Huck-A-Buck 2012

Another Huck-A-Buck at Lake Crabtree is in the books and for once it was not 100 degrees.  The race is put on by Happy Fun Racing and they do one hell of a job.  This race always draws a pretty big number of riders and the Single Speed Category isn't lacking either along with the competition in it.  The trail got some rain last night which helped tighten it up since it has been dusty and slick, but the trade off was slick roots and bridges along with 80 degree temp with about 85% humidity.  We had three 7 mile laps to sort it out on the trail.

Rockin' the 29nsngl kit
Photo by On the Mark Sports

They let the Single Speed Category loose on the course at 12:20 and it was on from the start when the siren went off.  The start line was maybe 40 yards from the entrance to the trail, so I had to mash on the pedals hard to hopefully get the hole shot or at least be close to the front.  I hit the trail running 3rd, but there was a nice line behind me that was pressing hard.  It seemed 1st and 2nd were trying to keep the pace down and with really no passing areas on the trails were going to be tricky.  So, I thought I would be nice and ask to pass, so that is what I did.  I can't blame the guy when I asked I got the response of, "what?" So, I asked again and he said sure at the next time that it was possible.  I went around in the first 2 miles and sat on 1st places rear wheel until about 5.5 miles when it widened out and was smooth, so I took a drink from the bottle and let 3rd go around me.  We crossed the start/finish line nose to tail and stayed like that until about 10 miles when 2nd made his move and he was gone.  We tried to stay with his pace, but backed off since 4th on back looked to be maybe a minute behind us.  I spent the rest of the race seeing 2nd through the woods and looking back and seeing 4th and 5th not that far behind me also.  There was no letting up for the entire 3rd lap for it looked like 4th was trying to close the gap and he was.  I crossed the line in 3rd at 1:32:19 for 21 miles (3 laps). 

I only ended up drinking one bottle of fluid and two Gu packets the entire race.  After uploading my Garmin 500 to Strava it really showed what kind of suffering was going on during the race for me by my heartrate.

http://app.strava.com/rides/14193435

For placing 3rd I got this nice poster of vintage Tour de France image of the racers drinking that I plan to frame and hang in my office at work.  Along with it was one of these handy dandy recycled bike parts bottle opener key chain that will get plenty of use.

Run from the Cops 4 HR MTB Race

photo by Preston Scott

It was a Hot Metal day out there today.  This was a great race put on by the Greensboro Police Club and many other sponsors.  Nothing to exciting actually happened during this race for me which was a good thing.  It was more about not blowing up and overheating in 4 hours.  The temperature was around 80 and humid when the race started and by the end was 97 with a heat index of 103.  There were a few people creeping and some standing on the side of the trail nursing cramps.  I was making sure I was drinking plenty of water and electrolytes to hold off the cramps.  I ended up getting cramps on the inside of my thighs on lap 6, and to fight this off I had a gel bottle filled with pickle juice (yes, it sounds gross but it works).  It took about half a bottle and roughly five minutes and no more cramps for the rest of lap 6 and lap 7.  Another trick to keep the core temperature down were ziploc bags of ice that I would put down the bag of my jersey for 2 laps at a time that I starte at lap 3 and it really helped.  One of the trails (Owls Roost aka Owls Roots) is a rough trail because of all the roots and because of this I switched out my rigid fork for some front squish for this race and glad I did.  Really didn't want to deal with the jarring since it was a hot day and wanted to conserve as much energy as possible.  It was a very dry and dusty course and by the end I was covered in dirt sweat.  At the end of the day I ended up putting in 48 miles in 4 hours and placing 6th in the Single Speed Category.

photo by Preston Scott

2012 6 Hours of Warrior Creek

 

