Comfort and Coldsprings Catch-up

I've been slacking a little bit, so I'll catch up on my last two races.

The first was the STORM Hill Country Challenge at Flat Rock Ranch in Comfort, TX. This was the weekend of the massive rains that rolled through TX from San Antonio to Houston, causing day one of the BP MS-150 to be cancelled. As we were driving through the rain Friday afternoon, doing good to make 35mph on I-10, I was dreading what lay in store for us at the ranch.

When we woke up Saturday morning in Comfort to more rain, I was thinking even worse thoughts. We loaded up and headed out to the ranch, where we were surprised to find things in reasonably good condition. The creek was dry and the ground was only slightly soggy. This was an omnium weekend, so the short track and time trial were scheduled for that day. It turned out that the rain had been perfect. Other than a small mudhole in the short track course, the trails were absolutely incredible all weekend. My racing wasn’t much to speak of, as I’d been sick all week and hadn’t gone to the doctor until Thursday before the race. I held on to the leaders as long as I could in the short track and the XC, and tried to ride a steady time trial (until a cow blocking the trail on the fast downhill to the finish caused me to have to dismount and walk around!!!). Due to a low turnout, I came out 4th overall in the omnium and took home a little prize money. I guess I can’t complain.



The next race was the GHORBA Big Ring Challenge at Double Lake Recreation Area in Coldsprings, TX. After another round of torrential rain that caused a lot of flooding in Houston on Monday, the trails were in great shape Saturday for pre-riding. Sunday morning I was awoken by, you guessed it, rain. It started about 7:30 or so, and rained right up until the Cat. 2 start at 9:00. Just before my Cat. 1 start at 11:30, it started again. It had quit by the time we lined up, but the damage was done. Luckily, the Double Lake trail has a lot of sandy soil. It was still a muddy mess, but it handled the rain better than most any other trail could have.

From the start, my plan was to try to stay with the leaders. I wound up on the back row and the far right, which wasn’t a good starting position. When the whistle blew, I worked hard to move up, took the low line to the singletrack entrance, and went in 6/7th. The trail was super slick, with both wheels wandering aimlessly down the trail in only the general direction you pointed them in. Thankfully, it was totally rideable. I worked my way forward a little bit with a few passes to get up to 4th or 5th I think. I caught site of Kyle Johnson and thought I was doing well, but shortly after that my legs just went dead. I felt like I still had lungs and energy to go, but my legs just felt like logs. I got passed a few times through the rest of the lap, then a group of three that had been following me for a bit came by in the start/finish. One more pass in the second lap and I was back to dead last.

About halfway through the third lap my legs started to come back and I was picking up the pace. I passed one of the three who had passed me earlier, and then I caught and passed my teammate Brian McGrath and friend Geoff Mann. Brian was the second of the three, and Geoff had passed me somewhere earlier in the singletrack. I also caught back up to Kyle, who was obviously having a bad day as I put him behind me. I saw Dominic Adl (the third of the three!) up ahead about halfway through the final lap and set my sights on catching him.

I finally caught Dominic a few miles from the finish, and sat on his wheel for a while. We caught a lapper who let us through cleanly, and I was glad because I didn’t want Dominic to have a chance to get away. It was then that he realized it was me behind him. I asked him if he wanted to let me by or sprint for it, and he said we would sprint. The exit of the singletrack involves a slight right turn, a few roots to ride over, and then about 50 meters with a volleyball court sandpit leading to the line. Dominic came out of the woods and gunned it, putting up a strong sprint, but it wasn’t quite enough as I came around him through the sand. I wound up finishing 7th, not as good as I was hoping for but I was glad to put on a good comeback after a mid race collapse.


Next up is a Disney World trip with JT and Abby(I'm actually writing from Orlando, LOL), then the Houston Grand Crit, and then LOCO Fest.

Headed to Comfort

Here's a quick Friday morning post to keep the ball rolling, we're headed out to Comfort this afternoon. This is a course I really like, that has been good and bad to me. In 2007, my first year of racing in TX, it was a mudfest that turned out to be one of my better races that season. I was racing Sport, and finished 12th. I don't remember anything spectacular about the race, except battling with Hunter Grove to the finish, thinking he was in my class when he was actually a Jr. that started with us. And the mud of course. But thankfully, the mud there is more of a wet soupy mud that just splashes on you, not the nasty sticky mud that destroys your bike. It's looking a little wet this weekend, too, so we could see similar conditions. This is an omnium, too, with a Short Track and Time Trial on Sat., combined with the Cross-Country on Sunday.


