WARNING: race with faster riders can cause liver damage.

Seven stages of power meter ownership:

shock & denial - First power test (of the year or ownership). Seeing your power output and compare it to your friends / competitors. "screw that!, I'm faster than that!!"

pain & guilt - Inevitably fry yourself striving for an astronomical gain in power. No matter how much you gain you still don't win as easily as you think you should

anger & bargaining - You dig and you dig looking for some kernel of information about how to get fast (legally).

depression, reflection, loneliness - Accepting your power numbers.

the upward turn - See the forest for the trees and learn to balance power numbers with reality: It's a training tool for you alone.

reconstruction and working through - Learning how to race and ride without being a slave to power.

acceptance and hope - Loving your bike and look forward to riding it with the hope that you can do it for a long time like those around you.

These stages can occur in any order and at any point in ownership of a power meter. Normally the common times to experience these are first time ownership and then another bout as you get older.

Being Human: A not funny, not interesting, not sarcastic post

I wish I was a better writer....but this is what I'm posting:

There is a story which has stuck with me from college. It's a very simple story but a very odd story. My professor at the time was a 70-80 something year old with a phD in psychology. He had gotten to the point in his life where life was beautiful for just being 'life'. The kind of person who can sit back and really examine the social aspects of how humans interact without being petty....but then again he also had a penchant for wildly gesticulating and swearing in class. So needless to say, I was always intrigued.

So.

The story:

In the 1940's after the allied forces had just taken back France. Naturally like any occupied country some people capitulated with their captors and assisted them. In this case the Nazi's. Some people made it their job to go around and interrogate these people and deem them friend or foe based on their participation. My professor at the time had been part of this group playing mop up. The story that struck me most was that of a young French woman. Her crimes have long since been forgotten (if he even mentioned them). During the course of interrogation there were two officers, an American (my professor) and a French man. There is nothing notable about what was said during the interrogation, at least to the young French lady. Upon exiting the young French woman knew nothing of her fate. Though the French man having heard it all had already signed her death warrant. Whatever war or political crimes she had been guilty of doesn't really matter...because unlike a common criminal they did not shackle her up and march her off to the gallows under the reign of rotten fruit. No. They were very cordial and friendly to her, as if no trespasses had been committed against her fellow countrymen. They walked her out to an awaiting army vehicle where she would be taken away to her later fate (unknown to her). Upon saying good bye the French man exchanged a very friendly good bye of kiss with the young French lady. Not too far from what two lovers would do for a casual parting of ways. Except this exchange was with a person he just sentenced to death.

So where does that leave this story in my mind? This small story which lacks names, details, or any particular facts that would make it incredibly interesting to tell or justify the sentence of death...why do I talk about it? Why does it ring so well with me? I think it's because no matter what, even when stuff is 'fuct' we are still human at the core. We can always be better than the horrible acts we commit,even if the good seems left undone.

So you dealt with that vomit...so here is something for your troubles:

(from: http://fixedgearbikes.blogspot.com/ )

Update: my naughty bits...

UPDATE: After 8hrs in the saddle this weened the groin seems to be back to normal. Best part? I can't feel the "uneasy feeling" of the hernia...which leads me to a very bad conclusion -> I won't be able to compete in CX this season. This "sucks balls" because I've put almost $2k into gear...on the other hand there is always next year after I get repaired (patched like a tube) to do it "the right way". Plus let's face it, a CX bike is probably the best thing since sliced bread in MI for winter riding. Just need to bastardize the Gucci race rig with some studded tires and full fenders (ewwwwww, heavy).

The plan: I will keep things low key the rest of this week and possibly throw in some minor 10-15min sessions of running. Not holding any high hopes. It is pretty clear at this point in the season the smartest thing is to just call CX D.O.A. and enjoy the time I have left in the fall.

cyclocross: she's a cruel bitch

The Short:

So I went to strangle this bitch called cyclocross and all I got was...well see image above.

The Long:

Kisscross #1 9/18:

The race went off without a hitch. First time I raced on my cx bike. Only had two mount/dismount sections. Moderately sore post race but nothing horrible. Examined pictures post fact and my mounting skills lacked the monkey like skillz of Tom Burke.

