BMC Speedfox SF29: First Ride Report

A couple of weeks ago I took delivery of my 2012 race bike from my sponsor shop Sugar Cycles: a 2012 BMC Speedfox SF29.

BMC is new to the 29er market, and my sponsor Sugar Cycles is one of three dealers in TX (none in LA BTW) so we wanted to get the word out. They have this bike in two component levels, the X.0 shown here and then an SLX equipped version. They also have a great hardtail, the Teamelite TE29 in both versions as well. One of my teammates is riding the TE29, says it is a great riding frame, handles well and manuals easily with short stays. BMC has more information on their website about the SF29 and the TE29. I'll be up in a couple of weeks with the bike, if you'd like to check it out I'll probably be riding Ruston Friday and Saturday 24th & 25th. If you're interested in a BMC you can get in touch with my boys at Sugar Cycles and they can definitely hook you up.

Now a little more about the bike. The drivetrain is all stock, X.0 2x10. Brakes are the new model Elixir 7. The fork and shock are Fox, with 100mm travel both ends and a 15mm thru-axle up front which I'm very excited to try out. I changed the wheels out, it comes stock with Easton EA70 XCT, which are very nice wheels but I am a big fan of Stan's and I saved a bit of weight as well. The tires were spec, I just moved them over; they mounted up tubeless on the Crests with ZERO effort, one handed with the hand pump and showed no sealant seepage through the sidewalls. The Easton EC70 carbon seatpost is stock, I added the EA70 stem (will be upgraded once I get the fit dialed) and the EC70 XC Wide carbon bars. I also chose to go back with Ergon grips, these have made a great difference for my riding comfort especially having a nagging old wrist injury. A nice Fizik saddle was mounted up out of the box, but I changed it to my tried and true Specialized Phenom.

It's been raining a lot around here the last couple of weeks so I hadn't gotten to ride the bike at all. This weekend we were up in Ruston and I got to spend almost 6 1/2 hours on the trails with the bike.

First impressions are really positive, I really liked the bike but I'll try to stay away from all the "new bike" hype and superlatives and stick with some real observations. First, of course the full suspension is so much smoother than hardtail. I felt like I had it pretty dialed right out of the gate so I was happy. I set it up to be a bit firm in the full open position, about halfway between 0 and the recommended mark on the built-in sag-o-tron meter. I felt like it was soft at first, but of course it felt soft coming off a hardtail. I switched back and forth between open and ProPedal a few times, and once I kinda got used to the squish I decided I liked it open. With as firm as I've got the shock it gets REALLY firm in the ProPedal and I think open is better for trail riding. ProPedal will be for hammering and really smooth climbs. I was able to detect some bob while pedaling seated in the open position, but it didn't seam like much. I'll have to play with the settings a little to see if I can tune it out. The fork is 100mm and I've been riding rigid or 80mm for the last 3 years, I think I appreciated the extra 20mm up front almost as much as I did the rear suspension. Overall they combined for a really smooth ride, and I was able to ride some sections at Ruston like I've never ridden them on my hardtail, for instance the two big dips off the fence line by the front gate. No brakes, no line, just plow through.

I've had a 100mmx100mm full squish 29er before so I kinda knew what to expect there, but overall I was very impressed with the suspension. I think I was most impressed with the handling of the bike. The bike has a 70° head angle, wheelbase is very close to my hardtail, chainstays are 5mm longer. Based on these numbers and the ht having a 71° head angle, I expected the BMC to handle a little slower. I was pleasantly surprised to find the opposite. I think it handles with about the same quickness, but it's better. I sometimes feel like in tight corners the ht wants to tuck the front end a little, while the BMC was very solid. I think this is owed to the 15mm thru axle fork and tapered head tube. The front end is very stiff and the bike goes precisely where you point it. I was able to really whip it through some sections pretty hard, where on the ht I would feel sometimes like I was getting "behind" the bike. It seems to handle a lot like my Monocog which has a 72° head angle and a rigid steel fork which makes it similarly stiff and precise. Combined with the suspension I was able to really push through the rough corners. Another impressive trait was how easy it was to get the front end to come up, for example to manual the rollers. This probably has something to do with the shorter top tube and my cockpit setup as the chainstays are a bit longer than my ht as I said.

The bike has 180mm rotors and I was really happy with the brakes, very quiet (new Avid HS1 rotors) and strong. I may go to 160mm rotors though as I can lose 90g (0.2lbs), and 160s have always been plenty even in Colorado last fall.

