25 Dec, 2006

Merry Christmas 

Spent time with my daughter this morning opening presents and such, and then I have chilled out the rest of the day. I had intended to tear down my bikes and treat the tubes with this stuff I have to prevent rust and such, but I never got to it.  I drank some beer and read magazines and now I am on the internet updating this here site.

I went to see an apartment tonight that is for rent in East Nashville.  I like it alot and need to decide on it by the morning if I want to secure it for myself.  So, we'll see...

Before

So here's the quick rundown of the vacation so far.

Friday - I relaxed in the morning, rode the trainer for 90 minutes in the afternoon (a new record for me), and went out for some beers in the evening.  Thad and I met the boys from the team at the taproom.  I got my new wool.  We had a couple beers and then headed over to the Flying Saucer for a couple more beers before heading back to the homestead.

Saturday - Hennessey met me at the mannonmansion about 11:30 for a ride.  We are not sure the total distance, but we rode about 4.5 hours and are guessing to have ridden somwhere between 65 and 70 miles.  We found a cool road off of Leiper's creek road that spit us out at the top of the hill on 7 at Fly.  This road, Old Natchez, parallelled the Natchea Trace, except that it kept crossing over and under the Trace and at one point narrowed to a single lane road.  That night, I chilled at the house and built up Emma's big gifts from Santa (a kitchen set).

Sunday - Thad and I headed to Sewanee early to meet up with Chris Ivory (now of Remax/Yazoo fame, but retaining his team Normal status) and a friend of his (JR) to ride the Perimeter trail.  We rode about 16 miles with Chris and JR before they had to jet.  Thad and I had a beer and then headed out for another 1.5 hours or so of mountain biking before packing up to head home.  That night, we headed over to Hennessey's house on the eastside.  They graciously made dinner for us and a few other people who were just hanging out on Christmas Eve.  That was a good time.  Following that, I played Santa by delivering gifts to Emma's house after she was in bed.  Then I headed home and went to sleep, with dreams of sugarplums dancing in my head....

20 Dec, 2006

5pm

One more day of work before a nice long break.  Woohoo! 

Walz Caps (and other stuff)

Last night I rode with my new walz cap with the ear flaps and the Yazoo embroidery (the one that Hennessey gave me - such a sweetheart).  I think I like the fit of this cap better than the other one.  The ear flaps are great and keep my ears warm.  They seem to work for temperatures above about 40.  Below that and a more substantial and sealing wind cover would probably be necessary.  But that is riding a bike, so I would bet that for non-riding applications, the ear flaps would work out for a  bit colder temps.

In other product news from last night, my front wheel on Nepolean is sort of a piece of crap (all things being equal).  Last night I was getting a serious case of wheel rub when torquing up the hills.  While climbing, I could see my wheel flexing back and forth to the point of rubbing my brakes.  And anyone who has ridden my bike knows I don't set my brakes excessively close to the rim.  (I tend to set my brakes up very loose)  So someday I will be in the market for a new set of wheels... but I guess I already knew that.

1.5 Weeks

One and a half weeks is how long it had been since I had been on a decent bike ride.  I had been running once. I rode around the driveway with Emma some, but a week and a half is a bit long to "rest"; especially when I have goals.

I am not fond of riding alone at night.  It is not just the safety issue, but after a while of being in places I don't recognize, demons start entering my head and I start thinking of all the things that could be out there.  Ever see "The Blair Witch Project"?  Mainly I just don't want to get hurt and no one find me until the next day.

Last night I decided I was tired of waiting for it to be convenient or even safe to do a ride; a week and a half was enough.  So I took off from the house and rode about 36-37 miles.  I did this in about 2.5 hours, giving me a overall average speed of around 14.5 mph.  That's not bad considering I was on my mountain bike, I was alone, and I beat down some monster hills.  Which hills you ask... Let's see...  2 big hills on N. Berry Chapel Rd (one much tougher than the other), a big hill up to the Trace on Parker Branch Rd, the monster climbing on Waddell hollow up around to 96, and then finally the climb up Manley over the hill back home.  Of course much of the ride also contained some good rollers.  Overall, it was a night of climbing to fit those into a 36 mile ride.

And the demons did come.  In 2 forms.  The first was at the top of Parker Branch Rd when looking for an easy way to get down to the trace.  There is a side road I followed down to try to jump across onto the Natchez Trace, but never could get there.  Why is there a fence?  Not having been down there before, I was alittle freaked out in the dark.  So I had to go back to the bridge and make my way down to the Trace underneath it on the smoooth, clean cement, trying to keep from slipping on the cleats on my shoes.  I was then freaked out again when riding down the Trace a little ways by a skunk crouching just off the road that I didnt see until I had just passed it by about 2 feet.... close call.  The other demon that almost got me was the one that suggested I cut my ride a little short by taking the shortest possible way home from Old Hillsboro instead of my planned route down Old Natchez.  I was feeling tired from working all day, the ride, and not having eaten or brought enough food for the ride.  What ultimately kept me on course was thoughts of TransIowa.  Those demons will be all over me to throw in the towel and give up when I get super tired after 16 hours of racing... so the best way to overcome those demons then is to beat them down now.  And take no prisoners.

