Manarea

Dry Hopping 101

2012-01-22T15:42:00.000-05:00

Hops! Wet...dry...I don't care. I've never actually done any dry hopping to date so this was a first. Crudest way to accomplish this is to just dump the hops into the secondary fermentation loose but I'm better than that so I did some research and found a relatively easy and more refined approach. And as a bonus this method involved marbles, or in my case some 'glass gems'.

just don't drink them

Glass gems basically just act as sinkers to weigh the muslin bag down so that the hops remain fully submerged during the process so you get their full essence. Lots of homebrewers claim that if they are floating on top you loose some of the goodness. Took me about 10mins all told. Just sanitize everything: gems, muslin bag, thread to tie it up. Put the gems in the muslin bag or marble sack, whichever you prefer, followed by the hops. Tie the bag off, tie on your thread or fishing line, jam into your carboy and VOILA! Dry Hopped.

marble sack ready for deployment

fully submerged hops dry hopping away.

I'll let this chill out for at least another week. Might bottle it next weekend depending on my schedule. I think I'm going to need to pick up some more tall boys. I think my inventory of bottles has finally depleted below one batches worth.

2012 Race Schedule

2012-01-20T13:24:00.000-05:00

This is more out of blog withdrawal than anything else. 2012's winter weather hasn't been lending itself to worthy skiing recaps/reports to date. I've got all these new GoPro bits just waiting to record hijinx from all kinds of angles and we just haven't been able to get into the woods yet. Such is life...so I suppose I'll try and get myself somewhat organized for the next race season.

Slightly better than tentative schedule for 2012:

April 28th - Singlespeed-a-palooza: been on the radar for awhile, seems like an appropriate time to finally do it.
May 20th - NECS #1 Weeping Willow: love the course, a top 10 WILL be mine this year.
June 3rd - NECS #2 Big Ring Rumpus: maybe. doesn't suit me AT ALL. but a great day of training and real close to home.
June 17th - NECS #3 The Pinnacle: c'mon. best course around. I'll be gunning for this one, HARD.
July 8th - NECS #4 Moody Park: great course for me...when its dry. fingers crossed.
July 22nd - NECS #6 Harding Hill: never love this race but I always seem to show back up...
July 28th - SSUSA2012: Hard telling when this race will be back in the area, seems like a "grab the opportunity while it lasts" type moment.
August 19th - NH100: A real 100 mile version this year. So scared.
September 22nd - Bradbury 12: Another one that has been on the radar for awhile. Plenty of teammates to pick from for a 3 or 4 man team now!

I'm open to suggestions...what other kind of trouble should I be getting myself into??

Call me Curmudgeon

2011-12-29T21:53:00.000-05:00

In my end of year gear post I made mention to me waffling back and forth between upgrading to a carbon fork or getting hydro brakes. I was having a hard time figuring out what I wanted to do for next year. Each option had their pros and cons and I would randomly talk myself both in and out of each decision quite frequently for awhile.

I thought I had figured it out at the time of that post and hydro brakes it was. Then Bully told me to man up and get the carbon fork and for a bit I was waffling again. Then today I realized that I wasn't actually waffling between two choices, I was at odds with both choices independently at the same time...get it?

I have always been somewhat of a no-nonsense racer/rider. Always err on the side of simplicity and durability. I think that is why I took to SS so readily. Investing large sums of money to drop weight and increase maintenance has never really jive'd with me. I would much rather have a solid fork that works just fine and I know can take a beating and brakes that work just fine and I can fully service myself quickly and cheaply. I don't want to worry about applying the correct torque to a carbon steer tube and have to bleed possibly corrosive DOT brake fluid if my brakes go wonky...at least not right now. I've upgraded to a tubeless config for this year, that is going to be my tech advancement for this season. I am going to master the crap out of that so that I can fully and easily maintain it from my shop. We'll see what that does for me this coming year and if I get fast enough maybe then my curmudgeoness will fade and I will demand the finest and most expensive tech.

In the mean time I put my BB7s back on, mounted the rotors on the new wheels, cabled everything up (quickly and easily) and threw the new grips on.

As is it comes in at about 22lbs even (just using a little home scale with me shouldering the bike). Not the most accurate measure but probably a good estimate on reality. It will be rideable with pedals, a chain, cog and cassette spacers which at most will add another pound or so. Not too shabby and as is I am about $400 richer without one of those upgrades on the horizon. That means plenty more funds for actual race fees, or gas or nutrition. So maybe I won't be going quite as fast as I could but I'll be able to easily afford to go slow way more often. Besides this is just more motivation to work harder...didn't end up spending the money to drop an extra 1000g? Better HTFU.

Black IPA...India Black Ale...Cascadian Dark

2011-12-29T11:20:00.002-05:00

To date I had been calling my next homebrew endeavor a Black IPA but as I have done some of my due diligence to familiarize myself with the style I have found that there is still some contention in the upper echelons of the Brew World as to appropriate naming and characteristics.

I had heard lots of chatter lately about this somewhat newer style that was making the rounds and I was intrigued. Seemed like a interesting mix of styles that I like. Turns out this is still pretty cutting edge as far as brewing goes and the community appears to still be 'hashing this one out'. Only analogy I can think of that more people might understand is dog breeds and the folks at Westminster. Just about everyone knows that there are 'x' official dog breeds as far as the governing body is concerned and every other dog is just a 'mutt'. Beer is kind of the same way. People mix and match styles all the time but every now again some sort mix differentiates itself for whatever reason and those characteristics are deemed desirable enough to want to repeat and over time new breeds or brews are declared 'official'. Its in that declaration that things get tricky.

Who mixed it/bred it first? What exactly should it be called? Should it be named by the founder or original brewer/breeder or by the governing body? Who the hell governs beer? Who really cares about any of this?

From what I can tell there is one camp who says a style that pretty much matches with this type of beer has been being brewed up in the Pacific Northwest for some time now which those folks have been calling a Cascadian Dark Ale. Some people have gone with the simple Black IPA because most of the style adheres to IPA qualities with the main difference being that it is black and not pale. Problem is the P in IPA stands for Pale. So that obviously leads us to removing that P for Pale and inserting a B for Black...India Black Ale. Seems the most logical thing to do to me. And don't get me started on the folks who think all this hoo-haa is really just an Imperial Stout in a fancy dress. So call it what you will...a rose by any other name right? Bill Shakespeare knew what was up.

6oz of 4 different types of hops: Cascade, Summit, Centennial & Chinook

I can't wait to go through this whole tirade every time someone asks me what I'm brewing currently or when they ask me what they are drinking. Maybe I'll just whip up some business cards with a QR Code that links to this post. What do you think Shaun, does that jive with your inbound sensibilities? Maybe yes, maybe no but I can guarantee it will be inbound to your stomach come Spring time. Sneak some up to Cannon and toast one on the deck in early April? See you there.

End of Year Gear Extravaganza

2011-12-26T12:39:00.000-05:00

Christmas has come and gone and now its time to look ahead to 2012 full force and mess with all my new gear of course!

I've got a full week of 'forced vacation' to mess with new toys, brew some beer, ponder upgrade choices, finally get some time on the slopes, etc., etc.

My race bike has begun to take its new form for next year, the bike shop has moved into the basement this year on account of I hate working on bikes in a 20 degree shed. FYI metal gets real cold when it sits out in the cold. I got a few new bits for xmas this year to get me rolling. I bought myself some new wheels before the holidays, my Dad got me a new crank/bb, and Gina got me a new stem and grips.

Wheels are Stan's ZTR Crests, running tubeless with some Maxxis Ignitors on there right now, I stuck with the 180mm Stylo cranks and a new Stylo Race stem. Not sure what makes a stem 'Race' but I'm sure I'll be faster now. I had contemplated hard about going to a full carbon fork but lately I have been waffling on that a lot. The fork I wanted was pretty expensive and I'm having a hard time mentally qualifying spending that much money in essence to just drop some weight and maybe increase some chatter absorption. I think dropping the weight in my wheels as well as running tubeless now with be enough of an improvement in that realm and I feel like spending some of the money I was saving for the fork on a nice set of hydro brakes might be a better investment. That way I improve the bikes weight and ride feel as well as its stopping power. Now I just need to figure out which brakes I am going to go with...

I am really liking the bikes weight right now and most of the stuff I need to add isn't very substantial weight wise: cog, chain, pedals, brakes, grips thats it.

I also scored all kinds of GoPro accessories. Very much looking forward to doing a bunch more filming this winter. I got the vented helmet mount for another angle while biking, a grab bag full of various mounts to mix and match and some of the moisture absorbing strips to try and combat those issues I had while filming the Mighty Chicken vid.

I'm also running a fairly hilarious inventory of Cytomax now as well as Clif Bloks and Stinger waffles. Or more appropriately murder juice, murder bloks and murder waffles.

As for beer, its been a long time coming but this week I will finally be getting my next batch going. A Black IPA with a full 6oz of hops! YeeHaaaaa, can't wait to drink some of that after a sweet day of spring skiing in a few months.

Cold Crank Challenge 2011

2011-12-10T14:54:00.001-05:00

A 29er! A 29er! My kingdom for a 29er!

Well the Y has been nothing but fun since I built it but today it met its match, at least with me riding it. We were a match made in hell today for sure. I think I may be able to take my work today and apply for a minor in Physics at PSU with all of the lessons I learned trying to pick 29er lines through the craggy stuff. I can totally ride that line! **explosion**. I guess from here on out if I want to go fast I need big hoops and no squish.

Luckily I at least got my layering right and surprisingly I was actually pretty comfortable during the race. A few short moments where I felt like I was overheating and a few short moments when I was cold, other than that comfortable. Can't ask for much better temp management than that trying to do hard cardio work outside on Dec 10th.

I rode the first half lap at the pace of / and choosing lines like I was racing my Redline. And I must have looked like a complete spaz. A local rider, Dave, told me I looked 'a little out of sorts'. Thanks for being nice Dave but lets be honest I'm sure I was way closer to jack-ass than out of sorts. I probably fell or dabbed about 126 times and finally decided this whole racing thing wasn't working out for me on this day and I slowed things up in an effort to not do something stupid and ruin my ski season. BUT I did make sure to air out a little drop every lap where they had a photog set up. I really hope I get to see some of those pics. I hit it 4 times so at least one of them has to be awesome. This whole thing was worth it if I can get a sweet pic of me tail-whipping a Y-frame. Ok fine there was no tail whipping but its still gonna be gnar (I hope).

it WAS all worth it!

The fast guys just started lapping me as I was finishing off what I decided was my last lap (I did 4, top guys got 5). Andy Gould came by and asked me if I was racing in the Duo Team division. Which is a different way of saying "Why are you going so slow?". But I will choose to interpret it as "Oh hey Kevin, I'm surprised to see you so far back in the field because usually you are pretty fast."

It's probably just as well that things weren't working out because the Y was starting to take a beating. I cleaned it off when I got home but didn't have the gusto to really get in there to check everything out but I'm fairly certain the rear shock may have cashed in its chips, I believe both hubs are loose and probably need rebuilds, brakes were definitely all screwed up. Oh well, it isn't likely I would be getting much more mileage this season anyway. I'm hoping to be on snow exclusively any week now.

The race itself went off great. Good turn out for Dec with about 50 riders in attendance. Course was challenging for sure. I didn't stick around for results or awards because of my lack luster showing but NEMBA Racing had a pretty good day with Shawn and Carl both in the top 10 (I think). Lis mentioned this was over double the turn out from last year. Good to see that MTB racing in NE is back in a big way, even in December.

Turkey Burner 2011

2011-11-25T16:19:00.001-05:00

The last few years the typical Burner has been about 38 degrees with a nice steady rain with maybe an inch of snow on the ground mixed in nicely with some mud.

This year was not the typical Burner

Gina had to be up pretty early for the Humane Society adopt-a-thon so I got an early start on Black Friday but for completely different reasons than all those other tools. I took the scenic Sanbornton route to avoid Tilton and got on my way down to Auburn, with a short detour through Heaven...

don't go towards the light!

Lots of the usual suspects in play: Bully, Carl, Alby, Andy Gould (our local/guide), Marty Allen and a few other young guns went out for our own little loop courtesy of some of Andy's local knowledge. Great stuff and much better than the double track cruise along the lake. Not that that cruise is bad but shredding a bit more singletrack at a good pace is always nice especially when unexpected.

I had made some slight tweaks to the Y since the maiden voyage at FFD last weekend. Different 175mm cranks made a HUGE difference. I would have been dead meat on some of the stuff we were on today with the 180's. I also changed up how the tension is applied and it works awesome and the chain felt smooth and didn't drop once. It was also nice to ride the bike at a good pace with good riders to see how it holds up under 'real' riding conditions and I am happy to report that the Y is the real deal. Probably to the point that I will indeed be dumping some additional funds into this thing at some point and it will probably be around for a bit longer than originally planned.

It is just plain fun to ride, a great addition to the stable. Very pleased. And you can't beat the looks in the parking lot.

Still getting used to the small hoops. Rode up to a stream crossing today and just went to own it and my front wheel got eaten for breakfast and I went down pretty efficiently and got my left foot completely soaked with freezing cold Nov stream water. I was worried that my day was quickly coming to an end and that my foot had maybe 30mins before turning into a solid block of ice. Good thing about riding with a group of mostly Elite riders is the constant pace and the resulting heat output.

I had to bail before hitting a bunch more of the classic FOMBA singletrack to head north and buy a new generator and get that squared away but it was a stellar day and a great way to start winding the riding season down. Skiing tomorrow!

Trek Y. Survey says!?...

2011-11-19T21:58:00.001-05:00

Gotta make some slight adjustments and tweaks but this thing is going to be DAMN FUN (except when you have to climb a lot).

Things I took away from today's ride:

- 180mm cranks work great on a 29er, not so much on a FS 26er. Had some serious issues with pedal strike. Probably going to have to figure out some alternative if I am going to ride this thing somewhat consistently. I might have something laying around that could work...

- Rear shock needs more air. Thought I had the sag dialed in correctly (and maybe I do) but I felt like I was riding a bit low.

- Bike is definitely too small for me, it works but I feel pretty scrunched up. A longer stem would help, I think I am going to see if my layback seatpost will fit for now to get me a bit more reach. OR I could throw my thudbuster on there. Suspension seat post on a full suspension bike? Go big or go home.

- I definitely noticed the increased maneuverability. When I converted to 29ers exclusively I jumped right in at the beginning of a season so I didn't have a close comparison period. Its nice to be able to whip the thing around but I still don't think that outweighs the other 29er benefits and I would still prefer a 29er in almost all riding conditions.

- DMR STS works great. I dropped the chain twice but that was due to it stretching considerably towards the end of the ride. I think if I take one more link out and readjust things it will be good to go.

The weather was phenomenal. November this year has been quite kind. Payback for a foot of snow the last weekend in Oct? Perfect Fall riding weather. I'd like to get on snow soon but if it stays like this I'm not going to complain. Tied Matt for the KOM on Mighty Chicken...at the very least I am hoping I'll get one more try to get bragging rights for the off season on that one.

URT Single Speed!

2011-11-16T21:42:00.001-05:00

Unbelievably Ridiculous Trek?

Something like that. I have to reserve a lot of judgement in this post for now because my only experience on this bike so far is on the stand and standing over it and doing track stands in the shed. But its complete! And I like the way it feels right now (other than the fact that suspension feels all wrong to me now)

The setup feels 'solid' and the fit seems like it should at least work for me. 26ers officially feel like clown cars to me now as well which will take some getting used to. I am really pleased with the DMR STS tensioner so far, again it hasn't been field tested at all yet but it was a snap to install and dial in. It practically dialed itself in and its adequately smooth and actually pretty quiet as well and the red roller matches the color scheme of the bike which is just a bonus.

I was able to at the very least test how the tension would react as the suspension did its thing and we are good to go. Unfortunately it is raining tonight otherwise I would have ridden it around the yard. I am hoping to sneak in a ride at Franklin Falls this weekend to see how everything performs on trail and I'll have a full report on all the pros and cons of my newest creation.

"That's a lot of frame"

2011-11-04T08:50:00.000-04:00

AND a spicy meat-a-ball! Got the Y11 all stripped down and cleaned up last night and daaaaayyyyyyuuuum is it looking good.

mike you will appreciate or hate that I took these pics with HDR, no epic landscape but doesn't that Trek just pop?!

Upon closer inspection everything is indeed in great shape. No hidden cracks, dings or other show stoppers. Even the old Judy fork is actually still working quite well and I stripped the decals so unless you look close you might think its a SID race. And really all that matters when you are riding a bike is that people THINK you are on really expensive weight weenie parts.

After cleaning it up and giving it some thought I have my plan at least for version 1.0 and based on what I've come up with I think it removes the eventual need for a 2.0, I think the end product will actually be pretty awesome and hopefully very rideable. I will be retiring the Redline for the season and stealing a few parts that are due for replacement anyway. The cranks/BB/pedals will come over (with a newer/used chainring I found in the shed). That BB is pretty whupped but will work just fine for this ride. I'm also stealing the stem because I want to use the old aluminum flat bars from the Redline from before my carbon upgrade and I need the oversize clamp diameter. I would just use the bars it came with but Naro, in true mid/late 90's form, rode his bars incredibly narrow (PUN INTENDED).

For some reason the rear canti studs and brakes were missing when I got the bike but luckily when you work on bikes long enough you amass tons of random tidbits that you keep in a bin. Including a few sets of canti studs and heaps of old V-brakes. Only real thing left was some sort of tensioner. Designs have evolved quite a bit from when I first converted and I had to do some tech vs. cost balancing.

I was very intrigued by the Yess ETR/V but the price point was just a tad too high and it actually seems a bit overbuilt for what I really need. But that vid demonstrating how it works with actual current full suspension designs is pretty impressive. I wanted to stay away from any spring actuated stuff because those never seem to hold up and almost always end in zipties. So I went with one of the simpler designs that I could find at a pretty reasonable price somewhat locally.

DMR STS (Simple Tension Seeker)

Slap it on, dial it in and then tighten it down. Changing rear flats will not be enjoyable but I really don't flat that often (knock on internet wood). Should have it in about a week and then the bike will be ready to ride for anything I get in before the real snow starts to fly. Showing up at the Turkey Burner on this thing could be real funny and if/when I do the winter race at Fort Rock this could actually be a good implement for that. Gina wants to call it 'HoneyBee', thoughts?

All Hallows at SMBA

2011-11-02T07:49:00.000-04:00

Shot on out to 'toga last weekend for some good 'ole SMBA shredding and some halloween good times. Got a pretty classic fall ride in on Saturday followed by all kinds of shenanigans Saturday night including winning scariest costume AND several inches of snow.

Got some ok footage using the chest mount. Last time I tried using it the angle was looking down too much. I added an additional linkage piece thing (what the hell are those things called?) to bump the camera out a bit so I could tilt it back a bit more to look more forward. Worked to a certain extent, if I'm sitting the angle is good but standing its still looking a bit more straight down than I would like. I think you really need the slacker geometry of a freeride or downhill bike for the chest mount to truly work. But I still got a fun little edit out of it...thank god I remembered to turn the camera on when Keith decided to do some beaver dam maintenance.

Fall Ride at SMBA from Kevin Orlowski on Vimeo.

Old URT Full Suspension Single Speed

2011-11-01T12:51:00.000-04:00

I really hope I'm starting a trend here. Well 'starting' probably isn't the right word but definitely facilitating on a regional scale at the very least. Full suspension single speed is nothing new but it is being pondered much more heavily lately at least as far as I can tell from my own blog reading and seeing the various new tensioner designs that are coming out.

I was of course drawn to the concept because its in that limbo area of not ideal, why would you build that, doesn't that defeat the purpose, dude are you nuts?! It's been in the back of my mind for awhile and lately I've been getting the itch for an off season fun build project. Two years ago was the goofy 96er monster cross which morphed into my now very functional touring bike last year. So now in a normal cycle I am back to 'goofy'. A few weeks ago the FS singlespeed idea popped back into my head so I started poking around for ideas.

I stumbled across some folks pondering the use of old URT (Unified Rear Triangle) bikes from the mid 90's or so. URT was one of the earlier rear suspension designs that has since been completely abandoned for the most part. Most contemporary designs are far superior with far more pro's and way less con's than URT. URT has one huge pro for this application however. URT bikes were sometimes also called 'floating drivetrain' because the bottom bracket was part of the suspension swing arm and would pivot along with everything else.

This keeps the distance between the cranks and the rear hub intact even when the suspension is doing its thing. No chain lengthening or shortening = SS friendly. So now I have a concept I like and is definitely a bit goofy now I just have to find a bike...

Queue memory banks and I have a flashback to poking around in the attic space above Naro's parents garage a few years ago looking for bike parts (how appropriate) and coming across a relic from years past that I thought was quite hilarious at the time. You guessed it, that relic was an old Trek Y11, one of the finest URT frames of it's time. A quick call to Naro along the lines of "is that thing gonna just sit up there for the rest of time?....if so can I frankenbike that thing and get it back SHREDDING?"...we work a quick barter deal and TA-DA!!!

It is in surprisingly awesome shape considering it is probably pushing 15 years or so. I'm still trying to decide how much $$ I actually want pour into this thing. I'm thinking more along the lines of giving this thing some hand me down parts and maybe a few fresh parts here and there. It would be nice to find some of the old purple/green/pink/ridiculous anodized parts from the mid/late 90's but finding stuff like that will probably be a lot of work. Maybe it makes sense to whip up a "version 1.0" just to see how it rides and then pimp out a version 2.0 later.

Recap Alert!

2011-10-28T10:32:00.000-04:00

Right around this time of year, at least for the last few years I've found myself taking a look back at how the race season went and dropping bombs on weird plans for the coming year. To date I've tagged sprint triathlons, almost slayed adventure racing only to be derailed by the Universe but the alternative opportunities that presented themselves in AR's absence have been pretty sweet so I'm not complaining.

NEMBA Racing has really come into its own this year and I am pretty motivated to stay heavily involved. Racing mountain bikes has a whole new aspect to it that makes it even more appealing to focus on now. I feel like I'm right on the cusp of being pretty fast and with the added motivation and support from a full blown team I think I might be able to make that jump. I've made continued improvements in my confidence with some of my placings this year and I'm thinking about actually upgrading some of my tech and dropping some weight from the bike for next year to try and give myself some of the advantages everyone else enjoys. Right now I'm thinking of a nice light carbon fork (I think I'm done with suspension for good) and finally going tubeless with some nice light hoops.

So next year I'll continue to attack the EFTA series looking for yet better results and maybe another top 3 in the overall. I want a sub 7hr NH100 and I would like to get in a 12 or 24hr now that I can pretty much guarantee I could field a 4 man team without even having to try that hard. I'm also thinking about making stabs at Singlespeed-a-palooza and I've heard chatter about SSUSA2012 being in VT...might be worth checking out.

I'm also interested in getting some big mile touring rides in next year. I really liked the challenge and adventure aspect of really big point to point rides. I'm thinking I'd like to try some sort of multi-day trek I just need to figure out something that makes sense. I recently found out about these guys, http://nerandonneurs.org/, and I am intrigued by the format. Only problem now is similar to mountain bike racing 5-6 years ago, I'm the only one I know looking into stuff like this with an appropriate bike ready to go. I'd settle for a few more big road rides next year, its always fun getting in a few big passes/gaps.

Off season training will be similar to years past, nothing too weird to get ready for tri's or AR just a whole lot of strength training to get ready for skiing and continue to build for next year. This winter is looking up, already flakes flying as well as whispers of some epic trips in the works. I'm hoping to increase my number of AT days this year as well as get some ridiculous camera courage with D-Bone and make the stupidest edit ever (pro callout).

It also is appearing like I have to take this blog up a notch. I have always sort of putzed along but on a recent check of my STATS it appears like I have gotten over 10% of my traffic over the last 5 years in the last month. (HI EVERYONE!) Not sure how I take things up a notch, more content? new content? should I buy a domain?

Sandown MTB Challenge

2011-10-23T16:51:00.001-04:00

More late season MTB racing! I love it! This one seemingly came out of nowhere, hadn't been on the radar at all heading into this weekend and while browsing EFTA for TVR results I noticed Maz has posted that he would be at the Sandown MTB Challenge with the EFTA tent...hmmm.

Initially I thought I was out of luck due to my plans to help Naro on his house this weekend but upon further review I realized that Sandown is just a few towns west of Kensington. I gave Chris a call to see what time he wanted to get going Saturday. He said he was looking forward to sleeping in a bit and Noon would be fine. Race is from 9am-11am...SCORE.

