Twice to Heaven

I missed out on Single Speed Outlaw's trip to Buzzard Rocks this weekend, but I did manage to show some more folks our Heaven or Hell Trail in southern Michaux. Darius' brother was in town from State College Saturday afternoon, so we took a quick evening loop finishing on Heaven or Hell. That trail was heaven for Nabil. Here's a pic of Nabil from Darius' website.

Sunday Martin and I took the Cupcakes to that trail for the first time. After finally getting some rain overnight, the rocks were a bit sweaty and I was worried that the trail would be more like hell than heaven. It wasn't too bad, although it did cause me 2 crashes in places I've never crashed before. I think the Cupcakes liked it, especially Rich who sessioned each section until he got it. Travis and Tomi were nursing busted ribs and high$$ entry fees, so they didn't mess around as much as the rest of us. I think they'll be back though.

Now it's time for me to get some rest and recovery before the 100s.....
Can't believe it's almost August already....

Wakefield final

My Wakefield gearing experiment is officially over for the season. Feeling a little lazy, or maybe a little silly, for changing my gear twice/week for the past month, I just left my Michaux 32x20 on for this week's Weds. at Wakefield race. That's 4 gears lower than I'd been running. It made a huge difference, and I dropped way down the table and got to see the backsides of more friends than usual. And since this was the SSers drag race, that view was a little different than usual too.

pic swiped from Gwadzilla

Huge thanks to Potomac Velo Club for putting on this annual highlight of the bike community's season.

Wednesday Wakefield 3

After last week's rain out, we got it on again this week. A few hours before the race, my legs still got tired climbing the stairs. Was hoping for a magical Michaux bounce in a couple hours. Good pre-lap though, spent a couple times going over that log at the high spot of the woods, the one everyone goes around to the left. My log mentor, Barry O'Melinn has been telling me for years to hop that one in the races. It is the straighter line after all, and it's kinda clumsy going around it at speed. I tried it each lap, and I even got passed once there by Jonathon. Later on, I passed a lapped racer as he went around it. Didn't seem all that faster to me since I had to slow down some to get the wheel tap right, and I got passed there. I guess Barry just manuals it?? I'd like to see that.

I had the hole shot somehow as Jonathan washed out on the gravel 20 seconds into the race. I geared it past Pearce as I think he was looking back at Jon. Held 1st all the way thru the creek trail, then pulled aside and let Pearce go, and asked Nick if he wanted it too. That began my yo-yo between 3rd-5th-3rd-5th for the race. I was beaten by guys running 29ers with both lower, and higher gears, and Paul on his 2:1 26er. Same story every race. I'm beginning to think that gearing has much less to do with it than legs. If I make the last race, I think I'll just be leaving my Michaux gear on.

Cool shot of Kent over the second roller near dark. More pics from Ben here.

Michaux 100 pics

Some of Tomi's photos here

the hundie-K

A few more miles in the books now, and I'm enjoying my recovery day at the computer chair. Sooo, peeps did show up after all. How 'bout that? I think we had 60-some starters for the 100K. Not as many as the 100 for Maximus, but way better than the pre-reg site looked.

I had a good race. No flats, no mechanicals, no funny belly. I had one silly front wheel wash on Abby that had me laughing like, WTF was that....? I also took a couple of idiot lines on 3-Mile as if I'd never ridden that trail before. I hope Churtle didn't see me dab those...

Highlights

• smilin' for the action sports photogs Tomi and Jake
• Miller High Life courtesy of Tomi and Jake
• seeing Lee and Travis hunting for carnage at some of the more interesting sections
• some of the logs on Yellow Ridge
• Methodist Hill, even the climb out wasn't as sucky as I expected
  
• Canada Hollow, yummmy stuff here
  
• Grave Ridge at 50-miles in (maybe this should be a low-light?)
• riding with buddy Albert most of the day. he had more issues than I, otherwise, I'd have been solo much of the day
• riding w/ Cheryl, and then watching Michele and Cheryl duking it out for miles. I'm not sure where exactly I passed Michele for the last time, but she sure looked broken. Don't mess with Le Turtle out there...
  

