Unexplained Phenomenon

Just some random thoughts that I clearly have no explanation for:

• Why I wake up at 4am and am totally awake for an hour or so, go back to sleep, and I don't ever want to get up


• I rode down a road that was closed yesterday due to paving one side of it. The opposite direction I was traveling was freshly paved so no cars could use that side. A car was heading towards me in my lane due to the paving, clearly aware I was there. The lady barely slowed down, and almost ran me off the road, WTF!?! At least slow down a little bit


• Spending most of my road ride dodging piles of horse dung


• The Hay-bale that was randomly sitting in the middle of the road


• Drafting the trailer of the missing hay-bale, and subsequently passing him at 40kph because he was far too slow


• Why my legs felt like crap for 90 of the 105k I did yesterday? I mean couldn't have come around just a bit earlier? Maybe on some of the hills I was climbing?


• The dog on Wabash road, that ran past me so fast I had no idea. I sprinted, it sprinted, I chased and chased. Side by side at 45+ kph. I think I may have found a new training partner.

The winner of them all. Closing all the windows and doors in the house, only to come home and find that my dog, Lizzy, had yet escaped. Pawed through the screen door, pushed aside the baby-gate that was double insurance, slid the kitchen sliding door open, then jumped the 4ft high pool fence. She then spent the next few hours while I was out riding, apparently looking for me. Never venturing too far from home though, as the neighbor said she kept checking back. It took all of 5 minutes for me to arrive home and she showed up.

Seriously, I should've signed up for America's top dog. I think I might leave the laptop open and record some video of her sometime just so I can figure out how the hell she escapes every time.

Currently playing in iTunes: This Is How I Disappear by My Chemical Romance

Missed out on the 6HOP

So I missed out on this year's 6 Hours of Power. Dang, love that race and that course. Wasn't much I could do about it though.

It appears I did some major damage to the Superfly! Ouch. I'm not sure when I did it. Most likely during the Super D at Mount Snow, but very well could have happened sometime prior.

I've got the Supercaliber up and running, but I'm looking to sell it, so I don't really want to put wear and tear on the parts. Guess I'll be piecing the Paragon back together for a short bit or spending time on the Singlespeed when I hit the dirt.

I've been putting time in on the road bike and probably will look to keep continuing that for a short bit. It's nice to just jump on and go for a ride. No loading up the bike and/or driving and doing all the prep work that's behind it. Funny thing is, I pretty much didn't spend all that much time on the road yet this season, so It's all kinda fresh for me right now. Although the terrain around here sucks, I may have to figure out how to scoot out and get some good climbing rides in asap.

Mount Snow Pics and some Road Riding

Here's the pics of the men's pro XC Race. Enjoy the slideshow



I actually have some pretty cool pics of my road ride that I did while I was there, but they decided to save to my camera memory and not the SD card so I can't get them off.

This really cool chicka I know, just hooked me up with a nice pair of DOT Orange Oakley's. I'll for sure be sporting them at the 6HOP this weekend!

I got my powertap wheel back on the whopper. I really haven't been doing much training on the road bike this season. I really need to. It's just so much more fun to go for a long mt. bike ride. But the Superfly can only handle so much and the parts are starting to show their racing and training age. I replaced a bunch of stuff on the whopper and she actually shifts to a gear when I do. I can actually see the teeth on the cassette rather than just a solid block of grime! To celebrate the tour and all that is road worthy, I'm gonna join up for the Thursday night road ride!

Hopefully a few show up!

Currently playing in iTunes: Kids by MGMT

Mount Snow

Back from Mount Snow, VT. Fresh from the green mountains of vermont. A bit tired and still not fully unpacked from the whirlwind that was the past 2 weeks of racing.

Ej at Crankskins was gracious enough to offer me a couch in exchange for working and helping out at the booth. I certainly hope it was a success for him. It's a great product and I think with some time it will take off.

We arrived Wed Night, set up the booth then hit the course. I laid down 2 laps on the new style course. It was ok, nothing super special. But I preferred the older "original" course. This one just seemed a bit watered down. The climb was just one long climb to the top, and the descent was shortened up and missed out on some of the fun stuff. I rode the course a bit over the next few days and even managed to get in a decent road ride in.

I did end up signing up for a race. I forked over my $75 for the pro Super D. I ended up climbing up to the top of the mountain with Chris and we hit the course, it was a blast and not super technical. So on early sunday am, I got in line for the lift and headed to the top. On my practice run, I was feeling awesome and killing it. Then a few people were standing on the trail in a tight section, I torqued it and broke my chain. Luckily some guy in a Giant Jersey that won the race where you ride up and down the mountain gave me his tools (I didn't have a chain breaker). I fixed the chain and finished my run.

