Bike Project TBLT Greenlighted an Saturday Solo

I've been busy the past several weeks figuring a few things out. For the past three weeks, I've been battling a non-illness that has made me pretty lethargic. Lack of energy, mild headaches, explosive diarrhea. Ok, I'm kidding on the last one there. I think it explains my brain cloud post a few weeks ago. Maybe allergies, I dunno, but whatever it was, I'm ready to turn the page. After this weekend I feel like the positive energy is flowing.

I've been motivated lately to sell off some (more) bike stuff. This weekend I sold another bike, my road bike, so the list is up to:

1. Trek Mountain Bike
2. Trek Road Bike
3. Mountain Bike Wheelset
4. 2 Mountain Bike Tires
5. Shimano MTB Crank

The green machine and the one on the far right of the photo are gone. With the influx of old bike ca$h, I've been plotting what to do next. Lately, I've been enjoying going downhill more than uphill. I'm less interesting in the racing scene this year and more interested in the smile on my face. When I bought my "race" bike I struggled with the 80mm suspension decision. It was a step backwards from my 120mm Trek, but moving to a 29r platform picked up the gap nicely. My Jet9 is an awesome bike and I still love it, but I'm still wanting a larger cushion in the mountains, so I pulled the trigger on Project Santa Cruz.

Let's just say that Santa Cruz released a bike on April 1st that I haven't been able to pull out of my head. It's a 135mm (5"+) long travel bike. It's been so popular that the wait is currently out to August for custom builds. Since I'm always tinkering, I decided to wait for the frame only option so that I could build it up the way I wanted it. A lot of stuff I own is black. Its a neutral color that I tend to gravitate towards. I don't know why, but I'm forcing myself to try something different on this project. PURPLE. That's right, I'm going with a purple themed Santa Cruz Tallboy LT (TBLT). It's supposed to look something like the photo below.

Because the wait is so long, I decided to get an early start on the wheelset. Purple I9 hubs laced to Stans ZTR Flow rims. I just got the email on Friday that they are done and the photo looks fantastic. The good news is that I can run them on my current bike while I wait.

I can hardly contain my excitement for the frame. Over the next several weeks I need to pick out the rest of the parts for the build. Very exciting for me. For you, probably not so much unless you like riding your bike down the side of a mountain like me.

In other random news, I was able to test a new product out over the weekend. I struggle with cramps in longer endurance events and if I don't pay attention to it, it completely cripples me. During the Dragon's Tale race, with less than 5 miles to go, I had to climb over a guy completely destroyed my muscle cramps. He was literally writhing in pain in the middle of the trail. just so you don't think I'm a total jerkface, someone was already helping him. I've been THAT GUY so many times before. Now, I'm smarter and rely on electrolytes to keep replenishing the stuff that is lost through sweat. This product has a minimalist concept. Why include other stuff you don't need and I like the idea so I picked up a bottle of Salt Stick caps at REI.

The first ride was a success. I decided to only take one of these before my 25 mile solo EPIC on Saturday to see how well it would perform. It wasn't a particularly hot day, but hot enough to have an effect over an extended ride. I had a great ride and pushed it at probably 90-95%. I never had a inkling of cramps until I stood up on the pedals on the gravel road back to the car. Before I declare success on the new fuel, I'll need another long ride in Pisgah to test my limits.

Saturday was a great day to ride!!! :-) I snuck out early on Saturday to hit the Uwharrie National Forest. 

Brain Cloud

For the past week and a half I've been in an inexplicable grey area. After surviving the Dragon's Tale race, I have lost a little energy. Last week I had absolutely no motivation to do anything and although I felt tired, every time I went to sleep, I found my mind racing about nothing in particular. The office didn't help either. I'm used to a lot of audible distractions in office since I work in a cube farm, but this past week was especially bad. In order to add another row of cubes, my office was running a metric ton of copper wire. All week the scissor jack motored back and forth while some guy drilled, snaked, pulled, yanked and dropped white cables all over the freakin' place. Just when I felt like I was being productive the lift would appear, rise up, yank on some cables, drive 1 ft., yank on some cables, yank some more, drive 1ft. yank, drive, yank, bzzzz, pffft, zrrrr, kshhhkshhksh, vrrrr. HOLY LORD!! At one point a maintenance worker felt the need to use the lift to change a light bulb which resulted in a 2000 point turn in someones cube to achieve the optimum light changing altitude and angle. Pandora was a life saver this week, but this didn't help my state of mind. It was clear I had a brain cloud.

