It's days like this that make me glad to ride my bike

Beautiful day today. Low 60's, cloudless, but 40 mph gusts. After 3 hrs. on 45 degree rain yesterday I was ready to roll out! Headed up 276 to the Blue Ridge Pkwy. Got my 3 intervals in on the steeper sections on the way up. The wind was not an issue and I felt great, easily turning over 3 taller gears than I normally use on this ride. Got to the top and the wind showed up! I guess when you are on a ridge 2500 feet above anything else you might get some wind every now and then. Snapped some overlook photos back toward Brevard ( couldn't see my house from there) and headed on up to Graveyard Fields. I figured if I made it there I would have a 28 mile, 3,300 foot climb done- plenty for my sorry climbin' self. Passed some ice and a quick check found the temp to be 49 deg. @ 5000 feet. Got up to Graveyard, ate a Clif bar and hightailed it back down to get home. Feeling good this week, hope to rest up, get 3-4 hrs. in on Sat, then rock the house in Athens on Sunday. Later- DH

Spring in the Mountains

I rode Tuesday- It was sunny and 80 degrees out. I remember thinking " I could probably go for a sleeveless jersey today". Woke up this morning and it was 25 degrees out and snow was covering everything. I thought spring had sprung and it would be warm from here on out. I was wrong- Old Man Winter got us with another sneak attack! I think I'll wait till tomorrow afternoon to get my long ride in, maybe it will be warmer then- probably back to 95 degrees out if these weather trends stay consistent. Later- DH

Rough Week

Finally feeling better now. I hate rest weeks- they always leave me feeling like garbage. I seem to do the best when I am putting in 18-20 hr. weeks consistently. I know I need to rest but man do I feel awful when I do- sore all the time, I eat bad, and I can't sleep. Anyways, been averaging 2 easy hours a day this week. Yesterday's ride had my legs feeling like poopsicle sticks. I tried to do a few sprints to open them up but that only made things worse. Sometimes I wonder if I should jest increase my hours every week without resting and see how long it takes to ride myself into oblivion.

Got to work yesterday- there are alot of changes going on lately- can't use the computers at work anymore so my updates may get slowed a bit. I think we may be getting house arrest ankle bracelets to wear at work too- got to keep track of everyone! I need a new job soon- any leads, please let me know.

Anyways- stressed out enough from work and from my rest week sluggishness I decided to get out on the SS today. Rode Caney Bottom and Butter Gap trails. Legs are coming around again so I had a great ride. Gonna try to get 3 hrs. in tomorrow and get back to 18 hrs next week. Only one more block of Base training left- them I get to go fast!

My FS frame will be in Monday or Tues. so I'll get to build that up- fired up about that. Other than that not much else going on here- headed to Athens for SERC #4 next weekend- that should be fun. Heritage park was a good course last time I raced there (2001). Later- DH

Tsali Race Report

I am too tired to write much now. Had to clean up too much clothing and equipment from the race. It was the most disgusting mud slop I've raced in in a long time. Also the best I've felt in a loong time. I'll give the weekend's details tomorrow but I will say that I got 5th and that qualifies me for Nationals- so that's a load off. Won some money too- good thing because I'll have to use it all to get my bike running again.....ah the vicious circle of racing. Later-DH

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.

My ride

Rainy Day Boredem

Rained all day today. That's just as well though- went out for 5 1/2 hrs. yesterday but only got in 4 1/2. My knee was killing me from where I smacked the stem last Sat. I had good rides all week, did some Muscle Tension intervals on Thur. Maybe those irritated it again. Whatever it is, rain poured all day so I got to rest up.

Did get a new digital camera for my fast approaching birthday (31 on Mar 2). That should help me get some decent pictures up here soon.

