12 Hours of Cranky Monkey

DCMTB in claiming 1st and 4th

Well it finally happened. I entered a race. I suppose I felt like I was missing out on all of the fun with my teammates. I made the decision to just grin and bear my gimp leg way after all of DCMTB's teams had been created, so I just figured I'd be a true idiot by riding solo. I test rode the trails one Saturday to verify that my leg could hold up and at the same time met Chas, a PVC rider whose partner had bailed. Thus a duo team was formed.  I gave Chas the gimp leg and surgical waiver which basically meant I had no idea if and how long my body would hold up. He seemed okay with it which I was happy about until he said a few days before the race, "I'd really like to be competitive". Gulp. 

The day came and Chas was kind enough to ride the first lap (which consisted of a running to the bike portion). My goal was to not let Chas down and to be somewhat consistent. The first lap was pretty muddy and I definitely rode too hard. The second lap I spent about 20 minutes trying to get the crap out of my legs from the first lap. The third lap I thought my body was going to completely shut down. The fourth and fifth laps were sort of a blur but I felt much better than the third. 

My times were something like:

1:04

1:07

1:10

1:09

1:11

Chas and I ended up 3rd in the Duo Co-Ed and we got a really cool pint glass. I can't remember the other placing but I know we won two other classes and Tom, Lynne, and Matty won the overall. All of the DCMTBers are crazy fast...especially Lynne. 

Chas and I in 3rd

I had a great time hanging out. Unfortunately, I probably would have had more fun if I had entered solo because I would have ridden the course of few times and come to the conclusion "that I was being dumb" and I would have sat around cheering and drinking beers for the rest of the day. Instead, I rode as hard as I could, rested an hour, etc for the whole day which left me in between riding with a blank stare on my face. 

I have not done many endurance races and I forget how hard they can be. I told a roadie that to me, it seemed like going out and riding a 40K time trial every hour or so. I am so happy that my body held up. Next week will be one year since my first surgery and for the exception of the past 7 weeks I had just come back from about a 6 month layoff. The body is a truly impressive thing. I really need to work on nutrition. When I'm that punched I feel bad and don't want to eat which just digs a hole. I'm fairly certain that's what happened on the 3rd lap. When I came back I stuffed myself and gagged down some Gu's and I was good after that. Thank you to Alex for the yummy chocolate milk and to others who made sure I ate enough. I can't wait for another race to hang out with the team at. I just seem to laugh the whole time, even when I'm in agony. 

Laughing at the fact I'm so punched after the first lap. (Photo by Vince)

 

Mike and Vince

Marc and Lynne (Beast of the East)

Next week I celebrate my one year surgical anniversary by going to Charlottesville for angioplasty. I'm hoping for the best with that....cross season is just around the corner. 

Mt. Mitchell

The first time I tried to climb to Mt. Mitchell it demoralized me. I was new to Asheville and just eating up the heavenly riding scene. I could walk out of my door, turn right, and in one mile be in Bent Creek or turn left and in one mile be on the Blue Ridge Parkway. On one particular sunny day I lept out of bed to 65 degrees and sunny skies and boldly proclaimed that I was going to ride to Mt. Mitchell. Craggy Dome stopped me dead in my tracks with sleet and heinous weather. I turned around shivering and probably the most punched I ever have been on a bike to date. Mitchell just wasn't having it that day. I beat Mitchell at a later time, but from that day on I gave those mountains a bit more respect.

Truth be told I took the easier route up to Mitchell. I started at the Folk Art Center in excellent weather and proceeded up a 18 mile climb to Craggy Dome. It's not a particularly hard climb but you are going up so you can just get in a groove. To me, the Craggy Dome/Gardens area is my favorite portion of the trek. Unfortunately Craggy was not in a happy mood. 

The eery tunnel leading up to Craggy Dome

Up in the clouds

A slide near the top of Craggy. I heard the one lane leading past it had just been reopened. 

 

At Craggy the road descends and you go up and down for awhile before making the left hand turn into Mt. Mitchell State Park. That's when you hit the 4.2 miles of relentless up. Again it's not all that hard or steep but it is relentless. The other option for those looking for more climbing is to take 81 up to the Parkway, turn Right, then turn right into the park. 

One I made it to Mitchell the weather was great!