I got in the huge line and got to move to the front as they were waiting for me at the top. On my way up, I chatted it up on the lift with the chick who would go on to win the really hard race where you ride for only 20 minutes. Funny, I didn't even know who she was. As I was the last rider to line up, I had a crappy starting spot. The run sucked and I was pretty much fighting it out for last place. Running, especially with your bike uphill is not fun. Seeing as I was so far back, I basically just sat in and didn't try to kill myself or anyone else by trying to make some crazy passes. On the homestretch, I was fighting for 3rd to last and managed to just stack it around 35mph on a huge waterbar. I landed on my head, and bounced a few times. It was right in front of everyone. It was awesome. I haven't had a crazy crash like that in so long. I wish I woulda crashed a few times in practice, I kinda enjoy being sore from a good crash (I'm a sadist). Anyways after a few people came over to see if I was still alive (or just working on an audition for superman) I got back on and finished up. Dead last! Awesome. Did I mention I did this on a hardtail, while everyone else was pretty much on 5-inch dual squish? I gotta get some street cred for that, right?

I'll have some pictures up later tonight.

Windham NMBS

Saturday morning headed down to Windham Mt. with the crank yanker, err Crankskins H.M.F.I.C. EJ. Had the mini-van loaded up and hit the venue around mid-afternoon. After registration (which was a friggin $65), and EJ lucked out with #666 for his skull and flames bike, Ha, we headed out for a pre-ride.

With Ej in tow, we climbed. It seemed ever so familiar as I had raced here a long time ago at the masters of the mountains series. After we climbed, we climbed some more and then climbed some more.

They did a great job on the course. It was super technical and no mud anywhere. It was bone dry and even dusty and loose. Loads of kick ass bridges were everywhere and made for an interesting course.

Up early Sunday for our 8 am start. The heat and humidity was already cranking up. I headed out for my warm-up, threw a bottle down in the feedzone and lined up.

Gun went off and uphill immediately, and into some tight singletrack. Jammed up and trackstand while waiting to get into the woods. My legs were left at the start line, I tried to muster as much as I could but I just didn't have any top end and just settled into my normal endurance pace, which is incredibly slow compared to xc pace. I managed to not actually be the last one up the hill. I firebombed down the descent and through the rocky tech sections.

I really wasn't feeling it, I climbed up the hill a 2nd lap in my granny (1200ft climbing per lap) and was getting picked off by all the groups behind. I tucked my tail between my legs and decided that I was gonna pull the plug and head out.

So it goes, a truly awesome and tough course that I wish I had some legs for. Guess I need to up the intensity level in my training for some shorter stuff.

Heading wednesday to Snow to run the Crankskins booth with EJ. I won't be racing, but doing a big "training camp" for 6 hours of power in E-ville coming up in 2 weeks. If you are there stop by the booth, we'll hook you up.

Back on the Rivet

After a great week of riding and having far too much fun with friends , I decided to turn things up a notch last night and do some prep work for the upcoming races at Windham and Mount Snow Nationals.

While there's probably not much I can do training wise at this point to improve any performance, I can at least have fun riding my bike really fast and get some mental focus. Hopefully, I can pull of a miracle at Windham and qualify for Snow. I've not done any local xc racing, nor have I focused on working on qualifying for the event, so it's a shot in the dark. I plan on heading to Snow regardless if I qualify or not to run the Crankskins.com booth

Last night's ride was a good one to check the system and bang out a good hard one.



I pretty much pushed it to the redline as much as I could and drilled the ride out. Had some fun and got some great training in! Temps were brutal for this time of year (90+ and humid) so that meant just dripping with sweat for the entirety of the ride. Overall I felt good and ready to go. Hopefully I can sing the same tune this weekend at Windham

Currently playing in iTunes: Sweet Cloud by The Kills

Happy Birthday America!

It's been a long past few days of bike riding. Nothing really over the top insane, but just some random adventures and fun with friends.

This past Wednesday, Mark, Suzanne and myself put in a good 57 mile mix of road, rail-trails and cinder path, with a mix of some ATV trails for good measure.

Cruising along the Erie Canal

Rail Trail Express

Thursday, I headed down to the hollow for Casey's big birthday bash. The usual shenanigans occured, including a fireworks war and a 3am night ride occured, but I have no recollection nor evidence that it happened. I have some mysterious bruises and had a hangover the next day. I'm pretty sure we rode and rode hard as is the usual.

Friday was some more tooling around the Hollow and then heading over to the "bog". The ride came to a great end as Mark, Casey and I had a dogfight down Hungry Hollow road. 40+mph dirt road descending and 10ft 2-wheeled 3-wide drifting was a blast. Someday we'll catch that fighter plane style descent on film in all its glory.

War time Relics

Dogs and Bikes

Climbing up Shultz before the carnage down Cannonball Run

Casey and Val rolling along

Sunday was an epic day at Shindagin Hollow. The hollow-geneva (pronounce hallejeneva) crew spent the day bombing descents, jumping roots, hitting doubles, crashing in creek beds, cartwheeling through the woods, power sliding, catching air of bridges, listening to the casey cackle, world-cup racing, flat-tire fixing, smiling, and have a grand ol time as we put in 30+ miles. We pretty much took it easy up the climbs then just ripped it as hard as possible down the descents, racing the whole way and having a blast.

Chasing Casey and Mark through the woods

Gorrila Bear?

After a while we decided to take breaks on the descents (fixing Jer's wheel)

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Prep work before the downhill assaults