Right around now is when I started making some silly assumptions. For some reason I'm thinking smaller race, partnered with a little festival they probably want it family friendly so the course will probably be pretty mellow. I then looked at a really inaccurate topo map and convinced myself the race would be flat and fast. I threw the 18 tooth on figuring I would need it to keep from spinning out. Wrong on all counts.

Course had some fast sections but it was also fairly technical in spots, nothing crazy but a few tricky spots requiring full attention. Also a decent amount of punchy climbing as well as a longer gradual fire road climb that had me climbing very sluggishly with the 18. I had some issues with the punchy stuff as well because my tires were not handling the grease very well and as soon as I would try and get up and get those 1-2 good power strokes to get momentum for the up and over those strokes would just spin out and I would be running.

I got off to an ok start sitting 3rd behind EFTA regulars Andy Gould and Jesse Taylor. A few of the DG Cycles guys were yelling "Somebody tell that guy to shift!" at me heading up the first little rise. Eventually Mark Tucker got by me (per usual) never to be seen again until he half lapped me heading back from the second lollipop loop as I was heading in a few laps later. A short while later Doug Reid came by (another fast EFTA Sport rider, but could prob be Expert) I was able to hold his wheel through the back half of the first lap until we came to one of those tricky little sections with a blind bridge hidden behind a tree/rock in a little steep section. I had not pre-ridden and didn't know it was there. I was probably riding too close and too fast...Doug called the bridge out as he slowed sharply to make the slight turn. I came in pretty hot and the braking forces were too much and as soon as my already greased up tire touched the bridge it slid out and I rode off the side to crash fairly spectacularly.

Lost Doug's wheel and then hung out about 1-2mins behind him for the rest of the race in 5th. Things stayed that way for the remainder of the day. The 18 was wearing on me and I slowed a little each lap and finally cashed it in after completing 5 as I realized going out for 6 would get me nothing more than more mud. Andy and Mark came through 1st & 2nd a few minutes later finishing their 6th and were both greater men than I heading out for 7. My 5 laps was good for 5th.

why am I the only one without SOLO written next to my name???

(pic stolen from Mark)

scored some more pics from Mark & family of me lapping through. Thanks guys!

The race was pretty well organized for the size of the event. It's a good spot to facilitate a race. With some more trail work and a bit more mileage I could see this being an EFTA race. They would need to eliminate the short 'two-way' section of singletrack but that wouldn't be too hard with just a new small trail put in to turn that lollipop into a full blown loop. The festival was cool; food vendors and local groups were there as well as a little bluegrass trio complete with banjo and fiddle.

I forgot to request dueling banjos...next time.

This area of NH is REALLY into scare crows. Saw tons on the drive in. Quaint and HORRIFYING

We chatted with the promoter a bit after the race. She puts on one other race and its coming up on, I believe, Dec 10th at Fort Rock called the Cold Crank Challenge. That's right a winter MTB race at one of the most technical spots in New England. I'm not sure if she has any info up online yet but I am intrigued and will be sharing as I learn more.

Treasure Valley Rally EFTA NECS #8

2011-10-16T22:42:00.000-04:00

The 2011 race season is in the books. I am simultaneously a little bummed and very pleased with how it ended and simultaneously happy and very sad that it is over. I can very easily say this was the most fun I have had going through the season. Our now well established NEMBA Racing team makes race day much more enjoyable. It is funny now to think back to '06 when I decided to get back into racing, showing up week in and week out by myself, hardly knowing anyone finishing dead last in the SS class a good 30-45mins off the pack...such a sad story.

But now I know just about everyone who races a bike in New England and all that toil is finally starting to pay off.

I can't remember why I haven't done this race the past two years...maybe the usual proximity to the NH100? Last time I did it was '08. I remember that race fondly because it was a milestone in my racing career. I had come in third in the NECS the year prior due primarily to just showing up every race. I was knocking on third again but in order to keep my spot I had to beat someone I had never beaten before. Long story short, I was able to pull it off. That was the first time I started to think I actually had a shot at being as fast as the guys blowing me out by 30mins. Progress was being made, there was hope.

Fast forward 3 years and it is back to the TVR. I like this course, it is really hard and quite brutal to ride but it combines it all. You need legs, lungs, and spot on technical riding skills to do well. I had felt really good coming into this week and I was looking forward to just letting it hang out to see what I could do. I had almost even planned on not bringing tools/tube to save weight and go 'all in' from the start, luckily I changed my mind. The start was a little rushed but I think there were something like 10-11 SSers. I got a decent jump off the line and was sitting about 4th heading into the first section of the course.

I felt strong heading up the first few sections of climbing and heading into the first set of really technical sections I was hitting my lines and really liking my chances. Then as fate would have it I was railing a turn and there must have been a perfectly shaped sharp rock hidden by some leaves right in the trough I was using as a slightly banked turn. Usually I am soft enough on the bike to absorb shots like this one but because I was in the middle of a corner things were pretty locked out and there were a lot of forces in play. All those forces went straight from rock to rim and I knew immediately I was toast. I was able to ride it a bit longer but it started getting squirelly on me and I had to pull over just past a little rock wall. There were some other casualties in this area as well. I watched as all the SSer's and a line of Experts and then Sport riders ride by as I worked on changing my flat. Shaun came up about halfway through the fix after having some chain issues.

We had a chat about the state of the economy and then got back on the trail. Initially I was thinking the day had turned into 'just out for a ride' but eventually I started feeling a little 'randy' and decided I was going to stick to my original plan of hanging it out. I knew this course was gonna be hard for a lot of people to stick with for the full distance. It wears on you and if there is one strength I have compared to other riders it is the ability to take a beating. I was pretty sure if I stayed on the gas I would catch at least one of the guys who passed me so I set to it.

And its a good thing I can take a beating because I got one. It was fun though. One of those fun beatings. I was catching SSer's before long and that just made it more fun. I caught 2 during the end of the first lap and 2 more during the last lap. I spotted them almost 10mins and still almost finished where I had been when I flatted. Looking at results the two I caught on the last lap lapped through 5mins before I did. Bummed about the flat due to the 'what could have been' aspect but I couldn't be more pleased with how things went. Finished the race strong and the season strong.

Results: http://www.efta.com/PDF/results/2011/2011%20treasure%20valley%20results.pdf

Without that flat I think I would have been 4th by just a few minutes...but who knows.

The Making of 'Mighty Chicken: A Tribute'

2011-09-18T10:09:00.000-04:00

Almost 3 years ago Scott P., George L., myself and the Tilton School MTB team embarked on the beginnings of a trail project. A natural ravine at Franklin Falls was begging for more than just the trail shooting down the middle. Chicken Ravine needed an upgrade...

Our crew spent the morning roughing in what would become Mighty Chicken. It doesn't quite exist in the same form today as it did that day but its close. We have probably gone through a few minor tweaks and two more major revisions. Additional bench cutting, increasing the radius of a few of the turns for better flow and adding a new section on the end for a bit extra tech/excitement. I am pretty proud of what it has become. Franklin Falls has been attracting a lot of riders from all over New England lately and usually when bumping into riders in the parking lot they'll be asking how to get to Mighty Chicken.

The word is getting out and I felt it needed some proper documentation and some time in the Internet 'spotlight'. Plus I've wanted to try making a more planned out edit with the goPro for awhile but have just never had the time. I got a weird morning time window before an afternoon b-day party yesterday that wasn't long enough for any projects around the house but just about long enough to get an edit filmed. Or at least I hoped...luckily I was right.

I had a song in mind, and some ideas for shots I wanted in my head but no real concrete plan of attack. When I got on the scene I started walking the ravine trying to get everything straight in my head about how I wanted to go about this. Turns out keeping all this stuff straight is actually kind of hard. No wonder movies need like 500 people on set to spread the work around. I thought far enough ahead to bring a little notebook so I started drawing rough layouts with notes on where I wanted to get certain shots and then recording which video was which shot so editing would go quicker.

Each turn was numbered and I set up and got shots linearly as I went from top to bottom. It actually ended up being a pretty good workout because certain shots if I didn't really like the way I rode a section I would stop, dismount and run back up and ride it again trying to go as fast as possible to try and save on parsing and editing time later.

CUT! ok lets do that again. PLACES EVERYONE! PLACES!

Some of the shots I wanted required some MacGyver'ing. That's right up my alley so it was no issue. One bungee cord just about handled any tricky shots I needed. I used the goPro tripod mount exclusively and was only getting third person shots, nothing on the bike. Camera was either on the ground on in the trees.

tree-pod

Hey Dad does that tri-pod look familiar? I believe you rocked that in the 70's with your Nikon. I think its return on investment is doing fairly well. Trying to get things lined up was tricky at times. It is interesting trying to shoot a 'creative edit' without being able to look at anything you are getting until you get home. I goofed twice getting my finger in my first shot of the trail sign (didn't make the final vid, obviously) and getting the bungee cord in another shot. That one did make the vid because it was kind of crucial to connect the big sweeping turn 7 into the bottom half of the trail. Oh well. Considering I couldn't see any of the shots I was getting and I was rushing some of the setups due to our awesome second surge of mosquitoes thanks to Irene I thought it came out really well.

I got some weird condensation/hazyness in a few of the shots, not really sure why. The temps were swinging pretty strong. It was probably 40 when I got started and almost 60 by the time I was done. Not sure if that was it or not. Kinda bummed because a few of the shots are lower quality because of it but it does add a weird kind of surreal effect that sort of works I guess.

I'm going to call this a success though. Decided I was gonna try it Friday morning and I'm posting a finished product Sunday morning that I'm pretty proud of. Not half bad. Enjoy. I'll embed it here but I think its better to watch it at Vimeo with more resolution...just sayin'.

Mighty Chicken: A Tribute from Kevin Orlowski on Vimeo.

Bear Brook Hero Ride

2011-09-05T08:56:00.000-04:00

Nowadays between primarily leading weekly NEMBA rides and getting together to ride with friends I don't often find myself suiting up for friendly hammerfests. This year has changed that a bit. My involvement with NEMBA Racing has gotten me connected with plenty of folks that love to suffer and are hellbent on getting faster. Not a bad thing but man does it hurt.

Shawn Smith (AKA the Ride Bully) is exceptionally adept at attracting fast riders to his rides and he loves planning BIG days and seeing how the cards (or riders) fall. I was on the fence about this one because I had some stuff to get done around the house but Saturday I was very efficient and was able to free myself up to tag along. Unfortunately for me I started scanning the email thread and the roll call was looking like a bunch of fast guys and some even faster guys for good measure (like guys who race Pro/Elite and two Expert Vet I podium finishers at the NH100, 1st and 3rd, fast). It's been awhile since I've been one of the slow guys in a group ride of 8-10.

But this is good, I feel like I've plateaued a bit lately. I've been getting stronger every year but I'm at that point where if I want to get any faster I have to find some local heroes and get on their wheels, or try to get on their wheels anyway. Today was tough, the heat was actually pretty brutal for Sept and the pace was constant, not blistering but always fast.

I got off to a really ridiculous start, ride was almost over before I even made it a mile. We were cruising along in the equivalent of a neutral rollout (15mph on flatish singletrack) and I was chatting with Steve about how wide his seatstays were on his new SS and then I was on the ground looking back at Carl asking him what the hell just happened. Turns out I struck my pedal on a stump and my bike stopped dead and I went flying. Quite hilarious really. It happened so fast I had no clue, just a loud noise and me airborne. For reference imagine securing a braided steel cable; one end to your bike and the other end to a 4 ton cement block in the parking lot. The cable is about 4 tenths of a mile long...now ride away from the parking lot at a brisk pace. Unfortunately because we hadn't even gotten a mile away from the parking lot my goPro was not on...woe is me.

Banged up my left knee a bit on impact but it was decent for the rest of the ride (stiffening up nice now though). I think the heat was affecting some of my trail awareness and reaction time because I was having a real issue with pedal strike all day which is usually never an issue. And my pedals are now totally whupped, they were old as it was but now one of the bearings sounds like a duck quacking when you spin it.

Unfortunately I hit the stop button on my Garmin with one of my appendages while I continued forward and my bike did not so my data got a bit messed up because it took me awhile to notice. My legs felt pretty good. Most everything else didn't though thanks to the heat but I've got some good post NH100 fitness going. Hopefully I can stay strong through the last few races of the year. I am really looking forward to some 60 degree riding temps after today. Can't wait for Fall riding.

Made a quick edit with the footage I got. Tried a new angle but didn't want to mess with it much because I was too busy trying to keep up with those damn speed demons. I'm not sure how I feel about the new angle. I like the perspective but it does a hell of a job flattening everything out. Even the steep techy descents look basically pancake flat. Kind of a bummer, I was hoping some of the footage was going to look much better, but I like how it came out. Time to drive some traffic to NEMBA Racing...for the vid go here.

'Bout Damn Time Pumpkin Ale

2011-08-29T13:37:00.000-04:00

Been throwing a fall festival at my house for years and never brewed a pumpkin ale. Not sure what that's about. Hopefully this batch will make up for things.

Base is a fairly run of the mill Amber Ale. About 6lbs Amber malt extract and 1lb of Pilsen, 1oz of Cluster hops and 1oz of magic pumpkin powder added at the end of the boil. There is something about those pumpkin pie flavorings (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, etc.) that go so well with beer. The wort smelled so good while I was cooling it I wanted to drink the whole thing.

I also plan on adding a bit more of the pumpkin magic when I transfer it to secondary in a about a week or so. Shouldn't change the flavor much but it should add a nice pumpkin pie aroma to the finished product. I'm hoping the result is equal parts:

Sad to see Summer go, but I dig Fall real hard and I have a feeling this year is gonna be a good one.

**UPDATED**

Homebrewer's lesson #3,973: Be sure to count not only your bottles but also your caps.

I bought a big bag of caps eons ago that I have been using for a long time now. Long enough that I just got used to them being there and figured they would just never run out. So I'm just about to start sanitizing all the bottles when I remember I need to throw the caps in the sanitizer as well. I pull the bag out and do the classic..'uh oh'. I'm about 10 caps short of what I need, which with the big boy bottles is about 20 beers short.

Luckily I have a few flip top bottles that I could use to supplement but they aren't as big so I still needed to figure something out. Didn't want to waste too much of the batch so it was scramble time. Gina got home as I was pondering what to do and came up with a smashing idea:

Beer in Ball Jars...I'm OK with it

They may or may not seal but they have a sporting chance and they'll be guzzled down in about 2 weeks anyway. And even if they don't really condition at all, beer in Ball jars is perfect for Squamtoberfest.

I tried a bit and I'm pleased. The pumpkin aspect is subtle but there. Its a bit more like a Long Trail Harvest than a really pumpkin'y ale like Shipyard's Pumpkinhead. I think peeps will like it and if they don't I will.

NH100 2011

2011-08-21T19:35:00.001-04:00

It's Business Time

Another year in the bag! And another evening of having weird stomach issues and strange body temperature fluctuations while I try and replace the 6,000 calories I just burned up.

I was pretty excited about this year edition. The race picked up a lot of cred since last year and got itself added to a few Pro Series and it attracted some pretty big time names: Manuel Prado, Tinker Juarez and lots of local hot shots looking to mix it up with the big boys. Field was quite a bit larger this year as well which is nice to see.

Camping set up was nice and eventually it ended up getting pretty crowded. Nice little tent city going. It was a great afternoon to just hang out and mentally prep for the big day. Lots of lounging by the tent and eating.

a-very niiice, yes?

Got to chat with Maz as he rode around with his 666 number plate. The man is a character and great to have around the local race scene. I actually slept fairly decent. About as good as you could expect to when you forget your sleeping pad. Luckily I had a big beach blanket to put down. Up at 5:15 to start getting things situated, loaded up, stashed, dialed, etc. I went with a fairly hilarious/ingenious(?) method for transporting and delivering my no-cramp pills. Actually ended up working really well although the first time I went to grab some I dropped two on the ground. Good thing I knew that was going to happen and brought extras!

and now I'll already have one for when I get REAL old

This year I went without the camelbak and just rode with two bottles and stashed two bottles each in the two drop bins for feeds 3 and 5. I figured between that and getting water and gatorade at the other feeds I would be fine. And I was right. Plenty of fluids and ditching the weight of the pack made a HUGE difference. I actually was very pleased with how I managed my nutrition this year. I'm getting pretty familiar with what my body needs and how it reacts and I'm starting to get better and noticing weird feelings early and trying to head them off. I had a 1hr repeating timer set on my watch to remind me to take pills which worked out well. I was also telling D-bone when to take his pills which probably sounded funny to anyone riding near us. **beepbeepbeep** Dustin take your pill...OK.

My stomach did eventually turn on me at about mile 53(ish) and I almost puked at the top of a long steep climb. All of a sudden it went on me and I was leaning over and it almost came up. I tried to stay quiet a bit and drank and ate much slower and in smaller amounts and luckily it came back around and I was able to finish without bonking.

off to see the wizard!

the wonderful wizard OF PAIN

The course was in really good shape considering all the precip we got earlier this week. Weather was actually fairly ideal as well. Overcast and high 50's low 60's to start and it didn't really start heating up until about the powerlines at mile 25 or so. For the rest of the day it was just fine in the shade but the direct sun was brutal. Dustin and I stayed together for a pretty long time, shared the work a bit. Definitely took your mind off the suffering having a partner in crime. The actual racing wasn't super eventful. I took a rock in the shin at one point. Got kicked up on a descent and got me pretty good. Decent gash and when I looked down about 10secs after it happened it looked like it had been bleeding for several minutes. Luckily it got gummed up with mud and crap shortly after and eventually went numb so no big deal.

The SS class started in the last wave with the other 'specialty classes' (clydes, tandem, first timers) which wasn't really ideal but it was kinda nice for the mental game to be catching and passing people all day instead of the other way around. We were on a really good pace early on (most everyone is) but we caught some high finishing SSers on the powerlines and at one point might have even been top 5 on course. But those wheels eventually got away on the back half of the course. Thinking back now I think I made some tactical errors and should have put a bigger emphasis on holding at least one or two of those wheels but we lost one on a pee break (had to happen if not then, later so no big deal) and the other snuck away when we missed a turn and went a tiny bit off course. Closing gaps in a race like this is risky though. Even a few hundred yards can require a TON of work and if you go too hard too many times too early that could be it and if your body goes, even 5 mi out from the finish you will lose a lot of time.

Could we have gotten that wheel? Maybe. Would the effort have been too much and hurt us later? Hard tellin'. I'm not too worked up about it, there were a lot of wins today. Dustin and I had decided to stay together as long as possible and if something eventually happened or if someone bonked and turned into a boat anchor that we would do our own thing. That 'thing' presented itself as a cramp for Dustin at about mile 52. I rounded a corner and looked back and he was not in sight, I slowed a bit and eventually I could see him but it was pretty obvious he had lost his punch. When it goes, it goes not much you can do except wait it out and hope things work themselves out. I trudged on ahead and was actually feeling quite a bit better than I thought I would at that point. Then I almost puked (see above) but luckily I was able to get that under wraps. Still couldn't get much in my stomach but luckily the mileage was ticking off and I didn't have much farther to go.

Cruised through the last feed, got a gatorade and took off for the last 5mi or so. I gassed it a bit remembering mostly downhill singletrack to the finish. I remembered wrong, go figure. There were still a few kicks to the nuts left out there but not quite enough to put the final nail in my coffin. I had really wanted to get that 7h milestone but it was becoming apparent I wasn't going to make that but 7h15m looked plausible but I was gonna have to hurt a bit. So I went at it, trying to steal speed whenever and wherever I could get it. I tried a few times to run/jog the hills but that pretty quickly cramped my calves. It was coming down to the wire and I knew I was close. I was gassing it as hard as I could around the final parade lap but my Garmin ticked over 7:15 and I stopped it at 7:16 and change when I crossed (good for 9th out of 12 or 13). Timers said I got 7:22 but I'm not sure I buy it. I'm hoping that was the unadjusted time based on when the Pro's started.

There are still people around!

this about sums it up

Either way my time last year was 7h58m so I'm pretty pumped on the improvement. Two different bikes though. Which is harder riding a rigid SS or a rigid geared bike that is 10lbs heavier? Finishing times seem to solve that one, but I'm sure I'm also stronger this year. I remembered to hit the lap button at each feed (sort of, a few times I hit it just a bit down the way when I remembered to) and its funny to see the average speeds during certain sections. The elevation profile tells the story buts its interesting to see just how slow we were going for awhile. Really fast early, coming down to more normal, and then barely faster than a walk after mile 44 or so until the last 5 miles of singletrack.

Final NH100 Shakedown

2011-08-14T12:22:00.000-04:00

One week out and I'm still messing around with gear...uh oh. Hopefully it won't backfire on me but I don't have much choice. This weekend ended up being a shakedown of sorts both for my fitness and for my setup. There have been pluses and minuses with both but I think I'm probably the best prepared I have been for this race in the the 3 years I've done it.

Ive gotten in a really good chunk of miles starting from the last week in July, about 200 in 2 weeks at one point. This weekend I felt good on the bike but my mix of fitness is different than it was 4-5 weeks ago. I've lost a bit of my top end and explosiveness and my acceleration feels pretty sluggish on singletrack. Luckily I don't really need much of that for the 100. Leg strength feels good and my recovery rate is probably the best its ever been. This weekend I have been trying to sit and muscle climbs at a slower cadence. Went better than expected because I prefer to do the opposite. Being able to stay seated will help on the loose stuff we'll be on and it also helps me stay aerobic. With my slow twitch fitness I have right now I feel like if I keep my heart regulated and try to just tempo ride I should be able to go for a pretty long time at a constant (hopefully decent) pace. Climbing like that hurts but my legs have been clearing lactic acid really well lately so I'm going to try and go that route. It feels slower but in the long run I think it will pay off.

Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to ditch my Ergon grips for this race. I've been having issues keeping them from slipping on my new carbon bars. I have tightened them down as hard as I am comfortable doing with carbon (and hard enough to blow some threads out of one of the lock rings) and they are still slipping under harder loads. Can't risk that on those fast washed out descents. Not excited about changing grips 7 days out after being on them all season but I'll be able to deal with any blisters or hot spots, I might not be able to deal with whatever happens if they spin and I crash. Not sure what I'm gonna go with, probably at the mercy of local shops inventory because I won't have time to get something shipped.

Gonna drop the rear wheel off this week to get tightened up. It's still true but a lot of the spokes feel flexy and I don't want to risk taking a hard shot and having several spokes fail all at once. Other than that the bike is working well. BB is smooth, brakes are dialed. Only thing left to figure out is the nutrition plan for this year. Been having thoughts about racing without the camelbak this year. I think I can do it, its just a matter of figuring out what to drop at which feed station. I'd really like to keep that weight off my back if possible. I've also been trying to think of a way to manage and easily distribute my 'no-cramp' pills during the course of the race. It came to me on today's ride...

I pill per slot taken once an hour with maybe a few extras in the last slot in case things get ridiculous. Should stow relatively nice in a jersey pocket. D-Bone you want me to pick you one up as well? I got plenty of pills to go around...PILLS ARE GOOOOOOD.

Monocog 'Comfort' Model

2011-08-04T08:50:00.001-04:00

The Monocog needed some love pretty bad since Moody Park it also needed some mods to prepare for the NH100 coming up in a few weeks. This is the first year I'll be trying the 100 on my 'daily racer'. First go at it was on the Kona in a 9 speed config and last year was the 34lb fully geared Monster Cross. I'm looking forward to seeing how my body handles such a long hard effort on the SS. I have been avoiding riding the 100 on a SS because I wasn't sure if I was up to it. But this season I have been putting up results and pulling off rides that I was not sure I was capable of, so here we go.

So what mods were made to prep for this suffer'fest?

First I dropped off my saddle with Eric from Chainline Cycles to have him reupholster it. The liner was starting to fray and I was worried the foam was going to start going. Eric has done a few of his saddles that I have seen and they come out pretty nice. He, like me, found a model of saddle that is super compatible with his particular grundle and is never looking back so he just relines them over and over. He uses this synthetic material that they upholster boats with. Waterproof, durable and you can heat shrink it a bit for a nice snug fit. And its available in all kinds of colors. He asked me what I wanted and I said he could pick...mistake? I'm gonna try and swing by this afternoon to see if it's done.

Next was some general maintenance, namely a full bottom bracket rebuild. I did a lazy one a while back but this time I went to town. Pulled everything out, thorough cleaning and regrease and then snugged everything back up. Happy to report its spinning like new again. Haven't been able to hop on it yet to see if the creak is gone but I'm 90% sure it will be.

