130.7 MPH on a mountain bike!?

EDIT: NOW HAVE THE VIDEOWired Blogs: Gadget Lab: "33 year old Austrian Markus Stoeckl has smashed the World Speed Record for series mountain bikes. Stoeckl, nicknamed "Hercules" because of his 6'4", 220 lbs. frame, broke the 8 year old record by 14 mph on a 2000 meter, 45 degree run in the Chilean Alps. Because of the extreme cold, Hercules had to hold his breath for the 40 second duration so his helmet didn't fog up."

Think you're ready for the winter season? Maybe we should hop on board this guys training plan!! You'll be fast that's for sure!!

Panel: Landis guilty of doping - Yahoo! News

Panel: Landis guilty of doping - Yahoo! News: "Floyd Landis lost his expensive and explosive doping case Thursday when the arbitrators upheld the results of a test that showed the 2006 Tour de France champion used synthetic testosterone to fuel his spectacular comeback victory, The Associated Press has learned."

Dopers Suck!

What to do now?

Well, The Horrible 100 is done and over with. Season is winding down and my original plan was to hit up the Roots, Rocks and Ridges race in Ellicottville on 9/30. That plan has gone down the tubes lately. Last week I had to go away to Philly for work and as a result, no training and some fitness decline.

Now, it's Thursday and I still have the same illness I've had since Saturday evening. I've had a fever and pretty bad sore throat all week. A few times I've either come to work late or left early cause I can't even hold my head up. Shivering in bed with 3 blankets on while it's 75-85 outside is definitely not how I pictured spending the past few days. Yesterday I headed to the doc and picked up some antibiotics. Hopefully those will help a bit.

I haven't ridden since the H100, and there's no chance of a proper recovery for the R,R & R race; this is my official end of season declaration. I'm not hanging the bike up, but I'm not going riding with any purpose other than to have fun and look forward to the next ride. I have some thoughts about hitting a cross' race but I really don't feel like doing any intensity training right now (specially as I'm still feeling like crap). I'll probably wind it right back up though sometime around the start of November.

Don't worry I won't leave you hanging, I'll still keep posting ;)

Currently playing in iTunes: Challengers by The New Pornographers

Horrible 100: Long Version

My apologies for the lateness. I had to head out of town for work; and then I fell ill over the weekend

Full Writeup from the Horrible 100: Went of this past Sunday the 9th with 19 riders who showed up to brave the rainy conditions.

As is usual we kicked off as early as possible and got started just past 6am. The rain came down and was there all day long. The trails were wet, but completely rideable. Thankfully it was a predominately warm day.

The first loop (of 3) had us riding up East Hill right away and into Hi-Tor for some fun fire-road climbing then descending down and hitting the 2nd major climb of the route (Burke Hill). We hit the new section of singletrack across the top and then, Hanggi ended up needing to replace his der hanger. While he repaired that our group ended up re gathering and riding out acroos Pulver and onto the Italy Valley descent. Taylor and Chad had ridden thru and I bridged up to them on the descent. We hit the road together prior to the Wood Hill Climb were Taylor and I picked our way up the thru the loose rocky sections while it downpoured on us. We decided to roll on from that point and we pretty much rode together for the remainder of the day. Thru the Orange trail in Hi-Tor and down the DEC. descent was all that was left at this point. The roots in Hi-Tor proved to be pretty damn tricky but negotiable. I was afraid that the DEC descent was going to be super slick due to all the shale rocks being wet, but it was a tree root that took me out about a third of the way down.

Arrived back at base camp, refueled with all the goodies that the girls provided (huge thanks!).



The 2nd loop was epic. Taylor, Chad and I rolled out to the Griesa rd climb. Taylor and I hit it pretty good up the climb and bombed straight thru Ontario County Park with no issues. Took the road over to Stid hill rd and climbed that. The road was brutally steep but not that bad. Got into Stid Hill where it was a bit muddy but tolerable and picked our way clean to the base of Bristol Mt. Bristol was where everyone cracked pretty much. It's a tolerable climb coming fresh into it. The base of the climb is not bad but it get's long after a while and right as you get to the top you hit the steepest points. Needless to say, I was fried at that point and decided to walk. I wasn't the only one.... Bombed the super loose shale/rocky descent on the backside and started the road climb up to Cutler.

