Summer Series Race Report: North Meck

Got up to the course in Huntersville on Wednesday, got all set up and did a lap around the course:  it was FAST, I’ve raced the course before and it has always been fast, but it was especially fast this time because it had rained just enough to make the trail tacky and give you a lot of grip (but not muddy or slick).  I had left the tire set-up from the weekend on which was great for the conditions.  Got a warm-up lap in and then warmed-up a little more before the race started.

Lined up for the start of the race:  had a terrible start, a combination being in one gear too hard, missing clipping in, and having a very large pick-up truck kind of sticking out into my line.  So unfortunately I went into the woods in about 8^th place.   The trail is mostly singletrack so I knew I wouldn’t able to pass anyone until I got to the big climb about 5 minutes into the lap, as a result I just sat where I was and tried to relax and be smooth.  When I got to the hill I hit it as hard as I could and passed some of the guys in front of me, but some of the guys had pulled out in front of me (or so I thought).  I kept pushing really hard (I knew I could go really hard since the race would only be about 1:15 long).

About 4 minutes into the second lap we started catching up to slower riders from other classes.  This began the next 45 minutes of almost constant:  rider coming, rider up, on your left (or right), as we passed riders from other classes.  Sometimes they were still in a line since they were near the beginning of their race, which made it difficult since the trail was singletrack and passing was challenging.  At one point I came up behind a train of five riders and after calling out my pass tried to pass them, but realized after I had started that I didn’t have the room to make the pass:  so I slowed up hit a root wrong and went down.

At this point I still thought I was in about 5^th place but I wasn’t sure, I later learned (after the race) that I was in second place, about 15 seconds behind the leader.  I was coming up to a rider during my last lap and called out “rider up”  as soon as I did, I realized it was Luke Sagur who was in my race and by calling that out I was coming up to him.  As soon as I did this he started pushing harder and widened the gap between us.  Shortly after that with about 5 minutes to go I overcooked a turn and went down:  in doing so Chris Wieczorek was able to slide by me.  As I came up to the finish Rick Pyle was on my wheel, fortunately I was able to take the inside line on the turns coming into the finish and hold him off.  So it turned out that I was 3^rd (by about 30 seconds) without even knowing it, which I was super excited about given that I had a terrible start and went down twice.

After the race I was able to do a short run about 2 miles which was real long, but I felt good to be able to run after pushing so hard on the bike, this bodes really well for my Xterra’s races.  Felt much better about my fitness than I did following Stumpjump, that being said I think I can up the intensity of my training some.

Next up:  Huntersville Triathlon Sunday and Summer Series race at Renaissance Park Wednesday

Results then click on results, then click on North Meck Park

Stumpjump Mountain Bike Race Report

We’ll get right into the race, felt good warming up. Had a good start, 4^th going into the woods which I was really happy about since I knew from pre-riding the course that it was going to be very hard to pass.  The first 5 of us stayed in the order almost all of the 1^st lap (out of 3), there might have been a pass or two if someone struggled over an obstacle, but beyond that we just rode in a line for the first lap.  My bike handling was really good; in fact I would pull up closer to the guys in front of me when going through a technical area, where they would pull away slightly on the climbs.  This was the first time this had EVER happened to me, where my bike handling was better than my fitness when compared to the guys I was riding against.  Going into the second lap I wanted to see if I could take advantage of my handling skills (what would typically be a foreign concept to me; it’s always been how can I take most advantage of my fitness), after going through the start finish area and just prior to the first technical area I took the lead, unfortunately I eased up too soon before the descent and two guys passed me back.  After that I pretty I just stayed in place and tried to ride as smooth as possible.  Again the leading 5 stayed together pretty much in a straight line.  I don’t know if it was at the end of the second lap or the beginning of the third lap, but I couldn’t go fast on the sections where I could pedal (I just didn’t have the power to push hard any more).  I had been going pretty hard up until then, but I thought it was a pace I could maintain or keep close to, unfortunately I didn’t slow a little. . .I slowed a LOT, (ended up losing about 5 minutes in the course of a 35 minute lap to the rest of the leaders).

After a little time to reflect on the race there were some good things and some not so good things to come out of the race:

The good:

-My Specialized Epic Expert Carbon EVO R 29 (I know isn’t the name a little long), was AWESOME:  pedaled great and handled the bumps and roots great.

