First Bike ride in almost 7 weeks

I was sick before the CM 9 hour race so I only rode once(with a slight fever and hocking up phlegm)  The ride this morning was like  a winter ride where you are happy to be riding since it is nice out, but are totally out of shape.  The doc. said no sports on my papers, but I am interpreting that to mean ball / hand sports.  The feel on the CX bike was good on the hoods didn't notice the pinky too much.  It was on the drops where I could feel and notice my pinky not bending.  Happy to be on the bike though.  I will do mostly road, maybe a little mountain, it will be awhile before I do some really tight singletrack or rocky stuff, cause I don't want to bash my finger or have to use it for support when crashing.  I will be out there, so be nice to me and go a little slower :-)
My season goals have changed, might just enjoy riding this summer, and see how I feel in the fall.

The 9 Hours of Cranky Monkey at Rocky Gap

This is a new race put on by the EX2 Adventures folks at Rocky Gap State Park. Both Leland and Tom liked the course, so I thought it would be a good place to go race. I had never done a relay race with Chris, so I teamed up with him and got Jonathan to join us. We were able to sign up for a 120+ team because our ages were 45, 43 and 35.

I got to Chris's a bit late and he was a little upset, but all was good once we got on the road. We got there in a little over 2 hours, with an hour to spare before the start. Originally, I was going to go third, thinking that I would be the slowest...but Chris said I had to go second because I was late. The crafty old man played his cards well, and he ended up doing only three laps instead of the four that Jonathan and I did.

The Start

Jonathan started us off. Unfortunately, there was a little bit of a run at the beginning, which is not Jonathan's strong suit. He went out, did a good lap and came in about a minute behind Leland, who was riding on a 3-man open team. I was a little worried about racing with my finger. I thought it was sprained (found out after the race it was broken), so I put a little mini-splint on and hoped it wouldn't hurt too much while I was riding.

I started my first lap and things were going well. I was feeling very comfortable on the flowing singletrack considering that the last race I had done was very twisty (12 hrs of Lodi). I was picking off people and I think I was in the lead of our class when I spied Mike S. from the DCMTB 3-man open team in front of me. As I was starting to gain some ground on him and was excited about the prospect of passing him, I felt my pedal at an odd angle. My crank arm was coming off the spindle. I had to stop to take care of this, which took some valuable time (around 7 minutes or so) to fix. Fixing it entailed bashing my multi-tool against the crank arm since the screw thing had broken when the crank arm came off. I was feeling my finger a little bit, but I was still hopeful that the pain wouldn't get too bad. I then started doing some of the downhills on the course, which turned out to be a different issue. I was almost crying and each time ended up losing some precious momentum that would have helped me up the uphills. I finally brought it in and Chris went out for his lap.

Rest of the Race

After my lap, I believe we were down by almost 12 minutes to the first place team. I was able to ride with my pinky taped to my ring finger instead of riding with a splint. It was still painful at times, but if I gripped the handlebars really tight, I was able to deal with it.

As a team, we all rode consistent laps after my mishap, and we were able to chip away at the lead of the teams in front of us. On the last lap, which was mine, we were up by one minute. I went out pretty hard to ensure that no one would get past me. At one point, a rider caught up to me, asking what class I was in. I didn't believe it was the rider in our division, but at the same time I wanted to drop him if I could. I rode the rocky uphill section at a steady pace and was able to slowly distance myself from him. Once I got to the downhill, I took the left-hand side, which was a lot rougher but let it all hang out and bombed down. I passed seven or eight people and left him behind in the process. I ended up having the same time on my last lap as I did on my third lap--pretty crazy.

Because I held off that racer (he was part of the first-place 105+ 3-man team), we ended up getting third place overall for 3-man teams. We also won the 3-man 120+ division. It was great hanging out with the DCMTB and Family Bikes crew and watching Ian and Mike crush the competition. They ended up being first place overall at the race. The Family Bikes team did a great job getting 2nd place in the 105+ division and the other DCMTBers on the "Not the Old Guys" team got 3rd in their race. Good results for all.

So the big question is...after I have surgery on my pinky, will I be able to hold the handlebars to train for the 12 Hours of Cranky Monkey. If not, I think I might start running again :) Maybe I will go to the 12-hour race just to watch and pit with Mike K, who has a broken foot. Special thanks to Sara for typing this up because I couldn't do it with my pinky in a cast.