Last year, it wasn't so good to me. I was still racing Sport, but doing much better as it was my second year and I had learned a lot and improved my fitness a lot. I started well, but flatted about five minutes into the race. So I was back to dead last, and after fixing the flat it took me a bit to get back into the groove. I finally got going and rode strong to the end up to 11th, which was not normal for me to finish outside the top 10 that season. So it was a good day for my fitness, but an unfortunate race.

This has been a tough week, I've been sick all week and finally got to the Dr. yesterday. Got a shot and some meds, so hopefully I'll be feeling ok for the race. He said it was ok to go and race, so go I will. Of course, the tough week started before that, when my car was broken into Friday night and my Zune, FM transmitter, work laptop, and team Oakleys were stolen. This pretty much ruined my birthday weekend, but I guess I survived. Raine and James took me out for Hibachi grill Sat. night, so that cheered me up, and then we had a great small group party Sunday night at Brandon and Jessica's. Mike's birthday was Sat., so we had a mutual birthday cake. With 15 candles, LOL. 40-25=15 was the logic. I love all those folks. It made my weekend better, for sure.

And then, I got a call yesterday that I might have to go offshore Sunday or Monday for 2-3 weeks. :( I want to go offshore, but that's a long time to be off the bike and away from Raine. And our 20-week ultrasound is Tuesday, it would really be a bummer to miss that. I hope I don't have to go, or it at least gets pushed back some. I will have to be back by May, because I will not miss the Lake Lake race and we're leaving on Vacation the 8th. We'll see what happens. Now I gotta walk the dog and head to work, more blogging after the race.

Ouachita Challenge 2009

So here it is, finally, the post. Took a week but it's been a tough one. Here's how it went down...

The Brain and I pulled out of Houston last Saturday morning, I picked him up from his apartment at 6AM. Having forgotten the cycling GPS I borrowed to use during the race, I drove all the way back out to the house to get it. So we didn't actually leave here until about 6:45. We stopped for lunch in Dierks, AR. There wasn't much to the town, but we needed to eat, and I saw a sign for a deli/meat market place on Main Street. So thinking this would be an interesting experience, we pulled in.(thanks Google Street View, lol)
There were two rotund old dudes sitting near the counter who welcomed us in, and Brain and I milled around for a few minutes looking for some lunch. It was more a general store than a deli/meat market, or so it appeared, so we approached the guys about some lunch. Guy #2 recommended having guy #1(the owner, we guessed) make us some sandwiches. I picked a hot link BBQ sandwich, and Brain went with a standard turkey sandwich. So while guy #1 was in the back fixing sandwiches, we chatted with guy #2. This dude was as country hick as I am skinny, and I reverted pretty quickly back to my country roots during the course of our conversation. He claimed this was the best meat market in this part of the country, and people came from all around to buy their meat. His perspective may have been a little different than ours, but after my sandwich I believed him. Brain couldn't understand most of what was said, but he still got a good kick out of the whole thing. A couple bucks for the sandwiches, and we were on our way. When Brain opened his sandwich, it was huge! He was struggling to finish it! We switched drivers in NewHope, when I opened my BBQ sandwich. This was the greatest BBQ sandwich I'd ever laid eyes on, a huge hot link down the middle of a bun soaked in BBQ sauce with some sort of meat chunks on top. I plowed through it and didn't even think to take a picture. Nothing to do with the Ouachita Challenge, but worth writing about.

So we got to our cabin that afternoon, and went out for an easy ride on the Womble trail.

I led us to some ridiculous climbing, which was probably too hard for the day before the race, but it was some awesome trail. We went back down and went to another section of trail that was easier for a little while before heading back. After getting checked into the cabin and cleaned up, we headed up to the Oden school to register for the race and eat dinner. The spaghetti was good, and I visited with some friends who had done the Sat. tour. Back to the cabin where we went to sleep, prepared to wake up to 35 degree temps on Sunday morning.



