Done. Foliage 400 Race Report

Sitting here tonight, after heading to Gloucester to watch the elite cyclocross... my accomplishments in the sport of biking feel ... very small. being first loser yesterday doesn't help those feelings. really wanted to end the season on a high-note, wanted to be challenged (as i was) and i wanted to step-up ... but why would i make another leap? training has been pretty mellow the past month (or two). few intervals, lots of "maintenance rides"... just riding it out, having some fun with the home team... it was a successful season, don't know why i'm down on it now - huge leaps were made... guess i got greedy. why not?

sat, foliage 400 race day:
530a. up and going, coffee, usual race-day breakfast of oats, grapefruit juice and eggs. jenn drives while i nab some zzz's. arrive on-site at 8, still hovering around freezing. pull-on some wool Ibex long johns as an outter layer over the chamois, felt kinda weird wearing my undies on the outside (due to the seams in 'em), but got over that on the first lap when the cold mud and water began splashing-up and i stayed cozy. my feet however, froze-up solid - which was good in that my broken toe went completely numb. sometimes things that seem like they'll be horrible turn-out pretty well...

we got into a nice pace right-off the start, nice good rhythm. a rider on a singlespeed pulled ahead, i presumed he was on a 2-person team for some reason... a couple of us grouped-up for a lap or two, then it broke-up and i rode alone for the next 5+ hours... lap after muddy, energy-draining lap. as i'd pass-through the pit area i'd ask jenn how many mins back from first i was - 2mins, 3mins, 4mins, 5mins, 6mins - each lap the ss rider would get another minute... the 3rd place rider stayed right on me - each lap jenn would tell me he's 2mins back, 3mins back, etc... kept me looking over my shoulder the whole race...

the course was in great shape considering the massive amounts of rain we've had this fall - lots of new bridges and singeltrack cut to skirt the mud, but there was no escaping it - it got into the gearing pretty bad. initially i rode in the middle ring, then as i tired, dropped to the little only to have it get so junked-up i had to ride last couple laps in the middle ring again - ouch! those really pushed me and my 'almost' cramping legs to the limit. I'd hop-off and stretch for 60-90secs to loosen-up, then get going again - always looking over my shoulder... not even concerned about 1st by lap 7 or 8. back pain. leg pain. this was the toughest race since Jay60 - maybe even tougher... it was only a 4mile loop, but was technically challenging enough that you couldn't ever rest - couldn't take your eyes off the trail, which was great in many ways, but brutal on the body on the hardtail. i spent some time in my pain cave, that's fer sure.

I had prepped for this race, to be ready, to have a good one. Dalton, jay60, vt50, foliage400 - a nicely spread-out season of endurance races with some short ones and team 24's in there to tune-up with. to be honest, i wanted to win. i felt like i could have won at Mt Snow... got out-classed at Dalton 24 by Rob L... then again this past wknd from Sean McLaughlin ... a guy Jenn said was cute during the awards. talk about adding insult to injury - the guy spanks me and my woman is eyeing him-up like a piece of meat. nice.

now i'm burned-out. i want to plan next season, but i can't even bear to think about it right now. just need to chill for a few days, get-0ver this race. technically i nabbed 1st place (in Open Class) as Sean was in SS class, but i feel like i got 2nd, not 1st due to overall standings. maybe next year i'll make the next leap fwd - and not only nip at the heels of the best in New England (foley, brown, lyster, racine, vallincourt, etc), and be competing in their shadow, but adjacent. who knows what next season will bring - the only thing i know is that i'll bring everything i got to the table, just like i did this year - always hungry to be one place better, one rider faster, one PR away from being satisfied...

one more to go

in a few days, i'll be getting ready to finally finish this season off. the rains keep on coming, but i doubt they'll cancel the foliage 400 again. andy seems ready to rip - and after a long summer of daily riding he could be a true dark horse in this one. he was talking smack this morning... it also looks like they changed the course around - it no longer goes up and over the mtn, but stays on the lower slopes, looping up and down through mostly technical singletrack. may have to roll with the full suspension rig if the course is anything like last year's...