Kisscross #2 9/19:

Similar course, same feeling as race #1. After the race however even going to mount onto my bike in the parking lot was a horribly painful experience. I rode later that day with no ill effect or discomfort. As a result I started to incorporate stretching of the groin into my routine with heavy emphasis on warming up before doing any intervals as my groin was still a little sore. Feeling around later that night I felt some strange stuff when I pushed. Kind of like a balloon. I knew what it was…but at least it wasn’t near the actual pain I was feeling.

Doctors Apt 9/15:

I have a hernia. No clue how or when I acquired it. Mother fucker. Not a bad one. Just causes an unsettling feeling. Repairs can wait till the off season. Time to start surgeon shopping. Groin pain persisted the rest of the week but it felt more like someone was stepping on my right nut, no where near my hernia.

Friday 9/25:

After my opener ride I practiced some mounts/dismounts on my cx bike just to gauge my new found groin pain. I felt a twinge. Nothing that really hurt, stretched a little more, but the twinge was still there. For future reference if you feel anything not normal in your groin muscles. Stop. Take a day off...don't race, don’t fuck around, take it easy.

Tailwind CX #1 9/26:

I showed up not knowing if it was a good idea or not. Somewhere between lap one and lap two the pain in my groin started. It became so bad that approaching the barriers or stairs caused me anxiety. Wasn't even sure I could lift my legs. After 15min of racing I called it. DNF. I had a problem and it was serious. The pain was undeniable and racing for 3-4^th from DFL isn’t on my list of life goals. Fuck it.

So now I’m all crippled. Who knew someone who rode a bike all year would have such problems surmounting 18’’? I certainly didn’t. Right now it looks like I’ll be skipping Ithica CX and doing very little groin related activities till next week. No point in risking the few races I have left to the season just to be greedy. Sometimes it takes your coach reminding you that indeed this is the OFF SEASON.

Upside? Looks like I will be incorporating some fun exercises into my weekly routines...such as running. Oh joy. Good article on CX groin related fun here: http://cxmagazine.com/training-for-cyclocross-mounts-dismounts-no-injury

Remember: lurking is legal, stalking is not.

My season my end more abruptly than I would like.... This weekend's cyclocross racing will be very telling. With the way things have been progressing I don't think I will make it to Iceman. Though lets face it, I'm a roadie now, so no loss. One less sandbagger in the Expert 25-29 field and one less nutter at the line of 4,000 crazies.

Stay tuned for FAIL. I hear Tailwind CX A's is a beast of a field. As always the goal is to not be lapped and not be DFL (or DNF).

09/09/09 .....hmmm

Today date contains all 9's...so go out and ride your favorite 9 speed bike (preferably 3 up front w/a 12-27t cassette) and celebrate.

Celebrate what you ask? Not sure. I'm sure some pagan religion is killing people as we speak...but you? You can go ride your bike because human sacrifice is still frowned upon in most cultures. Consider your blood and sweat sacrifice enough for the cycling gods. At least until that societal frown turns upside down.

Oh ya almost forgot...cx bike on deck:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=57195401&l=ff96455ac4&id=2311702

Will match those nice red sidi shoes quite well:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=56983582&l=5e65c2bd18&id=2311702

who's showing up? oh fuck....

I've spent the last few days in the company of giants. Those cycling figures who used to loom large in the forefront of my imagination. The names that would be listed on the possible ride roster and you'd simply think "oh fuck".

For the first time I got to pick their brains and get the true depth of their character. It has me thinking again...not about cycling but about life. Cycling is a great sport but to be a full person you have to give depth to your life outside of it. Unannounced to me they have been masters at both for years, long before I rode a bike for sport. The best part is they are not without flaws, they are human...