Managed to get a ton of stuff up on E Bay too so hopefully I'll have enough scratch to get to some big races this year. Best wishes for a sunny warm week coming up. Later-DH

New Stuff

Got some new stuff for my ride this week. There has been a Maverick SC32 fork hanging out for awhile up here at the Creek. There were some plans to produce fork cartridges for Maverick but the plan got scrapped. Sooo.. after alot of harrassing and bugging people I got the OK to "requisition" it. Install, build a wheel, and put on the new Kenda Small Block 8 tire and I was ready to roll. Did 3 hrs. yesterday at Bent Creek and am really diggin the fork. It took me awhile to get it set up right but once I did it was ON. I really like long travel. I have a KHS FS frame that will be here soon I hope because the hardtail is not going to cut it anymore. I can go faster now with that fork than my old Reba, fast enough to surpass the capabilities of my hardtail. That Small Block 8 tire rips too... I was trying hard to break it loose but it is very sticky. Anyways- hoping for a new frame soon- got a sweet rear shock waiting for it too. Later- DH

Winter

I hate winter. Did 2 hrs today in the most insane wind that I have ever ridden in. I had a hard time staying in my lane. Not holding my line, but staying in my lane and on the road. The best part of the ride was doing intervals up Terry's gap. Normally that would be the most dreaded part for me but it was great today. At least while I was doing the intervals I was suppose to be hurting. The temp. kept dropping and the wind picking up, then it started snowing on me. Tough day- completely blew apart at the seams about a mile from the end. Had to sit on a bench in the locker room for 1/2 an hour before I could manage to make it into the shower. Yep- I'm about done with winter now, thinking warm thoughts of Florida. Later- DH

Getting it dialed in

It's been so cold here lately that riding has been really tough. My saddle sores have saddle sores because I've been on the rollers so much. Not today though- It was sunny, dry, and 40+ degrees out and I was jonesin for a good offroad ride. Loaded the KHS into the Megavan and blasted up to DuPont. I was not dissapointed. It was dry everywhere and slightly tacky in the turns. You could really rip out there today. Hit the turn hot-drift ,and the tires would hook up just in time to exit the turn without loosing speed. It was the most fun I've had out there in a long time. This time of year I have a pretty strict heartrate ceiling but I couldn't help myself today. It's been too long since I rode on hardpack and I had to keep ratcheting up the intensity. I think I am finally getting close to a good setup on the KHS. Made a few adjustments today and it feels pretty darn good now. I installed a Cane Creek Thudbuster seatpost and returned to XC weeny world with a low stem, flat bar, and bar ends. Forgot how fast you can crank uphill with this setup. Got in a couple of hrs. today and it felt good; gonna go out for 4-5 more hrs. tomorrow and see it my body csn handle the position. Feels really fast now but if it ain't fast all day it don't do me no good. Got some cool pics today DH out.

Laurel Mountain Escapades

Well, it's been awhile since I posted and I promise to post more regularly in the future. Got in a great ride today. It was finally a nice day out so I bounced out of work a few minutes early to go ride. I decided to ride Laurel Mtn./ Pilot Rock today. I figured I could get to the top in about an hour, then do the downhill in the dark, lights were charged so I was ready to roll. I'm really glad I rode that trail today as it was in almost perfect condition. I was able to clean all but 2 spots on the way up, made it up 2 rock sections I have never made before. There were some pretty cool ice sections over some of the rock sections making it a bit interesting. Made it up the bottom third of the hike a bike before I had to walk, then rode from the second switchback of the hike a bike until the left turn to descend Pilot Rock. I was really stoked about that, there is some tough climbing there. As I was climbing I saw some of the coolest light I have ever seen here in Pisgah. The sky was still crystal clear blue with furrows of hot pink clouds. All of the light, which was rapidly fading was bright orange and bathed the ridges and treetops with a warm glow. Everything looked orange except the pink clouds streaking the sky above my head. It was the closest thing to alpenglow that I have seen on the east coast and was over all too soon.
Time to go downhill now so I turned on the light as it got pretty dark all of a sudden and I thought the downhill would be fairly suicidal if I didn't use the light. I haad never ridden Pilot Rock at night before and it turned out to be as much fun as I hoped it would. I actually had better lines than in the day and had no problem blasting through every section. Well, almost no problems- on one of the wide open fast sections, I didn't see a fallen tree trunk sticking out from the bushes about 12" high. Caught that sucker right on top of my ankle, it almost cleaned me off the bike- it hurt so bad. Luckily, it was so cold out that it soon went numb. Finished up the downhill with the worst part of the ride- the forest road back to Yellow Gap where the Megavan was stashed. That road was horrible- it is mostly downhill and you can run 20-30 mph almost the whole way-that is torure when it is only 30 degrees out. Got back to the van just before the onset of Hypothermia and Rally carred it down the road to home. Great ride confiming that Laurel Mtn. is my favorite ride around.

