Bike packing

Good weather last weekend, loaded up the bike and heading out with Marc. We rode some tar, a lot of single track, and some dirt roads. Loaded up with my new OR drybags and liked having the weight on the bike, rather than on my back.

Took us about two and a half hours to get to the campsite, but only after I had a great, slow motion, endo right onto my messed up hand. Not good. The best part was when the bike frame scissored down onto my leg and head. Even better. We rode on and set up camp in the dark (lots of fun) We gathered fire wood, cooked dinner and got ready for the cold. Slept well, woke up kind of early, and enjoyed the view.

Good night for my second overnight on a bike. The whole experience makes me wonder if the Tour Divide is a possibility.......

Dog days.

Timber is a horrible backseat driver.

Timber is my dog. Not just in the hip, Randy from American Idol way, he is also the domestic animal that resides at my house with me and my wife. It is odd that I call him "mine" because he is definitely his own being. I think if he had his druthers (he doesn't anymore, he was neutered) he would live on his own in the swamp of the golf course near our house. He would feast on muskrats and rabbits (he has caught both) and would harass golfers by biting their legs and running off with their titleists.

Fortunately for us, he thinks we are cool and he lets us feed him and occasionally pet him, but only when he feels it is appropriate. He is very independent, and likes to survey his kingdom from interesting vantage points.

Timber, asleep on the very desk I am typing this from.

Timber is 6 now, and thankfully out of the puppy stage, but he still has quite a bit of energy. He likes to run, and whines incessantly if he does not get his typical 4-5 mile allotment per day. If he is really hard up for a run, he scratches the walls. Or the couch. Or your face. He doesn't care which.

He gets crazy when he gets the Syrup in him.

Thankfully, today we went for a long run. After an hour or so of terrorizing every squirrel in the town, Timber can rest peacefully in the back of the snot rocket.

Now all is well in Laps land..............until tomorrow.

Into the now

We did it. Bit the bullet, gritted our teeth, and joined the 21st century. We are hooked up. Onto the crazy, internets super highway and even some cable channels. I can do without the TV. A nice distraction, but I really didn't miss it all that much. The interwebs is a different story. It is hard to go without the ability to waste hours looking at nothing, reading little and glazing your eyes over. Oh yeah, blogging stuff that no one reads and putting up gratuitous bum shots is fun, but not essential.

Lot to think about in the coming days. What to do this winter? What to do next summer?

At least yesterday's ride was good. No rush, Terrible Timber came with us, and the trails were in good-ish shape. Looking forward to some cold weather, lights on, wool wearing rides.

No wool yet, but the leaves are falling fast.

Marc and Jay getting close. Or communing with nature. You decide.

Timber, the deer colored dog, sneaks in a ride before hunting season.

That is all for now, hopefully more riding and more posting soon!

2010 season, DONE.

It has been a long year. Not from the blogging standpoint, as I think this makes 5 posts for the season. My bike racing season is done. It should have been done in August, but I tried to squeeze a bit more out of my legs and I paid for it.

August was rather busy; Dark Horse 40, Great Glen, and then Pittsfield. The 40 was fun, so was Great Glen. I felt good and was happy that I fell one short of my lap goal (23 total, I wanted 24 but didn't realize they extended the loop from the past two years, so I guess it evens out) I had a great crew person, and thoroughly enjoyed not having to drive home (Thanks Marc!)

Pittsfield was a fun race, although a bit of a stretch a week after Great Glen. Lots of climbing, lots of descending, and a killer pig roast at the end.

Vermont 50 was not as much fun. Since school started I have not ridden as much as I should have. I felt lots of pain during the 50, and didn't enjoy it, even though it was some of the best weather in recent memory for this event. At least the barbecue at the end and watching my wife finish was well worth it. Hopefully next year I remember to train for this race, and enjoy it.

This weekend, the ABSOLUTE last race for me this year (unless something fun comes up) was the ECCC race near my house ( a mile away, how could I pass that up?) The course was fun, the atmosphere was very low key (college kids don't worry about much, and everyone just wanted to ride bikes) and some of my younger, fast friend were there to help keep things in perspective.

Finished near the top overall, and almost unscathed. About .5 seconds after the above picture was taken, I hit something that stopped my front wheel dead, and I did a slow motion endo onto my wrist. The swelling is pretty good right now, but I think I will be able to pull through.

Now I just want to ride when I can, do some night riding, and wait for the snow to start falling. Hopefully that isn't too far away.

DarkHorse 40

Well, been a while, but I feel obligated by the fact that I actually have a blog follower (blogower?) so I guess I will write a post about last weekend's race.

I was convinced to do the Dark Horse 40 by my friend Marc. He went down to SS-apalooza with me and he was very excited to race in Montgomery, NY again. THis time, the pre-ride was dry, as well as the race. The course was fast, flowy and DUSTY. We camped at a local campground, and I think we were the only people on the premises that were from out of state, and not related. It seemed like a giant family had taken over the campground and partied most of both the nights we were there. Lots of early morning fireworks, sketchy drive bys of our campsite, and car alarms in the wee hours of the morning.

Marc and Andrea looking for more firecrackers.

Anyway, we headed down on Friday and pre rode the course on Saturday. We took it really easy to help Andrea, Marc's better half, through the course. Unfortunately, I only filled my camelbak halfway, not expecting to need all the water for one lap. About halfway through the lap, I was dry and it was hot. Our ride lasted three hours. Not good for me.

We finished up our ride, visited Dark Horse cycles (the shop, and promoters for SSAP and the 40) and found a place to get dinner.