Parts swaps were next. Re-geared back to 32-19. For now I'm happy that I'm strong enough for the 18 in just about all scenarios but I definitely prefer to be at a higher cadence than I can manage with the 18 currently. For now the 19 is still my magic gear. 18 is probably a better choice for the 100 with the fast first 10-15 miles and I would imagine most other SS'ers will be racing that. I think I would lose much more time walking more of the back half of the course with the 18 than I'll lose spinning out early with the 19. I also threw the Thud Buster back on.

Hopefully it will Bust some of the Thuds

The only reason I stopped using this post was because of the annoying rattling and clicking sounds it would make. I was constantly worried my entire drivetrain was about to fall off when riding it. But I do really like the action on it and it's great in the chattery stuff. Just enough give to take the sting off but not make you feel all bouncy. I have some things I'm going to try to alleviate some of the sounds coming from it hopefully they work and I won't spend the whole race looking between my legs trying to figure out what is about to fall off my bike.

Also went with the double bottle config. Groundbreaking, I know. But I've been thinking about nutrition for this year and I'm trying to figure out ways to do this without a camel back. The 100 has offered the ability to drop care packages for yourself that will be trucked to certain rest stops. I have never taken advantage of them in years past but I'm thinking that might be the way to go to try and keep some weight off my shoulders. Just seems a bit risky...it will also probably depend on the weather that day. I'll continue to ponder for the next few weeks.

Finished things off with an upgrade. In an effort to increase the comfort a bit and take away some of that sting that I have come to love so much I got myself a nice carbon bar upgrade.

Easton's EC70 is a nice wide flat bar that was almost the exact same width and sweep as my old bars. I've read all kinds of reviews that they are great at absorbing vibration, I'm hoping it's true. They are nice and light too (not that I care that much) but I'm sure I more than gained the weight back with the Thud Buster. I'm more concerned with smoothing out the trail a bit anyway.

I'll get some pics of the saddle up as soon as I get it back, hopefully in a pink leopard print colorway.

Cyclo-Tour to Andro'fest

2011-08-01T09:02:00.001-04:00

Kind of strange typing this up so matter of fact now having only really come up with the idea to do this ride maybe a week or two ago. I've wanted to do a bigger loaded tour like this ever since I started building weird monster cross bikes for that dirt road ride a few years ago. Most of those weird bikes were never really ideal until this latest build and these kind of rides are difficult to pull off, especially with no experience.

When Joe mentioned this weekend was gonna be this year's Andro'fest and his last weekend on the east coast for awhile I figured attendance was a must. Trying to ride my bike there almost immediately popped into my head. Scenario seemed perfect: definitely a long challenging route, and I'd be arriving to tons of people making tons of food, and I'd have a ride home. Might as well hang a curve ball right in my wheelhouse...c'mon. I mapped a route out that seemed pretty doable on paper (or on the computer screen as it were) and basically just decided I was doing it before I even checked to see if I had everything I needed or if I could even really load my bike up realistically. Ask Joe, all he got was a weird email shortly after he told me about it asking if he could give me a ride home and if he had room for a bike.

Luckily I did have all the gear I would need...maybe not the most ideal gear weight and functionality wise but it would definitely due and I made my first attempt at loading the bike up earlier this week and things seemed to work and felt solid. I took a quick 5mi ride around the house with the tent and sleeping bag loaded on and it seemed just fine. News Flash: some clothes, tools, food and water add a lot more weight. When the bike was finally REALLY loaded up for the trip it weighed quite a bit. I never actually weighed it to avoid the mental anguish of actually knowing what I was hauling but ask Pog he got to try and pick it up still fully loaded right after I arrived.

just before departure 5:30am loaded to the gills

The clearance to the fender on that downtube mounted bottle was pretty nice, 1mm at best. Hit the road with the sun to ensure I got to work with the maximum amount of daylight if needed. But I mounted a light just in case I needed more than 15hrs (good god). It also was nice to have it flashing first thing in the morning. For the few motorists on the road they probably were not on the look out for a cyclist at that hour on a Saturday. Got off to a nice easy pace, riding through the morning fog/haze. Temps were nice for riding, although I did rock a wind vest for the first hour or so. That vest almost caused the first major mishap of the ride only 20 or so miles in. I attempted to take the vest off on the bike while riding, something I have done before on many occasions both on this bike and my road bike...no problem. However, unless you are a highly experienced cyclotourist who has loaded bikes many times and is skilled in the art of perfectly balancing your gear when you let go of the bars they will turn.

At least part of my brain was half expecting this so I was able to save things before I went down but it must have looked pretty funny to anyone watching. Decided to come to a stop and get the vest off safely before continuing. Besides that incident the early portion of the ride went great. I was keeping a great pace, much faster than expected and everything felt good. Great views of Chocorua heading into the Conway area. I hit some heavier traffic in the N. Conway area as all the early risers tried to be the first ones to the outlets. I also hit a solid wall of wind that didn't quit for the rest of the ride. I'm not the best at gauging wind speeds but if I had to guess I think it was easily a sustained 10-15mph with stronger gusts for the final 80mi of the ride. JOY. I had been hoping for a nice gentle cruise from N. Conway to the base of Pinkham Notch, instead I got to battle the wind the whole way.

Pinkham Notch was about what I expected. Never very steep but long and relentless. Starting at about the turn onto Rt. 16 in Glen to the top is just about 10mi of sustained climbing. The wind made a few of the slopes feel a bit steeper than they were and I was definitely feeling the additional weight. But man those views. It's different on a bike than in a car. Plenty of time to take it all in when you are climbing at 3-4mph. Finally made it to Pinkham Notch and my glorious 10 straight miles of descending into Gorham and some lunch.

Got to ride with a guy for a bit heading over the top and descended with him a bit. Nothing like a friendly conversation at 35mph. Highlights were his comments about how my friends are pussies for not riding with me and meeting me at the campground instead and asking whether I thought my wide handlebars caught too much wind. I told him they didn't catch any more than the huge sleeping bag mounted between the drops. He laughed and then promptly dropped me.

Stopped in Gorham to grab a quick lunch, stretch and replenish my water. There was a gradual climb into Berlin and once I got past that Rt.16 is fairly remote and hugs the Androscoggin so it stays fairly flat for the rest of the way. Cell service pretty much ended at that point so most people probably thought I died shortly after Gorham because I went Twitter silent. The last 40mi or so were basically just a grind. Lightly rolling terrain that I just tried to tick along. My speed had normalized to about a 13mph average after Pinkham and that seemed doable so I just kept things right there. No need to try and push any harder. I was on schedule with plenty of daylight to use if needed.

I was getting a bit uncomfortable on the bike but honestly I was expecting it to be much worse. I did my best to stretch on the bike and change my position regularly. Some of the light rolls in the road past Errol in the last 12mi turned into 'massive climbs' but I have plenty of gears on that bike and I used them all. Rolled into the campground at almost 10hrs ride time flat. Immediately spotted the circus tent and b-lined it. Pog was the first person I spotted who handed me a Coors that had magically exploded/opened itself in his cooler just before my arrival. Thanks Universe. Got the tent set up, changed and took a sweet sweet ice bath in the Andro.

Then I fished for bubble gum in a bowl of whipped cream with my face but that is a story for another day...

Riding Smuggler's Notch (on a road bike)

2011-07-25T09:31:00.000-04:00

I was hoping to get another bigger road ride in this year after our Gonzo/Kinsman ride earlier this year and Shaun and I decided our Thanxmas planning trip to VT was a good time to put a loop together. I was looking for some NH100 training miles and Shaun was looking for his first big mileage/gap climb ride.

I randomly spec'd a loop leaving from Jake and Tara's house heading north and east on mostly state routes and then heading back south up and over Smuggler's Notch down to Waterbury and back over to Williston. Ended up being a great loop just shy of 70 miles. And I stuck with our now new tradition of accidentally picking a road with a short dirt section without realizing it.

We left early to try and beat the heat. It was the correct strategy. Things were quite manageable early and we were more than halfway done before things started to get a bit oppressive. The climb was perfectly located in almost the exact middle of the loop so we had a nice 20ish mile warmup before the right hand turn onto route 108. The climb sort of starts right at the turn in Jeffersonville. Somewhat mild at first and a bit rolly but gets more aggressive as you get closer to the ski resort. To be honest I thought the climb was going to be harder. This climb actually was the type that suits me fairly well. Pitches were decent but nothing too crazy with a few areas where the slope shallowed out a bit so you could recover a tad. The terrain was really cool. The actual gap was completely overgrown like a jungle with some exposed rock faces and small waterfalls. The road is closed in winter and narrows down to about a lane and a half (if that) as youre going up and over.

We stopped at the top for a quick gel and then got to descending. This is where things got a bit loose. I did enough recon and research to know there were steep switchbacks on the Stowe side and with the narrow roads you had to be really cautious but I of course wasn't quite sure just how technical it was going to be. I have done some fast descending in the past but I have never done anything quite like this. There were several places where I really wanted to be in more control of what I was doing and it just wasn't happening. Brakes were maxed and starting to chatter and skid a bit. Very exhilarating. I made it through the switchback section unscathed, Shaun was not so lucky.

He laid it down in the 3rd or 4th switchback after a few Hail Mary recoveries it finally came undone for him. All things considered his crash went fairly well. Bike escaped relatively fine, minus a bunch of pedal scuffing. And he picked up some rash on his elbow and ass and ripped his brand new race kit. We're devising ways to appropriately patch them.

Luckily the rest of the ride was a bunch more descending and then just rollers and flats. So it was mostly a cruise home from that point on. We traded short pulls a bit on Route 2 so we wouldn't bonk with the headwind and heat. Struggled up the last little Cat 5 climb right before home and snuck in with a time around 4hrs for the day with an average speed of 17mph. Not blazing, but decent for the ride that it was with a crash in the middle. I'm sure Shaun is now ready to start racking up all the major New England climbs.

Next up (pending some testing of gear configurations) is a massive ride up into the nose bleed section of NH and Maine...stay tuned.

The Horror at Harding Hill EFTA NECS #7

2011-07-17T22:03:00.000-04:00

The Tale of Two Gear Ratios.

In the words of that wicked old knight from Indiana Jones...I chose poorly. I was feeling strong after our big KT trip last weekend and confident about trying to run a bigger gear this year for this race. I ran the 32-19 last year and gambled on the 32-18 this time around.

The good news is I am strong enough to push that gear for a long time up some decent climbs in some oppressive heat. A few years ago I don't think I would be able to say that, so there's a win. The bad news is I can't push that gear very fast up some decent climbs in some oppressive heat. Couldn't get the leg speed up and was having a lot of issues generating momentum let alone keeping it. Course was a lot more chattery than I remember as well which also created some issues maintaining speed for me. Course and conditions were pretty identical to last year so I was able to pull some decent comparisons of my data from both races.

This year is on the left and last year is on the right. 1st lap times were somewhat comparable but things fall off pretty quickly after that. I'm bummed I made this goof because I feel much stronger than last year, if anything I think I should have (and would have) been 4 mins faster not 4 mins slower. Its surprising to me the difference one tooth on that cog can make. I spent some time looking back at results and comparing things and I'm beginning to think this course and me are not a good match. Each year it is typically a low spot for me as far as how I compare with my competitors. This year I was beat handily (15+min) by a rider who I have beaten several times this year. Oh well, it was a good training ride. Felt like 2hrs in the gym doing squats non stop.

Things got going with the mass start up a grassy hill...WEEEEEE! I was about mid pack sucking dust from the dry fireroads kicked up by le peloton. Just like the tour, nervous first lap jitters caused a pile up. Fairly hilarious...looked just like the tour too. From my point of view I just saw a bike shoot up in the air and then a bunch of dudes tip over. Everyone started screaming pile up! and trying to find weird routes around the carnage. Initially things felt good, gear was good on that first flatter high speed portion of the course. Then we hit that first doubletrack climb after a sharp right hander. And I immediately knew I was in trouble. I got up it just fine but my cadence was too slow and I knew I was in over my head and looking at a long day in the saddle.

Shaun caught me shortly after and we cruised together for about a lap and a half. There was still one other SSer off that back with us so I decided my new goal was to race that one guy and forget about everything else. He was good on the climbs but I could pass him in the small techy sections so I figured if I could keep him close enough I could pass him late in the last lap. Heading into the third lap I was getting a bottle when Shaun came through. I asked where Shaun thought he was, I was fairly certain he hadn't passed me but Shaun claimed he was about 30secs in front of him. That was all I had left keeping me going so I took off trying to find him.

Then about 10mins later the guy catches me from behind. Thanks Shaun! You'll get better with that whole who am I racing and where are they compared to me stuff next season maybe haha. I was able to hold him through two more climbs but the one that killed me every lap allowed him to get out of sight and I couldn't claw him back on that descent and that was it. Last lap was solo just out for a cruise, a really hot horrible cruise.

Came in just under 2hrs and snagged 10th for a few points. Yippee. Gonna change gears a bit and start training for the 100 for the next few weeks.

My Long Weekend

2011-07-10T21:18:00.001-04:00

**UPDATE** - Here are some pics

Oh good lord. There is no way I can recap my last 4 days in any sort of manageable bloggular form. So I'll just let a few pics and the data do the talking. Started things off with a great NEMBA ride Thursday evening in Concord.

bet you didn't know you could get vert like this in Concord

Natalie dropped Shaun off in Concord, I picked him up and we escaped up to East Burke, VT and the Kingdom Trails for a long weekend. Shaun and I set up camp at the Burke Mtn. Campground before the rest of the horde arrived.

soon to become canopy village '11

This is where things get a bit too awesome to translate so here is all of my ride data since Thursday:

Even as awesome as all of that was we had to turn things up a notch before heading back to the real world. Lake Willoughby is basically off the charts and borderline fake in my mind. Just a little too unique/grand/amazing to truly be real.

I mean c'mon

All out in Moody Park EFTA NECS #5

2011-06-26T19:30:00.001-04:00

They haven't run this race since '08 when this happened. I really liked this course and I was bummed when it got destroyed in '08 due to a huge thunderstorm the day before and the trails not drying out in time before we turned them into so much mud soup.

Unfortunately in its first year back an almost identical scenario played out with a very wet week prior to race day and the trails not having time to drain. Aaaaaand then this happened.

It's hard to remember back to '08 but I think this year might have been worse. Temps warmed up a bit today just enough to dry some of the mud out and make it that lovely heavy peanut butter glue, with some really soupy spots here and there.

Smaller SS field today, only 6 of us got started after the Elites. Got off to a decent start, riding 3rd around the parade lap and into the woods. Held that position about halfway through the first lap and then got passed by Mark Tucker. Things were hashing out exactly how I had guessed based on the names I saw pre-registered. I was behind who I thought I would be behind and in front of who I thought I would be in front of. So I just got down to ticking things out. And by that I mean walking a good portion of the course, riding where I could. My brakes weren't really functioning all that well which made things pretty interesting. Rear brakes were 100% gone and front brakes could only stop me if I was going pretty slow. You could use the mud to slow yourself down a bit but that was unpredictable and didn't always work as expected. Surprisingly I didn't have one epic crash though. Kept things upright all day.

Got to ride off an on with the Ride Bully. He had some tire issues on lap one and then probably just gave up the ghost and was just going for a cruise otherwise I don't think I would have caught him on the last lap. We chatted a bit, mostly about how much fun we were having. Then a singlespeeder had to go and catch me while Shawn and I were enjoying a nice discussion. I've been beating this guy this year but not by all that much and I knew he would be back there lurking but I thought I had enough of a buffer to be able to just keep on trucking home without really needing to push too hard. Wrong. The three of us trudged through the mud through one of the walky sections. Little did he know (or probably care) I was secretly gauging his condition while we made small talk.

We were walking the same speed and when we got to a short rideable section I let him come through and I noticed his riding style was a bit "loose" and he almost crashed twice. That's what happens when you are pretty tired. Shortly after the rideable section I gave a short burst of running a try to see how quickly he would try and stay with me. He stayed on but he didn't rush to close the small gap I created. This made me think he wasn't quite game for a full on slug fest and if I actually gave it some gas on the uphill rideable section coming up I might get away. That was the plan and when we got out onto the first section of doubletrack I 'put the hammer down'. It wasn't quite as impressive as that terminology but it was effective. The gap opened up quickly and by the big switchback that allowed a peek back he was nowhere in sight. I was hoping the out of sight out of mind would kick in and he would give it up but I didn't want to risk it so I kept it on until the Gravity Cavity and then I just went into slowly but surely mode and tried to keep moving without cramping.

I probably put way too much thought into those tactics but thats what its all about at the amateur level. Taking little race scenarios and blowing them way out of proportion so as to increase you're own personal GNAR. Crossed the line with a hilarious time of about 2h41mins. Then I proceeded to just stand around not knowing what to do because I was covered in so much mud.

I held my position and came in for 4th of 6. Bike is fairly annihilated and I will probably have to strip it down and build it back up this week. Probably going to need new brake pads and some fresh applications of grease in the appropriate areas. Lots of teammates were taking pics on course, I'm hoping I'll be able to share some here once they make it online.

Shaun demanded data. Forgot to press the lap button coming through on lap 3 and scored myself a negative split from laps 1 to 2 but I think thats more due to inaccuracies in the track data and me hitting the lap button a tad earlier the second time through.

The Pinnacle XII EFTA NECS #4

2011-06-19T18:14:00.002-04:00

HOLY CRAP THE BERMS! Team Pinnacle has been hard at work making this already awesome course and trail network even better. Seriously these things were like 5ft tall and you could get all kinds of horizontal. There were several people set up taking pics of racers can't wait until those start trickling out.

I mean seriously.

Ok had to get that out of the way now to the standard recap:

Singlespeeders got started after the Elites again this year. I used to hate this because you'd always have all the Experts breathing down your neck. But now that I'm a bit faster I like gauging how I'm doing by how long it takes certain people to catch me. I geared down to 32-20 for this race, I think I made the right choice. I was a bit worried I might get blown out the back during the 'parade lap' at the start but I was actually able to stay towards the front of the field.

A few of the usual suspects got off the front early never to be seen again but I was in the next group of about 4-5 riders. I was hoping I would feel better later into the race but like just about every year at the Pinnacle those climbs make you feel like crap immediately and then its just suffering for the rest of the day. But also like every other year those descents make it all worth it and even more so now with those berms!

Steve caught me just before we topped out on the first lap. He came by looking pretty haggard but also moving pretty fast. Those typically go hand in hand at the Pinnacle. I was able to hold his wheel for a bit finishing off the climb, because of this I started screaming at him that he was not going fast enough. He heard me and took off and won Expert Vet I. Glad I could help.

Heading into the 'pump track in the sky' Shawn caught me and we got to shredding pretty hard. We were caught in some Expert traffic a bit (yeah thats right EXPERT traffic, get out of the way EXPERTS team NEMBA coming through) but we finally got free'd up and started getting a little loose and taking some risks. Hard to not let it rip at dangerous speeds, just a bit too fun. Things were going great and I was happy to be getting whisked along this far up in the Expert field. Then unfortunately I got into auto pilot a bit. We were just about to the clearing before the plummet and I've done this race so many times that in my head I was remembering a mostly straight run into that area with no serious obstacles in the way.

I realized just a bit too late that I was screaming at probably 20+mph at a 90 degree hairpin turn with a large tree on the inside corner and two smaller trees on the downhill side. i.e. you had to get it just right no margin on this one. I locked em up and started tokyo drifting, I knew fairly early in my slide that this wasn't gonna work out so I started thinking optimum bail strategies. Looked like the only viable option was to try and rail the corner going way too fast and just see what happens. Went for it and I think I hit a rock or root just as I was pulling through the trees, if I had suspension I might have been ok but the shot I took was a bit too much. Couldn't keep my weight back and ended up over the bars and flying and I could tell my wheel took a beating as well. Lots of forces being applied in a short time.

Luckily, as some will attest that ride with me often, I have perfected the 'graceful step over'. This one was a bit more violent than graceful but I was able to avoid any damage to my person and kept on trucking. Unfortunately I lost my train and had to get to suffering by myself for a bit. The rest of the race was pretty uneventful. Just trying to hold on and keep things upright. I had a pretty good wobble in my front wheel (which can hopefully be fixed) so I was trying to keep an eye on that as best I could.

I was starting to fade quite a bit heading into the last lap. I'm usually good with one bottle but it was pretty hot today and I was really craving some straight hydro as opposed to Cytomax. Coming through the lap point heading into lap three I see Carl standing there with a bottle yelling at me if I need water. I think I yelled something like Hell Yeah! or maybe I didn't and he just looked at me and it was obvious. Either way I wanted to make certain I got that bottle so I proceeded to ride directly into him. PRO BOTTLE PASS ACHIEVED.

That really hit the spot, thanks again Carl. MEGA. Mentally I felt like I was right back in it. I saw a SS just up the trail who was loosing me on the climbs and I was catching him after the descents. He started walking up the climb to the fireroad and I figured this was my best shot to try and get past him and out of sight. So I burned the few matches I had left to at least put on a show of strength. I was hoping he was fading as well and if I blew by with authority he might give up the chase and let me go. Unfortunately I think he might have been a bit more seasoned of a racer to fall for my shenanigans. He prob just set to reeling me in slowly and I was fading fast on the rest of the climb after my fake out effort to get away. He caught me at the top of the fireroad climb just after the water tower and started putting little incremental gains into me in the following switchback climbs. I could see him for awhile but he kept gaining and I had nothing more to put down.

I think he had some left in the tank because he ended up putting a few minutes into me by the finish and I was descending better than him. Final descent was just trying not to kill myself or loose any places. I noticed on my Garmin that making the 2hr mark was gonna be close so I got after it a bit trying to come in under. I was successful and stopped the clock in 1h:58m flat. I didn't get a chance to really peruse results to see how that time compares but it was good for 6th in a field of about 15ish? I beat some names I wasn't sure I was going to beat. Mentally I'm starting to get to the point where I will be expecting to beat half the people on the line and If I'm towards the front of the field early its not a fluke. It's a good feeling. This season is probably the first with consistent results that are confirming the years of flogging I put myself through. I'm glad I made that seemingly weird decision to ditch derailleurs and start racing again 6 years ago.

I heart New England

2011-06-06T11:47:00.000-04:00

Seriously. I've probably said it a few times but daaaaayum is NE awesome. It's like a 70,000 square mile playground with EVERYTHING.

This past weekend Dustin and I got serious into shredding Pine Hill Park in Rutland, VT. Second trip back and this time without wet leaves everywhere. This made things much more awesome and borderline disastrous. High speeds, ample berms...watch out now! I'll let the edit do the talking. I have a lot of fun every time I ride there, 'nuff said. Got some great 'looking back at the rider' footage...slight tweak to the angle from last time I tried made all the difference and I think its the perfect perspective for these trails.

We saw some idiots on BMX bikes and a crazy bitter grandma who LOVED crapping on anything you said and directing her rage at the incorrect people. She was awesome. She spent a lot of energy trying to reprimand us and another lovely couple for something a stupid kid did and then immediately broke the rules of the park herself before walking off. I pity you crazy bitter grandma.

Also got to chat again with Michael Smith (the supreme chancellor of Pine Hill) and this week he has 430(!!!!!!!) high school kids building/maintaining the trails there for the entire week. I can't even imagine what NEMBA could do with that much manpower. We could rough in 20mi of singletrack at our new spot Page Hill in a day or two let alone a week. Good Lord.

Speaking of Page Hill, I was messing around in the woods there Sunday getting things started with what hopefully will be our own little local Pine Hill Park....here's to dreaming. Check out the details here:

http://www.cnhnemba.org/2011/06/page-hill-trail-day-recap.html

Turn Back the Clock Ride

2011-06-02T08:52:00.001-04:00

Last night I hooked up with the Rhino Wed night ride because the NEMBA ride was going to be way down in Bow. That ended up getting changed but that is neither here nor there. Rhino's group was heading up to the Campton/Waterville Valley area to ride some trails in and around the Smart's Brook area. These were trails we used to frequent back in college when we were bumbling around trying to get the lay of the land in the area. Decent trails but not really 100% designed for biking but it worked for us at the time and you could always tell that there was probably more but that area borders some large wildernesses and 1-2 wrong choices could have you stranded and those were pre-GPS days.

Turns out there is indeed more stuff to ride in the area but you definitely need to have some local knowledge. Many of the trails we were on were super fun to ride but not immaculately maintained. Much of the singletrack was like riding shadows of once awesome trails almost like they've been sitting there since I was in college until now...Some of the riding reminded me of our time up at Mont St. Anne. A few spots of craggy, doubletrack drainages, big stream crossings, downed trees, etc. Every now and then we would turn off onto smaller singletrack trails that I often didn't see until we were on them. I was trying to stay plastered to Paul's wheel because lines were definitely not apparent and it was obvious Paul could ride most of this stuff with his eyes closed.