This was my first ride on 10spd gear (X0), it seemed a bit more finicky than 9spd but very smooth when it was working well. I think the cable might have been stretching and maybe even slipping at the rear der. No unwanted ghost shifting from suspension action or frame flex though. I never had to get out of the 36t ring up front, of course with the 36t out back I could get the same ratio as 32x32 on the 9spd.

This was also my first ride on the Rocket Ron front tire, I was pretty impressed and it might have contributed to my liking the handling so much.

I still haven't gotten to weigh the bike, but I'm estimating it weighs a lb. or so more than my ht. Could I feel it? I don't know. Certainly not in general, on the climbs I really can't say as there was so much new going on. I think any weight penalty will be offset by the bike's willingness to roll over things so easily by the rear suspension. On really smooth climbs is the only place where I think it might be a penalty overall.

I'll have to get some more time on it and try a few things, but like I said, so far, so very good. I had my GPS on and was able to compare some previous segments on Strava to this weekend. Most segments I'd gone faster during races, but times from this weekend when I was "just riding" took the next top spots. There was one section though where I set 3 new best times, all this weekend, all better than any previous race effort (and another time from this weekend matched my previous best race effort). That is a pretty good indicator for me. I'm really looking forward to racing this bike this year, and especially doing the Ouachita Challenge on it. I think it will make a huge difference in a long race like that in reducing overall fatigue and keeping me feeling fresher.

Warda Race 2012

Last weekend was The Warda Race. There's really not much to write about, but I'll give it a go anyway. Saturday we went up to hang out and get in a preride. I did two laps by myself, the first I was just trying to get back into the groove of riding singletrack and check out the new stuff they'd added since I'd last ridden there at the 2011 race. The second lap I tried to pick it up a bit but just wasn't feeling it. My legs had felt a bit flat in my ride Thursday and they kinda felt the same way. I let it hang out just a little bit on Gas Pass to try to go for the Strava segment, it was a good run but not quite enough. I knew I had a little more to give, so I didn't worry too much. After my second lap Ben did the Kids' Cup race put on by our buddy Rick Wetherald. He had fun, he really liked lining up with the other kids and riding around on the course.  He's gonna be a bike racer for sure.

Lining up for the Kids' Cup

 After the Kids' Cup I went back out for another lap with Alan Johnson and a friend of his. We weren't going too fast, but mixing it up with Alan in the singletrack got me back in the groove a little which was good. When we got to Gas Pass I dove in wide open planning to let it all hang out and snag the segment KOM. About halfway down I ran into a junior racer and dad preriding so I had to abort the run, which was unfortunate as I'm pretty sure I would've gotten it done.

Sunday morning I drove up by myself to start my race at 11AM. My 19-29 Cat. 1 group started with the 30-39 group, so there were 46 people on the line, only 17 of them in my group. I don't mind racing a lot of people, except in this case I never had any clue where I was within my race and didn't know who I was racing against. So that was a bit weird, normally you can know whether you're doing well or not and work your race around that a bit, but this was just ride. I started about 2/3rds of the way through the pack, and fell back a little bit on the long, super fast start. I passed a few on the downhill to the pond, then lost a few more on the way back up the hill to the singletrack. I probably went into the woods near or at the back of the top 10 in my group, and maybe 35ish overall. I felt good through the first singletrack section, staying with the long train easily still connected to the leaders. When we popped out to the first pasture section I started going backwards a bit. That pretty much sums up my race: hold my own in the singletrack and then lose ground on the open sections and climbs. The first two laps I felt ok, like I was moving pretty decent on a personal basis. Early in the third lap the pro women's leader caught me in an open section, when we got back in the twisties I was holding her wheel easily. She made a little mistake going up a rooty climb and lost all her momentum, my momentum carried me into her back wheel and I highsided, falling down a steep section off the side of the trail. I was laying downhill pinned under my bike unable to clip out of my pedal. It took me a bit to wiggle out of the situation, then I had to get back up the hill and to the top with my bike before I could remount. Oh well, probably didn't make a big difference in my race the way it was going. But considering the fact that I only finished a minute behind the person in front of me, it might have cost me a place. Anyway, late on the third lap I bonked pretty hard. I hadn't eaten or drank enough during the race and it really caught up with me. The whole 1hr 50min all I had was a couple of shot bloks and maybe half a bottle of HEED. That was not smart. I struggled on to the finish for a 13th/17 finish in my class. I think I still looked pretty good even going slow.

