The Usual End of the Year Thank You

I was sooooo close to my goal of 1000 all purpose miles this year, off by less than 4. Of course that means that I would have to get an official odometer for both my bikes, and I just don't see myself doing that. So I might have hit my goal, or I could be way off. Either way I don't care.

But this was a good year for me riding. Considering this was my 2nd full year riding a mountain bike and moving up a class for racing, I think I did ok. More importantly I had fun and made a lot of new biking friends.

Southpark Cycles....err...Queen City Cycles kept my bike going all year long. Even better than that, Bart didn't kick me off the team this year for all of my lackluster race performances. Appreciate that.

I raced out of town a lot this past year and it was nice to see some other trails and what they had to offer. I am glad for all of the work that the Tarheel Trailblazers do to make all of the trails in this area top notch.

I did my first 6 hour endurance race at Warrior Creek. It was the most fun I had suffering since my last endurance race, the Rivers Edge 50 mile marathon, which I did again this year. I smashed last years time by over an hour. Progress? Maybe, but I also learned a lot about how to ride, and more importantly, nutrition. Who would have thought that food and drink during a 5 hour race would be important in 95 degree heat?

I went out to Colorado and competed in the USA Cycling National Cross Country race. That was an adventure.

I guess this is the part where I put down goals for this coming year...well I don't have any besides get faster. At least it is obtainable as Speed Racer I am not. At least not on my bike, but I am downing beers, so it all evens out. It is going to be a busy year traveling on the personal front. My wedding in Iowa, honeymoon somewhere warm TBD, Cashley's wedding in Boston, then possible weddings in Jersey? Illinois?

How am I supposed to work those into my biking schedule? I signed up for the 6 hours of warrior Creek again, one of the lucky few who got in before it sold out in 36 hours. maybe the Burn 24, as I really want to make myself suffer (depends on the honeymoon schedule as I doubt the Burrower will let me bring a bike with us) Tree, Shaker, Grind on the Greenway, all of these are potential endurance races that I would like to do.

In additon to the Southpark cycles gang, all of the other shops in the area that make Charlotte an amazing place to ride a mountain bike, my sponsors as well. And all of my loyal 4 readers. I will try to make these post more entertaining for you, even if I have to distract with a lot of pretty colors and shiny objects

A whole lotta nothin'

Yeah, I can say that and spell every word wrong because I can, and because I am a horrible speeler. On top of that, the title is true, there is a whole lotta nothing going on right now biking related. The holiday parties have calmed down as it is close to xmas, and me and the burrower are staying here for the holiday. Anybody in town that needs some psuedo family let me know, I am more than happy to bring the spiked egg nog and end up like Uncle Eddy.


Yeah, it has been a little chilly and wet around here to go riding the trails, and just to windy to want to try and brave the road. I did manage to get out on Sunday for a few miles on the road bike though, I only could stay out long enough to not feel some parts of my shins, mostly because I refuse to wear leggings.

I was able to pick up a good deal on a limited edition, long sleeve, south park cycles jacket. They are limited edition Bart has decided to move the location and change the name, so look for that coming up. Anyway he has a heck of a lot of deals on everything, mostly because why move stuff when you can sell it? Here is said jacket.

With under Armour, jersey, and that jacket my core was toasty in the 40 degree weather and blocked the wind pretty well.

In other news me, the burrower, and Erin and Angus went to the Lowes Motor Speedway Christmas lights spectacular. I really didnt care about the lights, but as soon as I found out I could drive on the track it brightened by day. I only hit 70mph the first time, but 80mph the second time we went through. Not bad for 1.8 liters of fury with 4 adults in the car. Here is the video.



If I am to lazy to write before X-mas, have a good one, and hope all of your bike part dreams come true.

Patrick

Time for a Change

So comes the time of year where new parts for the ride are in order. I carefully (by guessing) calculated every mile spent on every bike so far this year and for the life of the bike.

I do this on the little guestimate tool on Bicycling dot com site. So far just short of 1000 miles for the year on all my bikes (a large push at the end playing roadie might make me get 1000 for the year)



It also tracks the miles on the individual bikes themselves. I have almost 1000 for the Culprit over the life of the bike. That is a lot of miles on a drivetrain. Sure I changed tires, wheels, brakes, but I haven't changed the drivetrain (does this give you a hint yet at the change?) What is it going to be? Doing the single speed thing? 2x10, 3x10? 3x9? There are just so many different options now a days it almost works to peoples advantage to have the different types.