We did a decent amount of climbing and in turn got in a few really cool descents, all fairly techy. Pulled one of the biggest hail mary's I've had to pull in a long time on a pretty steep rooty section. Hit an off camber root just wrong and things were looking prime for a pretty horrible high speed crash but I got my foot out as I was going to lay the bike down and ended up doing a weird fastplant maneuver a la Tony Hawk planting my foot and pushing off just enough to allow my tires to hook back up and keep things upright. No idea how it all worked out, happened way too fast but the guy behind me was pretty impressed.

We ended up getting in a really decent 10mi or so ending on a trail built by a coworker of mine who lives in the area: Casale's Trail. Nice work Mark, really fun. I was really pleased with my climbing ability still geared with the 18. I think I should be able to push that full time from here on out, although I may dabble with gearing specifically for certain races (i.e. Pinnacle). Wrists are still always sore the day after a ride but I have at least gotten to the point that they don't really affect my riding. Hopefully one of these days I'll actually be able to let them heal...I think I finally have my Ergon grips dialed in to my preferred riding position and they feel really good. My saddle is starting to get a bit thrashed...I'm thinking about having Eric at Chainline reupholster it. He redid one of his saddles with some hilarious hot pink synthetic vinyl stuff they use for boats that you can shrink fit, etc. Came out pretty nice.

I'm thinking about taking a little break from bigger MTB group rides for a bit. Regroups with the bugs right now are some kind of fresh hell and I am so thoroughly covered in bites right now its ridiculous. I must have EEE and West Nile about 10 times over. Got some road tires on order from Kenda, hopefully I can get the roadie back on line by next week and maybe do a group road ride instead.

Weeping Willow EFTA NECS #2

2011-05-23T13:34:00.002-04:00

I kept both my pedals on for the entirety of the race this year! Unfortunately my gastrointestinal system imploded shortly after the race and I spent the rest of the day battling stomach cramps incapacitated on the couch. Good times. Took a recovery day from work today to try and get my bearings. Still not 100% right but getting there.

Too bad the day had to end that way because the race went quite well. This is a pretty good course for me and SS in general and I wanted to put in a pretty big effort to see how I could do within such a large field. Wouldn't surprise me if they hit their 400 rider cap, most categories had 20+ racers with 30 in SS.

Team Green sticks together

Things got started on a short stretch of doubletrack and it was full bore wire to wire. A group of about 5-10 got off the front pretty early made up of the names/faces I see at the start and resign myself to never seeing again until the finish. In my head and on paper I thought I should be towards the front of the next group if I could put everything together. I was there or there abouts towards the end of the initial section of doubletrack. I was red lining pretty well at that point and was hoping for a chance at recovery. That was hard to come by on this course however. Just before diving into the singletrack I was passed by a rider that was a bit stronger on doubletrack than fast twisty singletrack. I got a bit of recovery holding his wheel and he probably got sick of hearing me lurking on his wheel and let me by, which was nice because I probably would have had to try a really sketchy pass if he hadn't.

eye of le'tigre

(all photos courtesy of @ToroLocoCycling)

Shortly after I caught another rider who I have traded wins/losses with over the years. Got past him and got to enjoying myself. Such a fun course. High speeds, corners you can really lay into and just enough technical features to keep you on your toes. I could have done without the sections of doubletrack mid lap and the water crossings that cooled me right off and made my shoes feel like they weighed 10lbs each but it did help keep the traffic on the singletrack down I think. Unfortunately putting out power on doubletrack is not my forte. My friend who I trade places with caught me shortly after the doubletrack sections. Luckily I was able to get away again in the singletrack and stay away.

Not sure how I'm so spotless in this pic, this bridge was basically at the end of the lap

I had no idea where I was in the grand scheme of things but I was feeling decent and no SSers had passed me yet. Those laps felt much longer than 8-9mi and it was hard to find places to eat. I tried to keep the pressure on during the second lap but things were starting to get a bit loose. Reaction time and control was getting sloppy but luckily I never laid it down. Came close several times though. I spent most of the second lap by myself periodically getting caught by experts coming through. I held wheels as long as I could. Legs still felt ok well into the second lap. Cramps were on the horizon but as long as I didn't push things too far in the wrong spot I was able to hold them off.

Finished in a little over 1h45m for 13th of 30. Thought it was 12th but must have read the results wrong. I'm still really pleased with the result. The names in front of me are all very fast individuals. No points but further indication that I'm getting faster. Now for a bit of time off racing to get my gut and hopefully wrists recovered.

Glocester Grind EFTA NECS #1

2011-05-16T08:50:00.003-04:00

UPDATE: Results Ended up 5th of 11 SS starters (9 finishers)

Aaaand we're off!

Got the 2011 race season kicked off yesterday and good god was it sloppy. Things appeared to be shaping up nicely in the morning. Rain was holding off, temps were nice for riding, a short half lap preride of the course with the team showed there were a few really boggy spots but the rest of the course was in pretty decent shape considering the previous nights rain. I would have described most of the course as tacky, not really muddy.

God bless grassroots racing

Things were looking up, spirits were high, turnout was good. Everyone was ready to race and excited for the season. The team was looking real sharp and definitely standing out. We had a lot of people coming by the tent and chatting. Speaking of that tent, it is BAD ASS.

There was a lot of tent envy going on

SSers got started after the elites. Can't really remember how many of us there were. 8 were pre-reg'd and there were 8 finishers when I left but I also saw riders I know who didn't pre-reg so there must have been more unless a bunch of riders didn't show due to weather. I almost got the reverse hole shot but I managed to stay in front of one guy heading through the little grass roped off area before heading into the first huge mud bog techy area. Guy in front of me got hung up on literally the first root on the course and tipped into me and I got passed by the one guy behind me. Perfect, DFL...home sweet home. I thought I might be in for a long day off the back riding lone wolf.

Most of the guys I had spotted at the start were fast and I knew at least a handful of them would be gone never to be seen again. There were only a few I thought I might have a chance of racing but I was worried because I remembered two of them from the Big Ring Rumpus last year where they blew me out by probably 20+ mins. Turns out those guys can go real fast on dirt roads, but not so much on wet roots and rocks. I caught them shortly after my bobble and quickly realized I needed to get by them fast. Coming into a turn way too hot and taking a slightly sketchy inside line around a corner took care of both of them.

Caught another rider shortly after also having issues with the terrain. He had some trouble with a techy turn followed by a short, shallow uphill. He lost all his momentum and I did not and gassed right by him on the up, must have been demoralizing enough because he didn't put up a chase and I was out of sight fairly quickly. By this point I was feeling pretty good on the day. I had made some passes early (very rare for me to date) and was riding pretty cleanly.

look how happy I am!

I caught another SSer towards the end of lap 1. I could tell he was strong but he was walking everything even remotely techy. The back half of the course was a bit more wide open and I was yo-yo'ing behind him a bit. Catching on at the rock gardens and falling off a bit on the more open stretches. I decided to just save my energy a bit and keep him in sight and wait for the tech on the beginning of lap 2 to try and get by and gap him. Strategy worked like a charm, we traded spots a bit through the really boggy stuff early and then at my trusty techy turn with the slight uphill after I used the same line to better use my momentum to punch it up the hill. Got a quick gap and kept the pressure on through the next mile or so of techy stuff. I got out of sight and was really getting pumped on my ride. Then the skies opened up.

Tacky conditions went straight to hell. Slop everywhere...brakes? forget 'em. Had to stash the glasses in order to see. Lines needed to get straighter and I dialed things back a bit through rock gardens to avoid a bad crash. I was still keeping things together though, barely. Towards the end of lap 2 a pace line of geared guys caught me while I was slogging up one of the slight uphills on the back half of the course. At the rear of that line was the last SSer I had passed. He must have put in a pretty big effort and taken some risks to get into that line to get back to me. The line wasn't moving fast enough to drop me though and I latched on and decided to just do what I did before. Keep him in sight and wait for the now hilariously techy stuff on the front half of the last lap.

Plan worked again. He just didn't quite have the confidence/hail mary recovery abilities to go the same speed as me through the tougher stuff. I kept the pressure on through the front half of the last lap and really dug deep on the back half to make sure he couldn't catch back on. Luckily a geared Expert caught me on the back half of the last lap and I latched on with him for that little extra bit of motivation to keep the pressure up. We came to the finish shoot together I was on his wheel through the last two turns in the grassy area and then for the first time ever I got to do a sprint to the line. He underestimated my extreme power output and I nipped him at the line. Unfortunately he started at least 1-2 minutes behind me so he still beat me.

Garmin gave me a time of 1h:51m which I think is probably fairly accurate although I am starting to question this things accuracy. Organizers claimed laps were 5 and change my data says 4 and change. I'm kinda surprised how much my lap times slowed but I guess conditions probably factored into that quite a bit. On the results sheet I was in 5th of 8 but now that I think about it I passed 4 people so there must have been at least 9 starters.

I'm really pleased with this outing, I actually felt like I was racing for the entirety of the race. I have been putting in a lot of time trying to get myself into the mix in the SS class and this was a pretty good sign my work is paying off.

Gonzo Pass revisited

2011-04-23T13:24:00.000-04:00

But thats not all!

Ride Bully got a great team ride planned and it happened to fit into my schedule (my new favorite thing is taking semi random days off from work when the weather is nice and doing sweet activities). Originally we had planned for a 4 pass ride doing out and backs over both Gonzo and the Kanc. Greg wasn't too thrilled with the out and back idea and requested an audible after our first ascent/descent of Gonzo Pass. Ride Bully obliged but mainly only because the alternate route wasn't really any easier.

pro peloton

Heading into this ride I was a tad apprehensive due to Adam and my horror fest last time we attempted Gonzo. That was several years ago now but all I remember is a blur of frozen ice shards and a massive bonk...I'm happy to report that Gonzo did not wreck me like it did years ago but I was definitely not warm yet by the time we tackled it this time around. We started the ascent about 3 miles into the ride. I felt ok on the climb, just sluggish. Had a hard time getting into a rhythm. According to my Garmin data (I used laps to track my climb) I climbed the 5.5mi in about 35min at an average speed of 9.6mph. Unfortunately I forgot to use laps to track my ascent of Kinsman later in the ride.

topping out on Gonzo (cut the slope!)

Descent of Gonzo was pretty scary. Sandy spots and frost heaves made it real interesting and I think I may have caught a frost divot just wrong and took a solid shot to my rear wheel. I was a bit worried when it happened but everything seemed fine immediately after. Must have been a really slow leak because I eventually went flat several miles later on some rolling farm terrain heading to Pike, NH. I then proceeded to make an ass of myself trying to get my tire on and off. The bead was stupid tight and the first two tubes got pinched by my lever trying to get the bead back on. Finally on my(our) third try we were able to get the bead back on without a lever and get on our way.

Couldnt have asked for a better day. We ended up heading almost all the way out to the VT border and were riding in the CT River Valley for a bit before heading back into NH to get up and over Kinsman and back down into North Woodstock/Lincoln. Kinsman is much more a climb to my strengths, plus I was actually warmed up by that point. Felt strong for 50mi into an early season ride. Calories were running low though and we were all looking to get back to the cars and to the bar. We were all very much digging the scenery and how lucky we were to snag such an awesome day when this Spring has been struggling to be awesome lately.

I'll take it

I'm used to having it look like I'm about to ride off a cliff skiing, not so much road biking.

Every time I get a ride like this in I remember how awesome road riding is, particularly big rides like this. Hopefully I can find some time this season to squeeze a few in.

Ramp Up

2011-04-18T22:42:00.000-04:00

I just took a peek at my Garmin Connect account and I am getting off to one hell of a riding season. 50mi the last two weekends at 5 different riding locations. And its only Tax Day. With a mega road epic planned for Friday things are looking good for having a decent base built heading into race season.

Now all I need are the home town trails to finally shed all their snow...

New Ergon grips are nice. I think they are going to work really well for me. I got a bit of different hand fatigue than I am used to during the last two rides but I think that is more my hands getting used to the new position. What I have definitely noticed is no residual fatigue after the rides and they actual offer a few different hand positions that I didn't have previously. They give a really nice platform and feel way less awkward than I was anticipating.

Kenda pro form stuff arrived late last week but I didn't have time to mount the new rubber before I hit the road to NY. Went with the Slant Six for this year. Looks like a good all rounder, interested to see what they are capable of.

Had a great time in NY. Footage was a bit lacking, angle of my chest mount needs tweaking and the ride was a bit stop and go and I kept guessing wrong for good times to film longer stretches of trail. But I did manage to get one sweet sequence on a trail called Here to There and just set it to the theme of the weekend. Had to be there...

New England is currently MEGA

2011-04-12T08:24:00.003-04:00

I can't remember the last time both of my preferred activities were operating at max awesome in such close proximity. For the last two weeks or so you could get really great skiing or mtb in within a two hour drive of my house in either direction. Now if we could just get a handle on all this mud and standing water I'd be in heaven...

Shaun already got in a pretty thorough recap of the weekends full happenings, so I'll just post my edit and talk about that a bit as well as my mind over matter, refusal to acknowledge pain odyssey.

I tried to make the edit look like one long continuous run cutting in different angles like I had 3 GoPro's running at once. Kinda worked. I didn't bother spending too much time trying to make the cuts look perfect because I don't care enough. The footage is actually two rides early stuff is Willowdale and later on is clips from Russell Mill. Used the handlebar/seatpost mount for everything. Seatpost configuration worked great and I really like that perspective.

Mounting to the handlebar didn't work all that awesome, it loosened up on me both times and I had tightened it enough that I was a bit worried about breaking the plastic. I have read some posts of people trying a rubber shim to cut down on vibration and give it something to really squeeze. I'll probably try that next. I was actually really surprised at how 'quiet' the footage was with it mounted to my handlebars. I thought for sure riding rigid would screw it all up but as long as I can figure out the mount I think that angle will be cool. I also experimented a bit with pointing it back at me and I really like what the fisheye did too the trees, they look like they are 1000ft tall!

I also had a really weird experience with some wrist pain that has been bugging me for the past couple weeks. It felt like some sort of pinched nerve that would only really hurt at the extremes of pronation or supination. Hadn't been affecting my skiing at all so I just sort of dealt with it hoping that it would go away. I was hoping it wouldn't affect my biking at all but I was wrong. First ride at Willowdale was pretty painful at times. Cross fall line stuff was horrifying and descending with some chatter was awful too, almost lost my grip on the bars due to pain a few times. Riding was way too good to stop though so I just tried to deal.

Surprisingly after our break for lunch it started to feel a bit better. The pain was much less pronounced. At the start of our ride at Russell Mill I would say it felt 65% better than that morning. The RM ride went much better and that evening the pain subsided even more. By the start of our ride at LDT the next morning the pain was practically gone and its a good thing because LDT was much more brutal than the other two spots and I would have been in trouble.

So just goes to show you kids if you have weird nerve pain in a joint just beat it into submission. I'm running the show here nervous system, not you. Never forget that.

Spring(?) Skiing

2011-03-27T21:34:00.000-04:00

This season just won't quit! I'll be honest I'm ready to be on dirt and roads spinning wheels but this week threw us right back in to the swing of things particularly up high and it could not be missed. The Whites had seen all kinds of snow over the past week in little spurts here and there.

Driving north Saturday morning things looked prime for a nice Spring day, then I rounded that corner on 93 where the Notch first comes in to view...except it didn't come in to view. It was completely socked in and as I got closer small little flakes started to fly. Those flakes got bigger as I got closer and by the time I was at the base there was a nice dusting going on and you could see the deposits from earlier in the week as well.

We took a chance and went powder hunting off the reservation and we were rewarded with some of the best turns I have gotten in awhile and some of the best I have ever gotten this late in the season. My proof was taken using the GoPro chest mount. Not sure how I feel about that perspective. I had to actually slow some of the footage down a tad so that you could see what was going on. I simultaneously like and dislike the additional motion you can see. It demonstrates how the terrain varies better but it also makes the footage really busy. I love the mount though. So much less hassle mounted to the chest and much easier to deal with.

A great day and a fitting last hurrah for the Icon's...

After riding I stopped in at Village Ski and Sport in Lincoln to have my new boots thermomolded. If you have AT needs in Northern NH go see them, great no nonsense service and good prices. The Factor's now fit like a glove on both feet and I can't wait to put them to task. Maybe MTW next weekend?

Crotch-Belgian Classic

2011-03-20T14:50:00.000-04:00

I have gone on a few of these rides now and I felt like they deserved a designation. A Crotch-Belgian Classic is a ride in the greater Sanbornton area with decidedly Belgian characteristics or at the very least Northern France, i.e. any mix of cold temps, moisture, ice, mud, dirt, and frost heaves.

I have been dying to get on my new touring build (and on a bike in general) and today's forecast looked workable so I put all kinds of gear to the test with a nice little out and back with a little hill circuit in between. Getting their inaugural uses were my new touring bike, my homemade bar-mitts and the new trunk rack.

I had to drive down to Black Brook Rd and park at Tony's house to avoid the epic mud bog that is our road currently. Gave me the opportunity to test my new Saris 1051 Sentinel. I am thinking about trying to commute more and if I want to be realistic about it I will probably need to cut out the massive hills I have to get over to get in and out of Crotchtown. Soooo I am thinking about driving to New Hampton, parking in the park-and-ride and riding the 15mi from there. Basically flat and straight, much more doable on a daily basis. The fenders prevent the use of a fork mount roof rack, hence trunk rack. Plus now in the time that we might be going on a ride with 3-4 guys we can take less cars. GREEN.

It works great for a 'budget' model. Easy to set up and feels pretty solid so far. Granted I drove 1mi down the road, but that road was a mud/rally fest so there is that. It will be interesting to see how easily you can get 2 bikes on there and how well it supports all that extra weight. Time will tell, but so far I am pleased.

Next piece of new gear was my (or more accurately OUR, Gina did all the sewing) homemade bar-mitts. I did not design these with this bike or flared drop bars in mind so this was more of a maybe it will work/just want to see if they keep my hands warm type test. They performed awesome with the latter, temps at ride time were probably in the low 30's and my hands were just fine. They fit a bit awkward on the Midge bars but I was able to make it work and I will probably be able to use them commuting if needed without much issue. They will definitely be perfect for the winter rides I get in here and there.

material was wetsuit neoprene stolen from some ancient wetsuit tops that don't get any use really so, YOINK!

You can see they sit at a slightly weird angle but they cover what they have to. They were a bit tricky to get into but I managed.

Velcro runs along one edge for opening them up to install. Hard to tell in these pics but they are also fleece lined. We Rule.

And finally the new bike. Love it. Probably one of the better, more successful builds I have ever done. Everything worked great right from the get go...usually there is always at least one little thing that is loose or needs adjusting. I think I might need to tweak the reach a tiny bit but the jury is still out...I want to ride it a few more times before I decide. I think the bar mitts may have been making me sit a bit weird to get my hands in there and that might have been contributing. If anything I think I might need to ditch the high rise stem and stretch things out just a tiny bit more maybe 5mm-1cm or so. Anybody have a 90 or 100mm stem with about 5 degrees of rise kicking around? Other than that good to go; stable, comfy, climbs better than I was anticipating.

Most of the ride was a cruise but I gave it a go here and there and felt pretty good. I was really pleased with how things went on some of the climbs. My leg strength/power has definitely increased with some of the work I have been doing this winter. I also actually had some power to put down at lactate threshold which in years past is one place I struggled. Soon as the burn got real bad I would fizzle and today I was able to go just that little bit deeper/longer to get me over that hump where in the past I would have dumped gears and sat up.

Motivation is good as well. After my first run at Perley Hill I turned left to swing around for another go. Hadn't been part of the original plan but it felt appropriate and both times felt strong. Was able to sit and churn much bigger gears than I feel like I've been able to muster in the past when climbing steeper stretches like Perley.

Good signs for a hopefully great season.

When All Else Fails...Nordic

2011-03-12T14:55:00.001-05:00

I was fairly certain this weekend held very little promise for winter recreation. Conditions/weather have been all over the place lately. Cannon probably locked up tight Friday in to Saturday, winter biking is out of the question unless it gets real cold again and the roads are still a bit messy/sandy/full of frost heaves to try a road ride.

Nordic skiing to the rescue. Was putzing around this morning and the sun was peaking through a bit, temps were moderate so I figured what the hell, this is the exact reason I bought this gear. Supplement everything else I do and snag some miles here and there. So that is exactly what I did and I'm glad I made the call.

Snow was soft and pretty slow on the flats but it was great for climbing. I am starting to feel at home on my setup. Balance was good, rhythm was better. I wasn't flying but I was much more efficient. I was contemplating using the headlamp-esque GoPro mount to get some really boring footage but I just couldn't bring myself to be that much of a tool. Too bad though I did end up having to gap a small drainage, would have looked GNARLY.

Also got to witness a J2 race that was going on. Pretty funny scene. There were teams from all over: NH, Maine, Mass. Lots of spandex and really ridiculous glasses/goggles. I really don't get the eyewear that is prevalent in the nordic scene. Some of those things are incredibly silly ~~retarded~~ (sorry Mom). For some reason that era of cracked out eyewear from the late 80's early 90's when Greg Lemond had everyone wearing hilarious Oakley's never went away and they all still rock them. I don't get the benefit of having these huge alien things on your face. It has to be possible to design something that keeps the wind out and is lighter. I wear my Briko cycling glasses which weigh next to nothing and have zero issues with wind. **rant over**

I like all the international flags. I wonder how many Russians were at this race?

I was hoping to overhear some sketchy wax/drug deals going down but I think everyone was too busy visualizing for their upcoming classic sprint heats.

Shine's VT bach'fest

2011-03-08T14:29:00.002-05:00

This is going to be a really hard one to quantify in any real meaningful way. I am very proud to say that we have gotten so good at being our own particular brand of awesome that we have transcended the 'recap'.

Friday we started pre-first bell with some Cat skiing at Sugarbush and a guided mountain tour with John Egan. If you get enough people together its very reasonable and I highly recommend checking it out. Its a really unique experience for the east coast. Having an entire mountain to yourself is weird and awesome and following around a seasoned pro is also somewhat weird/surreal and at times aggravating/frustrating. I tend to think of myself as a fairly decent snow rider, above average for sure but John made stuff look annoyingly easy and effortless. Hes a great guide though, very personable and peppers the day with anecdotes and tips and tricks here and there that made things interesting.

We also lucked out with some sweet local connections to the resort and got some of their media team to follow us around to take pics and video the entire day. There will be some great pics to post soon and I will also hopefully be making a longer edit of their footage and some from my GoPro.

photo courtesy of John Atkinson @Sugarbush Resort

Saturday was a mellow day at Sugarbush with ok weather but good for recovery. We then stopped in Waterbury for dinner at the Resevoir en route to Jay and a stay at Grandpa Grunts. I really like Waterbury, seems like a great town the times I have stopped/passed through. Great scene and close to good skiing and mtb. We've had Grunts on the radar for years and never gotten around to booking it. I would link it but they don't do the whole internet thing. It's not for everyone but it is definitely for us...Its hard to explain, I'll wait for some of the other guys pics to tell the story. We had a great night of partying in the middle of nowhere Northern VT. Who knew Montgomery Center, VT had such a happening scene?

Unfortunately Sunday morning brought lots of rain, enough that no one really felt like forcing the issue to ride Jay. Even more unfortunate is that rain turned into snow at 1:30pm and continued to be snow for quite some time ending with a 24hr snow total record for Jay of 32in and 42in by Tuesday morning. C'est Le Vive. Would have been very tough to snorkel through powder that deep with 2 days of riding and partying in the legs anyway. We could have done it, but we would all have certainly died on the drive home. I'll leave it at that for words and follow up with more pics and video soon.

Magical Afterthought

2011-03-01T13:53:00.000-05:00

This post is more of an afterthought at this point but I figured the whole point of getting the GoPro was so that I could get additional media up here.

We had a great day at Magic. My first time there and we picked a great day to check it out. We got seconds on a decently big storm from Friday. Conditions were pretty variable but still plenty fun and the terrain at Magic is just that. Very cool natural features all over and nice and steep throughout. I would definitely hit this place very often if the drive there didn't suck so bad. Not that far mileage wise but getting east/west in NE sucks the big one. Especially in the conditions I would most likely be driving in to take advantage of a good day there.

Congrats to D-bone on a solid showing at the Ski The East Freeride Competition taking place that day. First outing in that format and ended up top 35. Probably just needed a bit more pole whacking for the win...