This was my first time racing the 6 hours of Warrior Creek and my first time riding the trails at Warrior Creek in Wilkesboro.  The week before the race did not go as planned because of being out of town for work all week and working some crazy hours.  Drive 5 hours back home on Friday then the 2 hour drive to Wilkesboro followed by some camping the night before.  I knew when I woke up on Saturday morning it was going to be a rough race because of how the body was feeling.  Since I wasn’t feeling fast I at least looked fast in the new METAL Kit.  I sucked it up and lined up about mid-pack since I knew the road section at the beginning I would be eaten up by some people with gears.  With the mass start and about one and half miles to sort it out and hopefully make up some ground before hitting the single track.  I fell in with a group of about 5-7 riders and made my passes when possible since some people geared down and spun up the hills unlike I was doing on the single speed and mashing up every hill.  Never riding here and not riding a lot of berms it made for a fun first lap with some learning at the same time.  With each lap around 12.5 miles and the first being slightly longer I was hoping I could make up more ground in the single speed division.  IT was difficult to know exactly where you may be in your division which made me want to not back off the pace on the first lap.  First lap down and as I roll into the pits I let my buddy know that is there as support that I am over geared and should have put an easier gear to spin.  There was a lot more climbing involved then I had suspected.  It ran through my head a few times to take the time in the pits and switch it out, but of course I decided not to do that.  This is where I will start to pay for that decision toward the end of lap three and through lap four.  A little over halfway through lap three the cramps started setting in slowly and I tried to fight them off, but turning the harder gear was taking its toll on the legs.  Lap four was a tough one, but I sucked it up and pushed on until I got to the top of one of the longer climbs and had to stop because the legs were cramping pretty bad.  I ended up rolling across the finished line in 18^th out of 37 in the single speed division.  Not what I had planned, but this was the hand I was dealt.

Curse at the Crab 2012

photo taken by On The Mark Sports

This past weekend I raced the Curse at the Crab 6 hour race at Lake Crabtree here in Raleigh, NC.  What makes this race really awesome is it runs from 2pm to 8pm, so you get at least 2-3 laps in the dark.  Going into the race I knew the course was going to be a fast 6.75-7 mile course.  No major climbing just lots of hammering the pedals.  The Single Speed category was 10 deep with some really good racers in it, so I knew it would be a fight to take a podium spot.  They started us about half a mile down the main road in the park to try and get us spread out.  When we started it was a mad sprint to be somewhere up front since we had about 75 racers jumping into the singletrack at once.  I hit the woods running around 4^th in the single speed category being sandwiched between two other single speed racers, James and Mark.  These are two buddies that I ride with, so I knew what they could do for the next six hours.  Not even 2 miles into the race by buddy was running in front of me and he wrecks, which moved me up to possibly 3rd in the SS Category.  Somehow I came to a stop without leaving him with a tire tattoo.  Then not even a mile later going through some switchbacks I was carrying to much speed into a 90 degree turn and ate it.  I got up and never lost my spot in the four person train we were running since they had no way of getting around me.  Somewhere during all of this 2^nd place fell off and moved me up another spot.  The next three laps were the same with me leading the 4 person train through the woods until we got to this flat straight away that I would use for eating and hydrating.  I backed off and waved them around while I ate some food moving me back to 3^rd place.  Somewhere on lap 5, I moved up to 2^nd place without knowing it.  Then on lap 6 I rolled into the pits and saw who I thought was 2nd place off to the side getting some food or something.  At the time I had no clue that I was now in 1^st place, and tried to pick up my pace or at least stay consistent.  So, in my mind I was trying to chase 1^st place down, but at the same time I was running scared and hoping to not get caught.  Halfway through lap 8  it was time to switch on the lights.  The last two laps were in complete darkness and my goal was to not let any lights catch me and try and catch as many as I could in front of me hoping it would be 1^st place.  I started my last lap 10 minutes before the cut-off time, so I knew there was plenty of time for someone to still catch me.  Lap 10 was uneventful and I crossed the line at 5:58:37 with 10 laps/70 miles.  It was not until I got to my pit that I found out I won the Single Speed Category and when I started looking at the results I learned I had been in 1^st place since lap 7.  Lesson learned:  Hammer it like you are chasing and running scared at the same time.  Stay Metal.

This race like all the others wouldn't be possible without TORC (Triangle Off-Road Cyclists) and all the volunteers.  On The Mark Sports provided the timing and photos.  It was really cool that they did live updates on the website every few minutes and had the photos uploaded within hours on their facebook page.  The trophies were really bad ass also.

I think I have finally dialed in my nutrition also.  I ended up with no cramping or stomach issues for the entire race and that was a first.  More on this in a future post.