I haven't bought this pic yet but I think this is legal, I didn't steal it and it's posted from the photog's site on a supplied link and it's still watermarked. If I'm in the wrong someone please tell me.

Richard drove over right after church to do the Cat. 3 race, his first in Texas/TMBRA. He did great and got 2nd in his class, without much of a warm-up and having never even seen the course. He is the first member of the Neilson Development Racing Team, I think we're going places.

Riding

I've been getting in a fair amount of riding the last few weeks. Last week was a good one at 114 miles and a bit over 7 hours. This week I've only done about 54 miles and 3 1/2 hours so far, but I'm racing this weekend so I backed it off just a little. Of course I don't have any weekend miles in that yet, either. The only downside is that both weeks have been mostly all riding on pavement. It's been pretty wet around here, and while I'm very thankful to be catching up on rainfall, it has kept me off the trails. We need rain worse than I need to ride trails though, so no complaining here. The Warda Race is this weekend, with a lot of twisty singletrack and short punchy climbs. That's quite a bit different than spinning along on the road, but is usually my strong point so that should help. I'm really quite out of shape these days, so I don't expect anything better than last place but if I can ride strong for the full race I'll be happy enough. I also have to reclaim my throne on Gas Pass from Payson McElveen.

Last Sunday was mine and Raine's seventh anniversary. Her mom and grandma came down for the weekend to watch Ben so we could relax a bit and go on a date. We went to Taste of Texas for dinner Saturday night. We've been going there for our anniversary for a few years now, and have made it a bit of a tradition. Their quail bites are one of the best things I've ever eaten, but everything is very good there. It's a long wait, but how often do you sit with your spouse for an hour with absolutely NOTHING else to do but spend time together? Looking at it in that light, it's a good thing. And we always have the Snickers pie with a sparkler (we don't eat the sparkler) for dessert. I'm very thankful and blessed to have married such a great girl. We've had a great go of it so far, with a lot of fun times, great stories, and an amazing son. I can't wait to see what the next 7 years and beyond will have in store for us.

Snickers pie!

Miles of DisComfort Marathon Report

As expected, this was a tough race. I finished the 52.5 miles in 5:09:36. I got 2nd in my age group, but would have been dead last in the Open. I guess that's why I didn't race the Open class.

After stopping to pick up some groceries and supplies Richard and I got on I-10 a little after noon on Friday. We were at Flat Rock Ranch by 3:30. The drive isn't really that bad, and the new sections of 75 mph on I-10 helped speed things along. We set up camp at the best spot on the ranch, on the edge of the campground, right by the creek and just across from the start line. 

Campsite.

We went out for a quick pre-ride to spin our legs, and to give Richard an idea of what kind of terrain to expect and at least see the first few miles of the course. We rode some of both the Upper and Lower loops.

After the ride, we went back and cooked a spaghetti dinner. We built a fire and got registered, then hung around the fire for a while before going to bed. 

Cool iPhone fire picture.

Saturday morning was a bit chaotic. The race started at 9 and I'd planned to get up at 6. I figured it'd be light by then so I could get up and start making breakfast. I kept waking up but it was never really light, so I'd just roll over. I finally checked my clock to find it was a little after 7. We were camped behind a big hill keeping us out of the sunshine, go figure. It was super cold and felt like it kept getting colder until the sun came all the way over the hill and into our campsite a bit. We cooked eggs, sausage and pancakes for breakfast. Then I mixed my bottles and got the bike ready. I finished kitting up at about 8:55 and went over to the start line and picked a midpack starting position. The starter was giving the last minute instructions and suddenly I realized I'd left my sunglasses in the car. I never ride without them and certainly didn't want to for 5 hours with all the sunshine so I dropped my bike and sprinted the 50 yards back to the car, dug them out of my bag and sprinted back. Less than a minute later we were off. The start was a long gravel road uphill, and after the sprinting to the car and no warmup my stomach immediately went into rebellion and I felt like I might vomit for about the first 20-30 minutes. I was taking it pretty easily, and was in a long line of riders so we had to nearly stop for every technical feature but I still felt bad. Eventually my stomach calmed down and the race strung out a bit so I could find some rhythm. Through the first half lap I just stayed steady and made a few passes on riders that'd started harder than me. I didn't stop at the feedzone and went straight out for the 2nd half lap. I got caught by the leaders of the half marathon somewhere early on this loop, and was still mixing it up with a few full marathon racers. I made a couple more passes towards the end of the lap and stopped at the feedzone. On the first full lap I'd ridden everything on the course except for the tops of Pipeline Climb and Mt. Park, which are very, very rocky climbing sections with some pretty sizeable ledges thrown in for good measure. I've ridden them both before, but didn't want to try too hard this day and waste too much energy. I stripped off my warmers, changed bottles and rolled back out for my 2nd lap.