Scissor Lift Jerkface

The cure seemed pretty simple. Just hit the trails, so that's exactly what I did on Saturday morning. Rain battered the Charlotte area on Wed. and Thurs., so my first choice was closed. I decided to hit Sherman Branch which is always fun. I haven't been there in ages, so it's always fun to discover a few new surprises. There were two new ladder drops that I didn't brave today. Maybe next time.

Bamboo Forest

Log Ride - A balance test. Yes I rode it. :-)

I planned on staying out for a 2 hour ride, but after the first lap I knew I didn't have it in me. I still had a great ride, but have a little more work to do to completely clear my brain cloud. 

In other news, I sold a bunch of bike stuff last week, including my 2008 Trek Fuel EX8. I'm a little sad to see this bike go.

Trek Fuel on a trip up to Mt. Mitchell.

This bike has a ton of significance to me. It brought me out of retirement as I rode myself back into shape. I did my first ORAMM on this bike back in 2009. It's an awesome bike and I will miss it. Now that it's leaving, I'm finding myself looking at long travel 29ers way too much. This bike descended like a runaway train on rails. It was especially adept in the rough stuff and I miss a lot of that extra travel on my current bike especially in Pisgah. I also learned how to repair everything on this bike. After too many bike shop incidents on this bike, I became determined to do all my maintenance myself. Since doing that, I haven't had one single issue. In 2010, I tore the entire suspension apart to replace all the pivot bearings that had seized from too many water crossings. it was a fun project. In a few weeks I have to say goodbye to a great bike.

Enjoy the Journey

I read an article this week in the Charlotte Observer that resonated with me.

Charlotte man makes one more run at the Olympics

It's not that I think I can make a run at the Olympics. My Olympic DNA has been dormant since the late 70's. I'm not winning anything and I'm ok with that. Most of the stuff I do is just because I like a challenge. I do it because I like it and I like to push my limits. I'm not a good quitter and there have been many times I wanted to quit. I've found that I can go well beyond many boundaries as long as I have the right attitude.  You've heard it before, it's all mental.

"Satisfaction lies in the effort, not in the attainment, full effort is full victory" - Mahatma Gandhi
I love that quote. For this week, I shall enjoy the journey. The only problem is I'm not sure where I'm going or when I need to get there. I'm in a state of ambiguity. This year I decided to try a few different things. After doing the off road tri, a 10 miler, and the Dragon's Tale mtb race I'm out of ideas. I'm thinking about trying to race in the summer mountain bike series here in Charlotte. Mostly just to keep in shape and have some fun. It starts on April 18th on the trails next to my office. How can I pass that up. Time to file a authorization request into house management.

I leave you with these tidbits from an Olympic hopeful....


ENJOY THE JOURNEY

David Hepp, 38, has returned to elite whitewater canoe racing after a seven-year retirement and hopes to make the U.S. Olympic team. His advice for any older athlete who wants to return to playing a sport more competitively:

• “Do it because you love it. Enjoy the journey, wherever it takes you.”

• “If you’re burned out on one sport, pick up something else that’s totally new – maybe something you can do with a group to help with motivation.”

• “When you’re training, go slower to avoid getting injured. Some days I just admit ‘I’m tired’ and we stop earlier. I never used to do that.”

• “Practice enough so you’re not going to embarrass yourself.”

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/04/09/3160541/charlotte-man-makes-one-more-run.html#storylink=cpy

Dragon Battle

It was a little harder to walk down the stairs this morning. The battle with the dragon proved harder than I anticipated. It was a hard day on the bike indeed. For the impatient readers, my unofficial time was 6:26 over about 37 miles. The day started with a 45min drive over to New Castle from Roanoke where I was staying. After fumbling around for a bit, I spotted some bike toting vehicles and followed them into the staging area. I was checked in and ready to go by 9am, but had an hour to waste, so I snapped this picture and sat on my minivan looking like a tool for 59 minutes.

