Moving

This blog has moved. I can't get into Blogger on a regular basis at work so I moved the whole shebang to wordpress.

http://grandrouleur.wordpress.com/

Park City Point 2 Point

I can't help but use the overexposed cliche'..... It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

We showed up Friday night at the Canyons for the racers meeting. Pretty un-eventful other than I have never been in a room with a skinnier bunch of mofo's in my entire life. Costavich thought he was the heaviest dude in the room of 150 people and he was probably right.

Saturday we arrived in Round Valley around 6:30 to perfect temps and partly cloudy skies. I waited in line for 20 mins to use the one crapper on site (my only complaint about the logistics of the entire race) threw on my gear and lined up at the back. The start was faster than I thought it would be but I had no intention of going out too hot early like I did at Laramie so I took it easy through Round Valley. About halfway through Round Valley I started feeling a familiar bubbling down low and knew I needed to make an early pit stop as we exited Round Valley. I dropped some extra weight at the Round Valley toilet. I've never had to do that at a race but didn't think that much of it. Leaving Round Valley I pointed my bike toward one of the coolest rainbows I have ever seen framing the climb to Prospector. Where there's a rainbow there is of course rain and it started pouring as I summited Skid Row and started around Prospector. Even with the rain making thinks sloppy this was the highlight of my race. The course wasn't closed but between the rain and the 100+ racers ahead of me I was pretty sure it would be safe to blaze through Prospector as fast as I wanted. I passed about 5 people on Prospector, another 5 or so on the Snowtop climb and a few more on the Deer Crest climb up to Silver Lake. This section of the race was all firmly in "the best of time". I was on a high. My pace was sustainable, the trails were great and I was having the most fun in a race I've ever had. The only thing that would portend to the misery ahead was a slight but noticeable queasiness in my stomach. I was still feeding well so I chose to ignore it. I rolled into Silver Lake and passed right by the aid station since I didn't need anything. I started up the steep service road to Bald Mountain. There were a couple guys walking their bikes and it was very steep but I was barely able to stay riding so I did. The course turned off the service road and started uphill on one of the downhill only MTB trails which was turned into an uphill trail for this race. It was ridiculously steep. I rode some and walked some but when I was riding I was redlined and my stomach which is perfectly content filled with Gu and energy drink at a HR of 150-155 was not happy at all with HR's near my max at 172. By the time I hit the top my stomach was doing somersaults and I knew I was in trouble. I've never had this problem in a long event and I wasn't even halfway done. I limped down to the aid station and grabbed a coke hoping it would do the trick. I sat in the shade sipping my coke and a little bit later I felt solid enough to continue on. The coke had kinda settled my stomach but I still didn't feel great. By the time I left the aid station it was a little after noon and I had my doubts about making the Park City aid station by the time cut off of 3:30. The climb up Tour de Suds went well. I was able to sip a little energy drink and as I started down TG2 I started feeling a bit better about my race. TG2 is kind of an annoying trail and not my favorite. It's OK as a recreation trail but it's annoying when you're tired from racing all morning. It's steep in spots and there's too much to think about with lots of roots, rocks and off camber stuff plus it's handbuilt and narrow so there's only one line and if you get off it you end up in the woods (luckily I only blew one corner and didn't hit the tree I ran into too hard). Exiting TG2 onto Mid Mountain I was feeling kinda OK. I wasn't able to feed well but I knew most of the annoying trails were history. All I had to do was take Johns 99 to the service road and then start up the smooth climb to Shadow Lake. As I exited Johns 99 by the Town Lift I saw Jen Hanks directing traffic on to Johns trail (a very different trail from Johns 99). I asked her "we need to do Johns trail?". She responded with an affirmative and I wanted to die. Johns trail is the most annoying trail in Park City. A lot of people love it and I like it OK when I'm feeling good but by this time my coke had worn off, I couldn't get a gel down and I could barely sip my energy drink. I was blown and now I had to ride the most technical XC trail in Park City with no energy and slow reflexes. I started down. Slow doesn't work on Johns because even on a 29er you need momentum to clear all the roots. I was doing OK but about halfway down I washed out the front end on a corner and rammed into a tree hip first. It wasn't too bad so I continued on. I popped out of Johns on the service road and started heading back up the mountain. My hip hurt and so I didn't have a lot of power in my left leg and my energy level was on empty. At this point it was 2:00 and I knew there was no way in hell I was going to make the time cut off. I started forming exit strategies. At first I was just going to suffer up Steps trail, cut the course by taking Thayne's road over to Crescent Mine Grade and from there ride down and pull the plug. Once I got to the top of Steps I decided I might as well finish this leg and have Shannon pull the plug for me when I got to the aid station too late. I got to the top of Shadow lake at 3:00 knowing the was no way I was going to be able to descend halfway down the mountain, climb Thayne's road and then descend the rest of the way in 30 minutes. For some reason I can't explain I shot a gel at this time. I was going to roll off the mountain and be done plus I came inches from vomiting as soon as I did it so why I bothered I still don't know. I blazed down the service road and Powerline trail at speeds that make me cringe as I type this. I just wanted to be done. I got to Thayne's road in 7 minutes and started up. I made it halfway before I had to stop and rest and walked the rest of the way up. I started down Crescent Mine Grade at 3:25. Another unholy descent involving three scary passes and I was at the aid station right at 3:30. I was done....right? Shannon asked me and the three others that came in right behind me if we wanted to finish the race. I grabbed a Coke, sat down and desperately wanted to pull the plug. If I was alone I probably would have but Rhonda, TC, Lucy, Shannon and Ryan were all there looking expectantly at me and I couldn't do it. I had to finiah. I finished my Coke and headed out as the Lantern Rouge.....last man to make the time cut off. The Coke got me to the top of Spiro and I tried to drink some energy drink but my stomach knotted up and I had to sit at the junction to mid-mountain to calm my guts. Limped up the climb to the overlook, sat down on the bench in the sun and took 15 minutes to choke down a GU. Somehow I survived the journey across mid mountain and stopped at the final aid station at the Colony for another coke. I knew there was no way I could get anything else down so I hoped the coke would get me home. It didn't. The energy from the Coke carried me for about an hour and I blew up on the final climb up Ambush near the end of the race in the Canyons. My HR was 126 yet I was panting and I had nothing left. I rode some, walked some and prayed for the end. Somehow I finshed the climb and started down. As I crested the small ridge above the Canyons I could see the end and and almost broke down into tears. I rolled to the finish with the crowd cheering me on and was done. 11:10 of riding time and over 12 hours on the trail. Finishing that race in my condition is one of the greatest accomplishments of my life. Ideally on a 12 hour ride I would consume at least 3000 calories and drink at least 250 oz's of fluid. I consumed less than 700 and had maybe 70oz of fluid. It was the ride I'll never forget and hope never to repeat.

