Really

I call this one 'STORMY'
 I swear i was not posing, really.  More photos from Solitude Tuesday here.  Superfly, tuck yer shirt in you slob.

Went down to draper for a nice 2/3rd's night ride tonight with one of the Brad's, Steve H and Erich. Up Ghost falls, Down Clarks, up Clarks, down Ghost Falls.

Leaving my house around 7:30 I saw a women on a fixed gear bike heading down the street, i waited till she passed to start driving, as not to make her nervous, as i pulled into the street I then noticed she had a skinny, flat handle bar with bar ends and was wearing bikini bottoms. I swear. better than wearing capris I guess.

Jackson-Teton-Bear Attack

"Pain Don't Hurt" -James Dalton, bouncer

The Bull Elk and I headed up to Jackson on Thursday. We got there a bit too early to check into our condo, but soon enough we were in. I went out for an easy spin on my road bike and threw in a few short hard efforts. We tried to go to Dark Knight that evening , but the little theater looked to be overrun by Touron's, so we headed back to the condo. BZ and Elena showed up around 9 or so, Erika, Dusty and Monique a bit later.

Slept in Friday, tooled around a bit and went for a pre-ride of the course around noon. I love this course. Thanks to Mikey and Jay there was a line up the service road steep pitch. That evening we had a team pasta feed in the condo, around 20 - 25 people eating pasta and salad.

Saturday am was nice and cool, but it was not to last. We had 6 at the line for 40+ Chris, Fred, Alex, Karl and a local. I got the hole shot and tried to keep it smooth on the technical sections over roots and rocks, Chris was behind banging around a bit. He got around me where I expected, on the double track before the new singletrack traverse. I charged up a bit to him on the next double track section. Fred was not too far behind. Chris ended up getting by a few SS'ers on a few short climbs, I got stuck behind them on descents. He was still in sight at the end of lap one. Lap 2 i settled in a bit on the initial single track, Fred was still right behind me maybe 30-45 seconds. After I got around Jamie P (SS winner) and The Bull Elk, I throttled up in the rolling sections, taking it smooth on the steeper ones. I was likely less than a minute down on Chris going into lap 3 and less than a minute up on Fred. I kept the pace up through the initial ST again and hammered the gradual climbs, When I dropped into the deep woods Singletrack I was feeling good, when with out warning, I was attacked by something on a slow speed corner I took a bit to wide.
I felt a scratch, but nothing too bad, but when I got on a straight stretch of trail, I looked down and saw my right shin was mostly red and damp. So of course, I start freaking, I slow down, try and calm myself, and keep checking the wound. It took about 10 minutes of this before I finally realized the bleeding had stopped and I would be ok. So I ramped it up again, in case Fred was close.

I ended up in Second, again, 3 minutes down to Chris, who said he had a horrible 2nd lap. Maybe without the shin attack (i think it was a Bear) i could of been close. Fred blew up on the last lap and came in 5 minutes behind me. The weird thing about the shin, was it didn't even knock me out of my pedal, I kept pedaling and moving forward. Kind of bummed about not being able to hit the hot tub post race though.

Saturday evening we went out for Mexican, and watched a DVD and blew of the Zeppelin tribute band, cause we are old.

Sunday we were going to ride, but being old and tired led us to do a short hike and head home.

I was happy to see the 5 year old raggedy Element got 27 mpg for the trip, with the AC blowing. Gas is 30-40 cents a gallon cheaper in Jackson than it is in SLC.

Reasons not to raise hands when crossing the line in victory

The number one reason is that, well, no offense to anyone, but really, what did you just win?

• The Expert Age group local mtb race?
• The Cat 3 crit?
• A Pro 1-2 race with 20 riders in BFE?
• A Mid Week Training race?
• The Bigwheel circuit race (well this may be an acceptable venue)
• A small town festival race with 20 guys on huffy's and you on your 5,000 dollar super bike?
  

Seriously, this is small, the self aggrandizement does nothing but turn me off, even in big races.

Look At Me. I'm a WINNER, WHOOPPPEEEEEEE shit.

More tangible reasons


Go Eric Z

Go MTB Race

Have you ever tried to ride no handed on a Lefty? Not impossible, but not easy.

Plus, it has a tendency to accentuate the mooseknuckle.

Discuss

It is inevitable

That it will rain in the mountains, really it is. I want to ride the high alpine trails, but I do not want to ride through 6-12 inches of silt for hours on end.

I also would like it to rain in the valley, as the 24th is a few days away and my backyard once again is like a tinderbox.

On an unrelated note, Jackson Hole weekend coming up, the race is fun, the rest of the weekend is much more fun.