Lowlights

• some of the logs on Yellow Ridge
• every inch of trail after Grave Ridge until crossing 233 again. that stuff really messed with my finishing mood
  

log jammin'

This has been my practice log for the past several months. It's at Wilson College, where I ride most evenings with Oliver and his buddy Brandon. I've been learning to clean this thing with sandals and flip-flops on. Though, on the advice of a friend, I got some Keens, which at least offer some toe protection.

I clean it about 6 outta 10 times usually, and tonight's attempts featured my worst endo yet. The kids howled at that. Good to not be clipped in for that one.

Here's another log feature at the Wilson equestrian center. Most of their log features are landscaped with flowers and boxwoods and such, so I stay away from those. But this one has some promise too.

is anyone coming to this party?

There's a big race in Michaux in a couple days. The longest mountain bike race ever held here, and I'm wondering how many peeps will be racing? I know a lot of my Virginia friends won't be making it. Many don't like the early 0700 start time, or they don't like the extra long distance (how many people have ever finished a "regular" Michaux race and wished it were longer?). Others don't like the feeling of not choosing the longest of the 3 (10, 25, or Monster), so they stay away from the 25 too.

And once again, there's a severe date conflict with another popular race, the one at Fair Hill. It's gonna be hard for the Balto-Philly-Delaware contingent to skip their local one-lap classic. That's a lot of folks that would ordinarily race Michaux. There's also an XTerra tri at Rocky Gap, MD that is taking a few of my Bike Lane team mates.

Then there's the Michaux locals, many of whom are helping out with the race instead of racing, as did many for the Spring version. For a variety of reasons, it could be a fairly slim field. The pre-registered list on BikeReg was certainly pretty small, though it also was for Maximus, and we did get a huge turnout on gameday.

One friend said, "...the world doesn't need another endurance race.." This is a friend from the group of six who have done every Shenandoah Mtn 100 since Chris started this business. Starting this year, Pennsylvania alone now has six 50-milers, one 100K, and the 101. Is this the future of our sport? I don't mind terribly if it is, though I certainly do have fun at the little sprints like Wednesday at Wakefield too.

Hope to ride with some friends on Sunday, come on out if you're on the fence.. Prove me wrong.

SS Outlaws

I spent some of Freedom Day riding with a band of Outlaws
in the Frederick Watershed. The Outlaws are a posse of uni-geared riders with an equal interest in advocacy, trail work, party rides, and racing. Their technical skills are at the top of the table, and their home turf is the 'Shed.

A couple days later, their leaders, Mister and Missus Outlaw came up for a shorty ride in southern Michaux. One found Heaven, one found Hell, a not unpleasant place.

a Watershed moment

Wow, I can't rave enough about how fun the trails are in the Frederick Watershed. I got a late e-mail to join my old GWNF crew on a Shed ride on Sunday and it was cool to get to finally ride again with peeps like the Barrys Quigley & O'Melinn, Dan, Junkins, Nancy, Kara, Tom & Julie, and Cowtilly. These are the people I learned to mountain bike the big stuff with, and I miss not riding with them now.

And those trails. In the past few months I've ridden many places with great trails. Besides Michaux, I've ridden the State College/Rothrock Stoopid stuff, the Rothrock Tussey Ridge trails, Rattling Creek Singletrack, the Stokesville area, Marysville, and Blue Knob. And hands down, the most fun is the Frederick Watershed. Not Gambrill, but, the 'Shed. It's like Abigail, Buckets, and Canada Hollow. And then there's that low-speed-techy trail into Little Canaan, which is a little like Heaven or Hell. Oohhh mannn, I wanna go back there right now....