I ended up just having a bit of fun with the edit from the footage that day. Picked a random old techno song and just got lucky with the length of some clips matching up with the song fairly well and went from there. I only had the camera on in the afternoon and I missed the best moment of the whole day in the morning when Tobin crashed and ran directly into JPMV spearing him in the back with his board. I was looking right at Jomo when it happened too, would have gotten the whole thing. At least I can play it back in my head over and over, but bummed I can't share it with ya'll.

Dust on Crust Edit

2011-02-20T15:18:00.000-05:00

Yesterday didn't have a lot of promise. Big 'ole thaw followed by a pretty immediate deep freeze has a great way of turning everything to crap. Luckily Cannon got a few inches of snow overnight for us to work with. We made the most of it and got some interesting 'adventure' riding and we were able to find some aspects that loaded up a bit. No matter the conditions, it was great to be back shredding with a solid crew...really looking forward to getting some more precip and finishing off the season strong.

Had the GoPro with me for the first time with the forward facing helmet mount. I really like the perspective you get and I lucked out with pointing it at the right angle. Only downside is the bit of added weight it adds to the front of your helmet that adds some pressure to where you goggles sit on your nose. Just annoying enough to partially bug me but nothing major.

I am using trakaxPC for my editing. So far I am really pleased. Nice little piece of software and so far the perfect mix of newb user friendlyness and cooler more advanced features. Very easy to do the standard fair for GoPro type edits. I was able to throw this video together is just about and hour or two with absolutely no prior experience...that is saying something.

Unfortunately I still have some things to learn about aspect ratios and I think I exported in one ratio and then uploaded to Youtube in another which caused the video to be a smaller window within a bigger one...or at least I think thats what caused it. I'll do some testing and troubleshooting in the future to figure that out but I am going to call this one good for now.

Ice Bike to Gunsight

2011-02-13T16:41:00.000-05:00

My latest winter bike incarnation has been christened! It's actually quite tailor made to winter riding, real long wheelbase is forgiving when things get squirrely and it feels really stable. Matt and I snagged just under 5 miles at FFD on Friday evening. Conditions were actually really good, but only on snowmachine trails. Singletrack has been getting basically no traffic to date so those are all a no go.

I got to test my lights in a deep freeze and they performed as well as they needed to. My hands were frozen solid long before the battery was in danger of dying. I was trying out some Descente "winter" cycling gloves that I snagged on Bonktown recently. I have used them doing other activities outdoors lately to great effect but I have a new theory that there is no such thing as an effective winter cycling glove. I am going to either have to ride wearing my mittens that I wear skiing or get some of these.

OR

Make my own bar mitts. I had a stroke of genius shortly after the ride (or maybe just a stroke) and I think I might be able to fashion something awesome out of something I have laying around the house. Could be ill advised or just ILL. Time will tell. Be on the lookout for Manarea's first wicked in depth How-To post if I can pull it off.

Saturday I brewed some more beer, went to the dump, various other jibba-jabba and then found out that evening that Cannon was still riding amazing and I had missed out on some serious awesome. I thought for sure based on the crust situation around the house that the woods were locked up tight. Apparently that is not entirely true.

Sunday I was able to meet up with Jim for a planned stab at Gunsight. Finally getting a shot to get on it from the top. I was very excited to finally get that all figured out. I'm glad I went with Jim the first time. Joe and I had been contemplating making a go at it when we were in the zone last weekend and I can safely say if we had we would have been SCREWED. Getting over to Gunsight is pretty counter intuitive in several spots and we would have been wandering around for a long time. Even having done it while attempting to take serious mental notes at every step of the way I am only 65% sure I could nail it on the next try. But knowing what I know now we might get a little lost but not too bad and we'll never be in danger...maybe.

Gorgeous terrain off that side. So cool being over there on a clear sunny day. AND for the first time I actually got to see Cannon's namesake. I'm trying to think back and I can't remember if I knew there was a rock outcropping that looked like a cannon right at the top of Cannon Cliff or if I always just took for granted why Cannon was called Cannon. Oh well I saw it, it was cool. No pic cause I suck.

The line itself was cool, nice and steep with some technical spots. Natural half pipe drainage features towards the bottom and cool little spots with downed trees and other debris that make for interesting riding.

Jim and I also got on a new line over on Mittersill (hard to imagine there is still new stuff to find). The snow sucked, but the terrain was incredible. So many cool features and surprisingly steep for where it is located. Ended up dumping down into lower Stinger so we knew the out and were good to go. Gonna be a great new line to hit when things get deep again. And just think in another post or two I'll have footage to go along with all this crappy text!

Me and this Winter are best buds

2011-02-05T17:08:00.002-05:00

Just keeps getting better. I am getting pretty deep into the red as far as the lead level in my legs but it is hard to care right now. This is one of those seasons well be talking about at least for the next few.

Took some vacay on Thurs to try and get some of the leftovers from Wednesday. We found out that it was very windy up at Cannon during the event so a lot of the snow got blown around quite a bit and it wasn't quite as big of a day as we were hoping for. But it was far from crap thats for sure. We got into some of the easier reached lines and there were still some goods to be had. Got a few runs over at Mittersill that were decent.

Here is a clip from one of our earlier runs in Snowmaker's:

Highlight of the day for sure were our two laps out to Stinger. I had been jonesing to get out that way as I had not been off that side all season. Snow over that way was the best we had found all day and we traversed over far enough on the lower pitch to find what ended up being one of my best runs this year. I knew I really liked Stinger but I did not know I loved it. Not sure what it was, maybe the new powder boards, maybe it was just the right amount of snow to float but not get bogged down, or maybe I just lucked out and found a good flowy line but that run was basically perfect. East Coast tree skiing at its very best.

I believe Joe got some pics and vids, hopefully I can get some of that stuff up soon.

Saturday Joe and I were still a bit sluggish from our plethora of shred, Bill called it due to some issues with his back so we had to figure out how to best use our time and our heavy legs. Obviously we decided to take a few warm up runs and then get seriously after it. First order of business was finally acting on some beta I gathered two seasons ago...Bear Gut.

BG is a big scary line with some serious cliffs you need to be mindful of. I had only hiked up the line in the off season so I knew where we needed to go but not what things looked like in the winter. I knew how to avoid the big (30ft+) cliff band and I knew there was some "interesting" terrain just above those cliffs but I wasn't 100% sure what we were in for. Turns out we were in for some sweet mandatory drops and some tight sketchy side slipping. First hairy section was a fairly large 10(ish)ft drop with a slightly smaller 6-8ft option to skiers right. We are pansies so we opted for the smaller but in retrospect I think throwing the bigger drop might actually be a tad safer due to a much more manageable landing.

sussing...

and hucking

We got through there without much issue, and by that I mean I booted out of a ski trying to scrub speed after landing, fell down slope a bit and came to rest with my head against a tree and then upon trying to get up, rolled over and fell head first and flipped off a 5ft rock. Good thing the snow was DEEP.

standing next to my idiot trophy

We picked our way down some little mini drops and choke points and eventually popped out just below the cliff band to our reward...a well manicured double wide line with deep snow and plenty of sweet features to shred. Towards the bottom the line chokes in a bit into a steep natural half pipe, probably some of the coolest stuff I have ever been on. Again I think Joe has lots of pics and vids...coming soon.

terrain was le'technical

maybe next time you'll see an impact crater behind me?

no, no you will not.

Here is the bottom of the line:

We then immediately got on the Tram and went straight for Saddlesore, another line I haven't been on in years. Its been getting decent traffic so the snow wasn't amazing but it has been cleaned up a bit in there since my last time and its riding great now. I think it will have to enter our normal rotation more frequently especially right after some snow.

Joe and I were in the zone and decided we needed to continue increasing our local knowledge base and went after some lines easily visible from the Peabody and accessed via Bunny. Not sure what those lines are called but our terrain awareness was (sort of) spot on and we found one of probably several lines in there. It was decently fun and the snow was good but I'm not sure if it is a line I would want to go after frequently. The out wasn't awesome and it wasn't really super easy to link more than one or two turns for basically the entire line. But I'm glad we found it for no other reason than it verified that we are getting pretty good at terrain assessment and line finding.

aaaaaand now as I write this it is DUMPING out and I have to figure out if my legs are going to work for some more ridiculousness tomorrow...

Pinney's Pale Ale

2011-02-02T18:30:00.004-05:00

Crotchville Beer LLC has reached new heights. A milestone if you will. Officially commissioned for three batches. I have been entrusted to brew three batches of Pale Ale to be given out as gifts to guests at Shaun and Natalie's wedding. No pressure or anything.

tower of power

I'm not worried though my track record is pretty impeccable if I don't say so myself. (just jinxed it Shaun, youre welcome). These batches are pretty basic but the simplicity was nice, I think I might try and get back in to always having something basic on hand. Can't go wrong with Pale Ales and I can always start experimenting a bit here and there with tweaks etc. These batches have 3oz of Cascade hops. 2oz at 60mins and the last ounce added in the last minute of the boil for that added hoppy/citrusy fragrance to the end product. I think it was the right way to go for a mass audience (see what I did there? DOUBLE MEANING ho ho ho)

I also got to try out a new piece of gear I got for Christmas:

THE BREW HAULER

Way easier and safer to haul a full carboy than grabbing it by the neck and praying thats for sure.

I have to do some tricky scheduling to make sure all three batches get done on time. My capacity is going to basically be maxed for the first time ever. Which is good...why else do I have all this damn stuff? Word on the street is Jen is working on a custom label for these batches. Can't wait to see it. I am also thinking about having my students make a label for this batch as a Photoshop assignment...should be good. Stay tuned as Crotchville keeps pumping out batch after batch!

**UPDATE**
Phew! Have I been busy. 3 batches turned in to 4 and I have been going straight out. I've worked things around so that I was able to do a few double sessions. Bottled batches 1 and 2 and the same time as well as racking batches 3 and 4 to secondary tonight. I will more than likely bottle both 3 and 4 together in about another week or so and then we will have a few weeks to get the labels on before game day.

I also got real awesome / lame and tried out my new tripod mount for the GoPro to make a quick racking to secondary vid. Never thought I would be using my Homebrew AND GoPro tag on the same post...

**UPDATE**

I'm happy to report that this will be my first batch that will be dressed to impress. Check out this label made by Jen O'Donnell. Check out her work, its fun.

Finishing up Jan with some SHRED

2011-01-30T12:58:00.007-05:00

Saturday we got out on a line Bill and I scouted in the Fall. It had taken us two seasons to figure it all completely out and it was great for it to finally all come together. It was an interesting tour for sure.

Got to glissade down a steep descent with a few tricky cross fall line spots. Made it feel very 'alpine'. Just a bit of boot packing up and over a little obstacle and luckily we spotted our in without much issue. Getting on the line was much easier than anticipated. The riding was great. Nice little pitches with some little traverses thrown in. Got off track a bit descending into a small drainage when we should have been traversing but luckily we spotted our error in time and were able to get back on track trudging through some deep snow while hoping we wouldn't find any tree wells to explore.

The line only got better as we dropped down into the drainage that would be our out. Things opened up into a great glade with all kinds of options for awesome. We dumped out onto a little slice of New England ski history and made our way out to our spotted car.

Ben threw together a great edit in no time flat and really made me want a GoPro again/more. I'm the guy in the front most of the time, black jacket, gold helmet. Not the guy getting stuck under the tree with the huge pack. That would be JPMV haha.

I layered a bit better this time around and I continue to wrack up my AT experience. All the little tricks of the trade. Packing more efficiently, with the things you need most frequently in easy to reach locations. As well as pacing and on this trip a tiny bit of route finding. I am beginning to get a bit more familiar with my G3 Baron's. Overall a pretty good AT ski. Decently light but I did notice them feeling a tad 'noodly' and very unforgiving if you get in the back seat at all. Granted I shouldn't be back there. I think if I get enough days in this year and get a bigger knowledge of local locales to hit I will look into getting a slightly better setup next year.

And to finish off the weekend I snagged a few miles on my new (to me) waxless set up at Gunstock. Had a blast and I will definitely be keeping Nordic in my bag of tricks moving forward. Quite the work out and the trails at Gunstock are great.

My classic technique probably sucks but I was starting to feel much better getting around. Granted I was in the track most of the time. I was either straight lining descents or locking out in a snow plow, haven't tried any tele turns yet. Doesn't feel like it would quite work on my setup. I was pretty cooked after only about 5 miles. Even small hills are pretty brutal and they are probably made worse because of my inefficient technique.

It was kinda funny being reduced to a gaper as members of the nordic community blew by me on skate setups. It's been awhile since I've been the one struggling and seemingly not moving as everyone else glides effortlessly by. But the best part is most definitely the fact that I am wearing my cold weather cycling gear which in essence makes me look somewhat 'racer' inclined and I think I very much look the part of a decent xc skier...until I start moving. NORDIC POSER 4 LYFE.

MLK Shredfest

2011-01-17T10:49:00.000-05:00

Boy am I glad I don't have work today! Got a whole lot of shredding in this weekend and sleeping in this morning with maybe a bit of active recovery today is just what I need.

Ben and I got a very unexpected huge day at Cannon on Saturday. The original plan was to hit Cannon early and then when the crowds showed up we would bail back south a bit and do a lap or two at Tenney and call it good.

Weather was perfect, cold but sunny and we got right to it. First thing we noticed was the lack of crowds...did everyone forget it was a holiday weekend? We figured everyone was just running a bit late and went about finding the goods. I was on my new powder boards for the first time and I LOVE THEM. Very well rounded and versatile. Did much better on groomers than I expected but they do prefer to go straighter and faster on hardpack and are a little unpredictable at times at medium speeds on harder stuff. They are much quicker than I expected and by the end of the day I was very comfortable on them in tighter tree lines. We also found a few stashes of boot/knee deep powder and man do they float...so fun. Great purchase, very pleased. Also had two hilarious crashes because I forgot to turn the DIN up from the shop setting. Clipped a rock or root on a traverse on our first Mittersill run, knocked my feet together and double ejected. AWESOME. Then about 3 mins later on that small snow field heading down to the Tuckerbrook area I literally just hit a small mogul and popped out of one ski.

Luckily no injuries, made it down in one piece and snagged a screwdriver and jacked that DIN up. After our few Mittersill runs, that were ok...we got candyland and golden birches we noticed that the crowds had still not shown up so we ditched our Tenney plan and went about trying to hit every wooded line on Cannon proper. Our kill list included:

Go Green x2
Global Warming
Mushroom
Lost Boys x2
Banshee x3
Snowmaker's x3
Whiskey Jar

As you can see some of those warranted several hits. Not sure what people have been doing since Wed but there was still lots of snow to be had particularly in Snowmaker's. I think Ben and I were the only ones going in there. Coverage is pretty great right now across the board...still a few things exposed here and there but very manageable.

Sunday Jomo and I hooked up with a small crew of some old friends from PSU...Dweeb, Mayo, Trevor and got off resort. Met early and traveled north...I won't say where exactly because that is how the BC ski community roles on the east coast but if you frequent timefortuckerman.com and have seen TR's with a pic of Dopey from the Seven Dwarves as a hint that is where we were.

Had about a 2-3mi flat skin in and then you divert off the trail for another mile of more vertical skinning. About half way up you get to the base of a well maintained birch glade and from there you can do as many laps as you please before skiing back down the skin track in. The glade itself is about 700 vertical feet or so. Nothing amazing as far as terrain goes but a great day trip, the snow was real deep and primarily untouched. I believe Mayo took some pics and Dweeb was taking video...If I can get my hands on any of it I will post it up.

I learned a few more valuable lessons about the AT game. I still suck at layering properly. Overheated a bit on the initial flatter skin in, but I was able to get things under control while we were lapping the glade and was actually quite comfy. It was actually quite cold yesterday which always makes it that much harder to manage temps. Very weird feeling so hot and sweating when it's 10 degrees out. Then stopping for 2mins and instantly being in a deep freeze.

I must have botched blowing the water back out of my camelback's insulated tube and it froze on me. Going to have to really stay on top of that mentally in the future. Loosing your water supply can end up ruining your day, luckily Jomo had a back up stash that kept me out of the danger zone. Had some issues with the adhesive on one of my skins. I think it was the one that got a bit wet on one of the harder stream crossings on the way up.

Rule #1: never get your skins wet.

Snow and ice started sticking and with the low temps the stickyness went to shit. The skin actually fell completely off the ski on the second lap up. Mayo showed me a trick to strap the skin down towards the tail that worked really well and didn't really add a whole hell of a lot of extra drag...gonna have to buy me several of these in the near future.

I was thinking about trying to get some xc skiing in today but I am just sore enough that I will probably skip that. I'm thinking some low angle snowshoeing with the pooch is a much better option. Holiday weekend = owned.

Lafayette Trails

2011-01-08T15:53:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm 100% sold on cross country skiing. Today was my first outing on the new setup and conditions were far from ideal and I still had a great time and got a good workout in just 4.2mi.

Met up with Bill and we shot up to just north of the notch and a little place called Lafayette Trails. Small little out and back type network with a few mini offshoot loops. We met up with what turned out to be a pretty sizable group that consisted mostly of people who consider Nordic a second or third sport so everyone was fairly well matched.

There were 4 others behind the camera. It was a tour de force.

Trails at first were pretty chewed up and hard packed. Tumble mentioned that during holiday week a bunch of yahoos came in and post holed the whole place and kind of ruined things, its just now slowly starting to recover. I was having a hard time getting going initially. Had to figure out where to put my weight and get into that classic rhythm. Took me a bit to figure out how to get the waxless pattern to really bite and grip for the kick but I found out I was having issues more due to the conditions than my form per se. Once we got a bit higher and there was some light snow that had been softened up by the sun a tad I really got going well and felt good.

looked good too....

Going down slope was a tad sketchy but really fun. Its nice to be able to turn seemingly boring terrain into something interesting and challenging just by getting out of your comfort zone a bit. I stayed upright all day, Bill had a few crashes. It was a lot of stop and go and regrouping but I definitely felt like I was working. And it is definitely full body. Upper, core, lower and cardio...felt great.

I was ready for more but we had carpooled and we were running a bit low on daylight due to a later start. I'm excited to get a bunch more mileage in this winter and be able to check out areas of the state previously unreachable to me. I botched my garmin data by accidentally stopping the recording of data right after I started it, but Bill got a new device for xmas and recorded the track and I was able to upload it to my Garmin account.

Waxless Touring here I come!

2010-12-30T13:49:00.000-05:00

The Nordic bug has been knocking on my recreational door for some time now. I think at least the past two seasons I have come close to buying a setup but just never got around to it. This year is the year and I snagged a used waxless touring set up at the Gunstock Nordic Center. Figured I go with something I could ski classic on groomed stuff as well as take off track a bit to start and then get a skate setup if I really like the whole nordic thing and the trails at Gunstock.

These even have metal edges so if I find anything cool out in the woods I can try and shred it and maybe not die.

Fischer (we have to) Explorers

I don't know a whole lot about the current nordic tech but I believe these have older model Salomon Pilot bindings. The boots I scored were newer Salomon tech so I needed to mod the bindings a tad. According to the guy at the nordic center its a fairly common mod and I love saving money and tweaking stuff in the shed so I went for it. All that was required was cutting out a small notch in the binding to accommodate the second rail on the boots.

Pre mod, with notch marked

notch cut out with hacksaw and cleaned up with an exacto-knife

boot mounted post mod

The boots I got are what are called "combi" because they can be used with classic or skate set ups, all I need to do is make sure I get Pilot bindings with the two rail slots on any skate skis I eventually get. I am pretty pumped to see what I can get myself into with these as well as getting in lots of additional cardio with a skate setup.

I'm thinking something along the lines of this is in order.

Gargantubehemega Day on Cannon

2010-12-28T16:14:00.000-05:00

In case it is not obvious I made that word up. Gargantuan, behemoth and mega had a love child on Monday at Cannon. When all was said and done the resort was claiming 28-31 inches of snow and I shredded every last flake. Well not really but as much as could be jammed into about 7 hours of non stop riding.

It is really hard to put a day like yesterday into words. I'm still trying to quantify how big of a deal it is that I was able to take advantage of those conditions. So many things can conspire to keep you off the mountain that hitting a day like this is really amazing. I can pretty safely say that I have never skied snow that deep. I had one pretty big day at the Canyons in '98 but I was only 16-17 and didn't really know quite how to ski stuff like that back then and I'm still not sure that day was 2ft plus. I doubt that it was. Making this the deepest most ridiculous day on snow I have ever had.

The snow was so deep that it brought you to a dead stop on anything but the steeper features. You could easily carve into drifts and disappear, literally. We lapped the Front 5 all morning for the steeper grades and better visibility. Easily waist deep all morning and screw face shots, the stuff was flying up and over my head and not because I flipped it up with my tips or purposely hit a drift just the right way...it was everywhere.

We also got a few runs over at Mittersill and one into Kinsman. Kinsman was a bit gnarly, deep but just deep enough to hide features that you could still hit. As long as you guessed right it was pretty epic but a few wrong guesses caused some issues but nothing major. Mittersill was really beyond explanation, I love the terrain over there and you add 2+ft of snow and forget it. Complete awesome induced brain meltdown. I think the highlight was probably Candyland. Its just hard enough to find that most people miss it but accessible enough that you don't waste much time getting to it. I was able to hit Candyland a few more times today and no one had found it since our runs yesterday and I was the only one in there today.

Not a whole lot more ways to convey the awesome so I'll let some of the pics do the talking. Per usual they don't do the day complete justice...no way pics are going to come out perfect in a blizzard and extreme props to Bill for even trying to get some. It was cold and taking a glove off for some pics would not have been high on my list.

I think this is one of the best shots for actually showing some of the depth

Shredding AKA trying to not get stuck

Late.

(i love captions that only two people will understand)

Hip-Deep-Hurray for powder!

gonna see a lot of us this season. Ruff Ryders!

So Sick

2010-12-23T16:23:00.000-05:00

I was really sick this morning and decided to stay home from work to get some rest. Surprisingly, I slept for maybe another 10mins and got up feeling great. With no plans for the day I decided to check my phone for the snow report from Cannon. 6in overnight on top of 4 from yesterday?! Imagine that! Seeing as how I had bounced back I decided to go get some pre-Christmas powder. Seemed like the prudent thing to do.

I had thought this little system coming in was a bit under the radar for the masses but apparently a lot of people read FIS now. Got crowded fast, more so than on mediocre weekend days. I got there early enough and was up for first chair though. Visibility was pretty poor up top. Made things really interesting early. You just had to point and go and trust that the force would steer you accordingly. Worked out all right and the snow was amazing. Very cushy and bouncy, it almost felt inflated in a way. Irwin and I took a few warm ups off the Peabody waiting for Bill to get suited up then we did laps off the Front 5. Visibility was much better over there and there is nothing like ripping those steeps in about 6-8in of powder.

We were even able to duck into Snow Maker's and Whiskey Jar for a run or two. Still some junk under there but mostly awesome.

Bill's camera is back in effect

Unfortunately all the powder has obscured my purple pants, but I'm over it. I have been digging this year so far. No real big epic days yet but this was close and all the other days have been good and its been real consistent. No wishy-washy thaws and freezes just slowly but surely building up the awesome. Looking forward to '11

Soylent Green

2010-12-21T08:25:00.006-05:00

This bike is people

Made it a tiny bit farther with this build as well. Got the rim tape needed to get my old road wheelset back in action as well as some Kenda Kwick's that Shaun bequeathed to me when they didn't fit on his Langster about 400 years ago. They've been hanging in the shed waiting ever since....until now.

I also have a new front derailleur on order as well as the fork. Went with the Surly Cross Check, decently cheap and I like Surly's rep for robustness and I have never had an issue with anything else Surly in the past. Once those parts arrive, hopefully over Holiday break, I can have this ride all set and cabled (except for brakes). I am really interested to see how the fit works out. I think I am going to have to do some experimenting with the front end to see what feels the best...or who knows maybe my guess that it would be better to have this frame be a bit smaller was right and it will be perfect. I did manage to guess on a perfect chainline when building Blue up SS, maybe I'm developing that unteachable bike wrench 'touch'.

I am still trying to decide what kind of canti brakes I'm going to go with. I don't have much experience with canti's and I don't want to shell out too much $$ but at the same time I want something that will be manageable. I have heard canti's can be a nightmare to get adjusted just right. Gonna put my wrenching 'touch' to the test.

**UPDATE**

My latest parts order arrived yesterday so I was able to get a little more done on this ride. Got the front end all fitted and installed as well as cabled up the derailleurs. All it needs now are some brakes...that I still need to purchase, and it will be 100%.