I was feeling the effort from the first lap, and got hung up going up a big rock ledge a few miles in. I couldn't unclip and fell a few feet down off the ledge, but just had a few cuts, nothing serious luckily I didn't land on any large/sharp rocks. I tried to stay steady this lap and just ride efficiently. I made a few of the hard climbs again, but a few I had to walk this time. About halfway through the first half of the lap a woman I'd caught and passed earlier caught back up to me on a big climb. The rest of the loop was mostly flowy downhill so I stayed with her easily back to the feedzone. I needed to stop and get a new bottle but she went on so I lost her there. She turned out to be the Women's Open winner. At least I can almost compete with the ladies. Early in the last loop I was with a guy I'd been going back and forth with for a while, and I was feeling pretty done so I let him go. I'd see him every once in a while but it seemed like nothing was changing between us, besides I was just trying to keep the cranks turning up the big climb.  I felt like I was just surviving and he got out of sight. With 4 or 5 miles to go I got passed by a guy I hadn't been seeing before. He was riding an Epic 29er and I was quite jealous but I decided I would try to show him what the hardtail could do. I got back on his wheel and passed him when he bobbled a ledge around a blind corner. I started gapping him and didn't see him again. Then I saw the guy I'd let go at the beginning of the loop. I decided to try to chase him down, and started making up ground. I was in the fast section of the trail, and was pushing XC race pace now, after 5 hours of suffering, I just kept telling myself he's right there, he's right there. I caught him, rested on his wheel for a minute, then made the pass in the next open section. I dropped the hammer again and quickly dropped him. I stayed on the gas all the way to the finish and surged strong to the line. I think I put about 30 seconds on him in those last few minutes so that was nice.

Key takeaway from the weekend is that I have a lot of work to do before Ouachita Challenge, both on my fitness and on my nutrition. My intake was 2.5 bottles of HEED, 1.5 2-hour bottles of Perpetuem, and a couple of Shot Bloks. But the good news is I got a bunch more miles in my legs and proved that I can ride for at least 5 hours, even if the last 2 aren't so great. I feel like I paced pretty well early, ignoring the fact that I was getting smoked and just riding my own pace, ignoring the race for the most part. This was critical to not ride above my limits and make the rest of the race even worse.

Now I gotta keep doing work to prep for Ouachita, this will be the last week/weekend of trying to just get miles, next week I'll be starting up some intervals.

Peacocks

Earlier this week we went out to eat dinner with Adam & Clare at Clay's. The food is pretty good, but it's also a really neat place for kids. They have animals outside (penned away from the dining areas, yes) including horses, rabbits and chickens for the kids to see and pet. They also have a sandpit for the kids to play in and a place for pony rides. Unfortunately on this night it was dark and rainy so no playing, but we did get to see a few of the animals and Ben petted one of the horses. They also have a couple of peacocks that roam around, the place backs up to the woods so sometimes they're out there but sometimes they'll come inside the fence if there aren't too many people around. This night there was hardly anybody there, so one of  them was under the gazebo staying out of the rain. I took Ben out to see it, he thought it was really cool. He walked right over to it and it let him get pretty close.

There's the peacock.

Yesterday after work I'd hoped to spin the legs a little bit but it had been raining all day and it was pretty nasty outside, already being sick since last week I decided to stay out of the weather and start prepping the bike for the weekend. I gotta pay my guys at Sugar Cycles a quick visit this afternoon to get my wheel checked out after breaking a spoke this past weekend, then everything should be ready to go. We're pulling out mid-day tomorrow. I'm a bit worried about the distance of the full marathon, after my rides last weekend I was pretty beat and they were only 4 hours and 40 miles. The marathon is about 52 miles so I'm expecting to be out there at least 5 hours. I think I'd be happy with that time. Hopefully I can pace myself and manage my nutrition well, otherwise it's going to be a really tough day. I guess the last time I did a 5 hour day was last year at Ouachita. Probably not a good thing heading into this race, but we'll see what happens. I'm not really there to race it, just get time on the bike and have some fun while I'm at it. The trails at Flat Rock Ranch are really fun so hopefully I'll have an enjoyable day.