 

17 Dec, 2006

Had a great weekend with Emma.  She seemed to have a good time, too.  We experimented with taking the training wheels off of her bike, but I don't think she is quite ready for that.  She is really good at meneuvering that thing, though.  Training wheels get to a point where they hurt kids developing a sense of balance.  They rely on the extra wheels too much, and it also gets them leaning the wrong way through turns and such.  Hoping to have Emma on two wheels by mid-summer.

Tonight, after dropping Emma off at her mom's house, I came home and went running.  Maybe because I haven't done anything since Sunday a week ago, but I felt really good running.  To this point, my body woud complain through most of my runs, but this time I got into a groove and made some good time and felt strong.  Hope that means I am turning a corner from non-runner back into runner.

Got back from running and shaved my moustache that has been growing since July or so.  It has become too much of a nuisance.  I have been using moustache wax for quite a while now, but it was still too much of a pain to eat and such.  I have super-thick hair growth in the moustache region, so it got to be too much.  I also managed to shave my head for the winter.  I don't like to shave it in the thick of the cold, so shaving now will give it a little time to grow back before the cold of January and February.

In other news, all registrants to TransIowa 3 were granted admission into the race.  So there was no lottery and the Remax/Yazoo boys are headed to Iowa for 320 miles of suffering.  Sweet.

4 days to the holiday.....

15 Dec, 2006

A quick update......  Emma is with me this weekend.  It's been almost 2 weeks, so I am looking forward to spending time with her.  Looks like a beautifully warm weekend, so there should be opportunity for some quality bike riding time with my little girl.

Glad Thad's new bike, Johnny Cash - the bike in black, came in so he will have something to ride in the coming weeks.  Too bad about JT, but there is still a chance that Litespeed will fix him. 

One week until the holiday from work.  Should be alot of time for riding and spending time with friends and family.  And alot of quality time away from work.

Looks like Deathmarch 2 may get pushed until after the middle of January.  With the snake creek ride and the Columbia cyclocross races, that shouldn't be a big deal... I just need to keep with the weekday rides. 

 

11 Dec, 2006

“Like dogs, bicycles are social catalysts that attract a superior category of people .”

        -Chip Brown "A Bike and a Prayer"

         (courtesy of a New Belgium email)

 

Deathmarch 1

Yesterday, Thad and I successfully finished deathmarch 1.  There was only one casualty.

This deathmarch ended up being 90 miles in length.  Starting from the farm, we rode our mountain bikes south to the Chicasaw mountain bike trails, rode the trails, and then made our way back home.  On the trip down, we wound through back roads, at times thinking we were a little lost, eventually landing on course.  A highlight of the trip down was a 3-4 mile stretch on Haywood Hollow Rd, which was a very wide, graded gravel road.  And it certainly wasn't flat.  This was probably the closest taste we have had locally to what the TransIowa course will be like.  (The exception may be the gravel roads at the farm where Thad lives...)  The trip down was about 32 miles.  When we got to Chicasaw, we rested for a few minutes and ate some food.  Then we rolled out and did half a lap until Eli arrived.  Eli was bringing us some extra water and planned to ride the trails with us.  We rolled about 2.5 laps on the trails with Eli before preparing for the trip back.  The trail ride was great, and we felt decent, but didn't have much quickness after the cyclocross race the day before.  When we were preparing to leave, it was getting dark, so we knew we were going to be riding back in the cold and dark.  We mounted out lights, put our additional layers back on, and headed out.  This time we rolled up Rt. 7 to Fly where we would take the Leiper's creek road that would take us all the way back to the  farm.  It was a little longer, but nice knowing the roads more.. especially at night.  The other thing was that we faced a head wind pretty much the whole time heading south to the trails, but the wind was mostly still on the way home.  I guess that's better than another headwind.  We climbed a couple of monstrous hills on 7, and had a couple of long gradual, cold downhills.  Before we knew it, we were in Fly ready to make our turn.  This came as a surprise to me because Thad had kept talking about the "7 or 8" big hills we would have to climb, and we had only ascended 2 that I could remember.  So I was stoked to be making that turn and to know where we were and how much further we had.  I think it was about 22 miles remaining.  From this point we proceeded to hammer most of the way back to the farm.  When we got back, we turned in early to finish up on the gravel roads and ended up doing a victory lap around the big barn in order to get that last tenth of a mile to get to 90 on the day.

