Every time I try and get ready to start training for a race over the past year I either A). get sick or B). break something. Over the last 12 months I've:
1. had a surgery to repair a hernia
2. hyper extended my back
3. tore a muscle in my chest
4. stomach flu
5. 3 head colds
6. 1 sinus infection
7. broke a couple ribs
I'm trying not to complain, because even with these aliments I still have it pretty good compared to a lot of folks. It just pisses me off is all. I'd really like to be riding my bike more and getting in better fitness to get back to racing. Instead it seems I'm assuming the position:
Signed up for a big race, the Swank 65, and even got a week's worth of riding in. Then my main man (my son) get's sick and of course I'm next in line. Now the whole family is sick. Feel bad enough right now that this will probably keep me off the bike a week or two?
I keep reading about my friends out at races doing very well. I'm super stoked for them and at the same time want to be out there racing with them. I guess all this stuff is suppose to make you stronger? The old proverb "that which doesn't kill you" kinda thing. I'm still waiting to see how that plays out. Meanwhile I'll just keep blowing my nose until I look like this guy:
That's right folks, I actually committed to racing my mountain bike again! How you ask? Well I went ahead and signed up for the Swank 65. The race isn't until November 11th, giving me plenty of preparation time. I really love being up in the NC mountains, especially in the fall.
Nevermind the evil temptress in the picture, this is a bicycle race really deep in woods of the Appalachian Mountains. Just like the temptress in the picture, the woods in this area known as Pisgah National Forest invite you in with it's singletrack. Once your committed it then delivers a "mama said knock you out" punch. I mean with 7,000 feet of climbing in 38 miles, what do you expect. Check out the famed climb up to Farlow gap at mile 20 on the elevation profile! This climb is over 3 miles of pain up an 18% grade.
What this elevation profile doesn't tell you is the extreme difficulty of the trails here. Deep stream crossings, log foot bridges, baby head rocks everywhere, boulder gardens that would make a pro downhiller cry, and steep hang on for dear life technical singletrack where at times you cannot miss a turn or your gonna fall off the mountain. It deserves, and will get all of your attention and focus.
Cove Creek foot/ride bridge (yeah it's skinny)
Farlow Gap (one of the easy sections)
more Farlow Gap (what line you taking?)
With all the technical riding here it puts me in a dilemma. Would be great to ride the longer travel bike for the descents, but the XC race rig would climb way better, and there is a ton of climbing. It would be tough lugging the longer travel bike up the climbs as it's heavier - but going down would be a blast! My guess is (actually I'm certain) that the lighter XC rig is going to be faster overall. I guess I could just get one of these and have the best of both worlds:
Yes, that is a 2013 Specialized S-Works Stumpjumper 29er that only weighs 25 lbs and has 5 inches of travel. Crazy perfect bike for this race and for trail riding in general. What are the odds that one of these is in Jonnynails garage soon as they become available?
I'll keep the blog updated with some pics of my training rides up in Pisgah between now and race time. Stay tuned.
I've actually been riding and training a good bit lately. I decided to register for the Rivers Edge 50 miler, which is held at The Wood Run Trail System in Uwharrie National Forest on August 25th.
This race consists of five 10 mile laps on some fun NC singletrack. 50 miles is a chunk to bite off for my first big race back in a while, but for some reason it just didn't sound hard enough. So I decided that I'll race it on my singlespeed bike. Lucky for me they have a singlespeed class - too bad for me that most of the guys in that class have this kinda determination:
Should be fun though. I've been riding the snot outta my SS (singlespeed bike) lately and really enjoying it. I'll be on my race rocket, a Niner Air 9 carbon SS with Industry Nine wheels. The bike impresses me more and more every time I ride it. I'm always shocked at how well it gets through rough sections and rock gardens. Super stiff and holds a line like a roller coaster. Better then my old Trek Superfly 100 full suspension 29er! Stay tuned as I'll talk more on that when I do a full review on it in the very near future.
The name of my beastly bike you ask?
I like to call it Orange Crush
You draw your own conclusions as to why it got it's name
Most of you probably think I'm nuts for riding a SS bike. Your saying to yourself, why would you just want one gear when you could have a whole bunch? Truth be told I also like the geared bike, but SS'ing is fun because.....
- it's a challenge (try it and see)
-it's simple (no gears to shift - no mechanical issues regarding shifting)
-I feel like a kid again (my BMX bikes had one gear)
-I can only rely on my own power (see above-no gears to shift to make it easier)
- I feel like I'm on my moto (gotta hold momentum and pin it thru corners and tech sections)
-sense of achievment (again, it's a challenge and not for the faint of heart - or in this case the weak of legs)
- the reaction of my friends when they try and keep up with me on it (lots of cursing in my general direction)
- the look on the guys face with 27 gears as I motor by up a hill and disappear
So, I have 8 weeks to get ready for the 50 mile race. I just hope that I can stay healthy and injury free. Some of you know this has been difficult over the last 12 months. I feel like I have a chance to get a podium spot if things go right between now and then. Check back later for more updates along the way and to see my review on Orange Crush.
