5min on trail=4hrs in Emergency Room

So we are out at Thompson, along with several other riders. The wife and I unload the bikes she has been looking forward to riding since she had the surgery on her wrist and finally here we are, ready to rol out on the trail. We head out on the trail and are taking the shortcuts for the easy route trying to take it easy since the wife hasn't rode in about 3 months. Well we have no choice but to go down the 3 drops and I yell back to the wife "Going down 3 drops, be carefull!" now the first time we rode this together I told her to she should walk it to which she took that as a challenge and rode it. This time apparently she took what I said as "Going down 3 drops keep up!" Well half way down the drops one of them was paticularly nasty as it was washed out, without going into to much detail she went superwoman and took on a tree and lost. Fortunately for us a couple of other riders where there, to those guys - Thanks for helping with the bikes and getting them back for us as well as stopping to help initially. Walked the wife back to the truck on one leg she couldn't support any weight on her left leg so it was straight to the hospital for X-Rays and crutches. She has here first trail wounds a couple of good rashes and scratches on both arms and is going to have a dandy of a bruise on her thigh but being the trooper she is, she is still looking forward to healing up and getting back out there, maybe next time I will convince her to walk down the drops versus ride them, but knowing her I doubt it. Anyway I am looking at a trailer hitch rack for the Vue, the Saris is a good rack however I don't care for the way it holds the Mountain Bikes, it would be great for road bikes or even hard tail Mountain bikes but it doesn't quite work for full suspension Mountain Bikes so, if anyone is interested in a 3 bike carrier Saris Bones Bike rack let me know I will cut a good deal. Well I may get back out to Thompson early Sunday morning so if anyone is out there I will See You on the Trail!

The Joy of Riding

Riding, simply out there enjoying the trail. Not training for a race, not racing for laps or time just plain riding. Today, for the first time since I came back to the states over a month and a half ago I did just that out at Dauset, it was the best ride I remember having in a while. Charles and I headed out there about 7am this morning and arrived around 8am there was this Deer....well I will let Charles tell that part but we headed out to the trail ran a lap in the direction of the 12hrs course and then took a break and headed back out I took the lead (Charles had caught plenty of spider webs on his lap!)and we put another 16 miles on the trail up and down Huff and Puff, through just about every black arrow turn I could find jumping every drop I could and cruising through the fast stuff it was a day the type of day you think of when you plan a full days ride. Not worrying about anything and just letting the bike and the trail roll out in front of you. I did have to make sure I had a run down Pine Mountain that is the best downhill section out there and we rode up it on Charle's lap so I had to make up for it by going down it. I am still smiling from that ride it was a blast. Work will probably keep me busy for the next few months so I expect to have limited riding time however I am considering looking for a hardtail frame and putting road tires on it and doing some(can't believe I am about to say this!) Road Riding, maybe that will help me get some distance and speed training in this winter. Anyway I am taking it easy for the next 2 weeks just do my usual running and PT work outs get riding in when I can at least one ride on the weekends so hopefully I can get a ride in during the week as well but we will see. Well that is about it for now just a B E A utiful day riding today and looking forward to more here in the near future before it gets cold and wet so hopefully I will See You on the Trail

4hrs of pure Pig pleasure!

It was a good morning for a race, Charles put together a good race course with a good start setup to give everyone a chance to spread out and race through the course. Anyway started out kinda slow and was pretty much at the back of the pack but not to far, cause I had GofastPops behind me but not for long as I appeared to be holding him up, I figured I could let him go on the first lap and catch him later - yea I was wrong about that as the old man on the singlespeed pretty much schooled me and finished 3 spots ahead of me as I finished in 15th with 7 laps. It was a good ride with everyone racing in one group and competing against people from all classes made me glad I race beginner series! I felt pretty good being able to finish 7 laps in the time frame which kept me up with 12 riders in front of me as the top 3 where the only ones who did 8 laps. I am looking forward to this weekend and the 24hrs of Pisgah should be pretty fun and is the last of my month long race weekends and will probably be the last event I do for a little while unless of course somebody needs a teamate for another event but I am looking forward to some down time and just training and riding for fun, hitting dauset and some other areas. Well not much else going on and its late so I will wrap it up Good Job Charles on the Race I look forward to riding it again next year and Good job to all the riders and I will See You on the Trail!

John Brown you Sadistic $#@!*#!

Well 12hrs and 9 laps later I was done, I say 12 because while I could have made the cutoff, was there 2min before the time I waited it out. I was pretty wasted and wasn't to confident my light would last the hour it would take me to finish that last lap my LED light had already ran out on me so I had no backup. The Start was nice and casual walked up with Don, Jesse and the rest of the guys doing the 6hr race, Mark was the only motivated individual who actually ran to the start. First 4 laps were pretty good had split the competition with Magic Mountain riding it twice and walking it twice, it did cost me a $60 pair of shorts though as I lost my line on one of the two laps I had to walk when I started riding it and fell over on a rock and almost off the hill tearing the shorts. Upon completing the 4th lap I was pretty sure I was about to go into heat exhaustion so I stopped for a lunch break and some cold water from the wife. I couldn't have done this without her I would have burned myself out and not had the support I needed for food and fluids to keep going. Once it became later in the afternoon and started cooling down the laps became a little easier I found that just kept my cadence at a nice spin and saved my legs for John Brown which was some nasty technical section that I would say rivaled the Rock Gardens of the Snake Creek!
Well I did what I set out to completed the race and while I fell 3 laps short of my original goal I am satisfied with what I did complete and how I did it since realistically my training was not what I needed to be fully prepared for the 13hr race. Congrats to the Girls for the 1st Place Team finish and to Angie, Sarah, Diane and Steve on the 3rd place, Mark did good with 11 laps and a 5th place he was motivated enough to go back out on that last lap of the night unlike me however I am pretty happy with a 8th place finish. I am looking forward to the 4hrs of Pork this Sunday, have Charles making sure I didn't bang up the TrailBlazer to bad not like he has a whole lot of time with putting together the race this weekend! Well enough of my rambling Happy B-Day to the Old Fart and make sure you post that picture worthy bruise man that is sweet!! I will hopefully get out to ride the Pig this Friday just as a refresher and if your out there then I will See you on the Trail!