...Thanks for the inspiration. Maybe I'll stick with this shit for another year...maybe.

an introspective chat with a friend...

me: It would help if i wasnt in a mental funk for the last two weeks.

cyclistBud: heh, yea been there done that.

cyclistBud: figuring out how to dig yourself out of that mental hole is tricky.

cyclistBud: i think i hit that around may/june.

cyclistBud: all because of vagina.

me: yep...damn gash, always gets you.

me: 2008 year of over training, 2009 year of the gash.

cyclistBud: heh.

me: 2010? TBD.

cyclistBud: has it made your results good this year?

cyclistBud: i would almost have to say looking at results only it was a 'good' thing.

cyclistBud: from the mental stability point - eh... not so much.

me: not sure. I know its caused other riders in the peleton unnecessary pain.

W

Picture above: Last W in cat 3's @ 2009 Cherry Roubaix Road Race. Couldn't have done it without the support and backing of my team. Thank you. It means more than you will ever know.

Welcome to the fall: "This will not be over quickly. You will not enjoy this."

Back to the grind. No racing this weekend, just riding. Drop me a line if you have any interesting rides planned...or parties...

Update...

This blog will lack any (as if there could be less) interesting content for a while. If I am ambitious (pfff) maybe I will learn how to update it from my phone. Many interesting posts and pictures are lost in translation between capture and the subsiquent brain fart release. Any tips or tricks on mobile posting/pic upload to blogspot would be much appreciated. Sorry no iphone to pull a fat cyclist. So please keep your hipster iphone tips to a minimum. I have windows mobile.

ordering some of this stuff...since most of you are local let me know if you want to monkey on my order: http://www.twinsix.com/gear/the-stuff/fat-cyclist

.....

Funk Deez Nutz

Not sure if it's been my recent three month battle against some kind of fungus that lives in my shorts or the lack of validation…but I'm in a funk. Not a training funk mind you, this is a pure and simple discipline funk. The last five years as a cyclist have been predicated around the dirt. Train on road to race off has always been the moto. Recently I've been more disillusioned with the spotty Michigan mountain bike scene. Within three minutes of being at the start line I can guess my final place within a few spots. Besides, what are you racing for anyway? There isn't even a carrot since the mmba has puckered up so tight you could give it a penny and get back wire. There is just no comparable series other states have.

Racing road the last few weekends…has been enjoyable. Not in the typical sense of joy. No. This is Adam we are talking about. No sir, no typical here. I enjoy it…well…Mr.Topher Chase put it best:

I love killing dreams.

I endure pain all winter training so that later I can inflict it on YOU. Nothing personal…but your failure is my success. Mountain biking never really validated me in that respect because you hardly see anyone. In the road scene you get to watch people suffer up close for hours on end. So next time you look over in the break and see me…be sure you are smiling, because if you aren't, I will be on the inside.

As for dirt...we shall see. Right now I am shifting it to the back burner till after SBF. Too many dreams and not enough races.

2008: The Year Of POWER!

Lets get to the meat...between the seat?

Disclaimer: I do not keep track of stats by bike, congrats to those of you who do. I have trouble keeping up with the data logging as it stands...so as a result my rb and mtb stats are a bit fudged because of trainer confusion....oops. The perils of owning a mtb powerTap mid season.

Road bike: 2003 Klein
TIME 458:15:57
DIST 8084.85

Mountain bike: 2008 RM Element Team / Vertex 70 / Kona Unit SS / MooU
TIME 229:08:42
DIST 3194.56

Trainer: rb and mtb's
TIME 203:09:29
DIST 8084.85

Racing: results here
TIME 56:19:44
DIST 912.67

TOTALS
TIME 679:36:27
DIST 11162.47



For you power monkey's here is my 2008 season in the form of TSB/ATL/CTL:


For those of you who track my weight here is some fun history:
SUMMARY:
All in all I've achieved every goal I set for myself in 2008. Some would argue that you should set goals that aren't achievable, but that just isn't my style. I am a person who pays a coach so I can sit down, shut up, and ride.

1) make the jump to Elite mtb and make sure my road license followed suit [done]
2) lose more weight. target weight of 155lbs [uhh, ya but not enough]

Special Thanks to Trails-Edge Staff Micheal "moose mitts" Flack and Aaron "the man" Mihalko. They've tolerated my perma funk this long, maybe they can tolerate it another season...maybe.