12hours of Lodi

From May 2nd. Photos by backlight photography

This race has a special place in my heart, it was the first 12 hour race I had ever done. I did this race in 1999 or 2000 when it started at 12 mid-night and went to 12pm the next day. It was my first night ride too! We raced it in a impromptu 2 man division(our 3r rider bailed) and won. I have done the race 3-4 times over the years, with last year being the first to do it single speed.
I am not a single speed mountain bike person, but I found the single speed is fun to ride at the easier places in the area like Wakefield, Larual Hills, Roseyville, Schaffer. I usually ride those places rigid, but I had bought a front shock for Lodi. Compared to other racers I was running a really low gear a 32 x 22 29er. I love that gear at Lodi, cause with the turning and short hills it lets you have the ability to climb everything. There are only two parts of the course that are longer then 50 feet of flat/straight.
I raced 3-man SS with Jonathan, and Kevin. We were competing against the other DCMTB team of Mike, Joel, and Kent. We had our work cutout for us. I was going last since I knew I would be the slowest of the three of us. Jonathan did a great first lap, but got a little dehydrated out there which would effect him the rest of the race. Kevin did a strong first lap as well. My first lap I had a lead, but I knew that Mike was coming behind me. I was able to hold him off until the end of the lap, so it would be up to my teamates to build that cushion.
We ended up slipping father and father away from the other team, ended in 2nd place by 11 minutes or so. I was not happy with my times, but considering that this year has been slow-slow start up I was just happy to be tired on my last lap and not to have my back hurting me. I do like racing the SS at certain races. I like doing wakefield on the SS, and am thinking I might the battle at burke farm SS. Or maybe the Schaffer CM race.
I want to give a big thanks to Sara for coming to the race, and for picking up some Chipotle and driving me to my parents place at 12:30am.

Random Notes:

• Great weather this year at Lodi, was warm but no rain
• The course started to get slick with the temps falling in the evening.
• First Year I have done this race without the poison ivy, used Jonathan's trick of wiping off with rubbing alcohol with baby wipes every lap.
• Lodi is still great event even though the amount of teams has gone down, while the solo's have gone up.
• Hope to race here next year, but be in better shape.
• DCMTB had great crew out there with a 2nd place expert(team was co-ed) 1,2 3-man SS

Las Vegas- Day 6 Cottonvalley Canyon

I had ridden these trails on a rented bike back in 2003 or so. At the time I went with a friend, who was not a fast biker, so I was looking forward to riding these trails on my own bike and at my own pace. I decided to start at the Blue Diamond Trailhead, since that is where I started from before. I decided to do the old Norba course across 160 and then come back again.

I started the day at 5:15 a.m., was on the road by 6 a.m. in Phoenix, and got on the trail near Las Vegas around 12 p.m. The first part of the trail was pretty good getting to 160. Since 2003 there has been a new paved parking lot added on Rt. 160. I got over to the other side and did the trail there and it wasn’t bad, although it was kinda slow since it was going uphill the whole time. I ended up going towards 160 to get the start of the Norba race trail. I had to ride some blown out Jeep road to get to it. The trail was ok. I thought it would be better, and it had too much jeep road for me. I did like the part that was single track, and I thought Satan’s Ladder was good challenge (I made it up at least without dabbing). Once at the top, I saw the time and knew that I needed to get going to meet Sara in Vegas (she just came out for the wedding). I had some issues finding the Red Trail to take back, so I ended up just taking the double track road. I was flying on that, which showed that I had been climbing a long time. I ended up seeing the Red Trail later on, so I took that and road back down the trail that I came up. This trail was a blast riding the other way. Once I got back across 160 I decided to do the other half of the Blue Loop to get back to Blue Diamond. I will say this trail was the funnest of the day. It had you going slightly down hill and through some big rollers. There were some technical rock bits in there as well. I got back to the car with some good riding for the day to end the bike part of my trip.

Thoughts:

• The trails closer to Blue Diamond are more frequently ridden and are actually more fun to ride to boot.
• If I get back here again, I want to hit the Bonny and Clyde Trail, it was the only trail I didn’t ride at all, and it would be the most logical choice for the next ride here.
• Blue Diamond Bike Shop is a place to know. If you are in Vegas and have a car, just ride like 25 minutes from the strip and rent a bike for $40 to ride for the afternoon.