The idea of the deathmarch "series" is preparation for the Trans Iowa race in April.  That will be exceptionally long and difficult.  So the deathmarch series will be a series of progressively more difficult rides that will test us both physically and mentally.  The idea being that if we finish these rides and still want to do the TransIowa, then we are getting that much closer to being ready.

Regarding how I felt during yesterdays slogfest, I have to say it was fun and only once did I start to feel depleted.  That was on the way back when I went too long without any substantial sustenance.  We stopped for 4-5 minutes and i ate half a powerbar (yuck) and then felt great for the rest of the ride.  When were approaching the farm, we both commented on feeling good and how we could keep going if it was necessary.  That is a good way to end, especially when the TransIowa will be more than three times the distance and about three times the ride-time.  So we were tired, but who wouldn't be.  On the other hand, it didn't totally kill us at all.  I guess the next deathmarch will need to be longer and harder.

I mentioned a casualty.  That was Thad's bike frame.  The bottom weld between the head tube and the downtube has a crack along the downtube.  A sad thing because Thad will now need to spend some money getting it fixed and will therefore not be able to ride that frame for a while.  Thad was pretty pissed/disappointed.  Kind of a raw deal.  At least it hasn't failed and he was able to ride home.  Most likely the injury was sustained last week during a mountain bike ride when he endo'd over a rock.  Still not fun to find it yesterday...

TransIowa 3, here we come.

9 Dec, 2006

Nashville CX 4

So this morning was another early one for the Nashville cyclocross series.  After a later night last night than planned at the Yazoo taproom (supporting our team sponsor), Thad, Hilary and I got back to the house around 10:30 to fix some spaghetti for dinner.  We ate a ton and then I went to bed around midnight or so.  Up before 5, Thad was going to meet me and I had planned to make Migas for breakfast for us... when i woke up, I was still stuffed from the night before.  When I spoke to Thad, he was as well... so we skipped the Migas and headed up to the race venue with coffee in hand....

Got to the Cedar Hill Park north of Nashville about 6:20am and it was cold...  The ground was frozen making the insertion of wooden stakes into the ground almost impossible.  Even with a hammer, the stakes would tend to break instead of burrowing into the ground.  Luckily, Dan had most of the course already staked.  We ran the "caution" tape to mark the course and did a few other tasks to prepare the course for a few races.  Then we had almost 2 hours to chill out and prepare for our race...  Hennessey showed up to help in the morning and then race with us, and then Justin and Sharp rolled in to round out the a 5-man showing for the Remax Yazoo rollers.  Jamie also showed to record the goings ons in photographic form.  (Jamie is on an injury-inspired hiatus from racing until 2007 - almost there Jamie.)  So at race time, our class had 8 people - and 5 of the 8 were Yazooligans.

By the time the race started, the ground had mostly thawed, making for a soft grassy/muddy race surface.  I would say there are very few riders who didn't have some sort of spill today.  Personally, i fell twice.  The first time was when going over the artificial barriers on the first lap.  I approached the first barrier too aggressively (meaning without using my brakes to slow down) and proceeded to trip over my own feet when i could not handle the transition to running at that speed.  I flew over the first barrier and landed on my side with gunnar landing on me.  I was quick to get up and my bike susained no real injuries, so I was able to get going again.  This crash messed me up in two ways.  First, I lost several places pretty much at once and second, the crash caused me such an adrenaline rush, that it took me about one lap to settle back down and get in a groove again.  But in the long run, I don't think it affected my results any.  My time may have been a tad faster, but I think I still would have finished in the same position in the field.  My other crash was one many people experienced in the same place as I lost traction and my front wheel slid out from under me on one of the off-camber curves.  So I came in 7th out of 8 (in a decently strong field, might I add).  My goal for this race, like the last, was to be able to finish the race without being lapped.  I easily suceeded in this endeavor, so I call the day a success.

After the race, the beer started flowing (luckily the cop on duty was positioned  at the other end of the park).  We made a great showing for our primary sponsor Yazoo Beer and shared the beer they provided us.  We are a team that is first and foremost about having a good time.  We like to ride and race our bikes, but we are also amateurs.  We do not get paid for this, so if it isn't fun and mostly light-hearted, then it isn't worth participating.  One from our growing list of team mattos is "we don't plan on winning, but we might".  And with our stellar list of riders we call teammates (friends), winning is always a good possibility.  During this time, we also did a little bit of passing out of the new team socks and other such things.  This included a personal swag bag from Dan the man (and Anna) as a gift of appreciation for helping out during the series.  Very awesome.  Included a pair of knickers for riding, some energy foodstuffs, and a can of frame-saver.. something I have always needed considering my affinity for steel bike frames.  Thanks Dan and Anna.

After a couple of beers and some food and watching the Pro/1/2  race, we all (team) pitched in to help Dan the man (note: also on team), tear down and cleanup after the races.  These days are long, but thay are a great time and I always look forward to them.  I wouldn't do it differently.  I do hope that next year Dan organizes these races again and I am able to help again to the same level.

