Weekend of riding and flying

So this weekend I had a lot of fun! Saturday, I had to go into work for a while, as it was my duty week to be at the plant. Once that was over, the fun began. I hung around the house with Raine through the middle of the day, wanting to go riding but never could get away from the TV. TBS was playing a 24 marathon, and the back to back to back episodes wouldn't release me! I finally got away early afternoon to go finish my high-performance endorsement and checkout in the plane I'm flying now. We flew down to Eagle Lake and did a few touch and goes, then came back to West Houston for a few more, and Pat called it good. After that, I went up for a sight-seeing flight with a friend who is a partner in Pat's plane. Their plane is in the shop, but his brother was down from South Dakota for the holidays and he wanted to take him up to see the city and the coast. So we flew the I-10 corridor to the other side of town, then down along the coast for a little bit and then back up to West Houston. So I logged a couple hours time for the day. :) It was nice to fly the plane for a while without being worried about doing repeated touch and goes. Back at IWS I did my first night landing in a LOOONG time, but it was a pretty good one.

After church Sunday, Raine, Cotton and I drove up to Hunstville State Park for some riding. We met Dent, Kyle, and Lisa there. Raine had been sick all week and only lasted about 30 minutes before feeling bad enough to call it a day, so I took her back to the truck then took off around the trail backwards to find the others. I met them and finished the lap with them, and then we did another one. I was on my new 29er, and definitely enjoyed it. I'm liking that bike more and more everytime I ride it. It was much smoother through the roots than the rigid singlespeed was at the race!! Hopefully I'll get in another ride tomorrow on New Years Day, or maybe I'll do some more flying. Who knows, I've got the day off and I intend to make the most of it.

Raine Rides again!

I got a pretty good bit of riding in this weekend, really had a good time. It started Sat. morning at the Sugar Cycles shop ride, wheels rolling at 0735. After a flat(Shaun), a wreck(Dent), and riding at the back of the B group taking care of a rider, we finally made it back to the shop 31 miles later. I had to swap the stuff off Kyle's C29ssmaxes I'd been riding back onto my wheels, grab the demo bike for Raine, and then we were supposed to be up and outta there to head to the house for our MTB ride. Well that devolved into taking forever after Kyle offered up a bike that Dent was thinking of buying for him to take out and demo. We had to swap some components, which took forever, so we were over an hour late getting where we needed to be to meet up for the ride. But it all worked out, and we hit the road for Warda, TX to ride at Bluff Creek Ranch.
We all rode a lap together, with Raine back on the dirt for the first time in quite a while. I was really proud of her, she rode very well and impressed the heck outta Dent and I. She really liked the Safire FSR Expert Demo that Kyle let her borrow, she'd never ridden a full-suspension before and said it was way better than her hardtail. After we finished, Dent and I rode a fast lap and really had a blast. They have added a new little section to the trail that involves a new climb and reverses some old stuff, really spices it up a bit. I continue to love my new FSR 29er more and more. The ride is super smooth and the handling and traction are sweet!
Sunday we went out to Memorial Park to do a trail/urban ride. Raine and I met Dent, Katie, and Lisa. The trails were in much better shape than we expected, and we wound up riding just trails. Again, Raine had a great time and did great. Hopefully we can keep her riding regularly and she'll keep improving. She's been pretty focused lately on getting in shape to ride, and has even been sitting on the trainer at night! Hoping to take her to Huntsville this weekend for some more dirt.
Here you can see my bike and Raine's demo side by side. Kinda his and hers. Mine is obviously much larger and rolls on the bigger wheels, but their design and component spec is very similar. It's cool that Specialized puts good effort into their women specific bikes to match the caliber of the rest of their models.

Night Riding Improved

I went out for another night ride last night, it was much better than before. I've been taking my road bike out since I've been staying mostly on the pave, but last night I wanted to try my rigid singlespeed mountain bike. Worlds better. There's something much more confidence inspiring about a 29x2.3 knobby leading the way into the relative unknown of the darkness than a skinny little 700x23. I can't go as fast(probably a good thing at night) pushing the fat tires, but it doesn't really matter how fast I go, it's all about working out at the intensity and duration that I should be at this stage of training. The weather was very nice, temps right around 60 or so. All I wore special was a dry-fit undershirt and my arm warmers(probably could have done without these). I rode for about 2 hours and covered 30 miles. I rode the same route as last time, except I continued on past Eldridge all the way to the Beltway before turning around. I even threw in some dirt and spent a little time at the skate park. :) This is the kind of ride I need to be doing a few times during the week right now to get started with my fitness base. It could be a little longer, but I have to eat dinner and spend time with my wife and sleep sometime.