The soggy day took its toll

I hit Cutler feeling ok, but by the time I got on to the Carriage Trail I was out of food. I bummed a bar off of Taylor and headed up the climb to the top of the field and into the Pinewoods (Essentialy riding the 24 hour race course backwards). The bar really wasn't enough food at this point and I had scarce energy left. Taylor was riding strong but I was dropping him a little bit on the descents. Seeing as we had to descend the orange trail and ride mostly road back with a short bit of descent through the closed road, I decided to ride on ahead for fear of bonking. I hit the rest area about 5 minutes ahead of Taylor. I was happy to see Lindsey there waiting for me, but just as happy to gorge myself on anything I could put my hands on. I was soo hungry and ate everything I could. Apparently I wasn't the only one who was, because the next group of riders all came in from finishing the loop and everyone had run out of water and food!

4 soldiers decided to head out together for the last loop; although Chad was shortly behind us after some food and change of clothes. Taylor, Hanggi, Jim and I decided to brave it all the way to the end. I was the only one who forgot my light and I paid for it. The rain started to come a little heavier and the temps dropped quite a bit more as we climbed the final few hills. As we descended off of Flint hill, I almost crashed into the guardrail as I had no light. Taylor and Jim decided to turn and head back to base camp. Hanggi and I decided that we would trudge on and make the final push up Wolfanger. A brutal monster of a climb that was the perfect finish to the route. We slogged our sopping wet carcasses up the hill and had a enough time to take a photo at the top. I had to ride side by side with Hanggi down the descent to make use of his light and we arrived back at base camp.

We were exhausted but happy and picked up our trophy.

The Chart of the whole ride: I lost the last few climbs as my ergomo battery was dying

All the Pics from the season of scouting and the event. Click thru and you can go to the online web album

Update

I've got the H100 post drafted up and ready to go, but I'm stuck in
Philly for work.
I also got a ton of pics from Matt Hanggi who was smart enough to
carry his camera during the ride.

I'll have something up for everyone asap

Sent from my iPhone

Horrible Hundred: Quick and Dirty version

Horrible is all finished. Myself and Matt Hanggi were the only sole survivors who made it up over the top of Wolfganger to put down 108 miles of riding and 11,000 ft of climbing.

Ride time: 11:29, TSS 597.8!!
It rained all friggin day....

Too tired and busy to write a full report.

Pics and full write-up to come soon

Currently playing in iTunes: Yesterday Threw Everything At Me by Athlete

Horrible Hundred Recon

Well, truly back into the full swing of things this past weekend. Spent back to back days reconning the Horrible and clearing sections for next weekend.


It felt good to really get back on the bike. Yes, my CTL is pretty low after having taken some time off the bike, but mentally I'm fresh. My legs felt pretty fresh also after putting some good climbs in them.

Saturday we rode portions of the 2nd loop of the Horrible. Casey, myself and Casey's protege Taylor. Taylor was a virgin to the Naples/Bristol trails and we broke him in pretty well. We started off climbing up W. Gannett and into OCP. I was feeling the flow on OCP and just burned it down the descent. Always seems that when I'm off the bike for a bit of time, finding lines and flow becomes effortless. Everything just simply falls into place. After OCP we hit up Cutler and added some new length to the course, but also keeping some great stuff in there. Finished up the day by heading out and climbing up and over the backside of Bristol and descending the snowmobile trail.

Sunday, Mark, Suzanne and myself hit up the 1st loop of the Horrible. Climbed up East Hill, through Hi-Tor, down Bassett and up Burke. We spent a bit of time cleaning, and clearing the new section of FLT singletrack. After that we came down Italy Hill. I flatted as usual on the descent. My spare was bad, suzanne's spare was bad; finally made it out with Mark's 26" spare tube. After the brutal climb up Wood Hill and through the Orange Trail in Hi-Tor we hit the DEC. Mark and I were killing it on the way down, just flying down the thing. I was riding really close to Mark and could barely make out the trail as there was just a dust cloud to follow. As a result I hit a v-ditch wrong and flatted. I rolled it easy down the descent, Suzanne also flatted on the descent and the 2 of us walked the little section back to the car (but not after a quick dip in the creek to clean up). It was a good ride, and I felt great.

Here's a little slideshow of a bunch of pics from the weekend and some more Horrible Stuff!!



Currently playing in iTunes: After Hours by Caribou