The last 3 times I've ridden the Shed in past few years, I've always thought "...damn, why don't we ride here all the time.."? The fun:work ratio is so much higher than the GW and Michaux.

local, fast race

With most of the usual crew down at the Tour de Burg, I woke up on Saturday without a real bike plan for the weekend. I checked the MASS calendar on the fridge and saw that Kuhn's Marysville festival weekend was going on, and that the longer xc race was Saturday. And, it had a late afternoon start, which could work out perfectly for the homestead that day. I checked the pre-reg list and saw a bunch of Chambersburg friends Joel, Martin, Chuck and Cathy, plus Fat Marc, Huber and others, so it was an easy dunk decision, and only an hour away.

I lined up with the 10 single-speeders, and among friendly banter, Keith noticed that I seemed to be missing a lot of teeth from my rear cog. Yeah, I geared up for this course to a 32x17. Most of the 10 thought I was nuts. I got the hole shot and held onto 1st for a little while until Keith blew on by. A couple more quickly followed, and then I had comfy 4th for a long time with no immediate pressure on my wheel. But, really, this being the kind of fast, tight, twisty course, without a lot of hills, it was the kind of course where if you slowed down to blow your nose, a couple guys would come around you. I worked pretty hard to hold onto 4th, but it wasn't enough and I dropped back to 6th on the second of our three laps.

I thought I had a little more gas in me than I was using so I picked it up a bit, and some of the guys in front of me started coming back, like Keith, who looked in distress when I passed him. I passed a few more single-speeders and started thinking that I was now sitting in 1st or 2nd. There were several Enduro class racers riding single-speeds still on the course too, so I couldn't really tell for sure who I was passing. I kept going comfortably hard, harder than I usually go, thinking for a whole lap that I had one of the top spots on the wooden steps. I haven't seen a SSer behind me in a long time, and I knew I had several lapped riders buffering behind me as I casually finished out the race with a smug smile and a blog story already in my head. As I'm walking up the one steep section near the end of the race, I hear someone grunting behind me. I turn to see Keith mashing his way up that climb. I yell encouragement to him to clean it, and then I think, WTF, where did you come from? I thought you were done. Dammit Keith, you're efffing up the end of my story. I jump on his wheel and try to sit in and think of where I can use my bigger gear to jump around him or out-sprint him. We only have a little course left and I tried to make a move around the flat pond section, but I couldn't even get close. If anything, he gained another bike length or two in last hundred yards. Nice job Keith! He took 3rd, and I ended up with 4th. Obviously, the real first and second guys were nowhere to be seen by us.

What a race though. It was like Fountainhead or Quantico, and I worked it hard. Too hard perhaps, as I had trouble putting away 2 beers after the race.

Congrats to Martin for winning the young experts and to Cathy for putting in 5 laps in the Enduro. I certainly did not wish for any more than my 3 laps...

It was cool seeing Kevin Dillard, who made the trek up north to race and shoot. Here are a couple of his shots from the weekend. Another gratuitous narcissistic shot from his RAW gallery, and a cool one of Fat Marc and Chunky. Marc had another battle with zombies on Saturday.


Shooter vs. Shooter, here's a pic of Don Pagano who shoots a lot of the Michaux races.

Wednesday Wakefield 2

Here's a cool pic of The Pedalshop's Amy Marquis flying to her first win. Shot taken by Martin, who I haven't met, but I recognize his name from great photography of White Grass.

It's funny how much I like a race, where your finishing position can be decided within 30 seconds of the start. If you don't get the hole shot or close to it, you're likely to not move much for 3 laps. Last night I got the #2 hole and was comfortable behind Pearce. Actually, maybe too comfy, and too safe, because I started bunching up the guys behind me as I grooved and chilled on the flowy creek trail. As guys got up my wheel, I was awakened, and reminded that I was actually in a race, .... oh yeah, step on it. Four guys got around me and I settled in for happy 6th. Though even 6th didn't come easily as Frasketti and Aaron were bungee-ing off the back of me and nearly reeled me in at the end of the last lap.

