear was required at all (just a month ago at Knoxiecross 1/2, it was in the 30's and 40's and raining). I lined up after a few hot laps, noting the techy uphill that could be ridden but would probably be run just because running wasn't any slower and saved energy. The course was a bit climb heavy but had a decent amount of rolling, fast stuff and some really flowing, fast turns (that would test my tubular tire gluing skills).

Big field. (I'm 4th from the left)

The start for Saturday was a long uphill one that really hurt. I got a ok start and just tried to make the best of it. I knew my fitness would be an issue and didn't sweat it much. This was more for training for me than results.

This barrier section was really fast. I am hoping I don't trip.

I made it through the first couple of laps in around 6th or 7th, I'm not sure. I faded to 14th at the end. Whatever.

Sunday, the course was reversed and this meant a similar dynamic in that there was a good mix of climbing and rolling fast stuff and pain was assured. It also meant a downhill start into a tight left hander (my specialty). I was planning to own the start.

At the word go, I got my Mark Cavendish (don't know who it is, Google him) on and pulled a nice holeshot only to have someone squeak inside in the first turn so I guess I got robbed of the holeshot but it was still a good start after all. I buried myself deep inside my pain cave and held on for dear life for as long as I could before I had to back off. I found a spot finally somewhere in mid pack and set up my office for the rest of the race.

Day-glo white is the new black. Duck skin exposed for the first time this season.

I ended up somewhere similar to Saturday. We didn't hang around long enough to find out. I had a car full of hungry people and we had to take off. It was a great two days of racing and if I was focused solely on results, I would have been disappointed but that wasn't why I was there. I was there for fun, training and to break in the Fisticuff (more on the Fisti's first race tomorrow).

With that in mind, it was a success.

Vassago Fisticuff First Impression

2009-01-31T23:22:00.008-05:00

My 2009 Vassago Fisticuff arrived this week and I was anxious to get it built and ride it ever since I saw the prototype last year. Billed as a Cyclocross inspired multi-purpose bicycle, it can be built as a singlespeed, geared or fixed gear with horizontal drops and derailleur hanger. With 130mm or 135mm spacing on the rear, you can use either mountain bike or road wheels and disc or cantilever brakes. In short, this bike has options: road, trails, paths, urban assault, commuting, trekking, cyclocross and whatever else you can dream up.

For me, I will be using it primarily for cyclocross.

The first thing I noticed when I pulled the frame out of the box was the paint and welds are some of the best yet that I have seen from Vassago. I looked it over well and couldn't find any flaws in either. After the customary face and chase prepwork, I commenced the build. The components are all transferred from the cross bike I have been using all season and are fairly ordinary. Shimano 105 drivetrain (1x9, yes Virginia, I am using gears on this one) Easton bars, Thomson seatpost and stem, WTB tires and saddle, Crank bros Candy SL pedals, King Headset and SRAM cassette and chain. The wheels are either Shimano/Mavic Open Pro basic road wheels that I built a few years ago and are still going strong or on race day, a set of Easton EA 70X tubulars. I switched the Cane Creek brakes I was using for TRP Eurox brakes for their added mud clearance and plus they look cool (you gotta have priorities). Since disc brakes are illegal for UCI and USAC competition, I didn't bother with them.

The complete bike weighs almost exactly 20 lbs which is heavy compared to today's uber-light carbon, ti and bone-shaker aluminum frames. Don't like it, hey maybe this isn't the bike for you but consider this, that extra weight isn't felt once you are riding and that extra weight is this bike's mojo. You can't mess with that. After a one beer build (hey, either I am getting faster or drinking less) I ended up with this:

I had to wait a couple of days to ride it (which was torture) but at the first chance, I headed to Steele Creek Park for a test ride. Steele Creek is a MSG Cross series venue plus there's a bike path and singletrack. I would be able to put it through pretty much everything. After double checking my adjustments and all the bolts, I headed out on the bike path first. From the beginning, I felt the unmistakable quality of a good steel frame. It just felt solid and a lot of the small to mid size bumps and rocks were transmitted through the frame to me as dull knocks as opposed to sharp jolts that you'd feel on an aluminum frame. The Reynolds 520 tubing is used throughout and it's a great choice. While not the high-end 853 or 953, it also doesn't have the high-end price either.

Next came some cross simulation. I went to a part of the park that was a MSG course and went through a mock cross lap, complete with run-up. Sure the people there must have thought I was nuts but I have long since stopped caring what people think. The Fisti handles tight turns and quick accelerations typical of any cross course like a champ. As I pushed it a little harder, I realized I just felt more comfortable than I did on my other cross bike. The numbers for both frames were similar but the Fisti has a slightly longer wheelbase and a little slacker seat and head tube angle. Those combined with the steel had to be the deal. I struggled all season with the other bike (that I am purposely leaving nameless, it doesn't matter). The Fisti gave me the same feeling I get from my mountain bikes - control and comfort. There's no doubt these bikes are brothers. On the run-ups, getting off and back on was typical although I initially worried that the Fisti's longer seat tube might cause some funky remounts, it was a non-issue. My portage technique is to grab the down tube as soon as my foot hits the ground and hoist the bike directly to my shoulder. I did find that the front triangle was a bit tighter that what I am used to even though the top tube and down tube measurements are nearly the same. The Fisti does have a unusually short head tube and that may be the difference. It wasn't a problem after I realized it, I just started grabbing the down tube in a different place. No big dealio.

After a few hot laps on my mock cross course, I set off for singletrack. Singletrack on a cross bike has always made me nervous. The singletrack at Steele Creek is rocky and steep in places and really unforgiving. Starting on a climb with several switchbacks, the bike did fine. In fact, it felt to me like I put drop bars on my Jabberwocky. Where the difference came in was on the other side, the Fisti turns a lot quicker than the Jabber and judging from the numbers, it probably should. I bet this bike would be great for monster-cross. Slap some bigger tires and disc brakes on and Boo-yah.

Hitting some tighter stuff with rocks and roots made me slow down a bit, only because I was riding 32mm cross tires @ 40psi and I really didn't feel like flatting and walking back to my car. As my test ride time was running out, I hit the bike path again after the first section of singletrack, missing the HOD (Hill Of Death). Oh well, maybe next time. I rode a little harder on the bike path (gravel) this time because it was getting dark and there weren't any people around to run over. I learned something else about the Fisti and it is a trait shared by all Vassagos (that I have ridden so far). The harder you ride it, the better it feels. Fast corners inspired confidence (until I found out what too fast was and went into a two-wheeled drift) and the experience put a smile on my face which let's face it, is what it's all about.

This wouldn't be a completely unbiased impression if I didn't tell all and I am a tell all kind of guy. Some things to be aware of are: If you use cantilever brakes, you will need a full housing for the rear brake. The frame only has two disc tubing guides for the rear (there is a cable stop at the back though. You will need to add a third zip tie in the middle of the top tube otherwise the brake cable housing will ring against the top tube like a Salvation Army bell ringer on crack. Not a big deal, just something to know. Another thing is regarding the horizontal drops. The drops work fine with or without gears. With gears however, you will need to be mindful of putting the rear wheel in the frame. The tendency is to slide it all the way forward until it hits the front of the dropout but that causes cantilever brake alignment to be really funky and with 700x32 cross tires, the clearance between the tire and seat tube is only about 1/2 inch. I had best results with putting the wheel in the frame and putting two fingers between it and the seat tube before tightening it down. I didn't have any issues with wheel slippage using a quick release but I really tightened it down. You will need a good QR that allows you to get all Lou Ferrigno on it without complaining. Lightning fast Cross style wheel changes may be a problem however. Again, not a big deal, just something to be aware of.

If you are in the market for a do it all frame that has the ability to take pretty much anything you can throw at it then the Fisticuff may be something to think about. MSRP is $579 for frame and fork and that's not a bad deal for a nice riding steel frame with spirit and that Vassago attitude.

Next week, I will be going to the final (for me) two rounds of the Knoxiecross Cyclocross series in Knoxville, Tennessee and I will have a review of how the Fisti feels in race mode.

Until then, surf on over to Vassago Cycles and see about getting one for yourself.

Cold is a four letter word!

2009-01-29T22:07:00.005-05:00

First, I will say that compared to most of the rest of the country, we have it pretty nice here in the south. Not much snow or ice, never seen a hurricane, rarely a tornado, and we have four honest to God seasons. Having said that, winter has just about worn out it's welcome. I am sooo damned tired of cold that I could scream. I will stop there otherwise this will turn into nothing more than a rant about weather.

I have been fairly busy for the last few weeks and training has gotten stuck in wherever it would fit. Lots of trainer miles and core work and a good bit of kettlebell stuff. All of that is no substitute for good old miles. The outside kind on trails and roads. I know it's January and there will be plenty of time to get fit(ter), I am just getting a bit of

You know.........................................

I have been looking ahead to when racing starts an I'm starting to get some stuff trickle in from the UPS guy. Cool stuff like new race wheels courtesy of George at Bike 29.

They are Chris King hubs laced to Stan's ZTR Arch rims with DT Supercompe spokes. Not a lot of bling (okay, some bling) but the really cool and very important thing for me is the super fast engagement of the CK hubs and if I bust one, I can fix it immediately. Most chi chi wheels need special crap and I just ain't got time.

The most exciting thing I have right now is the first 2009 production Vassago Fisticuff (the very first was a prototype that went to teamate Ben last year) that arrived at the world headquarters of Duckman Racing Enterprises yesterday. I am building it up and will hit the trails with it this weekend for a shakedown run before taking it to rounds 3 and 4 of Knoxiecross next week in Knoxville. It's a nice bike and is clearly from the same bloodline as the Jabberwocky and the Bandersnatch. Designed as a multi-purpose bike, it will do quite a bit. Singlespeed, gears, cantilevers, discs, roads, trails, touring, racing. Just whatever you think of.

I will be using it strictly for cyclocross but it's good to know that if I decide to take off on a trek across Africa by bike, my Fisticuff will be waiting. Expect plenty of pics and a review in a few days but for now a few teaser pics from the build up.

Here I am.

2009-01-23T20:25:00.002-05:00

My little neck of the dirty South has been in the grip of winter proper for the past two weeks with the temps rarely getting up to the 20's during the day (ok for my Canadian and upper mid-west buddies, gimme a break, I am weak). Consequently, I have ridden my trainer for the last 12 days straight and I am about to go batshit freaking crazy! I went to Atlanta today for work and it was sunny and in the 60's and all I could do was wish I had a bike with me to ride. All the way home, I daydreamt about riding tomorrow (it's supposed to be 40). It's going to rain but I don't care. I gotta get out of this place.

I am racing again in two weeks at the final two cyclocross races of the season and then two weeks later the first endurance race - the 12 Hours Of Santos in (hopefully) sunny, warm Florida. Two weeks after that and it's off to Arkansas for the Spa City Extreme, a 6 hour race. After that, I am pretty much back in the cycle (no pun intended) of Ride, Race, Rest, Repeat for the rest of the year. Even though I am racing more this year than last, I am resting more and the races are not all endurance. I am mixing in some shorter XC events, road races, crits and a good bit of high intensity training that will hopefully help round out my fitness a little better. (Last year I ended up with a lot of endurance but not much fitness at higher intensities.

Until then..................

Knoxiecross 1 and 2

2009-01-11T18:45:00.004-05:00

Saturday and Sunday was rounds 1 and 2 of the Knoxiecross Cyclocross Series in Knoxville, Tn. It was also the weekend that the weather decided to turn ugly again throwing down rain on Saturday and temperatures around 45 degrees. For Sunday the rain left and it took with it 10 degrees of warmth leaving us with 35 degrees and a whole bunch of mud.

I am doing the first 4 rounds of the 6 race series for training before I say farewell to the short intense stuff for a while and head off to (hopefully) sunny, warm Florida for the 12 Hours of Santos on Feb 21.

Meanwhile, back to Saturday and the ccccold rain. I wasn't looking to forward to it but after riding my trainer to warm-up for a bit, I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and get wet. The initial shock of that first cold blast of water and mud up my asscrack gave way to the reality that it wasn't really that bad once you got used to it. The course was total slop and reminded me of some of the images I have seen of cross races from Europe. It was ankle deep in places.

photo credit: Dave Holmes

I got a decent start and was doing well. The climbs were really slick in places making it hard to get anywhere. There was one climb that led up to the finish that was so deep in places that it would stop you cold if you didn't have enough momentum to get through it.

Photo courtesy of Knoxvillecycling.

I got some crap in my eyes mid-race and lost about 3 or 4 spots until I got it all sorted out. I ended up 8th for the day and really satisfied with the whole thing.

Got mud? (Somebody needs a WARM bath.)

Sunday was a new day and the rain was gone. The mud wasn't however and the temperature tanked overnight and it was cold. I hopped on my trainer again to warm up for about 30 minutes and then went out to ride a lap with a friend of mine - Mike Mefford. Mike's a really strong rider and won the day before, there really wasn't a reason he shouldn't do it again (except a flat tire, he ended up second. Still a very nice finish). The course was backwards this time and that meant no place to rest and lots more climbing that the day before. It was going to be tough.

