What have I gotten myself into?

I recently sat down to plan out the next month's training and racing. In the immortal words of Mr. T from RockyIII- "Prediction?.....Pain!". I knew what I was doing when I planned my schedule but it hadn't sunk in now. This is what I am looking forward to:
April 15th- SERC#4- XC race, short and easy.
April 21st- Cohutta 100- that'll be 100 miles offroad,
April 28th- Dirt, Sweat, & Gears 12 hr- what's that- another 120-130 miles?,
May 5th- Cinco De Marrington 8hr- 13 mile loop (~1 hr laps)= 100+ again.
Then I get a luxurious weekend with no race before 12 hours of Tsali and a 4 day Stage Race the weekend after. I may have to take the whole month of June off to recover before the Cowbell Challenge 12 Hr. @ the end of the month. Vicious Circles I'm talkin about here.
I think I'll go take a nap now- I'm tired thinking about it. Later-DH

Updates Galore

Dark Mtn. Super D

Loaded up in Herndon's truck w/ Wes D, Chris and Alex for the trip to Dark Mtn. Stopped by McDonald's for some high quality sustainance. After we all felt like crap from said sustainance we rolled on up the road. Pulled up, did some practice runs, then race runs, Chris-1st Pro, me-2nd Pro, WesD- 1st 30+. Top 3 times overall, got back in the car with our Kenda tires and went home. That's all there is to say about that.

Secret Tsali Weapon

It's superlight and superfast. Come to Tsali next weekend to check it out. Nuff about that.

Assault on the Carolinas

What do you do to avoid the chaos of 700 riders leaving at the same time? You rip it through town @ 35mph ( courtesy of WesD). After departing town at a high rate of speed, the tandem-piloted by the Applegate-McCauley's dumped the clutch and was GONE. Over the course of the next 65 miles the following transpired:

1. 6 horses got loose and were seen running (drafting even) in the lead pack. They held their line better than most riders.

2. Dude flies off of Hwy 178 @45mph into a 100 foot crevasse. No major injuries but vehicles with winches were required to get him out.

3. Went off the front on SC228 for 12 miles hoping to get a big head start before having to haul my large posterior up Ceasar's Head.

4. Only had a couple of minutes lead at the base.

5. Out of water and blew up like Hiroshima about a mile up, had to limp on up to the top feed zone.

6. Got my feed, went back downhill till I found Robert, rode back up feeling better now, and we drilled it back to town.

Yardwork

Mowed the grass, limed it, fertilized, seeded it. Watered the snot out of it and hopefully I'll have a beautiful yard in 2 weeks. I'll post a picture if so- if not I'll just rant about it. Later-DH

Oops.

No I did not wreck. I will write all about this later- I have a race tomorrow and don't want to think about stuff breaking.

All systems go.

Got out for a ride today. Wanted 2 hrs. so I headed up 276 to the parkway. Knee was feeling better and better so I kept opening up the throttle. Made it up as fast as ever even with turning a 38 across the 5-6 miles of flats before the climbing began. That's the hardest I have gone since the Wissahickon Cross race on Oct.22 of last year. It felt good, the snap from 2 years ago is back in my legs, they haven't felt decent in a long time. Time to train- gotta get that swagger back!

The Governator

My knee is feeling better now. Got some hard riding in over the weekend and feel ready to go. I am still a little apprehensive and don't want to aggrevate things so I installed a governer on my road bike. I like to turn big gears and am likely to stress the knee, so I put this on my bike so I will have no choice but to spin like crazy or go slow. That is my cross setup w/ a 38T ring, 3rd eye and the custom chainguard I made back in the fall ( AKA: The DH1 chainmaster 5000). Gonna ride it a couple of hours tomorrow so I'll let you know how it works out! DH

Bad Day

Rough one this morning. Rolled out to DuPont for a good ride. 1st half hour was fine, rode Burnt Mtn., that was fun- rolled over to Cedar Rock trail and started climbing. Got to the powerlines with the "No Tresspassing" signs. There is now a SECURITY GUARD in the middle of the woods to keep people off the AGFA property. Soo.. I pulled a 180 and bombed back down the hill before fatty could get out of his 4x4. Had to ride up the steeper part of Cedar Rock Trail now. Noticed that under alot of power my XTR cranks were flexing into the driveside swingarm on my frame, chipping the paint off. Gonna need a spacer I guess. I knew the cranks were close but had no idea they would flex that far- probably the swingarm too. The frame I'm on is a relic so no surprise there. Got to the top of the mtn. and went down Big Rock Trail really really fast till a Rhododenderon branch snagged my left brake lever yanking my front wheel into a huge rock. Fortunately, I got tossed far enough so that I landed in soft dirt instead of on the granite. Didn't really get hurt but that ended the ride for me. Later- DH

Update

It's been awhile since I posted. That's because not much has been happening. Cracked my kneecap hard on my stem 2 1/2 weeks ago, it hurts so bad I can't ride. So.. no riding, hiking, or other fun stuff. Had my birthday party fri night- big # 31. Well attended night with all the regular suspects present for Mexican food and bowling, fairly uneventful with nobody making a fool of themselves in public. My parents came up from Atl on Sat and I did get a short ride in w/ my dad. He just got his new bike and had to try it out. Thats about it for now- I'll write more when I have more to talk about.