Homie n Hillside Halloween 2008

The PUG Enduro (4 laps) at Hillside was solid on PUGSLEY SS 32x18. Worked out as perfect PUG gear for Hillside dirt, good for Theo too for that matter. Friday night & Saturday twas no ride zone as was family spook time. Amy, the kids and I did yard work, pumpkins, finished costumes. Duncan had a friend over on Halloween and played severed head in a huge box. He totally freak'em. Check how mom did his look. The kids are old enough where they do there own Halloween thing, as shown in pic, carve their own. Oh yeah, biking, the 3 hours over previous weekend on SS 29'er, then a few short lunch breaks on PUG at Theo opened and set me up for Hillside. Results....my legs basically hammered non-stop. One of my stronger outputs this year. Weird. Sort of like the attached Kittty picture. Which Kitty had enough fun?? The after race pumpkin smashing sure was fun. I'll be test owning/riding a Selma SS soon, report up next..

READY FOR...........

THIS??

What about Ragnarok?

You in ???

Out of Austin City Limits

So went to Austin on business, did a MTB race after customer meeting. Bottom line I put in 2.5 hrs pre-ride the day before, then raced 2x9 rigid near 2.5 hrs the next morning. With prior day Amex expense, customer outing, pre-fat and drink up w/89 degree goodness......it was the best worst effort all year!!!

It was Bryan Lake Pedal Power, 3rd TMBRA series race. Flat like river bottoms. Twisty like St Cloud and bumpy like Du Lac it was A'ok. It was a good time. Like this, forward to middle of vid..... The top ten Pro's got the call up, then the rest of us behind. Experts started in following wave minutes behind. Anyway I mustered myself into 5th before woods and proceeded to wheeze out the remainder of my chest and head cold looming from prior weekend Hillside night race (fire/smoke/allergies/then evolving into greenies in throat n head). Gurgling & wheezing trying to hold onto lead pack was interesting.... Seriously, crazy wheez n DRY DUST coughing!!! Nice way to start a race.

I settled in about 7th then proceeded to slowly fade into 13th of 16 Pro/Semi's by end of 2hr21min race. Single Speed would have been better for me. Overall 16th of 45 or so Cat1's. All good. I finished ~12 min off leaders, sorta consistant, too bad wheezy & tourist FAT. At least didn't do expert 40+, they only race an 1.5hrs. ....L A T E R

Hillside Night Pint

Levis Trow Cram Session

Got the "ok you can go" from the honey. With just Saturday and half of Sunday allowed, woke early, drove a few hours then hit trail solo 10:00am. 2 hour SS ride to start the trip and it was time. Once the LCR gang showed up we did an afternoon tour. Found the Goat Dance. The night ride included sidewinder at 1:00am! The trail looks like the pic above, yet even MORE exposed in spots. No biggie cause you don't see the drop offs in the dark. Imagine pictured trail with rocks to go over and cliff's to hit your bars on. Quite enjoy-able with lights. All 29'er Single Speed for me, 34x19 & 32x18 between bikes. I offerred but no one wanted to borrow second SS. How rude, all 16 of them. The rigid SS worked great at Levis with 2.1, 2.1, 2.3 & 2.3 tires. Broke in the Ergon pack with a clean body slam flat onto it. Sweet riding I must say. Let's just say pack is tough. Overall Ergon pack rules with many over-the-top features. So heavey the features I wheelie'd right over backwards, ha ha. Nice prize, not sure I'd fork out the cash unless many long rides we're an option. I also tried the Ergon grips, nice surprise. I really really like them. Comfy. I will definetley keep the Ergon grips on my so called long ride and epic race bikes. LCR quick hit wknd. 3 day rides, 1 night ride, a derby that bent my wheel, too much food, just enough beverages, fire, fire tipping, little sleep, trail sillyness...good times.

State SS Champ, SS Expert & Muffins

So what does the two time SS State Champ bake and eat the morning after? Everything! Including blueberry, strawberry and chocolate chip muffins. It can't be protien all the time, anything works. Warm muffins deserved, no? I'm beat after two races in a day. The expert course had plenty of new rock'n rock gardens. That ride back to Hayward in the rain justified. Biking to class Tues. & Thurs also good. Keeping legs opened up really helps. I went into races similair to Red Wing, heavey ride week. Finding time to keep "bikes" & "body" in shape is a trick!! SINGLE SPEED RACE: Off the gun Dave M. led us around the parking lot into the CC ski trail. Hwood, Charlie & I just followed. Later in prolouge I went to the front. At the end of the prolouge around parking lot Hwood stormed ahead ensuring he had lead for first lap. The two of us started gapping chasers. Somewhere way in the woods, wood had a yard sale. All good, now he followed. My goal was to hold on & lead second lap. Around parking lot put in a huge effort stayed in front. Hwood caught back up in woods, we gapped others big. Through 2nd lap upping pace and staying smooth was the goal. The two of us stayed together until last punchy climb. Before we got there I mentioned "I know what your planning". We chatted a bit. At the top of the hill I said, "I thought you we're going to cyclo-cross the hill". Hwood said he couldn't stop laughing. From there my lead increased. Win, second year in-a-row. Good race w/better competition. 34x17 on 29'er a little stiff for accelerating out of corners.. skinny ski! link 1 link 2 No-No.Na-O EXPERT w/SS: ....with previous race just an hour earlier my intent was start slower. Around the parking lot I was dead last of expert field. Then I started to pick off riders. Matt, Guse, Jack, Larry, Jeff, Another and later in second lap caught up to Jay, Jake and Barry. Barry was leading us through back sections, then Jay led. The pace was fast enough and at times wasn't sure if I'd hold on. Last year my legs didn't give as much output. I threw on the 34x18 combo for the expert race. It was much faster in the woods for me. Started to feel really strong again. Went with it, in short section before end of lap 2 hammered past the three. I yelled out "see ya soon" as my legs we're bound to give. I went hard to ensure my gap around parking lot to start lap 3. It worked. Amazingly my body and legs survived at constant Expert pace. 7th overall experts. 1st & only 40+'er out there. Unreal double race day!!!

Chewamie Gone

Fun yet saying no more. Fun to see folk but grass ride not worth riggamaroll. My deal went down SS 2 9 @38x17. Over rev'ed engine 10 times before rosies then passed a zillion on rosies. Brutal rollout on SS. The trail went fast and my gearing was good. Scored a nice pull from FG and followed Ryan Horkey to water tower. We formed group of 4 ss'ers. At water tower gaped all 3 ss'ers, only walked once.... But chain kept cracking loud popping noises. I held off Ryan for most of the way home but within last 10 miles got off 3 times, twice to push chain back on & once to wrench chain line tight. I was feeling way strong but bike down time stinks. It happens, Ezra had flat issues too. Nice job Ryan et all. Chain issues cost me 20 spots & 3rd overall in SS? Oh well the results beat my 2005 effort finishing 2hrs 26m, top 100. I was the idiot of the day and biked back 20 miles to Hayward in the rain. Not sure what got into me. It was wet, sorta fun and fine on the legs. My team mates all wimped out. I was looking forward to a group ride back but no. Amy, Duncan and my Dad all improved their time over last year in the 16. I hear Dad was strong the whole race and passed a large group on finish hill. Next year I'll watch. Sheila scored 2nd and Teel 3rd in SS, sweet. Fun to hang with many friends. Too bad the rain drove most home Saturday. I'm looking forward to single track riding. Happy trails.