At the start, I followed Mike into the first turn with I don't know how many behind us maybe 20-25). I looked at the first turn before the race and it made me a little nervous. Kinda downhill into a really sloppy turn followed by another sloppy dip and then open course. It worked out fine though and I stayed on Mike's wheel as long as I could. A few racers got by me and there was some trading places over the next lap or so. The pace we made left everyone else so all I had to worry about were the guys in front of me. I was really suffering on the long, mushy climbs but I figured everyone else was too. Going into the last lap, I thought I was alone but looked over in a turn to see two guys gaining on me. I put in a really hard effort on the first climb I came to expecting to open up a gap. I looked back - Damn! Still there. Next climb, another hard effort and that lost one guy but the other was still there. With 1/4 lap to go, I was really feeling the redline effort I just put out and was thinking I might get passed. The final 300 yds was pavement and when I hit that, I downshifted a few gears and hit it hard (as I could). I looked back just before the line and he wasn't pushing so I sat up and soft-pedaled the final 50 feet.

It was fun. I ended up 5th.

2009 Begins

2009-01-08T22:37:00.002-05:00

While some of the elite few travel to exotic places to train during the off season, getting pampered and living under extremely controlled environments, the rest of us make do with what we have. For me, that means training whenever I can, early morning, late at night, lunch hour, in the cold, the dark, wet and sometimes freezing (actually I prefer frozen to wet, it's not as cold). I do the best I can do with what I have to work with.
The elite do it because it's their job, I do it because I love to race and I love the feeling of being fit.
My "off season" is over, my first race of 2009 is Saturday at the first round of the Knoxiecross Cyclocross series in Knoxville. Round 2 is on Sunday then rounds 3 and 4 are in February. I will miss the last two rounds at the end of February because I am going to Florida for the 12 Hours of Santos. Then in March, there is a couple of road races that I will be doing leading up to the start of the "racing" part of my year and the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek and the Cohutta 100, both in April.
These races this winter are all training races and very little priority is given to them. I will be trying some new stuff out and different strategies, especially at Santos and basically trying to get fit for the important races this summer.

Number 1

2009-01-06T17:20:00.003-05:00

It's coming.........

Complete torture test results soon........... Stay tuned.

Holy Global Warming Batman!

2008-12-27T18:44:00.003-05:00

While some of my buds in the Mid-west and Rockies got dumped on with snow, ice and nasty cold, I got to ride today in shorts and a long sleeve jersey (it's all I had with me). The temps were around 70 and you really couldn't ask for a better day.

I headed out with some of my buds: Alan, David H, Anet and Wes for a couple of hours of base building with a nice 2 mile climb at the end. We rode the familiar TNR course - host to a weekly road ride during the summer.

Short sleeves, shorts, sun and warm. You'd have thought it was May instead of December.

I ditched the tights before we started and could have really done without the long sleeve jersey but it's all I had.

We rode really easy (for a change. you see guys - and girls, really can ride together without killing each other) until we got to the climb up Buffalo mountain. Even there, we didn't kill it but we did ride a pretty fast tempo to the top. It felt great!

"Duckman" Hasselhoff summits Buffalo. (I had to un-zip, I was freaking roasting!!), Nevermind the pasty whiteness.

It was a good day to be alive.........

With two more weeks until the first race of 2009 - the opening round of the Knoxiecross series, I am devoting most of my training to base building and easy stuff. I do toss in some tempo and steady-state intervals but not much. I have never started racing in January before, I don't want to toast myself before the real racing starts in April.

Vassago Optimus Ti Long Term Review

2008-12-22T17:07:00.007-05:00

Part of my job riding on the Vassago Cycling Team is to bash the living crap out of some really sweet bikes just to see how they will hold up. Of course I am kidding about bashing the crap out of them but having put several thousand miles on them, I consider myself knowledgeable about the bikes, how they ride and how they hold up to a fair amount of abuse.

I got my Optimus Ti frame in April of this year and built it up just in time for the first race of the year, the Cohutta 100. This is the first generation frame that was built overseas to Vassago specs (newer ones are built in the good old US of A, not that there's a problem with overseas stuff) and features the now famous "Wet Cat" geometry and some really nice sliding dropouts courtesy of Paragon Machine Works. Although I ride singlespeeds exclusively, the Optimus is "gearable" with an accessory kit that includes a new right side dropout and bottom bracket cable guides. Building mine up with a fairly middle of the road component spec, I was able to get a bike that weighed in at 19.5 lbs (with pedals!) and before you could say "She's a beaut Clark", I was putting the first miles on it. Compared with the stalwart Jabberwocky, the handling is identical, as it probably should be since the numbers are the same. The only differences between the Optimus and my Jabbers is the frame material obviously and the White Bros Rock Solid fork on the Optimus vs. the ODIS steel fork on the Jabberwocky.

From the first pedal stroke, I could tell this was a way different bike than what I was used to. The ride quality of the Optimus is amazing (and that's saying quite a bit since the Jabberwocky already set a pretty high standard for ride). Combined with the WB fork and the inherent quality of 29er wheels, small high frequency bumps virtually disappeared. It feels alot like a short travel XC bike in that regard. You know the bumps are there, you just don't feel them. Handling and stability is inspiring. The mythical 29er's can't handle tight turns, twisties and are slow handling gets busted right from the start. That's probably due mostly to the proprietary Wet Cat geometry that in a nutshell puts your center of gravity more between the wheels than above them like some other manufacturers that just took basic 26 inch geometry and stuffed bigger wheels in there but the frame material definitely contributes to the magical ride quality the Optimus possesses. 40+mph fireroad descents (I have seen a few) on this bike are a blast. It just sticks to corners and when or if it does break loose, it does so in a fairly controlled manner.

Climbing is another strong point for this bike. Light, stiff where it needs to be, it climbs like a dream. I have heard some complaints or concerns that Vassagos loose traction to easily on loose climbs due to their long chainstays. I have never experienced that. Being a singlespeed, you need to lay down some serious power to climb steep stuff and if the soil is loose, it will slip but it is no more prone to doing that than any other bike I have ridden.

To date, I have put about 3,300 miles on my Optimus Ti in terrain ranging from pavement to dirt and gravel roads, doubletrack and singletrack ranging from mild to damn scary. It has been ridden hard and put up wet more than I'd like to say but I have given it a good bit of TLC as well. One thing I haven't done is a whole lot of maintenance other than lubing the chain when needed. This has been one of the most dependable bikes I have ridden. In the 3k miles I didn't have so much as a flat tire. (To be fair, I did have 3 broken spoke nipples and one bashed rear rim that was my fault). The Paragon dropouts are set and forget. No slipping, no creaks, they just do their job clean and efficient like.

After the endurance stuff was over, I slapped on some cyclocross tires and went cross racing just for fun. The bike took it all in stride. I have purposely not said much about components because I plan to do a separate review of those coming up. This is about the total package and how it performs over the long haul.

Ok, what about the bad stuff?

Uh, ok. If I nitpick, I can come up one thing that did bug me but only slightly (and has been changed on later versions of the bike) and that's the straight chainstays. The right one rubs my ankle in certain technical riding type situations. My ankle is a bit messed up from racing motocross in another lifetime and it kinda sticks out in the way so this is probably as much me as it is the frame. Not a big deal at all but you knew something had to be wrong. I mean no bike is perfect right? Yeah, that's right but one bike is pretty close.

And I own it.

Rocky Fork

2008-12-21T16:35:00.008-05:00

I met Bob, Anet and Wes Lamberson yesterday for my first ride in Rocky Fork, a 10,000 acre tract of pristine forest that has been the object of local scrutiny for the past several years and has just been acquired by the USFS jointly with a advocacy group. What happens next with the area is a question but one thing is certain, it has been saved from the hands of developers and big timber companies.

Although there are no trails there (yet) except the AT that runs through a portion of the property (and is waaay off-limit to bikes), there are plenty of FS roads and abandoned logging roads to explore. I was excited to get to ride there after hearing so much about it from my buddy Bob.

The first thing he asked me upon arrival at the trailhead, "Didja bring your climbing legs?" Yes to ride in Rocky Fork means you will climb, a lot and for a long time. Much of it steep too.

Sounds great.

We headed out and the climbing began almost immediately. For the first several miles, it wasn't too bad. The road ran along a really nice creek that had several water falls and I am sure more than a few Trout swimming around. We got the opportunity to cross the creek a few times. At the first crossing, I looked long and hard at it remembering the last time I crossed a creek in the Winter and ended up losing my shoes . While everyone else took off their shoes and socks and walked across, I threw caution to the wind and rode it. The water was surprisingly warm(ish) and the air temp wasn't too bad either so I could deal with wet feet.

The more we rode, the higher the stakes got however. The air temps were dropping and the creek was getting deeper.

The last one was a lot deeper than the others (over my bottom bracket) and colder too. Still, I rode the others, might as well try this one too. I made it. By now, the road was really starting to kick up. We climbed and climbed with no end really, in sight.

It is as steep as it looks.

After riding (climbing) for over an hour, I had a snack. My legs felt great at that point and we were having a good ride.

Snack time (why yes that is more climbing coming up).

The final mile or so pitch before the "top" (there is no top - ever. No matter how much or long you climb, there is still more to climb so forget about reaching the top. It's a myth), was a real beast. It was probably in the neighborhood of 10-15% in gradient and really was tough. The reward for two hours of solid climbing was some incredible views.

For all y'all living in the flatlands and concrete jungles, this is what you are missing.

Obligatory "Rocky" pose ( a little soon for celebrating though, you'll see why)

Although it looks like we were at the top of the world, we still had more climbing to come. We rode on to see a massive wild blueberry patch and some grassy bald just at the AT. The climbing there was kinda messy as the "road" ( I use that term loosely now) was loamy with some evil rock gardens thrown in for good measure.

It was finally time to turn around and descend for awhile. We went back through the rock gardens and the mucky muck and lost elevation pretty quickly until we came to......... wait for it.

More climbing.

Yep, smack in the middle of our nice descent back to the cars was a mile long beast that had all of us whining. Not long after that, Wes flatted and Bob stayed back to help him while Anet and I went on. We eventually did get more downhill stuff and overall a great day of riding.

Hopefully, Rocky Fork will develop into a paradise for multi-use trails and anyone that enjoys being outside. It is a gemstone in the crown of what makes the mountains of East Tennessee a great place to be.

As far as a place to train, it is perfect. I enjoyed the climbing even though it did hurt quite a bit in places, I know it is what I need to make me stronger. I suck at climbing. My 32X18 gearing was bitch-slapping me all over but I defied the misery for the biggest part and only walked a few spots that were either too slick for traction or just too steep (hey, everyone cracks under pressure sooner or later).

I plan to get back over there soon.

Ok, so now what?

2008-12-18T21:06:00.002-05:00

The bikes still sit in the garage with mud on them, the jersey hangs from the handlebars of one with the number still pinned on from the last race of 2008. I am 5 days into my "off season" which is going to last anywhere from 2 to 4 weeks depending on what I decide to do with myself.
Number one on the agenda for the winter is losing some weight. I already have a head start from a fall/early winter bunch of cyclocross and painfully changing some bad eating habits.
Second is to take a look at 2008 and figure out what I did that worked and what didn't. I am doing that now and plan to write about that in another post soon.

Last, I am starting to get confirmation on dates for 2009 races and putting them together in a schedule so I can know what I am doing and when. 2009 is going to be divided in three distinct parts - Early season, Primetime, and Cyclocross. Early season can begin as soon as Jan 1 with the Snake Creek Time Trial series in North Georgia should I decide to participate. Also in January is more cyclocross with the Knoxiecross Series in Knoxville, Tn and the Icycle race at Fontana Village in North Carolina. February is more cross and the 12 Hours of Santos in Florida. March is still undecided but there's the last round of the Snake Creek TT series and a couple of road races that I could do if I choose.
April brings the first couple of bigger races on my schedule - the Cohutta 100 and the 6 Hours of Warrior Creek. All those races are part of my early season build up to the prime racing months of May, June and July which contain 3/4 of the races I really want to do well in next year. A few more important races come up in August/September and then I switch from endurance mode back into cyclocross next October.
I have to be careful and not do too much. I could literally race every weekend if I wanted to. I am trying to keep the big, hard stuff separated by enough time to recover (no more back to back to back 12 hour, 24 hour and 100 milers like I did last May - that hurt!)

All in all, I am excited about the upcoming season. I don't race because I am particularly good at it and I certainly don't do it for the money or the fame (hahahaha). I do it because I love racing. I guess I am ok at it, it's hard to judge from results since I keep pushing myself harder and against stiffer competition each year. It's more about the war than it is the battle I guess. The truth is though, I am slowly improving each year and clawing my way a little further each season. Having seen some impressive performances from older competitors, I am encouraged about what I may be able to achieve if I keep on keeping on.

We'll see how it goes.

The Fat Lady Has Sung

2008-12-15T10:30:00.016-05:00

At 3:03pm on Saturday, the 2008 racing season for me officially ended as I crossed the line in round 6 of the Mud, Sweat and Gears Cyclocross Series. What began in February with a lackluster performance in the Icycle, ended with another mediocre showing at MSG. The stuff in between had some highs and some lows but one thing is certain, it was a total blast. All of it.

I woke up Saturday with an intense desire to race but also a keen sense that I should go find something else to do. My sprained thumb still was an issue. In fact, it was so painful still that I had a hard time buttoning my pants and tying my shoes. I could grip the bars ok but it really hurt to use the front brake on my cross bike, the singlespeed was a little better with the flat bar and Ergon grips. Conventional wisdom would say grab a cowbell and go hang out with my pals and watch the race. Duckman wisdom is sometimes in direct conflict with conventional wisdom however, and when that happens, it usually ends bad. I went to the venue and signed up for three classes - CX4, Masters 35+ and Singlespeed.

