So I figured out I am not fast...

Ok, I knew this already when it comes to bike racing. Id like to blame some of it on the conditions as it rained the night before and the course was pretty wet in spots. Also I'd like to point out that I crashed 3 times and had to dismount and gave one tree a run for its money. The tree won and I have a nice raspberry on my shoulder to prove it. I'd like to think I did good on my first race up to the sport catagory, but in reality I got my butt kicked. After I finished I went to the results tent and asked how I did. "12" he said. I asked how many were in the field. "I'll tell you when someone else finshes"

Ouch, talk about a blow to the ego. I know I'm slow but dead last? I could swear there were at least 2 other guys behind me. **Last minute edit, its seems the results may be up to confirm my worst fears but I can't click on them. O well I will check at work**

Anyway I have always gone into the mountain biking with the theory that I know I am not fast and just enjoy the people I race with and against. Plus as I mentioned before I still think I am suited for the long endurance events, now if I only trained for those...

In other news still attempting to power wash the outside of the house, I have 2 of the 4 sides done with. I have a contractor coming to work on my bathroom on Monday so I can have my master bath back to normal. Also in the process of going to stain my deck and possibly finish the basement as well so busy non-biking related week ahead of me but I will try and ride at least once to keep fresh.

Today headed to Raleigh to help a friend move from his sisters apartment to his own but from the sounds of it he has most of it done and its just going to be a guys weekend. Fine with me and the burrower and all the girls have a tentative plan to go visit wine country. Everyone wins. sorry no pictures today but check out The summer Series page for the results if you can click on them.

We Had a Yankee in our Mist...

Ok, not that you can tell one yankee from another down here, but like I mentioned last week The Burrowers former roommate Trey was coming into town to visit as everyone needs a little vacation from their own lives. Skip forward to Saturday. A nice relaxing morning followed by a trip to the Whitewater Center for lunch.


Trey actually really liked this place as it is not something in which you get in Iowa at all. After lunch there and a quick stop to let puddles and puddle jr. out it was off to my co-workers Sarah birthday party. I would post pictures, but like most birthday parties the Birthday girl doesnt want pictures taken of the hot mess they become. So I will save her the embarrassment. But here was the drink of choice for the girls. This was some nasty wine.

After the party it was followed by our normal usual informal get together at the J and A Ranch. It got to be another hot mess real quick after the shots started happening. All and all it was a fun weekend.


Although I didnt get a chance to ride at all I did find this in my email box.
Dear Racer,
Congratulations! You have qualified for the 2010 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships scheduled for July 15-18, 2010 at Sol Vista Basin in Granby, CO

Online race registration will open on May 10, 2010. Please check www.usacycling.org for updates.

If you haven’t already renewed your 2010 USA Cycling MTB license, now is the time to do it! Licenses purchased now are good through December 31, 2010. All riders must have an annual USAC MTB license in order to compete at the 2010 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships.

USA Cycling license renewal information

Hope to see you there! Good luck with your season.

Best Regards,

Kelli Lusk
Mountain Bike & Cyclo-cross Events Director

Road trip!!!

Oh and the Summer Series Starts Tomorrow, Full Race report probably Thursday unless the Mutt beats me to it.

The Race Report and then the rest of the week

Ok, so I got really lazy and unmotivated to try and do my 4 blogs for the week but everyone saw this coming already. I'm not getting paid to do it and really there are only about 250 or so of my followers that I am dissapointing.

Last Sunday was another Southern Classic Series Race to the River in Columbia SC.
One cool thing about this place was the nice open start/finish/pit area. Surrounded by trees and fresh cut grass. A nice place to hang out while everyone waits for the finishers.

Heres a picture of Southpark Cycle Teammate Kevin in the beginning mens class.

This was a fast flat course. You could almost do the whole thing in the big ring if you wanted to except for about 3 miles in the middle of short up and down climbs. I was doing ok and started near the front of the pack when I hit the climbs and just lost all of my strength. Taking the 2 weeks off to rest my knee plan backfired and I didn't have any stamina to continue. Luckily this was only about a 20 mile race and the first lap was a lot longer than the second. So as people started passing me I just kept going slowly to try and gain my breath as well as make sure I don't hurt myself again and it work a little bit. I was able to finish in front of 3 other people and on DNF. That was Sunday.