So what's next for 2009?
1) drop more weight: target 145-149lbs
2) get faster: break that mythical 5.0 watts/kg barrier
3) carve out a spot in the elite mtb field.

And as always...

To a fallen soldier....

Doppelganger....

Massive Fallout 2008 v2.0.Robert.666

The route was 115 miles with an 85-90mile option out of Rochester mills brewery. With the precision only Robert has the skill for here was the planned route / time table:

"Mile 0.00 (8:45 am) Roll out from my driveway...
Mile 13.70 (9:45 am) Stop for bagel and coffee at... Panera Bread 2508 S Adams Road Rochester Hills, MI
Mile 13.71 (10:10 am) Roll off for the trails and beyond... (this portion of the ride will cover 41.5 miles (ride time 2:47) 50 to 65 oz of fluid and 660 to 770 calories is sufficient for this time frame per hammer nutrition
Mile 55.20 (12:57 pm) Party Store Refuel Stop
Mile 55.21 (1:13 pm) Roll off for more trails and more beyond... (this portion of the ride will cover 41.5 miles (ride time 2:47) 50 to 65 oz of fluid and 660 to 770 calories is sufficient for this time frame per hammer nutrition
Mile 96.70 (4:00 pm) Rochester Mills Party time with that Massives Burger and Beer (I plan to carry a small cable lock around with me all day just for this stop...)
Mile 96.71 (5:55 pm) Last leg of the ride.... 18 miles to my driveway... Sunset is at 6:56 (safe ride "dusk" till 7:16) bring a blinky
Mile 115.00 (7:10 pm) Arrive back home... "

The Goon Squad:

I apparently missed something when we were rolling out of panera...but I guess my camera captured a little peak into the future of my day...

Rolling out we had 10 people....

Rolling into Rochester Mills Brewery we had 5....

Now here was the real schedule:

Mile 0.0 (9:24am) we are already late rolling out of Rochester Mills Brewery to meet up with goon squad. So we proceed to hammer 4.6 miles in Alan and Paul's draft well into my lower L3 zone. I find it hard to ride in a straight line as I strip layers off trying not to over heat.
Mile 4.6 (9:47am) Late at panera, but apparently just in time to wait in the slowest line in the world as we sweat profusely...the normal patrons glare at us. I guess stinky men with large packages have invaded their Saturday morning sanctuary. They look very confused.
Mile ??.?? (??:??am) Uhh this ride is faster than expected. We've come off the rail trail and hit bloomer, Cruise/Robert/DK/Greg/Alan/Paul lay it down, the weak are killed and eaten in short order...Important fact - I am not the slowest person (yet)
Mile ??.?? (??:??am) Blah blah blah ride stoney, people get lost, hilarity ensues.
Mile ??.?? (??:??am) Somewhere on a dirt road after stoney we've lost josh, jim, and the guy in a Giant Kit. We wait. They show up just in time for more gas to be poured on the fire. I don't know it yet but this is a preview of my fate. Cruise eventually turns around and heads home, he has a dance to attend.
Mile 55.20 (1:12pm) We are 15min behind schedule at our first party store pit stop. Everyone has survived to this point. Devour calories and fluids, Robert is not pleased with chit chat and signs people are having fun, we move on. The clock waits for no one.
Mile 70.00 (Time doesn't matter) Jim, Josh, and guy in giant kit have been shelled off the back in the maze that is bald mountain. I am the straggler of the group now in a heavy bonk state....luckily the pack waits up for me to point me the way to Addison Oaks. They dont look very pleased. I am the weak, they are looking hungry.
Mile 75ish (Does time exist?) I fix a mechanical as we fill up water at Addison Oaks parking lot. I get side tracked trying to find my head unit for my power tap and get left behind. The clock waits for no one. I finally catch up to DK, he is having nerve/neck problems so I follow him out of the trail on the paved path cutting off about 2miles of single track. I stopped caring.
Mile what? (If i don't look at my clock it goes faster) .........blargh
Mile 96.71 (Time to Drink) I'm done riding....time to drink