It was an excellently run race and I'll definatly do it again but absolutly not solo. Well.... probably not solo:)

A Little More Kauai

Ho'opi'i Falls

Hanakap'ai Falls

Maha'ulupe Beach

Crazy local dropping over 100 ft out of the tree into Kipu pool

Kauai Singletrack

Pool of Mokolea

Napali Coast (if you look close you can see crazy nekkid people running down the sand hill)

Napali sea cave

Momma and baby along Napali

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I'm plenty rested for the PCP2P on Saturday. I'm doing it solo, does that make me craaaazy..........possibly.

Kauai

Ke'e Beach view from the Kalalau Trail

A highly endangered Monk Seal

Kilauea Lighthouse

Ke'e Beach

Wailua Falls (173 ft)

Kalalau Valley

Kalalau Valley

Waimea Canyon

Waipo'o Falls

Outlying Kapa'a Town seen from Nounou Mountain

An insurance salesmen

Nounou Mountain

Two weeks in Kauai was wonderful. We did some hikes, some sightseeing, a lot of snorkling and a ton of just chilling on the beach. Soundly slept 9-10 hours every night with the sounds of the ocean in the background and the Trades blowing through our condo.

Laramie Enduro Garmin Track

I'm an information guy. The more info I have the happier I am and having a Garmin makes me very happy. By analyzing the data from my Garmin I found I went out a little too hard. It felt OK at the time but the numbers dont lie. I was over threshold too often in the first 90 minutes and I definatly paid for it over the last 90 minutes.