So tonight I installed the new Surly fork, as well as the old cockpit setup from the monster cross. Luckily I guessed right with the sizing of the frame and the old stem gave me a perfect riding position with just the one spacer with the cable stop for the canti brakes. I was able to set the crown race on the new fork following some internet wisdom. A legit crown race setting tool can run you $30-60 and for some reason I just don't feel like spending that much for that particular tool. I have spent that much on bike tools that I don't use very often but this particular tool is basically a pipe you hit with a hammer...I'm not paying $60 for that. Instead I bought a 10ft section of 1.5in PVC for $4 and cut off a 16in piece and hit it with a hammer. Bingo. God bless the internet.

I ran into a very slight issue with the front derailleur. I have come to realize that I really hate derailleurs...using them, installing them, cabling them, trying to buy the right one. Top swing? Bottom pull? High clamp? Low Clamp? My issue was created because I thought low clamp front derailleurs were only needed for new fangled FS frames that don't have a lot of room to mount the FD due to the linkage for the suspension. And I have read that high clamp are 'better' due to better leverage, durability, etc. So I thought high clamp should be good right? sure! trigger pulled. Turns out not so much.

Ended up having to mount the FD just above the bottom cage bolt on the seat tube in order to get the thing positioned right. Hilariously I found a cage that could still be mounted as long as I used a slightly longer bolt on the bottom. Does it look stupid? You betcha. Does it work? Yup. Moving on.

I probably won't rock the three bottle cages all the time I just wanted to see it loaded to capacity. It's just like the monster...but way more svelte. Going to make it a bit easier to commute more consistently I'm sure as well as more efficient to take longer rides around the house. It's also nice to have a legit tourer that if I actually bought racks for could really go to task. I might even be able to do some cross races for fun on this bad boy. We'll see, I still really don't feel like getting into the whole USA cycling thing and buying more licenses to race.

**UPDATE**

Just need some bar tape and I am riding Soylent Green! And if I hadn't goofed while pulling the front brake cable back a bit to trim the housing I would be able to ride it now but I accidentally pulled it completely out of the housing and couldn't get it back in without removing the bar tape (and ruining it, never buying that kind of tape again...adhesive on it SUCKED) and removing the housing to thread it back in.

I had some issues with the brakes but not the issues I was anticipating. I figured getting the canti's properly dialed was going to be a huge pain in the ass. Surprisingly once all was said and done that was the easiest...although I probably just got a bit lucky. The worst part was getting the damn things cabled and figuring out the right way to get the cable hangers set up properly. The high rise stem in the front created a tight fit with the headset hanger. But I got that one cabled decent after getting physical with it. The hanger in the rear was another story. I was trying all kinds of hilarious jerry rigging to get it just right and it was just not happening. Turns out I was using the wrong ferrule cable stop. I really lucked out and found the right one in my 'parts jug' (when I went to look for it it was sitting right on top, I didn't even have to dump it out). Once I was using the correct part it actually cabled up relatively easily, go figure. More lessons learned and another bike to the stable.

I kinda like the way the black of the raw bars looks with this ride so I may just end up getting black bar tape. Not usually my style but I plan on riding this bike in all kinds of crap so black is probably the prudent choice.

I see Blue!

2010-12-21T08:07:00.003-05:00

and he's glooooorious!

got the go, now I just need the stop

Stopped in to Rhino the other day on the way home from Cannon to pick up some random build parts, among them the additional headset spacers I needed to get the cockpit on the new winter bike dialed. Came together nicely and is actually kinda light!

I think this could be a really fun winter bike with these massive Prowler 2.3's I have on there now. Just got to let some air out and they will be golden on anything but sheer ice I would imagine and I still have my homemade studs I can throw on this bike if needed if I ever pull off a lake ride.

All that is left now is cabling up the brakes and this thing is ready to ride. I am thinking I might try and get it completely finished off at some point soon so I can take it out on its inaugural ride over the Holiday break. There are some flurries in the forecast and I'm pretty sure I would have a blast riding this in 2-3in of fluff

**UPDATE**

Brakes are cabled! This bad boy is ready to go. There is still no snow in Sanbornton so I have the unique capability to shred both Cannon and local trails hard. I have heard local singletrack is still riding great. Rock hard and FAST. I had forgotten how bad the pads were on the brakes I installed on this bike. Took me quite a long time to get things dialed on the stand. Got them workable but they probably won't last long. I have one replacement set in the shop as well as some I could steal from the old monster cross brakes (I think the BB5 road versions pads work in the long pull version...)

Frozen Shed Session

2010-12-16T22:33:00.000-05:00

Gina had a NH Humane Society Holiday party tonight so I figured I would freeze my ass of in the shed and get started on yet another massive parts swap / build as well as do a bit of maintenance on the good 'ole nothin but troubles.

I'm not sure why I continue to bother with those skis. Edges are burred to complete worthlessness but I suppose every little bit helps...cant get any worse I guess. They will hopefully be phased out a bit soon anyway. Once everything fills in and those damn bindings I got a deal on actually ship I will have some fresh fatties to break down to nothingness.

The real action of the evening came with my latest parts swap and bike birth / rebirth. I can't seem to build a bike and just leave it. At least some of my bikes anyway. I was very pleased with my monster cross bike, I thought it was a good build and it performed well at the NH100 last year but when it came down to it it was just too damn heavy. Sure technically it could do anything / go anywhere but it required so much more energy to do it that it just wasn't really working for me. I want to commute more next year and my commute is not an easy route and if I want to really get into it a bit more I will need something a bit lighter and more suited to that task, plus a light tourer might allow me to more easily dabble in cross next year? hmmmm

Soooo I scored yet another cheapo Nashbar frame (touring variety this time around) and I am cannibalizing most of the parts from the monster for use with the light tourer and using spare parts to turn the monster into a burly winter SS since my old ice bike has since devolved into parts. Seemed a decent compromise and the additional investment needed to make it happen is going to come in very low so it made sense.

so much for the monster

I felt bad stripping the monster down, but I am excited about the two bikes that will emerge from this process. I had hoped to make it a bit farther this evening but my hands were starting to get pretty cold and working with cold metal tools/frames wasn't helping. I ran into a few incompatibilities and parts that I thought I had but didn't so I had to table a few things until later. I should be able to get the burly winter SS back online with just a few more headset spacers. I thought I had more than I did and I came up about 10mm or so short. Once I get the spacers I can get the fork mounted again, finish the cockpit and I'll be good to go.

as far as I could get tonight

Drive train is finished at least. Running 32-20. And yes Shine, the zipties are back. I'll be running my old Thomson stem from the Kona as well as those carbon bars. Should end up looking pretty sweet and working pretty well as both a decent winter bike and a poor weather / loaner / backup SS.

I also started throwing parts on to the touring frame. Cranks, pedals, derailleur, seat post, saddle, headset. Some from the monster some from the parts bin. Unfortunately the front derailleur from the monster has a clamp diameter that is too small for this frame so I'll have to get a new one. I still need to buy a fork at some point as well as some rim tape for the wheelset I plan on using. I am a little worried that I should have bought the 58cm frame but hopefully I can make the 56cm work. I always felt a bit stretched out on the monster so I thought I would try sizing down but looking at it on the stand it looks small. Fingers crossed.

I love me some cheap builds

Once I get the parts needed I will start separate posts for each of these builds as I complete them. Gonna have to figure out new names for each...

Some Shredding and Some Perspective

2010-12-13T16:51:00.000-05:00

Got days two and three on snow racked up this weekend and the 'true' start to the season which I gauge as the first time the riding is hard enough to thrash my lower back. Happens every year no matter how much core work I do in the gym to prepare. But its out of the way early this year so that's good.

Jomo and I got up to Jay Saturday to try and snag some of the leftovers from Tuesdays dump. We were able to find some deep stuff in pockets in the woods but the cover was still very much in the extreme sketch zone. Lots of obstacles still need to get buried, we were hitting all kinds of stuff and I lost a ski a few times due to getting snagged under a downed tree or root. I also took a real sweet digger into a exposed muddy drainage while attempting to traverse back to the resort from Timbuktu. I am happy to report that my gear performed quite well and I stayed dry and was able to wash the mud off with snow...like it never happened.

Even with all the junk still exposed in the woods it was still great riding for early Dec and we got as much vert as we could handle. My body still needs a few hard days of riding to get up to full speed.

With an impending thaw barreling down on us in the forecast we decided to also hit Cannon early on Sunday before things went south for a few days. Met up with Shaun and Joe and got right to it. Conditions were pretty good but after an hour or two of riding we all got a solid dose of reality shortly after getting on the Zoomer chair.

We heard several people a few chairs up yelling back to get patrol to the cat track that cuts across the bottom of Zoomer just a few hundred feet up from the base. Everyone was relaying the message down and up the mountain from chair to chair so that someone could be radioed in. You could tell there was an urgency beyond someone tweaking a knee. We probably only missed the crash by a minute or two and a few seconds after first hearing the call we were passing over the scene. It was hard to tell exactly what happened, his skis were 20-30ft up the hill from where he was laying at the edge of the woods. To spread out your gear like that there had to be some speed involved. He was laying motionless and a bit twisted, obviously unconscious and as we passed over head we could see a pool of blood starting to form underneath his head. It was hard to tell how severe it was from the height we were at but at the time we thought maybe he just double ejected and hit face first...maybe a concussion and a broken nose.

It turns out a 19 year old kid died from his injuries that day. Incredibly sad and sobering. Hearing the news this morning was tough. Really makes you think about stuff in your own life, especially for me having recently crashed hard at Jay two years ago. My thoughts go out to his family and friends.

Page Hill Cross Post

2010-11-14T16:30:00.000-05:00

http://www.cnhnemba.org/2010/11/page-hill.html

I don't want to double post so I'll mostly just link to my post over at CNH NEMBA. Been busy at the new Page Hill site the past two weeks. Been killing two birds as well, getting set for more local mtb options AND getting lots of compass work in wandering around in the woods. I've gotten pretty good at following bearings in the field using intermediate landmarks and also 'daisy chaining' with other members of a party. i.e. they walk while you spot the bearing and keep them on line until you barely can see them and then you walk to meet them, rinse and repeat.

Still need to work on pace counting to get better at judging lateral distance as well as get a bit more fine tuned on terrain association. I can pick out the big stuff but I'd like to get the more subtle stuff as well as get better at really identifying when it comes down to is that this drainage or that drainage type scenario.

Progress...

Finding my inner Belgian

2010-11-13T16:20:00.000-05:00

I've been getting a decent amount of road miles in lately, not really sure why but I love riding in the Fall and if the weather is good road rides are great because they get you out in the awesome for a long time and you get all the sweet views and cool Fall breezes.

Friday I was having a real hard time deciding what I was going to do today. I had a spot to recon for AT skiing this winter, kinda wanted to get back on the MTB, as well as take advantage of the great weather with a long road ride. I decided on the road ride because Bill was busy and I didn't want to get too removed into the woods solo.

I had mapped out a tentative route Friday afternoon that seemed like it would be pretty cool but I knew there was a small probability of sketch. I was planning on heading up and over to New Hampton and down to Franklin and then through to Northfield to Belmont and back up and around to Sanbornton. I had a feeling there were a few spots in Northfield that I may have picked dirt roads but most of the dirt this time of year is rock solid and just as good as some pavement so I figured I would just take it slow.

I was trying to find the "I knew it would be bad..." scene but I couldn't so I went with this.

Beginning of the ride was great, weather was perfect. Took me a long time to warm up but I got into a groove eventually. Got through Franklin without issue and hit the first semi decent climb on Pleasant St heading up and out of Franklin. Hit my first class VI trying to cut over to Northfield.

Luckily it was all down hill and only moderately rocky. It was fairly short as well, about a quarter mile. Aint no thang. Got back rolling through Northfield and hit the second big climb of the day up Bean Hill Rd. Rode past Highland MTB Park. Got passed by about 1000 redneck trucks hauling 40lb bikes and somewhat surprisingly they were all very respectful and gave me room and didn't buzz me. Yeah cyclists sticking together! Kept on up the hill and never did see the left hander I was planning on.

So I had to connect the dots over some 'rough' terrain on a bike made for smooth pavement. No problem. I was actually able to ride a decent portion of it. I walked some due to fear of flatting...not the kind of place you want to go to the bathroom in Mikey. Popped out in someones yard on the other side and got back on the road. Rest of the ride was pretty uneventful. I ran out of calories around mile 45 so I had to go into damage control to avoid bonking before getting home but it was a pretty sweet ride. Luckily it all worked out and added some adventure to the mix.

Off Trail 4 Lyfe

2010-11-08T11:39:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was an exercise in bushwhacking. Saturday Bill and I went on a mission to find some lines that have eluded us (until now) and Sunday was a recon mission for Central NH NEMBA to walk the possible future site of a new trail system.

You won't get much info here on our AT recon mission, unfortunately the more people that know about it the less awesome it becomes and this line isn't exactly 'ours' but I can go into the process a bit because it was sort of my first foray into wilderness navigation.

We had some decent beta heading into the trip and we had spent some time last year trying to find this route to no avail. But through process of elimination we were fairly certain we knew where we were going this time around. We actually made really short work of finding the line and we began hiking up to our 'backstop' (yeah navigation terminology!) which was a trail running along a ridge. The line itself looks like it will be really fun. Lots of natural terrain features, and its LONG.

At the time it was hard to pinpoint exactly where we were, we were hiking in a cloud so it was impossible to site any landmarks to try and pinpoint our location using bearings and I have come to the conclusion after this trip and Sunday's hiking around that I am currently a horrible judge of lateral distance traveled. I always think I have gone about 10x farther than I actually have. Gonna have to work on that. It also became apparent how handy an accurate altimeter would be especially when navigating around mountainous terrain. Much easier to narrow down your location if needed. Too bad they are so damn expensive.

We topped out on the ridge and started making our way across two peaks, our plan was to traverse and descend the front side of another mountain to a car we had spotted instead of back tracking. We had thought this traverse would be easy and would be the preferred method of accessing this line. But we quickly came to the realization that this traverse would be hilarious in the winter and might even require some crampons and ropes in places depending on how it fills in. Definitely going to be some adventuring this winter and I can't wait.

I took some pics but they got corrupted somehow, I think that crappy walmart camera has infected my SD card or something. Or maybe some of the individuals who did most of the work on this line installed a motion triggered EMP that erased all my pics. Hard tellin'.

I can be a bit more forthcoming with our trip on Sunday. I am really excited about this one. CNH NEMBA was recently contacted by the LRCT about a chunk of land that was donated to them. They had no plans for it and wondered if we might want to build some trails there. The land was owned by a private party and even has two cabins on the property that CNH NEMBA might eventually have access to. Best estimates right now are the plot being somewhere between 300-500 acres, we are still working with the LRCT and the town to figure out property lines.

I met with Jesse and Mike to walk the land a bit. We were trying to find property lines as well as identify if the terrain was workable and worth our time.

We did a quick perimeter around probably 2/3 of the plot and I can safely say this place is going to be amazing when we are done. Gonna be years in the making but the possibilities are pretty exciting. LRCT seems pretty open to our ideas and we are looking forward to moving forward with development. Hopefully we'll be back soon with better info on property lines so we can mark our boundaries all the way around and possibly begin work on a 'perimeter trail' that circumnavigates the entire plot to start. Best guess is that trail alone will be 6-7 miles long. We could be looking at 20+ miles of singletrack with plenty of vert and two cabins on the property. I like getting the shakes for next year's awesome in early November.

Hold please....

2010-10-30T15:32:00.001-04:00

Found out at the end of this week that the Untamed NE race is taking a hiatus next year, or at least it appears that way on their website right now. Listed as next race in 2012 with registration opening in 2011. Bummer, there goes that plan.

I think I am going to continue with my training plans for the most part though with some slight tweaks maybe. We have already found some smaller adventure races that are fairly local that we can try out. Might make more sense to get our feet wet in a 12hr format before jumping into 3 full days.

Now I have to figure out what next year holds. I always have EFTA and maybe I can rededicate a bit more time to that endeavor this year with NEMBA racing hopefully getting going a bit more next year that might be good. Maybe I'll try a half marathon, could do another tri...I should probably just take a 'do everything' approach next year. I randomly caught the nordic bug again, I think it might be good to take advantage of the facilities at Gunstock, but that means more gear to buy. Maybe I can score some used stuff at the nordic center there. They also have some winter tri's hosted in the area...5K, ice bike, xc ski. Sounds good to me. I almost did one a year or two ago but doing that will all depend on the winter we are having. Decent powder around when its scheduled and I'll be doing other activities for sure.

I am thinking the lack of real concrete plans for next year might be good. I have been suffering from calendar overload lately. It might be nice to just float around a bit and just race and be active when opportunities present themselves. I have a feeling there will be lots.

I finally got back going this weekend with a nice road ride around the lake. Felt OK, my strength and power is pretty crap right now but my base is still pretty good and my recovery rate is still right up there. It was a pretty leisurely ride with a few decent climbs.

Pretty awesome that I randomly picked a route that was almost 29mi on the dot after just turning 29 yesterday on the 29th. I'm thinking about maybe going for a run tomorrow and getting back into stuff full bore for Nov. Lunch break runs and weight room, yoga, etc. I'm also thinking its time for some AT recon hikes, better call Bill...

Compass Dork

2010-10-28T21:34:00.000-04:00

That's me. Well not yet, but sooner rather than later for certain. Up until recently I've just been reading up on technique and the fundamentals of wilderness navigation but now I can finally start to practice.

Suunto MC-2. My first piece of Finnish gear

I think Gina might have gotten sick of me commenting on how I needed to get a compass soon over and over. So she went ahead and got me a sweet ass compass for my birthday to shut me up. And as you might be able to tell its the same model as the one on the cover of one of the books I checked out.

I don't know much about compasses yet to really discern value but the MC-2 seems to be a very popular full featured unit. It is mentioned in all three books I have as being top of the line. Score. I have already adjusted for declination to 16 degrees W for NH and gotten decent at plotting bearings on a map and solving little test questions about determining location based on several bearings etc. It's actually kinda fun, I have always taken to problem solving in general and I think orienteering and me will get along just fine. I think. I have a feeling there is a certain art to being really good at orienteering and navigation that you can't get from reading a book so I am anxious to get into the woods and get a feel for the real thing.

I scored a $50 gift card from my HMO today for staying healthy so I'm trying to think of any other gear that I need to procure before next year. So far I am thinking about a nice light/bright headlamp, a dry bag or two, and maybe some techy layers for staying dry/warm. Is there a chance I just keep trying all this new stuff as an excuse to buy new stuff? Is that what happens when you get older?

Pine Hill Park

2010-10-24T14:05:00.002-04:00

Two words. Holy crap. Four more words. Find of the year. I could probably go on like this for awhile. Pine Hill Park in Rutland, VT is ridiculous. I am completely dumbfounded as to how this place has cruised under my radar until now. Imagine a 300 acre playground with trails built by a cross between renaissance masters and civil engineers and you have Pine Hill Park.

Shaun needed to escape Cambridge to avoid estrogen fest '10 and the original plan was to meet Dbone at Millstone. Turns out the drive from 'Toga to Barre was a bit longer than anticipated so we began scouring the internet to find a place that would work a bit better. Hit VMBA's site and discovered a video for some trails in Rutland. Surprisingly the trails looked really good in the vid and upon checking their site and seeing the map there looked to be a decent amount of mileage on site so we decided to check it out. Best decision we've made in a long time.

New England IS Fall

The park was maxed out and trail density was high with a lot of intersections but luckily all the intersections were numbered so I went about plotting a route and making us a cue sheet with all the turns we would need to make and taped it to my top tube.

Wasn't sure if it was going to work, all it would take is one wrong turn or missed or unmarked intersection and the whole thing would go to hell. But we lucked out and it actually worked out really well. Saved us a ton of time making decisions at trail heads and kept us moving more consistently. I ended up plotting out about a 10 mile ride and we did some extra stuff twice that was too fun not too as well as some exploring around Rocky Pond.

I don't even know where to start about explaining how awesome these trails are. Berms EVERYWHERE. Think about a location you ride frequently...I'm sure there are lots of places where you might think to yourself 'man I wish that turn was bermed, that could be so sweet.' You will never have to think that at Pine Hill. Absolutely amazing bridge work. Easily the most impressive bridges I have ever seen riding anywhere. Definitely be sure to check out the pics at their website...incredible.

you kidding me? Playoffs?!

Much more vert than I was expecting but it was a pleasant surprise. You can get a pretty good amount of work in but still be able to rip and have a blast. We basically did two laps around the park and there was still plenty to do or opportunities to ride things backwards, etc. It would take a pretty long time to get bored.

All around it was a perfect day. Tons of amazing singletrack. We got to see a dad ditch his son and yell "Now I get to do some REAL riding!" as he very slowly spun up a climb wearing some awesome sweatpants. AND we got to meet the mastermind behind it all in the parking lot after the ride. Michael Smith has dedicated a TON of time to the park and we chatted a bit about a new banked bridge he is building as well as a 12 hour race planned for next Fall called the Lunar 12 that sounds far too good to miss. More than likely going to be in attendance for that next year.

Dustin surveying the future location of the Lunar 12 from on high

So yeah if it is not apparent already if you live in New England and you have not ridden Pine Hill Park, you need to, case closed. As soon as Shaun uploads his pics I will steal some and post a few here.

Transition Time

2010-10-22T13:33:00.000-04:00

I've been making snow sports purchases like crazy lately and with flurries flying in central NH today the itch is setting in. Compounded by the fact that I haven't been able to get on my bike in weeks I feel the transition to winter sports coming on hard.

I suffered a mild financial freakout today and made a pretty sweet impulse buy of some FAT skis to add to my quiver. I have had all kinds of weird universe convergence moments lately and this time around flurries start flying I start thinking about skiing and how I need some new resort boards and bam tramdock.com delivers a deal in close succession. Plus its my birthday next week...happy birthday me the universe has spoken.

105 at the waist. WEEEEEE

I've never ridden anything this fat before. Gonna be awesome (I hope). All the reviews I've been reading are informing me that I need to ride these things hot and heavy. Just what I need...look for me straight lining Zoomer this season. I've also snagged some new googles and gloves in the past few weeks. Let it snow I guess.

I've also been thinking about getting myself going with more structured training for next summer's big goal. Pretty daunting task trying to figure out what the hell I should be doing. Probably going to start slow by getting back into yoga again. My flexibility is crap right now. A few years ago when I was doing stuff 1-2 times a week I felt like it helped a lot with injury prevention and recovery. Probably two things that are really beneficial when exerting yourself non stop for 3 days without sleeping. Gotta start getting back in the gym on lunch and running as well. Except this time around more vert and longer distances (what have I gotten myself into?!)

Caribou Slobber

2010-10-11T22:26:00.001-04:00

Wasn't long after Crotchtoberfest wrapped up that I was right at it brewing an American Brown Ale for this year's Thanxmas.

On tap is a clone kit of Big Sky Brewing's Moose Drool. Seemed interesting and I am a big fan of brown ales. The American versions are a bit more hoppy than the English counterpart and this batch has an interesting mix of 3 different variates: Goldings, Liberty and Willamette. Lots of interesting specialty grains too, Black Malt, Briess Caramel and Fawcett Pale Chcolate. Drooling yet? I am. Hard to believe its less than two months until Thanxmas. Where did '10 go?

I had my students whip up some labels for this batch as part of an exercise in photoshop. Figured I would share some of my favorites:

**UPDATE**:

Primary fermentation is going swimmingly. Everything is right on schedule. Probably transfer things to secondary this weekend or so for about 3 weeks then bottling just before Turkey day for two weeks of bottle conditioning before Thanxmas. Gonna be a busy end to 2010 at Kaulback Farm!

Pinnacle Challenge 2010

2010-10-03T22:05:00.000-04:00

Hard to believe this is our 5th consecutive year doing the Pinnacle Challenge. It has been interesting to see this race change and our team change over the years. We started off as a decently fast hodge-podge or runners and riders with basic expectations who surprised ourselves with a 2nd place finish in our first year.

We were hooked on syrup and dead set on bagging that narrowly missed win from the first year. Luckily our Blue Zoo family runs pretty deep with athletic talent so even when some team members went missing we were able to field a team and even find some ringers in the process.

One year the Blue Zoo took first and second in the Co-Ed division and last year we narrowly missed a shot at the overall title due to probably the most inopportune flat I have ever gotten in my entire race career. Even so we were still able to defend our crown in the Co-Ed. But it looks like that jug of syrup is going to have to be truly earned from here on out.