My gear consultant Albert pre-rode the course Monday on a 34x16 and determined that it was the optimal gear. As he says, his bike "goes to 11". He gave me the clue in plenty of time to change my gear, but I didn't take it. Albert jumped up to 3rd from 6th last week, and I did the opposite. So, ....what will I run for the last 2 races?

race pics

Gary Ryan knows how to shoot mountain bike races. He knows our race courses, he knows the special spots on them, he knows the racers, and he really knows how to get the good shots. Whenever I see him out on the course, I usually try to do something goofy.

from last night's Wakefield #1

Thanks Gary!

Wednesday night battle

Took that wimpy gear off for the first Wednesday at Wakefield race last night. My gear consultant (Albert) told me a 2:1 or harder would be perfect for the flowy fast course with banked turns, twisty creek love, and Rich's classic IMBA switchbacks. On went the 32x16.

If you've never done this race, it's hard to explain how an 11-mile suburban race next to the Capital Beltway can be so ridiculously fun. But, I know. This grassroots series has been part of my summer life for many years, and I had a grin on my face the whole drive over from my office in Fairfax. Yes, having to occasionally check-in at work in Fairfax gives me a great excuse to get down there for the races. There were 275 racers last night, so I must not be the only one jonesin' for a midweek adrenaline fix.

I lined up on the front row and was 4th heading into the singletrack. That quickly became 3rd as RickyD faded fast, and I thought I might have a leisurely ride in for 3rd. But, if you take your foot off the gas at all, someone's gonna be up your wheel in no time, and Paul G. and then Jon got around me. So, now I'm a happy 5th, oh well. On the last lap Paul started to come back to me and I hammered it on the jeep trail hoping my larger wheels would pull me past him. I had to work pretty hard to keep Paul back there, even after he slid out on a turn, he was right back within distance. At the last creek crossing I saw Jason, who'd been leading, putting his chain back on (for apparently the 3rd time). He jumped on ahead of me and gapped me, but he dropped his chain again, and I passed him for 3rd as he was running into the finish chute. Bummer for Jason, as he woulda easily beat us all.

The Bike Lane and PedalShop had the usual stocked coolers of rehydration formula, and then it was on to Kilroys with the crew for food and liquids (I had to drink H2O). Made it back to Chambersburg a little after midnight, which isn't so bad considering I sometimes get home from Darius' later than that after weeknight rides (with a lot less water in me).

from last year's finale

Reasons why I love W@W:

• BMX in the woods
• lots of places to catch air
• the banked turns
• the month-long trash talkin' and psych jobs (you're gonna run those tires with that gear?)
• maxin' the heart rate for an hour
• railing the creek trail without touching the brakes
  
• the coolers
• the Kilroys laps
• 30 friendly SSers trying to kick your ass
• I get to wear a dress without a lot of nosey questions
  

changing gears 2

After that whiny self-reflective post, I got a lot of feedback. Much of it consisted of "use a bigger gear". So I took off the 22 and put on the 20. Started off at Big Flat yesterday with 13 people, and ended up with 4 of us, six hours later after an extra fun jaunt on 3-Mile Trail. That gear felt fine all day, and I kept up on the fireroads for the most part. It didn't seem to hurt any more than the lower gear, but we didn't do anything stupid like Dead Woman Hollow either.

I also got in a couple of pleasant, short, solo road rides last week. Well, as pleasant as the Gilbert Rd. climb can be. This makes me think that maybe I do care about fitness some after all. I know the key to bike fitness is road riding, and if I rode the road twice lately, hmm, maybe I just do care. Or, maybe it's the time of the season to ramp it up? Or, maybe I just wanted a bike ride without getting all beat to hell in the rocks? Nah, I like getting beat up, must be something else.

The road riding from Chambersburg can be sublime. Quiet, rolling farm and orchard roads, Mennonites working the fields, the vast emptiness of Letterkenny. In 2 hours, I think only 5 cars passed me from behind the other day. If I want more work than just rolling, I can climb up Gilbert into Buchanan State Forest and head down into Fulton County or up into the Shippensburg area.