Night Ride

Went for a night ride last night on the road bike, could only get about 20 miles in. As the temps dropped into the 40's, the extremities started getting cold, and then one of my lights died. That will cause you to start feeling a bit helpless as you start to doubt getting back and wondering how cold you'll be when you get there. I need to start looking into some better lights and better cold weather gear if I hope to keep up my training and night riding through the winter. I know it will pay off, so I have to stay dedicated to it.
Here's the route, nothing too special, but a pretty friendly night route overall. Most was either well lit streets or almost empty bike paths. I did run into a few other riders out and about on the bike paths, though.

New Stumpjumper FSR 29er

Well, after hearing it was coming out, debating endlessly about whether to get it or the hardtail, placing the order, second guessing myself, waiting a couple months, and then second guessing myself again, my new bike finally arrived! The first ride was out at Rocky Hill Ranch, the site of the last TMBRA fall series race. I fell in love immediately. I was already turned-on to the 29" wheels from my MonoCog, but the rest of the bike was awesome, too. The suspension worked flawlessly, with the brain making it a very efficient jack of all trades bike. Going up, the rear end was firm and powerful, as well as soaking up the small bumps to keep traction going to the ground. At speed, the brain opens up and provides a super smooth ride through the roughest conditions. The handling was so natural, and only got better the faster I went. Basically, I love the bike and can't wait to get some more rides and races on it soon!!

Fall Series Recap

So I've had a couple months' hiatus from posting, so I'll catch up on the rest of the Fall Series. After my dismal performance at Camp Eagle, I had a season I could be moderately proud of overall.


The second race was Huntsville. I pre-rode the course a week before the race with Dent on my singlespeed and had a lot of fun on it. In a moment of insanity, I decided to race it in my regular Sport class against everyone else on geared bikes with suspension, on one of the rootiest courses out there. I had a pretty good race and finished 8th/21, which I was pretty happy with, especially having been on the singlespeed.






The next race was at Palo Duro Canyon up around Amarillo. We drove up to the race and stayed with my cousin Mamie and her husband Cody, who lived about 10 minutes from the race, for two nights. From there we drove on to Colorado for vacation(I'll post more about that later). On the way to Amarillo on Friday I got bad sick, including vomiting and diarrhea, leaving me extremely dehydrated for the race Sunday. The sickness continued in decreasing intensity until about Tuesday, but I raced nonetheless. I didn't expect much, but still managed to finish 7th/16. I got off the line strong and hung with the leaders for about 15 minutes, but then I felt the weakness catching up to me in a bad way. I had to back it down and just survive for the rest of the race. I honestly felt and raced better than I expected to, but definitely wasn't on my A-game.


Race #4 was near College Station at Lake Bryan. This was a mostly flat course with a lot of twisties. I again rode my singlespeed on the preride and then decided to race it. :) I like that bike, it's a lot of fun. So somehow on a rigid singlespeed I pulled the holeshot! Into the first woods section I was using my strong skills to pull away until we hit the first section of open road. Then a couple of guys came by and got a tiny gap, until we hit the next singletrack section when I pulled right back up on them. We then hit a mile+ section of dam road where I promptly got dropped by my whole class. This was still early in the race, so we hadn't had time to build any real gap yet. I spun myself out all the way across the dam and proceeded to totally blow myself up before reaching the other side, effectively ending the good start I had gotten off to. So I just spent a long time recovering and wound up finishing 10th/23. Not a bad race, but could have been better if I'd been geared a little differently to keep up across the dam better.