Other than that the week was pretty uneventful except I thought I was getting a new toy. A fox fork. These are what all bikers dream about and I got this one for a great deal off a Tarheel Trailblazer. Sadley it was too short to fit on my frame and is currently on the Ebay. Luckily I think I can actually make a profit off of it when I just want to break even. I love the free economy.


Then on Wednesday me and the burrower decided to go to an orintation for one of the local charities Trips For Kids
This is a great mission to get kids active and on bikes not only to have fun, but to show a healthy lifestyle. I went because I want to learn a little more about bike maintenance and want to give back to the community. The burrower went because she wanted to take an interest in what I like and also to give back. Although I don't think she will like doing all of the bike repairs and such, I do think she will like going through and organizing everything. That is her biggest strength. (Mine on the other hand is messing everything up so the system works)

Also today I managened to get a lap in the USNWC. A solid 10 miles or so, didn't do the gas line climb or green trail but hit everything else, a respectable 57 minutes taking it pretty easy just to make sure I don't wear out the knee yet. Hopefully I can get some riding in this weekend as well.

And lastly The Burrower's college roomate Trey is coming into town for the weekend. She said she was looking for hot single guys, so I am taking applications on behalf of her. (Facebook newsflash from her...she is in Atlanta waiting for her connecting flight to Charlotte)
Here she is with me at one of the wedding's I dont remember.


Have a good weekend and Ill do another big blog with pictures again. I know most my fan base has problems reading at a 6th grade level.

Race Report or Saturday Funday Report?

Well, considering my lackluster results at the race, I guess I will just write about the nice relaxing Saturday in which I had. The weather was perfect and I didn't want to wear myself out and give my knee an extra day of rest before the Race to the River in Columbia S.C.

With no real plan for the day I asked the burrower if she wanted to go for a hike. I used this term loosely as she just had hip surgery and is still working on getting her strength back, it was more like a casual walk. Since we don't usually hit the greenways around here we decided to go to Latta Plantation.

And since I don't really have much to write about, this will be a picture blog today.

The funniest thing about going there was Jasper called shotgun and the burrower relenquished herself to the back seat. It was funny to get the looks from people on Harris who liked that I had the dog up front and her in the back.





Also, we decided to take one of our doggies, Jasper (the nice one) as he does better around people and things. Rocky just barks at everything and everyone and gets sort of annyoying when going out. And since we brought Jasper our friend Erin was doggie sitting Hurley who also was enjoying the day.


And I never realized the raptor center was also at the same location as the plantation. I still want to go there



and just to be fair, the other doggie gets a picture as well. Heres Rocky protecting his chicken.




I'll give you the race report tomorrow, but from the back of the pack theres not much to talk about...enjoy the pictures and go to the plantation

Nothing New on the Western Front

Nothing new bike related this week. My knee is still sore for the 6 hours of Warrior creek.


yes I am so proud of this t-shirt that I took a picture of the t-shirt.

Anyway I did sign up for the next race in Columbia, SC for the Southern Classic Series so that should be a fun sunday. I went to spin class yesterday with the burrower. Her to try out her new hip and me to test my knees. Needless to say my knee still hurts and so does her hip. We are just falling apart before age 30.

And the last update probably for the week is they still haven't called me to schedule the carpenter to come check out my bathroom. So I took the liberty of some destruction myself.



I promise a race update and maybe something cool to talk about next week. Maybe I'll also start a movie review section.

Did you say the boat was flooded?

Sunday, the last day of freedom before the start of the dreaded work week. Actually work isn’t bad, it just chugs along. Anyway, my usual self always wakes up early, even when I stay up late (or pass out early from too much Call of Duty and beers in the early afternoon) I was awake by 730 and ready and rear’en to go. The burrower on the other hand it not as much of a morning person. She enjoys staying in bed and cuddling with puddles and puddles jr. I reluctantly got permission to go on the Sunday Social Trailblazer ride and arrived at the WWC right at 9 to get the party started. There was a good group of riders and we split into 2 groups for the social ride, the slackers and the faster slackers. I choose the faster slackers to start with.

