08 Humbler Slideshow

Yesterday was worthless. I slept for 18 out of 24 hours. I'm still a little bit tired today, but no where near yesterday. I consumed probably 5x my recommended caloric intake also yesterday, and it was great. Eating is good!

Resting up today, then back to the grinder tomorrow

2008 Humbler

2008 Humbler is in the books. I'm completely wiped out today.

111 miles, 14,030ft of climbing, 12:19 of riding, 6229kj, 4 finishers. It took us 3 friggin years to finally complete our grandiose plan of ultimate misery.

Mark, Casey, Hanggi and myself soldiered on for the final loop. Spent, exhausted, sleeping in the middle of roads. We surged, we struggled, we finally slayed the dragon.

I'm exhausted today, far too exhausted to do a full write up currently. Pics and more to come

In the meantime, go buy my bike

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

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

Ain't Dead Yet!

For those that were a bit confused about the last entry, that was written by Lindsey concerning our recent trip to Chicago to move her back :) Perhaps I'll let her guest blog on here from time to time.

After a few days of time off, and 30+ hours in the car, I'm finally back. Just peeked at my Performance Manager Chart, and things are looking grim for me, fitness had dropped a bit. Guess it's time to saddle up and start grinding away again. Just gotta put those beers down and grab a water bottle instead.

On a Sidenote: SUPER HUGE CONGRATS to Mark Hartman!! Mark finished up his 1st SOLO 24 hour race at Hot August Nights in CA and finished 2nd!! Turning 21 laps for a total of 204 miles!!

There was also a podium sweep by Americans in the 4 man division, with Casey/Hanggi/Greg/Bruce taking 1st, the 2nd Park Ave team taking 2nd and a CNY Dirt team taking 3rd!

Horrible Hundread is coming up fast, better get my ass prepped!

Suicide Six

Wrapped up the Suicide Six and the NYSERS series this past weekend. Pretty much wraps up racing for me this season. I had plans to SOLO the Hot August Nights 24hour, but I'm heading to Chicago Wed for a week and a half. Effectively kills that and any type of training load I was working on. I'm turning over to enjoying the summer and spending time having fun and digging into a few other things.

Suicide Six. I pulled a pretty good fast first lap, got a little bit bottlenecked on the rattler, but otherwise came out with the lead. Held it for maybe a lap or 2 till I was passed. Held the wheel for 1/4 of a lap then decided I needed to settle back into my own pace. Terry from Bear-Naked took over 2nd from me a short bit later and gave chase to the leader. I was comfortable where I was and decided to just hold my pace and work on staying consistent in my lap times. I was pretty good and only lost some time when I flatted on my 6th lap. A quick fix and I was back on the go, but still didn't have enough time to turn in 9 laps. Came in about 15 minutes past 4, with the flat put me about 7 minutes past. Effectively 7 minutes slower than last year as I crossed the line just shortly after the 6 hour mark. I'm pretty happy with it though and will take the age group victory and a 3rd.

The 3rd place result effectively put me in 2nd place for the NYSERS SOLO Overall. Pretty happy with that and maybe next year I can give Terry a little better run for his money ;).

Currently playing in iTunes: Rockers To Swallow by Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Horrible Hundred Update

So this past Monday, to celebrate the holiday, Matt Hanggi and I headed out for a little ride down in Naples. We wanted to scout and collect some of the tidbits for the upcoming Horrible Hundred Race in September. We chose to cover the last 40 miles of the course. For those of you that are climbers or those that just want to enjoy the suffering, there is good news! This course is going to have tons of hills! The 40 mile ride that we did had 8500ft of vertical!

Horrible Hundred

*I'm going to update the graph a little later and segment it out, but here it is for now



The Route: Started at the DEC and climbed Griesa Hill to Oakley to Gannet. Hit Ontario County Park and descended that and followed the road down to the backside of Bristol Mt. We climbed up and over the backside on the Dirt road and then descended on the snowmobile trail. At the base of the Snowmobile we hit Stid Hill and then climbed that to the Ridge Trail where we hit the tower drop (mile 24, drops 900 ft in 1.2 miles!). From there we took the road to West Gannet and climbed up to Ontario County Park again and descended the same trail. Headed across the road to Cutler, up and down the Orange trail then took the road down to the closed road that drops us in right next to Bob and Ruth's .



If I can ever figure it out I will get the google earth stuff up and we can all have some fun browsing over where we will be playing!



I rested up on tuesday and last night Hanggi and I hit Dryer Rd for a few hours of some good fun. Conditions there are great right now, even getting a little bit sandy in the corners. We both had a good time ripping around that place. For some reason we were a little more accident prone than normal. Perhaps with the dry conditions speeds were a little higher than normal and we just pushed it to the edge. I think both of us left our fair share of blood and skin out there yesterday. It's all in good fun. The great thing is that place is really turning into a mecca for area riders. There had to be at least 2 dozen riders out there on the trails including about half a dozen females getting their sweat on!



Mark Hartman and I are heading out tomorrow mid-day for the Mohican 100. I'm feeling pretty ready to rip this one up, but I guess we will see how the head feels 40+ miles in. I've been getting some great sleep and I'll be taking some sleeping pills with me to ensure that I sleep the night before! I cannot wait for the race, I've got those nervous, excited , scared feelings kicking around and just want to grab my bike right now and go!



I'll post from my phone a few quick blurbs from our road trip and our results after the race!