Tio Troy

My brother sent me the following in an email today.  Thought it was great.... (Aviva is my niece)

Tio means "uncle." I showed Aviva a couple of your photos from your
blog, etc., online yesterday. Today she put together this Mr. Papa-Head
and said, "Look! It's Tio Troy!" 

8 Dec, 2006  

I manned up and went running last night in the 20 degree cold.  My moustache and beard were quick to freeze using the moisture from my breathing. It was a chilly night.  

I have been getting better at preparing for the cold.  I am getting better at knowing what to wear to be warm but not overheat.  Also last night I experimented with running with music.  I use my phone which has a built in mp3 player, though it does tend to mess up about a quarter of the time.  I also think it only worked because I was wearing a hat over my ears, which helped to keep the ear buds in place.  It was nice to have some music to listen to as it helped me keep going and keep my mind occupied.  The phone is a little bulky, though.  It would definitely be a good investment in my running to pick up one of those ipod shuffles... I will also limit the music I put on it to upbeat stuff that is good for exercise.  I had to fast-forward past a few too many songs last night.....

I ran about 5.5 miles last night.  Not too far, but it is definitely getting easier than it was a week or two ago when I started back to it.

I started running again because there was an event I wanted to prepare for.  It is the Black Mountain Marathon.  Essentially it is a marathon halfway up Mt Mitchell and then back to the start.  I found this morning that registration is full and closed for that race... without my submission.  I still want to do a race.  So I think I will re-focus to the Black Warrior 50k down in Alabama.  It is longer race, but a closer drive and still pretty much entirely off-road.  On the race site, they suggest a certain quantity of training, which I don't have time for.  But since my training is somewhat haphazzard anyway.. I think I may just sign up, do what I want to prepare, and hope for the best.

Nashville CX 4 tomorrow.  So a long day.  But definitely looking forward to it.  Then a long mountain bike ride including both road and trails with Thad on Sunday....  should be a good weekend.

7 Dec, 2006

So yesterday I managed to get a new light for night-time biking  purposes.  It worked great.  After finally getting out of the workplace, I fought traffic to make it home, ate some food and changed, and hopped on Nepolean to meet Thad.  AFter riding about 2 miles, I realized I didn't have my helmet on.  So 10 minutes later, I was once again leaving the mannonmansion, but this time with my helmet on.

Yesterday was my first ride on Nepolean since he got a new fork.  Granted it was not an offroad ride, but the fork was sweet nonetheless.  Somewhat because of the lightweightness of it, but primarily because it locks out, which is perfect for riding on the road... especially for climbing.  That bike just begs to be ridden at speed.  I am definitely pleased with the ride now.  Thad and I rode about 3 hours, covering about 50 miles.  Not bad for riding mountain bikes.  We averaged somewhere between 14-15 mph... again, not bad for mountain bikes... and that includes a couple nice climbs...

So now, the dilemma.  I guess I have plenty of time to make the decision, but right now it is a toss-up between Nepolean and Gunnar as to who will accompany me to Iowa in April.  Gunnar has the potential to carry higher speeds, but Nepolean is more comfortable on gravel roads.  I think that will become very important after the first 100 miles or so.  On Gunnar, I have to pay much closer attention to handling and the road surface, but 12 hours in, will I really want to give it that kind of attention?  On the other hand, Nepolean just sucks that stuff up.. and  if I am able to maintain a good clip, like 12-14 mph, on Nepolean, then that may be the way to go....  I am going to have to do some training tests between the two to figure this one out....

In other news, it is snowing here in Brentwood today.  I don't expect it to amount to much, but still pretty cool to get that first snowfall of the year.  I am hoping for a cold, snowiy winter...

6 Dec, 2006

I didn't ride last night (or run). I was busy working on this here site.  I have also been plagued by thoughts of not being safe due to my lack of light on the road.  I have a nice turbocat setup, but who wants to think ahead the night before to charge up and such (even through I need to be using it every night).  So I finally ponied up and purchased a decently bright cateye light that takes standard AA batteries.  No more excuses.

So anyway.. reading blogs of different endurance guys is interesting and inspiring.  They tend to have their own point of view about riding and all that... and they all really enjoy what they do.  Very nice.   Seems that the average age of the endurance population tends to be mid to late 30s.  I am right on target to be entering into that world....

For the last week, my liver has had a little bit of a break (not by design).  I am wanting to get out and have a couple drinks, as much to be around some people as much as wanting to enjoy that sudsy beverage.  Hopefully tomorrow the trip to the taproom will work out.  May have to roll it myself if I am left to it, but I doubt that will be necessary....