When we woke up and went outside, it was actually nice and we were thankful it wasn't cold. We headed up to the school to get some breakfast and get ready to race. As the race got closer, the weather turned sour. The temperature was dropping, the wind was blowing, and it started to lightly rain. Luckily the rain passed before the start, but the wind and cold stayed. So with arm and leg warmers on and a cold/rain jacket in the back pocket, we headed off to the start. The start of the race was downhill on a highway for the first few hundred yards, after which we turned onto a more rural road. It was mostly coast/brake/coast down the highway, but on the rural road the pace picked up. We had started somewhere around mid-pack, but on the pavement, I drug me and Brain up to the back of the front group. The pavement turned to gravel, and then we hit the climbs. When the race turned onto a rocky jeep road, the flats started all over the place. Me and Brain settled into a pace, working together, as the race alternated from singletrack to gravel road. Brain started getting flats at about mile 9, and he told me to go on. So I went. I rode solid and steady, going fast on the roads and cruising the singletrack. I only stopped for a minute or two at each aid station, just long enough to refill the bottles and get going again. When we hit the Ouachita trail and the mountains started, I began to feel the tiredness. I stayed steady, and got over the first two mountains pretty well. I was in and out of the last aid station pretty quickly, and off to get over the last mountain, Big Brushy. At mile 48 or so, I hit a rock way too hard and flatted my back tire. Stan's sealed the puncture, but the bead wouldn't reseat so I had to put a tube in it. GPS shows I was sitting still for 20 minutes tending the flat, which was way too long. I was fatigued and not thinking straight I'm sure(hence crunching the rock in the first place) and I messed with it way too long instead of just getting it fixed. Just as I get everything fixed and back on the bike to roll off, here comes Brain down the hill. So reunited, we rode/walked the rest of the singletrack together and hit the road for the drag to the finish. I somehow had some strong power left, so I threw down the hammer and Brain tucked into the draft. Wherever it was flat or downhill, I was hammering, and when we hit a climb, Brain pulled up alongside to pace. We got to the finish line to finish with a time of 6:26, good enough for 49th place out of 159 finishers and a lot of DNFs.

In retrospect, it was just as hard as I remember it being from 3 years ago. I was a lot faster(almost 2 hours) and I rode a lot more of the climbs, but when you're suffering trying to go as fast as you can, it is still hard. Maybe even harder than not being that fit but riding it tour style, no rush, etc. I will definitely be back, as I had a goal of finishing in under 6 hours this year which I didn't quite make. The flat cost me 20 minutes, so that would have put me almost to my goal, but you can't argue on things like that. The time you finished in is the time you get. If somebody finished faster because they didn't flat, they were either better prepared or just lucky that day. If somebody flatted and still finished faster, then they definitely earned it and showed that I've got more work to do. It won't be next year, as I'll have a seven month old by then :), but maybe the year after.

Sorry this is so long, but I primarily write them for myself, anyway. If you read it, thanks! Stick around, lots more to come.

Baby Register

We took a trip to Babies-R(should be backwards)-Us today to start our baby registry. And let me tell ya, I didn't have a clue what I was looking at. All that stuff, I have no clue about. Glad I have a wife(else I wouldn't be having a baby of course) who knows something about kids, and thankfully there was also a handy dandy checklist clipboard the nice old lady at the registry counter gave us. The only valuable input I was able to provide was on the car seats, which I promptly began over-analyzing and reverse engineering to see which one I thought was safest and how all the gizmos and gadgets worked. Same thing for the baby monitors, too, I guess.

My main function was to handle the scanner gun. That's right, I was packin' the heat. The old lady at the counter looked at me very seriously and handed it directly to me, as it was obviously assumed that the man should handle the equipment. It was a task I took to immediately, never missing a scan and always avoiding the dreaded double scan. You have to be quick, yet precise. And of course, it's all in the wrist. I whipped around and scanned so fast, those nipples behind me didn't stand a chance.


As an example of my scanning superiority, I bagged a "If you think I'm cute, you should see my dad" bib from two aisles over, with Raine never having a clue. That's how I roll.

I promise, I am going to blog my OC race before the weekend is over. Of course, I may be 25 by then...

Success

Well, we did it. Me and the Brain finished the OC. More details later, for now here's two muddy bikes, and we're two destroyed dudes. Driving straight back tonight, should arrive sometime after midnight. Godspeed to us.