-My tire choice given the weather and conditions couldn’t have been better: swapped from a Fast Trak/Renegade set-up to a GroundControl/Fast Trak front/rear combination and it hooked up great in the slick wet conditions that we had.

-My bike handling was as good or maybe even a touch better than the rest of the leaders, something that has NEVER happened before.  It’s really great to see the work I’ve put into improving my bike handling pay off.

-I was able to stay right with the leaders’ pace for two laps, and even when I did blow up I was able to finish in 6^th place.

The bad:

-My fitness: it isn’t where it needs to be.  I just need to be more fit to compete against the top guys in the category, and certainly if I want to get my pro license this fitness just won’t cut it.

-It really hurts my chances of getting a pro license this year, this was a race that a really good result would have helped tremendously in applying for my pro license.

What’s coming up?:

-Going to race at North Meck in the Charlotte Summer Series race on Wednesday, Huntersville Triathlon on Sunday.

-Going to push the intensity of my training up some (I’ll still try to be smart about it), trying to make sure I get a long ride and at least one interval session in per week, in addition to the weekly Summer Series races I’ll be doing.

-Focus on getting really prepared for qualifying race(s) for Xterra World

-See where I am in the Summer Series races and evaluate whether getting a pro mountain bike license this year is a reasonable goal.

Results
Pictures of me
Pictures of Bobby Bryson which include Bobby, Chris Audet, and myself lined up at the start line.

Stumpjump race preview

Second big mountain bike race of the year.  Last mountain bike race was at the beginning of March.  This race will be much shorter (1:40-2:00) than the Sumter race (my time 3:11), which should suite me a little better, I tend to do better in shorter races rather than longer races.  I've also ridden my mountain bike a lot more recently than I had leading up to the Sumter race.  So my hopes are pretty high going into the race:  I hope to be in the mix for winning the Cat 1 30-39 race, which it's hard to know for sure since I've only done one race, which was a while ago, and much longer than this race.

The first Charlotte Summer Series race was cancelled, due to rain, which was probably turned out to be a good thing for my preparation for this weekend's race so I wouldn't have done a really hard race 3-4 days before Sunday.  Last Friday I was able to pre-ride the course, which makes me feel much better going into the race, I know what to expect and learned a few things:
-the start is going to be huge:  almost all of the course is narrow singletrack
-drinking from a water bottle is going to be difficult:  very few straight flat sections
-it's going to be fast (assuming it's not too muddy):  many of the top finishers average over 14mph, which is FAST for a mountain bike race, and I could see why
-with it being so fast, if you're not careful and go out hard you could blow up the second half of the race because you are able to pedal so much
-there's a lot of pretty flat very smooth flowing trail, and then quite a bit of ungulating trails that has some roots, but these sections feel almost separate from each other because they're quite different
-I was also able to see where I should push the pace and where I'll be able to recover some

Belated Tim Tebow trade post

I thought that there were three teams in particular that were really dumb when it came to the trade of Tim Tebow:  the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Miami Dolphins, and the New York Jets.  We’ll get to the Jets later, but first the two NFL teams from Florida.  Tim Tebow is a god (lower case g) in Florida and would sell out all the home games of either team even if they were 2-14 every year, he would also allow you to charge for tickets and make either franchise nationally relevant (in Jacksonville’s case for the first time ever, in Miami case the first time since Marino) .  This isn’t as big a deal in Miami, but Jacksonville has a hard time selling out their stadium, and there has been talk about eventually moving to Los Angeles.  I understand if your goal is to win the Super Bowl and you don’t think Tim Tebow is a Super Bowl quarterback, that you wouldn’t want him as your quarterback, but only 1 out of 32 teams wins the Super Bowl every year and neither team is winning the Super Bowl this year or frankly probably in the next 5 years.  In addition to your goal of winning a Super Bowl, isn’t your goal as a team to make money, Tim Tebow might not win you a Super Bowl, but he’ll definitely make you some money.  If you’re not going to be great, at least be interesting and entertaining, which Tim Tebow certainly is.  It makes me wonder in the case of Jacksonville if the new owner even wants to stay in Jacksonville or would prefer to move the team to Los Angeles.