5 Dec, 2006 

 I have decided to change my layout.  I had stuff spread out over too many pages and was losing some focus... and stuff tends to get out of date.  Trying to centralize things here, with the occasional "special" page.  (Like the one about my trip to London. Or the one about my bikes.)

Enjoy! 

 

4 Dec, 2006 

 Well, the weekend found a little activity.  Saturday a 30 mile ride.  Sunday a 5.5 mile run.  Granted, not exactly training for a bike race, but good for fitness nonetheless.  And I am lucky to have gotten out at all.  I tend to write off my weekends with Emma, but it certainly isn't a tough choice to make.  

With a cyclocross coming up this weekend, putting in some saddle time this week is important.  I would like to successfully finish the last race of the series without being lapped again.  We'll see.

Tonight, Thad and I put in a ride.  A little shorter than intended, but a good start at getting out in the cold night for a ride.  It was in the 20s but not really windy.  It was a beautiful night with close to a full moon.  We climbed a couple of good hills and otherwise just spun around.  My guess is that we rode maybe about 20 miles, but since neither Thad nor myself are riding with computers right now, it is difficult to know for sure.  I felt good.  I enjoy riding in the cold air.

1 Dec, 2006

I feel the need to comment on my superb training regimen right now and my very conducive training diet.  I have not been on my bike since the trip down the trace almost 2 weeks ago.  This weekend does not look promising for getting to ride.  We'll see.  I may squeeze a road ride in on Saturday

I am slightly ill, though I think I am at a point now where I need to push that issue into recovery.  My diet has consisted of liquid meat (bologna and hotdogs) the last couple of days, but I have been popping natural vitamin supplements.  And I had a smoothie last night to boost my immune system.  Anyway, need to get working on my diet to provide better fuel sources.

So there are 15 more days of open registration.  Considering there have never been more than 50 or so competitors, I seriously doubt 100 different people will register.  So I feel that 1 postcard will be sufficient.  I sent the other 2 for insurance.  And today I am sending a 4th because I found another postcard and figured I might as well make good use of it. 

 

29 Nov, 2006 

I went to London over Thanksgiving.  You can check out my write-up from my trip here.

One of the biggest things I took from my trip to London (and back) was a perspective about the US.  I had thought some of this stuff before, but seeing another place helped me gain a better perspective than I had previously held.  None of this is ground-breaking, but just some rambling thoughts...

The US economy (and therefore the greater society) are being destroyed by the US economy (the the greater society).  This economy is not the only aspect wreaking havoc on our future, and I am certainly not an economist (I slept through both micro- and macro-economics in college), but we are killing ourselves and the future of our kids.

An example:  Walmart.  They force their suppliers to lower quality in order to lower prices.  Then they sell tons of cheap stuff to us.  The stuff breaks and we buy more cheap stuff.  So it lowers our quality of life, weakens our dollar, and stresses manufacturers who want to stay relavant to the masses.  It supports foreign sweat shops and sends work out of the country.  And then, on top of that, they pay their employees poorly and depend on tax payers to provide health benefits to their poverty-line workforce.  But it's not just Walmart's fault.  It is ours for shopping there.  We buy crappy flat-screen tv's from walmart because we can afford them now instead of saving another couple months to get a good one from another, higher-quality retailer (who in actuality is probably guilty of the same things as Wallyworld, but to a lesser degree).  We see bargains at these places and jump for it instead of considering what our bargains are doing to other people in other places (and to use right here).

Another example:  Gasoline.  This is a huge issue, and everyone has their opinions.  But this is a huge quandary.  Whereas the Walmart thing could be helped by people making small changes to their spending habits, the gasoline situation is one we are more dependent on.  Out insfrastructure is dependent on having cheap gas to get us places.  We have suburbs and people burn many gallons of gas just getting to work each day.  What if gas prices were quadrupled?  With the way we are living month-to-month and everything is so tight, would we be able to afford to even go to work?  I know I would be on my bike for sure.  I say it is a quandary because we have structured our lives and communities around the inexpensive availability of fuel.  So what happens when that fuel is gone?  This sounds like a doomsday scenario, and I don't believe it is, but at the same time, this is just one element.  We will be in a pickle when all of this hits at one time.  Limited (and therefore expensive) gas supplies, a HUGE national debt, a depressed economy, a non-functioning infrastructure......  we will be in a world of hurt.

London is an interesting place.  It has been around for a long time.  It sees value in building its infrastucture for public transportation without cars.  Instead of owning a personal automobile being a "human right" as it is considered in America, it is a privilage that the lucky few must sacrifice for.  There are not so many huge big-box stores (like Walmart), and so the value of the Pound stays stronger.  Instead of pretending that there is tons of money to go around, there is a more realistic approach to how they live.  Granted, there are many influences from America coming in and it can be said that they are slow to adopting more of the modern ways of living and such, but do they really want to go there?

