WBL # 2

WBL #2 this Sun. From the Shoppe in Mt. P. 9 AM. Last week was good and everyone had a good day. 3 hr, 56 miles- good stuff. Not many takers on the free water but as always- all the water you care to drink if you show up! One day we may switch to other beverages but folks are broke these days so water it is for now! Oh yea- we have free air too. All you can breathe.
So come drink water- breathe- and ride some!
Later-
DH

Winter Bike League Tomorrow

Don't forget people- Winter Bike League tomorrow. 3 hrs, - suppose to be sunny and 60s-70s out. Come out and get some participation points. Prizes in Feb after the finale. Should be a good ride- I've had a ton of people ( for Charleston) that have committed to coming. Don't miss out!

DH

Line up people!

Had to pinch this from another blog. Can't take credit for it but good stuff none the less. Illustrates retail and human beings in general.

Cool Photos

Dual Sport ride with Joel Part 1

Joel and I headed out this morning for a ride on our motorcycles. We headed North through Francis Marion National Forest on fire roads up to McClellanville for fuel. North on 17 towards Georgetown put us at the Santee River. From here we headed inland up the river to Jamestown for lunch. Along the way I got stuck 3 times, Joel got stuck very badly once. We explored many dirt roads, trails, and gas/power lines along the way for a great day out in normally bad weather.

When I got home, there was actually mud inside my clothes and helmet. Yeah- it was fun. DH

More Pictures and video by Joel

Dual Sport Ride with Joel Part 2

It took us an hour to free Joel's KLX from the hole it was buried in. Ended up with the rear wheel completely submerged. I ended up stuck knee high in the quicksand as well. Good stuff.

First Winter Bike League ride

The first Winter Bike League ride is Sun. Nov 15th. It will look like this.
Details HERE.
Hope to see everybody there!
DH

Quick Update

I'm tired so I'll write more later. Here is a summery of my weekend though:
Fri morning Aaron and I drove to Jackson, GA for the 12 Hrs. of Dauset race. Got there, set up the pit area and went out for a pre-ride. Noticed that my bars were moving and after some investigation found that I had broken my stem faceplate. Nice. Got a lap in anyways, made a phone call and had a new stem on the way. Stayed with family and ate at the mega Chinese Buffet. After a trip to Wal-Mart for supplies and people watching we hit the sack.
The race start went well, got the holeshot and rode off. Got passed bu some 6 hr and team guys but passed them back by the 3rd lap to lead again. Flatted. Rode 3 different front wheels. Didn't crash this race! Anyways- lapped 2nd place 8 hrs. in and was running 2nd overall out of all solos and teams. So........I got to stop an hour and a half early because it was mathematically impossible to get caught. Got in 13 laps @ 10 miles each. Could have easily done 14 but didn't need to and with the Helen 12 hr. this weekend played it safe.
Got to go-DH

Coasting

Coasting-
That's what I've got on tap for the next 12 days. 2 more races ( both 12 hrs.) then a few weeks off. I'm not going to gain any fitness in 12 days, nor lose any of the type of fitness I need for the last race so I'm forced to enjoy myself for the remainder of the " season". I've been doing a lot of sleeping lately - I'm talking about championship style sleeping here too- 10 hrs. a night. I got in almost 12 hrs of sleep last Monday night! I usually can't sleep well so I'm really fired up about this. With all this extra time sleeping I'm surprised to find myself still riding the same amount (16ish hrs) a week. The weather is improving now. This past weekend was great, got in 4 hrs Saturday in the cool misty air. Felt really strong and I hope that carries over to Dauset this Sat. Met up with a group ride of CBC guys on Sunday. Rolled out to Kiawah with about 20-25 of them nice and easy. A little too easy to be a beneficial ride but a good day none the less. Split off on the way back and knocked out another hour by myself for another good day.
Now all I need to do is get a little riding in during the weekdays- maybe one hard day a week, knock out the two 12 hr. races on the weekends and I'm done for awhile. I have 3 weeks off the bike scheduled after that. I noticed the other day that I need a break- I'm getting kinda beat up and still not fully healed from March's crash. Or August's crash at Fool's Gold. Somehow got both shoulders in one year! Time for hiking, camping, motorcycle trips, household projects, and living like a normal person . Just long enough to remind myself that I'm not a normal person and I need to start training for 2010 and the big developments ( to be revealed soon enough!) it holds.
Anyways-
I need to get back to thinking about doing nothing for awhile.
DH out

Really?