AZ Trip-Day 5 Quadruple Bypass (MacDowell Mountain Preserve, and Park)

I have found my favorite ride in the Phoenix area! I had read about this ride, and had gotten the intel on how to put the trails together to make this ride happen. I started up the Windgate Trail, and it also turned out to be one of those trail systems that has a ton of hikers on it. I must have passed like 50-60 hikers and only three bikers—compared to Black Canyon where I passed two hikers walking together. Everyone was pretty cool, so that was nice as well. As I was going up Windgate I was a little worried cause I was already walking my bike though a good number of sections. I did this mostly to save my strength since I knew it would be a long day. I was a pretty happy man at the Windgate pass. Had a great view, I knew that the Bell Pass wasn’t as big of a deal to climb since you did not go all the way down then back up. At the top of Bell Pass I saw the downhill and was excited and little apprehensive with my brakes having gone a little squishy (I think I need to bleed them). The downhill off of Bell Pass was fun, and I was only white knuckled on this 50 foot section near the top where the trail really dropped off. After getting down this trail I took the Paradise Trail. I would have liked that trail more if it did not go so close to the neighborhood, but beggars can’t be choosers. I stopped before tackling the Sunset Pass. I was not a fan of the first ¼ of this trail with its blown-out huge rock jeep track nature, but once it really started going up, it was nice. I really liked the ridge ride at the top, and the downhill was one of the funnest of the trip.

The next part of the ride was the part I was the most worried about, as you have to go through a gated community to get to the Dixie Trailhead. I went up 145^th Street, and saw a bike route sign, so I followed it. As I was riding this Jeep road, I knew I had made a mistake and I should be biking in the neighborhood. From the topo map, it looked like the jeep road would meet the Dixie Trail eventually. I think I saw a sign that I had entered MacDowell’s Park (Fontana Hills). There was a map on the sign that I had not seen anywhere on the net. This map made clear where the trail head was in the neighborhood, and that you can take the P (trail name), and the S (trail name) to get to the Dixie trail. So seeing the map I was happy because I had confirmation I was going the right way. The S (trail) was a tough trail in places with very steep switchback where I had to walk. I was rewarded, though, with a really sweet downhill to the Dixie Trail. I was tired, and was happy because I knew that the hardest parts of the ride were done, and that I just needed to do one more big climb. I was riding the Dixie Trail, and saw that there were two ways to get back to the Windgate Pass. I came to Prospectors Trail, but it wasn’t marked, so I decided to stay on the Dixie Trail. Once I saw the Coachwhip Trail I knew I missed the trail that was on the topo GPS I was kinda following, but knew the Coachwhip Trail would take me to the Windgate Pass. I got to the Windgate Pass, and was very happy man again. The Windgate downhill was fun, and as I was going down I realized whoever came up with this route was smart. The Windgate hill was the hardest to go up, so it was best to be tackled first. I came down the mountain and took a wrong turn somewhere, ending up at a bigger trailhead and the equestrian area. When I got back to the 104^th St. trailhead, though, I had done 36 miles over 6,500 ft. of climbing, so I was pretty proud.

Thoughts:

• The MacDowell Preserve, has had a major over-haul, with several major trail heads that have water and and parking(so you don’t need to park at the grocery store)
• This kind of riding reminded me of the East Coast riding I like—where you do some major climbs with the reward of long downhills. The trails where not overly technical like South Mountain and some in the Phoenix Mountain Preserve can be, but they still had some rocks and other bits added in to keep it interesting.
• I can see the Sunset Pass being a great test to get up the whole thing without dabbing.
• Even though I kinda messed up the Fountain Hills area, I think doing the more trail version is the way to go.
• I know this will be one of the rides I do next year.

AZ Trip-Day 4 South Mountain

After the big day I had on Monday I decided to take it easy and do a shorter ride. I had ridden the Coast to Coast on South Mountain at the spring fling before, but wanted to check out the dessert classic, since I had not done it before and it would be an easier ride (also since I was alone I didn’t want to chance it with crashing too bad). I enjoyed the ride, ended up doing a little more hike-bike then I thought on some of the side trails, but was rewarded with some nice down hills. I wandered around past the Helo pad trails and then decided to head on back directly on the Dessert Classic trail. After getting back to my car, I had more in me, but I decided to just save it for my ride the next day.