I warmed up for about 30 minutes on my trainer and then went out for a couple of hot laps. The course was really bumpy and I had trouble with hanging onto the bars in the rougher parts. On my second lap, I scouted out some better lines and dropped my tire pressure another 5 lbs in the front to #38. I went to the line for CX4 hoping for the best. I actually got a decent start and adrenalin fueled my first lap. On lap two, I began to have trouble hanging on and braking in some of the really tight corners. I began to fade. Lap three brought more fading and my hand got knocked off my bars twice. By then, I was in the front of a group of my friends that included Mark Prince (Mark has improved an impressive amount this year), Alan Sparks and David Smith. Mark got by me and I had the intentions of keeping him close and attacking on the barriers on the last lap because I noticed he had a little trouble with them. David and Alan were far enough back, I didn't think they would be a threat.

That is until I crashed on the eff'in barriers!

Yep going over the first ones, my bike clipped the top of the barrier and the pain from my thumb caused me to let go of it. I then tripped over it and fell. The pain in my hand caused me to curse in tongues. It was bad - the kind that makes you want to curl up with a blanket and suck your thumb like a baby. I got up and got back on my bike and headed towards the finish thinking Mark was gone and maybe David and Alan didn't catch me. In the last corner just before the Redline Run-up, David tries to strong arm me and we go into the tape (but not off the course too bad) while Alan tries to slip by on the inside on both of us. It was like racing motocross again. I think that 30yds of the race was the most fun I had all series long. At the top of the run-up, I was done. I didn't even try to race anymore. I just wanted to go home.

I didn't start the Masters race and just sat under Alan's EZ-up with a bag of ice on my hand. I was bummed out mostly because I love to race and all I could do was sit there and watch. I kept the ice on my hand for a while and then took it off and grabbed my singlespeed to go ride around a bit. The singlespeed is a lot more comfortable than my cross bike and the Ergon grips especially gave my hand enough support to ease the pain quite a bit. I went back and got on my trainer to get warm (it was cold but I knew I was going to race again) and I lined up for the singlespeed race.

I got another good start and although I faded towards the end and ended up outside the top ten, I felt much better than I did in the earlier race. My Vassago hasn't let me down all year. It's a great bike. I decided to do my best and to have fun. There was a group gathered by the Redline Run-up giving stuff away to people that tried to ride it and cash for anyone that actually did. I tried every lap and got the closest on my first attempt but never made it. It was just too steep and my gearing was way to high for that Tom-foolery. I did get some nice MSG socks though.

photo credit: Jennifer Dayton Church

And thus ended my 2008 racing season. Many thanks to Eric Wondergem and Dwayne Letterman for the Mud, Sweat and Gears Series, all the volunteers and sponsors that made it happen (and continue to make it happen), you guys ROCK!

Many, many thanks to my awesome sponsors that made 2008 really a great year for me: Vassago Cycles, WTB, Ergon, White Brothers Cycling, Crank Brothers, Carbo-Rocket and Under-Armour.

And finally, to everyone that I rode and raced with this year, that encouraged me, forced me to be better and those of you that keep coming back here to see what I wrote, Thank you.

2008 was fun, 2009 (only 4 weeks until the FIRST RACE whoo hoo!!!) will be even better.

Same **** Different Year....

2008-12-12T12:16:00.002-05:00

Here I am on the eve of the final race in the 2008 MSG Cyclocross series and I am injured to the point I probably shouldn't race. Last year it was bruised ribs that kept me out, this year it's a sprained thumb. The funny thing is that in the last two years, I haven't got hurt a bit while racing. I get hurt when I am just riding. Hmmm.. Either I am just riding too hard or not racing hard enough, I don't know which.

Nah, shit happens.....

This weekend was supposed to be the first of three week-long "boot camps" I have planned for the winter for myself. I was going to race three classes tomorrow and follow up with a long but easy ride Sunday and there's something each day next week designed to help me as I start to build fitness for next year.

Right now, I have the grip strength of a burly toddler in my left hand. With copious amounts of tape and a (hopefully) fast course that doesn't require much braking, I should be fine - as long as I don't do something stupid like crash......

I still plan to race three classes tomorrow just because I know better but choose not to do what I know would be the wise thing.

Hey, I am a man. It's expected of me to make bad decisions.........................

Snow Ride

2008-12-07T19:16:00.005-05:00

Having to work during the 5th round of the Mud, Sweat and Gears cyclocross series had me bummed enough on Saturday and it didn't help matters when it began to snow. I love riding and racing in sloppy conditions. By the time I got off work, the race was over but the snow was coming down pretty good. Since I am usually prepared to ride at any time, I took advantage of the moment and headed over to Steele Creek Park for a really short ride.

Part car, part closet, part storage building, there's just nothing to not love about an Element.

By the time I got to the trails and got ready to ride, the snow was coming down pretty good. The trails were starting to get covered with a heavy, wet covering of the white stuff. Steele Creek is a city park in Bristol, Tennessee and the trails there are actually pretty bad. It's a shame too because the place is really beautiful with a lake and a lot of potential for some really nice trails. Instead there is a few miles of poorly designed and built trails that suffer from advanced erosion and if it wasn't so close to where I work (less than 5 minutes), I probably wouldn't even bother.

Any port in a storm they say.

There is a lot of steep fall line trails at Steele Creek like this one. It is much steeper than the picture shows.

Somebody actually thought this switchback was a good idea. It is nearly impossible to ride.

Don't eat the yellow snow.

The lake and the dam.

I call this one Jabberwocky in Snow.

Gratuitous Duckman shot.

The day wasn't a total success though. On a steep and rocky section in a fall line descent, I crashed hard and sprained my thumb. It hurt like a ****** ****er and made me mad but really I shouldn't have been riding it in the first place in those conditions. It was so slick that I fell again just walking down the rest of it. Nothing like a swift kick in the balls to top a bad day.

Wanton Randomness

2008-11-26T21:08:00.003-05:00

I have had a rough week. I haven't done a damn thing since Sunday. I have been healing from the crash I had at the NCGP and let's just say I handle training and racing a lot better than doing nothing. So since I don't have much to post about anything, I thought I'd post some random stuff.

I have made it through nearly an entire racing season without a single mechanical failure (in competition). In just riding however, I haven't been so lucky. I went on a much needed ride recently and it really felt good to just go ride, not train, just ride for riding's sake. I got about as far away from the car as I could get and was just coming out of a short, steep uphill switchback and "POP".

I was surprised to find my bottom bracket broken. I have been riding for 20 years and I have seen a lot of freaky crap but this was the first time I have seen a bottom bracket break (unless it was abused). I'd like to attribute it to my massiveness but I believe it was a defect. So I ended up running with my bike for a couple of miles to get out of the woods before dark. Fun times.

Another funny thing I found recently is just how tough supposedly weak lightweight 29'er rims are. I use Stan's rims exclusively (and he doesn't even sponsor me) because I like the way they hold tires tight on the bead and how easy it is to seal up a tubeless tire on them. Upon cleaning my Optimus a couple of weeks ago, I discovered one of my Stan's 355 rims got in a fight with a rock.

I'd have to say it was a draw. I know the rock is fine and after a few minutes with some vice grips, the rim is fine too. The funny thing is it still sealed the tire and I rode it like this for about 2 months which included a couple of races.

Since it is cold and dark outside now during the time when I used to train, I have to do other things to get my fitness fix. Things like ride in the dark (that's fun) and ride inside on my trainer (that sucks). But what's a junior hammerhead gonna do? Since we are in a new home for now, I had to set up a new training area. The new place is a bit smaller than the old place in that regard but I got it going on pretty well.

Bike and trainer go in the middle. I also have rollers for variety and a fan for ventilation when it's needed.

I have a few workouts downloaded on my laptop that range from mild to hand me a puke bucket.

Behind me is the main quiver of bikes. The other bikes are in the storage building outside.

It ain't like riding outside but it beats the hell out of getting out of shape in the winter.

Say 'ello to my little friend. This is Crackers the farting dog. He was graciously ripped from death's doorstep and rescued from the pound.

I am pretty sure he ended up at the pound because of the toxic fumes he regularly emits from his butt. Don't let his small size fool you, he can clear a room without even straining.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!

North Carolina Grand Prix

2008-11-25T19:06:00.003-05:00

I headed out early Sunday and picked up some new friends -Ginger and her boyfriend Nick and we headed for Hendersonville North Carolina and the UCI Cat 2 NCGP Cyclocross race. I was excited to do some extra curricular suffering between rounds of the MSG Cross series that's going on at home. It's interesting to me to look back and see how cross has worked its way into my riding.

2004 - MSG was new and I did one race just to say I did and to support a local series.
2005 - Two races.
2006 - Two races. Cross was still a novelty and not something I really felt a need to do much of.
2007 - Five races. Uh, would have been six but I got sick. I went to the sixth race and stood in the rain to watch.
2008 - I have done 8 races so far (two classes at most MSG series events) and the season isn't over yet. Already thinking about "next year".

Yeah, I guess I am hooked.

This was the first road trip to do a cross race for me and I was excited to see a different venue and some different faces to race with. It was cold but sunny and the venue was fantastic. We got there and after getting registered, I headed out on a few hot laps to check out the course and get warm. It was a long course with some really nice features like fast, swoopy turns, lotsa flat "roadie" stuff and even a little pseudo singletrack. Oh and a really neat feature called "the wall" - a short, steep climb that was all power. Don't have enough and to you it would be another run-up.
When I went to the start, I was in the third row and had someone in each armpit and a couple of front wheels rubbing my legs. Hmmmm, wonder how this is gonna work. I looked around for Ginger (we raced a the same time) and couldn't see her anywhere. There must have been about 50 CX4's and with the juniors and women, there was probably 75 or 80 people jammed in there.

Good thing we started in waves.

I rarely get nervous at the start of a race but today I was a little jumpy. I felt better when I heard "GO" and I managed to slip inside a few racers and get some clear pavement to sprint towards the front before the first turn. By the first turn, I was in a real crappy position on the extreme inside and was going to have to brake hard and then sprint hard again to maintain my position. Just as I started to brake, I heard "I'm passing on your left". Uh, dude there's a fence there and then there's me and I ain't moving. He hit me and as I went through the corner, I looked over and saw him on his back with his bike up in the air.

Oops.

I was in about 15th place and the pace was really hard, really hard. I got passed and passed some back and forth through the first lap and coming through the finish, I saw 3 laps to go. Cool. I love long courses.

I didn't love what happened next though. Going through the barriers, I tripped over my bike on the remount like a dork and twisted my knee really bad. I had a sharp pain through it and considered quitting but rode easy instead to see what was going to happen. I got passed by pretty much everyone, I thought. I was surprised to later see I finished 31st.
Yeah, whatever dude. I had fun but was disappointed. I wanted to do better.

After my race, we all hung out and watched the Elite men and women. The men's race was won by Jeremiah Bishop in an impressive display of tactics and sheer strength. Equally impressive was Steve Tilford who at 48, was the protagonist of the break that would decide the race and plum whupped all but two of the elite field.

A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words

2008-11-17T21:59:00.002-05:00

I just got this pic from my buddy Bart and it captures exactly what I was feeling on Saturday during MSG #4. I was in a bad place for sure.

Humility Training

2008-11-16T20:13:00.003-05:00

It is rare, if ever that someone says "I think I'll practice being humble today". We train our weaknesses except for the biggest weakness of all - humility.

I had a bad week last week, at least in regard to riding or training so by the time round #4 of the Mud, Sweat and Gears Cross series rolled around on Saturday, I was ready to ride. I put together a temporary geared CX bike (my Vassago Fisticuff isn't quite ready) for use in the Master's race and even though I rode it some before the race, I really hadn't ridden it yet. The weather forecast was nasty - rain and falling temps throughout the day. Considering that most of the MSG races for the past 3 years have been under ideal conditions, I think many people were ready for some good, old fashioned Northern Belgium type cyclocross weather.
I got dressed and began to warm up for the Masters race. The ground was soft and muddy in places but not bad, the temps held in the 50s and it wasn't bad once you started pedaling.

That would change as the day progressed.

Almost immediately after the start of the Masters race, I didn't feel so great. The course was really tight in places and required a lot of sprinting out of corners. Going into the first set of barriers, someone tripped and I almost stepped on him. I remounted near the back of the field and put my head down and tried to have a go. It wasn't happening. After what seemed like forever, I came around and saw 6 laps to go. Shit! I thought and I felt like quitting. By then, I was in what I assumed was last place and couldn't hold anybody's wheel. I felt bad. Somewere along the backside of the course, I decided that there was no way in hell I was going to stop, I was going to ride as fast as I could and let the chips fall where they may. After all, this is just training for me anyway. I am not competitive in Masters - yet....

Six laps took an eternity to complete but I did complete them and I was surprised later when I found out I got 14th which was one up from DFL. Still not what I wanted though, I headed off to think about what just happened and get ready for the Singlespeed race that was coming up. It was getting colder and raining off and on. It started raining as I began to warm-up for the Singlespeed race and I really wasn't happy. I considered not taking the starting line but like in the Masters race earlier, I made myself go. I actually got a great start and came around the first set of corners in about 5th or 6th place, right behind Andy Applegate who just got second in the Pro 1/2 race. I knew I wouldn't be around that neighborhood for long though so I tried to hang in as long as I could.

To add insult to injury, on the 4th lap of the race, a rain drop hit me square in the eye and knocked out one of my contacts. Confirmation that this was some kind of cosmic Punk Duckman day. I had a hard time with only one contact. It drove me nuts.
I did fade but not as bad as I did in the Masters race and ended up somewhere around 15th or 16th by the end of the race. Cold and frustrated, I returned to my pits to pack up and go home.