Leaving Saturday AM for two weeks in Hawaii. With no saddle time in sight the PCPP could be interesting.

Laramie Enduro

67 miles in a little over 7 hours, 57th overall and 19th out of 57 starters in my age group.

The course was pretty cool with a lot of nice variation. Distance wise it was about 1/3 fireroad, 1/3 double track and 1/3 singletrack. Drew, Wedge and I lined up in the back end of the group of 400 racers figuring getting the hole shot in a 7 hour race wasn't a big deal. Wedge hit the early singletrack first and put about ten people between us. I was cold and a bit blind riding into the rising sun so I took it easy on the early one track and Drew got around me as well. When we popped out onto the first 2-track section I could see Drew a bit ahead and Wedge a bit ahead of him. They linked up at the top of the doubletrack and I got caught behind some slow riders on the first descent and I lost sight of them until we hit the long fireroad climb into the wind. They were a couple hundred yards ahead working a 15 rider paceline. I latched on to a clyde and a girl from the open category and we started working together to bridge up. We closed about half the gap by the first aid station where I had to stop and top off my bottle which Drew and Wedge rode through. Luckily for me their paceline was broken up at the aid station and I was able to bridge up by hopping from wheel to wheel of the riders between us. We hit the fun flowy singletrack section together with Drew leading the way when I felt some pee brewing. As we were climbing to the 2nd aid station the pace felt a little high and my bladder needed relief so I pulled off thinking to myself I'll never see them again today. After answering natures call I hopped back on and 1/4 mile latter the trees opened up and there was Drew and Wedge at the aid station. I had just stopped and only needed to fill a bottle while they were shedding layers and answering natures call so I left them thinking I'd just chill on the next climb till they caught back on. Well, it was almost all downhill till the next aid station and I had some quality wheels to suck on the climbs so I started thinking I could hold the gap I opened up. Re-loaded at station 3 and couldn't see them behind me when I left but from there I proceeded to my downfall. I haven't mentioned it yet but it had poured the night before and there was a lot of water on the course. there were countless mud bogs and stream crossings that were anywhere from ankle to near hip deep on me. Every time you approached one of these sections you had to make the call whether to ride them or walk them. I usually erred on the side of caution and walked most of the the ugly looking ones but I was feeling pretty damn cocky after station three and when a stream crossing came up at the bottom of a hill that transitioned to a real steep hill I decided to try to gain some momentum for the climb by riding across the stream. Bad move. I plunged into the stagnant muddy bog at full speed and pedaled like crazy to get through it. I got through but the muddy slop was up to my bottom bracket and my whole drive train was a gloopy mess. I got a few pedal strokes up the hill when my chain sucked into my frame. I pulled it out, remounted and it instantly did it again. I fought with it for a few minutes trying to get it working again while about ten people including Drew passed me. Finally I realized the only way I was going to get it to work again was to hose off the chain with my one and only bottle (I realize now how stupid it was to ride with only one bottle but it seemed like a good weight weenie idea at the time). I prayed the next aid station would be close. It wasn't. I started the climb into a brisk headwind. I had been feeding the whole race but by the top of this climb with no energy drink I was already started feeling a little low on energy. I had some gels with me but was worried about eating one without liquid and kept telling myself the next aid had to be close. About an hour later I pulled into aid station 4 just as Drew was leaving. I hadn't lost much time fighting with my drivetrain but I was pretty tired and in a pretty bad caloric deficit. They had chain lube at the station so I lubed my chain, ate and drank hoping to miraculously get back on track. I didn't, the last 17 miles of the race was by far the most difficult and I was in full on survival mode. I completed the first 50 miles in 4:15, the last 17 in 3:00.

Rhonda has never done any endurance racing before and her longest MTB ride until Laramie had been 50 miles. Her goal going in to the day was just to finish and while I was crossing thigh deep water crossings and suffering up over the last big climb I was worried she wasn't going to make the time cut-offs. Stupid me.... I should have known she was tougher than that. She made the time cut offs with ease, was a little more careful than me on the water crossings and finished with a smile in 8:42. Now that she knows what to expect she's already planning on how to break 8 hours next year.