AZ Tip-Day 3 Black Canyon

The Black Canyon trail I had done 2 years ago at the MTBR Arizona Spring Fling has grown (65 miles) and is expected to be 85 miles when complete. I really liked the trail because you could ride it without worry about breaking your arm falling in a bunch of rocks. I decided to start from the southern area where I had finished 2 years ago on Table Mesa Rd. I had wanted to ride south for a bit then back north to the Black Canyon Trail head parking lot and back. I didn’t see the trail going south off of Table Mesa Rd. I ended up going on an ATV trail that dead ended, but got back to the trail I knew. I went north and was amazed at the amount of spring vegetation and the wild flowers in bloom. The biggest disappointment in the ride was the middle river crossing. With the winter rain Arizona had gotten, the river had become wider and the crossing just). I had another first on my trip after the earthquake—an encounter with a rattlesnake. I have experienced snakes on trails, usually as they slither away, and one or two times I’ve bunny hopped over them. I came around a bend and was about to do a dip in the trail when I saw a snake curled up in a striking stance. I held up and when I did I heard the telltale rattle. I backed off and threw some rocks to scare it away, but I still heard the rattle when I tried to ride on through the dip. The snake was under a bush hiding, but when I threw more rocks he eventually went on his merry way.

By the time I got back to the Black Canyon parking lot I was already tired—but I was only a little over half way done. I then went back and took the western option. I got a little confused and the river was really washed out. I had to walk around in the sand to figure out where to pick up the trail. I ended the day with my first long mountain bike ride of the year.

Random points;

• The southern trail continues, but you can see it a lot better coming from the north, not coming from the southern trail head.
• The gates on the eastern trail were a little annoying, mostly because I was very tired. Not sure why they are needed.
• I do like this trail, but I was amazed yet again, how slow your avg. speed is because of all the turning.
• Next time I do the trail I might start even farther south and just ride to the river and back.

AZ Trip-Day 2 Phoenix Mountain Preserve

For Easter Sunday, I wanted to be able to have dinner with my aunt and uncle, my two cousins and their families. I knew I couldn’t spend all day on the trails. I had ridden the Phoenix Mountain Preserve more than any other trail system in the Phoenix area, so I knew my way around the park. Plus, it was only about seven minutes from my cousin’s house.

I got up early and was on the trail by 8 o’clock. As usual when it comes to Phoenix, there were tons of hikers. I must have passed 70 throughout the day; everyone was nice and courteous, which was always good to see on a shared use trail. I started at Dewey Dream again, which is the middle of the park, and decided to do the eastern half, which has more trails and variety. As I went along, I was never lost, but sometimes I wasn’t quite sure which trail I was on. I ended up going on the 302 toward the south end of the park, which has some pretty steep drop-offs that caused me a scary moment or two. I had to walk down two of them—better safe than sorry. I went up the 8A trail, which was where I dealt with the most hiker traffic. I got some encouragement from the hikers—or was it just strange looks?—as a mountain biker going up a really steep climb. I did pretty well, but I had to walk some of the rocky stair steps. After that I worked my way to the eastern end of the T100 trail, turning around when I realized I needed to get back soon after. I took the fenced trail that parallels the T100, which I think is the smoothest in the park. I ended up trying to do a rocky cut-through, where I had my only wreck of the day. I got hung up and couldn’t unclip—and the park boundary fence made a nice purple tattoo on my ass. I got back to my cousin’s house within 1 minute of the time I said I would be there—go me :)

Side note: At Easter dinner, I experienced my first earthquake. It was in northern Mexico and was a shallow quake, which I guess reverberates more and allowed it to be felt all the way in San Diego and Phoenix. It felt exactly like the effect of the ground “swaying” when you get off a cruise ship. At first I thought I had low blood sugar from the hard ride, but then the pool had water sloshing out of it.

AZ Trip-Day 1 Dewey Dream Park

This was my third trip to Arizona to get some good mountain biking miles in before spring came to the East Coast. Usually, I go in February or early March, but this year since I was attending a wedding in Vegas April 10^th, I moved my trip to coincide with the wedding. In 2009, I had to forgo all but one day of riding since I got the flu and ended up with a temperature of 104 degrees. This year I was hoping for a better trip.

Day 1 Dewey Dream Park

After getting to AZ late on Friday, I leisurely put together my bike Saturday morning, got the bike rack set up on the rental car and decided to do a shakedown ride with Kennedy, my cousin’s daughter. I had ridden with Kennedy two years prior, but we rode on the street and a paved trail. I decided this year to try to take her on a light foray into mountain biking. We went to Dewey Dream Park, which is part of the Phoenix Mountain Preserve. We did some of the trails, which were harder than I thought they’d be, and considering that her bike did not have low gearing or shocks, she did fairly well. We rode a little bit on the trails and the paved bike trail that goes along the park. All-in-all, it was a good little spin—I got to spend some quality time with Kennedy and make sure that the bike was working well after being taken apart fully and then put together again.