I don't really know what happened although I can point to about 5 things that contributed to a bad day at the races but I think I got the take home lesson. Bicycle racing is tough and you may have one good day out of plenty. You have to deal with failure for more than success (unless you are extremely gifted - I am not) and that's just the way it is.

In the end, I am thankful that I am able to do the things I do and even though the day didn't go the way I would have wanted, it was still a good day.

Next week: The UCI CX race in Hendersonville, NC.

I am a glutton for punishment.

The Devil Is In The Details

2008-11-08T08:46:00.002-05:00

Being a self-coached athlete is sometimes like pissing in the wind in a typhoon. Sure, I'd probably do better by getting an actual coach and laying down a solid training plan with consults, feedback and all the bells and whistles but that costs more money than I can really put into it and with my schedule being what it is, I just don't feel like I need to do that right now. Besides, I have accumulated nearly 20 years of empirical data on how not to do things and I'd hate to waste all that research.
I have been putting together some stuff over the last few weeks and plan to start with the new program on Dec 1. My main goals for the winter are to lose some weight (yeah I know that's gonna be hard to do but I gotta try) and to maintain most of the fitness I built this season to give me a solid base for more fitness next year. In the past, some of my main limiters have been inconsistent training and poor eating habits. I made a big mistake this year with doing mostly endurance rides with little high intensity stuff. I found out when cyclocross started that I made a big mistake in not including some high-end suffering with my regular suffering.
To remedy that, I have included with the training I will be doing, several shorter, high-intensity type races into my schedule. The best training for racing is racing and I made dramatic changes to my schedule over what it has been for the past few years to include a variety of pain-inflicting events. I still suck at climbing so you can bet I will be doing a lot of it over the next few months. I am also making a huge effort to be more consistent with training and trying my best to not have huge gaps in my training days.

As for the diet part...

Some days I really eat like a saint and those days will stay what they are. Other days however, I eat like a Saint Bernard and that's what I will be working on. I have already made a few painful adjustments to my diet and can see the positive effects from them which makes breaking bad habits easier. The bottom line for me is this:

I gotta lose some weight to improve my climbing. That's all there is to say.

It's not going to be easy but the things I like to do never are............

I Was A Singlespeeder Before It Was Cool

2008-11-01T20:11:00.003-04:00

Round three of the Mud, Sweat and Gears Cyclocross series was today and at a different venue this time. Steele Creek Park in Bristol, Tennessee and another Dwayne Letterman designed course greeted all that showed up for a beautiful day for a race (actually it was hot by the time I raced, too hot!). I missed the Masters race because I had to work so I only did the singlespeed race. It was all for the best since I didn't feel so good in the first place.
Did I mention it was Scary Cross too? Yeah just race in a costume and you get 25 points plus everyone around gets cheap entertainment for the day. I brought out a toned down version of the costume I wore at the Hill Of Truth the week before:

I don't see what the big deal is. Some pay thousands of dollars for boobs like this, I only paid $17.99.

Uh, yeah. Well I rode around to warm up and scope out the course. It was going to be a tough one with lotsa climbing and very little place to recover. After the Pro 1/2 race, it was time to lime up. Dang, the singlespeed class was the biggest one of the day (with exception maybe, of the CX4s). There was about 25 lined up, a good third of them came out of the Pro 1/2 and CX3 race. This was going to hurt.

I was in the third row and when the word go came, nothing happened for a moment. I got around the ones in front of me and sprinted like a madman. I made it into decent position by the second turn and tried to keep my pace high. I managed to do ok for the first lap but then began to drift backwards. I don't know what happened. I just faded. I wasn't feeling good. It was frustrating but I have learned to deal with it and use days like today to make me better.

I ended up 18th. Even though my race sucked, I still had fun and it was good to just get out and put the hammer down for awhile.

Big Boobs And Dirty Granny

2008-10-26T17:26:00.004-04:00

The 10th annual 12 Hours of the Hill of Truth was Saturday in Oak Ridge Tennessee. I have done this race 7 out of the 10 times, it has rained 4 of the 7 times and I have been on the podium there 5 out of 7 times. It has been cold 7 out of 7 times, the cannon has been loud as **** 10 out of 10 times and it has been a lot of fun all the time.

I always do this race on a team because it is a great way to end a season and with all the solo stuff I do, it's a nice change of pace to be able to go out and ride laps as fast as I can without having to save something for later. This year's team had longtime teamates Bob Lamberson and Michael Ritter and new this year was Steve Stidham. Leading up to the event, we had been talking a lot of trash with some friends of ours on Grannys Rotten Teeth since they beat us last year (one of the two times I have finished off the podium at 12HOT). It got hot and heavy on ntmba.org's forum but it was all in fun. In light of what we had planned for them, we named our team Granny's Gettin Flossed. To make it more fun, me and Michael dressed in drag.

Rain the day before made the course a little tricky in places and although it's not what I'd call a technically demanding course, it does have things that you'd better pay attention to or you might get hurt - or go swimming!

Saturday morning, Bob and I did a lap of the course to warm-up and check things out. I confirmed in my mind that the gear I brought (32X17) was the right choice. Although there's a good bit of climbing on the course, there's more really fast stuff that a smaller gear would spin out too quickly. I might suffer on the climbs late in the race but it was a fair trade. After our lap, it was time to race. Our plan was simple: ride hard, fast and smooth and make no mistakes. After Bob left, I went to get my um,............kit on. It's true what they say, blondes do have more fun.I had all sorts of attention from people that I had never met. I rode around to warm-up and I must say I looked dead sexy.

Bob came in and I went out, his lap was in the low 40 minute range and I was expecting the same since we are pretty close in riding style. I had a little traffic to deal with but not too bad and I was having a pretty good ride. I came to a place called Rachel's Landing where a crowd had formed to view the carnage and to fish unlucky ones out of the lake (Rachel's Landing is a 20yd long, 10 inch wide section of trail that has a drop-off into the lake. It's easy to ride but if you are a little sloppy there, you will get wet - some people did) and as I came through, the woods erupted with laughter and cheers as the hot blonde with the huge ta-ta's made Rachel's Landing her bitch.

I did a low 40 minute lap and handed off to Michael who was doing his best impression of Allesandra Ambrosio and went to get some food. I discovered that I had an unfortunate wardrode malfunction and would have to retire my costume for the rest of the race. Darn! Michael did a good lap and so did Steve. We were in second and about 20 minutes away from first after the first rotation (4 laps). That doesn't sound bad but if the guys in first were each putting 5 minutes a lap into us, there's a problem. It was early though and we didn't think much about it. We just kept to our plan.The big battle with GRT didn't quite materialize. After all the trash talk, they got scared and entered another class rather than suffer a huge defeat to us in the singlespeed class. Fear is a powerful motivator.
We all continued to have mid 40 minute laps and none of the mechanical issues that plagued us last year. By the time it was getting dark and the mid-point of the race, we had 10 team laps, still second (now 2 laps down dammit!) and we had 2 laps on third so we were relatively comfortable. One thing we have learned though is to never, ever give up. We were two laps down on first but a bad lap for them could put us right back into contention so we kept on with our original plan. The dark brought coldness and after three hard laps with plenty of time in between to get cold and stiff, my legs were starting to feel like two pillars of poo. My gearing was working fine on the majority of the course but it was starting to make me suffer on the climbs. My lap times (all of our lap times for that matter) were still consistent though so I wasn't doing too much damage to myself. I only had to do one more lap anyway.

That lap was my slowest and it seemed like it took forever to get warmed up. When I did get warmed up, I rode like shit. Places where I was smooth earlier had me jammed up like a monkey um,............. nevermind. Let's just say my last lap wasn't my best effort. When I got back, Michael set out on our last lap and in doing so, we got one of our laps back from the 1st place guys (they still beat us though) and we had 4 laps on 3rd (I think) so we were going back to the podium. It was nice but it would have been nicer if we won. It was still fun though and even though GRT didn't race in our class, we still flossed them from across the way so there.

photo credit - Mike T

In This Corner...........

2008-10-21T20:54:00.004-04:00

From the land of the riding hillbilly with a combined weight of a little too much, the 4 man towers of power, the sultans of smack, the Ayatolla's of Rock and Rolla, the Saints of Singlespeedia, the Knights that say "On your knees, beyotch!" we are coming to Oak Ridge Tennessee this Saturday to unleash hell and fury at the 12 Hours Of The Hill Of Truth.
Last year, we fought the good fight yet we were slain, victims of our own misfortune. It seems that a group of old ladies (I use that term loosely) took such a liking to their podium spot that they plan to homestead on it again this year. The only problem for them is that we let our guard down once, not again. So before it even begins, I bid thee adieu Granny, though you may have tasted the sweet taste of victory last year,

this year Granny's gettin' flossed.

I Am Not Dying, It Just Feels Like It.

2008-10-12T21:10:00.004-04:00

I kept repeating that to myself and reminding myself that medicine, by it's nature, to do you any good has to taste really nasty or hurt like a $&%$@, several times over the opening two rounds of the 2008 Mud, Sweat and Gears Cyclocross Series this past weekend. New this year was me racing Singlespeed and also Masters 35+. The Singlespeed race is 30 minutes and the Masters is 45 minutes, both a lot shorter than the races I am used to doing but the races I normally do aren't done WFO the whole time either. Cross races just plain HURT!

I was on the line for my first Master's race and I looked around at all the pro1/2 and cx3 riders I saw plus the field in general was big. In fact all the fields were pretty big, a nice testament to the popularity that this series has earned in the few years it has been around. Low entry fees, great prizes and awards and stiff competition make this series one of the premier Cyclocross series in the Southeast. A win here means you did something. Once we were off, the butterflies were gone and I was at my redline from the beginning. As I expected, I faded within the first few laps and camped out somewhere at the back if the field. It was really painful but I did what I could.

I ended up 22nd.

By the time the Singlespeed race was ready to begin, I was questioning my motivation and wondering if I made the right decision to do two races. To make it more fun, they called a holeshot prime. The Singlespeed race is another class that the pros and other fast guys have found to be a good place to get podium spots and more track time. I guess that's fine with me, If I win a race, I want to know it's because I beat the fastest guys around not because none of the fast guys showed up. The start was brutal but I felt better on my mountain bike ( at the last minute, I borrowed a cross bike from a friend to use until my Vassago Fisticuff comes in. I could not have even dreamed of being competitive in Masters on a singlespeed). My mountain bike fit me and I have been through a lot with it this year. It's like an old friend.
The Dwayne Letterman designed course contained one sand pit (I love it!!) and the WTB Weirwolf on my Optimus just ate that up. The bucking and kicking I experienced earlier on the cross bike was replaced by buttery smooth ripping it. I felt good in the sand but suffered everywhere else. I ended up 10th.

Sunday's round 2 found me with poo filled sacks for legs. I could not get warmed up for the masters race and after the start, I wasted no time doing a solo break off the back. My only goals were to not get lapped and not finish last. I got lapped on the last lap - dammit but managed 21st which was not last. I just kept reminding myself that this was training and it had to hurt for me to get faster. About 40 minutes into the race, I was really tired and that led to a spectacular endo in the sand pit (on Sunday there were 3 sand pits. Evil but cool at the same time). It didn't hurt but it did piss me off. I was happy when the race was over.

The s/s race was the last one of the weekend and I had no motivation to ride. The temperature was now near 80 and it was miserable. My motivation returned when I heard "GO" and I got a great start. I stayed near the front for the first lap but then began a slow trip back through the field and settled in at 11th by the finish. I was tired but so was everyone else. I felt good about what I did.

All in all it was a great weekend of learning for me. I know how fast I need to ride and I have a pretty good idea on what I need to do to get there. I definitely feel like it did me some good. It will be interesting to me to see how I progress over the course of the series.

Thanks to David for the use of his crossbike, I'll clean it up before I bring it back.

Time To Hurt..

2008-10-10T12:35:00.002-04:00

The opening round(s) of the 2008 Mud, Sweat and Gears cyclocross series are this weekend and I just licked the stamp (not really, with the internet, does anyone lick stamps anymore??) on my registration for Masters 35+ and Singlespeed. Two races, two highly competitive classes (regularly attended by pro riders) and who in the hell do I think I am to believe that I can do it? Um......well I have big kajones and little sense, all that is needed. I have won already.
Joking aside, I know that I have just scooped out a double serving of pain and it is going to hurt but I am fine with that. To get faster or better at anything, the best medicine is doing whatever it is with someone that is better than you.
Like a farmer that plants the seeds in the fall and waits patiently while nature does it's thang, I am working on next summer's legs. So though I may suffer (let's face it, bike racing is a painful sport. It ALWAYS hurts, you just get faster), though I may suffer today, I will ride fast tomorrow.

2009 - Year of the Bike Racer

2008-10-04T21:58:00.002-04:00

2008 isn't even done yet and I am already thinking about 2009 and what events I want to do. I tend to recycle my schedule from year to year with minor changes but I kinda strayed away from that this year with several new events. Following the same theme for 2009, I have a rather ambitious list of road and off-road events in almost every cycling discipline except track (dammit I wish we had a track nearby). Only a handful of these are "A" races and the rest are for training and for fun, well they are all for fun.