They were off on a blistering pace with me and Craig in the back (sorry Craig, I can’t remember the handle the Mutt gave you.) The good news was at the top of every hill they stopped and waited to for everyone to catch up. It is a social ride. Well, besides doing a bunch of wind sprints across the trails it was a uneventful and fun social ride. I had to cut out the green loop and head home to finish up some yard work. Actually I had to start it before I could finish it. So after an hour and a half of pulling weeds out of the brick patio I decided to wash the Kia since it was such a nice day. (Please note, there is a point to these stories and not just a complete re-hash of the weekend) Right as I got finished with the wash job the burrower comes out with her big puppy dog eyes and ask “J and A want us to go on the boat with them. Can we go?”
I look at her and then back at the newly washed car with my big puppy dog eyes

“But I haven’t waxed it yet”

Needless to say I lost the battle of the puppy dog eyes and off the boat we went.
It was a nice joyful ride on Lake Norman on a Sunday afternoon, that is of course after we got the engine started. Who knew a boat could flood? Doesn’t really make any sense does it?



But after our fearless captain J got it started we started trolling around the lake.


After we dropped off A’s parents at the dock and made a quick pit stop for the girls we picked up the other first mates Cashley and off we went again on our pleasure cruise. We found a nice cove to sit in when someone got the bright idea to dare Erin to go swimming as she was the only one with a suit on. She was hesitant to go but the attention turned to me next as everyone knows I would be the guy to jump into the lake in the April and not worry about it. So off went the shorts and in I jumped with my boxers into the cold lake. I get the prize of doing the first front flip off of the boat. Pictures of the swim should be coming after someone post them on the f-book After a few laps around the boat we continued our trip and headed back into the port. Other than that, not to much excitement, no race reports and my master bathroom is still in shambles, but another good weekend.

Running it as a single

Sorry to leave you all hanging yesterday. I thought I had more time than I really did and then got long winded and blah blah blah.

Anyway, Friday, Shermans Branch. I rocked it. 58 minutes. What makes this even more impressive was that I did this as a single speed. Here is the gear I was in.



I don’t know what it really equates to, but I did have to do some gear mashing to keep up the pace. I also was going so fast that I was able to pick up passengers. I had no less than 11 of these guys crawling around me when I finished. Took a few off the helmet, few off the shorts and few off the shirt. I still had one of them find its way into the car. He must have really enjoyed the ride.



Since the burrower had to work Friday night I took the liberty of staying in and doing absolutely nothing. It is not often in which I get to do this as the burrower can be a social creature, plus I usually end up driving. I didn’t feel like driving, I felt like drinking. After a few rounds of Call of Duty 2 on the PS3 (call sign spcecwby11 if you feel like playing) and a few beers (by few I mean I kept finding them around the house, next to the computer, basement, bathroom, kitchen) it was bedtime.

Saturday was much of the same old same old. We were planning on going on a trail walk at the Whitewater center, but it wasn’t open in the AM so we checked on Erin’s cats and has a scare there for a few minutes. We could only find 2 of the 3. After searching for 10 minutes it just came strolling out of the extra bedroom at her apartment, have no idea where it came from. We then came home and decided to sit on our butts and watch a movie together. If you ever get the chance watch “Yes Man” with Jim Carey, I was pleasantly surprised with how funny it was. I also had the opportunity to go riding again, but this time with my friend Mark who just wanted a different type of cardio so he wanted to go riding with me. Well, to keep it short and sweet, Shermans Branch, main loop, lake loop, and he was tired. Also, my was still hurting from the 6 hrs of Warrior Creek.

Sunday Funday wrap up should be tomorrow.

Yet another uneventful Week

So last week was pretty uneventful as there really weren't any major life obstacles in my way. Except the giant hole in the bathroom. This has been happening for years Long before I bought the house and the guy who lived here before did not take great care of it. He cheaped out on a lot of stuff and this was no exception as one day we found out the wall was duct taped and painted and there was a hole behind it. So like any good homeowner I opened it up to see what the damage was.



The good news, mold wasn't a problem. The bad news. Studs need to be replaced and that is way above my level of handyman work. Also the shower needs to come out and see what kind of water damage is behind that.

