Site Revamp

If you're reading this from a feed reader or google blogger, I've redone my website at jasonhilimire.com. All the old entries are still available, but I ask you to point your browser to jasonhilimire.com as I'm now using wordpress for hosting.

For those who subscribe in feed readers here is the new url http://jasonhilimire.com/?feed=rss2

The blogger site, will sit for a bit then hopefully just point to jasonhilimire.com

Feeling like crap

Not sure what's going on, but seem to have come down with some kind of cold. Perhaps this weekend was a bit too much volume for me? I felt fine on Monday and even fine yesterday, however, this morning I awoke with some tightness in my chest and a little head congestion. I wasn't feeling 100%, so I decided to sleep in a few extra hours. I still have my little cough, perhaps something was there all along and yesterday's short little ride weakened my immune system just enough for it to unleash all holy hell on myself. Hopefully it'll go away...

Yesterday's ride was short trip over to explore Bear Creek Park, found a few new trails that I had just been skipping past on my way to Green Mt. My legs felt ok as I rolled out the door and I, did 2 loops around the lake next door, fairly easy so Lizzy girl could run a bit. She was pretty excited, and took off, I actually had to ride a good clip to keep up with her. After her 2 laps, I headed over to Bear Creek and explored. My legs felt like crap. I ended up with an hour of ride time and it was nice to get outside for the day.

Hopefully, a few days off will allow me to get out for another good weekend of riding in the mountains again. After this weekend, I plan on taking a solid week or so off from the bike, regenerating some CNS credits and getting ready to kick-start the 2009 training season.

Bridget is coming out here this coming monday, cannot wait to see her!! It's gonna be pretty exciting time!

Busy past few days, but some great riding

My last post was a bit ago. Ever since moving out here to CO, things have been a bit of a whirlwind. It's been a super busy last 5 days, that's for sure. But it doesn't mean I haven't ridden my bike at all. How can one not when the weather is 75 and sunshine (meanwhile it's snowing back in NY!!)

I managed to get myself in gear and do a cross race this past sunday. Nothing like lining up against the pro/1/2 guys having very little time on the bike, at altitude and a lack of fitness. Somehow, I mistimed the start and was spit out the back immediately. I swear I never heard a countdown or anything similar. Chase hard, run up the sand, ride in the sand, run up the sand. It was a tough course, I ended up flatting at the start of my 4th lap and called it quits. At least I wasn't in last place though. So as if that wasn't enough, I went and signed up for the Boulder Super Cup Weekend, 2 UCI races in Boulder this weekend, Running with the big dog's again! Hopefully I'll do a bit better.

Speaking of dog's I managed to get Lizzy out on her first trail ride since she broke her pelvis. I took her over to Green mt. on the singlespeed on Monday. I'm guessing the loop was about 12-14k, but some good climbing. This isn't east coast trails, as she's stuck running the whole time and no place for short cuts. But, she did great! Even when she saw a herd of mule deer, she managed to heed my command and not chase!! Maybe that truck she hit, knocked some sense into her!

Today was a bit of an epic day. I was in Boulder at 8am for the group cross practice ride. There was around 100 people or so! We rolled over to the Elks club in town and did a nice 25 minute or so effort. Mine, was cut short as my tire was soft and I had to steal a pump and get some air in it as I was banging my rim all over the place and didn't have a spare tire. After some air in the tire, I managed to get some good quality work in. Shortly after we re-grouped and headed over to North Boulder Park and did a quick loop on the grass. I felt much better at that then at the Elks course, but I'm still getting used to the high intensity efforts.

The ringer for the day was the road ride with Jeff Kerkove. We met up after the cx ride, and he dragged me up Sunshine Canyon to Gold hill. Head over to his site for a nice video of me suffering in my 39x25. I need a compact.

How Badly? Here's my cadence from the ride



The little town on the top was pretty cool, and had a nice little store with some awesome homemade goodies and a kick-ass cast-iron stove!

Little Village of Gold hill

At least when I was grinding up the hill slowly, I was able to take in some epic scenery

Wasn't the only one suffering though!

Tomorrow night should be interesting, gonna meet a group for a night ride at Green Mt!

Another day at Green Mt

So I decided to give it another go at Green Mt. I mean what am I suppose to do other than ride my bike out here on the trails right? After feeling like death yesterday, I kitted up and felt like a million bucks. Didn't feel at all like I was dying or not getting any air in.