The local UPS website says the man in brown daisy dukes is bringing me a package later today. Hopefully it will show up.

And hopefully I will be around to sign for the delivery.

Now the issue is how do I put said unnamed but hinted at parts on the bike? I might have to ask my neighbor as he enjoys putting together parts and then taking them off again. Or I might as The Mutt if I can borrow R2D2 for a few hours and pay him in adult beverages.

With the Short Track Series coming up in a month I should be good to go by putting it together then.

In other news, this Thursday is the Southpark Cycles annual holiday party. I am pretty sure all are invited as Bart posted on the THTB forum. Just bring some canned goods so that he can donate to charity. He also says that there is a major announcement. I could drop clues about what it is, but I honestly don't know. I am not one much for the Christmas time so waiting for presents and waiting for fun or good news really doesn't bother me.

Me and him get along great.

I also don't turn on the Christmas tree lights or the outside lights in which I put up. The burrower does enough of that for both of us spreading the holiday cheer and what-not. I just drink the holiday beer.

Final side note, ugly sweater x-mas party, my place, Dec 11 around 7. Let me know if you want to come. This is about as much holiday I can tolerate, an abscure amount of xmas lights on a sweatshirt plus being tipsy, knocking on neighbors doors singing carols, and even doing bad things to a reindeer. Those pictures are not allowed to be shown by court order.

Once I get everything figured out on how to work new stuff, I will post up pics and let you know, until then...Ralphie, don't shoot your eye out.

Last Post of the Season (very picture friendly)

What is the end of the blogging season? I honestly don't know. I know that with the time change coming up, the summer series completed, most of the endurance races done for the year and cyclocross season coming up, riding time will be at a premium so the blog will updated less frequently. I will try to do it more than once a month though so keep checking back.

The reason in which I there was such a lull in the blogging was I had to send my wheels back to Mavic. Between shipping them there for warrenty work and interbike going on, The Culprit was out of commission for over a month due to this:


Ok, it wasn't just a broken spoke. Southpark cycles got that part taken care of within a day or so. It was there was some debris in the hoop of my front wheel and had to send it back to the manufacturer. That is what took so long. I missed some good riding time during the early stages of fall but did have some fun not being on the bike.

There was a wedding I went to for the burrower's co-worker down in S.C. (those pictures might show up later) My birthday party.

A lot of beer was consumed that night.

The beer olympics

I was the Candian team. Go Mounties!

Yeah, that hat is made out of a Bud Light box. I took 2nd place, but I really wished I wouldnt have. I was in bed in the fetal position till about 3 pm.

I got the burrower (left) on the bike, and she confirmed, she does not like it at all, at least off road. I am still trying to convince her that she is a roadie. She enjoys smooth roads, repetition, and no excitement, go figure.


I was able to log some miles in the TIAA-CREF charity trike race.


And the Junior Achievement owl

Go Charity!!!

My parents stopped to visit for the first time. Spent some time with them picking out some pumpkins.


Yup, I am a little kid and want to be carted around


Any Business Majors read "Atlas Shrugged"?


So yeah, thast why I haven't been on the bike a lot. Been busy weekends living life.
My new goal is update only 2x a week, but to make this quality post, like this, but maybe a few less pictures. Enjoy them

Looking at you till next time!

The week of riding continues

As the weather has finally started to turn cooler (well not that days, those are still 90 degrees here in Charlotte) the nights have become great to sit around and enjoy.

Last Thursday Dan (stock photo below, he is on the left)
and I made plans to go ride at the WWC. As I was waiting for him to show up I ended up seeing some of the Southpark guys, Bart and Kevin, going for what I believed to be a social ride. (Heres another pic stolen from the F-Book of the team, Kevin is 2nd from the left next to me, Bart is 4th from the left sticking his butt out showing our awesome sponsor Widmer Brothers Beer).

Well, I was wrong about the social pace but Bart and Kevin were nice enough to pull both of us around the WWC. We did one quick lap of no options and went back to the parking lot to pick up another rider (didnt get his name). But the 2nd lap we did all of the options and really booked it. I usually don't go as fast as we did, but it was different being pulled around the course instead of having everyone beat the crap out of me and never look back. I was informed that we a complete lap in a little over an hour. We booked it on the green trail as I had a quick mechanical and had to dismount. Bart, Kevin and the other rider took off while Dan waited for me to fix the chain. We made the decision to try and catch the group and I put the Culprit in the big ring. I was able to catch up and saw them on the straightaways. So close, getting closer each turn to the group, and then the turns came. I was going so fast and pedling while turning that twice my pedal hit a small stump while I was leaning into a turn that I got bucked off the trail, twice. I just quit trying to chase at that point and turned my attention to the more pressing matter. Beer.