So after hearing that news on my lunch break, after work I decided to hit up Shermans Branch for a quick lap. Traffic was real bad on 85N so I took the long way around the University of N. Carolina at Charlotte and this is what I found in the quad.



INFLATABLES!!! Lucky, I keep telling the burrower I want these for our wedding receptions but I think it is falling on deaf ears.

So I finally get to the Branch and get started riding. There was a husband/wife group riders from Team Bikesource also doing it that took off about a minute before me. I took off after them and finally caught them after the roller coaster loop. They had a good pace and I kept with them until they stopped and let me pass.

This story has to be continued.....stupid work and letting the dogs back into the house....Have a good monday.

Wednesday

Yeah, its wednesday, another pretty un-eventfull day. There was a bit of excitement early this morning. So I wake up like I usually do, let the dumb doggies out to do their dirty business. Check my emails, wait for dumb doggies to either claw at the door or jump against it to let me know they want to go back to the half of the bed in which I just vacated to let them out, and then I hop in the shower.

Now I am going to keep this pg rated for everyone so don't get any dirty thoughts.

So I am letting the water run down my back trying to wake up and get ready for another boring day when I feel something start to crawl up my foot onto my leg. I scream like a scared little girl. The burrower (who is not fully awake yet) hears my high pitched yelp and ask if I am ok. I yell at her to come see what I found in the shower (like I said, keep your mind out of the gutter)



You had no idea where I was going with that did you?

Anyway with no idea how it got into the shower I am perplexed. I didn't know that geckos like to use body wash when they don't have hair.

In other news I guess I should mention this now before I forget, We have a date set for the wedding. May 7 2011. The burrower did the smart thing and contacted the priest to reserve the date. Here I am trying to contact the person who schedules the chapel like an idiot and waiting for her to get back to me. Now things are falling into place. Ambrose here we come!!


Sorry, no mountain biking yet this week, my knee still hurts and my scars haven't healed yet. I am planning on going this weekend though. The burrower is working her 2nd job and 2nd shift at Holy Angels in Belmont. (If you have a chance visit there as she helps those who are physically and mentally handicapped try and live a full life and they always need volunteers) so I get the afternoon to goof off. I am thinking a nice casual 3 lap ride at the WWC to get me back into the mood. Or I might just slack and do 2 while taking pictures. Recap completed.

Easter!!! and a day off the bike

So I gave my lap by lap recap of the 6 hours of Warrior Creek Race and I think I hit all of the high spots. Since I did a whole write up about it I am not sure what I am going to write about the rest of the week. I could start with our Easter Lunch/Dinner over at Cashleys new place. They were nice enough to volunteer to host it at their place for me and the burrower, Angus, Erin, Bryan, Allison, and Eric. They also invited the Ashley of Cashley's boss over to enjoy some of the festivities.

Included was the 2nd Annual Easter Egg Hunt.



This is always a joy to watch semi-grown adults running around the yard getting easter eggs. I took 2nd behind Erin in the total number of eggs found. 14 of 62. She found 15. I think there were a few un-accounted for though and Ill find them at a later time in October and claim my prize then. But besides the 30 cents I found and melted chocalate hersheys kisses it was a beautiful day for some wiffleball and croquet. Here is the burrower doing her best Andre Dawsome impression (for those of you who remember, he was the right fielder for the Cubs back in the 80-90's)





Minus the mustashe I would say shes pretty close.

Well, Erica is having a girls movie night tonight and my pizza is ready. Ill think of something else for tomorrow. maybe I might even talk about all of the yardwork I did on Monday. Or better yet how my body still hurts from Saturday

It is Over!!!!

To Start off this post Ill start at the end of the 6 hours of Warrior Creek. This being my first marathon type event I am proud to say I complete it. But I guess the big news is that I came across a name by accident for my bike. "The Culprit". It was a sarcastic comment made to Mutt about getting back on the bike to get the car and it sounded perfect. Especially after 6 hours of riding on it. I was able to stay on the bike the entire time and keep riding and get in a 4 laps. Each lap was a little under 12 miles of sweet singletrack. I have never been on a trail that was so smooth and so well maintained.