False Start

Now I'm not going to Dauset. The promoters have decided to postpone the race until Oct. 3rd. Bummer. Good thing I had the car loaded but had not rolled out when Mike texted me about it. Got scared off by the rain. Oh well- more recovery time for me before October. This does mean that I'll have to race 2 12 hrs back to back then- Dauset and Helen. Oh well- guess I'll go fix some bikes.
DH

Rain Dance

I'm headed off to Jackson, GA in a few minutes for the 12 hrs. of Dauset. While I'm still a little tired from last weekend's effort, I decided to go. I like that race. It just got better- the Weather channel is calling for rain all weekend! I am glad to hear that-takes the emphasis off of speed a bit and swings it back to technical ability, experience, and mental toughness. Racing in the rain will crack some people. The key is to accept the fact that you'll go slower and it will be harder. Everyone is slower and working harder. It's easy to feel like everyone else is going regular speed while you are the only one fighting the conditions. Truth is- everyone is hating it. The racers that accept that fact do fine, the ones that don't get frustrated and have meltdowns.
Mechanicals should play a part as well in the mud. Fortunately, I've got the bike for the job! My singlespeed Niner SIR9 has yet to give me a drivetrain issue and won't this weekend either. The simplicity of the singlespeed is an advantage in the mud. My brake pads on the other hand may wear out-that's my biggest worry. Oh yeah- and the fact that I raced for 24 hrs less than a week ago. I feel ok now but 8 hrs in? Who knows- this is uncharted territory for me. May end up curled up in a field asleep like my first 12 hr.
Anyways- I'm off- DH

Faster Mustache Stats

After an excessively long write up last night- I realized that I didn't mention any of the statistics from the race. If you are interested in this stuff, here it is:

According to my PowerTap:
21:56:05 hrs moving time ( not counting red lights, getting pulled by the po-po, or pitting. Also 43 min short of 24 hr due to not having to do a 33rd lap.)

381.69 miles

Appx 20,000 feet of climbing

13,317 KiloJoules

Averaged 172 watts, 1082 watts max

16.4 mph avg speed, 34.8 max

Still can't feel my right pinky finger or left big toe. My right forearm really hurts now. From shifting gears?

Anyways-
DH

Faster Mustache 24hr

What had happened was..............

Today was interesting. Slept like a rock last night. This was my first 24 hr solo race so I didn't know how my body would react from it. I've done probably 15 12 hr races and only slept well after one. Slept like a dead person last night though. Woke up this morning feeling decent, had lost seven pounds but wasn't as sore as I thought I would be. Legs were stiff and I was tired but that was it. I was worried about my hands after seeing pictures from Eddie O'dea's race write-up last year and double wrapped my bars. That did the trick and my booty was ok due to my trusty Brooks Team Pro saddle. I even rode across town today to meet Liza for lunch. I didn't set any records on the way but I did envision being in worse shape. All my fatigue related problems were of the mental variety. I did some dumb stuff and zoned out for large blocks of time. I even built a bike, wrapped the bars, and realized I hadn't put one brake cable on it! That's gonna work well. I also needed to cut a fork, a normally routine procedure but today it took at least 30 minutes. I stood staring at it thoroughly confused as to what I should do for 10 minutes.

Anyways-
Race Report-
First off- I'll say that it was a great race. From the promoter, the participants, the whole idea of a race like that, and especially the competition! That race was way too close for a 24 hr and everyone rode their hearts out.
On to the race- High Noon Lemans start went well as I didn't break a cleat on my shoe and made it through the Chaos to the bike. Got rolling and spotted Nathan. We made our way up front to take advantage of the faster guys. That was a task in itself as it was pure chaos-flying through Atlanta at 25-30 mph, running lights, and dodging traffic with a hundred other insane people.
Soon the bike traffic thinned and Nathan and I got into a rythm. We had averaged over 20 mph the first lap and needed to back it down a bit if we were to finish the race. For the next 8-9 hrs thats what we did-nice and steady, trying different routes seeking the best way around town. We finally found a good option by using 14th street instead of the hill on 10th. Did this for 10 laps and the shallower hill really saved our legs for the later laps.

Around 9pm I got a call from Andy Johnston telling me that my name wasn't showing up on the online race tracker website. Big Problem. Next lap we pitted and went to see what was wrong. Somehow, Nathan and I had switched cards- probably when getting ready( they were both on the table beside each other- smart!) and mine had stopped working. Soo....every lap counted for Nathan was actually me and my name only showed 2 laps. Race officials said no problem- keep swiping the good card since we were wheel to wheel the whole race and we'd fix it in the morning. Having raced for a long time I was uneasy about this and hoped for the best. The officials knew we were working together and had not left each other's side so all was ok. I was stressed none the less worrying that one of us would crack, then what would we do? I guess the stronger guy would take the card and keep going.