last weekend's epic in north conway was solid. we rode for about 5hours with a few breaks for mechanicals and whatnot. it wasn't a "super-epic", but was plenty enough riding just the same. a slew of mechanical issues kept us off the trails till almost noon, so we got-in about as much riding as we could before dark. the moats ride didn't pan-out, hit-up White Horse Ledge and sourounding hills instead. great climbing and descending - and some real sweet non-technical singletrack with a few challenging sections thrown-in. here are andy and daren rolling off a small drop - the 2' drop isn't even a speed-bump for these guys - i just thought the waterfall in the background made this one movie-material.

the rain held-off until nightfall and with temps in the high 40's, it was perfect biking weather. the couple stream crossings kept my broken toe numb, so can't complain about that. the night before the ride i decided to act like a jackass at dinner with jenn, then when we got home i slammed my little toe into something and was sure i had broken it. deserved it... its throbbing reminded me again and agian on saturday just how much of a turd i can be.

this fall has rocked!

i have had a blast riding my bike this fall! even though it's rained and been cloudy for like 16 out of the past 15 days, it can't dampen the spirits. the riding has been fantastic, the legs are firing and i'm already yearning for winter to be over and next season to begin. of course, once the snow flies, i'll be down with the ski scene, but for now, i'savoring every single second of trail time. a look back on what's gone-down on-trail since fall began:

sun sept 25: the vt50 mtbike race - love this "fall classic" - and finished 16th out of 650, which definitely helps make happy memories.

sun oct 2: ebdb in north conway, nh - Black Cap Mtn route, plus a bunch of other stuff, 5-6hr epic ride on the best trails i've ever ridden.

sat oct 8: big kahuna - 6hr uber-technical singletrack epic on boston's north shore. even torrential rain couldn't dampen our spirits.

sun oct 16: 4-5hr epic with the home team on the north shore with the Meat Tornado.

sat/sun oct 22-23?: i feel an epic. an epic to make all other epics pale in comparison. north conway again? or ... do we do the kahuna route again, an ultra-small crew - riding the route not just to gloucester, but back again... hmmm... daren mentioned the Moats - that's a 10hr epic as well... also considering hitting the road and riding Kacamangus Highway from Chris and Carole's in Campton, then back. a 100miler with insane amounts of climbing. the double on my Lemond and i will be fighting by the end of that one.

sat oct 29: fall foliage 400min race. i'm gunning for a win. gotta finish this season off right!

another day, another epic

Well, the rain finally blew-out saturday evening and by sunday morning we had some breaks in the clouds and high enough winds that things dried-out pretty darn quick. The Foliage 400 was postponed till the 29th due to flooding, so me and the home team shot-out for an all-day epic. Three weekends in a row i've been able to ride my mtbike all day long! You can't beat that. No way, no how. There are plans in the works for another epic next saturday, then the Foliage the sat after. Andy jokes that we'll all be single if we keep at it like this. Luckily i'm married to a woman who's totally down with my scene. Live to ride, ride to live!

Darrel (aka, Meat Tornado) joined us for sunday's ride. I think he knew what he was in for, but not quite. At 1/16th of a ton, Darrel is a lot of muscle - and all of it was poised precariously on my old Giant NRS. With flat pedals, boots and a bike that looked like a child's toy in comparison to his body, he had a long day in the saddle, but managed to smile through most of it - bruises and all. Besides being a Navy EOD Chief, he's one tough hombre.

Looks like we might make it 4 weekends of epics if this saturday's ride pans-out in north conway up and down the Moats... then the Foliage 400 the week after. i'm pysched the season's gotten extended. pretty damn sweet after getting so much rain this spring and not being able to ride the good trails for fear of destroying them in the mud.

foliage 400 this sunday

man, it's been raining like crazy here. 9" up north last weekend, haven't seen the sun in over 7 days... 3-5" today/tomorrow up north. but, looks like it's gonna finally blow-out of here on sunday. literally. 50mph gusts expected. but wind and mud aside, we're going to have a good 'ole time at the foliage 400! end the season just like we started it - with weeks of endless rain and mud. andy, brad, harry and i are rollin' solo. daren and george are kicking it with a 2-person team. other crank folks showing as well. then it's time to put the race bikes away and focus on riding as much as the weather allows... maybe some snow studs for the bike this winter. La Ruta isn't going to happen this year due to a lack of Benjamins (bought that Saab last week)... but it's all for the best. next season can focus on new goals, new races... and focus on a new training plan this winter... but first need to take it easy for a couple months. give the body some fat to turn into power! or at least that's what i'll be telling myself as i stuff myself with great food and plenty of beer.