I think I was probably the only person driving a minivan. In my immediate vicinity, everyone was riding carbon and XTR or better components. There were some serious racers in the house. I don't know why, but my nerves started to get to me. It was probably all the waiting around; I just wanted to get moving to settle down. After messing around with my smartphone and using the bathroom like 10 times due to maximum hydration issues we soon started rolling out with the pace vehicle for the neutral start.

There was about 4 miles of pavement before the pace truck pulled off are the race began. It was a full on sprint on that fire road. The race description warned of a stream crossing so I was expecting it when it came up. I rolled through it no problem (or so I thought). Then, 5 more stream crossings came. I was pegged near my threshold, so when some guy cut me off in the water I was thrown off a bit. I spent the next mile or so just trying to get the heart rate down knowing that a beast of a climb (Grouse Trail) was coming up. Here's where my first mechanical started to affect me. During the stream crossings, I washed off all of my chain lube and I started to experience the dreaded chain suck. I was in for a long day if this was starting already. After a half mile up Grouse, I couldn't take it anymore, flipped the bike and blasted it with a stream of water from my camelbak podium bottle and was back rolling in short order. Problem fixed, or at least my drive train wasn't locking up anymore. I rocked it up Grouse, only having to walk a few of the switchbacks and a rather nasty section that I was not looking forward to a second time. Once at the top of Grouse, I took a right and headed over to Deer trail. I have ridden this trail several times and blew it open on the descent (fully edited video to come later in the week, sorry, no audio today)

Before I knew it I was at Grouse again for the 2nd climb. I was determined to ride it again as I have been beaten up by this trail numerous times before. I pedaled all of it again, but was feeling the pains of my efforts. Once at the top, around 19 miles, I knew that it was going to be a hard day. Just a few miles earlier I experienced a leg cramp that forced me off the bike. I couldn't move my left leg at all as my quad decided to tie itself in a knot of fury. Uh oh, cramping at the half way point. Luckily, I've learned to deal with this problem. More water, electrolytes, and a slightly more cautious pace seemed to do the trick.

The North Mountain trail runs along a rocky ridge. It's nasty, cruel, and delivers on it's soul crushing warning. When I stared rolling out on the ridge is when I started to realize the difficulty of this race. It's rocky beyond belief. Knowing that, I aired up my tires to 28-30psi to save myself from flatting. The technical features keep you on your toes and for the most part I was picking solid and safe lines all day. My confidence was high until one unsuspecting section. I had cleared a hundred more just like it earlier in the day. The conditions must have been perfect...leaves down, hidden rock, front wheel hits rock at perfect location, weight just enough forward, etc...I endo'ed and landed hard on my left side in a garden of rocks. Knee was immediately bloody, but my shoulder was at the top of my concern. I hit hard enough that I wondered if I broke something. I did a quick range of motion test and convinced myself that is wasn't broken. My seat bag was torn off in the rock dance, but I continued on with diminished confidence. 

I probably had another 8-9 miles to go on the ridge when I smashed my shoulder. For the next 3-4 miles the pain worsened. I was beginning to wonder if I could continue. At some point I passed two riders talking about bailing out. That certainly didn't help my case. On a few of the descents I kept tabs on my shoulder. I was able to keep my weight on it, so I figured I was good to go, so I just kept moving.  The ridge was littered with so many hike-a-bikes that I went into survival mode. They were so hard, I just literally focused on trees a couple hundred feet up the trail and said, "I just need to get there". So, I plodded along in misery every time I came to a steep uphill section. It was on and off the bike for 5-6 miles before I recognized the downhill. I was relieved. At some point on the ridge I also ran out of water. I was running on fumes when I made it to aid station #2. I downed a Coke and a PB&J which seemed to immediately help. I was warned about the last climb, so I asked the guy at station #2 for his summary: "Two more climbs, first one starts off steep and then levels off, probably 20 minutes. 2nd climb isn't as bad, maybe half that" My body wanted to stop, but I knew if I stopped that the legs, knee, and shoulder would have gotten worse. Once I was refueled, I immediately left. Of course it turned steep really quick and I found myself walking again only this time with another problem. My shoe broke. Now if walking wasn't bad enough, the side of my shoe was now torn open allowing dirt, rocks, and twigs to enter. I was too tired to deal with it so I hobbled up the last climb, mounted my bike and tore down the last downhill before the road to the finish.