The fields have been getting stronger over the years and this year was probably the strongest across the board. Lots of extremely fast runners in all divisions and one of the biggest turn outs to date. I did a lot of sizing up in the parking lot and thought I had our competition figured out and fairly well managed and everything was going to plan heading through the race but we were caught out by a new sleeper group I knew nothing about and narrowly missed out on that Co-Ed win similar to year 1 for the Blue Zoo. They had just the right mix of strength where they needed it and we just couldn't quite close the gap at the end and they nipped us by 2mins and change.

Unfortunately for me I wanted to be exactly 2mins and change faster on my leg than I went but I did post a personal best for myself on the road leg coming in about 25secs better than my previous best.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/51625086

I really need to start treating this like a race again and really warm up and prepare myself the right way, I just couldn't get the blood to the legs in the first few miles. That usually happens when you go from 0 to threshold in about 200m. I have been getting a bit lax with this race over the last few 'easy' years but nothing like a narrow second to shock you back into form. Everyone else did great. Xtina was back after her baby making hiatus and put up a very similar time to 'back in the day', Adam basically killed it in the MTB (dont believe him when he says he doesn't ride anymore and is slow), and Jeremy destroyed the trail run yet again with a scorching time bested only by some other ridiculously fast runner.

http://www.team-pinnacle.org/race-results3.php?results=23

Not sure where these runners came from this year but there was A LOT of talent on hand. Fastest road runner threw down sub 5min miles for 5 miles.

So another year down and it has become apparent that the Challenge has made a name for itself and earning that sweet sweet syrup is going to take a bit more focus next year...

Or is it?...Yes it is

2010-09-23T21:32:00.000-04:00

Well apparently my legs had been hiding somewhere between last Thursday and now.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/49309655 - Last Thursday
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/50249694 - Now

I still think I've been faster but I'm not going to scoff at dropping 4+ minutes off my time in just 7 days. Granted the weather was quite a bit better this time around but not 4mins better. Bring on the Pinnacle Challenge, I feel like I should probably post a similar time to years past. I still really want to break that 40min mark on that course though and I'll be burying myself in an attempt.

In AR news I checked out some books on Wilderness Navigation today to start my mental training. I am rocking:

Wilderness Navigation by Bob & Mike Burns
The Land Navigation Handbook (The Sierra Club Guide to Map, Compass, and GPS) by W.S. Kals
NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) Wilderness Navigation by Darran Wells

Just diving into them now so I'm not sure how much I will get from them. I'm hoping to get terminology down as well as some fundamentals and methodology but it seems to me land nav is one of those things that needs a lot of hands on. Time to get a compass and try and find some weird ponds in the Pemi wilderness or something...

Fitness is annoying

2010-09-17T10:57:00.000-04:00

Well not really. I think this summer has been kind of interesting for me to gauge and manage what the hell I was doing and I am reaching the frustration point wandering around on my current plateau and looking forward to my yearly reset around this time and starting to focus on a specific goal again.

In the immediate future I am trying for a little mini flash peak of fitness for the Pinnacle Challenge. I am doing the road leg this year and I'm not in the best roadie shape right now. I haven't done a lot of high end riding lately and I have two weeks to try and shock my body back into race shape.

Yesterday afternoon I proved that I am in the same shape as I was in April.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/29427143 - April
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/49309655 - Sept

Not sure if I'm ok with that. I think I did peak give or take when I wanted to in July for my tri and I have definitely tailed off going into the end of the year so I guess at least I am still at that base level. I guess I wouldn't mind if my current level of fitness is my new 'slow'.

I have slowly started to read articles and look for resources for getting my adventure race training going. I will probably start by just getting ready for the ski season. Start running again, probably more trail this time around and hauling gear. I might go a bit Bode and just do yardwork as hard as possible as well haha. Get back in the gym on my lunch breaks for some circuit training and maybe even the pool as well (I kinda miss swimming, such a good workout in only 20mins). Every now and then I remember that I am trying to prepare myself for three days of non stop exertion and it makes me laugh. I am going to have to eat so much food. Good god.

I'm also looking forward to the mental training needed and I've already found some cool resources online:

http://www.map-reading.com/intro.php

Gotta love free e-books, especially ones with a slight military skew. I like reading about how to read maps and every now and then told to use grazing fire. If anyone finds good stuff on nav, etc. let me know

Millstone

2010-08-30T12:56:00.000-04:00

Finally made it back to Millstone for a proper tour since racing there in '09. A few of us dudes tagged along on a trip to VT so the ladies could throw Tara a baby shower, they showered the baby with gifts while we shredded win/win.

Shaun and I arrived at the Millstone Hill touring center around 9am but the center didn't open until 930am (Millstone can't handle our early morning intensity) but it worked out because Mike was meeting us there later in the morning so we did a quick warm up lap on the first part of the race course that I could remember from memory because for some reason at the time when I loaded the course into my Garmin it thought we were 5,000+ miles away from the recorded data points. Gonna have to test that a bit before AT season, if that broke last season it would have ruined at least one ski venture.

Luckily when we got back and bought our day passes we also received a huge detailed (almost too detailed) map of the trail system. This led to a lot of this:

and this:

But after an accidental back track and me finding as many big climbs at the beginning of the ride as possible, to kill Mike of course, we got into a pretty nice groove. Millstone is HUGE and its a bit daunting trying to come up with a ride plan because really you just want to ride everything but its not all that possible in one day so we had to try and pick and choose. We headed south to try and snag a sweet overlook on the way to some sweet directional singletrack called Fellowship Ring.

There were plenty of places to stop and get really cool views of the old quarries and surrounding area. That sheer cliff above I believe was called the Rock of the Ages lookout. And the pic above that is the view from that cliff. Very cool stuff. I was pleased to see that most of the rest of Millstone is very similar to the race course. Its a great mix of terrain that is very well maintained (except for that one trail with all the pricker bush overgrowth, good god I look like I was attacked by a really small cougar or something). A good amount of technical aspects throughout but not enough to wear me out on a rigid in 16 miles so its manageable. After hitting most of the stuff down by Rock of Ages we made our way back towards the Touring Center to check out the Grand Lookout and Roller Coaster.

You can see Canada from the Grand Lookout and Shaun and Mike just couldn't resist getting close.

The huge piles of granite in this area are really impressive. Hundreds of feet high, just piled up. After they hugged it out we back tracked a bit to hop on Roller Coaster which is the trail you will see if you search Millstone Trails VT on Youtube. Starts off with some man made bridges over some granite piles and then after that its basically a freeride course down to the bottom of the hill with lots of man made features to jib off. We didn't really have the bikes to do much here but it was still incredibly fun. We looped back around to the Touring Center, Mike passed out in the parking lot and Shaun and I rode back in for just a few more miles of singletrack before heading out.

All told we got about 16 miles, all of it great. I will more than certainly be back. With a tent, that map and a whole lot of murder juice.

Droid Does

THEEEEN after the ride we drove back up to Burlington and hit North beach on Champlain (which I highly recommend, very cool locale) and then did this:

*all pictures courtesy of shaunpinney.org

and some finger painting and twister and karaoke but I digress. Millstone is great, get in there...A LOT.

This blog is the same every year

2010-08-27T16:48:00.000-04:00

and late summer / early fall is when I usually do a short recap on my season and drop some hints as to what I'll be suffering at next year. Sooooo here we go.

Tri experiment = success. The swim was obviously iffy but I think I prepared myself well and my overall fitness has definitely benefited. I plan on continuing to use the pool here at PSU and also continuing to run from time to time as well. I think in a round about way they help parts of my cycling and I am willing to bet I will also feel some benefits come this winter.

I think all the tri stuff I was doing hurt my high end cycling fitness a bit and I think I have been stronger on the EFTA circuit in years past but that wasn't my goal for this year so I am not too worried about that. Surprisingly I actually feel pretty strong coming off the 100 and I think if I can keep this going a bit I can try and put up a strong time at the Pinnacle Challenge in early Oct.

I think the Challenge will probably be my last race for 2010. There is another tri at the end of Sept that I was thinking about but the pool is closed again until Sept 3rd and I feel like I have some really good mtb fitness right now and I think I would prefer to try and build on that instead of changing gears yet again this summer. We still need to find a female runner for this year. I have some feelers out and hopefully something will come together soon so we can get registered to defend our title.

Other than that the rest of this year will be hopefully lots of riding for fun (already have some big rides planned that should be very sweet), some work around the house and then gearing up for what will hopefully be a huge winter with lots of AT and other awesome.

THEN starting early next year I will begin training for the next step in my efforts to see what I'm capable of...Adventure racing.

It's been on the radar for quite some time but AR is typically a team event and it has taken me a few years of setting a solid example of suffering and blogging about it to drum up some intensity in the Zoo Fam. But it looks like next summer I will be taking on the Untamed New England race with D-Bone and JPMV.

3 days in the North Country tackling all kinds of obstacles: trekking, bikes, swims, ropes, paddling, etc. Non stop, no sleep, lots of trench foot, maybe some hallucinations. It's all in good fun. Should be hilarious and don't you worry all the training hijinx and awesome new gear will get posted here. No idea how exactly I'm going to train for this, I'm sure Dustin has some ideas...

I will also hopefully continue with the NEMBA Racing program next year and do some EFTA races per usual but they will take on more of a training/fun role similar to this year.

Yeehaa!

2010 New Hampshire 100. Less Hot, More Wet.

2010-08-24T11:31:00.001-04:00

Ok lets get this thing written up already...GEESH!

I talked not only myself into doing this race again this year I talked Dustin into doing it as well. Although that isn't entirely the best term because talking Dustin into something as ridiculous as a 100K mountain bike race is actually really straight forward and does not require any kind of convincing whatsoever.

We camped out at Oak Park in Greenfield the night before, took a dip in Otter Lake, ate some pasta, etc. We saw a guy throw a frisbee at a girls face while she wasn't looking, she started crying and then he sat in the lake in shame for quite awhile by himself (for reference these people were probably our age, increasing the funny). Then we chatted with the mechanic EFTA had on hand who had a digital scale with him and I thought it would be neat to actually know how heavy my monster cross really is. 32.34lbs. It's like I'm hauling a nice heavy freeride bike around with plush, cushy suspension...without the suspension! So in short we got some excellent pre race prep in Saturday.

Home Sweet Home

Lots more racers camping out this year than last if I remember right. Which is good to see. I am hoping this race continues to garner more interest. I have never done the VT50 but from the race reports I have read I think the NH100 course is a better mix of terrain and just as challenging if not more. For some reason the 50 sells out in 5 minutes months before the race, I'm hoping the 100 will be there someday just to reward all the people who go through the trouble to put this all together. 70+ individual private landowners needed to be convinced to let us pass through their land on race day! No small feat and again this race is very well supported, marked, etc. A huge thanks to all the volunteers who worked the aid stations in the rain for hours on end.

Ok to racing...as you may remember from my post on this race last year the brain sort of ceases to function entirely over this distance and level of effort so recapping is kind of a crap shoot but I will do my best:

Things got going fairly well. I let most of the Experts ride away and just settled into my own thang. Sketchy railroad bridge at about mile 5 or so was much less sketchy this year which was nice but the sand pit at mile 15 or so seemed much deeper which was not nice. I was able to climb more of Hedgehog and the Powerlines this year than last with a fully geared bike but remember how I said the one thing the monster cross doesn't handle that awesome is really steep technical climbing? Guess what the 100 has a lot of? Yeah. And throw in the monster is a good 10lbs heavier than my 9 speed was and I was still walking some stuff. Similar to last year I was on about a 6 hour pace through the first 30 miles or so of the easier part of the course.

But this year I came to the realization that it isn't actually the climbing that killed me on the back half of this course, especially this year with my full complement of gears. It was the descending that was my undoing. Namely the fact that usually when you think descending you think "rest". Not so much. I had forgotten how every descent for the back half of the course was typically fairly steep and fairly riddled with boulders and washout and all kinds of other things that don't let you rest, at all.

I have also come to the realization that I do not ride a geared bike well anymore. I was extremely inefficient and lazy with my gearing choices at times and 'hitting my shifts' with old school friction shifters at mile 45+ wasn't really happening. Very typically instead of gearing down for a flat or descent I would just spin it out waiting for the inevitable climb that was sure to be coming, not the best strategy for speed but I was having issues convincing myself to put out those extra few watts.

My shifting wasn't the only thing to go south at mile 45(ish). I had my Garmin in my jersey pocket because I can't mount it to the stem of the monster with it being high rise the angle is too steep. I must have bumped it either when jamming an endurolyte wrapper in there or when checking mileage or something. So according to my data I imploded at mile 46.93.

Lots of great single track in the second half of the course, I recognized some of it from last year but I think some was new including a few miles at the very end of the course that was awesome. I wish I had been in a better frame of mind to enjoy it a bit more but by then I was just soaking wet and ready to be done. I finished in just under 8 hrs which was a goal of mine so I am pretty happy with this years race. Last year I assumed the heat added about an hour to my time and this confirms that give or take. Factor in a fully rigid bike that weighs almost 33lbs and I think that's a pretty decent ride. Dustin came in just under 2mins behind me, another strong ride, not really sure how 62mi would go for me on a SS but I'm not sure I could pull 8hrs...

Amanda and her parents came out to cheer us on at the final feed station, the last road crossing and the finish and I hear she got some sweet pics of trey that I will post up once they get digitized to the interwebs.

Gimme those nuts!

That's enough nuts

Gravestones = dropped. They didn't stand a chance when I opened it up

Ah the glamor of finishing 3hrs after the winners...

I have been putting a lot of thought in to how I end my season going forward from here. Another tri has been on the radar as well as a few other big rides and the Pinnacle Challenge. Getting hard to balance the fitness and get it all in, I think something is going to have to be tabled for another time I just have to figure out what. More at 11.

Continuing the Joke

2010-08-03T22:24:00.001-04:00

I have built some weird bikes in the past and experimented a bit with 'strange' setups all in the vein of exploration. One of my most interesting and successful to date has been my monster cross bike. I have created a few other versions of this type of bike in the past but I think this is by far my best effort to date.

I have finally ridden this bike on some substantial rides both mixed terrain and singletrack and I have found the transition back to 26in wheels a bit harsh, especially with a rigid fork thrown into the mix as well. I figured I would buy some new rubber for this bike before the NH100 in a few weeks seeing as I am currently running my old semi-slick commuter tires and I would go with something a bit more high volume to soften things out a bit.

I found a deal recently on chainlove.com on some WTB Prowler XT 2.3's that fit the bill and tonight I was in the process of mounting them up when something slowly dawned on me. The cheapo chromoly fork I have had on this build has always had quite a bit of extra room available.

And now conveniently I have a spare 29er front wheel sitting around from my Kona that is sitting in pieces waiting to be sold. So why not see if that bad boy will fit before I mount up the new tire on the 26in wheel? Ok it fits with plenty of clearance but it must really mess up the geometry and create all kinds of toe overlap and other weirdness right? Not quite. No toe overlap at all, bike still feels pretty normal short of the front end feeling a tad high everything else feels pretty ok. Riding it around the yard at least. I'll know for sure this Thursday when I take this out on our NEMBA ride and ride it AS A 96ER.

Almost looks normal

Kinda strange how ok it felt really. This pic makes it look almost unnoticeable mostly because there was so much extra room in that fork that now it just looks like you would think it should. I am very interested to see how this rides on singletrack Thurs. The 29er up front could help quite a bit with softening out some chatter, which would be much appreciated at the 100.

And yes I did try to jam a 29er into the rear triangle as well and the clearance just wasn't there. Would have been funny to have converted this to a full 29er on a whim. But riding a 96er for the first time is intriguing, I'll update here after the first ride with a report...

**UPDATE**

Rode this last night in the new config and I continue to be dumbfounded with how well this worked out. It rode just fine, better than fine in fact. The bigger hoop up front definitely softens out the ride quite a bit. And there really is basically no 'weirdness' to the feel of the bike. The only thing I really noticed is that on steeper technical climbs I need to make a conscious effort to stay low over the front of the bike because the larger wheel does bring the front end up a bit and if I'm not paying attention and it hits a bump or rock or root the front end will very easily pop off the ground.

I still need to get acquainted a bit more with this ride to really be at home on it but this 96er set up is def fun to ride and can literally do anything and go anywhere, any distance. Singletrack, Fireroads, throw some racks on it and get lost for a few days...whatevah. My lower back was a bit angry with me and this bike last night but I guess I can't blame it. This is probably the 4th different riding position I have asked it to deal with this season. I am hoping I can work that out in the coming week or so before the 100.

I haven't fully scoured the interwebs yet but it occurred to me I don't believe I have ever stumbled on another "monster cross" 96er. I'm sure I'm not the first but just in case I am coining this build the Franken Mullet. Franken as a nod to the fact I built it in my evil lab and brought it to life with lightning and Mullet due to the whole business in the front party in the rear aspect.

Horror at Harding Hill EFTA NECS '10 #5

2010-07-18T17:10:00.001-04:00

Ah the Horror. This is one of those middle of the road courses for me. Don't love it, don't hate it. Wasn't expecting much from today. This was my first race on the new bike and I fought it off but I had been a tad under the weather this past week and I wasn't sure what my energy levels were going to do.

Things got off to a decent start. I was in a group of 4 other SS'ers for most of the lap feeling decent. Pace was hard but manageable and riding rigid wasn't affecting me as much as I thought it might. The new steel is a-niiiice. Just before the end of the 1st lap heading down one of the faster, rocky descents I was getting jostled about pretty good. There were some shadows coming through the trees making it hard to see obstacles and pick lines and I caught something with my rear tire and got bucked really hard. Hard enough to send both my bottles flying. Turns out the cages on the new ride were just a tad too loosy goosy.

I really wanted to stick with the group I was with because I knew if I lost those wheels to follow that was going to be it. But on a hot day like today I wouldn't have lasted long without those bottles. I rounded them up, bent my cages a bit to hold things tighter and went on my way.

2nd lap I laid it on the line trying to get back on terms with the group I lost. Things actually felt really good and I thought I had a shot. I was climbing strong and you can tell by my ride data that my second lap was just about as fast as my first. I couldn't keep that up going into my 3rd lap though and I never did see that group again.

even pro photogs cant make a gnarly step up look hard on film

I was able to ride all the punchy climbs every lap, which I believe is a first for me on this course. I usually bottom out in a few spots on shorter punchy climbs but I was able to power through today. I ended up latching on to the leader of the women's Elite race and we yo-yo'd the back half of the last lap. Came in under 2 hrs and put up one of my better times on this course. Not bad for the heat and riding ironman. I was only about 2.5mins behind a group of a few SS'ers which was about the time I lost with my bottle mishap so I am going to call today a decent showing.

And I got all kinds of "Wait...whats the deal with riding with no gears or suspension?" questions at the finish. Damned if I know.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/40919242

I think I'm turning Japanese

2010-07-16T09:28:00.001-04:00

Big happenings in the stable lately. I have been pondering what direction to go for the past few weeks. I have always liked my scandium Kona. Very light, very stiff, peppy as hell everything you'd want in a race ride or in general really. But I have always considered my old steel Redline Monocog to be a 'funner' ride. There was just something about that bike. Not sure if it was the steel ride quality or just a mix of geometry that just worked for my body type and riding style.

Moving forward I either wanted to get back on a steel ride or upgrade my Kona and make it even lighter. What to do, what to do? I didn't really have any cost effective options to go steel so I had been searching and shopping around for parts for the Kona. I was fairly close to pulling the trigger on some wheels, brakes and possibly even a fork when one fateful Friday afternoon I checked Craigslist.

booyah!

And there it was, A Monocog Flight 29er, the upgraded version of my old ride that I loved. Made with much nicer Japanese Sanko Steel and being offered up at a steal. Once again the Universe comes through, I'm not gonna question it so I immediately called. Turns out I didn't know the guy personally but I know the name and have raced against him in the past. Bike is practically new only having been ridden for about half of last season. I got such a deal that once I sell the Kona I will have a nice chunk of change to upgrade the Redline with some lighter hoops and presto I'll be back on a pretty light steel bike...two birds.

I got my first ride on the new whip last night and it is everything I remember about my old monocog and oh so much more. The sanko steel is NICE. I missed that buttery feel, but it still has enough stiffness to transfer energy fairly well. It's not Kona stiff but I like this mix better. I am back to rigid (for now) and I'll be honest I did just over 7 miles and felt perfectly fine on fairly craggy terrain. This nicer steel and the tapered fork might just be what I needed to make rigid work and I really like not having that bob when trying to hammer up a climb. We'll see how that goes. I'll race it this weekend and see how 20mi at race pace feel...

I can definitely feel the additional weight, especially climbing but I can deal with it, what doesn't kill me right? The Flight feels much more agile than the Kona was and also feels much more stable in the corners. I also like the BB7's much better on the new ride than my old BB5's. The Monocog also has 180mm cranks which I have never ridden but I think I may like. I was always concerned about lots of pedal strike but I think the BB height on the monocog line is on the high side so that will help. Not sure if it was just my perception but it did seem at times that the added leverage of the 180's made my 19 tooth feel more like a 20.

So yeah I am really excited about this bike and I think I will probably ride this for a long time. It's simple, I like just about everything about the design and look and redline's are tanks built to last.

AND THEN the very next day I found these at a second hand store in Meredith NH:

I have no idea what model they are, I have never seen Adidas shoes like this before. They fit me perfectly and are some of the most comfortable cycling shoes I've worn. And they are ugly and loud which is kinda my jam. They were also only $20, which is also my jam. Hell of a weekend for gear. Bing-Bam-Boom and I've got practically an entirely new setup.

The Black Fly Sprint Tri

2010-07-12T10:42:00.001-04:00

Triathlon = DUN

Where to even start with this post? There has been so much leading up to this I feel like this one is gonna be HUGE. Bear with me. I'm gonna try and just tell the whole story from beginning to end, and hopefully I don't forget anything awesome.

Tri's start early so I was up at the house at 4:30am. I usually don't really need the full allotted time listed on race sheets for pre race stuff, at least with MTB, but I figured seeing as I had no idea what I was doing this time around I would show up bright and early and wander around aimlessly. I started off by finding what I thought was a pretty killer parking spot in an empty lot for the Waterville Conference Center. It was a short walk/ride from the transition area and when I got there the lot was empty.

turns out it was also completely empty when I left as well. Apparently I picked the dumbest spot to park ever.

I continued my bumbling as I entered the transition/registration area and tried to pick up my race packet. The woman asked my what my number was and I was all like "uh I don't know I haven't gotten my race packet yet, don't you give me my number?" and she was all like "no you are supposed to get your number before hand and that is how I find your packet" and I was all like "oh I didn't know that, was the number sent to us in an email or something?" and she was all like "no its on that huge god damned board you walked right by to get into this tent you idiot."

It may not have gone just like that but pretty close. Finally got my race packet, got my body all marked up with sharpie and then I tried to get into the transition area and I get a not so fast from a race official. You are not allowed into the transition area until you put the bib sticker on your bike apparently. Learning stuff every 2 mins at this rate I find my rack spot and rack my bike and start to get unpacked. Then I get yelled at again. Another race official informed me that I racked my bike incorrectly. So far I am owning the transition area. (and of course they were not literally yelling at me, a few could have been a tad more friendly about explaining things to a newb but all in all it was a very civil affair)

properly situated...finally

I then started taking the customary pics of the transition area and wandered around the start area a bit.

Looking towards the Run start

On the other side, the Bike start/finish

Swim start/finish at the pond

about half of the swim course

Sightseeing complete, I set to actually making sure I knew what I was doing for my transitions. As I did this I slowly realized that we had a run bib that we needed to be wearing during the run that was supposed to be pinned on. Most experienced racers took care of this issue with a fuel belt that they just pin the bib to. Or a different jersey or shirt that they put on for the run that has the bib pinned to it when they enter the transition area. I was rocking my onesy so there was no other shirt to use and I don't have a race belt because I'm not an experienced racer. BUT I do own 7 seasons of MacGyver. GAME ON.

My timbuktu messenger bag has a strap used to keep the bag from slipping to the side while riding. It is not designed to be a belt by any means and if I didn't have the waist of a 12 year old girl I would have been screwed, but I do so this worked:

Used the velcro closure and clipped it to itself and it literally just barely fit around my waist. Crisis averted.

Ok now to the actual racing. We lined up at the swim start in a huge line for a time trial start, you enter the water one person at a time with a new swimmer every 5 secs. Bibs only went up to about 378 or thereabouts so I was pretty far back. The time trial start was nice because it seemed to keep traffic very manageable but it kinda sucked because I was standing in line waiting to go for probably 25mins. Plenty of time for that race anxiety to get my heart rate and breath rate increased, which I think was my undoing in the swim.

