Thanks to my good friend in Roanoke, I have been on the majority of the trails in the race. He's tortured me on everything. The exception is some of the stuff off Broad Run Mountain. Most of my rides on North Mountain, however, have been in the 10-15 mile range. I've never pushed myself on this mountain. That's usually because the mountain usually unleashes it wrath in short distances.
I expect it to be hard. Really hard! Grouse trail is very rocky in the beginning and if you lose your balance, pick a bad line, or are in suffer mode, you are in for a bad day. The first time I rode it, I flubbed it and ended up walking a crap ton of trail just because I couldn't get solid footing or enough momentum to get moving in the loose rocks. Painful. The worst part is that you have to ride this twice in the race. Oh boy. All of the climbs ar narrow sidehill stuff with rocks and nasty switchbacks. I suck at riding uphill switchbacks, so I'm sure I'll be walking a bunch of them. I'll give 'em a try though, but not enough to blow myself up. The key to this race is going to be recovery. I'm also going to have to think about how much food to carry vs. stash at the aid stations and how much water I need to carry. If I go out too fast and I'll pay the price on the climbs. The ridgeline will keep me honest as its littered with rock outcroppings and jagged off camber technical features. Last time I was up there I fell flat on my helmet trying to navigate one of the rock gardens. It was almost captured on video.
Speaking of video, I finally got a proper mount for my Contour HD video camera. Now I should be able to capture some video without trying to use some horrible makeshift mount. I did a shakedown ride on the Greenway this weekend. The mount worked great, but I need to work on the camera angle a bit. Although the video is rather boring, it shows how lucky I am to be so close to the greenway. I can get 14 miles in right from my front door which is a blessing when the trails are closed due to rain.
Speaking of video, I finally got a proper mount for my Contour HD video camera. Now I should be able to capture some video without trying to use some horrible makeshift mount. I did a shakedown ride on the Greenway this weekend. The mount worked great, but I need to work on the camera angle a bit. Although the video is rather boring, it shows how lucky I am to be so close to the greenway. I can get 14 miles in right from my front door which is a blessing when the trails are closed due to rain.
Well, that's it for me until Monday. Check back for a race report then.
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