Almost Marathon Time

The Miles of DisComfort Marathon at Flat Rock Ranch in Comfort, TX is this weekend. I got in my last big rides before the race this past weekend while we were in Ruston. Saturday I rode 4 hours at Lincoln Parish Park there in Ruston, and Sunday I got another 4 hours at Bodcau Recreation Area near Haughton.  I had 2 great rides with some friends and figured out a few things I need to work on.

A couple of things I learned:
1. I need to ride trail more. After both rides I felt pretty beat up, even though my legs weren't completely dead. Both trails are fairly rough, and 4 hours of that when I don't get much trail time will really take it out of you. Energy that could be used pedaling is taken away.
2. I need to go downhill faster. I am a pretty good, confident descender. I don't use the brakes much and carry my speed fairly well through rough stuff and corners. What I learned though is that I don't make a lot of speed to begin with. I'm not using the brakes so I think I'm going fast, but I was proven wrong. A couple of times this weekend, I would coast into a downhill at the same speed as someone else, and they would roll away from me on a section that was fairly straightforward with no cornering/braking needed. One guy termed the phenomenon as his "twinkie power," implying his weight was pulling him downhill faster than mine. I would buy that. Another factor could be that the others were riding full suspension bikes while I'm on a hardtail. As smooth as I can be, my rear tire is still going to bash into rocks and roots harder than theirs are going to roll over them as the suspension absorbs the impacts. I need to focus on being even smoother: absorbing roughness with my legs, hopping my wheels over anything I can, pumping whenever possible to gain speed, and even pedaling to keep my speed as high as I can control instead of just coasting down the hill. I already do these things, but when my competitors are riding full-suspension 29ers they're going to have the equipment advantage in these situations undoubtedly so I have to maximize what I'm working with.

I rode a lap at Bodcau with a friend who was wearing his GoPro, he got some pretty good footage so I can't wait to see it. I've never been filmed while riding, so I'm interested to see if it reveals any other lessons I can learn. I'll put it up when I get it.

These came in the mail last week, but I already have Ergons on all my bikes. What could they be for?

Why do I need another pair of Ergons?

No Riding

I started coming down with something last Saturday and haven't been able to shake it all week. I haven't ridden since Sunday. My plan of riding lots and getting all these base miles hasn't exactly shaped up like I'd hoped it would. I've gotten some good rides on the weekends, but only a couple of weekday rides. I'll do the best with whatever I can get though. I'll be on the bike lots this weekend, Raine has a wedding shower to go to in Ruston and I'll be cut loose to ride as much as I want. Planning on getting in a couple of 40-50 mile days on the trails at Lincoln Parish Park and elsewhere in north LA. There are some great trails up there. Most people would never think so, but they have a good amount of elevation, comparable to the hill country if you ask me. Most of the trails are all about fun, flowy singletrack. Hopefully I'll be able to ride well enough to have fun, sometimes riding when I'm sick helps me shake whatever it is off and start getting better. We'll see if that works or if I run myself further in the ground. The Miles of DisComfort marathon race is next weekend, this will be the last opportunity to get some long rides in before then. I'm just looking to use it as a fun ride and bit of a gut check for the Ouachita Challenge, so I'm not particularly worried about doing well or anything. It should be a fun weekend, we're going over Friday afternoon and going to camp out, some of my teammates are coming too so that's always a good time.

It was a little cool most of this week, so Ben got to play outside wearing his fun hat and mittens. He likes to make the mittens talk like puppets, it's super cute.

Riding Circles in the Dark

If that's what it takes, that's what I'll do. That's what I did last night at least. We had a good morning at church, then lunch with Kristen & Richard at Chuy's. We were both feeling crummy still so I figured I'd rest a bit in the afternoon instead of ride. I watched the Texans lose their playoff game and then went and raked the leaves in the front yard. I went to church to drop Ben off at AWANA but they were short on adults so I stayed and helped out for a while. When I got home I felt like riding my bike so I did. Mounted up the lights and did laps on the bayous behind the house. It's a pretty good little loop, all off road except for crossing a few streets that are usually pretty quiet. I'm supposed to be doing base right now but I felt like going hard so I did, guess that's good considering the limited time I had to ride. If you can't get the volume, make up for it in intensity. I plan to keep doing "base" rides for the next 2 weeks, wrapping that up with the Miles of DisComfort marathon at Flat Rock Ranch in Comfort, TX. After that I'll start some structured interval training according to Chris Carmichael's Time Crunched Cyclist book to lead up to the Ouachita Challenge.