Sometime late at night officials gave us the word that we were in a three way battle for the lead with Eddie O'dea. The mood at our camp went from " let's go do a 24 hr race and see how we do" to full gas game on. We switched back to the 10th street route then as it was faster. It hurt way more but we were in it now so it was time to suffer. We were all 3 riding blazing lap times finally meeting up on the course a few times around 3 or 4 am. Eddie put in a blazing attack that I never saw coming and that we couldn't react to. We slowly pulled it back though, just in time for another attack. They were impressive attacks and I figured that he was checking us out to see what we had so we stayed calm. Eddie has a ton more experience than I do so I was a little worried about the last 7-8 hrs as I didn't know what to expect. I knew he'd be coming on strong.

Somehow we got a 20 min gap on the next couple of laps. Everthing looked good, the sun was coming up and we were still rolling good. Then we had some problems. First, Nathan ran into the back of me and crashed while I was slowing to check an intersection for traffic. He was ok and we kept rolling- the both of us much more alert. Then, I broke a spoke in my front wheel 3 miles out from the pit. I had 28c tires on and they barely cleared the fork as it was. The wheel was so far out of true that I couldn't turn it by hand because it was hitting the fork leg. I called in to the pit and Robert had a wheel waiting but I had to get there first. I was worried because the tire was rubbing so hard that it was starting to smell and I thought it would catch on fire. Nathan told me to squirt it with my bottle- the tire sizzled and steam/ smoke came off it! I'd repeat this every minute or so to keep things ok and we made it back soon. Another problem with this was instead of doing 170-200 watts to get down the road it took 270-300. This would have implications later.
We lost 5 or 6 minutes again when Nathan had to make a poopy stop. Soon we got our rythym back and rolled on with Eddie scary close.
Then I cracked. Bad. We lost 8-9 minutes that lap with me barely making it back. I told Nathan to think about leaving me as Eddie was coming hard and I was too slow. I was totally done and having a hard time functioning. Nathan wouldn't leave though. Robert made me a sandwich and I devoured it. Nathan prodded me onto my bike and I reluctantly rolled out for what I presumed would be my last lap-22 hrs. in and blown.
The opposite happened though. I felt much better the next lap, then we turned one of our fastest laps of the race after that. I actually started to feel stronger as the time ticked by! As we rolled out for what we thought was our last lap we started to do the math in our head. Nathan told me he thought we'd have to do 2 more. I really didn't want to do 2 more but he was right, if we didn't slow up we'd have to go back out. Eddie was really close and I figured he'd probably have some motivational help out there from other local racers so we had to stay on the gas. So we did. The finish time was between 11:30 and 12:00. This means that a lap finished after 12:00 didn't count and you couldn't start a lap if you came in after 11:30. We got back at 11:17:30 and rolled out for the 33rd lap. We stopped around the corner from the start where you could see incoming riders and waited. If we didn't see Eddie coming in the next 5 minutes or so it would be impossible for him to squeeze in another and we'd win. If he did show up we'd see him and have a couple of minutes head start and be out of there. If we held him off we'd win. If we got caught we'd sit on and not work so none of us would make the time cut and we'd win by virtue of the last completed lap. Fortunately for us the time cut came and the race was over so we rolled back for 1st and 1st I guess! We rolled across the finish line together and told them we didn't care who they put as first, it didn't matter to us.
It was a good effort and a good learning experience. I learned alot about myself- especially how bad my Nurition was for this race. The next 24 I'll be much better prepared. Robert did a great job in the pit for us and had everything we asked for and some stuff we didn't even know we wanted. However, we wasted too much time. I'll need to get a more efficient pit system going- we wasted over an hour pitting and that helped to make the race too close for comfort.
Anyways-
Great race and I'm lookin forward to the next one!
DH

Breakfast Of Champions

That's right- gotta fuel up for a big ride today. Two bowls of these bad boys will do the trick!