Great day in the saddle. Nice reminder of why I ride. Also reminds me and my legs that the season is OVER...which is fine by me. more pics here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/yorkadam/MassiveFallout2008

Welcome to mid twenties. population, me

In celebration of me surviving twenty four years with half a brain we did an AA->poto->AA ride on mountain bikes. Though my birthday was on Monday, its hard to squeeze in a 3-4hr ride followed by copious amounts of beer without upsetting the work life balance. Naturally it was pushed to the nearest Saturday. Meeting at 2pm 8/16 we started off by ogling at Alan's new rig:

Completely untested and new we were breaking all the rules (never ride an untested rig long distances or in races)…but hey, rules are meant to be broken. So we rolled on.


Took us about 57minutes on the road (sorry no dirt) to get to the trail head. We had geared up for an "easier ride" but Mr.John Heft begged to differ with our 17-22mph pace on the road. Paul took the lead out of the gate at the poto trail head. He quickly disappeared into the distance. Nothing new, Paul just goes one speed at poto: fast. Alan couldn’t get his new rig to shift and was otb with me. We regrouped every now and again at points on the trail chatting it up as an excuse to slug back more water.

We met an interesting DNR employee who got to sit in a lawn chair and just tell people a parking lot was full. Where do I sign up for this job? Heft opted for the shorter 15mile loop while Paul, myself, and Alan went on for the full loop. We stuck together till the last paved road crossing, and then we all hit our own strides. Eventually hitting the parking lot after . John was kind enough to reserve us a spot on the beech so we could consume flat soda and enjoy the view. I made the mistake in partaking in the American tradition of a hot dog. It was so good I got to taste it the whole way home!


On the way back about we identified Alan's shifting problem as a stiff link (to go with his other two stops: lose skewer, lose headset). Seems SRAM chains have been plagued with stiff links recently. Anyone else notice this? After a few minutes of messing with it we back on the road. The way back was quite a bit faster with periods of 24-27mph. The tailwind helped quite a bit. Paul decided to work on his tan lines a bit also:


Ride Time: 3:31:14
Ride Distance: 58.99 miles
Beers Consumed: ~8.3

Upon return we drank a few brews right in front of Alan's house sitting on the curb. I'm sure the neighbors loved this….



After showering up and it was time to hit up the bars in AA. Grizzly peaks for foodage (mmmm pulled pork sandwich) and an eight beer (5oz ea) sampler. Paul in his competitive nature naturally finished first, Heft second, me in third, and Alan with assistance from Paul was DFL. If you wanted me to recount the complex flavors of each beer good luck…Next up to bat was Ann Arbor Brew Co. followed by Ashley's. Even Mr Stephen Cain of UofM cycling showed:

(This is a rare sighting at best. Drink it in)

Now it's Monday and I'm officially 24. Miller High Life anyone?


(that's March 2008 in TN - good stuff)

Ore To Shore v2.0

that's my buddy from CO, read below for a nice explanation of that.....

We wake up at 730ish to get ready to race. race gun start time was 9:45am. Mid way through packing up a torrential down pour starts in Marquette. Anyone who has raced in sand knows rain is GREAT pre-race. This is not the case when it’s 50F there, so it’s a catch-22. Race fast in the cold, or race in slow in the dry heat. The rain stopped in Marquette after about 15min but followed us to the start. It proceeded to rain right until 30min before the start. This was unexpected. The radar led us to believe it would pass before the race, we got there sans base layers to cold wet rain. Not a good warm up by any standards. A mental note for any future race is to always bring a bag with back up layers in it. Anyway…Alan and I tooled around and did a rough warm up. No one really wanted to get too wet so busting around on the pavement was limited. The weather parted and dried just before the start and things looked up. The pack was definitely smaller than 2007 by about 100-200 riders.

When the gun went off it was nutty but Alan and I managed to stay top 20 part of the pack till the first climb.