There was a nice mellow band there last Thursday, sitting outside in the cool weather, a couple beers in my hand, it was heaven. Sadly I received a phone call from the Burrower who had news that one of our friends had gone missing two days prior.

I just found out Sunday morning with a wake up phone call that Val Hamilton had been murdered. Here she is on the left with our other friend Liz on the right.


I also found out today they caught they guy who they think is responsible. Here is a link to the article.

Althought we only met a few times Val was a great person. Always a pleasure to be around and in great spirits at all times. Her quirkiness and positive attitude will be missed. I don't have enough kind words about how she made everyone feel comfortable around her and how she was the first one to laugh at everything. I really don't have any other news about the services but I heard the funeral will be tomorrow. Sorry to leave this on a negative note, but you just don't ever think that you will know the missing person on the news.

Summer Series Finale

I apologize for not posting yesterday but I was a little pre-occupied during my normal blogging period. Its not easy working your butt off all day at a computer then coming home to write on the computer. Ok, it is easy, but very very boring.

Anyway the reason why I missed yesterdays post was simple, the season finale of the Charlotte Mountain Bike Summer Series.

I left work a few minutes early to get down to the WWC in time for the race and didnt have any issues with finding a parking spot. I even got a good view of the Southpark Cycles team van.


Also as I was getting ready I was greeted by Scott at Sun and Ski sports. I was informed that they were actually putting up some swag for some prizes. I love to hear that as right after Southpark, that is my next bike shop of choice. I always get treated good when I go there and they even fix my bike when I am there and don't have to wait. I guess that is what happens when you buy a few bikes from the place.

Also I was greeted by The Mutt who was kind enough not to take off my open door.


After getting ready and gear ready I made my way down and registered. In doing so Bart was ready to take the teams pictures. I didn't bring the camera for that. I will poach that picture when it gets posted.

I haven't done a lot of the Wednesday night races as I have been trying to save up for a wedding for me and the burrower. I felt the team needed me as we were only 4 points ahead of the Trek store in the team category. Well it turns out that everyone from the Southpark team was there and we had like 8 riders. I think that the Trek only had I believe one of them. Not fair odds for them but I will take it.

After the team pictures the races started up. There were 9 in my catagory and I went into the woods ahead of one rider. I kept up with the group until the first fireroad and then they left me. Stupid 14 mile sprint races. Not long enough for me to get my mojo going. Somewhere in the middle of the first lap the 9th place guy ended up passing me on an uphill (imagine that huh). Right about that time I ended up passing another rider in my class as well. Net gain/loss=0. All was going good until I got passed by the entire Southpark team (who is in an age group above me) right before the Toilet bowl.

The 9th place rider was following me closely throughout the toilet bowl and I ended up talking to him. Apparently he only had his granny gear. That really didn't make me feel any better that he was keeping up with me on his small ring. But right as we were going up a short climb on the toilet bowl my chain got stuck and his ended up breaking under the stress of the climb. At that point I knew I didn't have last as long as I finished the race. Thats usually how I get my points, finish the race ahead of the DNF's.

The rest of the race was pretty much without any real action as everyone finished before me and it was getting dark in the woods. The good news is that I made the finish in time to get to the awards ceremony.

Even though I didn't finish in the top 10 in my class this year to get some swag the Southpark team did end up taking 3rd place overall. What Bart didn't realize is that there was prize money associated with it. As soon as he heard that I saw the wheels turning in his head about how much beer that could buy. I don't blame him for thinking that at all. Also a few of the Southpark guys ended up finishing real well in their classes. I am unsure if there was any podium spots for them as it was loud inside the bar, but I know there were a lot of top 10 finishes for the team.

Shut up and ride

getting the swag

Doug getting his first prize bag in 3 seasons


It was a good racing season and I am going to miss just hanging out with a bunch of racers. We all know that the reason I race is for the friends I meet out there and not because I am expecting to win. Good season, good friends to race with, and looking forward to doing it again next year.

I may or may not post tomorrow depending on what the burrower has planned for me in terms of social responsibilities. Have a good weekend and the weather should be perfect, go ride.