Man Down!! Medic!!

Wwnt out on a ride this afternoon w/ the Sycamore Cycles crew. Eric and Hugh from the Aerospace team were in town so I invited them as well. Wanted to get in 3-4 hrs. nice and mellow on the mountain bikes so we figured out a good route and took off. First up was North Slope trail- a nice 3.5 mile loop. We rocket up the climb w/ Wes D setting a good tempo, get to the top and regroup to start the downhill. There were numerous close calls due to the massive leaf fall on the trail but it was still fun. Nearing the end of the DH I decided that I hadn't had a hard crash since the Wissahickon Cross race back in Oct. and wondered to myself if I could still crash really hard and get messed up bad. If you have ridden N. Slope you know there is a tiny section of nasty rooty steps near the end. Today they were wet and covered with leaves. Nope, I did not answer my previously pondered question here- I did however crash spectacularly on a tiny section of wet roots 100 yards later. I have ridden that trail hundreds of times and had not even noticed that root before. However, it was my lucky day and the cosmos and stars and whatever aligned perfectly to drop me like I had an Aneurism or been shot by a sniper. After nearly being run over by The Weapon, regaining my feet and composure, ( in that order ) I brushed the mud off my white vest (a wise fashion choice today) and surveyed the damage. Surprisingly I got off relatively easy, until I saw the hole in my knee. It was the big enough to stick the tip of my pinky finger in ( I know this because I had to try it- much to my surprise it hurt very badly when I did that!) Anyways, the hole had big chunks of skin hanging off it and was rapidly releasing my blood into the open where I did not want it to go. So I pull my knee warmer down to cover it up- that will fix it and we ride on. After another 2 1/2 - 3 hrs. we roll back into town at the right time because the temp. had dropped 10-15 degrees. I go searching for Ibuprophen and go home to clean up. I'll spare the details of the cleanup but it did involve tiny scissors, toenail clippers, rubbing alchohol, neosporin, towels, and a large dressing. Lifting weights tomorrow will be fun!! Later- DH

How it went down

I Dave Hall went to Wes Dickson's birthday party. Not Harland Price's. But Wes'. All the usual suspects were present. A good time was had by all- well nearly all, the Yeti will have it rough tomorrow. The KOP seemed to be having a great time, which is always fun to be around. Anyways- Happy Birthday Wes and good luck next year.

UCI cross weekend

Drove to Philly (10 hrs.) for the Verge Mid Atlantic UCI cross races @ Granouge Estate in DE and the Wissahickon cross in PA. Stayed w/ Ben and Terri (who is very pregnant and thankfully did not give birth while I was there ) and got to check out lots of cool stuff in Philly. Rode through Camden, NJ ( highest murder rate in the US), saw Independence Hall/ Liberty Bell, the Dolly Madison House ( yes, the same one that makes the delicious pastries in convenience stores), ate the most phenominal french toast ever (huge with a layer of cream cheese and bananas between slices), checked out Manayunk, and saw a comedy show (the headliner was Biff from back to the future). Oh yeah- I did also race. How did that go? 2 front flats at high speed + 1 rolled tubular= 2 hard crashes. 2 hard crashes = multiple lacerations + 1 good head whack + 1 dislocated thumb + lots of time fixing bike and running around = getting lapped and finishing 48th and 52nd respectively. 2 many equations there. Better luck next time and thanks for playing. By the way Ryan Trebon absolutely DESTROYED a stacked field. Look out fellas cause I don't think he can be stopped.
This weekend should go better, going to a small local race to lick my wounds and feel better about myself. Plus I get to race in a costume for bonus points! Rock On! Later-DH