Anyway, here's a rough draft of Duckman's 2009 racing calendar:

Knoxiecross - Jan/Feb (Cross)
Icycle - Feb (XC)
12 Hours of Santos - Feb 14 (12 Hour)
Assault/Carolinas - Mar 28 (RR)
Knobscorcher - Apr 5 (XC)
South Knoxville RR/TT - Apr (RR/TT)
Cohutta 65 - Apr (Enduro XC)
DSG - May 9 (12 Hour)
12 Tsali - May (12 Hour)
Burn 24 - May (24 Hour)
Tomato Head Omnium - May (RR/TT/Crit)
Settlers Life Omnium - June (RR/TT/Crit)
Cowbell - Jun 20 - (12 Hour)
Possum Creek- July (RR)
MTB Rally - July (XC)
Kingsport Crit - July (Crit)
ORAMM - July (Enduro XC)
Fools Gold - Aug (Enduro XC)
SM 100 - Aug (Enduro XC)
Iron Mountian Bike Race - Sept (XC)
Benge's Revenge - Sept (RR)
24 Hour Nats - Sept 19-20 (24 Hour)
Treeshaker - Oct (12 Hour)
12 Hot - Oct (12 Hour)
MSG - Oct/Dec (Cross)

That's a year full of racing that begins in January and goes through December. I have hopes that 2009 will be a big year for me as I have some big events that I want to do very well in such as the 12 Hours of Tsali and the 24 Hour Nationals in Arizona (my first time racing in the desert).

One big notable difference is the 7 road races I have on there. I kinda got the road bug again towards the end of this year (don't worry Misty, I have no plans whatsoever of turning roadie again) and since I renewed my USA Cycling License, I'd like to see if I can do well enough to upgrade to Cat 3 by the end of the year next year. Just for fun.

Guess I better get busy.

It's The End Of The World As We Know It.....

2008-10-01T16:17:00.003-04:00

And I feel damn skippy.

With all the people fighting over gas and the money markets going apeshit, you'd think the end was near (what do I know, maybe it is). Either way, there's not much I can do about it.

Fall has hit the dirty south and the temperatures have dropped quicker than a skirt on prom night which has put me into my pre-winter whine mode. I don't mind cold so much once I get used to it. The only problem is I don't get used to it until March. Riding in the cold sucks. Riding in the cold while wet sucks harder. Coming into spring with an ass as wide as a truck and legs that look like the Michelin Man sucks even harder still. Therefore I endure riding in the damn cold and dark.

All is not lost though, Mud, Sweat and Gears is starting next week and my plan is to race two classes this year - Masters and Singlespeed. Masters goes for 45 minutes, Singlespeed for 30 so that will give me an hour fifteen of WFO, on the edge of blowing chunks riding for six races. You just can't get that kind of training by yourself in the Winter plus Cross races are a whole lot of fun. I am looking forward to it.

I have been looking at 2009 and working on the races I will be doing, both the "official" ones that my sponsors can count on me to really throw down for and all the others that I will use for training and some just for fun. It looks like I'll have a healthy mix of XC, Endurance, 12 Hour, 24 Hour, Road Race, Crit and Cyclocross racing on the schedule and racing begins in February and goes through December 2009. I could race in January too if I wanted but I need a break sometime or the other. The highpoints on my schedule for next year (so far) will be the 12 Hours of Tsali, The Cowbell Challenge, ORAMM, the Burn 24, and the 24 Hour National Championships. There will be more obviously but off the top of my head, I want to do well at those for sure.

I am anxious to see what my sponsors have out new for 2009 and also the rumor is we are going to be picking up a few new ones that I am really excited about. More on that later. I am working on a post where I am going to talk about the cool stuff from Vassago, WTB, White Bros, Crank Bros, Carbo-Rocket and more that I got to thrash, trash and (try to) destroy this year. It's all good and I learned a lot about what these products can take. For now I'll just say that Timex hasn't cornered the market on taking a licking and keeping on ticking.

The Rainy Season

2008-09-26T21:15:00.002-04:00

I cherish my time that I get to train. I have a lot of demands on my time so the spots that are set aside for me to train are very important and I try to "honor" my committment to them. That means I sometimes get great days to ride my bike and other times, I get crap.

Today was a crap day.

I watched the Weather Channel to see if the rain was ever going to stop and as I drove home from work, I really dreaded riding and thought about maybe skipping it. Before I could talk myself out of it, I was on my bike and headed out of the neighborhood. I live in a new place now and the new neighbors still have a lot to learn about my strange obsessions. The old neighbors wouldn't think much about me riding down the street in the rain but a couple of looks I got from the new neighbors made me wonder if I was wearing shorts.

Ah, they'll learn in due time.

Riding in the rain isn't so bad. It's kind of liberating in a way. the hard part is that first blast of cold water up your formerly warm and dry asscrack. After that, It's really not that bad. Plus you get the satisfaction of knowing you are getting fitter while everyone else is sitting on the couch.
I am by no means perfect though. I'll probably have many moments of weakness as the weather gets more and more shitty and I am sure I'll bail or at least go to my indoor trainer to get my fitness fix but until then, I'll make the best of it.

I rode today until dark and although the rain wasn't too bad, it was steady the whole time. As I rode back into my neighborhood, one of my neighbors that I have known since I was a kid asked jokingly what the hell is wrong with me, are you on something? I pilfered an old Nike slogan I saw once and told him "I'm on my bike busting my ass!"

He just smiled and waved.

Benge's Revenge

2008-09-21T20:08:00.006-04:00

I traded in my fat knobby tires for skinny, slick ones and my singlespeed for multiple gears for Benges Revenge. This is one race where I wouldn't attempt it on a singlespeed (in a race, training, maybe, but racing NO!)

Just like last weekend's race, I had no expectations in yesterday's race beyond the basic pain and suffering that I would normally expect from a race like this.

75 miles with a mountain top finish that not just steep but #$&%%@^ steep! I will be the first to tell you that this is not my ideal type of race. For those of you that know me or have read my stuff for awhile know that I have a love/hate thing with climbing. Yet I still challenge myself with lotsa climbing heavy events just 'coz.

I hate myself is one possible reason I torture myself like I do (The new NTMBA jerseys look cool huh?)

After registration, (did I mention it was cold?) I tooled around and chatted with friends and took pictures with adorable young fans.

My biggest fan. Too bad his hoodie was too small for me, I would have taken it!

The first 10 miles or so were mostly down to flat and slightly rolling. In short, I froze my ass off until we got to a climb big enough to get the blood flowing. My plan and the day's goals were to stay with the leaders to the base of Powell Valley Mtn (60-something miles into the race and the start of the real fireworks) and to stay near the front to be in a good position to react to any critical breaks. I wanted to finish in the top 20 and in less than 4 hours. It was working fine until about 1:20 into the race and a short steep climb made the first selection of the day. I got dropped but was able to bridge back up to what was now the chase group as a few riders slipped off the front. I didn't worry though. I was in good company with last years winner and a few heavy hitters in the pack. I felt like I was in the right place to be. We were flying, our pace was over 20mph and the small rollers were getting bigger and causing me trouble. I got dropped four more times in the next 15 miles and chased back on 3 times. In the process, buring fuel like a Saturn V rocket.

Where I got dropped for good was a 5ish mile long stairstep climb that is really tough because a group can maintain a lot of speed but if you are alone, you hate life. I caught one person but he was no help then I caught up with David Smith, a good friend and sometimes riding buddy. We were able to help each other to the penultimate climb at Powell Valley mtn. Even though we both were hurting pretty bad, we still managed to keep our average speed above 20mph all the way to the climb.

I lost touch with David when I had to stop to pee and rode the climb alone until the very top when the guy I passed earlier caught back up to me. That didn't figure into my plan at the moment but I didn't feel like a game of cat and mouse at the moment either. Two miles of flat led us to the final climb to Flag Rock (that verticle line at the end of the course profile above). My companion started the climb ahead of me but he didn't look too strong (come to think of it, neither did I) I passed him after about 3/4 mile and saw David ahead. I wanted to catch him but I didn't have anything left in my legs. After thinking about it, I wouldn't have passed him if I could because he did more work than I did down in the valley and I appreciated it.

I was really hurting and really happy when I saw the Flag Rock sign. There was finally some relief in the way of just a bit of flat before the finish line. I happened to look back and there was the guy that I dropped twice already and he was making a run to nip me at the line. After 75 miles and all that climbing, I had to sprint! Damn it hurt but I put in a few hard digs and finished him off.

I finished in 17th OA, 11th in age group and in 4:13, thirteen minutes shy of my pre-race goal. I was happy with that although I would have liked to have done better.

Gives me something to work on for next year.

Fat Dogs Can't Climb

2008-09-15T14:29:00.003-04:00

I have two dogs at home, Lucky and Porter. Lucky is slim, young, part Golden Retriever and part something else. Porter is old, big, a little on the chunky side but not really fat. We're not really sure what he is, he's just big. When they play, Lucky runs circles around him and there's little that he can do other than watch her run away a hope to catch her when she's not paying attention. He never gives up though.
I know how he feels. That's how I race bikes. I am not really fat, I'm just big. I have a body better suited to Prize Fighting (can't do that, I hate getting punched) than cycling but that hasn't stopped me from trying for 20 years now. I do have a few pounds I could lose - what 42 year old male doesn't? As a bike racer, I can make a lot of power and if I lived somwhere flat, I'd put a big-ass gear on my bike and do pretty well. Living in the mountains and racing in the mountains presents a whole list of difficulty for me though - well for everyone, I know. To quote R.E.M - Everybody Hurts.
I love climbing but climbing hates me. It is my biggest weakness and in every race I can remember, the climbs are where I could have done better and if only.......... sigh. It's frustrating.

In the race Saturday, I did ok on the climbs but ultimately if I had climbed just a small percent better, It would have made a difference in where I placed. Short, power climbs aren't a problem, long gradual climbs aren't too bad either. It's the long (1/2 mile+) steep ones that get me. It's the thorn in my side.
With that in mind, I will be doing Benge's Revenge Saturday ( a direct conflict with Bridge to Bridge - another evil climbfest that I'd love to do again) and I will be doing this one on the only remaining bike I have that has multiple gears. No, doing Benge's on a singlespeed and trying to be competitive would be tantamount to taking a slingshot to a gun fight. It just won't fly. There's everything from long flat to rolling sections where cruising speeds will reach 30mph+ to the final climb up to the finish at Flag Rock where the average grade is 11% and it gets STEEEEPER!

Sure, I'm not gonna scare anyone off with my entry into the race but I'll give it my best and it can only help me be better.

There's Rocks In Them Thar Hills

2008-09-13T20:44:00.003-04:00

I had no expectations for the Iron Mountain Bike Race held today in Damascus Va, I basically went for fun and to train for the upcoming Cyclocross series. I had heard stories of how fun this race is and how well racers are treated vis a vis food and tasty adult beverage after the race I was happy to be able to go. Plus it got my mind off all the batshit wild lunacy that was going on in the world today. I met up with Bob, Anet,Ian and Wes Lamberson and soon it was time to go.

We (all 35ish of us)were shuttled out of town to the start a few miles up in the Mount Rogers National Forest at Beartree Campground. The stats of the course included 3 miles of FLAT pavement to start, 1ish mile singletrack climb to the Iron Mountain trail that rolls over and through some nasty rock gardens for 5 or so miles and then another 5 miles that includes a 1200 foot descent of Mock Holler.
We went off hard thanks in part to Bob's son Wes and 3 miles of basically flat on a singlespeed really is tough. I tucked in behind Bob and we did our best attempt at a paceline until the dirt came. I was sooo happy when we hit the Lum Trail and some climbing. I didn't know who might be right behind us, I knew there was about 6 in front of us so I just tried to set a really hard pace to hopefully make it a race with just us and nobody else. The short answer is it worked, only one person caught me - Casey, (one of the locals and a co-promoter of the race) more on that later. Right now, I was really hurting but happy that we had a nice gap and I could try to recover some. The trail was really rocky and several people got nailed with flats. I passed at least two with flats and was feeling pretty good. I dinged my rear rim and was losing air but it never went totally flat. Did I mention it was rocky? It is every bit as tough as anything I have ridden in Pisgah and a long race up there would hurt.
But this wasn't a long race. About 2/3 of the way through, I thought I was all alone and suddenly Casey blew by me on a rocky descent like I was going backwards. It was a long time before I saw him again (only because he flatted) and shortly after I passed him, I began to have my own problems with my rear tire going down. I began to weigh the options - Stop and add air and maybe lose a place or two, ride it out and risk getting a full-on flat and lose lots of places. I rode on but eventually stopped to add air just before Mock Holler (Mock Holler is notoriously rocky).
As soon as I stopped, I got passed. GRRRRR!

I got back on and headed down Mock and tried to baby it (which is stupid, kinda like trying to spoon feed a shark). I did my best and felt my rim bottom out a few times but I popped out of the woods and finished with no more issues.
After changing and cleaning up, we had, prepared for us, a great BBQ lunch and some really good beer.
I ended up 8th OA and 2nd in age group, had loads of fun, and got my entry fee back in BBQ and beer consumed.
Bob ended up 5th OA and 1st in age group, Wes was 2nd OA and 1st in age group, Anet got 1st in her age group too. Monotanous huh?

I can't wait until next year. This one will be on my schedule for sure.

Bloody Fingers and Wahoo Serious

2008-09-08T08:57:00.002-04:00

The weekend did not begin like I had hoped, in fact, it was chaos. I had to work Saturday morning and in the afternoon do a bunch of stuff around the house (we are STILL not fully unpacked yet!) and by the time came to ride a little, I just could not get my head into it. Y'all ever have days like that? So in passing, I picked up my guitar, flicked on my amp and just started doodling. I played chords, ran through some scales three or four dozen times and started just doing something, I dunno what, just playing riffs and making noise - some of which sounded pretty good. I played and played and eventually picked out some music - For Those About To Rock by AC/DC, and gave that a stab. I have found that no matter how simple something looks on paper or sounds, it doesn't necessarily mean it will be easy to play.
I sat there and played until my fingers were numb and one of 'em was bleeding. How cool is that? Trust me, I will be on the cover of Rolling Stone, just give me 10 or 20 more years to practice.