All in all it was an excellent race. Check in was a breeze, the course was well marked, the aid stations were well stocked and staffed with friendly helpful volunteers and the price was right. I'm spoiled by the world class singletrack in Park City and I'm kind of a snob so I didn't really like a lot of the singletrack sections but that's just me nit picking. My goal was a sub 7 hour time which I missed but I heard the course was slower this year due to the wind and the mud bogs so I'll take it. I will defiantly pencil this race in my calender for future years.

Full Throttle Finale

Since the Laramie Enduro is Saturday my plan for the final Full Throttle race was to go hard for 30 minutes or so and pull the plug as soon as I started feeling tired. After the start sorted out I hopped on Drews wheel up the service road till it flattened out before the singletrack where I got around him. I tried to drop him and the other guys around me on the service road at the top but Drew was having none of that and he was glued to my wheel when we hit the singletrack descent. Coming into the 2nd lap climb Drew and another guy got around me and it would have taken too much to keep up so I eased off on the climb and took it real easy on the final DH to avoid a crash. There was a huge turnout for the series this year and I was only able to finish in 6th overall and out of the money. Rhonda finished 3rd overall though and collected $200 which pretty much covered both of our entry fee's for the series. Gotta love racing for free. I didn't win the grand prize of a Solitude Season Pass in the number plate drawing at the end but I did snag the consolation prize donated by Cannondale and Revolution. It was a sweet Cannondale duffel bag full of goods worth over $400 total! Year after year this series does not disappoint. It's well run, has the best midweek race series courses in the state and they give almost all of the entry fees (almost 7 grand) back to the racers in prize money.

Rocking the Tweety Chair (by default)

Holy crap! It's two days later and my legs are still sore from the state championship smackdown at Solitude. Rhonda's race was scheduled to start at 8:30 so we arrived at the butt crack of dawn to get her registered and warmed up while I sat in the car and drank two mugs of coffee trying to stay warm. Rhonda rode well and grabbed another 6th place finish. She would be an absolute force out there if she actually trained. It was pretty warm by the time my race started but I'm OK riding in the heat so I wasn't too worried. I think everybody realized it was going to be a long day so the pace was pretty mellow up the road on the start. Matt and Jared picked it up as soon as the singletrack started with Brian and Jake hanging on behind them. I picked up my pace once I hit the Honeycomb climb but by this time the other classes started mixing in and I lost sight of the leaders. I knew I had no shot at catching Matt and Jared but I've beaten Brian and Jake every time we've raced so I pushed it pretty hard on the first climb trying to catch back on to them. I caught up to Jake as we hit the service road and saw Brian up ahead so I pushed it a bit more to catch Brian and towed Jake up to him. Hit the DH on Brain's wheel with Jake right behind and got around Brian on the short climb in the middle of the DH. Tried to open a gap on him but he was having none of that and he got around me near the bottom. We hit the 2nd lap climb all together. Jake tried to make a move in a real bad spot on the first steep pitch in Honeycomb and blew up never to be seen again. I tailed Brian all the way up the climb dreading the super steep section of road near the top. By this time my energy level was getting low and I hadn't been drinking enough. When the last steep pitch came I caved and came off my bike. Brian rode away. I thought I could catch back on but I was blown and the DH was ugly. I was all over the trail, bouncing off rocks, riding in the bushes and all over the brakes. Headed out for my third lap in survival mode. I drank a bunch of water at the base of the climb and was recovered enough to actually ride near race pace by the Bess climb. Drank a bunch more water on the service road and had a strong DH into the finish. I ended up 4th which was my best ICUP finish ever but it comes with an asteric since most of the really fast people moved up.