in the news

Germany's confusing political situation... and movement into Communism. Be interesting to see how their economy handles this storm. Can't be any worse than how f'd we're getting by Bush's big-oil croonies in this country.
http://www.mises.org/story/1933

More on this administration's push to put money in the pockets of big-oil. When i heard this last friday on NPR i almost threw-up:
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/10/07/house-block-vote/
I especially like Delay's unabashed arm twisting on the Floor. guess it doesn't matter that he's now indicted on money laundering charges:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051003/ts_nm/delay_dc_4

Miers for Supreme Court!? REDICULOUS! Cronysim at its absolute worst.
Indy Star Article
Even Canada sees through the cronyism

http://www.npca.org/parks4sale/
I do what i can - send-in email petitions, donate funds, etc, but it doesn't seem or feel like enough. time to see what else can be done... this cannot be allowed. Where's Hayduke when you need him?

the big kahuna does not dissapoint!

saturday started at 545, coffee, clean-up, drive to north shore. watch andy install the disc tab adapter and mechaincal disc brakes on my litespeed. i'm not a total loser and manage to work the espresso maker and microwave for some oats and caffenine crack to get us going. by 830 we're out the door with a 8hrs worth of gu's, luna/cliff bars, water and HEED to get us through. the rain is really coming-down and there's a good river flowing-down every hill. temps in the low 70's - could be the last warm rain of the year, feels great. we're both really pumped for the ride, what's a little rain?

andy hammers the 5miles over to montserrat (sp?) train station in beverly. i've got the HRM on and it's telling me to slow the f down before i blow-up. within mins i can barely see him, en fuego. good sign for that brutha. my legs are fine, it's just been a solid week, no rest days... friday was a scheduled rest day but rode for 120' to get all the papers in order on the '95 saab. man, that thing is mint! paint looks brand-new. after 2-3 yrs of jenn, bronte and i working on it, it'll look its age. anyway, last week turned-out to be a great interval week with a 5-6hr ride on the front and tail-end. a nice long week after taking it easy the previous two. will the legs bust-free for this weekend's Foliage? HUGE rains all weekend up north - up to 9 inches in places. supposed to rain everyday this week. foliage mudfest, october 2005. nice!

back to the KAHUNA! started-off at montserrat train station in beverly, rode some really nice technical singletrack i hadn't seen before, eventually made it to the gordon college area and onto trails i recognized... and right into ancient line. only a handful of us rode the entire line w/others jumping in later or not at all. as usual, ancient line took some skin..., couple good hard knocks, but also rode a couple lines i hadn't ridden before. falling means you're trying... we got back onto more flowing singletrack and eventually got-onto a couple miles of new-cut trail heading towards resevoir i've never ridden before - and it was awesome, flowing stuff, with a couple real challenging features - real nice lines. we did our part to pack it down. the Kahuna was rocking! the new disc brakes and hansventures were rocking! was riding all sorts of lines. andy was awing folks with his ease in the saddle, making it all look so easy.

never noticed the rain in the woods... stopping would fog-up the new lenses from sports optical, but they cleared-out as soon as we started moving. excellent test for the new specs, can ride in confidence in all weather with these puppies on - no more ridding blind in the rain!

got onto resevoir trail, 280mins into the ride. it was decision time. do we ride through bruce and tom's to finish-up or cruise 1m up the road to lobsta-land and the feast, warm clothes and cold beers awaiting us? we say goodbye to Skip, a guy who's enormous smile has been infectious all day. Barry stays-on. by resevoir, we'd trimmed the group-down to the 4 of us. barry knows a route around the bottom of a long technical climb up bruce and tom's. andy and i had been saving energy for that climb for 2 hours, so 20mins later, as we washed-off in a puddle of water in the parking lot of lobst-land, we both felt we had more in us. we dreaded, yet yearned for that massive climb simultaneously. skipping the climb was almost like cutting the trail... same as last weekend, we were done before we were really beat. but that's how it should be. you should always want to ride a little more when you finish-up...

