recap

ok so before i can get in to writing about the 2009 events i want to quickly review and summarize my 2008 cycling highlights. it all began at the...

croom 50 - my first group ride, my first ride over 35 miles, and to this day still one of the most enjoyable rides i've ever done. i finished feeling great in just a little over 5 hours. along the way i ate swamp balls and drank the special swamp punch.

squiggy 6 hours - my first race. i entered with S in the beginners's team class for ages totalling under 120. i rode too much in the days leading up to the race in a desperate attempt to "be prepared". S was late to the race so i had to do the run at the start and the first lap. my running skills suck so i spent a lot of time at the beginning of the lap stuck behind a long chain of riders. i did alot of passing in the wide, fast and open trails and was in a good position when we got to the tight singletrack. on tecno pig i took a wrong turn, got confused, and fell over. the rider behind me stupidly followed me and mercilessly ran me over on his way back to the trail. oh well, it seemed rude at the time but rubbin is racin...
once we got to the low trails it was clear that this was not going to be an easy race. a rainstorm the night before had left huge mud puddles throughout gatorbait and indian. the severity of these mud holes was exacerbated by each and every rider that rode or pushed their bike through. i managed to say upright and trudge through the sludge, but the effort took a lot out on me. when i tagged S after my 3rd lap and got off the bike my legs cramped up really bad. i sat and relaxed for a little bit - hoping S wouldnt make it back in time for me to do a 4th lap. of course, he did, and i told myself just to go out and finish the lap at a reasonable, casual pace. i did that and when i made it back, S told me that we may have won our class. i couldnt believe it, but after some controversy over 2 missing laps, S and i were acknowledged as the class winners. totally unexpected!!!

8 hours of labor - this race was awesome. many of the big boys and girls were there racing. i felt well prepared and even recruited someone to help me in the pits. at the start of the race i had a decent run and started out in the middle of the pack. i came up on a rider I knew and we pushed a medium pace for the first half a lap or so. my HR was astronomical for most of the first lap so i was reluctant to push it too much. after lap one my HR normalized and the field became more spread out, so i started riding faster. around lap 3 or 4, i was coming down one of the hills on tung nut and grazed a tree with my right shoulder, knocking me off the bike. dazed, i took a minute to compose myself and rode on. laps 5, 6, and 7 passed without anything crazy. the race ended for me on lap 7, my time putting me in 16th position overall. not too bad i thought, considering that there were over 60 total solo riders. my ineffectual, lazy and unsympathetic "pit crew" did little more than nothing to help me out - a major bummer that not only lost me time havign to ride back to the car to fill my bottles and get food, but also in being psychologically distracting. in spite of this, i was pleased with my performance.

12 hours of pine log - first 12 hour race, first night riding. traveled with J, S and Marcel to panama city beach for the race and a weekend of fun. my run at the beginning was excellent, my nutrition plan worked great - no cramping or bonking - but my consistency with regard to pace was erratic. i wont forget the joy fo knowing i was the leader of the race for about 4 hours in the afternoon. somewhere around lap 10 or 11 i was passed by 2 riders and went from 1st to 3rd, where i would finish at the end, after 19 laps and 130+ miles.
i have to say thanks to J, S and Marcel for motivating me to keep riding at the end and for filling my bottles and letting me borrow some of their equiptment. you guys really helped me out a lot!!

here's to an even better year in 2009!!

root beer

ok so i promised to discuss the differences that came along with riding J's gary fisher SS. all in all it was a great experience. i will probably never buy a gary fisher, for a number of reasons (this is one reason), but it was nice to get a feel of a different kind of bike and a different kind of riding. so, in turn, i will discuss the 4 major differences i listed in my previous post.

first, some prefatory remarks. it was hard to isolate just what attribute of the bike was responsible for what different kind of 'feel' i was experienceing. so all that follows is probably nonsense, illegitimate garbage.

1. big wheels - im going to upset the 29er contingent here, but i have to say i was quite a bit underwhelmed by the 29er wheelsize. i experienced little to none of the benefits that 29er advocates like to talk incessantly about. i still felt the roots, rocks and bumps just as much as I would have on my 26er. perhaps the only place i might have noticed a difference was on the south abyss trail at boyette - where less of my momentum was taken away by some of the big exposed roots on the uphills and downhills. this, though, can easily be achieved on a 26er bike with good line choice or a little lifting of the front wheel. the thing i most noticed about the 29 inch wheels was the increase in weight. now J's wheels were not heavywheights - chris king hubs and stan's rims - but it seemed like the weight discrepancy between the 29er wheel and my 26er wheel was quite dramatic. overall i find no good reason to run 29 inch tires.
   
2. hardtail - riding a hardtail again was great. i felt more in touch with the bike and the trail below me. the transfer of power from me to the ground was noticably better. plus, the bike just looks so much better without a rear shock and a silly swingarm mechanism. my next bike WILL be a hardtail.
3. size L frame - i had no fitment issues riding the L frame. my XL frame sometime feels too big. not sure exactly which is better for me, but this is probably irrelavent since i'm planning for my next bike to be custom sized.
4. single speed - single speeding was awesome. i love the way the bike looks without the sifters and derailleurs. the EBB is a silly idea and I think a sliding dropout is the way to go. it was great to not worry about gearing and just focus on my pedal stroke and trying to maintain as much momentum as possible. despite this, there is no way i'd want my only bike (or a race bike) to be a single speed, unless i was trying to lose. this is for obvious reasons - given an equal rider, he/she should always be faster on a geared bike. you really can't argue with that. single speeding is fun and yeah youre really hardcore for only using one gear on all those vicious FL climbs, but in the end it is more or less a gimmick.

thanks again J for the experience - can i have my trainer back?