Now onto the New York Jets, here’s a team that has a mediocre (and many would say emotionally fragile quarterback).  So how is adding another mediocre (at best) quarterback who everyone will want to see play, going to help you win?  Isn’t this just a recipe for trouble: one bad series and the whole stadium is going to be chanting for Tebow.   If Sanchez was a great quarterback that had the fans and team behind him it might be different, but Sanchez isn’t great, he’s just ok (mind you  I’d be ok with be a just ok NFL quarterback , which would make me at worst the 20^th best quarterback in the world).

Maybe I’ll be proved wrong and the Jaguars, Dolphins and Jets will all make the playoffs, and one will win the Super Bowl, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

Review: Newton Gravity running shoes

Newton running shoes are relatively new to the running shoe market; they started about 6 years ago.  They used a very different philosophy than what had become the norm.  Instead of a lot of cushion in the rear of the shoe, the forefoot is built up and the heel is reduced: to encourage you to have a mid/forefoot landing, which it at least in theory should help you run faster.

When I first saw an advertisement for the Newton shoes it made a lot of sense.  I was also dealing with some pretty sever plantar fasciitis (sever enough that I got x-rays to make sure I didn’t have a stress fracture).   I’m not sure who suggested that landing on my forefoot while running might help with that.  That combination of factors led me to order my first pair.  There were two different styles of Newton trainers available at the time (the Gravity and Motion).  After giving them a call and talking to them I determined that the Gravity model (their neutral shoe) was the best suited for me since I wear orthotics.  The Motion model is their stability model, for those that have issues with pronation (and don’t wear orthotics to correct for that).

The first couple runs in my new Newton where weird.  I had always been a heal strike runner when running distance, so trying to run on my forefoot was odd and definitely worked some different muscles.  I also got a definite reminder of when I was landing on my heel because of the limited padding.  I started out with short runs, both because of the plantar fasciitis and it’s what Newton highly recommend starting out with shorter runs when switching to their shoes.  But after my initial period of adjustment the were great:  I felt and was faster than in traditional shoes, also my plantar fasciitis gradually went away and hasn’t been an issue in the 5 years since I started running in the Newton Running shoes. 

With my extremely positive experience with Newton I wouldn’t even think of trying a different brand of shoes.  I was worried that they wouldn’t last very long because of their limited cushioning, the first pair didn’t last very long, because of me still landing on my heal some times, but since I got used to the shoes and running more on my forefoot they’ve lasted as long as traditional shoes I’ve used in the past.

Busy upcoming race schedule

Race season is here and it's time to see where I am. I quite a few races coming up in the next couple weeks:

 -The Charlotte Summer Mountain Bike Series races will start April 18^th and will continue most Wednesdays through August, I’m not going to taper or rest going into them, but will use them as really hard training days.  I am also planning on running 20-30 minutes following each race (we’ll see how if I can do this or not), to try and get ready for the Xterra races and it will also give me an idea how hard I can push during the mountain bike portion of the Xterra races and still have a good run.

 -April 22^nd I will be racing Stumpjump, one of the more important mountain bike races for me this year.  It’s a AMBC (American Mountain Bike Challenge) race and if I have a good result I can definitely use that in my request for a pro license at the end of the year.

 -After another Summer Series MTB race the following Wednesday I have a decision what race to do on April 29th.  I can either do the Huntersville Triathlon, which I might have a chance to race for the win, depending on who signs up for the race (right now there’s not too many big names signed up for it).  I could also do the Southern Classic MTB race in Columbia, which counts toward the South Carolina State Mountain Bike Championships, which depending on how Stumpjump goes I may be in the running for; I guess I’ll see how Stumpjump goes and then evaluate from there.

On a different note I’ve lost a couple pounds since my post about being fat, by doing the small things that seem to make a big difference in my weight (drinking water, not eating to late, and avoiding dessert).  So I’m just about the weight I think I should be, I just need to keep doing the right things with my eating to maintain that.

New Specialized Shiv at BikeSource

Here’s a picture of the new Specialized Shiv (in this case the Comp version) at the shop, we got one in recently and it looks pretty sweet.  We have the Comp, Expert and Pro in stock.  Nothing particularly surprising from the description/reviews, but it’s really cool to see in person.