I've biked all over and I really feel the most at home and happiest in the Appalachians. I just love them. If I had a soundtrack tune to riding in the Appalachians it would be the E.T Flying Theme! I'm also homesick for Asheville. DC riding is great if you're a commuter and it has okay riding in general, but I guess I just have had a taste of heaven so my views are dramatically skewed. On the way back to DC I stayed on the Parkway for as long as I could. It was great fun. I'm excited to explore some areas I haven't been like Skyline. I'm hoping this will take care of my Asheville withdrawal. 

I like the cloud patterns in this picture. 

Oak Mountain

BUMP: Blood Rock (The Last MTB I competed in back in 2007)

One of my favorite races I used to compete in is at Oak Mountain in Birmingham, AL. The course is known for it's speed which one might falsely perceive as being easy. However, one lap is 16 miles. The first time I raced this course it was 92 at 9pm on the start line. Heat always adds a whole new level to suffering. 

This time I was just enjoying myself. The course is very twisty with a solid 15 to 20 minutes climb. From there you tear along a fire road until you get to drop down a trail to Blood Rock. Honestly, I don't really know how it got this name. When I first heard of it I thought it was just one large inconveniently misplaced boulder. As you can see it's a rocky chute. It's a deceiving section. Mainly cause it looks a lot scarier than it is. If you just let the bike go and don't hit the brakes to much you'll be alright. 

I had a good time just playing around those trails. I will say I'm completely not impressed with the Nevegal tires unless I'm riding on rocks. They're great for that. 

I happened to be riding while they were gearing up for the US Cup. I nearly had Adam Craig and Todd Wells run me over. I'll gladly get run over by them any day. It's always cool when some of the best in the biz actually are super friendly and say "hi". Makes me wonder why some every day people riding their bikes won't bother. Oh well. 

A great day. Except for the fact my body has not gotten used to the heat!

DuPont State Forest and my Battle against the Raging River

DuPont has always been one of my very favorite places to mountain bike. It is very close to Brevard and Pisgah but it offers different terrain. Not necessarily better, just different. For one, there are a few trails where you ride entirely on granite rock. It's strange and it seems like something you might find out west. 

The climb up Cedar Rock

To the descent down Big Rock

The above trails are my favorites along with Burnt Mountain. There are more trails that are less rocky and consist of extremely fast single track but I'm not as familiar with the location of those. 

After hanging out on the top of Cedar Rock and enjoying complete silence and a view of the mountains I decided I would have lunch at Bridal Veil Falls. It's a really cool granite slab with a waterfall running down it. Scenes from the movie, "The Last of the Mohicans" was filmed there. I made my way to the typical creek crossing to find that the creek/river was running quite a big "bigger" than normal due to the heavy rains. 

See, it doesn't look too bad!

I saw three guys on the other side who were preparing to come back to the side I was on. I figured if they did it, I could too. I took my shoes off, picked up my bike and began working my way across the stream. I got to the middle only to realize that the rocks beneath my feet were as slick as ice. I could turn back or keep going. Seeing as I was almost across I figured I could still do it. That's when I completely slipped and became submerged in the water. I started laughing cause it was really funny, but quickly stopped when I realized my bike had fallen perpendicular to the current and was acting as a sail pulling me downstream. I scrambled to try to keep going down stream but it was just not happening against the slick rock. One of the guys ran out and grabbed my hand and I was forced to drop the shoes. Gone. At this point things were not very funny at all. The guy had me by the hand pulling with all his might and at the same time, trying to keep traction. I was holding on to my bike which was completely submerged in the water and pulling me just as hard in the other direction. The other two guys were trying to find a way to get to the bike realizing that if I were to let it go it would be gone gone gone. The thought actually crossed my mind.The point was quickly approaching where unless I wanted to go sailing down the river pulling the guy who was trying to help me along, I would have to let go. By calling upon SBS's powers, some how the the guys got my bike and I was dragged back to safety. My camera was sealed in a plastic baggie :-)

My rescuers. Many many thanks guys. 

The worst part was once I made it to their side they informed me that there was no way back but to cross again. I found a much deeper part where there was no current and inched my way back across safely. 

Next, I was faced with a rather painful problem. I was completely barefoot. So I rode back to the car barefoot on egg beater pedals. I experienced some mild discomfort with that (insert sarcasm). 

Stank foot (at least my toenails are cute). 

So my ride was cut short. But that didn't cause an end to my fun day. DuPont has beautiful waterfalls so I went to visit Triple Falls to hang out for awhile. I walked right out next to the water and had some food and laid in the warm sun like a lizard. 

Triple Falls

Hanging out at the 3rd Fall

So with the exception of trying to figure out why water hates me so much, it was a fantastic day!