Lap 1 - The Start



As you can see, I didn't take off fast, there is just no way I can keep up that sprinting pace that the other guys did for 6 hours. If you look closely you can see me waving to the camera. I didn't take the start to seriously. But it did start out as a 2-3 mile pavement ride just to thin out the pack. There is no way that 300+riders can all take turn one at the same time. I just took my time and enjoyed the view of watching everyone else about to suffer the same fate as me. On the way to the trail I got the honor of passing Mrs. MadSS on an uphill. I gave her a quick push to let her know I was there and continued on my way. MadSS took off up front and the Mutt was behind me the entire time, but I will get to that part about lap 4 or so. The first lap of these is always the most fun, everyone is together and most people are social (at least in the back of the pack like I am) and the conversations get funny. Such as looking into the lake and wondering how cold the water is. Also, the first lap is the most packed and least amount of room to pass. There are always people who started out on a sprint and then got winded about 3 miles in, I wasn't one of those people. It must be a sight to see though, just a train of riders going through the woods. You would heard the common courtesy yells such as "Brake," "Rider up" or my personal favorite "Rider down!" That last one usually ends in diasaster for the entire train as they have to stop and wait for that rider to get off the trail and let everyone pass, at least that is the courtesy.

The first 10 miles went smooth, I was carrying on small conversations with some of the other riders just to occupy the time until mile 11, the rock garden. I was behind a novice rider who looked like he had never seen one before. He fell and unclipped and then I had to get off my bike as well to avoid from falling. Instead of getting off the trail he was running with his bike and trying to get back on while still in the rock garden. It just doesn't work this way and by this time there were 10 people all behind me cussing that this guy wouldn't move. Luckily I past him before we got to the pits so I wouldnt have to deal with him again. This was my fastest lap at 1 hr 12 minutes


Lap 2
I was still able to keep the pace up this lap and started enjoying the ride before. Like I mentioned this was the smoothest trail I have ever been on and some of the hills were so fun and such a high bank that they were about 4-5 feet high. Needless to say my brakes were getting used quite a lot. About this time I was being tailed by another rider who was going my same pace. We rode together for about 8 miles or so and just exchanged stories. He was from Ohio and just heard about this race from someone and him and 2 friends drove down to N.C. just to experience it. That is a lot to say about the trails in this area. After speaking with him he loved how all of the bikers in the area are so sociable and respectful to one another that he wanted to move down here. On an uphill he then took off without me leaving me alone to finish the lap. Then I went into the pit area again and the burrower and Erin were there to help me again with all of the things a good pit crew should do. Full up the water bottles, open up packages of food, and make sure that I finish my sandwhich and banana. I thanked them both multiple times on the ride home because those little things make the suffering that much easier.




Lap 3
This is where my paced dropped off dramtically. I knew it was going to my happen and just glad that my body was just tired and not cramping at all. I guess my training worked. And by training I mean I had to suffer through a week without a beer and even going so far as drinking pickle juice on the advice of Cranky Dan. Due to fatigue this is where my details get a little sketchy of the trail as it all tended to run together. Gone was the high pitched "weeeeeeeee" that all of the riders were shouting as they rode the downhills up the banked turns and in its place was riders standing on the side of the trails stretching to remove the cramps and resting from the torture in which they signed up for. And as one of the other riders pointed out to me, paid for as well. The only real thing I remember about lap 3 was at the 7 mile mark the trail gnomes put out a cooler of water. I also took a small spill on one of the smaller rock gardens which tore up my legs a little bit. Its ok though, chicks dig scars. I needed it as my drink intake rose from the prior 2 laps. I filled up the bottle, took a 2 minute break and with that boost of energy allowed me to pass some of the other solo riders. I get back into the pit area and the clock states 2 hours left. I get to the tent and take in some food and drinks and was lucky that the Mutt had some sort of massage stick he brought with. The burrower was lucky enough to use it on my legs to help roll out some of the potential cramps in which plagued other riders.

Lap 4 - The torture continues.