Sunday my head was clear enough that I got on the bike for some old fashioned speedwork. I have found that I don't do real well with highly structured workouts so I have come up with a variation on that and my workouts are more intuitive. I begin the day with and idea of how much I need to suffer and then I fill that time with stuff like sprints to road signs or timed intervals with a twist (for the twisted). Like yesterday there's one road called Buttermilk Rd. Buttermilk Rd is a stairstep climb from beginning to end and it's almost 2 miles long. The interval was the entire road, the twist was I could not let my speed drop below 12 mph. If it did, I had to loop back around and do it again no matter what speed plus I had to go home via Wahoo Valley Rd (Wahoo Valley has a really steep climb out of it and it hurts). If I was successful, I got to go home via the much nicer Dunlap Rd. Sounds simple but you come out and ride it and you'll see that it's not as easy as it sounds.
I made it though it got pretty close on one of the steeper steps and after a few more hilltop sprints and short intervals, I cruised the last 45 minutes on home. Cross is coming and it really hurts in a much different way than the endurance stuff. I hope I will be ready.

Transitions

2008-09-06T10:55:00.003-04:00

For the second year, September has become a transition month for me. The long races that I love are over and Cyclocross is still a few weeks away. In a way, it's good because it gives me time to transition my training from long rides to shorter and much more intense rides. I also toss in some trail running (I hate running but it's better to do some of it in training if you are gonna do Cross). I am torn because there are a few long races that I'd like to do still but I can't do them all.
The days are getting shorter and the temps (at night) are cooling off which also means winter is coming and that's always tough. I have a couple of training pals that I can count on to ride all winter and generally after the time changes, all my weekday rides are in the dark until it changes back. We usually ride all the way down into the teens (Ok all you Canadians can go ahead and laugh) and sometimes it's reeeeally tough to honor the commitment to ride. But we do. I hate cold too but I'll suck it up and just do it.
In the past few days, I have started to pick apart my season and see where I did stuff wrong, where I did stuff right and what can I do to make next year better. I tend to push myself a little harder each year than I did the year before and that will continue for next year as well. I am putting together my 2009 schedule and the races I will be doing aren't going to change a whole lot from this year with maybe one or two exceptions but I am going to expect more from myself in the way of results. I will work that out and make a plan. I generally start training for the next year on Dec 1.

Not much on the plate this weekend. I am doing some trailwork tomorrow and somewhere I have to fit in a 15 minute trail run and two 45 minute rides each with 3 five minute super-threshold (means I'm about to puke) intervals with 1 minute of rest in between.

Peace y'all

Iron Mountain Bike Race

2008-09-02T22:33:00.002-04:00

The Iron Mountain Bike Race is a grassroots race held in and around Damascus Virginia on Sept 13. Damascus is known for the Virginia Creeper Trail and famous for southern hospitality but what isn't as well known is the awesome singletrack that exists beyond the Creeper Trail in the Mount Rogers National Forest.

The race begins at 1:00 with a shuttle ride from downtown Damascus to the start. From there, I'll let what the promoters say about it take over:

The path the 3rd annual Iron Mountain Bike Course will take is just one way: FAST. Starting with a 3 mile uphill road ride to a 1 mile single track grunt true athletes will shine. The next five miles is the quintessential cross country semi-technical ride on the Iron Mountain Trail. The final five miles drops over 1200 vertical feet, giving the downhill enthusiast a chance to catch up. This course has over 2,000 feet of elevation gain and over 3,000 feet of elevation loss. The three distinct sections of this course will combine to make it one of the most exciting races around! Starting line shuttle will be provided as part of the entrance fee.

There's food and fun at the end.

Wake Me Up When September Ends

2008-09-02T13:18:00.003-04:00

Yeah, I was listening to Green Day this morning........

I put the first 100 miles on Frankenbike this weekend, the majority of which came on Monday and a 3.5 hour ride in the mountains between TN and NC. There were two really nice climbs over Spivey Gap - 6 miles on the Tennessee side and 7 on the North Carolina side and a remarkable amount (considering we live in the mountains) of flat stuff in between. So far I have been happy with the way the bike has worked. There has been some learning with the ENO hub and the carbon frame. The bolts that hold the wheel on also maintain the tension in the chain once you get that set. Since they have to be really tight and the frame is carbon, I err'd on the side of caution and had to fiddle with them some until I found the right combo. The 48X18 gearing works good and is a decent balance between flatland utility and climbing prowess. Spivey Gap is probably one of the easiest climbs for the length in our area and I was able to maintain 10-15mph right at my threshold (of blowing up). Any steeper and I would have had to slow down and really push but since this bike is for training and the object of training is getting stronger, it's perfect.
Perhaps the hardest part of the day was beginning the climb with a full 10 minutes to warm-up. It was kinda painful and that was made worse by me and buddy Rob playing cat and mouse once we neared the top. Coming down the mountain was fun and kinda hairy in a couple of spots as we were still screwing with each other and (Rob weighs roughly as much as my left leg so he can climb like a monkey on crack but just hasn't got enough ballast on the descents) I was looking for a place to pass him. I picked the inside on a decreasing radius corner (only problem was I didn't know it was a decreasing radius corner) and I got pinched off (my fault) and almost shit myself. I don't even think Rob knew how close I was.

Disaster was avoided though and all was good. It was a great day.

Daisy Hill Puppy Farm Cycling Team

2008-08-29T09:34:00.003-04:00

After yesterday's post about the silly season of cycling, I was inspired to daydream (not that it takes much to get me to do that). I thought about how cool it would be to hit the Powerball numbers and get 3oo million dollars.

I'd buy a Pro Tour team and call it the Daisy Hill Puppy Farm Cycling Team.

The cycling world thinks Michael Ball is eccentric, HA! they haven't seen Duckman with money yet.

We'd have a fancy tour bus just like theirs.

Except ours would have a different "feel" to them....

With similarly matching team cars and our riders would have only one objective, win or lose they must and I mean must get in EVERY single break that goes up the road. I want that team car in every shot, every video and every living room in Europe and abroad.

We'd be sassy,

And have undeniable and highly marketable sex appeal.....................

Then after everything was in place, I'd sit back with a tub of popcorn and watch all the fun.

The Silly Season

2008-08-28T10:39:00.002-04:00

This is the time of year when men of stature meet behind closed doors amid cigar smoke and the heavy smell of scotch whiskey to decide the future of hapless cycling teams around the world. In a swift wisk of a pen a riders future can be made or broken.
In the news today, Cervelo is done with CSC, Scott is done with Beef, and Gerolsteiner is just done period. Rabobank's gonna ride Giant's, who know's where that leaves Columbia and the beat goes on.
I am happy to announce that I have extended with Vassago Cycles for 2009 and to quote Timbuk 3, "The future's so bright I gotta wear shades". I am looking forward to riding the best bikes made, as far as I am concerned, again next year and am looking forward to what 2009 has to offer.

My 2009 schedule is being finalized and some new sponsors may come on board. I plan to take my racing to a whole 'nother level and in short some exciting things are brewing.

Many, many thanks to Vassago Cycles, WTB, White Bros, Ergon, Crank Bros, Carbo-Rocket and Under Armour.

You guys rock!

It lives

2008-08-26T20:43:00.005-04:00

The idea of frankenbike came to me like many of my wild ideas - I was bored. I started thinking about building a tricked out singlespeed road bike, something totally on the other end of the scale from the mutt bike that had become my weapon of choice for tarmac. The idea gained some momentum when a friend of mine, Mark Prince, offered me a very slightly used Cannondale Synapse frame, fork, headset, crank and seatpost for a really good deal. All I needed to finish the job was a set of wheels. Everything else I pretty much pulled out of my parts bin.

I found a cool old set of Mavic hubs that included a radial specific front hub that I didn't know I had. I couldn't use the rear since that duty was to be handled by a White Industries ENO Eccentric hub but I could sure use the front. I picked up some rims, spokes a rear hub and commenced to building.

Everything went together great although I did have some trouble with controlling spoke wind-up on the front wheel. This was the first radial wheel I have built so it took a little longer with that than normal. Since the remnants of Tropical Storm Faye are blowing through tonight, I couldn't take it out for a ride but here's some pics of the finished product.

Cannondale makes a cool looking carbon crank. Gearing is 48X18

The ENO hub is what makes it all possible.

The cockpit.

Something old, something new...... This hub is nice. The skewer is going to be replaced with a black one soon.

WTB seats have become my favorite. I have one on almost every bike I own.

It's between the 13 and the 14 and that's WITH pedals, cages and a duck!

I can't wait to ride it.

Pain is just a click away.

2008-08-21T16:30:00.002-04:00

I get emails from bike related events all over and sometimes I just gotta look the other way otherwise I'd be wearing my ass out every weekend somewhere. This one is one that I really like. It's called Benge's Revenge and it's a 75 mile road race in Norton Virginia. The first 65 miles are a piece of cake but it's the last 10, specifically the last 5 or so that really hurt. That's where the route turns ugly and heads up to Flag Rock on a road that has an average grade of 11% and some spots hit 20%. It's tough.

Last year I dnf'd this one due to a mechanical. I think I may have to give it another try.

Stuff.... Just Stuff.

2008-08-19T21:45:00.004-04:00

Not much going on here since returning from Fool's Gold. There's always a bit of a letdown upon returning from a race, at least for me. Racing is my refuge, my escape. Coming back down is, eh, a bummer sometimes.

Also, I work 2 miles from Bristol Motor Speedway and this week, the population of Bristol Tennessee will grow by about 125,000 by the end of the week. I know they'll spend a gazillion dollars while they are here. Doesn't make it any less of a PITA for the rest if us.

In addition to being a great race and event, Fool's Gold was also the first road trip for the Toy Box. I left Friday after work armed with TomTom, XM, 80gb of stuff on my Ipod, my bike and gear and a few copies of Guitar World, all inside my car with room to spare.

Once I hit the mountains in North Carolina and North Georgia the Element's true spirit came out. This car is part Rally Car and part Cargo Van. I'd go deep into corners, downshift, stab the throttle and repeat. All the while giggling like a school girl.

Even pesky road blocking 18-wheelers were no match and got passed with ease once the road was clear. Oh and I got 26mpg down and back. That's not bad for a 4wd car with the aerodynamics of a cinder block.

I love this car.

All the parts are here for Frankenbike and I know the question on everyone's mind is WTF is a Frankenbike?

Frankenbike is the unholy union of the state-of-the-art and dysfunctional anarchy. It is the creation of a mind that's not quite right. While it's not ready for the world just yet, I have a few teaser pics for now.

Enjoy.

The Devil Went Down To Georgia - Again!

2008-08-17T20:30:00.005-04:00

I loaded up the Toy Box Friday and headed for Dahlonega Georgia and the 2008 Fool's Gold 50/100. It was also run in conjunction with the Nimblewill Festival and a NUE Series race as well. There was a lot going on. For me, it was supposed to be more of a training ride than a race since my fitness was a little off from my time off the bike in July and early August. I did suffer my way through ORAMM but other than that, my longest ride in about 8 weeks was less than 2 hours. Misty and Kris from Vassago were going to be there to give away a sweet new Vassago Optimus Ti frame to one lucky amigo and my plan was to ride the 50 mile event and then hang out with them for the rest of the day since we don't get a lot of contact other than emails or text messages. Plus I had never met Kris yet so I was looking forward to that too.
First thing on the agenda was getting there and finding my room for the night. I ended up in a bunkhouse with some of the guys from Addictive Cycles and after brief introductions and some getting stuff ready for the race, it was bedtime.
Saturday morning and a few cups of 53x11 coffee and I was um...... still sleepy. Luckily after a few words from Eddie O, I had a nice 4 mile climb to Cooper's Gap to wake me up. Not being sure if I packed my legs or not and not really wanting to get caught up in the KOM race at the top of CG, I lined up in mid pack. 100 or so riders funneled into 8 feet is always fun and I just kept cool and started picking off people on the climb. For the first 3 miles it's not so bad but then it kicks up at the top and I began to hurt. By then I could see the front of the pack and I just tried to maintain that spot but my legs were screaming bloody hell. I wanted to push and just then I heard Bruce Dickman shouting encouragement - I knew that meant the top wasn't far and relief. Over the top I cruised a bit and chatted with a couple of other s/s guys but I wasn't feeling great at all. The dust on the FS roads was choking me and messing up my contacts and by the time we hit the first section of singletrack, I was staring at the back wall of my pain cave. Looking at my computer, I realized I had at least 4 more hours to go. Yay me.
The singletrack was nice and flowing and it ended up serving to help me out a bit. I started feeling better and catching a few people here and there. At the first Check, I filled one bottle, grabbed 4 fig bars and was out in less than a minute, leaving at least one singlespeed behind. over the next 10 miles, I went from feeling good to feeling great. It didn't make sense but I wasn't going to argue with it. At the second Check a lady calls out my number and says 4th singlespeed.
"Excuse me?"
"What did you just say?"
She informs me I am the 4th singlespeed that has passed there. I made sure she didn't mean the 4th singlespeed after the other 10 had already went through and grabbed some more figs and went on. Ah hell, now I had a race to ride. I just assumed I was sucking and it turned out I wasn't doing too bad. Every time I passed someone I looked for gears until I came to one guy on a singlespeed. I just kinda rode behind him for a bit to see how he was riding and then ended up passing him. I am not sure if he was a 50 miler or a 100 miler but I assumed that I was now in third. I tried to keep on what I was doing before and that was just maintaining a steady pace, not wasting a lot of time or energy and not crashing. Every time I passed someone with drivetrain problems, I was happy I had no shifters or derailleurs to mess up.
Somewhere after the third Check, I got a cramp and stopped to massage it out and before I could get started again, 3 singlespeeds passed me. Dammit! I rode after them and ended up getting back by all of them (two had flats, I'll take it) and all was well again. Well for a short time anyway.
My day began to unravel in the last 10 miles of the race when cramps began to overtake me. I cramped so hard and so violently that my legs frequently locked up completely. Shit it hurt! I looked down and my quads quivered and looked as if there was some alien crawling around under my skin. It was freaky. I'd ride, cramp, slow down and massage, ride, cramp, stop, rub, ride and repeated this process a dozen times over the next 10 miles or so. The final blow came in the last two miles of the race when I cramped really hard again and six guys on singlespeeds passed me before the end of the race. Oh I was pissed!
I don't know what happened. It wasn't that hot and I did the same thing with the same drinks, amounts, e.t.c that I have done all year and it has worked. Why now did I have this trouble?

