Fall!

Last week the trails were so clean, but three cold days with a constant drizzle brought down what seems like at least half of the leaves. Believe it or not, there is a trail in the picture above, just right of center. Even though I know the trail well it was not easy to follow. Lucy got on just fine though.

Surprisingly my tires are still gripping well, but I'm sure that'll change with more leaves. The weather was quite nice though.

On another note, among the mountain bike community of Oxford, this year will be remembered as the Armadillo Outbreak of '15. In 11 miles, I think I saw at least 8. I'm a little afraid for Lucy as they're probably the one animal she can catch. Fortunately the leaves crunching under my tires seemed to drown out the noise of their movement; she didn't chase a single one today.

MORCS Finale

The final race of the Mississippi Off-Road Cycling Series was a blast! Three other members of the Ole Miss Cycling team and I crammed in my little Tacoma and headed to Ridgeland for the weekend. It was one of the few times I've ever needed a double cab, but we made it work.

We arrived in Ridgeland Friday night and decided to take a tour of Jackson in one of the guy's parent's Geo Tracker, with the top down of course. We were cruising around when we stumbled upon Jacktoberfest - a music festival with lots of beer vendors. What was really amazing about it was the crowd. It was a stylish, urban crowd mostly between ages 25 - 35, and no one was sloppy drunk. (I should note that the night was young, and the beer was expensive.) It didn't feel like Mississippi. I liked it.

Saturday, we pre-rode the course, watched the Super D, and a couple of us participated in the Cross Country Eliminator, XCE, which was a short race of four participants where the top two advanced to the next round. Cat 2 put on a good competition, but Cat 1 was a shut out. After getting dropped in the first quarter mile, there was no reason to keep sprinting another mile. It was a fun idea though.

On the upside, I was surprised to see part of the Mulberry Gap crew setting up a booth and doing some advertising. It made me miss those North Georgia trails and the whole summer of 2012 for that matter. I'm trying to talk the cycling team into a trip out there.

Sunday was the main event. I had some tough competition in a field of 10. I gave it my all right from the start. I think I was 5th into the woods. 1st and 2nd shot off quickly, but I hung with 3rd and 4th for a while. I knew I was faster than 4th uphill but the downhills put a gap between us. I attempted a pass once but he sprinted to block me. I ended up passing them both when they took a wrong turn at a poorly marked intersection. I got passed and then dropped. I might've held that position if it weren't for a cramp in my side.

I backed off the pace a little to recover and got passed a few times. This all happened in the first lap. For the second and third laps, I settled into a fast but comfortable pace. I even took a beer hand-up after a rocky switchback. I felt great!

I wound up in 7th out of 10 including one DNF. I was 11 minutes behind 1st and 5 minutes behind 2nd. I think with some good training this winter I can make up that difference. My new job should provide some good strength training; tomorrow is my first day driving for Rebel Rickshaw!

No Flow.

That was the theme of this weekend's race at Arkabutla Lake. While the trail system was decent, it wasn't a very fun race course. After pre-riding it last week, I almost didn't want to go to the race. But, I figured I should support the inaugural event and didn't have anything else to do. So I went.

The trail consisted of lots of roots. Lots and lots of big roots with no smooth line to be found. The few places where you could get some decent speed weren't worth the effort due to poorly placed sharp turns and switchbacks. For these reasons, I felt like I couldn't give it my all. When it comes to racing, cornering hard and maintaining momentum is my bread and butter; that lets me ride faster than riders with more power. This course, however, was 24 miles of short sprints and hard braking. Not much fun.

The good news is that the North Mississippi Trail Alliance - our new chapter of IMBA - has recently been approved to build up to 28 miles of trail on the other side of the lake. So, future races have a lot of potential.

During the race, I held second place until halfway through the last lap. On the first lap, I kept up with the guy in first pretty well but soon started falling behind. The guy in third was on my tail the entire time and was clearly a better rider. Had he passed me sooner, he probably could've kept up with first, but I guess he was content finishing second.

I partially blame the hardtail, as the top two guys were both on full suspensions. The roots sapped a lot of my energy, and it was difficult to keep the rear end planted in the bumpy turns. (puns intended, sort of). I've only had my new bike a few months, but I'm thinking of trading it for a full suspension. Not that it'll be faster overall, just more fun.

Skool of Hard Nox 50

I managed to surprise myself last weekend when I realized that I could actually race 50 miles offroad and be competitive. I'm not really sure when it happened. Most of my training rides are 2 hours at the most. I guess after a certain point it's just about staying fuelled up and focused.

This was my first time riding the Hard Nox Trails, and while it was a great course, one lap was pretty tiring. The second lap had me seriously questioning my motives. The climbs were soul-crushing and there were enough roots to rattle your teeth out. I didn't know we had hills that big in Mississippi. With a Le Mans start, I lost track of how many people were ahead of me. I was surprised to learn at the 3/4 mark that I was in fourth. I pushed on trying to drop the guy in fifth, but eventually he passed me. Then, we both passed the guy in third, leaving me in fourth once more. I kept pedalling hard to hold my position.

In the end, first, second, and third times were ~4:00, 4:18, and 4:20 with me coming in at 4:22. The guy that got first seems to dominate every race he enters. It's a long shot, but I think I might be able to take him in the Clear Creek Challenge. I'll have the home-trail advantage; also, I've recently decided I haven't been pulling up on the pedals enough. Working on that for just the last few days seems to have helped a lot.

The bad news (maybe). My truck may or may not have blown a head gasket on the way home. The next day it smoked for a solid 30 seconds on start-up and was low on coolant. It ran fine today though. I just need to keep an eye on fluid levels and engine temp. I'll probably get it checked out next week.

