Where I've been and where I'm going

So I quit blogging for a while. I got back from Interbike which was an amazing trip. I was able to run around indoors with a Camelbak full of vodka and cranberry juice while wearing a skinsuit. I had a great time, met some really cool people who I hope to see again, was amazed at the level of fitness at CXVegas, and realized just how big a bike has to be for a guy like Ryan Trebon. When I got home it was full-tilt-boogie working at Outdoors INC getting the new Poplar Bike Shop opened.

The bike shop was a pretty big project that included all the fun of building bikes, helping construction guys, listening to everyone gripe about everyone else, and having fun building bikes. I was there alone with the door locked and built the first 50 bikes for the sales floor. It was a neat experience and was something that I was able to get really efficient at because it was so methodical. Somewhere near bike 48 I got really bored and when someone showed up to help I found myself just talking so much. I guess making the switch from retail to recluse took a little bit of a toll on me. Things at Outdoors have been rolling pretty slowly - it seems everyday we realize there is a tool, product, or thing-a-ma-jigger that we don't have.

My quiver of bikes has flip-flopped drastically in the last 12 months. I sold my Surly CrossCheck, got a Cannondale CAAD10, got a PowerTap wheelset at Christmas, bought a BMX bike, sold my Felt geared mountain bike, sold my Felt CX bike, and bought a Redline MonoCog Flight 29er.

I have been focusing mainly on the road bike. Using my PowerTap wheel makes me atleast 10x cooler than any cyclist without power. More realistically because I do not make a ton of time to ride in my schedule I do best to do more focused workouts while training with power. I feel that it has made a huge impact on my fitness. I have been trying to work myself into riding more consistently and it has been on a not-so-steady but overall uphill trend.

I was riding the BMX bike a good bit there for a while but I was having trouble knowing my boundaries and seemed to always have some weird nagging pains even when I hadn't been wrecking. I believe it has something to do with eccentric muscle contractions and those make me really sore.

I hadn't been jiving much on the mountain bike so I decided it was time to sell it off and get something that was single speed oriented with the option to add gears in the future if I so wished. I had wanted a Redline MonoCog Flight 29er since my days at Bikes Plus. I finally bought one and am extremely happy with the bike. The geometry good and the bike is steel and plush - which lends itself to going pretty fast and making those "oh fucking shit" moments happen pretty often. Everything is really cool until all-in-the-sudden things aren't cool anymore and everything is out of control. Adding a suspension frok seems to help the bike go faster on rougher terrain.

I have raced about 6 times already this year. I only raced about 10 times all last year. I feel like I am knowing my abilities a good bit better than I did last year. Also I feel like I am learning to read the races and get myself to where I need to be to not be in trouble.

Race#1 CrossWinds Classic - Little Rock, Arkansas - Cat5 Road
Went into the day with 4 guys in the 40 and under race. I helped organize our guys to ride smart, break the group once about 4 miles from the end, string it out within 1 mile to go, then at about 1100 meters to go I began to bury myself into a really deep hole that broke the lead group. Nathan Greene, one of my teammates won the sprint.

Race#2 Hell of the South - Bumfuck, Tennessee - Cat5 Road
Nathan Greene and I went because we felt this would be a good race to try and get me a win. It had a little bit of rolling terrain, about 2 miles of gravel*, and the Cat5 race was only 29 miles which was within my fitness at the time. Getting to the race was a ton of fun and a little shady. I was a little stressed about by a lady working the hotel without shoes on but she was bat-shit crazy. Nathan didn't get a waffle. We left a little late and the fog was really thick so we didn't really get to warm up. The race takes off and a guy goes down in the first 500 meters. I guess having SRAM Red, a full carbon bike with integrated seatmast, and carbon wheels doesn't mean you aren't a jackass who won't overlap wheels with the guy in front of you on a straight and flat road. I digress. The only thing I knew about the course was the gravel started around mile 9. I stayed near the front but not on the front and ate a Gu at mile 7. We made a slight left hand bend onto the gravel and all hell broke loose. I knew that if I wanted to be with the group I need to burn up some matches right here. I dug deep and kept contact with the leaders through the gravel. We kept things turned up to 11 from then til about mile 14. We had popped a few people and started letting things ease up so everyone could eat, drink, and start eye-raping one another about who was going to go. When we got within 2 miles from the finish we were back on familiar roads (the couse was a giant lollipop with a tiny stem that was home to the start finish). I started moving up when I could and was freaking out hard. I felt like I had been on a chill ride with one only few hard efforts. As the 1k sign comes into view the pace picks up and people starting falling apart. Sliding up through traffic I suddenly counted only 4 people in front of jdeath marching. I stood to move around them and the guy pulling looks over his shoulder at me. He looked through my eyes and into my soul. I swung hard left towards the 200 meter sign and sprinted as hard as I could. He beat me by about half a wheel. While it would have been nice to win, he had been animating attacks throughout the race and was a strong rider. I had done my best and he was faster.

Fast forward a few weeks to the beginning of 901 Racing's Tiger Lane Crit series. That's right, four back-to-back parkinglot crits that are as flat as a board and highly likely to be windier than a South Memphis hooker's front teef.

Race #3 TLC #1 Memphis, Tennessee - Cat4 Road
I made my debut into Cat4 road racing with a 35 minute crit that averaged over 25mph. To say it was brutal would be an understatement.

Race#4 SlobberKnocker 75 Miler Perryville, Arkansas - Single Speed
75 miles of single speed, 58 miles gravel road I could drive my Ford Focus on, 15 miles of pavement, and 2 miles of gnarly Jeep trail. I paced myself well, rode a ton of the race with Full-Face Kenny, and ended up smashing my target time while simultaneously hitting the podium that never got called to the podium. Seriously, what the fuck Fred Phillips.

Racce#5 TLC#2 Memphis, Tennesse - Cat4 Road
I took a different strategy into this race. Rather than hold on and pray I decided to try and hold on until I felt myself approaching the end of my fitness then launch a glorious attack. It worked out pretty well and I got dropped in a graceful way.

Race#6 TLC#3 Memphis, Tennessee - Cat4 Road
I left work late, thought I lost my wallet, ate my Gu to late, blah-blah-blah sand in my peehole. I thought about the things I could do to make the race good for myself. Nothing came to mind. I was sitting on the start line burping up Gu Roctane and cursing myself for my shoddy preparation and spending my many miles on my single speed the day before. The lady said go and I went. For the first few laps I tried going hard and I felt as if I may throw up, shart my chamois, or do both. I slid back to about midpack, regrouped, and decided to go as hard as I could until I blew up or threw up. No one was off the front yet so I thought I would get the race animated and hope one of our strong guys would counter my attack. I got dropped shortly after my attack. I was about 25-40 yards out the back and a prime bell rang so it was game over for chasing them back down. I made myself a new goal of not getting lapped by the field and held them off for about 15 minutes. All in all some good racing and a great workout.

I am gearing up to do Syllamo's Revenge in about 2 1/2 weeks. Hopefully in the next year or so I will be able to continue building my fitness and getting faster. So that is where I have been. Where am I going, it is hard to tell. I may become consumed with endurance mountain bike racing, road racing, brewing beer, or just drinking beer. I am going to try and revive the blog and make that a part of my weekly life.


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