This week is the beginning of the Wednesday at Wakefield series. I was the defending SS Chump for 2005, but sat just off the wood in 4th in 2006, as everyone else got wise to the bigger gear trick for that flat course. Ironically, I rode the biggest gear I could (34x15) at those races and was always up front. I hope to make most of these races since I'm always looking for reasons to drive back to put in a day in the office (my paycheck still comes from Virginia). Was hoping to be able to hit the post-race Kilroys laps at the bar, and then crash with Nick or someone, but now Kim has a 6 AM boot-camp at the YMCA on Thursday mornings, so I'm gonna need to be home for Oliver. I'm not sure what to do yet.., but maybe I'll see some old friends this week.

Ridin' to school

Kim and Oliver ride the pleasant few blocks to school.

changing gears

"Why does mommy's bike have gears? Gears just makes your chain mess up" Oliver Camp, yesterday.

Time for some self-reflection. That's what blogs are for right?? Looking at the results from the Stoopid, seeing where I placed, seeing some friends names I usually finish with, most of whom were above me in the table. Why, I wonder?

Most readers of my words know that I take these long races at party pace. This isn't the Weds. at Wakefield, or Fountainhead, where I have had a realistic shot at the podium. It's all about finishing a long ride with more friends than usual, not being too destroyed to party after the race, and be able to ride my bike the next day. But I do expect to finish fairly well, given how many of these that I've done, I'm only 155 lbs, have decent rock skills, and I ride a bike which makes me climb hills fast. Sure, I'm 45, but, so what...., I ain't the only one. If I have any actual "goal" in these 50s and 100s and XXs, it's to finish in the top quarter of the field. I think I've done that once in the SM100, the first year I rode my SS, with a 32x18. My only sub 10-hour finish there.

So, breakin' the table down into 15-minute finish increments, ignoring the sub 5-hour group, let's see where I might think I should've finished... The 5-5:15 group, Withers, Jamie, Litterbug, nah, I don't think so. The 5:15-5:30 crew, Pete, Travis, Kuhn, Tomi, Topher, Taylor and Martin. Nope, maybe on a fun ride in Michaux they'll let me hang, but not when a gun is involved. OK, so the 5:30-5:45 group of mostly guys I don't know. But I do know Keith, and I know I ain't as swift as he, even with a missed turn. 5:45-6:00?? Albert, Buddy the Leg Breaker, and FatMarc? Now that's familiar company. So I finished 3 minutes after that group and I'm giving myself a hard time??? Three minutes behind Brian Kenny who usually kills me at the Wild 100.

I guess I can get over it.
I guess, if I really want to get over it, I can swap out that wimpy 32x22 for something with a little more bite to it. Sure, that'll hurt a little more, but hey, then I'll get back 5 minutes sooner and have more time to drink beer.

Stoopid 50

The Nittany Mountain Bike folks, Wheelworks, Kevin Bergman, and Chris Scott put on a groovy singletrack fest covering 50-ish miles of some sweet trails yesterday up in Rothrock State Forest. As with all of Mumbles' races, this one was a high-quality affair, even without the hundred volunteers he's accustomed to having at the Shenandoah 100. This one seemed to be run by a small few, including Chris' parents (who just heard about it for the first time on Thursday), Kathy, and a couple others.

There was some problem with the power when we got to the venue, as in, no electricity because a t-storm the night before took down the distribution line to the camp. And no electric meant, no water pump. Which was a major bummer since this 4-H Camp venue was chosen mainly because it had good water. Darius played hero and re-wired the panel box to a generator to get power and water running, and a few minutes later the power company got the whole line running again (so Darius had to undo what he just done (with a now "hot" panel box).