Raking

For the first time in my life today I raked and bagged leaves. That's
a nice thing about having grown up in the country, where you have your
own land and nobody can see it from the road: nobody can tell you what
you can and can't do with it and nobody can tell you how to keep your
yard. You can rake if you want, and you can not if you want. Suburban
life is lame.

Strava

I've been using Garmin Connect to track my rides and training for the last few years, but just discovered Strava and am going to start using it, too. It seems pretty cool, not only does it track all your stats, but it also lets you compare yourself to other riders on ride segments like climbs. I uploaded some rides to it today from my Garmin and turns out I already am #1 on a few nice climbs. That's fun to see.



http://app.strava.com/segments/830862
http://app.strava.com/segments/830873
http://app.strava.com/segments/830881

Today Richard and I went exploring to find the Cypresswood Improper trails. We ride the real Cypresswood quite frequently but have never ridden these trails. We rode from the house and tried to find a decent road route to the trails. Some roads were good, some were sketchy but we didn't have any close calls or anything so that's good. The trails were decent, would probably be a lot better if we really knew how to get around them and link them up well to hit the good sections. I'm sure we'll be back.

Other than that ride we just chilled around the house all day. Raine and I both woke up feeling pretty bad with a headache, sore stomach, etc. No fun. Hope it's nothing and we're better tomorrow.

2012 Kick-off

It's about time I get back to posting, it's been almost 2 years. I've got plans to return to racing more fervently this year, as well as big plans for life in general, so I'll try to keep them chronicled here. I've also done a little redesign on the blog, I like it, hopefully you do too. For now, here's a little catch-up.

I don't remember much about the rest of 2010. I did the Ouachita Challenge for the 3rd time (and 2nd in a row). I was shooting for 6 hrs but got sick about an hour in so I didn't come close to my goal. I'm sure I did a little more racing, but definitely not much. I did somehow finish a strong 2nd at the Huntsville race in the singlespeed open class, as well as 2nd at Ruston in the SS class again.

Huntsville trophy shot.

We went snowskiing last February with Adam & Clare, it was my first time in about 10 years. We went to Breckenridge, during the best snow season they'd ever had. I was back on blacks by day 2, and went to Vail to ski with Andrew I. on day 3. I got in way over my head with some powder skiing on some stuff that was way too steep or tight for me, but I figured it out before the end of the day. When I went back to Breck I went straight to the top and skied the big bowls the rest of the trip.



Top of Breckenridge.

In 2011 I did the OC again, again shooting for 6 hrs but again had stomach issues, this time about halfway through (while I was on pace to make my goal of course).

Ben turned 2 in August, he's getting so big it's amazing to watch him grow and learn.

At the Sugar Cycles cross race in October.

Fireman for Halloween.

Helping daddy trim the hedges.

Playing on the playground at a 'cross race in Austin.

Riding Ryan's tricycle.

We bought a new house late last year so we don't live where we used to anymore. I miss being able to ride out my front door to Bear Creek Park for all-weather traffic-free training, but other than that we love our new place and location. We are much closer to our church and all our friends so it has been a great move for us.

I didn't do a ton of racing last year, and definitely not much training. I got Richard back into biking in a big way last year, he rode my MTB for several months while I rode my singlespeed with him. It was just weekend riding, didn't do anything for my fitness but it was fun to take a break from "training" and we had a lot of fun just riding. He finally got his own MTB so I could get back on mine and we even built him a CX bike from the ground up after he got hooked on 'cross racing. We traveled to a few TXBRA races, neither one of us did any good but we had fun.

Sugar Cross Fest

We went back to Breck in October with Richard and Kristen. Richard and I took bikes, him on a borrowed Specialized Epic 29er demo from my guys at Sugar Cycles (before he got his bike). We had a blast in Breckenridge, the girls got to have some spa days, we got snowed on, and Richard and I got in about 10hrs of awesome riding.

Top of a big climb outside of Breck at an old mine.