I headed thru Bear Creek (quickly) and climbed the switchbacks up the Green Mt. Trail, then descended the fire-road and hit the outer loop. Somehow, I missed the singletrack I rode up yesterday, as that's what I was really looking for as it woulda been a sick descent



Ride time was short, but I did nearly as much as yesterday in almost 40 minutes less ride time! That's a huge difference, plus my wattage numbers were up a ton as I was feeling great.

For the rest of this week I'm down in Colorado Springs for the Coaches Summit. Should be fun, but a bonus is that we are done around 3ish each day and plenty of people to ride with. And the weather looks great!

1st Ride in Colorado at Green Mt!!

I'm now officially in Colorado. Made it here this past Saturday. I've since gotten settled in here with a friend in Littleton and managed to get out for a good ride yesterday on 2 trails that are right outside the door (Bear Creek and Green Mt.) Conditions were great, it was a little bit cool, but the sunshine was warm.





I'm gonna head out the door right now for another quick trip over to Green Mt., then I'm off to Colorado Springs for the Coaching Seminar for a week. Should learn some great stuff to make people fast! Hopefully I'll get in quite a few nice road rides while I'm down there.

Please, send oxygen instead of comments. I'm in need of some until I acclimate!

Busy, Busy

Been just crazy these past few weeks. Don't even know where to begin here on the blog. This past wednesday I did manage to get out for a good ride with the GBC and Hollow crew prior to my departure.

We hit up Shindagin Hollow for a few hours of play. The night prior we had played hard at the Hartman's. Suzanne served up some great chili, then it was time for some pool and mod racing. The mod crit quickly grew into a who could do better donuts. With that, we preceded to open the garage door and try to do them out on the wet driveway.

Needless to say, there was some fun that we had. Wednesday down at Shindagin was a great day. Fall foliage was in full bloom and the trails were in perfect shape.

We managed a huge crew (Jer-Bear, Casey, Der-Kaiser, Hanggi, Fry Guy, Marky Mark, Suz and I) for a wednesday afternoon. Mark was kind enough to lend me his Hi-Fi 29er. I made sure to put it to work hitting some gap jumps, riding 6 ft high skinnies, north shore bridge drops (and subsequent crashes) and tearing up the trails. Could a dualie be in my future?

The past few days were spent at a Coaching Seminar in Ypsilanti, Mi. I learned how to go real fast, and learned boat loads of info. It's going to come in real handy. Next week I have the Coaching Summit in Colorado Springs and plan on learning even more info. Believe me, if you want to be fast for next season, hit your goals, and have fun, there's nothing better than a coach

1 Week

7 days is all I have left of my time in NY. Next Thursday am, I depart for Boulder, CO. Going to be working for FasCat Coaching!! It's getting a bit close, I'm nervous, a bit scared. But this will be good, this is what I want and need. Finally the summation of a dream (moving to CO) is going to be reached.

Things have been hectic, and I've taken a few days off the bike to unwind. As a result, yesterday was perfect weather day for a little boat riding. Seeing as it's my last day to fit in a boat ride I obliged and my father and I headed out onto Seneca Lake for a slow cruise.

The lake was incredibly calm, and we just cruised down past all the houses and hung out south of the state park just off shore. Downed a few beers, chatted and relaxed in the sunshine. Couldn't have asked for anything more.

I even got to drive the boat back (I had to give captains duties back, when the William Smith Crew Team was entering the harbor at the same time as us). It's actually surprisingly easy to drive.

So after all that relaxing, I guess it's really time to get down to business. Start packing up, laying down my itinerary and get some last minute errands done this week


Currently playing in iTunes: Dancing Choose by TV On The Radio

Oh yeah, yesterday I spent 3.5 hours in the dentist chair getting a root canal done. Took a while, but the infected tooth is fixed and the pain has ceased, just means I've got to get it crowned when I get to CO. Anyone know a good dentist out there?

Weekend Wrap (Full Report)

It was a long weekend of racing and driving in the car. Friday afternoon, I set out for the 4 hour drive north to my brothers place in Malone. Giving me about an hours drive to Whiteface Mt. for saturday's race.