I am not saying London is perfect, and I don't really want to live there either, but there are definitely some aspects of life and the culture that we could have done well to not have lost over here. 

A team yazoo party... a team yazoo tour

A crazy weekend of riding alot, and drinking alot, and riding somemore, and sitting close to a fire, and riding alot more.

Friday night was the inaugural Brewer's Cup.  Last year we had an alleycat from which this was spawned.  Sposored by team re-max/Yazoo brewery, the brewer's cup is a race/party that brings riders of all types into Nashville to celebrate and ride.  This first year of the Brewer's Cup saw 29 paying riders finding their way around East Nashville with beer in their tummy's to keep them warm.  Justin and Jamie did another stellar job this year of organizing the race which consisted of 5 stunts to earn 5 playing cards at 5 different locations, starting and finishing at the Radio Cafe on the eastside.

With 10 minutes to start, Jamie handed out the maps for the course so racers could plan out their strategies to hit all five stops and make it back first.  Thad and I made a plan with Jake to hit the stops in the order of 1,3,2,4,5 and then high-tail it back.  Dan Hennessey also joined us, but unfortunately, we weren't so clear at communicating to him the planned order of stops.  But anyway... we headed to Sharp's house first, got our cards(king of hearts) after posing for an obscene picture and pushed on to some closed down convenient store...  got my second card (jack of hearts) after drinking my cup of beer through a straw while standing on my hands upsidedown (sort of).  This is where our lack of communication hurt Thad and I.  We followed Hennessey out of there and he started down the hill on Shelby... something didn't seem right, and I had lost my map, so I asked Thad where the next stop was located... 14th and Shelby... we just passes 8th and Shelby and were heading towards 7th.... Crap..  we yell at Dan, but he wasn't turning.. so Thad and I slug back up the hill and over to 14th where we did a quick stunt of a couple little loops before getting out cards (10 of hearts - royal flush draw?) and heading back down Shelby..... Down towards the pedestrian bridge is where I got split from the others.  Thad followed Jake one way and I missed it because of the curb between us and I didn't want to lose speed...  so by the time I got around the next corner, they were past me heading towards the bridge, but then I noticed some people down near the bottom of the stairs up to the bridge... So I rode that way to see if that was the stop, and I was correct... I got my card (7 of clubs - there goes my flush and straight chances), carried my bike up the flight of stairs and passed Thad and Jake who were coming back down because they had missed the stop...  I made my way over the bridge, flew down around the block onto Broadway and hit the lights right across to riverfront park.. I rode down what I could and then ran the rest of the way down to find Dan (the man Werle) and Anna telling me to sing a song and skip over to a cone and run around it 5 times.. got my card (3 of hearts - one away from that flush) and took off... my best decision of the night was to head up to the next bridge, the woodland street bridge, instead of cruising back up the pedestrian bridge... the woodland bridge would spit me out on woodland street, which would take me straight back to the finish at radio cafe.  This push, though direct, seemed to take forever.  I thought for sure I would see a pile of bikes outside the cafe as soon as I got back....  but to my surprise, there wasn't one...  I ran in, dragging my bike and yelled out 16 (my race number)....  half the people were confused, having arrived after the race had begun, but the bartender Jeff knew exactly what I was there for.... he bought me a cold PBR since the Yazoo Dos Perros had since floated...For the first time in many years... I had won a bike race.  (And I got a huge trophy to take home to show for it, too.)

 

I woke up Saturday morning with a little bit of a hangover.  Water, gatorade, and finally a couple advil took away that pain and after a huge migas burrito for Hennessey and myself, we made out way to the far and were on the road by about 11am... only an hour after the original hoped-for time.  I was loaded with a rack, my sleeping bag, thermarest, and a stuff sack with my food and clothes. Ivan (the beer man) and Thad had bob trailers, and Hennessey was riding his SS road bike with a rack and panniers, and a tent on top.  Thad was also riding a SS, but he was also on 26" wheels.... God bless him.  From the beginning, we could tell it would be a much longer day than originally anticipated.

We made out first stop at the gas station in Leipers Fork after 9 miles.  It was a good opportunity to adjust and force Dan to buy food instead of him having to ride (alone) into town once we get to our destination. (He thanked us later.)  We continued on and stopped after a little while so I could lower my saddle (which had really been bothering me) and we all got a snack.  A few more miles and we were in fly for a soda and another snack.  Slow going so far, and we had been on about the flattest part of the trip.  We also happened to be riding into the wind the whole time.  After a long slug up the hill out of Fly, we were on the Trace, heading south.  We were tending to stay grouped pretty well, often chatting or whatnot, when all of a sudden a Trace patrolman rode up behind us and scolded us for not riding singlefile....  then told us we were going to cause an accident.  So, in other words, it is our responsibility to squeeze over against the side of the road so that cars could squeeze by use without getting over into the other lane.  I guess that makes sense.  Don't want the cars to have to slow down on this "recreational" highway nor have to pass us with any clearance like they would another car.  From that point on, we tended to stay in a single file configuration, but I also made a point of riding a little further out in the road to assume my own space.