We bought some BEEF, made hamburgers and pasta for dinner, and sampled some local brew.

I tried to drink as much as possible, but the water at the camp site smelled like egg farts and we had more beer than bottled water. So, I went to bed with a nagging headache, and woke up in the same condition.

We headed to the start, making a quick stop to fill up on water, and I started drinking immediately. I threw some nuun into a water bottle and pounded it. The race started and I felt okay at the start, but about a quarter through the first lap, I booted. I felt a little bit better, and kept riding. I drank some more Nuun out of my camelbak, and then booted again. The people behind me were nice enough not to comment, or just trying hard to avoid the puke puddles I was leaving behind me. The headache started to come back, and I was beginning to think I would just finish and curl up into a ball and die.

Every DH course runs through the abandoned cardboard box factory. Creepy.

I continued on, and actually started to feel a bit better. 3/4 of the way through the lap, I caught the guy (IF rider from Philly) I was riding with and another SSer wearing hammer stuff. IF guy passed the hammer guy, and I thought I would go with him. I was feeling good, and went for the pass on a slightly widened section of trail with some brush on the sides. Unfortunately, lurking in that brush were lots of bar-end -snagging vines, which we don't have in VT. The vines grabbed my bars and threw me to the ground like I insulted their mother.

This is the second pair of shorts I have trashed this year. I think I will still wear them though, as they will let everyone at the start line know that I am a badass. Or just bad at keeping my tires down and my bike up right. So, after the crash, and many obscenities, I hopped back on the bike and tried to catch up. Then my chain fell off. I was a bit flustered, and it took a little while for me to get it back on. However, I did, and I was able to catch the Hammer and IF guys before the end of the lap. We headed through the start area and on of the promoters told us we were 3rd, fourth and fifth. I was surprised by this, but it helped me kick the bad feeling after wiping out and throwing my chain, and puking, and feeling horrible. IF guy and me took off on the road section and rode most of the single track together for the second lap. At the first aid station I had a bit of a gap on Mr. IF, but I stopped to fill my camelbak and figured I would catch him again. Once I got through the next singletrack section to a nice piece of straight road, I couldn't see any sign of him. I felt like he had played me, acting tired so I would try to break away. He was hammering and all I could do was hold on. I continued on, feeling dejected, but near the end of the lap I heard someone behind me, and saw Mr. IF. I shouted "I thought you were in front of me!" and took off, hoping to remain in third. I did, rolling through the roughest sections of the course like puppet tied to a bicycle. I ended up 3 minutes behind the 1st and 2nd, and only 20 seconds in front of IF, but I was pretty happy. To top it off, I won a medal with Homer Simpson on it, and the post race beers and barbecue were excellent.

SUMMER!!!

I think I was a bit too far forward.....

School is out, work is light (3 days a week, 6 hours a day is pretty schweet) and I am trying to ride as much as possible. The hard part is this week is the week of my first "big" race of the summer. Big meaning I go to Canada and try to race for 100km. I think that is like 60 American miles, but I haven't checked the exchange rate today. The race promoter likes to send emails that scare people, like recommending no one try the race on a bike without squish in the front and back, and also that no one try a single speed and that you should start the race with new brake pads. I have chosen to scoff at all these warnings, and race the single speed. We will see. Either way, I plan on being really sore next week.

Riding in VT continues to be good, when it isn't pouring, but the trails are drying out pretty quick and the options for people to ride with are increasing everyday. Hopefully a 12 hour race in Presque Isle, aka East bum fizzle, will materialize and that would be interesting.

Duck and cover.

Yeah, the past few weeks have been a bit busy. Lots to do, not a lot of time to write. Trips to NH for family stuff (and a bike race) then a trip to Maine for wifey's race, and an ill-fated rendez-vous with Rick is! Rick and I couldn't get together, so I had to ride Maine singletrack at Bradbury all by myself. Good thing, because Rick wouldn't have been impressed by my pampered, VT style riding. Maine has roots and rocks. So does VT, but we like to space them out a bit, and throw some hills in to keep things interesting. Maine keeps them all together, and packs more twists and turns into one collection of single track than we have in Chittenden county. The riding was still fun, and I was bummed I couldn't finally meet Rick.

Wifey's race went pretty well, and I got to spend Sunday watching people run around in circles for 50, 25 or 15 miles. It made my legs and feet hurt just watching. Sunday afternoon I got to drive home, and then Monday, it was Christmas on Labor day.

It is not everyday the Moots demo van comes to your (friend's) house to share ti goodness with your friends and local riders. We planned a ride from the driveway in the picture (my buddy and grassmoots teammate Jason) up and over two large VT hills on some sweet singletrack and into the Hinesburg town forest to ride with the Mooties and some local bike shop guys. It was

good. We rode for a total of 5 hours, in which I managed to warp the front tire on my single-

speed. First I tried a new, scary large roller (steep rock face with several holes in it, for about a

15 foot drop) I hit the transition and my bike made a cracking noise that made me think I had

just snapped my carbon fork. Luckily, it just looked like a gorilla had tried to twist off my tire.

As this was before we met the Moots guys (about two minutes before) I borrowed a pump and

tried to fix the tire by deflating and inflating it several times. It helped. Then we finished our

ride in the forest and I hit a small jump on the way out, landing heavily on the front tire and

creating the cracking noise again. Long story short, I am in need of new tires.

Oh well, it was fun anyways. This weekend the Pinnacle happens, and I will be there getting

my ass kicked.