DH out

Upcoming

Wow- September is going to be filled with a lot of miles on the bike. After a solid week of training this week I have the Faster Moustache 24 Hr race next week, the 12 hrs of Dausett the next, Beaufort Omnium the next, then cross season starts in TN with a double header in the MSG series, 12 hrs of Unicoi the following weekend, Granogue and Wissakickon UCI cross races, NC cross series opening weekend, then finally a weekend of no racing!
I'm really looking forward to the FM 24 Hr race in Atlanta. I've never heard of an urban 24 hr race. It will be really interesting to see how the city changes over a 24 hr period. This will be a good first 24 hr solo for me too. If it turns out that I'm terrible at riding my bike for more than 12 hrs ( I know I'm good for at least 12!), at least I won't be stuck out in the woods all blown to pieces. I know plenty of people in downtown ATL- I'll ride my bike to their house, knock on the door, grab a shower, and go to bed. So if you live in ATL- please leave a light on for me like Tom Bodett over at the Red Roof Inn- I may be stopping by.
All nonsense aside though- that will be a fun race and a good learning experience. I am planning on a big solo 24 hr next year and this will give me somewhat of an idea of what to expect. Looks like there will be 6 checkpoints/ aid stations on a 12 mile loop so it will be easier to break the race down into smaller segments to focus on. I'll focus on small chunks- like making it from the pulled pork checkpoint to the pizza checkpoint and so on.
I'm going to ride my road bike with double bar wrap, some 700 X 25c gatorskin tires, and possibly convert it to a single speed. I find it much better to do these long races on the single. All you need to concentrate on is pedaling ( and with one gear- the lap times are very consistent- harder to blow up). I don't know yet what saddle I will use- I suspect that will be an issue. I've never had saddle problems in 12 hr races but offroad I'm constantly changing my position on the saddle if not standing up a good bit of time. I'm kind of worried about the ammount of time seated in the saddle that I'm going to deal with being on the road. Maybe my Brooks? Never had a problem there!
Anyways- The weekend after this race I'll do 12 hrs of Dauset. I was planning on doing a 2 man team. However, my teammate Robert got hit by a car and is still feeling the effects of that. So..... I'll probably do it solo. No prob- I think that is actually easier than the 2 man format. We did that last year and won it but man it was tough to go all out for 2 laps, rest, then do it over. That was rougher on my body than doing a solo.
36 hrs of racing in 2 weekends. Not smart but I'm going to give it a go. Don't try this at home kids!
I'll let you know how it goes!
DH

Backpacking #3

Backpacking Trip #2

More CO Pics- Rocky Mtn. Natnl. Park Backpacking -Part 1

Left Bear Lake for a couple day backpacking trip. Lots of beautiful high alpine scenery, some snow, rockfields, lakes, and tons of mosquitos. The $3 bug spray Liza picked up turned out to be the best purchase of the whole western trip! Spent the night at ove 10,000 feet up at Spruce Lake. It was a beautiful, pristine lake that was tough to get to and a nice night as no one else was there.

Gonna hurt ALL winter now!

Ordered my new CX frame and some parts today. I have a sweet Salsa Scandium frame w/ an Alpha Q fork. Already have a parts kit, so I need to find some deep carbon race wheels and get some Tufos and I'm off! I haven't raced a full cross season in a few years and am excited for this one. Last year I rode a singlespeed 29er, the year before I raced on a Surly Cross Check. Not bad bikes but a bit off from the race bikes I rode in the past. This year's bike should turn out to be a rocket ship. Don't be surprised if I only run one gear at certain races though!
Planning on hitting up the NC series, NC winter cup, Mid atlantic UCI series, and maybe a race or two in the GA and TN series. If I'm not completely thrashed by mid-Dec.................maybe a trip to Portland for Nationals. A very faint maybe!
Anyways- gotta go- DH

XC National Championships Pics.

Sol Vista Ski area. A place I'll hopefully never return to. They cut the trails the week of the race and they were absolute crap. The first day I rode them they were fun........2 days later- hub deep ruts with 2 foot tall braking bumps. Don't get me wrong- the Amateur XC course was good further out- nice singletrack and fairly technical. The Pro loop was junk however. As usual. That was probably the last USA Cycling National event I'll ever do. Why pay $80 for that crap when the NUE series, Gone Riding, and other promoters have much more economical events with better courses. Anyways- here's the pics.DH

Pike's Peak

Drove up Pike's Peak, ate "High Altitude 14,000 ft Special Recipe Best Ever Only Place Available Donuts". They lived up to their billing. Able to talk trash and back it up- that's why I liked these donuts. Did some bouldering and noticed it was late so we drove back down. We were forced to stop for awhile by the park service brake check station half way down. 560 degrees was the temp. on the brakes. I had the Megavan in the lowest gear possible but when it wants to go it's hard to reign in. I wasn't about to apologize or make excuses for pure unadulterated speed so we parked the Megavan and went climbing around some more. Got the green light again after 20 mins. or so and we took off again, soon to be in Boulder for the night.

DH