It could always be worse

Been hitting the dirt a lot lately, no races till cross and cooler temps make it so easy. Missed the last Sundance race and double points, so Kenny overtook me easily for 3^rd in the series, I now have 4^th place in 3 series. Icup, NMBS and Wednesday nighter. Consistency is the key.

Thursday night Lyna and I rode up big water to great western to the Crest over look of the Canyon’s, I big ringed the whole thing, why not? Friday I did an easy spin up to the shoreline and back.

Saturday was the E100, my job was to support Lyna for the 50 milerand be at Aid stations 1 and 2. I got all her food and things ready Friday night, she woke up at like 3:45 to get coffee, granola and head up, I made it up to the first aid station a bit before 8 am, I tried to help out whoever I knew needed it while waiting for Lyna to come through. She made it through at about 2:41, she had emptied her camelback and her gel flask, as I suggested she do, the first couple of hours are key. This bode well for the rest of the race. I put a new bladder in her c-back, put a new flask in her pocket, kissed her and she was off. I hung around a bit more to see if anyone I knew came through, a few did, I then headed to Silver Lake and Deer Valley for the second aid station. BP, Fox and a few other 50 milers and 100kers came through, got BP carbed up and help Adam and Fred and KC and Chris with things, Lyna came through at right under 6.5 hours (the second stage was the toughest climbing wise) She looked pretty good, gave her a bottle with coke in it and a new flak and sent her on her way. More support for those coming through the same feed zone again (it was #2 and 3) and Lyna came through the finish line at 7 hours 50 minutes, good enough for 5^th overall and 3^rd in women 30-39, awesome job.

Sunday the Bull Elk was hosting a BBQ and ride on the bench creek horse trails. BZ and I headed up met up with the Bull Elk, Jen, Shannon and Sherwin (male version). The trail was sweet, lots of rocks, stream crossings, some brutal climbs and hike a bikes, we then hit the DH, sweet, fast, fun and long, somewhere around the 11 mile mark of the 18 mile ride it all went wrong.

I was following Chad and we were getting ready to go into another rocky section. I decided that I wanted more speed to clear the rocks easily, so I started pedaling on the smoother trail section, well this trail has limited bike travel, lots of horses, as a result the trail is thin and slightly SUNKEN, naturally at some point my pedal made contact with something, I am not sure the speed I was carrying, probably over 20 mph, but I went over quicker than Robert Downey Jr. in a pharmacy. It was so quick that next thing I knew I was on the ground. Jen was a bit behind and saw my rear tire jump up and heard the impact, Chad heard the impact and stopped. Well first thing I did was check for broken, Dislocated bones, None, thank god, I was then about to jump up and get back on the bike when I saw my right leg. I was Covered, I mean COVERED with blood, I then looked for the source and then I really freaked out. I saw a gash about an inch and a hlf long, with fat and muscle visible and blood continuing to flow out. –that all occurred within seconds of the crash--- I yelled, screamed, whimpered ‘OH MY GOD’ in such a manner that Chad started running towards me and Jen wondered if she wanted to see why I yelled (she was worried she was going to see my femur sticking out of my leg). I told Chad that I had a really bad cut, I was at that point pinching it together, I truly though I had cut an artery. None of us had any first aid stuff so I pinched it and elevated it, Chad started to go get Shannon (who is a nurse, used to be a trauma nurse). Shannon came back just then. He looked at it and said it was gonna need stitches, but it was going to be ok. Thank god, we were as remote on the trail as we could be. So we fashioned wound dressing out of Jens knee warmer and my arm warmer. We then rode the rest of the way out, to say the least I was a bit tentative on the technical DH after that, and there was a lot of it. We got back to Chad’s condo, Lyna just got there with Ty and Meg, Sherwin took Lyna and I to the Heber ER and 30 minutes later I was all better.

Bz, Bull Elk, Jen and me (going to a bush) a few minutes before the OTB.

I am sore today, wrist, chest and of course knee, but grateful it wasn’t worse, it could have been really bad. Good to have friends there when you need them, and thye didn’t give me too much crap for it.

Below is a picture from Shannon, BZ's will be higher resolution,
BZ's account of the day is far more poetic, read it. take the time for it to load.

Training????

So ripped the Shoreline loop today, door to door is about 19 miles and maybe 3500 feet or so of climbing. To carry on Sly style I big ringed it up dry creek and then had to go one better and stay big ringed all the way to city creek. Feeing good, but wait, racing is over, exceot a few wednesday nighters, wait one is tomorrow, now i am hosed, oh well, it was fun.

Part way up the climb I call big Berth (in the big ring) Lyna and my song came on the Ipod, Bright Eye's First Day of My Life. I love the line;

But I'd rather be working for a paycheck
Than waiting to win the lottery

I like it. I do.

Onto doping news, looks like the Euro MTB'ers are gonna start worrying. Hermida Goes Home

Focus shifts off cycling???

For a moment, maybe.

20 years ago, sheesh

So, this week i have been pondering the 20 year high school reunion, we llponder done, i am not going. Same weekend as a double psycho-cross race and 24 hours of Moab, so i will gladly miss it. However, reading Kerry Litkas recent entry reminded me of something. SOmething rather scary.

In 1986 tates creek high school in Lexington Kentucky decided to have a MR. and Ms. Commodore pageant. The kicker was that it was to be a parody. I of course, being a 'non-conformist' at least 50% of the time couldn't pass it up. So somehow I talked my buddy Jeff Schreiffer into doing it with me, he was a riot, and a 75% 'non conformist' so it was set, except we had to come up with some skit to do, i had no idea what we should do, more on this later.