Alan proceeded to pull away at the first major grass climb about 2 miles in. I went into smart mode and listened to my legs. I let the top 15-20 guys go and started finding groups of people to pick off or work with. Granted listening to my legs got me shelled back quite a bit more than I had liked. About 10 miles in I finally found my grove after a rough section of gravel about a half mile long. Anyone who has ridden this race knows it as the two level ore pellet ride parallel to the train tracks. It’s famous for its fun crashes as people try to switch between the two levels of gravel. I heard many a crash behind me as I was recovering. I’d guess as they went to pass me. After that it was alternating busting ass, pulling back a bit to recover, then busting ass. Figured I was sitting around 40th place at that point before the dreaded baby head sized hike a bike rock climb.

A little bit down about it since my goal was top 20. So I sewed it up. I got help in the form of an enemy from last year. A guy from CO who i rubbed tires with and almost fought (his choice not mine). He had also called me fat and smelly(yes this was because of the famous state jersey). We exchanged apologies and proceeded to work together for the next 10-15 miles getting a big group together for the roadie section of the course. Probably had a pack of 20 guys together there which is not normal for a mountain bike race. Few guys did most of the work (me included). The likes of Terry Ritter just sat on being leeches. At about 10 miles from the end we were in a nice grove dragging the remainder 15 people from our road pack through the woods trying to pick off as many people as we could. At this point I was out of GU and coming up on the end of my 100oz of water.

We started meeting the stragglers of the soft rock group at this point. Unfortunately being third wheel in a draft line has it’s advantages: you catch accelerations faster and work less, and its disadvantages: you have zero reaction time to pending crashes. We passed one un lucky soft rock guy who got spooked and took me out, and not to dinner. Laying on the ground in a fetal position a Cycle-To-Fitness rider was kind enough to show me how his shoe felt on my ribs. After I was out from under the hooves of the cattle I got up and tried to jump back on the bike...but the pack was now out of sight. Being so close from the end it was NOT a good spot to lose the draft train. Finally catching the pack a mile or two later near the deepest sand pit the two straggling riders biffed in the pit letting me take a nice leisurely 5mph pace into the pit of death. I also biffed as a result of my slow speed. Getting back up I put the pedal to the medal. I only caught the remaining five stragglers of my draft pack 1mile to go. I rolled in at 39th overall and 35th in men’s shaving about 17min off my previous years time. Shockingly only 2 minutes behind alan….and 9 places back.

Trails-Edge Results:
Alan Antonuk 2:49:40 26th overall, 24th men geared, 1st male 20-24
Adam York 2:51:26 39th overall, 35th men geared, 3rd male 20-24
Jon Heft 3:17:51 153th overall, 122nd men geared, 28th male 35-39

more pics here on Alan's Picasa account.

more prospectives from the race here on the trails-edge blog.

Wet Matches

Well my venture into elite has been interesting. I will say this, no matter the race, conditions, or distance there will always be someone to race against in elite. This is not always the case with expert. Also the riders that show are always of a much higher calibre. Not to mention you get an exta lap!

::Ruby::

In short, mud fest. It wasn't an epic race that you come out caked in mud. No this was a different kind of mud. Kind of like axel grease. It was slippery enough to make riding parts impossible (for me), and just slick enough to make running them an interesting experience. Think of a CX race but with circus music. The river crossing also added another level of hilarity. Too deep to ride you had to run/walk it hoping you wouldn't roll your ankle on a rock. Not to mention all the river rocks were kind enough to un Velcro my shoes each time I crossed. I am pretty sure that mr Tanguy didn't stop to fasten his shoes up after every crossing. This might explain the time gap he had on me...

Not sure if it's just me but damn that had a fast start. Definitely my first "welcome to the big leagues" experience when that gun went off. Just hanging on was brutal. Overall a good race. Was by no means a test of fitness. You really couldn't red line yourself with all the mud. First time I've ridden the course...something I'm learning is a big mistake in elite.

::Stony TT::

I'll sum this up for you short and sweet. Suckage. Over the last few weeks I have had almost no gas in my legs. Through a slow process of attrition with work, lack of sleep, bike parts breaking, and food poisoning I've been cached. Showing up to Stony TT was a futile act but I looked to it as a training experience. I brought my geared bike and the single speed out for some suffering.