Welcome to Arkansas

The brain and i just crossed the AR line a bit ago with about 2 hours left to go to the cabin. And there's a large hill looming on the horizon now. Bring it on.

Cool pic from Warda

Not much to say today other than it's pouring rain outside and I need to walk the dog. Hmmm, those two things never get along. Anyways, here's a cool picture from Warda.

And in the time it took to upload that awesome picture the rain had stopped. Nice. So now it's off to work. This evening will find me getting all prepped for the OC, cleaning the bike, packing, etc. Then one last night of rest before heading out Sat. morning.

the Warda Race '09

Well yesterday was the Warda Race. After getting thoroughly beaten the first two races, my focus had changed to preparing for the Ouachita Challenge this coming weekend. I didn't expect much out of the race, but this is how it happened...

My week leading up to the race looked like this: Mon. and Tues. off after being destroyed at Waco, Wed. 10x1min, Thurs. 4x10min, and Fri. 4mi run with 4x1min sprints. Sat. morning I drove out to Warda with the intentions of riding for four hours. This was in prep for the OC, as I haven't done a ride over two hours in I don't know when. I wound up doing 6 laps, 2 including the field of despair, plus a trip around the start loop and a few minutes of the first woods section. Probably approaching 45 miles? Had a great time and really learned the trail and got some quality trail time on the new bike. After a week like that, I had no expectations for Sunday morning other than to get two more hard hours on the bike. The plan was to ride a steady, building pace throughout the laps, and not worry about the race itself.I went out for my new warm-up run, and the legs were definitely acting like they weren't going to be there today. I ran for about fifteen minutes getting all kind of stupid looks from the racers warming up on the road before returning to the pit and heading to the start. I started at the back of the pack, and entered the woods in last place. I had the woods dialed and was easily cruising behind two guys in my class for a while until I found a spot to pass. I just put it on low Z4 cruise control from there in hopes that I could hold that until the end. I was feeling great and started picking off a few guys in my class here and there. At the beginning of the second lap a group of five 30-39 guys were coming up behind me and took a huge chunk of time between the finish and the entrance to the woods, and then blew by me on the fence line straight where you pop out of the woods for a little bit. When we hit the singletrack again I was back on their wheel with my heartrate DROPPING. I was easily cruising right behind them through the rest of the woods until we hit the fence headed back towards gas pass, when I settled back into my cruise control and they dropped the hammer in the no skills required section to put me off the back. At the beginning of the 4th lap, I was going harder to finish strong and saw 2 guys in my class going around the pond as I was coming down the hill. I caught, passed, and pulled away from them in the woods, and I think I passed two others that lap as well. I was headed back to Gas Pass trying to keep them behind me when I saw Scott Schaefer(friend in the old expert class) up ahead. He dropped in 15-20 seconds or so ahead and I was on his wheel before the switchback. He made some room and I made a clean, but sketchy, pass and was on my way. I stayed steady for the rest of the lap and kept the chasers well behind, putting almost a minute on the guy behind in less than a lap. I sprinted to the finish right behind a guy from the pro class for a very satisfying finish.

(Thanks to Joel from www.bobcat13.smugmug.com for the pic)

I didn't know how my result had turned out, or even my time, but I was very happy with the way I'd ridden and felt. I felt strong to the end, my laps got faster as the race went on, and I rode very well on the new bike and through the twisties. Turns out I'd ridden from the back of our 16 man field to 6th place(there were two DNF's but I know I passed them before they pulled out).

So this coming weekend is the Ouachita Challenge. I'm pretty pumped about the ride, and especially after feeling the good fitness come around this weekend. This will be the most time I've spent on the bike in a LONG time, but I should be good to go. I'll update after that on how it went.

Meanwhile, Raine is really starting to show and it's so neat! We have our big ultrasound in three weeks, which will be the 20 week halfway point. I can't wait to see the baby and feel it move. That will be incredible!

Trivia: After it worked pretty well for my four hour preride on Sat., I had a deluxe breakfast from McDonald's of all places Sunday morning and for the first race this season I felt strong all the way and didn't puke or bonk. Who'da thunk?