All I can say is wow, what a race. I wished I was able to ride a little more of the hills in the second half of the race, but I went into survival mode in the latter stages. I'm happy with the results. More thoughts, pictures and video later in the week.

Dragon's Tale Preview

On Saturday, I'm headed to Roanoke. Sunday is the Dragon's Tale race. With a 10am start time I hopefully won't have to worry about a brisk starting temperature. I'm a little nervous about stringing together 40 miles of mountain biking this early in the year, but I'm committed to giving it a solid effort.

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. 

Well, that's it for me until Monday. Check back for a race report then.

Uncle Sam Doesn't Care

Since I usually owe money to Uncle Sam, I usually delay my tax preparation until the last possible moment. I seem to delay it more each year. I still haven't started my taxes, but I did make a move in the right direction this weekend. To keep my sanity, I made up a new rule this year. The rule is something like this: As soon as I feel frustrated with my taxes I quit immediately and move to something more fun, like differential equations, healthcare reimbursement forms, watching CSPAN, going to the DMV, or watching the The Real Housewives. Pretty much anything but taxes. On Sunday I downloaded turbo tax federal, and the NC and SC state forms. Since I work in SC and live in NC, I have to pay SC taxes and file for a credit in NC, PLUS pay the difference in the NC rate. That means I end up owing more to the Tarheel state. As you might have guessed, taxes didn't last long and I was off running an errand at Target. Uncle Sam doesn't really care that I have other interests besides doing my taxes.

After most of the day was spent and the kiddos were in bed, I cracked the last Sunny Haze beer and headed out to the garage to tackle some much needed work on my bike. Since the man trip to Pisgah last October, my mountain bike has been ridden twice. I punctured my tire in Pisgah and never went back to full tubeless so I had a small project ahead of me.

While removing the rear wheel, I noticed my cassette was looking rather craptastic, so I broke out the citrus degreaser, completely disassembled it and scrubbed it clean, and reassembled it before tackling the rear wheel. I meant to take care of this the previous week during the cabin trip but I forgot the valve stem (still in my Camelbak from October). Doh! Once I retrieved the Pisgah encrusted valve stem from it's hideout, I removed the old tube, put the (clean) stem back in, poured in two cups of Stans tire sealant magic juice and reassembled everything. Then I did the NoTubes dance to seal it up. I also added a scoop and a half to my front tire just for good measure.

My bike area is a complete mess. Take a look. Since the Winter Challenge, I 've been in stack mode. At some point in the near future, I'm going to need to clean this mess up, but it wasn't today.

I regreased my through axle bearings and reinstalled the tires. My rear brake has been dragging for what seems like forever, so that was going to be next, but when I reinstalled the rear wheel, everything was ok. I guess my rear wheel was slightly off axis before. A quick driveway test ensured I had achieved success.

Next up on bike maintenance:

• air pressure check on front and rear shocks
• chain cleaning and wear check
• shift check
• general cleaning

After that, I should be in good shape for the race. Then I'll need to finalize my hydration/nutrition strategy for the race. Sheesh, lots to do before Friday.

Why I ride!

This post has been percolating in my mind for over 4 years, maybe longer, but I've never been at a point to express it. Even those that know me well, probably don't know this back story of why I do what I do. Sometimes I don't even know what I am doing and why I do it. Everybody is influenced by something or someone. It very often changes your outlook or mission in life. I'm no different, just usually a lot more introverted about it. This blog is another vehicle of change for me. Everyone has a story. This is mine or at least a portion of it. Think you know me?

Read the rest of the story.