Oxford: Round 2

Oxford. Something just feels right about being here. Good trails, good biking infrastructure, and lots of college students. I'm glad to call myself a student again; though, it was something I used to dread. But, I've undergone a paradigm shift. I used to think that everyone was supposed to finish college at 22, get married, have a family, yada yada, etc. Now that's been thrown out the window.

It seems wrong to ever stop learning. It took over a year of menial labor for me to realize this. Sometimes I wish I'd done a gap year between high school and college, but I doubt things would've turned out the same. There are distinct, recognizable events that got me where I am today.

I'm only taking three classes this semester: calculus, physics, and computer programming with Java. Cal and physics will be refreshers to a degree, but I'm really looking forward to programming. I've even set a goal to write a smart phone app before I get a smart phone. It may be something simple like a magic 8 ball or pong, but it'll be a challenge none-the-less.

I'm taking my time looking for a job, trying to find something I don't dread. I tried a landscaping position but quickly realized the long hours wouldn't allow any time for school (or biking for that matter). I have an interview tomorrow for a groundskeeper position with the city - basically what I did in Telluride. I think it'll be a good job for this semester with regular hours and decent pay. Hopefully, I can find a way to keep the job next semester when I'm taking on-campus classes.

Lucy seems to be enjoying her home-town and the Whirlpool Trails. She got so excited running through the woods that she misjudged jumping a ditch and landed right in the middle in about a foot of water with a nice splash. Didn't slow her down though.

Moving back here has taken some re-adjusting. I'm living a semi-college life while trying to stay focused on both school and racing. I've even ordered an athletic cook book called The Feedzone to get some good ideas for proper race fuel. Fast food and beer are not the answer! I expect to be pretty busy this semester with work, school, racing, and some other projects, so this blog will probably see infrequent posts at best. But, I'll be having a good time :)

State Games

I think it's safe to say that every mountain bike racer is a masochist to some degree and that the level of pain increases proportionally with speed. In training, most people eventually hit a pain threshold and their ability plateaus. It takes a lot of will power to push past that and get faster. 

For this year's State Game's Race, relocated to the Ridgeland Trails from Butt's Park, my strategy was different than usual. This was my first XC Cat 1 race, so I decided to stay back at first to see how things played out. I was intentionally last (5th) into the woods. As the top two guys rode away, I quickly realized the rest of us were competing for third. Halfway through the first lap, I moved to fourth, then third in the second lap when the guy in front of me stopped to put air in his tire. 

The course started and ended with a really fast, open downhill section - maybe the only single track where I've used the top gear on my bike. I got near horizontal in the berms at the bottom. I was flying. I knew the top two guys were incredibly fast, but I was at least going to try to catch them. 

In the third and fourth laps I burped my front tire three times and had to really be careful during the last mile or so running on about 10 psi. It was in these laps that I passed the most people, mostly Cat 3's I assume. By this time they were pretty spaced out, and every rider I passed was just a little bit faster than the last. 

I finished in third place, 7 minutes behind first. That's a big gap! Still, my confidence is boosted now. In the next race, I aim to be second into the woods and hang on as long as I can. 

6 Hours of Clear Creek

Endurance Pace. My second favorite pace, right next to Race Pace. Endurance races aren't just about going fast, though. One must also be efficient. This means taking it easy on long climbs, maintaining momentum through the turns and going fast downhill. There's also a lot of strategy when it comes to eating and pacing. 

My "night before" plan didn't go exactly the way I intended. Seeing that I was hanging out with my best friend for the first time in six months, we drank a lot of beer. Then went to the Square and drank more beer. Following tradition, we ordered dinner from Coop - a fried chicken restaurant that delivers - also notorious for upsetting your digestive track the next day. Regardless, there must be some decent calories there, as it got me through the first few laps. The good thing that came from so much beer was that I made sure to re-hydrate. I probably drank a liter of water during the night, then a lot of Powerade first thing in the morning and finally, coffee to flush it through my system.

I knew 5 laps would've been reasonably easy, but 6 was the challenge. I didn't bother too much with the holeshot, but I also didn't want to get stuck behind a bunch of slow people. I was 5th into the woods and passed two people in the first 5 miles. My first lap was around 56 minutes, the second around 58. The third lap was 1:01 since I rode with a slower guy for a while. I kicked it back up to crank out two more 58 minute laps. This combined with two stops to swap water bottles and one stop to pee left me at 4:55 when I finished my fifth lap. By this time, my hands were blistered, my feet hurt, and I was reasonably tired. It would hurt, but I knew I had time for one more lap. 

I was running on fumes and was prepared to drain the tank, but still I bonked harder than I'd imagined. I was creeping up hills but still flying down. I've learned how to do that without using much energy. I'd saved my watered down powerade mix for the last two laps, and it was a sweet nectar of the gods. But it ran out 6 miles into the last lap. As dehydration set in, I was expecting to have a spiritual vision any moment. Nearing the last quarter mile or so, I heard a cowbell and someone yelling that I only had a few minutes left. The trail looped back closer to them, and then it was one minute left! With a last burst of adrenaline, I stood up on the pedals and hammered through the finish line with 28 seconds to spare. 

I coasted to my truck, in a daze, and heard someone say, "Dude that was awesome! How are you not vomiting?!" I might've hurled if there was anything at all in my stomach. That day was definitely in my top 5 for extreme exhaustion.

When I finally wandered over to the race pavilion, I learned that I was the only person to do 6 laps! I was shocked. I never expected to win this race, my first Cat 1 race. I'll admit it felt great. I was tired though. Too tired to drive back to the coast. Too tired to work Monday. So worth it.