Finally my turn to get wet and off I go. Things got going ok. Water temps were nice (race organizers said 73 degrees I think) and being that far back traffic was good and I had plenty of room to do my thing. My thing worked for a while, maybe until about the first left turn which was only really 100-200m into the swim. My breathing rate was just too fast for the rhythm of my crawl stroke and the lack of oxygen caught up with me. I switched to the breast stroke because it is a faster stroke and easier to breathe faster. But breast is pretty inefficient and it was starting to wear on me a bit. Then I saw a woman doing the back stroke and I was on the long straightaway of the course so I figured it would work at least for a bit. Flipped over and went to town. That actually worked really well for me. I could breathe fine and felt like I was making up ground or in this case water. Couldn't see where I was going at all but I didn't really care at that point and it didn't matter so much in the straight portion of the course.

Switched back to breast stroke around the final two turns and then got bear hugged by an old guy. No idea how he got as close to me as he did without noticing me but he basically put me into a headlock as his arm came around for a stroke. Surprisingly didn't affect me much, he apologized and we both continued to flail for the last 50m. I suppose I limited my losses as best I could but I was out of the water in about 11mins which was quite a bit slower than I was capable of in the pool. But race jitters got me and I couldn't stay settled enough to stay with freestyle and those are the things you learn to deal with over the course of time I guess. According to results my swim time was 273 best haha.

T1 went pretty well. Kept it under two minutes at least. We had to run pretty far with the bikes before we were allowed to mount and get going at both the start of the bike and they also made us dismount about 30yds before entering the transition area. Kind of annoying but I guess lots of triathletes don't really know how to get on and off a bike so they have to do that for safety reasons. The swim affected me a bit more than I thought it would but not horrible. Took me about a mile or two to get into my groove. Then I set about to passing just about everyone. If you think about the numbers, I started at the end of the field and put up one of the worst swim times so entering the bike I was behind just about everyone...yet I finished in 88th out of 338 finishers. So I completely lost track of how many but I was basically passing people constantly for the full 15 miles.

But really only one of the passes really meant anything to me. I passed a lot of guys with full aero gear (which was nice) but one in particular took the cake. Full triathlon club kit, full aero gear setup, an Ironman logo tattoo'd on his calf and I blew by him like he was standing still. P'WND. So yeah, not much to really report on the bike, it was a straight out and back and I rode it fairly well, and posted the 67th best time on the day.

Again T2 was ok, kept it under 2mins squeezed into my race bib belt and got to it. The run was actually a bit of a surprise. In a good way. I had thought it had gone fairly well yesterday and that I had paced well, I managed to pass a few more people and I finished strong. But checking results and split times today it turns out I posted the 55th best time in the run. Huh?! My strongest leg was the run? What the hell is happening here? Very pleased but also somewhat confused, maybe the field wasn't that strong in the run? My best guess is a superior recovery rate. Mountain bike racing relies very heavily on being able to recover quickly from hard efforts. Maybe I can get up to my top run pace immediately after the bike whereas many others struggle to get into form? No clue. But again not much to really report from the run, no issues, felt pretty strong. The two aid stations that provided a gulp of water with the rest being poured on my head really helped.

So yeah pulled into the finish with a 1:25:59. Good for 88th overall of 338 finishers. My goal had been more like 1:20:00 but considering my issues in the swim, I'm very happy. I beat more people than beat me and I can guarantee a decent amount of racers I beat consider themselves 'triathletes' and are not first timers. I also enjoy scanning the results and seeing how bad my swim time is compared to everyone else in the top 100. I have the worst time BY FAR.

Full Results:

http://www.coolrunning.com/results/10/nh/Jul11_BlackF_set1.shtml

So the 60 million dollar question, will I ever do a tri again?? Probably. Will it be my new thing? Nope. It was fun, challenging, required me to exit my comfort zone. All good things. Who knows maybe my breathing rate was more mental than physical and now that I have a swim under my belt I can get over that hump. If my swim was good I would be dangerous in my onesy....

11th hour

2010-06-29T13:52:00.000-04:00

Just checked the Black Fly Tri website....10 days 4hours and 13mins until go time. Well probably a bit longer than that because the Black Fly is a weekend long festival and the Sprint Tri is last on Sunday. But you get the idea.

I have been psyching myself up mentally by reading articles this morning about first time triathletes drowning in the swim leg of a Sprint Tri down in Philly. Sobering. This doesn't scare me too much because the locales are very different. I'll be in a pond not a river and the field size will be much smaller, but it is a great reminder that the water is not a good place to "push things to the limit". I will gladly take my 18min swim time and get out of the water with the 80 year olds if I have to.

Short of the threat of death I am actually feeling pretty confident about my chances to do fairly well in about two weeks. I am putting in my last few hard efforts this week to try and cap things off with next week planned as a recovery/taper week just to make sure I don't loose any cardio fitness. Lets cover where I'm at and recap a bit:

Swim:

Started in the pool in late March basically April (with a small break in late May early June while the pool was closed).
My first session in the pool netted me a 18min and change for the quarter mile. This is hilariously slow.
Over the next 10 weeks or so I have slowly hacked away at my time with a current personal best of 9:03
In essence I am twice as fast as I was after 10 weeks with absolutely no instruction (minus youtube)...not bad

Bike:

I haven't really done much tri specific bike work
Short of doing my MTB races and just riding as much as I usually do
A test on the course got me a 47:20, good for a top 60 time from last years results
I want to be top 50 on the bike this year and I'm pretty sure I can get there

Run:

Started the experiment back in Nov of last year to see if my knees could carry me without exploding
My initial 5K time was a bit over 24mins (with me being sore for 2 days after)
I now consistently flirt with the 20min threshold for my 5K
Not blazing but not a bad improvement over 7 months for a lifetime skier

With those performance indicators I think my goal of a top 50 finish overall might be a tad unrealistic but I think I could be in the neighborhood... The open water swim is a real X factor because I just don't have the race experience to know how to manage that. I know I can put down 9mins in a pool with a lane to myself with a line painted on the bottom of the pool to follow and nice clear water to see through. Not sure about sharing a murky pond with lots of other people all with the same goal...get there faster than you. If I can limit my losses and get out of the water in under 10mins I will be very pleased.

Only time will tell now but I think I can call this experiment a success whatever happens on race day. My fitness profile is much more rounded out and I feel great and really that was the point of all this, so I win. (but I still want top 50...)

Zoot Suit Riot

2010-06-16T13:16:00.002-04:00

Finally the day has come.

I know several people in my 'inner circle' that have been waiting with bated breath for this moment. The moment that the onesy is revealed to the world. I took my first test run in the suit in the pool this afternoon and got real sketch before hand and took a self portrait in the mens locker room.

I'm not going to even try for a witty caption on this one

Took a few tries to successfully get this shot, I think the suit is so fast that the light was bending around it weird...or I just couldn't get my phone at the right angle. I also spent some time trying to figure out the most appropriate pose/expression. I ended up settling on the serious, hands on hips, looking down on you, condescending, uber-fitness nerd. And I think I nailed it.

Suit (its a Zoot TRIfit Racesuit) performed as expected in the water. I cut 30 secs off my personal best to date and almost broke the 9min barrier and that is coming off two weeks down time. I think I have a good chance of hitting my 8min goal before July.

Suit seemed to dry fairly quickly once out of the water and I would imagine it will dry even faster out in the wind and sun (assuming there is some) on the bike leg. I'll be updating this post this weekend after I do a bike/run brick up in Waterville on the course to test the suit in those disciplines as well as get some benchmark times so I can see where I'm at on the course itself.

**UPDATE**:

Well I did my first 'brick' today, and I think it went pretty well. I drove up to Waterville this morning hoping to beat the heat (it was still pretty damn hot) and to see what kind of times I could put up on the bike and run courses back to back and to see how my onesy felt in action.

For starters the suit felt great. The low profile chamois was plenty and I didn't feel any hot spots on the bike and the same for the run, no issues what so ever, except for the fact that I looked like a complete and utter tool. It was also nice for the heat today, probably would have been struggling a bit more with a full jersey on.

The bike leg felt about how I thought it would but I came in about 1-2mins slower than I wanted to. I put up a 47:20 which is still respectable for that course and is a top 60 time from results last year but I think I should be closer to 45mins. I think I can dig just that little bit deeper on race day and there was some other riders on the road that were hard to pass due to bike week traffic but those are issues that will probably also be present on race day so I'll need to just focus on getting that last bit of fitness before July. But I am pleased because I have a feeling that at least half of the other riders in the top 50 from last year put those times up with ridiculous aero gear that I don't have so I'm pleased with where I'm at for now.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/37400977

My transition time wasn't blazing because I had to put the bike back on top of the car and lock it up, etc. but I basically went straight into the run. I have been told by several people coming into today that the first half mile or so of the run coming off a hard effort on the bike is 'funny'. And I would wholeheartedly agree. Lets see best way I can put the feeling to words is that when you run even though its second nature and almost involuntary in a way there is a neural aspect where your brain tells your legs to go. I felt like those signals were stopping at my hips.

I was running but there was this 'numbness' like the coordination was there but I wasn't 100% in control. It did eventually wear off and I was able to pace surprisingly well, I just kind of fell into a pace early on that felt good and was decently fast. First mile was under 7mins and I tried to turn it up a bit shortly after mile one but hit the only real climbing of the loop and kind of bonked a tad with the heat. Slowed it down a bit to recover and then tried to speed back up on the home stretch. Strategy seemed to work and I came in with a 20:05 but the distance came in pretty short. I thought I had only really cut out the transition area which at most would have maybe added a .1 of a mile on each end and this route came in at 2.86mi and they advertise the run leg at 3.4 so not sure if the Garmin is off or promoters are off (but the bike leg came in closer to 16mi so they are probably just estimating)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/37400972

Either way with my average pace, which I probably could have held with no issue for a bit longer, I would have put up another top 60ish time in the run which is quite a bit better than I expected.

All in all I am pretty pleased. I think I might be able to do ok at this whole tri thing. The only thing I am still kind of dreading is the difference between .25mi in the pool and .25mi in a pond with 315 other people...

The Pinnacle EFTA NECS '10 #4

2010-06-13T18:00:00.002-04:00

"@kevinorlowski the way this season is going, if your bike didn't blow up - I would say it was a good ride"

So true A. Brad, so true. So I wanted to do a bit better at this race because I love it so much but all things considered I made a decent step to getting back on track today so I have to call that a win.

I liek the Pinnacle

I couldn't find my '06 shirt, can't remember if they gave one out that year or not...regardless I think I have made my point. I love this race, I love the course. Many thanks to the folks at Team Pinnacle that keep organizing things year after year (and this isn't even counting all my Pinnacle Challenge wardrobe).

Things were greasy today, similar to last year, which worked in my favor so I was still pretty pumped to get things going. This year the SS'ers got to start in a group with the Elite riders with all the Experts leaving shortly after in waves to hunt us down. I didn't get a good handle on how many were in our field this time around because we were all mixed in but I think it was in the 10-15 range. Per usual things got going fast right from the gun and I was kind of hurting early, legs felt a tad sluggish but I was mid pack(ish) so I wasn't too worried.

Roots and rocks were real loosy goosy today, made for pretty funny riding and some traffic issues early on as people struggled to find the good lines and as the experts were catching me and passing things got a bit nuts. Luckily most of them went by shortly after the water tower on the doubletrack climb. I also caught a SSer at the tower and moved up a spot so I felt like my legs were coming around and I had a good day ahead. Another mile or so after that a different SSer passed me on the last of the doubletrack climbing but he wasn't able to drop me and he was not as proficient of a descender as me so I passed him back shortly after and never saw him again.

The descending was awesome as usual, trails were holding up great even with some of the wet weather lately. I caught a Junior Expert heading into the best of the descending and he was moving along nicely but was really slowing down in the corners and it was evident that I could be moving much faster on the other side of him but passing in that area is tough. I told him I was going to try and pass when I found a spot and he was friendly about it so I can't fault him but I definitely picked the wrong spot to make a stab at the pass. As he was slowing down for another corner I thought I had a shot at the tight inside line. There was a big stump right on the corner and I thought I could just wiggle around it and then motor ahead. Aaaaand I was about 3/4 there when my rear wheel clipped said stump and sent me ass over tea-kettle in short order and flying into the woods.

One of my NEMBA teammates (a very fast Sport rider who was already catching me late into lap 1) was just coming up behind me when it happened and he said it looked AWESOME. Unfortunately he couldn't get his helmet cam working in the parking lot this morning otherwise there would be footage.

No real damage resulted from the crash, nothing broke on the bike and nothing banged up on my person, so I set to chasing again. What I didn't notice at the time is that during the short time I was inverted flying into the woods my bottle flew out of my cage and disappeared for good...no fluids the rest of the race for me. NOT GOOD. This kind of derailed my chances for really getting back in the game and catching any other SSers. Luckily I have been racing long enough now to have a pretty good handle on what my body can do with a certain amount of calories, etc. before the dreaded bonk shuts me down and I was able to meter my effort to get across the finish line without going to la la land, trouble is I had to meter my effort.

Head here to see me cruising down the Pinnacle Plummet

Oh well, the rest of the day was taking the climbs conservatively and going as fast as possible on the descents. Could be worse. I was still having fun and as far as I could tell I was still in an ok position. Finished up the three laps in what the results sheet said was 2:12 but my garmin said 2:07 so not sure how that works but whatever.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/36776787

I also found out looking at those results sheets that there was a SSer about 1 min in front of me and I didn't even know. If I had I probably would have had enough gas to hunt him down, it would have hurt a lot more and I would feel much worse right now but I would have had a 6th instead of my 7th. When I left there were 9 finishers for SS. I'm pretty sure there were more than 9 of us pre-reg'd so there might have been some DNF's or more people still coming in. I saw a lot of people fixing flats...

That's it for MTB racing for a bit, now its back to 100% focus on my tri coming up with a few weddings thrown in there for good measure.

Gina's Old Fashioned Draft

2010-06-12T08:14:00.000-04:00

Crotchville Beer has diversified! We are expanding into new markets, trying to elbow in and snag all those straight edge kids. THIS IS A WAAAAAAAAAR! That's right Mike...ROOT BEER.

Making soda is actually really easy and I'm kinda surprised I haven't gotten around to it yet but other things have just taken priority I guess. I got some extract from Gina's mom for this past x-mas and bought the additional gear needed recently and went to it.

This is basically all you need

The additional stuff I needed was another bottling bucket, the extract is so strong that basically whatever it touches becomes 'root beer for life' so you can't use a bottling bucket that you intend to also use for beer again. I also needed plastic bottles. Due to the high amounts of sugar the natural carbonation process happens faster and can carbonate much more than beer usually does and glass bottles have a tendency to 'fail' spectacularly if you don't keep a close eye on them. Plastic has more give and it also gives you a tactile way to know when carbonation is done...when the bottles harden up. Also needed some dry champagne yeast for the natural carbonation. Not sure what that does to flavor but I was told by the local homebrew store manager that the extract is strong enough to cover any residual flavors. And judging by its smell I think we should be fine.

Gina loves her some root beer

The actual process is a snap. Warm water, extract, sugar, yeast all go in the bucket. Stir it up to mix/dissolve. And then bottle it. That's it. Makes 4 gallons and took us maybe 30mins. Needs to 'ferment' / carbonate at room temperature for 3-4 days then to a slightly cooler basement type locale for another 3-4 or so and then to the fridge and then your stomach, with maybe another week in the basement to refine the flavors a bit before drinking if you want.

And yes, I know that its not Draft because its in bottles but I don't care. I'm running this show.

Big Ring Rumpus EFTA NECS '10 #3 (and a big stupid ride the day before)

2010-06-06T18:24:00.002-04:00

What a weekend I've had! I don't even know where to start. For one this is going to be a double post with a ride report from Shaun and I's semi-epic from Saturday followed by today's race report.

I had never really earmarked the Rumpus as a race format I would excel at so I went into it knowing it was a training ride and not really caring if my prep was ideal. Hence a 32 mile ride the day before. I had planned this route as a training ride for the NH100 last year but broke my chain 3 miles in and walked back home. Seemed like as good a time as any to make another stab at it and with Shaun leaning heavily towards racing the 100 as well things all fell into place.

We almost got rained out, in fact we had called things off at about 7am with it pouring both up here and in Boston. But things cleared out quickly after that and I bombarded Shaun with several forms of communication and we were back on track (after Shaun ate waffles).

After buttering up Shaun and I hit the road for a 12.5mi ride to Franklin Falls via dirt, class VI jeep roads and pavement. The ride out went great, it was a bit humid but not bad and we made pretty short work of it, ripping down steep dirt roads and washed out jeep track. We got to Franklin Falls grabbed a quick bite...and then the mouth of hell opened up and swallowed me whole.

The ride summed up in 3 pics: Rubber side down

At about mile .5 of our singletrack loop I went to ride up and over a boulder on Whaleback that I do every time I ride that trail (4 billion times). Mind you I was riding my monster cross bike which is a 26er and I usually ride a 29er. Smaller wheels have a harder time with huge boulders. I made it up (barely) but my semi-slick tires slid out and I had to bail off the side. Mind you I bailed to the left yet somehow still managed to bend the shit out of my derailleur hanger. AWESOME. No idea how I pulled that off. So we spent about 30 mins hitting my frame with a rock (this becomes the theme of the day) until it was manageable and I had decent shifting and most of my gears back. We rode almost the rest of our singletrack loop with no issue until we were heading back out on Moose Gulley and I tried to power up a short steep uphill...

Rubber side up

And my chain explodes (probably due to slipping and then binding because my hanger was bent). And guess what I don't have? A CHAIN BREAK TOOL. Sooooooooooooo, get me a rock. Spent the next hour and 15mins beating the ever loving crap out of a chain pin trying to remove it so I could use the master link I had in my camelback. Broke my multi-tool, broke Shaun's multi-tool. Blood everywhere. I used a fence, one of those concrete blocks at the end of parking spaces, a leatherman loaned to me by Jimbo the weedwacker, and shear will power. And I got that damn pin out. Shaun has video, its going to be a summer blockbuster.

HammerTime from shaun pinney on Vimeo.

A Blockbuster INDEED

Master link did the trick and Shaun and I limped 12mi home and then drank my Sweet Stout. Its damn good, Shaun says top 4, I tend to agree.

Recovery Drink

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35819084

Ok now to race day. Needless to say I have some residual fatigue in my legs from yesterday's ordeal. But really all I was looking for was a hard effort to build fitness for July and its a good thing that's all I was looking for cause that is what I got, well that and what I believe is a legit DFL in the Expert class.

At first I actually felt ok, warming up felt decent and I thought maybe I would make a go of things for as long as I could and then just ride tempo. That strategy lasted until about mile .5 when I dropped my chain, seemingly do to a poor line choice and really bad luck because my tension felt good, and watched everyone ride away into the distance. I ended up dropping the chain two more times scattered over the 28 miles, only thing I can think of was it was an older 18 tooth cog I found in my shop that might have been just a bit too worn out. I really needed the 16 tooth for this course that I joked about running but didn't because I thought it would be just a bit too tough. Doesn't really matter though I probably didn't really have the juice to power a 16 anyway.

That didn't help my rhythm and this course was all rhythm and pure power output, so I kinda settled into a tempo ride, hard but not too hard and spun things out. Things got a bit ridiculous by my last lap, I was extremely far behind just about (possibly literally) everyone and the skies finally opened up and dumped the storm that the forecast had been promising. Sheets of rain, it was very hard to see and breath even with all that water coming down and then one of the most ridiculous things that has even happened to me took place.

I start rounding one of the corners and I start hearing a lot of cracking and snapping from what sounds like all around me, it was hard to pinpoint sounds within the deafening roar of the rain. Luckily I am from Cow Hampshire and I know what it sounds like when a tree is starting to fall. I slow down a bit because I still can't see where exactly it's falling. Then about 30ft in front of me an ENORMOUS tree comes crashing out of the woods and falls completely across the trail I was riding on. Easily 18-24in in diameter, fatal on impact for sure. So in an alternate universe where I didn't drop my chain 3 times I might have been 30ft in front of myself and been killed. Food for thought kids. So yeah after that I kinda just meandered through the woods listening intently, riding through huge flash puddles and getting soaked through my bones not just to them.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/35956223

Crossed the line around 2hrs after I started, which was a horrible time for this course even with the weather, packed up my stuff and got the hell out of there. I took some pics, including an awesome one of me looking shell shocked afterwards, but I think either my camera of my SD card is crapping out cause they were all 'corrupt' when I tried to move them to my laptop...

So my EFTA season to date has been kind of a wash so far, a tax write off at best. I am hoping I can turn things around at the Pinnacle next week, if there is any venue that can lift my spirits it's that one.

The Weeping Willow EFTA NECS '10 #2

2010-05-24T09:13:00.001-04:00

Ugh. Where to start? I have been trying to purge this disappointment from my memory and have been basically successful, sort of. I've been trying to put as many positive spins on this as I can but its hard to not boil it down to a missed opportunity, but I'll give it a go.

Unfortunately I'm not quite in the groove of race blogging yet and completely forgot to take any pictures, oops (but I did steal some from Shaun!). Ok now to the positives.

1. Turn out. HOLY CRAP. I think I can safely say this was the biggest EFTA race I have ever been to. Parking lot was packed, people everywhere, fields stacked. The start was pandemonium, never experienced anything like it. 31 singlespeeders toe'd the line yesterday!!! 31!? Playoffs?!

2. The trails. Mike was right. They are awesome and I only saw about 4.22 miles of them. Single speed paradise, very high speed, flow, whoops, etc. I was having a blast right up until my pedal fell off.

3. Enthusiasm for juniors. Very rarely do I get to see Novice and Sport riders finish usually do to still being out on course and all. But it was great to see every time a Junior rider come into the finish everyone cheering and ringing the cowbells extra loudly. Everyone typically gets a cheer to a certain extent but juniors get everyone's undivided attention as they come in. It must have been great for them to come in with that many people (hundreds) all cheering.

4. I rode really well (for 4.22 miles). I got a decent start and was positioned far enough up so that I wasn't getting stuck behind slower riders but far enough back so that I wasn't redlining really bad trying to follow the fastest guys. Speeds were really high and there were some high speed washout crashes in front of me early on but nothing that held me up. I felt strong through the first two bigger climbs, even with the new 19 tooth in back.

A guy I have raced against for several years now, who used to beat me by 30mins and more recently by 5-10mins even mentioned after the race that he was having issues holding my wheel heading up those climbs. Maybe he was just trying to make me feel better after my DNF but I will choose to think he wasn't for my own sake. I bobbed a bit coming into a corner too hot and got passed by 2-3 riders but I caught back up quickly and was then in the back of a 4 rider singlespeed paceline, which was actually perfect because we popped out onto a fireroad and I was able to draft and do basically no work and rest a bit.

I was feeling great and loving the trails and just waiting for a chance to gas it, pass my paceline mates, etc, etc. and then my pedal fell off. At first it just sounded like a click and I thought I had just rotated my heel a bit too much so I attempted to just click back in but I was having a really hard time finding my pedal this time, i.e. I wasn't even hitting it which I thought was weird so I look down and hmmm thats why I can't click in...its not there. I stop and look back the trail a bit trying to spot it, no dice. Look down and sure enough, still attached to my shoe. Pulled over and tried for about 5 minutes to reattach it, with no luck the threads were mangled just enough on its way out to prevent it from being threaded back in easily. (I was able to get it back in at home in the shed with a wrench and some elbow grease, we'll see how the next ride goes...) So I accepted my fate and started the long walk back to the start, I was of course just about as far away as I could have possibly been.

I can speculate until the cows come home but I felt like I had a really good ride in me that day. Looking at results today, two guys who I have beat in the past came in 10th and 11th and I don't know the guy in 9th but I think I was on his wheel when my pedal came off. I was halfway through lap 1 at 23mins so I was looking at maybe a lap 1 time of 50mins give or take and I usually am just as strong in the second half of a race so I should have been right around 2hrs for a finishing time which more than likely would have put me top 10 out of 31 starters. But who knows like Gina says maybe if my pedal hadn't fallen off I would have exploded in grand fashion at mile 14 or something and hurt myself and DNF'd anyway. Hard tellin'.

So what I chose to take from this is that the fitness is there, I just don't have any written proof of such yet. Onward.

Team tactics meeting.

Me: "I'm gonna have my pedal fall off right when I'm doing awesome."

Shaun: "Good plan, I'm gonna get passed and then dropped by a mom."

Me: "Let's DO THIS."