Fresh Rubber

I ordered some new tires from my local bicycle shop Flythe Cyclery this past week.  Mounted them up yesterday and it rained today.  It is looking like the maiden voyage on the fresh rubber will not be until this upcoming weekend during the Curse at the Crab 6 hr race.  Six hours of racing will be a great place to put these to the test.  The tires I ordered are both from Maxxis Tires.  I will be running the Ardent 29 x 2.4 on the front to help with the rigid fork I run.  It is roughly a 800 gram tire, so it is solid.  In the rear will be the Ikon 29 x 2.2.  This is a true racing tire coming in around 500 grams.  On my way home from the bicycle shop, everytime I  would stop at the stoplights I kept picking them up one at a time and that 300 grams is a huge difference.  After mounting them on the bike it gave the bike a feeling of it being evenly balanced from the front to the rear.  It is going to be interesting to see how low I can run the Ardent since it is a high volume tire.  The Ikon seems to feel like the Continental Race King I had on there.  I took some logs I have stacked up beside the shed and put them in the yard to simulate roots and  see how they felt with the air pressure I picked to try.  Ardent was at 18 psi and the Ikon was at 21 psi.  These are the same tire pressures I ran with the tires I just took off the bike.  I will see how they do and add to the review as time goes, but 6 hours will be a good test to start with.

Bushwhack Mountain Bike Challenge

photo by biketriad.com

This was the inaugural Bushwhack Mountain Bike Challenge and it was limited to 100 riders, and I was one of the lucky ones that got a spot.  It wasn't that hard to get one as long as you signed up early and didn't wait until the last minute and then hope someone would back out so you could have their spot. This crazy cold front that came through had the temperature at 28F and a wind chill of 20F at the start which is not normal for Raleigh, NC. This race was every man or woman for themselves, no categories, just straight up racing.  They had us start with 1 mile on the road before hitting the singletrack to get us spread out sort of. It was great accept for everyone with gears went flying down the road which made it harder on the single speed to get a good spot going into woods. I spent the next 7 miles slowly moving around people before we hit the fireroads for the next 19 miles. It was fairly flat for the next 2.5 or so miles which made it easy for some the geared guys to come back by until we hit the uphill sections and I would make up time on some. Spinning out going downhill didn’t help when I would be within quarter mile or so of some others and they would just pull away. I think I only ended up passing 3 or 4 on the fireroads. Finally I hit the singletrack again and that is where I made up some spots passing 7 guys. I ended up covering the 35 miles in 2:37:49 and finishing 33rd out of 90 riders. The race didn’t go as well as I had hoped, but better than not showing up and not finishing.

Photo by Reward
Yes, I ran the rooty climb.  People were stopped at the top.

Lesson learned - Even though it is cold as hell outside you don't have to put on every cycling related piece of gear you own.  Well, the one extra piece was not actual cycling gear, but none other than running tights.  Huge mistake, not because they were running tights, but because when you slide your leg warmers over top of the tights the leg warmers like to slowly work themselves down over the miles.  This didn't happen with both legs at the same time, they somehow took turns sliding down.  At least 3 times in Umstead I slowed down to a crawl to pull them back up.  Only happened once in Crabtree, but it was flopping around by knee, so I had to come to a complete stop for this, it sucked.  So, next time I will have to not be a big wuss and HTFU and go with just the leg warmers or just hope it is warmer.

This race will be on my list every year they run it.  It makes you hurt in a good way.

2012- what's be happening...possibly

This year is the year that I plan to focus on endurance races.  I have found that is more of my comfort zone (as comfortable as you can be sitting on a bike saddle for 6 hours or more) vs. the shorter cross country races.  Nothing against the cross country races, I just would rather suffer for 6 hrs + instead of 1 1/2 hrs.  Not saying I will not go and suffer for the 18 miles of cross country racing to support my local mountain bike club and trails.  This year I have already hit HTFU endurance rides once and put in some other roughly 20 mile days along with time at the gym.  The weather has gotten in the way somewhat as much as work has.  Excuses...I know suck it up and HTFU, either way the more rides I get now the less suffering to happen on race day.

For the second year I will be racing on the TWIN SIX METAL TEAM!!  If you are not wearing Twin Six then you are missing out.  The quality of their jerseys, bibs and the t-shirts are superb.  Getting some of my fuel for the year from Honey Stinger again, and the waffles are freaking awesome and their gels seem to be very easy on my stomach.

As for the race schedule:
2/12/2012 - Buckwhack Mountain Bike Challenge
2/25/2012 - 6hr Curse at the Crab
3/24/2012 - 6hr Meltdown at Harris Lake
4/7/2012 - 6 hrs of Warrior Creek
9/8/2012 - Fool's Gold 100

There is a 5 month gap there that is up in the air on what races I want to compete in.  It will be my first 100 miler and really looking forward to the suffering.