Got there with plenty of time to play with my nephew Peyton, eat some gnocchi with homemade sauce by Grams and watch a movie. I managed to get a great night's sleep in and then get the the race right on schedule. However, I didn't really get a great warm-up in. Being as the race was new and recently scheduled it meant a small field (3 of us in the pro class), but it did mean we were all gonna get paid! That however didn't mean I didn't race my ass off.

The race started with a little prologue section with a climb, then onto the main course and up the access rd. Suffered a bit on the start and was struggling on the first lap, trying to get the legs together. I ended up losing sight of 1st place as he disappeared in the 1st section of singletrack. I surged hard, started to feel better and raced well over all. Race was a bit short at 1:40, but every one of my 4 laps was within 30 secs of each other, so I was at least nice and consistent. I did bag $250 for 2nd!! Everybody better hit this race course next year as it was one of the baddest and best ever!

Sunday (after a long drive home saturday) I headed down to Ellicottville for the Roots, Rocks and Ridges race. I think the last time I managed to do this one was about 5 years ago. There was good number of people and it was a great day for racing. Course started with a road prologue while we were lead over to Holimont and the start of the climbing. Didn't mean it was truly neutral though as we were clicking off a good pace on the road. Knowing the climb was coming up, I got near the front and stayed there trying to shake the legs out from the prior days efforts. Hit the climb and when it turned to dirt a small group of us split the main field. I was sitting at the tail end of the group around 4th/5th and came off on the climb prior to entering the singletrack. I was busy closing the gap to the rider in front of me, when I felt my rear tire was real squishy. I jumped off to throw a co2 in and didn't do much. I decided to tube it and it took me forever to get the valve stem out. Finally go the valve stem out, tube it and the co2 barely puts any air in, WTF!?! I spend forever hand pumping my mini pump (luckily does both), while getting passed by everyone. I got the tire up and ready to go and ended up behind a large smashed together group near the back. It was tight singletrack and I really wanted to get back to the front. Riders were dabbing and falling all over the place, I ended up having to use the "pro" lines to pass quite a few of the riders. After a few minutes being stuck behind them, I finally got free and clawed my way back up. I was surging and flying through the singletrack.

I was actually feeling really great overall. I managed to catch a bunch of riders. I did have to stop at one point and put some more air in my rear as it was still feeling soft. I shot up again and was catching more riders. Any chance I got, I was doing the Big Ring Challenge and hammering through the singletrack. I was creeping way up in position and just was catching 2 more riders when I realized I had a broken spoke. Took some time to get it out of the rotor and bend it around so it wouldn't get caught on anything. I managed to catch and pass back one rider, but ran out of trail catching the other.

Total time according to the powertap lost by flats and spoke: ~8:30. Unofficially according to mom, I was about 9 minutes down on first! I finished in 10th place, which I thought was incredible considering how many riders initially passed me. It was a great course and good ride and was happy to end my season on a strong weekend of racing!

Now it's time for 'cross

Currently playing in iTunes: Revelry by Kings of Leon

T minus 10 days and counting

Full Weekend Report coming tonight.

2nd place at Whiteface
10th at Roots Rocks and Ridges

Incredible courses and great competition. Loads of driving. I slept for 12 hours last night.

New Bike Day

Yesterday was new bike day! One of the greatest days for bike racers. I got the email that my bike had arrived from the crew at Geneva Bikes and rushed out after work to start the assembly.

While Mark was finishing up his work, I did the unboxing, prep work and light assembly, aka I was the "fluffer" for Mark to come in and do the real stuff. I managed to do this 2x somehow as we grabbed the wrong size box originally and I had the bike assembled before we really noticed. So the 2nd time around I was quite good and a bit faster.

I've yet to give her a real ride in the dirt, but she sure is purdy' and I'll guess I'll have to get her dirty next week. For now though, here's some pics!

From Cross 09

From Cross 09

From Cross 09

From Cross 09

Today is some fast and furious openers, then head up to my brothers place in Malone and visit him and his family as they are all coming down to cheer me on at Whiteface in Lake Placid tomorrow (click the link for course pics). Looking forward to putting the number plate on this weekend. I'll have to be fast as I need to wrap up, drive home and get up early again to drive the opposite direction for the Root's Rocks and Ridges race in Ellicottville. Looks like its going to be an early start!