Solitude was also the world debut of my new (to me) full suspension 29er. I'm happy with my Salsa hard tail 29er 90% of the time but the aggressive XC geometry and scandium/carbon frame is not meant for abusive rides down south. My Blur works OK down there but it's always been way to small for me. Enter the Asylum OCD. Asylum cycles licenced the Racer X design from Titus, perfected it for the 29" wheel and had Titus manufacture it for them as the OCD. When sales started taking off for the bike Titus bought the design back and began selling it as the Racer X 29er. The only problem for me was when Titus bought out Asylum they quit building the XXL 25" frame which is the one that fits me perfectly so I've been scouring the net for awhile looking for this bike. I finally found one listed improperly on Ebay and won the auction at a rock bottom price. Sold the Blur frame for the same amount of money I paid for it a few years ago and built up the Asylum. I've been riding it for a couple weeks and really like it. The more I thought about how rough and long the Solitude race was going to be the more I though full suspension was going to be the right choice. I swapped out a few parts the night before and brought the Asylum on race day. I think it was the right call especially when I was getting tired and sloppy on the DH the combo of the rear suspension and 29" wheels kept me from flying into the woods.

Park City's Best

Friday: 7 hour recovery ride with Rhonda.

Sunday: Rich is finally done with Iron Man stuff for the year and was aching for some quality singletrack so I took him on tour of all my favorite trails in PC. CMG, Shadow Lake, Keystone, Apex, Steps, Empire Bypass, Sunset, Spin Cycle and MM from DV to PC to name a few. It was the first time I've ever linked all those trails and it's my new favorite 40 mile loop.

The pace was "peppy" for me and I felt really good at the end but this ride was approximately half of the PCPP. That race is gonna hurt........bad.

Full Throttle #6 The New Course

Fun course. Lots of climbing. I got dropped hard on the start and actually entered the singletrack near the back thinking it might be a long night. It took some time to work off the previous nights thrashing at DV but by the Bess climb I was warmed up and feeling good. It was there that the fireworks began as one by one the dudes who went out way to hard popped on the climb. I passed countless people on that climb and got a few more who were trying to recover on the road. I even made a pass on the DH which is nice and becoming more of a habit for me. On the 2nd lap climb I caught the back of the expert field for the first time ever. If I would have known it at the time it probably would have given me a nice little burst but I didn't realize it until I caught Mark P on the DH. Didn't feel great on the 2nd lap climb though and I think I noticeably slowed down but I was able to hold my position. Since I started so far back I'm unsure how I finished but I felt like it was a good race regardless. Only three more of these left and it's kinda sad hitting the beginning of the end of another MTB season.

Full Throttle #5 Deer Valley

The quote of the night was from Jon Rose after we pre-rode the course...."maybe we should have listened to Bob and done trail work". I'm glad we didn't. The climb was short but painful. It started out pretty mellow but got steeper and steeper as we got closer to the top. The downhill was at times fast and flowy, other times twisty, but always technical. The last 150 yards of the downhill was a tree run including some of DV's manmade features; ramps, log bridges, and small drops.

The start was fast as usual. A descent sized group opened a gap on me early but I kept them in sight. About five of the lead group popped as the climb got steeper and we formed up a little chase group. Dropped a couple of them on the DH and as the 2nd lap climb began I could still see the lead group of three in the distance but I wasn't making up any ground on them. At the very top of the final climb I tried to make a little attack but everybody answered and we hit the final DH together. Jay gave us the option to skip the really techy parts at the end and take the cheater route but everybody I was with chose the difficult line and I followed suit. By this time my legs were worked. The climb was tough and there was no rest on the DH since I needed to stand the whole time to keep it together. I got a little wide on the log plank bridge and into the aspens I went. Did a quick check to make sure everything was in one piece and tentatively finished the race out. I think I finished around 7th of over 20 starters.

I was worried that the June Monsoon was going to totally screw up my prep for Laramie and PCPP but I feel like I'm finally rounding into the pathetic level of fitness I call my form. Looking forward to a fun 2nd half.