Tonight is the mid week race at Solitude, maybe it will rain before hand so the 12 inches of powdery silt on the service road turns into a play dough like substance.

I got these photos in e-mail yesterday.

Ouch.

Lots of open space on the course

Well, once again, low turnout at Snowbird, I admit the course is not the most exciting, but it is a race and I will show up.

Lyna wanted to race but took the day off as her hip has been bugging her a bit. The night before the race we went to a birthday BBQ and ate salad and grilled chicken, which was a step outside of my ritualistic pre race meal, I did eat some pasta before bed though.

When we got to snowbird, it was cool, but that would not last. I did a pre race lap as part of my warm up, to remind myself how sketch the DH was, yep, sketch.

There were about 8 of us in the 40+ group, Fred made a return and right before we went off Daren asked if I was going to let Sam lead into the single track. I told him I didn't know, but this is Sam's course, he has always done well here.

Sam led into the singletrack, with me on his wheel. Fred and Daren were right behind us. We made our way to the Dick Bass climb and I got around Sam here, Fred came around me and I was right on his wheel, a bit later, as expected, Chris B motored past us, Fred slowed and I went around with Sam on my tail. On the first DH, Sam got around me towards the last couple of Switchbacks and I got around him on the short climb up above the Gad lift.

For the first 3 laps Chris was in sight on the Dick Bass climb, the last lap I lost him, and ended up coming in second 3 minutes down. Sam was about a minute behind me.

Lap times were close, although the first la was a bit fast and I likely paid for it on lap 3 and 4.

22:13

23:38

24:36

24:53

Nice

A lot of people run a race to see who is fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more.
-Steve Prefontaine

Blah

Another lieutenant goes down, Tick Tock......

Out past my bedtime

2 nights in a row, last night it was Real Salt Lakes game,Thanks UTRider, that was a good time. They got smacked around all night.

Tonight it was my Shoreline Loopy, starting around 8 pm.

I went to pump irons at the gym right after work and prior to that plugged in the minewts to charge. Didn't get anywhere near a full charge, but i didn't turn them on till I started to descend City Creek. Good thing, cause the battery low indicator came on 2 blocks from the house.

It was nice and cool and empty up there. Relaxing, fun ride.

I discovered a new TT format. You have to keep your Ave. HR Below 130, Climb Dry Creek to the second over look. My Ave HR tonight, 128, time 16:00.

DO IT.

I Am Not A Victim

I have witnessed and seen many things recently that lead me to a new rant. In the vein of this, this and this i need to rant. Although i am pretty sure my politics are far left of the previous 3, I agree about at least 1 important thing. People complain, bitch and moan and blame others way too much.

I Am Not a Victim.

give me a break.

Thats all.

Totally unrelated soliloquy;

Oh, Todd, Chocolate Milk is the nectar of the gods, it is an all encompassing encapsulation of that which is good and holy in the world. Rice milk is an abomination sent to us by the communist infiltrators via the California fault zone.

I'm (not) Serious.

I Love Solitude

You can't win on the first pavement climb, but you sure enough can lose. Close to 1000 feet of climbing in 2.5 miles with steep grade, at elevation, with the false comfort of pavement making you want to burn it up, which of course for most people would entail burning all their matches way too early in the race. I have done it before.

This year I led to the gate, then BK, Tim and Chris came around me, I just settled in after that and tried to keep my brain focussed. I got around Tim right at the end of the steep dirt road climb and BK soon there after on the barely ridable rock crossing at the top of the big lap. Side note, riding that section gained at least 10 seconds, per lap. end side note.

I then kept Chris in sight for the rest of lap 1 and lap 2, even though we were both motoring through the 19-29 and 30-39 fields. I fed well and took care not to go into the red too often, but Chris was on fire and put 2 minutes on me by the end of the race. I used the 3rd place 30-39 finisher as bait on the last small lap to keep me motivated, got caught behind lappers a few times, but so did everyone else.

2nd again, not so bad, I even passed Paz, who was my major nemesis last year and he started 2 minutes ahead of me. My time was my best ever at Solitude, not that the conditions were the same, but it feels good to go faster. I'm glad the initial results had Daren's time wrong.

Lyna raced smart and came in second 44 seconds off the win.

BK looked and sounded like he was ready to throw his bike over a cliff, that is not a rigid bike course.

Tim was a DNF, hope he is ok. Caveman was playing with flowers on the side of the trail, rock induced concussion, then his wife, coming to his rescue, got a doggy in watershed ticket, what a bad day for the Wildes.

I loved how Art put the fear of god into the group when they found out he was racing with us. There was nervous laughter abounding at the staging area.

No pictures. Boo.