Stayed up late with Shawn and Buck (why are the old guys always the last ones at the fire?)
Up at 6, three hours before the start,..... what to do?
Eat two breakfasts, have after breakfast sessions, have a sugary breakfast dessert, then have another, and then,...don't touch anything on my bike.
Full stomach, on the line...
Off slow & safe. A very non-SS-friendly start allows anyone with a big ring to get way ahead of me. I had quite a time working my way back into familiar company, and it took to about the first aid station.
Caught up to Darius on the way to AS-2 as he was working on the 3rd of his 4 mechanicals. Waited with him awhile, then we rode off together toward AS-2. On the road, Darius big rings it, stands up, drops me, and passes several others.
Caught Darius and Tiffany Kenny on a singletrack climb. Also caught up to 3 teammates from a team with blue jerseys and shared the most annoying hour-long game of leapfrog I've ever had in a race. Two of them were on SSs, and the guy on gears was acting as 'coach', yelling encouragement to one of the SSers like "get on it, you can do it...". Why in the hell was I leapfrogging single-speeders anyway? What was wrong with them? Or me? Just drop me please, or just stay the hell back when I drop you, or at least give me more than 5 seconds after I pass you for the 10th time....
I've known Tiffany from all the Wild 100s where we've spent some fireroad hours together, and when I caught up to her early on she said, with some polite concern, ".... so did you have a flat, or are you just pacing yourself..?" Just pacing my dear, and a very low gear, no worries...

Behind me, Darius was having his last and worst mechanical, a broken saddle. So he had to stand up for the remaining 15-20 miles. Yea, nice. Since he broke his chain 3 times over the weekend and replaced them with quik-links, he had very little chain to get up onto the large cogs. So he had to hammer too, while he was doing all that standing. Sounds familiar.

Darius gets the tough guy award for that performance, and for the fact that he had to drive home, unpack, re-pack for 2 weeks of work in Charlottesville, and then drive down to Richmond to spend the night. Tough.

I finished in 6:03, about 15 minutes faster than my Michaux time, which seemed to be a common thing. Consensus was that this course was harder, and had more singletrack than Michaux, so, how come our times are faster???

IMBA Virginia Mtn Bike Festival

Some pics around the Stokesville campground from the weekend. Got some good shorty rides in, and was really cool to see all the VA folks again (at least those not at the Giro).

Oliver and his cousin Tiffany had a blast playing with all the kids and in the river. Bikers had a blast playing on these features built by Rich Edwards and Dan Hudson. Rich and Dan will be coming to Raystown Lake later this year to start building the proposed 30-miles of flowy goods there, in PA.

the rock skinny

Here's a great shot (taken by Jamie) of Dean earnin' the tough guy award.

Rothrock

I headed up to the State College, Rothrock State Forest area this weekend for an annual event put on by Griz. We were joined by some of the Stoopid 50 organizing crew, some State College locals, Karl, fast Jamie , and his buddy, Dean, the Dutch Eagle. EDIT: Dean easily gets the tough guy award after eating it hard, endoing on an elevated skinny rock ladder that wasn't too well constructed, and wasn't scoped or spotted in advance. After his biff, and some reconstruction while we waited on a flat to be fixed, he hopped on and nailed it. The only one of us to even try it.

Ray gettin' skinny (not the same one Dean biffed on)

We rode some great trails, a lot of which will be in the Stoopid 50, at least the ones we rode on Saturday will be. Sunday we rode some classics like Tussey Ridge Trail, Wildcat, John Wert, and The Edge. I've only ridden up there for a couple of the 101s, and most of that riding was done with head down and tounge hanging, so I really didn't get to appeciate how cool some of those trails are. A lot of it reminded me of the sticky green, boggy parts of the Monongahela like Slatyfork, and most others were more like the high dry and bony GW Nat'l Forest. Tussey Ridge Trail was sublime, and the new trails we rode on Saturday are beyond my wordsmithy abilities to describe. I think the coolest of which was called Chicken Peter, and it was recently built by one of the guys on the ride. Incredible rock work, flowy, contours, groooovveee stuff. Every single guy uttered "wow" as soon they exited that trail, and singletrack salutes, promises of riches, beer, and future earnings were bestowed upon the master trail builder. Let's all hope this trail is in the 50!

the 4-H Camp near Penn-Roosevelt that we based from.

the windiest part of the loop is not the best spot for a safety meeting

custom holiday lights, Rothrock style

I met some more really cool PA mountain bikers. Hope to ride with them all again.