Anyway...  After a couple of really long gradual hills, and then a couple of really long not-so-gradual hills, we landed at the Merriweather Lewis campground..  This place is a great campground that has the following going for it:  1) it was free camping, 2) it was sparsely populated so we saw no other campers from our campspot, 3) there were plenty of trees around so it wasn't too difficult to find firewood, and 4) there was a heated bathroom with running water (but we would find out that Ivan didn't know about this one and instead had gone all the way to another bathroom about 2 miles away that wasn't heated).  We setup tents, started a fire, prepared a stove to cook dinner, put on (somewhat) warmer clothes, ate our dinner, drank our personal sleep-inducing medications (Ivan's cherry wine being the most inventive), and then, as we sat by the fire to stay warm, we realized it was only about 6pm and no one was ready to call it a night...  So we hung out by the fire for a couple more hours, keeping the heat coming, swapping stories, eventually figuring out we could move the picnic table over to be more comfortable, and then, soon enough, becoming hungry again.  But we had already exhausted most of our supplies, and we knew we would need what we had for the ride the next day.  So we started dreaming of pizza, and through the use of the google txt message service, got the number of a pizza hut in town.  We called them up, and wouldn't you know it, the one driver they had on their schedule for that night had called in sick, so there was no one to bring us pizza.  After scheming for a while about how to get more food that nigth, we eventually decided it was mostly useless and instead re-routed out ride home on Sunday to go through Columbia, where we would get some breakfast.  We each trickled off to the sleeping bags and found some sleep among the cold air and the yelping of coyotes.

In the morning, I got out of the sleeping bag and tent just in time to warm by the fire that Ivan was stoking.  After a leisurely morning of breakfast, two percs of coffee, and a roaring fire, we finally headed out by about 11am.  I was still cold, and the overcast sky didn't promise any warmth that day.  It never delivered what it didn't promise, so none of us removed much clothing after the first cold downhill.  We found the road to Columbia, which we had estimated to be about 12 miles to be actually 27.  But we rode there and found a great little cheap 24hr sandwich shop in the historic area.  We had a big breakfast of eggs, pancakes, bacon.... the works...  That fueled us all the way home.  We rode up 31 all the way to Franklin and then back out to the farm.  At one point, I felt some sprinkles, but didn't want to say anything.  The rain held out for us, and we managed to get back with no crashes or mishaps at all.  Not even any flat tires.  Just some fatugued muscles and joints and a great feeling of accomplishment.  After the finish, we went and got what we deserved... a beer and  big plate of food from Pueblo Real.  That was the perfect way to spend some time talking about our trip and enjoying what we had just accomplished.  And a fitting way to end what was a great weekend.

Nashvegas cx2,3 

 This weekend was very busy with bike related stuff.  Friday night included a trip to the taproom for a couple beers, barely making last call it seemed.  That place was ripping.  Ivan was there and showed his generosity.   3Crow after for sandwiches. (Not my idea, and while I was hungry and they have great sandwiches, I wanted to go home and get sleep before the early morning......  but not much sleep was to be had.

Woke up Early Saturday morning, about 4:45, in a little of a beer haze, but it was just as much a sleepiness haze.  Thad and I headed to the Two Rivers Park near Opry Mills.  We spent about 3 hours taping off what seemed like the entire 2 mile cyclo-cross course.  Thad and I each did a side while Dan (the man Werle) went about doing all of the other things that needed doing before a race could be had.  After walking miles up and down hills and raking leaves and such, I changed the tires on my bike to my cx tires and rested for a while before the race.

Race 2 was a good course that flowed pretty well.  It was not easy though.  It was one of those courses where you notice the uphills much more than the downs and you never seem to be on a flat section.  I started out pretty easy not wanting to burn up, but I also didn't feel much quickness in my legs.  I was in last place for almost the entire first lap.  Then I passed one guy from NMB, but after that, I stayed in position.  I wasn't far off from the next position, but I couldn't seem to bridge up to him.  I held a very steady pace (my lap times were all within abotu 20 sec of each other); so I felt pretty good about my race... until about the last quarter mile of what would be my last lap.  It was at that point that the hotshot that was leading the race(by a large margin) lapped me on his last lap.  What that meant was that my race was over one lap early and I didn't get to finish with the rest of the group.  I was a bit disappointed.  On the other hand, I was more motiviated to not be lapped in the next race.

After that race, by about 2pm, almost everyone was gone... except Dan (W), Thad, and myself.  So guess who got to tear down all of that tape we put up that morning...  got home about 6:30 maybe... was asleep before 8.