Angry Monkey 6 hour

Got up this morning at 5am and picked Ryan up at his house.  We were rolling to Gibsonville for the 2nd Annual Angry Monkey MTB Race 6 hour.  This year the course ran the opposite direction of last year.  First stop, McDonald's for a Bacon, Egg and Cheese McGriddle and some coffee.  We get to Northeast Park around 7:30am and get the pit area set-up, so Ryan would have a place to hang the next 6 hours while I am out on course. I ate four Honey Stinger Waffles before the start and it might be my new strategy.
The course was a six mile loop and we had about 3/10 of a mile of pavement before we hit the woods.  They started us in the Single Speed Category in the last wave.  I go into the woods in 5th and right off the start we are hitting traffic and get split from the the front four.  I am driving the train of the second group and the bike bell was ringing and I am calling out which side I (we) are passing.  First couple of laps was uneventful and I was setting a good pace to where no one wanted to pass me.  Finally on lap three I run up on 4th place and go by without a problem.  No stopping at the pit area for the first three laps, but now every time I would roll into the pit area Ryan would have the bottles and a waffle waiting, so I wouldn't have to stop but creep through.  Lap 6, I see third place ahead of me halfway through the lap and he has blown up.  I am a man with a mission now and the legs were feeling great.  I pass second place in the pits between Lap 9 and 10.  Lap 10 is when the legs are starting to cramp and that was not a good sign since I had no clue how close third was.  Going up the first of two steep but short hills my right quad locks up and I do the stiff leg shuffle to the top and try and massage it out.  It did not want to bend and I knew I had to be in by 5:40 to be able to get my last lap in.  Finally got to rolling after about thirty seconds and I made it with nine minutes to spare.  While standing in the pits getting my last bottle,waffle and massaging the thigh again, third place rolls by me and has about twenty seconds on me.  I finally catch and pass him with a little less than 2 miles to the finish and try to pull away, but burned my legs out catching him.  Once by he is hanging on and not letting me get away.  When we hit those final two hills that just sends my legs into crampville and have to walk the last hill.  He pulls away at the top of the second hill and I end up rolling across the line in 3rd and a minute and ten seconds off 2nd.  This was a great race that came down to the last lap to sort out second and third.  By the end I had consumed twelve bottles of Nuun Lemon Tea, eleven Honey Stinger gels and ten Honey Stinger Waffles.

Huck-A-Buck 2011

The Huck-A-Buck 2011 had another great turn out this year. There was about 20 of us in the Single Speed Category. Today was going to be a brutal 3 laps of 6.75 miles of singletrack and not because of the trails, but 94 degrees and feeling like 101 at the noon time start. We have not had much rain and this trail is mostly sand the closer you get to the lake. I started prepping for this race on Friday by drinking lots of fluids the next two days. I weighed myself Friday morning and was at 178 lbs. The morning of the race I weighed myself again and was 181 lbs. I hit the woods in 6^th or 7^th place and let 2 guys go by halfway through the 1^st lap hoping that they would blow up because of the heat. With a mile to go in the first lap I was cruising through a turn about 15 mph when my tires came out from under me and I ended up 2-3 feet off the trail and ripped open a scab from the previous wreck at the race a month earlier. Had three more guys pass at this point since my arm was hurting and trying to make sure everything else between me and the bike was in working order. Lap 2, coming through the start/finish I hear from the organizers over the loud speakers how sweet the Metal Kit looks and had to be the best looking one on the course. I caught one of the other single speeders and the rest of the lap was uneventful except passing a couple guys with gears. Lap 3, I turned up the pace to see if I could hopefully catch at least one or two more guys who may have gone out to fast. Well, I ended up catching and passing three more guys, but they had gears so that did not help me. I ended up rolling across the finish line in 11^th. After the race a few people asked about the Metal Kit and proudly told them about Twin Six. When I got home I weighed myself and had dropped to 174 lbs, yeah that was a lot of sweating in less than two hours. I may not have finished as high up as I would of liked, but I looked damn good in the Metal Kit doing it.