no pics from the kahuna. too wet. was soaked-through before we even started. legs felt terrible yesterday, but had plenty of power on the ride-in this morning. just cruised to work, enjoying the complete lack of cars on the road... chris columbus day. history portrays him as a hero... making me think again about how school curriculums are formulated, what powers are in play. we feed our youth a version of the truth that we find comforting, frequently ignoring the naked, scary truth... need to wrap this up, time to get going to work.

Big Kahuna ride tom!

Supposed to rain 2-4" tomorrow. That'll make the Big Kahuna interesting! If you go into something thinking it's going to be miserable, it certainly will be. So, i'm going into it totally psyched - and it'll be a blast! Bring it on! Monsoon me.

Just picked-up a new-to-me car today. A SAAB 900S hatchback. 93,000miles, mint condition. The thing looks and runs great. The guy that owned it before seemed like a cool enough dude, the kind of guy you could watch a Sox game with, even if he does make a zillion bucks/year. Talking about the Sox... acutally, i don't want to talk about the Sox. I know Tony G feels bad enough for lifting his head before picking-up that double-play ball, but you're a professional baseball player with 10years in the league! Ughhh. Sox will definitely be playing in the rain tonight, but no way they can cancel with the rain we have in the forecast for the next 3-4 days. I'm just hoping for a the wind to be blowing out or across the diamond. If it blows in, Wakefield's knuckleball is pushed to the plate too fast and will be as easier to hit than a beachball.

Putting disc brakes on the Litespeed tonight. Will need 'em for tomorrow's ride. No doubt. 5-6hours in the saddle, in the rain, on technical singletrack, with rim brakes, no thanks.

wisdom (lack of)

Been riding everyday. Nothing too weird there... but instead of focusing on a training plan, i've just been ripping around for 70-90mins, mostly just bike commuting, but a couple cool-down sessions on the indoor trainer after really intense rides. for some reason i like to ride until the bike computer reads "2". Not 1:30, but 1:32. Not 2:00 but 2:02. Yesterday i looked-down when i got home and the computer read, "1:22:22" then this morning i looked-down on my ride only once and the clock read: 22:22. legs feel amazing. clocks are reading "2's" all over the place. life is good.

A couple days ago I was incensed over Intelligent Design (Creationism, really) being pushed by the Bush Administration as a legitimate "science subject", to be taught alongside evolution. A point, the most important point really, is one I did not make, but Dr. Mike Walsh did the other night when I was spitting mad about it… Anything we teach in our schools should be based on facts proven by the Scientific Method or in the case of the social sciences, through reasonable interpretation - not on faith. Oh yeah, how 'bout that First Amendment? Should have mentioned that! I instead choose to focus on why I believe people find solace in religion and framed religion in the most negative of terms, focusing on people's fears bringing them to God for salvation from the unknown, it gives life meaning when all else fails.... I also decided to rope-in all religions vs focusing strictly on Christianity. Hastily typed or spoken words never seem to be wise or show wisdom. maybe i'll master that in another 30 years.

big kahuna ride this weekend. beverly to gloucester, on the nicest trails in these here parts. supposed to rain a ton - inches. be kinda cold. almost looking fwd to those conditions. so much nice weather this summer... and i find it's real easy to have fun when riding for 6 hours in cool rain - if you get psyched-up for it days in advance. be like Buddha, accept the rain.

.ebdb. / Maxxis Hansventures / Lake MX220

This past weekend's ebdb (epic black diamond biking) was just that. Conditions were absolutely perfect, with clear skies and temps in the low 70's. Daren was on his amazing handbuilt rig (the Wraith) for only the 2nd time, while Andy rode his Gaint VT2 and I the Litespeed Pisgah. Daren's workmanship is incredible. It's hard for me to fathom thinking to yourself, "there isn't a bike on the market that's perfect, so i'll just design one, cut the steel, have a master welder put it together and then test it out with my buddies", but that's what he did - and the bike is incredible. Rides so smoothly... with excellent power efficiency. Of course, there are already things he'd like to do different on the 2nd version, but so it goes. For now, he's been working to have a couple made out of carbon - that'll be one phat freeride/all mtn bike! I just hope he makes a bunch of money selling 'em! Not that Daren seems to care about that...