I feel like I've been talking to much about getting back into race fitness and not doing enough about it this Spring/Summer. As such I'll keep this post short and to the point so I can prepare for tonight's training session at Anne Springs - it's gonna be a beast! I finally have the itch and have started scratching it by signing up for races and training. I'm going to do a couple xc (meaning shorter distances = roughly 14-18 miles) races in July - first one is next week on July 4th at Anne Springs. The series usually has really good turnouts with a lot of racers.
After a few of the shorter races I'll be looking to do the 50 miler at Uwharrie. It fits right in with my training, which is directed to get me in peak fitness for the 6 Hour Grind race in early October. I have no illusions of winning my class in the Grind as I go up against some monsters. Speaking of monsters, I'll also be doing the Pisgah Monster Cross in September.
Just like the Uwharrie race, it fits in nicely with my training plan to get ready for the Grind. The Monster Cross is 70 miles on gravel and paved roads in Brevard/Asheville with some riding along the blue ridge. Most of the studs will be on cross bikes(road bikes with skinny knobby tires), but I'll be riding my Niner Air 9 carbon mountain bike. Yeah, I'll be at a disadvantage, but the purpose is to get the time in on the bike and have fun doing it - not to challenge for the win. I think this will serve all of those purposes. In October comes the Grind - 6 hours of racing and probably 63 or so miles on technical mountain bike trails. I'm hoping for a top 5 at the Grind. It would be nice if I could scare the leaders for a while too!!!
After the Grind I'll take a week off with no riding. Following that I'll do all speed work to prepare for the Warrior Creek point to point race and then the Swank 65k in Pisgah. I'm setting a goal of podium for the Warrior Creek race and top 5 for the Swank. More on those as the time gets closer.
So I've been very non-committal as it relates to racing my bike this season. With my bad luck over the last year I just haven't gotten my body back in shape enough to handle racing, both mentally and physically. I trained pretty hard in April, but then let things slide in May. I kept riding the bike, but didn't have any structure and certainly didn't ride hard at all. Somewhere along the way my motivation faded too.
I stuck my butt in my whitewater kayak more instead. Which is great - I love paddling and I'm gonna keep doing it quite often as long as my body allows it. Seems my lower back at my "advanced" age doesn't really like the kayaking though. Even with all the strength/core work, yoga, biking, stretching, and prescription medicine I still have to deal with moderate to advanced pain everyday. Oh well, welcome to getting old - won't stop me, might slow me down a little, but not much.
I have finally gotten the itch to get back to racing, which means back to training as well. This is great news as the training is what keeps me managing my weight. When I'm training, I'm also watching what I eat. The added exercise helps too, but I've learned that it's 80% diet. Heck, in May I decided that I wasn't going to worry about what I would eat - 8 pounds later here I am. So the long and short of my return to racing is this: I have decided to race at the Tree Shaker race in 3 weeks. It's a four hour race, and I'll probably do between 36-45 miles on my mountain bike depending on how fast I'm going. My guess is 36 miles as I'm just not gonna be in top shape in only 3 weeks from now. In this race you do as many 9 mile laps on a fairly technical course as you can in 4 hours. At least it's on a course that I ride all the time - I know every single root, rock, and line around that course. You can check out the race flyer here: http://www.charlottemtnbike.com/12Hour/TreeShaker2012.pdf
So we'll see how it goes. I don't expect to be on any podiums at this race, but I gotta start somehwere. My hope is that by the Fall this year I'll be in good shape and flying - I can worry about podium finishes then.
So far this year I've been riding my bikes a lot, but have been more into paddling whitewater then racing my mountain bike. I keep waiting to get the itch to race, but it just hasn't grabbed me yet. I'm training like I'm racing, just without the racing. So in the meantime I've filled my time up with paddling at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte. I've said it before, it's a great place to build skills. I even bought a new boat.
Looks mean doesn't it? The model is called a Stomper - only time will tell if I'll be stomping lines in the river. It's what is classified as a creek boat, which means it's meant for big rapids, and technical lines/drops through rivers and big creeks. Hopefully in time my skills will get me to this point - big water on the Tallulah.
I have some big goals to get much better this summer. Unfortunately I didn't paddle for six months from September to April so some of the skills I gained last year have been rusty. I've been struggling with my combat roll (how you right yourself in whitewater after you get flipped upside down) this year. My flatwater roll is fine, which just means it is all mental and I'm probably rushing my set-up. You can always self rescue, which is where you pull the cord and can get out of the boat and to the surface. Not ideal situation though as now your swimming in the rapids, your boat is filling with water and along with your paddle is hauling ass down the river without you. Not a big deal at the whitewater center, but on a river can be a more dangerous situation - not to mention you can lose all your shit. So I'll be doing drills and getting a little more instruction over the next month to help get my combat roll more consistent.