Waco MTB Race

Yesterday was the Waco race, and as always, it was absolutely brutal. I took off the line with a little more effort than last race, planning to stay with the pack at least until the woods. I went into the hole in last place, which was just fine by me. I had no desire to blow up early so I set my own pace that I thought I could hold for three laps. I picked off a few guys here and there to move up to about 17th, but then started to fade. I bonked hard on the third lap to finish 18th, DFL out of 20 starters. Oh well. More races are coming, and I have to remember that I'm behind on my training and I'm just training through these races right now, putting in the volume to get me through the Ouachita Challenge. Hopefully I'll have better fitness for the XC races towards the end of the season which is what we're planning for. It's just tough to be the whipping boy week after week. I could open up my bag of excuses but that wouldn't change anything, right now I'm just slow. I had a decent Fall season in the expert class, so I know I'm capable, I just have to get back to that point.

Hello again

Inspired by my friend Brain, I'm gonna get back to making some blog posts. So I'll catch up since vacation. My little bro had a really bad motorcycle accident, but he's back up and walking now, trying to get back on his feet(figuratively speaking). Christmas and New Years were spent at our house for the first time ever, as Raine's family came through on the way to Austin for cousin Cliff's wedding, and my family came through on the way to S. TX and dropped Luke off to spend the week with me. That was fun, taking care of the cripple. He mostly took care of his self, not like I had to bathe him or anything, thank goodness.

Over New Years(New Years Eve to be exact) I found out some incredible news. I'm gonna be a daddy!!! We're so excited, it's just like the coolest thing in the whole world. Raine is 15 weeks along now, and finally has come out of the hard first trimester. It was hard on both of us, because I was having to do a lot of stuff around the house, keeping me tired and leaving no time for training. But that didn't even seem important at the time. I was trying my best to be a good husband/dad and take the best care of her I could. But now that she's feeling better I'm back to trying and trying to get at least 8 hrs a week.

I've taken up running a bit, as cross training for the bike. My best run so far has been a 5K at 7:07min/mile, which is decent I guess. Nothing spectacular but the gains have been awesome. Great to see times improving so fast when you first start training something like that. If only my biking would make a quantum leap....

But anyway, about biking. I have only done one race this Spring, at Bar-H in St. Jo, TX. It was 23 deg.(yes, deg. F) at the start and my results weren't any hotter, LOL. I started super slow, and mainly just rode around at my own pace. I picked off a few people in my class but finished pretty well at the BACK of the pack. While a guy I beat at Ruston last year won the race. Something's not right here, LOL. Guess we all have our good days and bad. The best part of the race was that it constituted my 2nd and 3rd hours of riding on my new bike. I was mostly just having fun getting used to my new bike, while trying not to turn too sharply and crash myself. New bike vs. old is like the handling of a Lotus vs. a Greyhound bus, but the ride of a Lotus vs. a Cadillac, and the weight of a Lotus vs. a Chevrolet. The weight difference is awesome. The handling difference is awesome but is going to take some getting used to before I can take full advantage of it. The ride is more punishing, but that is what I'll have to live with to get the other advantages. Definitely worth it, though.

So next up is a three-peat of hard racing weekends, starting at Waco. A very hilly course that is either up or down the whole time, with not much in between. So I better get my climbing pants on.
After that is Warda, a relatively tame course with not much climbing but lots of tight singletrack, which means lots of accelerations and you're going all out the whole time with no chances to rest.
The third weekend is the Ouachita Challenge. I did the ride in '06 with Luke, and it was definitely one of the coolest rides I've ever done. I'm looking forward to doing it again, and hope to improve on my previous ride. I'm not treating it as a race by any means, and definitely plan to enjoy myself and enjoy the ride. But I plan to carry some speed around the course as well. The previously mentioned Brain and Shaun are going up, too, so Sugar Cycles will be well represented. Shaun is going 80, I wish I were more in shape to have signed up for that. It includes my favorite section of the Womble while the 60 miler turns off right at the start of the good stuff. :( Regardless of that, it includes a LOT of super sweet singletrack that I can't wait to rip on.

So that's plenty for now I think. I will try to keep more regular with this thing again, as there will be lots to write about as we prepare for our baby! We still have lots to do, and coolly enough, Raine has lots of girls to go through this with. We know so many people pregnant right now it's CRAZY. God has been especially good to our small group at church, as we have a handful of babies on the way. Crazy times. I think the husbands are gonna form a support group, LOL.

I don't have a clever sign off that I know of, so this will have to do for now.