First Long Ride of the Year

From March 20th

I hadn't ridden with the PPTC crew over the winter cause of the snow and whatnot. This was to be the first big ride of the year. The ride that was chosen was ZapMan. This ride starts from Marshall, VA and does Chester Gap before Front Royal. The big monument of the ride is the 6 mile climb up Blue Mountain with the last 2 or so miles being dirt/gravel.

The day was a great spring awakening with a high of 75+ so that shorts and even a short-sleeved jersey could be worn. There were around 8 of us at the start. I had carpooled with Chris and it was good catching up with him on the way there. We went out of Marshall at a leisurely pace, with me going off the front a couple of times on some of the rollers. Once on Chester Gap, Jonathan took off on his own with the rest of us following. Rudy set a good tempo that was right around where I needed to be up this gradual climb, terrain that doesn't really suit my talents best. Once at the top, we started this descent with Glen trying to catch Jonathan, followed by Rudy and me. With my winter weight, I was able to plummet down the mountain at sixty pounds over Jonathan's 135, passing and catching Glen in the process. The five of us bridged up together and rode into the rest stop at Front Royal. (At the rest stop, I tried to talk Ed out of getting the Hostess cherry pie while I got the Dutch apple danish. The cherry pie would later not feel so good on the Blue Mountain climb.)

We then left Front Royal, going through a neighborhood that has two streets "named after" two of the guys on the ride--Ross and Cook. We went along the railroad, then the Shenandoah, to the bottom of the Blue Mountain climb. The Blue Mountain climb is around 1,600 ft. vertical but doesn't really bite until the last four miles. We started up the climb, which is some uphill rollers, continuing until the first switchback--from then on everyone is going his own pace. I wish I would've talked to some people a bit more about the climb. I had done it once about four years ago and remembered that it was pretty steep and gravel at the top. Beyond that, I couldn't recall much else. I started off going at a pretty high cadence, distancing myself from the rest. I wasn't trying to be first as much as just trying to keep a fast candence and keep it smooth. Jonathan and Ed were around me, with Jonathan creeping closer to me. We hit the gravel, where I started distancing Jonathan again and really began to feel the climb. I was happy that it would soon be over, since the crest was just ahead. DAGGER--that was only the first crest.

Jonathan caught up to me on the slight downhill, as I lamented the fact that no one had told me there were two summits. Nonetheless, the short downhill and flatter section helped me get my breath back. I had to accept the fact that a man who weighs 135 lbs is almost always going to be faster going up a big climb than someone who weighs close to 200. I then got into my own rhythym with Jonathan slowly distancing himself from me. I finally hit the pavement, which signals the top of the climb. I had lost sight of Jonathan completely and Ed was a ways behind me. There is a county sign that's at the bottom of the downhill. I thought maybe if I could see Jonathan, I'd be able to catch him on the descent. Yet again, my lack of knowledge of the climb prevented me from being aware that there were two more big rollers on the ridge. With Jonathan nowhere in sight, I decided to just go down the mountain at a comfortable pace, practicing my techniques on the switchbacks. Unfortunately, I was riding the Michelin Crylons, which are very durable but don't have the best grip--so I wasn't as confident as I could be on the corners. As I came out of the last corner, lo and behold, Jonathan was in front of me. I thought, "shit--I might catch him," so I started speeding up. He still had not noticed that I was getting closer to him. I ended up passing him and gaining the county line by 20 ft.

We then waited for everybody else to finish the climb and I put down a double shot espresso gu and had some of the tasty throwback Mountain Dew (new retro Dew made with sugar cane, not corn syrup). People headed out, and I ended up with the second group since I was still messing with the bottle. The first group was really charging along, while my second group was a little slower. Rudy was not on his best day, as he had not gotten a chance to eat at the bottom of the climb. I decided to try to bridge the gap solo. I jumped out of the group and was going about 30 mph, which only lasted about a minute or so (I guess all that caffeine really kicked in). With the first group up ahead, I continued to whittle down the distance over the next couple miles. I finally caught them about 3 miles from the finish. We completed the ride totally dead, knowing and feeling that we had done our first long ride of the year. I ended the ride with a good meal at home of meat, pasta, and vegetables.