The Making of 'Mighty Chicken: A Tribute'

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

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

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

 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

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.