We had to practice, as there were group performances, let in be known that Jeff and I were surrounded by jocks and class officers and those who were the top of the food chain, we were slightly out of place, because we were none of those things. Well we practiced, stumbled and the day of the 'pageant' arrived.

Jeff and I obtained some liquid courage for the evening (it was the 80's, it was easy) We took off after school with a few others, i forget the girls name, but the Soccer start Stuart was with us as well, we got a bit sloppy. Came back in time for the pageant.

One of the silliest moments in my high school career was the one group 'skit' the below picture says enough. But i was silly drunk, so it didn't matter.















Later Jeff and I did our skit, we worked long and hard coming up with something that would wow them, while not be stupid, in our infinite wisdom, late one night as we drank beers in the G.D. Ritzy's parking lot, we decided.












Jeff played a sort of morph of Frank-N-Furter and Magenta, while i played Riff Raff

The strangest thing was that all the Jocks, Food Chain toppers and all the feaks in the audience who knew what we were up to, came on stage and did the dance with us, it was almost a John Hughes moment. Not quite, but almost.

Jeff won the male competition, he also did a small stand up comedy bit, it was a weird, weird night.

Weekend Update

So Saturday was the big IntermountainCup finals in the Uintahs. It is funny that we call it the Evanston, Wy race when it is actually in Utah.

I didn't do it last year due to burn out and was really looking forward to it, the race and the awards party afterward are always fun. Lyna and I got there with time to warm up. I realized about halfway there that I forgot to bring the team competion trophy, crap. Ed was ok with it, so it was not too much of an issue.

The start of the race is relatively flat, I led for a while, I hear it was a lead group of 5 of us, 4 of which were Revolution riders. In order to meet my last goal for the year, I needed to come in at least 2 to 3 places ahead of Chad Harris. 1/4 of the way through the first lap, Rich yelled that we had a gap, Pilling was already off the front, so I was feeling good about it. We had already passed all but the 1st 19-29 expert and i was feeling steady. Going up the long fire road climb, i turned around and saw Chad with Rich, I bobbled in the first part of the steep single track and Chad was on my wheel, I bobbled again halfway up and he got around me, a mile or so later Rich got by me, i was super timid on the DH the first lap, Rich was tearing the DH up. Mad Dog Tim caught and passed me efore the dead mans drop section, i got around him on the climb and held him up on the DH. Coming into the feed zone, Chad, Tim and I were all together. On the second time up the fire road climb I was leading the 3 of us, big ringing it in the hopes of putting a gap. CHad got around me on the steep single track again and I convinced my self to man up on the DH. I kept Chad in sight, I was hoping Tim would come back on and we could get in front of Chad, coming into the feed zone again, about 2 miles from the finish we were all together, I put in an attack, bad timing, chad got a few seconds on me on the return route, we started catching lots of lappers, dicing around them, i kept the pressure on, but finished 7 seconds back, Tim lost 1.5 mnutes in that last section. I ended up 4th in the series and 4th in the race. I really enjoy races that are close, a battle to the end.

So the MTB season is mostly over. Time to review the goals, in December 2005 it set them, below is the goal and the result

1. Consistent top 5's in Intermountaincup Races
Did this towards the middle of the season on. Complete
2. Top 3 overall in Intermountaincup
So close, so close
3. An Intermountaincup win, Chad 'The Bull Elk' Wassmer is moving up to Pro, so I may have a chance.
Bordertown Challenge, Win, this is actually the goal i thought would be the hardest to meet. Complete
4. Top 5 at National Championships - this is a crap shoot, cuse you never know who is going o show up, likely some cat 1 roadie whose time would put him in the top 5 of Semi Pro or Pro
2 nationals and 2 top 5 placings as well as 4th oerall in expert 35-39 NMBS standings. Complete
5. At least one 5 to 6 hour ride a week . It is all about the base
Met or beat all my prescribed hours this year. Complete

4 out of 5 is excellent, and being so close to the 5th is not bad. I have 3 more Wednesday night races to do, currently in 3rd place in that series, then it is all about Cyclocross.

Lyna and I will also be doing some weekend Backpacking trips into the Uintas and Wind Rivers soon. Cross training baby.

More stuff

Added the Brian Head NMBS elevation profile, MotionBased claims 5900 feet, ouch. 1 more big race, Saturday, good times, looking for another good result, maybe I'll catch Fox, show him how us old guys do it.

Starting to get worried about Cross, is Ohran gonna do it? 1.5 months left till it is supposed to start.

Brian Head NMBS

Quick crackberry post, I love riding here, the pre-ride of half the course friday was epic, rain, mud, big rocks. The semi pros had some mud om friday afternoon. Saturday was excellent weather. I had a good race, finishing 4th, pilling was 5th a few minutes behind.Lyna took 2nd sport women 30-39. EJ was 15th pro men, Ty 16th semipro, Chad 18th semi pro. BZ double flatted, Kathy Sherwin was 11th pro women. I don't know Shannon and Jens placings. I'll try a longer race report when we get home.

Crits are stupid

Occasionally on a tuesday evening I'll do a noce recovery ride out to the RMR to watch the local heroes dice it out in the 'Training' crit. Reality is that most of the riders there put more effort/risk etc.. into these races than the weekend ones. I used to do them as they were great training, but i witnessed wy to many accidents, tonight while watching the b-flite, in a big group, wind it up in the 1/4 mile straight away, I witnessed more carnage, several riders went down, lookd like one frame was a victim and who knows how much skin and bloofd was donated, I hope everyone was alright, but I got my bi-annual reminder of why crits are dumb