Repeat of Saturday on Sunday but at Seven Oaks Park, which we would learn toots one of the best frisbee golf courses in the world.  Who would've thought?  Anyway... Dan had already completed much of the work.  Thad and I finished up some of the details for him on the completed sections, and then we got to more taping.  This included adding to part of the course that was routed through the woods.  We finished a bit faster this time and had a little more time to hang out and such before the race.

Race 3 was loads of fun.  The course was very diverse and had the right kind of hills but also alot of flat sections to keep things moving.  I had a little more quickness in my legs this time around.  I didn't go out last amd I was able to pass one or two people in the course of the first 3 or so laps.  From that point on, I held my position, being passed only by a couple speedy masters riders who started a minute after us.  I was also not even close to getting lapped. I felt I was able to push harder than on Saturday and also sustain my effort longer.  I think Saturday's race actually primed me better for Sunday, and I guess being better positioned also helped keep me motivated.  I finished strong and, once again, posted very consistent lap times.  This was a better day for me.

Following the race, the cleanup went alot faster.  Dan decided that maybe we didn't need to roll up all the tape.  So with a little help from Justin and Jamie (of ReMax/Yazoo fame) we were able to get it done and drink a beer much faster than on Satuday.  We were out of there by about 4:30 and home to rest.

About one month until the next.

Weekend: Nash CX1

Saturday was the  the first race of the inaugural Nashville cyclo-cross series.  Emma raced and won.  She wore the #1 numberplate.  She was the only kid in the kid's race, but she showed her chops by riding about half of the course.  She was a champion the way she climbed over those barriers.

My race was not so successful.   I did manage to make it over the barriers and up the stairs and around the course without any major mishaps, but I also managed to get lapped so that my lap count was one less than the winners.  The winner in our race was flying.  I ended up 8th out of 10 in my class.  Our 45 minute race ended up being closer to 56+ minutes.  It was a fun time, but it did hurt like a cyclo-cross race should.  Two weeks until the next suffer-fest.

Sunday, after a morning of coffee, relaxation, and giving my mountain bike some love, Thad and I headed down to Columbia (TN) for some mountain biking.  There were a bunch of people there riding, including the chump rep from Lynskey, a Gran Fondo racer dude, an old-school rider on a sweet rigid vicious and a few other guys.  Thad and I rolled a lap by ourselves, and then Dan and Chattanooga Jeff were there and ready to roll.  So we did a couple more laps and then about a half lap of rolling out along the creek loops and back.  Thad and I did aproximately 35 miles we estimate.  It was a good guage of current fitness after the race Saturday.  Some Yazoo Pale back at the cars was good and appropriate, but the Mexican food on the way home sealed the deal on a great weekend. 

CX Training

 It is easy to say I am training for cyclo-cross.  It is more difficult to actually ride in such a way that those words mean something.  Last night, Thad and I did an evening ride around the farm.  The typical route, but in the rain and mud and wind.  I didn't feel it.  It wasn't the cool or rain.  I enjoyed that part.  I guess it had more to do with not eating well earlier in the day.  I need to get a better handle on my diet.   A quick peanut butter sandwich after work is not a substitue for lunch.

It would have been nice to do a "workout" last night, but I was mainly just trying to hang on... not to Thad and his pace (which was leaving me behind)... but hang on to some sort of decent pace of my own.  Ideally, I would ride the pace from last night and add in some pick-ups to get my muscles used to the strain.  No pickups last night.  The ride was also shorter than I had hoped for.  Nighttime comes quickly in October in Tennessee.

I guess training for me is riding enough that my legs don't scream so loud on raceday.  I imagine they will scream (if they don't, then I'm not pushing hard enough), I just don't want them to scream to the point of shutting me down.

 

Cherokee National Forest 

Last weekend, I went with a couple friends (Thad and Dan) to the Chilhowee Mountain Bike Festival.  Good times including alot of sitting around, alot of beer drinking, and alot of riding some of the best trails around.  In this case, best means most fun.  Chilhowee has a little bit of everything.  Long fast downhills.  Technical downhills.  Gradual climbs.  Steep, difficult and technical climbs.  Easy rolling fireroads.  Rolling singletrack.  This place is easily worthy of more attention and more visits.  The camping facilities are great, the rangers are tolerant.  The area is just far enough off the beaten path to not get so many random drive-thru's and boneheads visiting.  That may have something to do with the place being one of the cleanest places I have ridden.  There aren't old tubes, tools, powerbar wrappers, and other crap like that laying around on the trails.  Very nice place.  I am considering writing in to Dirt Rag about it.

Skids and ringing bells

 Emma got this bike for her 3rd birthday back in May.  She has recently continued honing her handling skills by adding the pedal-brake skid-stop and standing while pedaling to her repertoire.  What more could a daughter do to make a dad proud?  She can also ring her princess bell while riding along, but that is 2-yr-old stuff.