I went offshore 5 times last year, the most I've been in a year so far, I don't mind it too much but I think that's enough. The last trip left a few days after Christmas and kept me out over New Year's eve which was a bummer.

That pretty much gets us to now. I'm trying to get some base miles in for the next few weeks, then ramp up to some interval training for a few weeks before the OC. TMBRA races will fall in there, and I'm going to try to make it out to some races in the fledgling LA XC Series, too. There's a great group of guys over there, I'm very glad to see them getting a series going so I plan to support them whenever I can. I did a couple of 3 hr rides this weekend, one with Richard, one solo. Then I was on the bike at 5:55 this morning to get a couple of hrs in mid-week. I think my Garmin has died so I missed the first few miles/minutes trying to get it working before I kicked off the iPhone logging. Oh well. It was about 40 degrees and the wind was blowing at 20+ gusting to 30 so it was a tough day on the bike. Looking to get some more solid long rides this weekend to keep building that base for the year.

Hello it's February

Well you wouldn't know it from my blogging (or lack thereof) but I did live over the flu. I got the flu back at the end of September. My fever got up to 102, but I don't think I suffered any more brain damage than I already had. The doctor called it Swine Flu, I missed a week of work, but I managed to not get Raine, Ben, or Velda sick in the process. So that was a blessing.

Since then a lot has happened of course. Ben had his first Halloween and was a Gingerbread man at the church Trunk-or-Treat along with Ryan (of http://www.themengersponge.blogspot.com/) and Caleb Greene. They were exhibited at Patrick's Pie Shop. (www.beckyandpatrickg.blogspot.com/)

I also got another MTB race under my belt at the Piney Hills Classic in Ruston, my home race. I decided to do something different since I hadn't been contesting any of the rest of the Fall series, so I turned the Stumpjumper singlespeed and jumped in for my first SS race. I'd raced the Monocog a couple of times, but that was in the Sport class. The race was a lot of fun, and it worked out pretty well for me as I finished 3rd, my best finish since I won the beginner class at Ruston several years ago. That was maybe 2006?
I did some cyclocross racing in the TXBRA series, scoring one top-5 finish in cat. 4 and an upgrade to a 3. Most of my racing was chronicled in my articles in The Racing Post, which you can find current and back-issues of at http://www.theracingpost.us/. And yes if you happen to notice I am in fact riding a cyclocross bike, Raine and I sold off our road bikes and picked up a matching pair last year before 'cross season started.
Christmas was somewhere in there, too. This was Ben's first Christmas so of course it was a big deal, even though he had no clue what was going on. We drove our circuit around LA (Louisiana not Los Angeles, which would be L.A.) to see all the family, from Houston to Alexandria to Ruston to Mansfield and finally back to Houston. Of course it was great to see everyone for a while, and the 2 weeks off work didn't hurt my feelings either. I intended to ride the Excruciation Exam (85 mile MTB race) to wrap up the break but that didn't happen due to several factors including weather, lack of motivation, and a lack of friends to ride with to make the miles more bearable. So yeah I skipped it. Bummer. Turned out it was kinda muddy so maybe I didn't miss it after all. Try again next year.

That brings us into 2010, and two months are almost past. Jan. 1st I got my first promotion since I entered the industry, I now hold the title of Sr. Engineer. I'm glad to be blessed with a good job at a good company and to do well at it. Ben is now past the 6-month mark with no signs of slowing down. He's growing big and getting to be a lot of fun. He loves to laugh and smile, getting more social all the time. He's nearing the crawling point, regularly pushing up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth. He has already learned to ride a trike, which I'm very proud of. He can't motivate himself yet, but we're getting there. Give it time.
Spring MTB season starts this weekend, and no I'm not at all ready. I've been riding about once a week lately, spending all my time with Ben and Raine and not regretting it one bit. I get to ride about once a week, usually on Saturdays, when I take the chance to do a long ride in preparation for the OC coming up at the end of March. That's my big focus for the Spring. I know I can just go finish it, but part of me wants to go burn it up and see how I can do. I need vindication after the flat took me out of contention last year. But, I'm traveling up and lodging with 3 friends, so part of me wants to group ride it with them and just have fun. We'll see how I feel the morning of, and what mood strikes me when the gun sounds. Hopefully I will do a better job of updating this instead of only giving updates every 6 or 7 months, of course I always say that so we'll see what happens.

I have finally got myself an iPhone, so maybe I'll use it for more frequent updates. It was definitely a significant day in my life.

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?