I was debating on if I wanted to go out for a final lap when I just talked myself into it knowing that I had a little less than 2 hours to go to the end. I knew that I just was going to take it slow keep and keep moving. By this time a lot of the people were finished riding and so spread out on the trail that it was minutes before you passed anyone (or had) anyone pass you. This is also the lap in which the leaders caught up to me and passed me like I was standing still. The winners did 6 laps total which is just beyond me on how they can keep it up for so long. When they did pass me though none of them acted like it was going to make a difference if they past me right away or wait till an opening which I appreciated. They didn't want to do something stupid and have anyone get hurt. I yielded to them and just watch them ride off into the sunset. Also on this lap I found my racing buddy the Mutt, still on lap 3. He was cramping up bad and had to walk up every hill. I took a few minutes and rode with him and we kept passing each other during the others moments of weakness. We finally ended up stopping at the water cooler on mile marker 7 and took a breather and just watched everyone pass us. I was ok with that. At this time the team shop I am on, Southpark Cycles, the owner was doing a duo race himself and passed us at the water station. The Mutts response "uh oh, you just let the boss catch you sitting down on the job" We had a good laugh as he continued on the ride.

I was finally able to break away from Mutt and took off on the last few miles. I was able to catch up and pass another rider who was having cramping issues. He was an older gentleman and an encouragement for me. Not because he was older, but because he was behind me pushing me to make sure I didn't give up. It is always easier to push yourself when there is someone else with you. We ended up finishing together and I gave him a handshake on the ride back to my pit area as we both completed the 6 hours of Warrior Creek. Ill probably continue on this path for the rest of the week with the blog, but hopefully more pictures and stories will surface as the week goes on. I will still try to get in about 4 or 5 stories this week so I will keep you updated. Sorry of the non-humorous stories but this was a race report blog.

1 More day!!!

And then the fun begins for the most pain and torture I have probably felt in a while. The 6 hours of Warrior Creek. But before I look forward lets get caught up. Today is Thursday (Finally) which means that I should have stuff to write about from this week. Well, good for you I do. Tuesday I had the day off for the reason I had to take the burrower to the doctor. This was a good day because she had hip surgery over a month ago and the doctor finally released her back into the wild. This means that I no longer had to drive her to Gastonia (35 minutes each way) 3 times a week to go to work and also get my lunches back where I previously took her to PT.

Once she got cleared to get released I was off!!! Shermans branch it was. It was such a beautiful day that I couldn't help but want to ride. I was planning on doing 3 laps there in preperation for the race which would put me about 3 hrs 30 minutes or so but ended up bailing after one because of chain suck. After leaving there discouraged and a little bit pissed I took my bike to Sun and Ski sports. They have lifetime adjustments on all bikes sold there and I didn't have time to go down to my team shop at Southpark Cycles. Turns out all I needed to do was oil the chain. Problem solved. Why didn't I think of that?

Also a plus of the Burrower being able to drive is that I get to ride my bike to work again. After the winter short track season my hardtail front fork was just completely destroyed and didn't work. Luckily my neighbor Leo is a bike guy as well. He doesn't care to ride them but he loves to work on them. Good for me because I am the other way around. He just happened to have a front shock just laying around. He said this makes up for the tires I gave him a few weeks ago, small block 8 and a nevegal.



So ended up coming home and I asked my buddy who is borrowing the Blefferprise-rent a wreck jeep to stop on by as I left my WWC pass in the vehicle. I am not paying 5 dollars to ride there when I already bought my season parking pass (which is definaly worth it even just for the concerts). But as we were talking out there all of the neighbors started to come home and then let the dogs out. Leo and Eli brought Ralphy back from the walk, and the college type kids let their little Pippen go nuts in the street. Rocky and Jasper hate that we can't let them out. We actually could let Jasper out and he would be fine, but Rocky's report card states "does not play well with others" He tried to nip at every dog that is not Jasper.

Heres Jasper:


and Rocky


And to top off the rest of the week I was able to complete a full ride around the WWC on Thursday. I even did the hated gas line and truckers loop. The sad part was I hit the trail before MadSS got there and did it by myself. But I did see him in the lot and finalize a few plans for Saturday. This will probably be the last post for the week as Friday I have a cookout in Lake Wylie, then the Race Sat, and then Easter Sunday. So next week should have some good stories as well. Happy Easter Everyone!