I don't look too happy but I was actually ecstatic because I was done but a little pissed because of the cramps that held me back.

I ended up 10th in 5:31.

I ate, took a shower and fired off a phone call to home and by then Misty and Kris were there bearing gifts in the form of some excellent Highlands Brewing Co bounty that they most graciously shared with me. We sat around and they sold a few more raffle tickets for the Optimus. I got to meet George from Bike 29 and we basically had a big time as the rest of the 50 milers and 100 mile racers finished. It was good to see Misty again and to finally meet Kris and talk bikes and cars (he has an orange Element too!) Jeremiah Bishop won the 100 mile race in 7:39 - an impressive time on this course. Later he wandered by the Vassago table and was looking at the frame. I congratulated him on his race and asked how he did it. He said "It's all I do", "I eat, sleep, train and race"

Sounds easy huh?

As the day wound down, we all said goodbyes, I ate again and headed home to sleep in my own bed as opposed to another night in a bunkhouse ( no offense to my roomates but my bed is more comfortable).

It was a great race, I didn't plan to do well and I ended up doing better that I expected. I rode well and had great legs all day until the cramps came. My Vassago worked perfectly. No mechanicals, No flats, No crashes. It was a great day.

Picture pilfered from Natalie. Thanks!

Ouch! I Broke My Nipple!

2008-08-14T11:04:00.002-04:00

Another one that is.

No, not THAT nipple, a spoke nipple. For the precise reason I will not build wheels with aluminum nipples, I am plagued with broken nipples. They just do not hold up over time and aren't worth the extra cost and savings in weight. I ended up with them on the wheelset I have because I bought them already built. I could have rebuilt them immediately with more dependable brassies but I am lazy. So now I rebuild one nipple at a time as needed.

I want to ride today plus I need to pack up the Toy Box for it's first road trip. What to do. Well one thing I don't need is to ride much or very hard so the plan is to hop on the road bike for an hour or so, load the Toy Box and pack the rest of my stuff for FG. It should be a fun weekend.

Parts are trickling in for Frankenbike. Stay tuned for details...............

I Am So Not Ready For This

2008-08-13T13:15:00.002-04:00

After last night's ride at Steele Creek, it is confirmed. My fitness is ass right now. I felt fine on the numerous climbs, some really steep, that are scattered about at Steele Creek but I could tell before the ride was done, my endurance has taken a hit from my absence on the bike. This weekend is gonna hurt but in Duckman fashion, I say damn the suffering and pedal on good people!

I have decided however to skip the last big race on my schedule - the SM100, in favor of an early start on Cyclocross season which kicks off Oct 11. I will spend September just riding locally, hooking up on some of the roadie rides that I always miss because I am racing and building my ability to ride WFO for 45 minutes. Cyclocross is at opposite ends of the pain spectrum from endurance racing. Endurance racing is all about a low level of suffering that lasts all day (and sometimes all night). Cross on the other hand is all about massive quantities of snot pouring, slobbering, choking, on the edge of puking wide f'n open efforts that seem to last all day long. You are on the rivet from the beginning to the end and there's no place to run or hide.

In short, it's a total blast!

The Best Laid Plans

2008-08-12T16:16:00.002-04:00

Or is that layed? Laid? Laid! That's my final answer.

At the beginning of the year I had a plan, went sumpthin like this:

Build fitness base from Dec 1 thru Mar 1. Continue with base work but add intensity gradually leading up to the first race - the Cohutta 100.

I planned to peak for Tsali and ride that wave through the Burn and Mohican with rest before ORAMM. I wanted to do well for Tsali (I did) and for ORAMM ( I sucked).

Ah the devil is in the details. At the beginning of the year, nobody told me I'd spend most of July off my bike, working my ass off in our house that instead of selling in a month or three like was projected, sold in 17 days. Nobody told me I'd be taking the rest of July and part of August packing, moving, stacking, unpacking........I feel like WALL-E.

All I do is pick up stuff from one pile and move it to another pile and then onto another pile. In short, I am nowhere near where I thought I'd be at this point in the season.

Fool's Gold is this weekend and I am doing the 50 mile race instead of the 100. Oh he's just doing 50 miles, piece of cake you might say. Well in some cases you'd be right but at the Fool's Gold 50 miles is hell, 100 miles is hell squared. I will enjoy it however, lack of fitness be damned, and I will also enjoy the post race festival that will be going on all weekend with large quantities of adult beverage and some good eats too. After the 50, I will be helping where I can in the Vassago tent. Vassago will be there with bikes to demo and goodies for the masses. The 100 mile race will be something to see with Jeff Schalk (3 time winner in the NUE series already), Chris Eatough, Jermiah Bishop and others all trying to get the $1000 that the winner gets. Having ridden this course already, I know what it's like. It will be interesting to see what kind of times are turned in.

After the FG what next? Well, it's hard to say. I was scheduled for the SM100 but now I am not so sure. It is only 2 weeks after FG and that's not much time to prepare. I have already DNF'd one hundie and suffered through another this year and I really wanted to finish one with more than just survival. I don't know what I am going to do yet.

Cyclocross is just around the corner and Vassago is working on something special for me (well not just me, y'all can have one too) that reminds me of something dark, creamy and delish.

We'll see how it comes out.

Oh Yeah.

2008-08-09T19:46:00.003-04:00

I just spend 3 hours at the Honda dealer and came away happy and with my dream car. I am soooo pumped!

Stress.

2008-08-06T09:38:00.002-04:00

We live with it in some form every single day. For the last month I have had the additional stress load of selling a house and moving (and life goes on in the meantime). The contract process on the house consisted of offer, counter-offer, counter-counter offer and the dammit this is it counter-counter-counter offer. Then came the home inspection, the bug inspection and the appraisal. Any of which could have stalled the process in it's tracks if something went awry. Now, with closing on Friday and 99.5% of the stuff that used to occupy our former residence now residing somewhere else, we get hit with a list of stuff the buyer wants before we close. They didn't do the inspection until late last week and now we only have (had) two days to do all this shit. It's stressing me out. For an entire month I have been doing something until all hours of the night and sometimes early morning to get this thing sold and us moved. I have shit in boxes that like Christmas gifts, may not be opened until Dec 25. It may be that long until I get to them.
My realtor has been great. She has really made this thing work with her hard work. Whatever she gets paid is definitely hard earned.

Fool's Gold is in two weeks and I have been trying to get ready for the August Georgia heat. I rode for 3.5 hours Sunday in the mountains on my road bike. It was in the 90's and a good training ride for heat aclimatization. I am riding where and when I can for now. I wouldn't call it regular but it's pretty consistent. This weekend will be another long one, maybe off-road. I won't really know until I am there.

Frankenbike parts are arriving daily. Stay tuned for details on Frankenbike......

5580? Really??!

2008-08-01T08:36:00.002-04:00

I was moving my bike yesterday, getting it closer to the water hose so I can clean it eventually. It still has the number on it from ORAMM and water bottles with just a little Heed in the bottom of each one. I'll get them out and clean them before they start growing a Chia Pet. I just happened to touch my computer that I mounted this year to help me pace myself, especially in the hundies where it's easy to not have any idea how far you have ridden or how far you have to go. Anyway, I punched the buttons and saw the Odometer.

It read 5580. Huh? That can't be right. I thought about it and remembered that I mounted it in December, just about the time I started training for this year. I recalled some of the rides and races and did some basic math and realized it probably was right. I had no idea I have ridden my mountain bike that much this year. I never keep track of miles, only time. That combined with my road miles and I must have somewhere around 8000 miles so far. On one hand that's great but on the other hand I wonder why in hell do I choke in the big races. Let's look at the track record so far this year:

Cohutta 100 - DNF after suffering for 82 miles. Granted I was sick, had a fever and shoulda never started this race so really I can't count that as choking.

Tsali - I did fine for the first 8 hours but really suffered in the last 4 and my performance really fell off. I did finish on the podium so technically it wasn't a choke but I suffered like a dog to get there.

Mohican 100 - It was muddy and I am sure that took alot out of me but I was on the friggin bike for almost 13 hours to finish a hundred miles. CHOKE!

ORAMM - After riding the first 40 miles in good time, I cracked and lost loads of time over the next 20. I had symptoms of heat exaustion and had to really slow down or pay the consequences. I almost quit but I'm to damn stubborn.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not down on myself too bad. I am just trying to analyze my racing program and adjust my training where needed to get more out of it. I am relatively new to solo efforts in endurance racing (this is my second full year of doing mostly solo races. I have raced 12 and 24's on teams for 8 years) and I am limited in training time by significant family and work requirements. With 5500 off-road miles plus all the road miles I have so far this year though, I should be doing better than I am though. I would think so anyway.

Ah hell. I'm having fun and that's really what it's all about anyway.

Tuesday Morning Retrospective

2008-07-29T08:20:00.003-04:00

The fog has lifted somewhat and it's time for some arm-chair quarter backing of my performance or lack thereof, from ORAMM. I am not to down on myself so don't get me wrong. Going into the race, I knew I was ill prepared and ORAMM is a place where you better take your "A" game because anything else is going to get rammed right back in your face. ORAMM is famous for it's nasty and long climbs but less talked about are the descents. The backside of Kitsuma and Heartbreak Ridge are both really long and really rough and demand that you pay attention at all times or it's going to be very bad for you. Since I choose to do my bidding on a rigid singlespeed, I am automatically at a disadvantage on some stuff like long, rough descents and long flat road sections but at and advantage on climbs and in nasty stuff like mud. If I shoot myself in the foot with bike choice why not ride a gearie? I can't answer that beyond I don't want to, there's no challenge in it for me. I don't know. It would take many hours of therapy to extract the true reasons why I punish myself the way I do.

At ORAMM, it was hot from the start so I began drinking immediately. I emptied both bottles between aid stations and it just wasn't enough. Maybe I should have taken a third or less desirable - used a camelback. I heard stories of some of the aids being out of water. I never experienced that, I guess I was far enough up in the field that it wasn't an issue for me but it will need to be addressed by the promoter before next year. I have done several of Todd's races and he always does a good job. I am guessing the increasing popularity of this race along with the heat from this specific day just overwhelmed the supply. By the time I got to Curtis Creek Rd and up to the steeper parts, I began to cramp and was forced to walk it off every time I did. My gearing choice was 32X19 which is a stiff gear but I still stand by that choice. I did have problems, mainly on CCR, but they were a combination of lack of riding in the month prior to the race and being dehydrated. Any other time, I could have handled the gear fine and my pre-race goal of climbing CCR in an hour could have been met.

After crossing the BRP, it was pretty much elementary. I was dehydrated and there was no way that I'd be able to recover before the finish. Eventhough most of the climbing is done after CCR, you still have a good bit of climbing left. The climb back to the BRP, Mill Creek Rd, and Kitsuma again, just those three climbs alone would make a hard day's ride.
On Kitsuma, I began to feel the symptoms of heat exhaustion: clammy, goose bumpy skin, dizzyness, nausea. I have been there before and I knew not to push it anymore. It took me about 2 hours to do the last 10 miles. Other than being better prepared, training a little more during the month prior to the race and taking more fluids, I don't know what I could have done any different.

My finishing time of 9:11 in and of itself is a disappointment to me (my goal was under 8:00) but under the circumstances, I am satisfied I did what I could this time.
I finished, I didn't crash and I didn't have any mechanicals and there were a lot there that couldn't say that at the end.

So Adieu Mt Mitchell, I'll be back next year and I'm whipping your ass!

Ouch! (ORAMM 2008)

2008-07-28T08:44:00.003-04:00

Do not underestimate the extreme difficulty and danger of this event. The course is extremely demanding and travels over rugged terrain with extreme elevation changes.

Those words have not, in the three years I have done this race, proved to be anything other than genuine. Mile for mile, this is one of the toughest races you can do. My build-up for ORAMM 08 included: 12 Hours of Tsali, The Burn 24, Mohican 100, and the Cowbell Challenge. The wrench in the whole thing was the decision in late June to sell our house and move closer to my mom and dad to help them out. That found me off my bike with exception of 5 or 6 rides of less than 2 hours from the Cowbell to ORAMM. Still, I found myself sitting on the start line in Old Fort Sunday with 350+ like-minded people waiting for Minister of Pain, Todd Branham, to give us the word.