Next up was the Piney Hills Classic in Ruston, my home town race. The race was a stage race format, meaning the overall result for the weekend was based on the results of two different races. The first race of the weekend was the short track, but it didn't count towards the overalls for my class. It was a beginner/sport open, just for fun. I had a teammate in my class for the first time this weekend, and we intended to work together for the races. Brian is a collegiate racer, and is pretty strong. He was intending to jump to expert for the next race, so I knew he'd be good to help me and strong competition. The short track is a fast multi lap race on a smooth wide course about a mile long or so where drafting and team tactics can really come into play. We would go for about 20 minutes. Off the start we were towards the front, and moved to the front pretty quick. We traded pulls for the first ten minutes or so, then I felt I was starting to fade. So I gave Brian all I had for one last pull up the hill into the wind and then let him go. He took the win and I got passed to finish third. A pretty good start for the weekend for us.


The next race and the first one in the stage race was the time trial. The time trial course included the first 3 miles of the trail and then a fast downhill to the finish line. Riders started in 30 second intervals. I was the first to go, and Brian started 1 minute behind me. I knew he wouldn't catch me, but I had to stay at least a minute ahead and more importantly out of sight so he wouldn't have a rabbit to chase. He finished right at a minute behind me, and we didn't really know who'd won until after dinner that evening. Turns out he beat me by five seconds, so we went 1-2 leading into the cross country race on Sunday. I was pleased to finish that close to his time. He is definitely the stronger rider, but my skills and home course advantage really helped.





Going into the cross country race, our class had picked up a few extra riders only interested in TMBRA points. I knew my chances were still good for a good result, though. The start was very fast, a hard sprint all the way to the singletrack. Ruston has one of the longest starts, too. So being familiar with the trail and what was coming, I sat in about 5th to get a good draft through the first long stretch. As we neared the singletrack, I made a couple of good passes through some turns to jump up to 3rd, which is where I hit the singletrack. The leader started getting away, but I couldn't get past the second place guy. We hit the first fire road climb and I attacked past him, but the leader was long gone. Turned out he was a sandbagger who should have been expert long ago, so it's no surprise. Brian got caught in a crash early on, but eventually caught me at about mile 2 or so. We worked together in 2nd/3rd place for the next 11 miles or so, until I took a pull at the front and realized I'd dropped him. I knew this was my chance, so I went as hard as I could. Somewhere several miles later I dropped my nutrition bloks, and started going downhill. Brian caught me with three miles left and I couldn't hold his wheel anymore with nothing left in the tank. I got caught by one more rider before the end to finish 4th/9. :( I was still happy with my race, I think if I could have gotten some more nutrition down I could have held on. This gave me a lot of confidence knowing that I could ride towards the front of the race for a long time.




The last race of the series was Rocky Hill Ranch in Smithville. I had just getten my new bike, a 2008 Specialized Stumpjumper, a week and a half before the race. I took it out to the trail and prerode on it the weekend before the race and really loved it. I'll make another post about it later. So race day rolls around and me and the new bike are ready to go out with a bang. So the gun sounds and we're off, and I'm struggling to get clipped in for the first 150 yards. I finally do but I'm towards the back of the pack. We hit the first big climb and I pick a good line up and keep my momentum well to move all the way up to third spot. So that was cool. After this was a really nasty steep rocky climb that was very difficult to ride up. I had ridden up it the day before so I knew I could do it, but sure enough the rider in front of me had to dismount so I had to as well. Going up the hill I lost a spot or two, and then we had three more hills to climb in rapid succession. I made a pass or two through there, then we hit the singletrack. I caught a rider ahead of me, and sat behind him for too long I know, I should have gone around sooner. But I finally did and tried to ride a good solid pace. At the halfway point, a rider had come from behind to catch me, and he passed me through the 4 in a row climbs. He got a good gap on me there, but then we went back into the singletrack where I was matching his pace while recovering from the hills, and then started to catch him once I began to accelerate. I caught him in the singletrack, and then drafted him for a while. I went around him and he started holding my wheel. We hit a long dirt road climb, and I thought I would get him to come around me since I knew he had the stronger legs. He came around, and then about 20 yards later he just sat up, forcing me to go. So I pulled us all the way up the road and back into the singletrack. I started to build a small gap, and then I heard him scrambling behind me on a steep rocky climb, so I attacked and got away. I stayed clear of him the rest of the race, and caught a glimpse of the guys in front of me, but I couldn't close that gap. I stayed in that spot to finish 6th/24 on the day. I'd consider that my best race of the season, even though I had a 4th at Ruston, this was a bigger, tougher field and I was strong start to finish.