Burning Bike Festival

The first ever Burning Bike Festival was held at Ontario County Park this past weekend. OCP has come along ways, it was once just a stopover as the Finger Lakes Trail ran thru it. Now it's being fully utilized and many new (and awesome) trails have been put in, and are in great shape and ready to ride.

I skipped out on the Friday night festivities as it was pouring out and I had no desire to camp in the rain. I got everything together Saturday am and headed over to the park. While a few were out riding, I managed to get a ride in on the singlespeed (with my new Black Ops Carbon Fork!) with Evil Steve and Andy August. After a few loops they dropped off and I decided to put the SS to the test and descend down off the hill and over to Cutler to climb some hills and do some more descending. The fork and the bike ride great and it's a fun play bike.

After the ride it was chow-time and then over to camp. Original plans were for a night ride, but the heavy rains and beer consumption kept that at bay.

The Burning Bike

Evil Steve's Glow Bike

mmmm...tasty

Schwarty having a Yee-haw contest

Schwarty moments later

It poured all night so Sunday was a crapshoot, but after a good hearty breakfast, and some consumption of non-alchoholic beverages, Casey, Jer-Bear and I headed out for a ride. We did a good loop around OCP on the slick trails, then decided to explore a trail we had never ridden. A top secret descent off the park. It was a great descent with a good mix of tech, super steep, super fast and fun. After that we headed over to Cutler and did a quick loop on the orange trail. It was a good day, a bit humid and windy, but much nicer than the prior day's tremendous rainstorms.

This week will be some short rides, wait for the cross bike and prep for the Whiteface Race and Roots, Rocks and Ridges race. My final weekend of XC racing!

back to laying on the couch.....

Feeling good

Yesterday, despite not wanting to truly get back on the bike, I managed to get in a decent road ride. Running late for the group ride as usual required the no warmup straight to tt mode for the 8 miles to the shop. Managed to get there only to find no one was there. So Jim and I headed out the door together and put in a good hour + into the wind heading south and chatting about the current political situation. It was a nice late summer/early fall day (not like today as it's raining).

The legs felt pretty good for the most part. I was able to put in a nice test on them for the ride home as it was hitting dusk (I did have lights though). I slammed it home and kept having to double check my numbers that I was putting out. I was feeling good and looking at the watts going, is that right? I managed my 2nd best 10 min power of the season for the ride home and it was dead flat! My best power was only 10w higher and that was while climbing! 2 100 milers back to back, I guess does a body good!

I've got one of these on order as the new Fisher Presidio is not going to be here in time for the cross season. I'll be looking forward to testing this bad boy out asap.

Also, going to be putting a Origin8 Black Ops Carbon fork on the Singlespeed. Will be looking forward to testing her out this weekend at the Burning Bike festival at OCP. Might be riding it all weekend!

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

Lizzy is gonna be alright!

So a few weeks ago Lizzy hit a car. Yes, she hit the car not the other way around. I was prepping my bike and getting set up to head out for a race the next day and ended up taking her to the vet. Well after a bit, she started hurting pretty good and I took her back a week or so later for x-rays. Come to find out she broke her pelvis in a few places. Today I had to take her to the vet surgeon for pre-op review. The surgeon thought that she really wouldn't need surgery and would be ok in the long run!! Woohoo! Needless to say, her and I are pretty happy!

Lizzy chillin at the vet

Tonight will be some prep work. I plan on heading down to the Liberty Mtn. Classic in Northern PA. Have not ever been to this race, so I figured I would throw down and see if I still have anything after SM 100.

Sunday is the Humbler!! Gonna be a bright and early morning, then 100 miles of awesome trail riding in Naples!! I'll bring the camera for sure. Hopefully the rain holds off this year and we get a good day and a good number of riders. Hope to see you there!

Great Course...Bad Legs

Headed south to Virginia over this past Labor Day weekend for the Shenandoah Mountain 100. Arrived mid-day on Saturday, it was brutally hot. I set up the tent, registered and went out for my pre-ride of the first climb.

Heading towards the climb, the legs were a little stiff from the drive, so I hit a few openers and was feeling great. I was flying up the climb doing my sprints and was 100% ready to go. The first climb was simply the same thing over and over until the top. Climb a little, left hand bend with a slight descent, tight right hand turn into a steep climb. Probably did that at least 10 or more times over. It made a sharp left got a little steeper and a little looser up to the top. I turned around rolled to the bottom and made it back to the campground in time for the free spaghetti dinner.