We were off and I was off the back immediately. It's hard to keep up with geared bikes on flat roads and I have learned to not even try. My time would come soon and it did as soon as the road angled up on Old 70 where I passed about 100 people. I rode with Vassago Teamate Chris Davis for awhile and by the time we hit the second climb of the day - Kitsuma, I felt remarkably well and was in the top third of the field, give or take 50 or so. Already though, it was getting hot and that would become a major factor later. After climbing and descending Kitsuma, I hit Aid #1 for bottle fills. My goal was to empty both bottles between checks and to spend less than a minute at them filling up. So far, so good. Out of Aid #1 and on to the third climb of the day, up the 1000 mile grassy road to hell and Star Gap. This year, the 1kGRTH wasn't that bad and I passed more people. I was riding within myself and thought, like the idiot that I am, that maybe that month off the bike didn't hurt me. Just then, I felt a cramp beginning to form in my left hamstring. Oops. What have I done.

At Aid #2 I filled again, chatted with Stephen for a moment and was out in under a minute. My computer told me I was doing good but the heat was starting to bother me. It was the beginning of the end and I was starting the ascent of Curtis Creek Rd. If we were in France, Curtis Creek Rd would have some elegant sounding name like Col de' Sonofabitch or Le Alpe'De Mother F****r. It is a beast that takes you 9.5 miles up to the Blue Ridge Parkway and close to the race namesake - Mount Mitchell. I stuck with the plan to ride within myself but unfortunately on CCR, that's damn near impossible. By now the heat was killing me and I eventually had to walk some to alleviate the cramps. It was funny though, not many people were passing me and I looked back once to see why, everybody was walking. Good thing I wasn't the only one dying. I didn't have my Ipod (it has become priceless for endurance races) since the battery didn't charge up for some reason so I had to make do with whatever mental bones I could find for my mind to chew on. I was singing to myself, talking to butterflies, and eventually got around to thinking about what in the hell made me think I could do this race and this is what I came up with:

12% Lack of good decision making skills
10% Arrogance
14% Lack of intelligence
2% Balls
4% Guts
15% Stubbornness
43% High tolerance of pain

I reached the top of CCR 1:50 after I started and I filled both bottles, shotgunned a soda and slammed a couple of Advil and was gone. My elapsed time so far was 4:50 and I only had 25 miles or so to go and it was conceivable that I could still do pretty well since most of the climbing was behind me now.

Um.... It didn't quite work that way. Across the Parkway was a gradual climb after a fairly long descent and my legs felt like two tree stumps. I made it back to the Parkway and cramped really bad on the mile of BRP to Heartbreak Ridge. Down Heartbreak, I cramped more from the static position of descending for 30 minutes and my forearms hadn't hurt that much since the TV debut of Charlies Angels when I was a teenager.... Um... Nevermind. I was getting in a bad place and when I hit the penultimate climb on Mill Creek road, I was almost done. There was very little shade (I was weaving from one side of the road to the other to ride in what little shade there was. From the tire tracks, I saw that I wasn't the only one doing that) and I was feeling bad and riding slow.

Topping out I had about a mile of pavement and then Kitsuma #2 and I was done. Unfortunately, I was done physically before then. At the base of Kitsuma, I had nothing in my legs at all. I had to walk all of it. I was a sad sack for sure. There was a Church group hiking up Kitsuma and although they were encouraging and all that, I needed to be alone and they were walking faster than I could go. I got on my bike and managed to find one more burst to get away from them and I thought I was gonna die. I began to see chrome gnats and get dizzy so I'd stop and lay down in the trail until I heard voices and I'd get up and go. I was finding it hard to be happy about anything so I began to think about things that I am happy about like a great wife and adorable kid, a good family and good friends. I knew that I was not only in a bad place, I was in a dangerous place and I did what I had to do to make sure I would make it off the mountain and be able to ride again another day.

Bonking, dizzy and shaky, I was real careful on the descent but am happy to say I rode all of it (for those that know Kitsuma know that that's doing pretty good when you feel like crap) and I was so happy to see the road that led back to town that I almost cried with joy. The final descent on the road made my tires sing as I hit 40mph in full TT tuck. I crossed the line in 9 hours and 11 minutes and immediately headed to the creek and layed down in it for about 15 minutes. It felt goooood!

If I counted the scoreboard right, I got 24th in singlespeed. I'll take it.

I feel like I dodged a bullet yesterday. It wasn't the worst day I have had on a bike and not the best day either but it was tough. No crashes (except for falling over in a switchback once) and no mechanicals, I had plenty to celebrate.

Next year, I will train.

EDIT: Damn! Rich killed it. Nice job buddy.

Traffic Hazards

2008-07-25T10:22:00.002-04:00

So Thursday is the night I ride with the roadies and being that I now work in a different city from the ride, it takes me 45 minutes to get there and that leaves me 15 minutes to get ready to ride. I just changed bars on my bike and a new stem (old one was too narrow and too short) so I wanted to make sure my adjustment was right before the ride started. In short, I was in a hurry.

I grabbed for my clothes so I could change on the way. Jersey, Check. Shorts, shorts, SHORTS! No shorts! $^^$^#$^^$#!
I really wanted to ride. I weighed my options and whipped into The Bike Shop along the way and got the only pair of size L bibs they had and my buddy Jumbo had me back out quicker than you can get a Happy Meal.

Driving on to the ride, I got to the crucial point in changing where I am completely naked from the waist down and almost hit the car in front of me when he stopped short at a red light. Not a good time for a crash.

Possible excuses for the officer investigating the crash:
A bee got in my pants.
I dropped my roach.
I thought I was on fire (inspired by Ricky Bobby)
Thank God you are here, I got almost got car jacked by a weirdo that only took my pants and I was chasing him.

Thankfully there was no crash, an awkward moment was avoided and I made it to the ride on time (I did have to adjust my bars after the ride started but I didn't have a problem getting back to the group).

I guess I can't say anything about people driving and doing other things at the same time.

Buffalo Cursed?

2008-07-24T13:13:00.002-04:00

Maybe it's just me but it seems like every other time I ride at Buffalo Mtn, some weird and/or potentially life threatening event happens. A broken hand, multiple contusions and one meat puppet that bled forever, a busted rim, car broken into and stuff stolen are all things that have happened to me there within the last three years. Last week I got gang-banged by a angry throng of yellow jackets and last night, I was JRA and destroyed a tire (ok it was more than just riding along, I was just riding along into a jagged rock garden on semi-slicks that had no business in jagged rocks). I knew that I messed up when I felt that ball-peen hammer against metal like solid feeling and my tire went immediately flat with Stan's shit all over the outside. On top of that, my unwritten policy of riding without anything to bail my sorry ass out of a pinch, stuff like a tube, a pump, a magic 8 ball.... It was only a matter of time before it bit me.
Bob and Wes didn't know I had a problem for a few minutes so I walked along (oh yeah, I was about as far away from where I parked as possible and I only had about an hour of daylight left and five miles to reach my truck) contemplating my near future. Bob and Wes came back and we began to pump my tire while air leaked all over the place. I pumped awhile, Bob pumped awhile and after alot of pumping and swishing the remaining sealant around in my tire, it sealed! Yay!
I rode off the mountain being careful to not hit anything hard since I had no time to waste with darkness approaching somewhat quickly.

Maybe the next time I ride at Buffalo I will kill a couple of goats and pour their blood all over the trailhead. Maybe that will work.

Only 56 more hours until ORAMM 2008.

Is It Too Late To Train For ORAMM?

2008-07-23T14:21:00.001-04:00

See all those bumps? They hurt!!

That's the question that is on my mind and of course it's a rhetorical one because the answer is HELL YES it is to late to train for ORAMM. The race is this Sunday and for the last month, I have been moving, cleaning, moving, and selling our house. It is amazing how much crap you find in corners of closets and on top shelves when you move. Consequently, I have ridden much less than I had hoped to and my fitness is what it is right now and I'm going to just go with it and hope for the best.
Maybe I'll pack a tea set and have a tea party on Curtis Creek Rd while everyone rides by suffering a slow and painful death with each pedal stroke.

Nah, I think I'll take the day and just ride my bike paying no attention to the number plate on the front of it and just enjoy the freedom I have to be able to hop on my bicycle and ride all day long. I may even take my camera and take some pics.

Some numbers: ORAMM is 64 miles (give or take a mile) long and has around 11,000 feet of climbing. It is a mix of county roads, FS roads, double track and singletrack. It's not the most terrible thing you can do nor is it the easiest (it may be somewhat easier if I used gears but where's the fun in that? Easy is overrated). I expect to be on my bike for about 8 hours. My weapon of choice is a 2008 Vassago Optimus Ti 29 inch mountain bike with gearing of 32X19.

It will be good to ride again since I haven't done anything really that hard since me and Chris did the Cowbell a month ago. I didn't quit riding but moving and selling our house took a huge toll on my training. ORAMM is the only race I had planned in July (except for the Funfest races that I missed) so I guess the timing was good.

Since the race isn't until Sunday, I think I'll wait one more day to start training. I don't want to overtrain you know.

Miracles Happen

2008-07-17T08:12:00.000-04:00

On March 25th of this year, my mom entered the hospital with all the signs of having had a mild stroke. On March 29th, she fell while in the hospital and developed a subdural hematoma that began to grow over the following week. On April 1st, after being in emergency surgery for 10 hours to ease pressure on her brain, we were told that they could not get her to stop bleeding and that she probably would not live. Twice more during the next three months, we were faced with seemingly insurmountable odds about her survival.

She came home Saturday.

It turns out she got a bacterial infection while she was in the hospital that was resistant to antibiotics and that caused a lot of the trouble. We may never know what sent her there in the first place. With all that happened, the water got really muddy. They tell us that they don't think she had a stroke after all. Who knows.

At any rate, she's back for how ever long and even though she's not 100% yet, she's doing pretty good for now.

I missed all the races I planned for the weekend due to her coming home and we have a solid offer on our house. We had to meet with the Realtor regarding that a couple of times. All that and moving, living in two places, trying to sell a house, finding my damn socks (I have 14 single socks with no matches, how the hell does that happen?), strange places, weird noises, job stress and no bike riding in several days has left me closer to going Postal than not but I'll make it.

I am writing July off pretty much. ORAMM is in two weeks and I will be using it for training for Fool's Gold and the SM100, both in August.

It's all good.

Funfest Races

2008-07-11T11:31:00.002-04:00

This weekend in conjunction with Kingsport's Funfest there is three cycling events: The Tour De Possum Creek, The Kingsport Crit and the Funfest Mountain Bike Rally. The TDPC is a 40ish mile road race (in the past it was billed as a fun ride that turned into a full on race. Now they finally made it official and are paying out cash). It rolls through some really scenic and really hilly parts of Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. To bad I gotta work. I'm going to miss this one.

The Kingsport Crit is on Sunday in downtown Kingsport and I plan to be there ready to dole out some punishment. I don't want to say to much so as not to give away anything to my competition that may read this between now and then, let's just say I have something special planned. 'Nuff said.

Monday is for the Mountain Bike Rally at Bays Mountain in Kingsport. This is an all gravel road course that has some nasty climbing and usually ends up being a free-for-all for the top spots. Definitely a disadvantageous course for singlespeeds but I am not letting that bother me. I will take my happy 32X17 running ass down there and give it a go. Last year I got 4th in age group and I think 9th or 10 overall. This year I want to win and I'm crazy enough to think and believe I can!

We'll see how it goes.

Ouch @%#^#*&!!!

2008-07-09T21:20:00.004-04:00

Those words along with a streak of colorful expletives came gushing from my mouth tonight shortly after being nailed 7 times by Yellow Jackets while riding off-road at Buffalo Mtn with The Great White Goat, Scooby and Mike B. We were descending from the top of the mountain and I cam around the corner and the first one nailed me in the top of the head. I went a few yards and stopped to take my helmet off and the little bastards shang-haied me.
Lucky I am not terribly allergic to them or it might have been bad. Where we were is pretty in accessible except by bike, hike, horse or ATV. I warned my buddies and we kept riding. I got bad chills and felt really crummy but other than that, I am fine.

I hate Yellow Jackets.

UPDATE: I woke up this morning and one eye was swollen shut. How bout that.

Did I mention I hate Yellow Jackets?

8 Years of Home Maintenance in 8 Days

2008-07-08T16:41:00.004-04:00

We have been working on our house to get it in selling shape and for the last 8 days, we have done pretty much nothing except move stuff, clean, sort, haul stuff to the dump (11 trips - no shit), haul stuff to Goodwill, fix a leaky water pressure regulator, pressure wash house, deck and driveway, fix nail holes in walls and paint, paint outside of house and garage doors, mow, trim, cut up and haul off brush from where lightning struck a tree in our yard, box, pack and move stuff we are taking with us. We scrubbed that mother from top to bottom and inside out.

All in all it has been a pretty damn stressful and exhausting time. In typical Duckman fashion, I jumped and then looked where I was going. If we had spread the work out over several weeks, it wouldn't have been so overwhelming but it is what it is.

Now I just hope somebody buys it soon so I can get back to my regularly scheduled life.

New paint.

Um... some stuff went to the dump so there wasn't any reason not to throw it off the deck.

Cleaned, painted and landscaped.

The garage is the staging area for all our stuff. It all is going to one of three places: with us, to the dump or to Goodwill.

Nathan's artistic rendering of me painting the door.

Deck washed and ready for stain.

Back door sanded, masked and ready for paint.