On the first grass straight away I knew it wasn't going to be a good day. The speed was way too low and my legs HURT. This trend continued to get worse as the race went on. This was by no means how good I felt at Yankee TT....and I knew it. Caught a few wheels in technical sections but couldn't stick it. Took my 17th place in stride, got my single speed entry refunded, and promptly located some beer.

I'm in a funk.

Elite v1.0: the anatomy of a bonk

Woke up at 5:00am to my alarm clock. This is when you question "why do i race?". Fixed my normal pre race meal of French toast and Nutella (just don't eat with less than three hours pre race). Got a call from Jim mid way through my meal prep. Turns out that "chance of showers" was a pretty nasty guarantee. Scoped out the radar for myself and sure enough, it looked brutal. Jim was on the ropes, and I won't lie, so was I. My only drive was that i need to get into the elite scene of riding ASAP. No one wants to start their season out being DFL. So why not get used to it now? Besides, everyone needs a good mud filled suffer fest. Figuring it's been almost three years since I had mine, time to sign up for another. Besides I was counting on some sketchy radar math that it would stop raining 1hr before the race. Gave Jim the out, and he took it. So looks like 3hrs in the car solo.

Beautiful morning...the radar implied otherwise, so I packed up my car in preparations for rain:

Empty roads at 6am on a saturday, go figure:

Drive up was uneventful. Almost got a ticket, but the guy in front of me took one for the team. Rolled into Boyne with 1hr to the start. Weather had just lifted and everything was pretty damp. Though more people would have bailed, but the parking lot was pretty full. The registration line confirmed my fears, I got the number 5 plate. Oh well, time to suffer, with the other four guys :)

Rolled up to the starting line of five guys. Robert "the man" Heriman and Greg Kuhn were the only familiar faces. The other two guys I had never seen before. One did rock a fully rigid 29'er with what appeared to be (and later confirmed) a 38t front ring and a matching 21-11 road cassette. This is never a promising sign. Apparently I didn’t get the memo saying to bring my big boy shorts.

Strange thing about elite racing, the start isn't always as fast as you'd think. Then again we were just five. We motored the first flat parts at about 20mph Greg heading up the front. Greg took a wrong turn, the 29er rigid guy biffed in some sand. So I was sitting in 2nd place behind an unknown rider. Nothing I couldn't handle ( I thought). Now once we hit the first climb, it was strange; they just kept going at the same pace. I couldn't match. They launched me off the back like space trash. 29'er man, Robert, and the unknown soldier blasted up the trail. Greg finally caught back up and gave me the words of advice for the day "settle in and push hard". So I did just that.


Being DFL has its benefits. You always look up the trail with hope and hunger looking for a straggler. For some strange reason I kept seeing Robert just up the trail. This didn't make much sense. He had been second wheel when I got dropped. Sure enough after every hill he was out of sight. Got some split times from spectators but my suspicions were confirmed when they ranged from 30seconds to 1minute depending on the hills. So I dug down and kept motoring. Sometime during the second lap I caught Robert. He too gave me some words of advice to "make sure to keep drinking and eat". That’s when I started doing the mental math, which was not promising. This race was going to be longer and much harder than I had anticipated.

When riding solo in longer races you are forced to make do with your own sag. I had put four bottles by the start finish area. Figured that would be enough for the day. Wrong. My estimated five bottle day ended up being an eight bottle day. (a big thank you to the spectator who filled my bottles and handed them to me on the last lap!) To add fuel to the bonk fire was my lack of proper food intake. During my rush to warm up I had forgotten to pack my food. So in a last minute rush I stuffed only three Gu's and two rice crispy treats in my pockets. Not nearly enough for a 3.5-4hr race. These two factors would come together going into the last lap. I kept looking at my computer on the flats. My speed was dropping. My breath was getting hot, and the hills started to look longer. Out of food and just on water and Gatorade I knew I was hosed. Robert finally caught me at 3:10:00 and that’s when the wheels fell off. Trying one last desperate attempt to catch him my matchbook was empty. The next 35minutes were a combination of dizzy spells and stopping to trying not puke. The final nail in my coffin was an expert rider passing me. Up until that point no one had passed me outside of elite men. All ambition gone I coasted the last parts of trail trying not to pass out (thankfully no one else passed me). Finally I hit the finish at 3:45:00, almost 10min ahead of the 1st place expert in my age group. So moving up wasn’t all bad, even if I only got 5th (of 5).