Hit the tent around dark for the 5am wakeup. After about an hour a little sprinkle started, then a full on downpour till at least midnight. Did I mention my tent leaks? Every few minutes I had to move to keep from getting wet. Finally it stopped, then the fireworks started. After the fireworks were the bullhorn whoooop-whooooooooop just about every half hour right until 5am. Needless to friggin' say, I really got no sleep whatsoever. Knowing my history of racing after getting no sleep due to jackasses, I knew it was going to be a tough day. Little did I know how tough....

5am the gong goes off. I get up with everyone else, bleary eyed and tired. Slam a starbucks mochachinno, and a little bagel. Prepped and to the line. 500 eager racers in the middle of a field behind the lead moto, making a mad dash for a right hand turn onto a road 100 yards later. Announcer makes the pre-race speech and finishes with a "Ok, let's go" Moto wasn't even started yet, half take off, half hesitate, I go. Get to the first climb, feeling pretty good. I'm comfortable in the top 30 or so, perfect where I want to be for my sub 9 hour goal. Climb well, feeling good, yo-yoing in a few spots where I try to keep the effort low if I go to hard, top the climb about 2-3 minutes shy of Eatough and the front group.

Mad fast descent then over to the next climb. Singletrack slogfest, muddy, steep, rocky, narrow. Half are waking a few are riding. I start to feel like crap, no mojo to get going on the climb. Decide to walk, I walk slow and finally get to the top after losing about 50 spots. Start the singletrack descent and saddle snaps out of place. Have to jump off and fix, bolt was super tight, but fixed and got going. Make up about 20 places on the bombingly long singletrack descent. Feeling good and happy about going down.

Hit the dirt roads and picking people off, end up getting into a big group and just roll along. Dump the group shortly after and working with a few riders on the slightly downhill dirt roads and we are flying, picking off tons of riders. Feeling strong, taking good pulls. I'm working with Cheryl Sornson and Trish Stevenson (eventual female 1st/2nd). The 3 of us actually split the group and take off on the road climb and I give them a hand to help chase down Betsy Shogren. I eventually drop them on the road climb and make it to the aid station. They made a quick stop, and I stopped for some food and bathroom break. Never did see them again.

I start the long climb up the 3rd main climb and I'm feeling completely hosed. Wondering if I'll ever even finish. No snap in the legs, barely turning over the pedals. Granny gearing at 50rpm, while singlespeeders are flying by in 32x20. I have to stop and stretch my legs a few times. I finally make it to the top after what feels like forever. I got a sick, insanely fun singletrack off-camber 20+ minute long descent, caught a few people back and I'm having a blast. I hit the road after the aid station, having just slammed a coke. Catch a few riders and as we keep catching the group keeps getting bigger. I realize I feel pretty good on the road and no one else remotely wants to work. I roll ahead without anyone following. Have a good minute lead into the next singletrack climb. I decide to just climb at my pace. I feel good, climbing great. It's super techy and rocky, keeps going and going and going. Continually techy, continually up. I hadn't had any real food in a bit and feel my energy levels low. Decide to sit down and eat a bar. Lose a few spots, but get to the top with a few locals for the descent. According to them it was the best singletrack around. I'm following, riding blind, but not having trouble keeping up. Descent is sick and just a blast of fun. End up getting a little wide in a corner and front wheel washes out. I hit the deck, get up, go back to find the powertap cpu and get started. Get going again, and end up giving a tube to Betsy Shogren as she flatted for the 2nd time (she was waaay out in front early). Even after that, I railed the descent and caught the original riders I had started with.

Aid station, then death march. Long, long false flat on the road. End up pulling the trigger as the coke doesn't settle well. Paved road was forever long false flat, onto a dirt road roller/false flat. I'm feeling spent. I have to stop a few times to stretch the legs and keep from just falling over on the bike. Keep going, and onto a long fire-road climb. It went on forever, literally. I think it was a good 90+ minutes or longer after already having climbed slowly for the past 45 mintues. Make it to the aid station, spent. Looking forward to the descent. Refuel with pizza, and a few bites of food. Get ready to bomb, hit some fast double-track down. Then climb, and continue climbing. WTF! where's the downhill. Keep climbing for the next 45 minutes. Now, I'm seriously dead meat on the bike. I walk for a portion to gain some energy.