So overall I finished 2nd on the Season. It was great to do well in the series we sponsored and make such an improvement over my Spring results. I went from a back of the pack finisher to a solid top ten guy. I'm looking forward to next spring, and am hoping for some race wins and the big goal of the state championship. Win or lose, I'm making the jump to Expert next Fall!!!

Fall Series Race #1-Camp Eagle

So the first race of the fall season was last weekend, held at Camp Eagle. That's way over in the TX hill country, complete with hills, the associated climbing, and all the rocks you could wish for. We didn't get to ride Saturday because our bikes showed up at the same time as a nasty afternoon thunderstorm, turning the course into a quagmire of mud and slippery rock. Sunday, my race was pretty pathetic. I knew I wasn't on form, after getting sick after the Team Time Trial a month ago and not spending much time on a bike since then. But I didn't know I'd be that pathetic. Off the line I was about 6th into the singletrack, but I blew up pretty quick. I had to back it down and allowed the rest of the class to go by. I was done. The rest of the race was slippery nasty, and I walked a LOT. A whole LOT. Pathetic. I got cramps pretty bad out on the course for the first time I can remember in a while. I was super low on fluids and had been saving them for such a time as that. I passed one guy in my class a couple miles from the finish to wind up next to last finisher, which meant I'd been riding around in DFL the whole race. I was out on the course for just over 3 hours, and got back to the trailer unable to make coherent sentences. Dehydra-she-on. I won't bother to post a picture, the only one taken of me I was pushing my bike. Which I guess actually makes sense, since I pushed my bike most of the time. Hopefully next weekend at Huntsville, where I expect to be able to ride my bike for the race as opposed to pushing it around, will be lots better. I'll post again with the results, thanks for reading, see ya.

New bike; sort of. Nice....

2nd edit: I added a new picture. Changes include carbon seatpost, Selle Italia SLR saddle(just for you Liam), and I flipped the stem to give me a little more roadie position. She weighs a svelte 20 lbs. even. We still gotta work on that triple crank and cut the steerer down.

1st edit: OK, I'm gonna edit this post. It was way too long and boring. So basically, I've been riding a Trek for the past year that didn't really fit. Now that I'm riding for a Specialized shop, I need to be representing! So Kyle gave me a great deal on a 2006 S-Works Tarmac e5 frame that fits me a lot better. We stripped my old frame and put all my old parts on the new frame. I hope to upgrade over time to put more worthy components on this awesome frame. But as is, the frame rides great and fits way better than my old bike. :)

Road Rash-In this case, hurting is bad.

More race reports to come, but I thought I'd add this short little tidbit for today. I had my first road bike wreck last night. I was on a fast group ride, and we were getting to the end, so we were reaching terminal velocity through this neighborhood with several speed bumps. I'd been just going over them, but I was getting tired and my wrist was hurting bad, so I decided to go around the last one. Mistake. I got a little too far to the side, and wound up over in the gutter area of the street on the smooth concrete. I hit a wet spot while cranking on the bike, and my wheels just came right out from under me. So I went sliding on my belly across the asphalt. Ouch. Try rolling out of a car going 27 mph, you'll know how it felt. Damage: a couple spots of road rash to the left elbow, a huge raw spot on the front of my left hip (think softball size), a nice cut on top of my left knee that still won't quit bleeding, and another spot of road rash to the lower left knee. A few scratches to the bike, but nothing major. We'll live to ride another day. Tomorrow's Sugar Cycles Shop Ride, to be specific. :) I hope to do some good work up front tomorrow and maybe try a few jumps off the front.