Once the roll gets better "bombproofed" then it's a matter of continuing to work on peeling into and out of eddies. Again, the whitewater center is a great place for this skill. For those that don't know what an eddy is; very simply, it is the calm spots on the river that sit just outside the main current. Most are near the sides of the river bank or behind a rock or boulder. It becomes an important skill to learn how to get into and out of eddies. They give you a break, chance to catch your breathe, sometimes allow you to scout the next rapid, and offer a safe place to discuss your next move. Your saying, that's great this whole kayaking thing sounds really easy. Wrong. You have the main current in the river, which depending on how strong a class of river your running (class I thru V with Class I =easiest, Class V = most difficult) could be very strong with surging water. Then just on the other side of the current is the eddy line with a current moving in the opposite direction. If you don't use your edges right peeling into or out of the eddy then you will very quickly learn a term we like to call "window shaded". You can always get Taco'ed in the main current as well. These little things called hydraulics that recirculate water back at you and create a "hole". They are known as keepers, because they hold you in place and beat yo ass. Check 1:39 in this video for an example of being window shaded and being stuck in a hole.
So, as you are learning, it pays to keep cool, calm, and not panic in all situations on the river. This is a another skill set you need to learn as a whitewater kayaker - the mental game is possibly the biggest part of it all. It separates the good from the best and if your gonna run big, pushy, class V water then you had better have it locked down. Hell, you even need it in class III and definitively class IV as well. I believe a lot comes with practice and experience. Why we are so lucky here in Charlotte to have the Whitewater Center.
I've got a little work ahead of me over the next month as I plan on the possibility of running some big water rivers by my birthday in June. In case your wondering what the progression of rivers is in my area (western NC/Northern GA/Eastern TN) it goes a little something like this:
Lower Green River (class I/II)
Tuck (class II)
Nantahala (class II/III)
French Broad River section 9 (class II/III)
Chattooga section 3 (class II/III)
Upper Green River (class II/III/)
Nolichicky River (class III/ one long class IV)
Pigeon River (class III)
Ocoee River (class III/IV)
Wilson's Creek (class IV)
New River (class IV)
Chattooga section 4 (class IV)
Cheoah (class IV/V)
Tallulah (Class V)
Green Narrows (class V)
Gauley (class V)
This is not a complete list, but covers the majority. Lot's of people do these in their own order depending on how comfortable they are with the current set of skills each paddler has. The whitewater center basically prepares folks to start somewhere around the Pigeon. The eddies at the whitewater center are much more difficult due to the facility being man-made. The eddies become big whirlpools with very strong currents, whereas in a river the current is much calmer in the eddy. I see me spending a lot of time on the Chattooga, Nolichucky, and Pigeon with a possible trip to the Ocoee before summers end. When the cool temps and rain comes back in the fall and the rivers start running at decent levels I'll be hitting Wilson's Creek, The New, Tallulah Fest, Green Narrows and maybe the Gauley depending on how comfortable I am.
I'll be trying my best to document some of my river experiences with you on here as I just bought a new gopro hero. Look for some point of view sickness in the coming months.
Haven't posted much in a few weeks. I've been all over the place - literally and mentally! Wifey and I went to Canada at the end of March for a little winter getaway and a whole lot of snowboarding. Epic trip, something I'll remember forever. Lots of powder, amazing scenery, great people, and the company wasn't bad either - lol. Here's a shot of where we stayed, downtown Banff:
Like I said, amazing scenery:
I got to get frosty on some nice steep and deep terrain(I'm the tiny red dot):
Once we got back from Banff I got serious as a heart attack on the bike. Race season was fast approaching and I had a lot of work to do. I've been able to put the work in, but somewhere along the line I just lost my desire to go out and race a bunch. I turned to whitewater kayaking a little more lately. I've got some paddling goals this year as well as mountain bike goals. I'll go over the paddling goals in another post later.
In April, I changed jobs as well. No longer at the Trek Store, I now work at Carolina Bicycle Company in Pineville, NC. They sell Specialized, Giant, Santa Cruz, and Merckx. Was a good move for me as I'm 10 minutes from home - previously I was about 35-40 minutes from work. Stop in and check them out sometime.
Just the other day I felt like racing again finally. I decided I would go for a fairly big event as my first in more then a year. I'm going to race the Tree Shaker Endurance race in late June. It's part of the Turn and Burn Endurance race series. You can check it out here: http://www.turnandburnendurance.com/ Figured it would be a good one to get back into as it's at my local trails 5 minutes down the road. I'm going to prepare from now until then in hopes of doing well - goal as always is a podium. Race is going to shake out around 45 miles and probably slightly over 4 hours of pedaling without a break. I'll keep you posted on the progress.
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