Finally the descent starts, feel great, flying down it. Pass a bunch and get to the road, feeling good and flying, final climb. We've been over this already, but the legs again shut down. Don't know what's wrong but keep going as slowly as I can. Finally over the top and hit the fireroad descent. It's almost over. I end up catching another rider, we're riding and chatting. Pretty much all downhill, he suddenly takes off. No idea why really so I follow, we quickly come off the road into a congested area, shit we are super close. I'm following hard on his wheel, into the campground. Whoa, he just railed a crazy jump in the grass, so I nail it too, get some good air. Can hear all the people cheering about the jump. Have to land and start sprinting hard, I pull right up next to him, but carrying so much speed, I can't swing the corner and have to go wide.

79th place 9:46 official. 9:02 ride time. Considering I felt like absolute death, I'm fairly ok with that.

Click thru for full size

Immediately grab 2 beers from my cooler and head to the creek under the bridge and just chill in the ice cold rain water from the night before. I'd been thinking about the water and beer for 99.5 miles!

Farmall Follies

Last night was the 2nd race of the Farmall Summer Series. A bit larger field as the weather was very much nicer than last weekend. I chose to ride the superfly this week in prep for this weekends race, but seemingly everyone there was on singlespeeds. WTF? I rode mine last week, guess I may have to pull it out for next weeks race.

I felt good and ready for the race. For some reason an hour on the Farmall race course seems much harder than some of the xc or 6 hour races. I had gone out yesterday morning for an hour to pull off a nice easy active recovery ride and settle the legs for the event.

Off the line I felt good and made my move in the fast section to take the lead into the woods, was overtaken after we climbed out, but took the lead back on the longest climb of the course. After that I just got into a rhythm and slowly increased my gap till I had a fairly good sized lead. Halfway through the second lap, I was jamming it up a short little climb and my left pedal suddenly snapped off. Examining it I could see a few of the threads were in bad shape and couldn't hand thread it back in on the trail. I limped out of the woods and luckily the Specialized demo trailer helped me out and got er installed back properly.

I hesitated for what I was going to do, but decided I could use the fitness and jumped back on the course to give chase. I finished out the race and did my seven laps. Even though technically I shoulda been DQ's. It was fun though and the course wore in real nice after last weeks rain storm.

Probably head out tonight either down to Naples for some climbing or over to Spencer for some more laps on the course before this weekend.

Currently playing in iTunes: The Stars Are Projectors by Modest Mouse

Poor Lizzy

I was all prepped up Friday afternoon and ready to head to the God's Country Marathon at Ski Denton in PA. I was dialing in the Superfly, ready to put the pedal back on and all would be good. Then disaster struck, literally. My dog, Lizzy, who was sitting next to me took off suddenly. Darting for the end of the driveway at full speed. Mind you, she's a hound mix and in that short distance she'll top out at 30mph. As soon as Lizzy took off, my spidey sense went crazy and I took off after her. I was a bit late as she entered the road she plowed into the side of a vehicle. Yelping and barking, I managed to get her to calm down. An overnight stay at the vet with some major painkillers and she was back home on saturday am, limping and sore. She's still yet to put weight on her right hind leg, but all seems ok from what could have been a major disaster. Guess she is gonna be laid up for a bit and that means no more riding for her for the rest of the summer :(

On a good note though, I did manage to get out saturday after I made sure she was home and settled ok. I headed down to Honeoye Lake where this weekends NYSERS finale, the Suicide Six will be held and put some laps in the newly modified course.




The course is completely changed for the 2008 race. I'm not in agreement with the changes as I thought the course was one of the best ever the original way it was run. The infamous "rattler" 800ft super technical descent has been completely removed and the course is run backwards. This essentially makes it an entirely new course as the trail is hardly ever ridden backwards as the 8 mile loop is almost always run in the original course direction.



I can't complain though, it's going to be an awesome event and after putting in a few laps I was able to get the flow of the course.





Naturally though as I was onsite, I had to take a run down the "rattler" for old times sake.