Full Throttle #4

I am finally over my cold and had been looking forward to the weekly throwdown at Solitude. I was a little disappointed because between vacays, work trips, newborns, racing fatigue and the lure of air rifles none of my friendly competition could make the race. Apparently I'm one of the few people crazy enough to not want to ever miss a silly midweek race. At the opening sprint I settled comfortably in mid back (one of these days I'm going to contest that sprint....really). Once the climb started I efficiently began working my way through traffic until I ran into a train of about eight dudes snaking up the ski run near the top. I knew there was no way around this cluster so I settled in and rested till the road. Got around everybody on the road and nailed it in order to try to make up some time. I saw Janelle in the distance but couldn't quite get around her before the DH. Luckily she was nice enough to overcook the first hard left and I snuck around her. Finished the race out incident free for a PB time of just over 50 mins. Next race we're shifting to the new course but hopefully we'll race the old on one more time this year so I can try to break 50 mins.

SLC->DV and back

Last Friday I had the day to myself. I knew I was going to killed being on call for two hospitals that weekend so I wanted to get in a long ride. It was raining when I woke up but quickly cleared and by 11am I was out the door. Up Millcreek, backwards up Crest, drop down into PC and took some high trails over to DV. As I was approaching DV the skies turned black and just as I pulled into the lodge for a pit stop the rain came down. I sat there for about 10 minutes hoping it would pass and when the rain slackened about 10 minutes laer I hit Mid Mountain over towards PC. I dropped down Empire bypass and by the time I hit Johns 99 the clouds were clearing again and I thought I dodged a bullet. Grabbed MM over to the Canyons and took another pit stop at Red Pine where they were having a wedding under the tent. I sat down in the sun on the patio for a bit sucking on a Gu and texting Rhonda with a status update when the photographer for the wedding party came over. I guess the bride thought it would be cool to have a picture with me and the wedding party, them being all clean and beautified while I was covered in a thin layer of mud from being dusty and getting rained on. They took the picture and since it was getting late I mounted up for home. The clouds came back while I was climbing back out of the Canyons and as I popped over the ridge into Millcreek the skies opened up in a torrential downpour. By this time it was nearly 8pm and I just wanted to get home. I took the direct trail down and by the time I got about halfway down there was at least 4" of running water in the trail and I was soaked to the bone. I popped out in the upper parking lot and hid in the outhouse for awhile trying to get warm. After a few minutes I peeked out and saw nothing but clouds so rather than waiting who knows how long for the storm to pass I headed down the canyon. Descending Millcreek was a blur of shivering, numb hands and feet and trying to keep the road spray out of my mouth so I wouldn't get sick again. Just as I pulled into my house at 9pm the rain finally let up. Still a great ride.

87% Throttle: Race 3

I finally have some excuses for poor race performance other than I'm slow. I showed up Wednesday night at Solitude hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Instead I fell somewhere in between. I'd been fighting a nasty headcold all week but when when race time rolled around I went with the old adage that if a cold is from the neck up you're OK to exercise. Rhonda and I did a pre-ride lap and I felt OK but I was having some major drivetrain issues. When I got back to the car I gave the bike a close examination and realized I had a severely bent link in my chain that made my rear D ghost shift under strain. If you're counting from home that's excuse #2. Going up the road on the opening sprint I died and settled into mid-pack a few riders behind Wedge. I started getting warmed up on the climb but as I got out of the saddle to power up the first steep pitch my rear D locked up and I had to pull over to free up my chain. 5-6 guys got around me and I mounted back up and tried to remember to stay seated and nurse my drivetrain by spinning. I made a few passes on the climb and re-connected with Wedge at the road. Stood up to try to put some distance into him on the paved hill and the drivetrain popped again reminding me that that wasn't going to happen today. Rode behind Wedge across the top and he hit the decent about 30 seconds ahead of me. After getting completely bitched by Wedge and his 5" at Desert Rampage my goal on the DH was to hold his wheel as long as possible. I lost a little time to him on the real rough stuff but I finished the DH and entered the climb right on his wheel giving me my lone bright spot of the race. Felt OK on the second climb but 3/4 of the way up I cracked. No power left, HR in a downward spiral and an upset stomach full of post nasal drip forced me to back off the the throttle. My time ended up being about 4 minutes slower than my average time from last year. Not horrible considering.

Rhonda led most of her race but the girl who has won all three womens races was playing a bit of cat and mouse. She played with Rhonda by staying in contact behind her the first lap and then stepped on the gas at the end of the final climb giving it just enough to make sure she won. Rhonda held off the girls behind her for 2nd place.