Looking at my data post race you can pretty much see the downward spiral into bonk land:

PROS:
* Knocked 15minutes off last years time with a longer course and against faster rider
* Dodged the rain and got perfect trail conditions
* Learned how to suffer proper like!

CONS:
* Not enough water / food intake. Rookie mistake.
* Didn’t ride my own race like a silly roadie.
* Got passed by an expert rider. Oops.

MA day 7: finding single track

Mission: ride my mountain bike, find single track.


After many hours of skulking around on the Internet I found some promising places to ride near me. The only catch was the torrential down pour over the last day. After riding through one of the state forests earlier I knew anything in it or low lying areas would be a swamp. So that left me with one area close enough to bother with. All the trail reviews agreed that it was one of the best trail systems to hit up around here. Spent a few hours finding some GPS info and ride descriptions and off I went:





Now ever state has its own style of trails. MA is no different. Here there are four main features. Rocks: There are tons of rocks. Big, small, long, tall. The worst kind is the moss covered monolith which can go for thirty feet of trail. Tread lightly or you are going down...you will never be on a level incline when you encounter them. Moss: This wasn't bad but when added to the rocks, it was a bit tricky. Roots: Again like the moss it isn't a problem, but normally you'd get a large root system in the middle of a rocky section. One screw up and you were hiking. Good day sir. Last but not least my favorite Leaves: You'd assume these guys would be slick, obscure the trail, or all in all just annoy you. Except they were mostly off of the trail. For some reason these leaves were just DEEP. If you went off trail at all good luck. Chances of sinking up to six inches into some unseen rock crevice was pretty much a guarantee.


So are all MA trails like this? Nope, just the hiking or double track. If you hunt hard enough (and they are hidden for a reason) you will find single track. Well maintained, easily ride able (most of the time) single track. I'd say of the 15.5 miles today I only did about 5 miles of single track. According to all the maps and chit chat online I missed another 1-2miles. Now this was if I had wanted to hike-a-bike probably double that distance along a questionable ridge trail. Normally I would be all about that... I found out early on in my ride that bike shoes + slick rocks = no good times. So I passed.

Olivia was nice enough to give me a place to park to start my ride. Parking around here was a bit sparse, but since people normally only stop 5-10min to look at the vista you are pretty safe finding a spot:

Olivia's Outlook wasn't bad...but some NY people did whine about "oh I thought there would be much more of a drop off". I thought It best not to tell them to hike their lazy butts up the ridge to the fire tower for the real view:This is a very vague idea of what MA has to offer for trails. Granted this is a hiking trail, but you can see a little bit of everything it has to offer. The single track was in a bit better shape when I happened upon it:Power line corridors offered up some nice views: Hike-a-biked for this shot. Turns out when the trail said it was just a "hiking path" it was right....unless you were some kind of mountain goat with a trials bike and tires made of a super sticky material. At this point I turned around and started my return trip to the car:
Once I found the single track it dumped you out onto some nice overlooks. Messed with my camera's timer a bit and got this nice Alex style self portrait shot. Note to self, smile next time:Every trip I try to finish it off with a staple meal. In this case some whole grain bread and flank steak washed down with a blue moon. yum:
All in all a good trip to MA. Obviously more for the roadies out here. The single track is too hard to find to just make a mountain biking trip out of it. Ended up skipping my gap ride up in VT so I could scope out the mountain biking trails around here. After all I'm still in my mid cycling career crisis of mt bike vs road.

::::ride stats::::
time: 2:40:18
distance: 15.61 miles
climbing: 2786ft