Sunday, I pulled out the road bike and headed for the hills. I don't think I've pulled of a road century this season? So it was a good time to put in a nice hard one with ginormous amounts of climbing. Having saturdays efforts in my legs left me a little tired and weary, but I managed to drill it for the majority of the day. I headed south to some of my favorite hills into Penn Yan then over Naples for even more climbing.

It ended up being a great day (no pics as rain was forecasted) and by the end of the ride the legs finally loosened up. I was quite a bit tired post-ride, but damn excited as my newborn nephew was in town and I got to hold him for the first time!

Here's hoping the legs are good and the rain holds off for tomorrow nights Farmall XC!!

Farmall Rain Out

I showed up at Farmall on tuesday night, slightly unaware that it was going to rain. Conditions had called for rain possibly later in the evening, but en route, I realized was going to be a massive thunderstorm.

I kitted up, and took the singlespeed out for a few laps on the slightly slick course as it was drizzling a bit. It made for an interesting course. The course is tough enough geared, because if you lose traction you're walking. I did feel a little bit overgeared with the 33x19 and just planned to dismount and run the 3 sections I couldn't conquer.

The few of us that were brave enough to start headed out on the course. I took the early lead into the singletrack, getting off to run. Only to find the off-camber side-hill was unrideable and unwalkable. We pretty much all fell on our asses trying to just walk up the hill. I had a slight lead after the first lap, and was overtaken halfway through the 2nd. I was really struggling on the climbs and could feel the previous days efforts in my legs. About the time we rolled through the 3rd lap, I'd decided I had enough. The super slick unrideable and even unwalkable sections had taken their toll. As the group of us hit the woods, the heavy, heavy rains came down. It was absolutely pouring, the wind kicked up. The trails became super saturated and I actually felt great. I kicked it up a notch and was ready to really race at this point. It was one of those really intense rainstorms where, it's you vs mother nature. As our group rolled to the line, we were yanked off the course.

I headed back to the car, thunder and lightning cracking all around. It was coming down so hard, I had to pretty much change outside and risk my clothes getting soaked, rather than opening the door and flooding the car! I guess I'll be back next week, and with some gears!

Hopefully, the Superfly will arrive by Tuesday. I got word from Fisher that they are getting a replacement out asap. I'll have to pull out the Supercaliber for this weekends marathon race down at Ski Denton. Looks like a good fun course and should be a good test of fitness prior to next weeks NYSERS Finale at Suicide Six.

Meanwhile, that gives me some time to perhaps replace the CD's in my car. I've got a 6 disc and the same ones have been in their probably a year or more. I just hit play and the small amount of driving I do, I let the swap themselves
They are:

• Clap Your Hands Say Yeah: Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
  
• The Editors: An End Has a Start
  
• Dinosaur Jr: Beyond
  
• The Twilight Singers: Blackberry Belle
  
• The Kooks: Inside In, Inside Out
  
• The White Stripes: Icky Thump
  

Head for the hills

Yesterday after work I packed up the road bike and headed to Canandaigua. I loathe having to drive to ride the road bike, and would much rather just ride alot longer, but I needed to get into the hills. Particularly wanted to test my self on my favorite climb; Gannett Hill. It climbs up out of Naples and shoots up 1200ft or so over 6 miles. Average gradient is around 6% or so. The beginning of the climb is a nice consistent 10-11% grade that suits me well. It's the latter part of the climb with the flats and steep undulations that usually zap my energy.

Rolling South, heading for the hills

Heading to the hill behind the barn

Rolling into Naples just before the climb starts

I was feeling great, and really put out an awesome personal best normalized power of 4.85w/kg up the entire climb. I really wish it was more consistent, because I lost a bunch of wattage on the flats and the little descents. It's the best I have though. I put out a 2nd personal best time of 24:15 with no wind whatsoever. My best is 23:30, but that was with a major tailwind that def helped on the flats!

Afterwards I just drilled it home, enjoying the lake and the scenery.

Late evening Sky

That's a Boat House, not someplace someone lives! Oh the money on CDGA Lake

My only disappointment is that the sun wasn't out/little warmer. Every now and then on a good summer day you can catch one of the hot rich wives out sunbathing in a skimpy bikini! I would've taken pics of some of the mansions, but I would've never finished my ride.

Tonight is Farmall Summer Series #1, and I'm going to run the rigid singlespeed. We'll see if I have any legs left after lastnight.

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