At 10a, we started-out on the Red Tail Trail at Cranmore and climbed, climbed, climbed. Every few minutes i'd look around and think - man, this is it, this is the best trail i've ever ridden, but later in the day, after our only hike-a-bike section up some mountain, forget the name, we rode an unmarked trail (down) that was unbelievable. In the entire day, we encountered 1 person (and 2 labs). Miles and miles of epic singletrack and not a sole on it. ... after about 5hours, we found ourselves back in the Cranmore parking lot, staring-up the slopes. Should we climb cranmore and get a run down the Red Tail Trail to finish-off our day? or hit-up those cold beers in the car... Gulp-gulp-gulp. Too easy of a decision...

Learned a couple new things about trail riding... being a racer-type, i'm always using the same components i'll race with. Can't expect to master something w/o practice... Well, now that the season is wrapping-up and i've decided to focus on epic rides with friends vs racing, i'm all about finding the best feeling ride vs the fastest ride. To help my cause Andy brought (then bought) me a set of Maxxis 2.3 HANSVENTURES tires and holy crap! What a difference. It's like having 1/2-1" of suspension on the hardtail. Amazing. Fantastic! I'm totally hooked on these tires for epic riding! The gripped great, filled me with confidence when chasing 2 guys on 4-5" travel bikes down screaming singletrack - and after the ride my back wasn't sore at all. They really absorbed the trail. HANS!

And to make the ride even better, i wore my new Lake MX 220 trail shoes with Vibram soles. Good, stiff bottom with just enough flex for hiking, but stiff enough to get good pedaling power - and the vibram soles make 'em feel like a pair of good boots when forced to hoof-it. What really rocks is that these shoes are a warranty replacement from Lake after my last set blew-out - but the MX 220's are a couple steps-up from what i warrantied. Nice. All thanks again to Jamie at Western Cycle. He's the man.

golden

it's been a long season and when you train and train and train, sometimes you forget why you do it... the love fades and it becomes an obsession of miles of monitors and of minutes. but the love's not gone, no sir, it's right there, under the surface... and all it takes is a great finish or a nice bout of golden legs to bring it back on!reading from harry's blog, seems a bout of golden has him thinking the same thing. nice.

i'd planned to race the final 4 weeks of the season, but since making that decision i've already cut one race. i'm not feeling burned-out, but also not feeling a need to race. you have to eat right, sleep right, wake-up early, drive a long ways, warm-up, stand around, race hard, cool down, hopefully wait for awards, drive home, eat right, sleep right... and completely blow-off everything else, friends, chores, etc... what i haven't done all season is an epic ride with friends. EBDB as Daren would say (epic black diamond biking). GG24 was kinda of an epic w/friends, but the pressure to race was also there. then, right as i'm thinking about all this racing and riding stuff - where it needs to go until the snow flies - 2 epic rides drop flat into my lap. nice! races called off, some epic riding is on!

tomorrow got an all-day epic in daren's backyard (near madison, nh). might include a hike-a-bike up mt chicora. yeah, yeah! the climb-up will be fine, it's the trip-down w/andy and daren i'm scared shitless of. those dudes can ride ANY line - i'm on a v-brake hardtail and don't have 1/3rd the skills. but that's what makes it epic - getting challenged.

next wknd been invited on a 6hr technical ride on the north shore called the "Big Kahuna." Beverly to Gloucester, with beers, lobsters and all that good shit to follow. then the weekend after that we've got the Foliage 400 race, staged on some of the best technical race trails in new england. bunch of the fella's going (brad, andy, daren, george, rob, harry) with others (dave a!, roz, dan w, etc) from the crank team showing - nice! what a way to finish-off the season right! it's important to find the love again. to feel refreshed before the season is over... otherwise the drive it takes to sit on the indoor trainer for 3 hours in january just isn't there... got to put money in the bank, to make a withdrawal.