Horror at Harding Hill EFTA NECS '10 #5

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

The Pinnacle EFTA NECS '10 #4

"@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.

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

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

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."