Briar Patch - TORC #1 2011 Race Series

First race of the TORC 2011 XC Series here in the Triangle was at Briar Chapel located south of Chapel Hill, NC. Great course, very flowy and then they mix in the rock garden sections with each lap being six miles. Racing in the Single Speed division we had three laps and it was going to be a tough day with some of the guys out there. I knew I had to pace myself with the heat being high 80's with 60% humidity at the 11am start time. They have a nice gravel road start that is around a mile to help spread everyone out before hitting the singletrack. I hit the woods in 6^th and it was a good pace that I knew I could hold the entire race. For the first and second lap it was fairly uneventful except having to stop in the middle of a rock garden since the guy in front of me came to a dead stop and left me nowhere to go. I started having a minor stomach issue about two miles into the last lap, so backed it off and popped some chews when I hit the doubletrack climb. Started picking the pace back up when with about two miles to go I catch my front tire in a rocky section going up hill and just eat it hard. Luckily the rocks I landed on were smooth and not jagged, but they were not forgiving at all. I got myself up and the guy behind me who couldn’t see it, but he heard the crash and all the profanity that went with it. I sat on a nice grassy clearing about ten feet away for about a minute to check myself over since my arm was throbbing and bleeding and couldn’t close my hand all the way. One of the other rocks gave me a nice kidney punch when I landed on it. I ended up finishing 9th in the Single Speed Division with a time of 1:51:53.  I must have laid there in the grass longer than I thought since it looks like I lost a good 7 minutes or so, oh well crashes happen. 


Rockin' The Twin Six Metal Kit



All in all, glad I finished the race without a DNF or last. It took two stitches to close my elbow up and hoping to be back on the bike within the next week when I get more range out of my arm.

Muddy Buddy 2011

Another Muddy Buddy is in the books making it my 5th and the 3rd with The Fox.  The Fox and I headed up to Richmond, VA on Saturday 30th for the Muddy Buddy race at Pocahontas State Park on May 1st.  We have our normal routine for the weekend.  We left Raleigh around lunchtime and stopped to grab something to eat along the way.  We rolled into Chester and stopped at our hotel (Marriott) which is the same one for the last 3 years.  It in a great location since it is 10 miles from the race and it is a Marriott need not say more.  Then we headed over to Blue Ridge Mountain Sports for packet pick-up.  As normal we just like to take it easy the day before the race, so we hit up Dick Sporting Goods and then a bicycle shop. 

For dinner that night we hit up Bandito's Burrito Lounge just like we have for the two years prior.  This place has some of the best burritos and tacos I have had along with great salsa.  We all know if the salsa sucks more likely the food will too.  This year we went a different route and ordered the mahi mahi tacos instead of a two pound burrito that makes you feel uncomfortable the rest of the night.  My tacos were great, The Fox on the other hand had a hairy taco for his second one, but still finished eating.  Yes, we both served in the military and pretty sure we had eaten much worse.  Of course they did not charge him for his meal.  Our next plan was to head back to the hotel, check the bike over again, watch some track and field on ESPN, then head over to Hooters to catch some UFC.  We ended up just checking out the bike and watching track and field.  It was nearly ten o'clock and we didn't feel like going to Hooters to drink beer since we had to get up at 5:30 the next morning.  We have done it in the past, but not this time, yes we know LAME.

Almost forgot, this year we changed our team name to Pelotas De Acero which translate to Balls of Steel.  So, we get to Pocahontas State Park around 6 - 6:15 that morning go get our tshirts that they ran out of at early packet pick-up.  Head back to car to get everything ready for the race and give us enough time for the normal pre-race multiple trips to the bathroom a/k/a port-o-johns.  Finally race time has come upon us around 8 am that morning, but we are the 4th wave to go so the wait ends up being another fifteen to twenty minutes.  We wish we were wave 1, so that there would be no in front of us to contend with on the trail and make finding the bike at the obstacles a lot easier.  For as many people that we had in front of us our race went pretty smooth through all the transitions.  I couldn't find the bike for about 10 seconds at one transition and they threw in an obstacle right before the mud pit.  It was a nice 20 foot rope climb with a climb down on the other side. Our time was 45:33 for the 7 mile course.  We ended up 2nd in our division and 9th overall which is not to shabby.  Next year, it is on and looking to take 1st in division and hopefully make top 5 in the overall.

Little River Trail Race 2011

So my first trail race for 2011 and could be my last is the Little River Trail Race in the northern part of Durham County.  This is a great race that has a 7k and 10 mile option.  Since the last running race, well half of it was running and the other half bike that I have competed in was Muddy Buddy 2010.  Figured no reason to go out and kill myself running the 10 miler instead I chose the 7k (4 miles).  I have done this race in the past when it was 9 miles and it is a lung burner which any race is that starts at 9am in the middle of January.  My good friend like a brother to me, "The Fox" as I will refer to him as in my posts will be out there with me.  But, he is doing the 10 miler since he is the endurance running junkie and I am the endurance mountain bike junkie.  Who knows how the trail will be since the temperature will be in the "why the hell are we out here" range.  I guess with it being below freezing we do not have to worry about any muddy spots since it will be frozen.  So, here is a look at forcast for tomorrow morning and we will see what our outcomes will be.