I'm in.

Are you?

Corner Canyon

I met up with Drew and Joel for a little spin around corner canyon today. We were planning on doing the Round Valley race later in the day so we kept things pretty chill and I got to explore some newer trails I hadn't ridden before. Brock's Point will be sweet once it's broken in, the new part of lower Jacobs Ladder is well done. The freeride DH trail that everybody raves about was nice I suppose but it just wasn't my cup of tea. I'm guessing the low bar, high saddle race geometry on my hardtail didn't help matters but I would have had more fun descending ghost or Clark's. The trails were all in perfect condition and the rain held off giving us an excellent 2.5 hrs in the saddle.

Millcreek rain ride

After 6 days of riding the couch I braved the elements and did a Saturday morning MTB ride in the rain. Rode from my house up the road and explored the upper millcreek trails. Dog Lake is fully rideable and GWT is good do go for a couple miles past the Dog Lake turnoff before you start hiting too many snowdrifts to make it worth your time. No mud. Crest should be ready within a few weeks!

Why I'll never be fast part nine hundred ninety four.

When it's June in you'll never catch me doing this:

Or this:

So when last nights race was canceled Ken called to see if we wanted to eat some of this instead:

Well minus the nekkid lady of course. Ken has impeccable taste in food so when he recommended hitting Matsu Sushi for half price rolls (mon-wed) we agreed. The rolls were excellent and for the four rolls we ate plus an appetiser our total bill was under $25. Highly recommended.

Mid Mountain Super Loop

Mark P, Ken, Bob, Jen and Shannon joined me Saturday me for this bad boy.

Over 62 miles of the greatest singletrack you'll ever ride. If you ride Mountain Bikes and you don't live in Utah you're missing out.

editors note: Bob, Shannon and Jen wanted 6 hrs tops so they bailed at Johns trail and didn't finish the ride. Mark P bailed with them. Wedge started the ride with us but locked his camelbak and keys in his car and just rode Flying Dog. The GPS track file shows us poaching the private trails through Pinebrook at the end of the ride. We of course would never do such a thing so please ignore that part of the track.

Move over Mexi-Coke

Now there's something...........American-er?

Pepsi throwback. Made with real sugar just like back in the day. Kind of the same deal as Mexi-coke in that the sugar doesn't overpower the cola flavor like HFCS does. It's also a easier to deal with the empties since the cans can just be thrown in the recycling bin. Just for Fox they also make Mt Dew throwback.

Full Throttle Round Valley #2

Sometimes all the stars align, everything works out perfectly and a MTB racer has a break out race. It happened to me a couple years ago at the final race of the Solitude series. Somehow I needed to beat a much faster racer in order to finish in the money. After getting dropped on the hole shot I clawed back onto the guys wheel on the opening climb and was able to put a small gap on him across the top. I was able to hold him off for the rest of the race and man it felt good. I haven't done much since but that's beside the point. Last night I think Mark had his breakout ride when he decided to race his rigid SS for the first time. The race was a training race on a pretty mellow course, in other words a perfect venue to try out the single. To set this up properly Mark has never beaten me in a race before and I'm pretty sure he's never really even come close. We lined up together near the front and this week my plan was to go hard at the start and enter the singletrack in a good position. I was in about 4th with Mark right there until my legs reminded me that they weren't quite ready for that kind of effort after yesterdays ride. I fell back into around 20th by the time we hit the singletrack with Mark maybe 8-10 places ahead of me. My legs warmed up well and I started making some passes climbing the singletrack with Buzzard hot on my heels but Mark was nowhere to be found. Near the top I saw J-dub right ahead of me and knowing she doesn't like people riding her wheel on the DH I struck a couple matches and got around her. I turned back to let Buzzard pass me before the DH started so I could try to match his mad DH skills but I had gapped him with my big acceleration at the top. Oh and BTW, still no Mark. Since I hadn't caught him yet I started figuring he must have dropped out or something. I caught a few more people on the 2nd lap and finished with a pretty nice time of about a minute faster then last week. Mark was at the finish line waiting and he looked worked over like he had just finished, not dropped out. He killed it riding the SS finishing over a minute ahead of me and he beat his time from last week by over 6 minutes! I don't know what it was but something about the rigid SS brought out the best in him. I have a feeling we'll see him racing DV next Saturday banging with the rest of the crazies on SS's. Well done Mark!