Tapatio Springs

Ok, I promised more posts, so here's the rundown from my first race of this year's TMBRA Spring TX State Championship series at Tapatio Springs Resort on March 4th. But first, a little lead-in is in order. I hadn't been riding much, just two or three times a month, just for fun going out to Memorial Park and playing around. I'd met a group of riders out there a couple times a few months before, turns out one of them was part of a new bike shop starting up in Sugar Land. He was the unofficial Captain of the mountain bike team, and after riding with me a couple of times, he asked if I was interested in being on their team. I said, "sure, why not." So we had exchanged numbers, and then I didn't see or hear from him for a while. So I get a text message on a Tuesday asking if I was still interested in being on their team. I said yes, and so he replies that there's a team meeting tomorrow night. So I met them the next night after going riding and falling and beating myself up good, and that's when I find out there's a race that Saturday. I hadn't been planning on doing it, but I can't back out now. So Raine and Cottton and I gather our camping stuff and head out Saturday morning to Boerne, TX, a bit north of San Antonio. I preride with the team Saturday, and take another nasty fall. Ouch. I had a good time on the preride, but we didn't go too fast, so I had no clue what to expect the next day. So the next morning it's cold and windy, and I line up with the Sport class. The next two hours were pure pain. The course suited my talents, being nice and technical with some fast downhills, but didn't suit my fitness level with a lot of climbing. There were two huge climbs that really hurt me. I rode the first one both laps, and rode the second climb the first lap but walked it the second. I was pretty destroyed afterwards, but finished 18th out of 27 starters, so I guess that's not bad after not really working on being in shape. From then on, I was committed to the rest of the series, and knew I would basically be racing my way into shape.


I think this is near the start. This was a fun little rocky area
that I had fun riding, even though I was already blowed up. I'm not sure how that guy wound up behind me, though. He must have been SLOW.















This is the second of the two big climbs. You can tell I'm hurting BAD here. This was the first lap, since I'm actually on my bike. This picture pretty much sums up my race: pain and suffering.









Stay tuned for the next race report, the STORM Hill Country Challenge in Comfort, TX.

Edit: The rest of the spring series sucked, I never finished higher than 12th. So I never blogged it and I'm not going back to do it now... I did manage to race enough to finish 10th overall, for which I got a little picture frame and a T-shirt.

"Sorry..."

Ok, so I haven't posted in a looong time. But I plan to get in the groove soon. Meanwhile, we've been living in our new house for a month or so now, and we love it! It's nice to have our own place, finally, after being married for over two years and living in a little tiny apartment/duplex. And I love having a big garage, that's awesome. I'll put up some pictures of the finished house soon.

I also need to catch up on my spring race season. I didn't do fantastic by any means, with my best finishes being a pair of 12th places. I never could get into the top ten like I wanted to, I just couldn't get my act together. Every race something stupid happened, like absolutely dead legs off the start, or racing half a lap with nothing to drink, or standing on the side of the trail for five minutes puking my guts out right in the middle of the race. Oh well, I had a ton of fun traveling and hanging out with Raine and all my racing buddies over the weekends. And I even managed to make enough races to finish 10th overall on the season. I'll put up some pictures and a race report for all the races soon.

So if you've found yourself here reading this, thanks. I'll start posting more regularly, and try to keep up to date with the fall mountain bike series coming up, as well as several big endurance rides I plan to do, including the South TX Death Ride and the Hotter 'n' Hell Hundred.

"So you want to buy a house? But you're only 22."

Raine and I are buying our first house, here in Houston. I don't mean it's to be our first house in Houston, as in there will be more in Houston, as in we'll be here for many many years; I just mean that it's our first house, and it's in Houston. The house is being built now, and it's been really cool to see it being built. It's a three bedroom, two bath, two car garage(make that one car and a bunch of bicycles and motorcycles!). The latest additions are cabinets and the inside is painted. Should be another month, or maybe a little longer. Here's some pictures.

"Just let me explain......"

So this is my first "blog" post. Ever. I used to be against blogging, I thought it was stupid and a waste of time. But now, being away from my family and so many old friends, I find myself looking for a way to keep in touch. This seems like it could be useful, so I'll give it a try. Even if nobody reads it, maybe I'll feel better. I guess people were against gasoline engines way back in the day, but they eventually came around, too. But now, people are against them again. Maybe one day I'll be against blogs again. Anyways.
So the address of my blog: bikerpilot. Two of my favorite things in the world: bikes and airplanes. Maybe later I'll expand on where my love for bikes and airplanes came from. But for now, I'll just say that I'm racing mountain bikes and having a blast at it, although getting my butt handed to me so far. The pilot part, I'm a licensed Private Pilot. I fly entirely for fun, and for my own sanity. There's no greater thrill than piloting an airplane. I'll try to explain it sometime, though I'm sure words will fall far short.
So if you're still reading, thanks for stopping by. Come back, as I'll try to keep the blog current with what's going on with my racing, any flying I get to do, and the progress of our house.

Until I find a witty yet fitting ending to attach to all my posts, this will have to do.