Morgan Valley Roadie Tour

After a crappy weekend of call and house projects, not to mention 5 days off the bike I was blessed with today off. I new a big ride was in order and since most people work on Tuesdays it was going to be solo. I decided the road bike was getting a little lonely and it had been awhile since I did a solo century so that was the plan. So where to go? Well I refuse to drive to ride the road and I'm about sick of dodging cars in the valley so I decided to go over the top of Big Mountain, down into east canyon and tour the Morgan Valley.

107 miles and 8300 ft climbing. The highlight was defiantly climbing back up over Big Mountain with 80 miles on my legs in a rain squall. Oh, and there was a "shart" alert in the middle of the squall but luckily it was a false alarm. It will be very interesting seeing how my legs feel at tomorrow nights race. I guess that's what training races are for.

Sticking it to Bin Laden.....Prius Style

52 MPG, mixed city and highway, all normal driving (i.e. 70-75 mph on the freeway). No wonder GM and Chrysler are bankrupt, they have nothing that compares. There are no compromises for your 52MPG in the Prius. It's comfortable, roomy and has plenty of get up and go when you need it.

Christmas in May

Rhonda and I don't really buy each other presents for Christmas. I'm a thrifty dude and I can't stand spending anywhere near full price for anything so when x-mas rolls around and everything is expensive I don't buy. What I do instead is have an idea in my head of things I want to buy for Rhonda and when I find a deal I jump on it. I've been in the market for a new roadie for her for awhile and when I found a barely used Cannondale Carbon Synapse on ebay for less then half price I jumped on it. She's back from Florida and tearing up the tarmac on it right now.

Merry Christmas sweetie!

She's a little spoiled I know but she works hard and deserves it.

Full Throttle #1

I was geeked when I found out in the beginning of May that the Full Throttle Weekly Race series was on this year and had added 3 more races and a new venue. It's by far my favorite race series every season. Cheap entry fee's, sweet swag, cool courses, great people, cash purses and it's well run. It's also nice that the races are quick and painful and you don't waste an entire day racing.

Headed up with Ken last night and arrived early enough for a course recon. Sweet course, middle ring singletrack climbs and a tight twisty downhill which was challenging to maintain speed on for someone of my stature. I new the pace would be frenzied from the start up the dirt road and I wasn't feeling particularly fast so I lined up near the back with Kris. The plan was to suck a couple wheels up the dirt road into the headwind to warm up and do my passing on the singletrack. Not the wisest of race strategies I know but anything goes in a mid-week series and it sounded like fun at the time. Jay sounded the start and off we went... well most of us. The Clyde in front of me gave a mighty heave of a pedal stroke and a loud POP sounded! His drivetrain detonated, he fell over and the guys ahead of me rode off into the sunset (literally). I snuck around Hoss and unsuccessfully tried to solo across no-mans land to catch on to the main group. I got around a couple of dudes who fell off the back on the road and passed Mark N (he who races not so often) after he blew-up on the singletrack. I caught up to Bob on the first downhill and thought he might have popped since he's an older gent and just raced on Monday. I was about to commence some serious heckling till I saw the blood pouring down his leg. Yikes! The climb wasn't long enough and the downhill was too twisty for me to catch anybody else except for some of the expert girls and I finished somewhere mid-pack. Not a great result but not bad considering Mark A only grabbed 4th and he's pretty dang fast. Fun race and I can't wait till next week.

Tour de Lower Park City

The season of big rides is upon us. Yesterday Lucy joined Rhonda and I for this jem:

5:45 saddle time and just over 52 miles, 99% singletrack. Glenwild, Flying Dog, various Round Valley trails, Prospector loop and back. It's unfair to the rest of the world that this stuff is a 20 minute drive away. I was planning to take today off but Ken wanted to ride so who was I to turn him down:

Lower DV is ready to go. Deer Crest, Spin Cycle, Snow top, Solamare etc all in mint condition.