Calm My Nerves

Why do I need to calm my nerves you ask? It’s simple. I get nervous for every single race I do, no matter how many times I’ve done it. Sure, the 2010 Winter Short Track Series is a short course and it’s local, but I still get the pre-race jitters every time I line up. Hell, I’m nervous right now and I still have a few days to go. What can I do to calm down? Well, how about I go hang out with a bunch of people at a furniture store?




Okay, it’s not just a furniture store. It’s IKEA, the craziest place you will ever shop for furniture and other crap. Even though it’s been open a while and it’s really close to the house, I’ve tried my best to avoid it. However, Little Miss Sunshine saw something on the Internets that she wanted so I volunteered to go along. I was expecting a crowd of imbeciles and morons, and I wasn’t disappointed. I was pleasantly surprised at the actual shopping experience though. The place was HUGE!


When go in, you are greeted with a giant escalator that whisks you up to the second floor where you being your adventure. Then, you follow these arrows on the floor like a rat going through a maze. As you shop, you jot down what you want to buy on your “shopping list”, and you pick it up later. There was so much stuff in there that we could have easily stayed for hours.


We found the item that LMS wanted, but we still had to navigate our way out of the maze. When we arrived at the end of the second floor maze, we were greeted with a giant cafeteria. I guess all that shopping could make one really hungry. After you are dumped out into the restaurant, we took an elevator to even more shopping fun on the first floor. Same maze theme going on here too. Once we completed our tour of the first floor, we came across this giant (and I mean giant) warehouse looking place.





This is where you look for the items you wrote down on your shopping list. It wasn’t too hard to find what we had picked out though. We grabbed our item and we proceeded to browse the rest of the warehouse. As we were headed to the checkout, I saw this sign that made me laugh:





I guess they just wanted you to eat and shop, eat and shop (and eat some more.) We paid for our stuff and got the hell out of there. I guess that trip didn’t do anything to calm my racing nerves, but it was definitely an interesting experience. I highly recommend it if you are in need of furniture and other household accessories.


I’m sorry if you came here today looking for bicycling-related talk, but I needed a break from it. The race season is rapidly approaching, so there will be plenty of bicycling crap and nonsense in the weeks to come. Hell, I even discovered a new race I am considering adding to my ever so full calendar. Oh yeah, I didn’t forget about the 24 Hours of Booty either. I just haven’t made up my mind yet. I’m such a procrastinator.

I’m ready…

To get my ass kicked in the 2010 Winter Short Track Series anyway. With less than a week until it kicks off, I can’t really do anything else to prepare myself. We had another cold weekend here in the Charlotte area, but I had to get out on the bike. Specifically though, I had to get out on the Greatest Short Track Bike on Earth.


Yes my friends, it has been a while since I last rode this hardtail beast. As much as I hate leaving the comfy confines of my full squish bike Goose, I really needed to get some saddle time on the bike that I plan on using for the upcoming race series. The first ride I had on it left me hurting, but I figured that was from the malfunctioning fork I so hastily put on it. Since I received a new fork for Goose by way of the Christmas holiday, I was left with a slightly better front appendage for the short track bike. After measuring it several times though, I had my doubts as to if it would even fit on there. The head tube on that thing is freakishly large, even more so than it should be for an extra large frame. I thought that since I was going to swap things out, I might as well grab a new stem as well. I was pleased to find a new Easton EA50 stem waiting at the B-43 World Headquarters when I arrived there on Friday evening.




I thought that maybe this new stem would help with the stack height issue I may run into, but it was the exact same size as the previous generic stem I was using. I decided to at least make an attempt at swapping out everything. I would have a shiny new stem even if the fork didn’t fit on the bike. I grabbed the fork so it could pose for a photo.



Do you remember that old faithful suspension component? Although it made a weird noise when I rode it, it actually did function properly during my many rides with Goose. I quickly started tearing everything apart to get ready for the install.



After a quick fit check, it looked like I would be cutting it really close. The previous piece o’ shit RockShox Dart 3 had a steerer tube with only about ½ an inch cut off, and it was still a tight fit. I only had to use two small spacers when I installed it. When I removed the crown race from the Dart and put it on the Pilot, I proceeded to check the fit. The steerer tube was a hair under 9 inches, and it just barely fit (with no spacers.) Even the new stem didn’t help me gain any additional clearance. I was a little concerned about the fit (and my comfort), but I quickly realized that it didn’t matter. It was a short track bike after all, and my comfort shouldn’t be a concern. I wouldn’t be riding great cross country distances on it or anything. My only concern at this point was to have a functioning suspension fork to ease the pain from the bumps. I put everything back together took the standard “in front of the house” test.


Everything seemed fine with my positioning, but it was a bit awkward. I would have to get used to it. With the start of the 2010 Winter Short Track Series closing in fast, I needed to take it out right then and there. Riding in front of my house simply wouldn’t do. I figured I needed a real ride to get used to the new feel of this bike. I loaded it up and headed out to ride.



I skipped the obvious choice of riding the actual race course and I headed over to the local favorite, Sherman Branch, to do a ride that would be a bit longer than the actual race. The trails at Sherman are more technical than the race course at Renaissance, and that would be a good introduction to my new bike fit. I could push myself and obtain high speeds, so I thought it was a perfect choice. As I told you before though, it was cold.




When I got to the parking lot, I saw several riders finishing up their trail sessions. Their bikes were covered in mud, much like mine was last week when I rode there. One guy even commented that the trail should be closed. Hogwash, I say. If the gates were open, then I was riding. The amount of mud I saw on their bikes was trivial, since it looked like I had a bit more than that when I rode there last week. I got dressed in my cold weather gear (minus the hand and feet warmers), and I was ready to go. Before I hit the trail, I ran into one of our local Trailblazers, and he gave me the lowdown on the trail conditions. He said that it wasn’t really that bad, but it wouldn’t be a walk in the park either. Good. I was hoping for a challenge. I needed to work hard on this ride to get a good feel for the bike that I would try to race next weekend. Nothing like waiting for the last minute, huh?


When I headed out, I was already cold. For a moment I regretted my decision to go sans warmers, but it was too late to turn back. I started out at a medium pace, which was party because I needed to warm up. The other reason my pace was slowed slightly was the fact that the beginning of the trail was slippery. I didn’t need to crash or anything like that.


After the initial slop, the trail wasn’t really that bad. I was able to pick up the pace and really see what this short track bike could do. I nearly crashed into several trees at first, but I became one with the bike over time. The awkward riding position took some getting used to, but eventually I was able to corner it efficiently. Even though the trail was in less than ideal shape, I still managed to complete it in a few seconds under an hour. I didn’t get too winded either, but I was riding far slower than “race pace.” When I got back to the parking lot, I was pleasantly surprised to see just how little mud I had accumulated.



I guess we’ll see what happens when I race next weekend. The bike performed well, and the climbing efficiency was much better than on a full squish. Climbing has always been a weakness of mine since I am a heavier racer than most, so any help at all in that regard is surely needed. I had a hard time really going all out at Sherman, but that should change when the race starts. There is always an adrenaline rush during these events, and I’m counting on it. I haven’t ridden competitively since October, so I have a long way to go. Racing superstardom cannot be achieved at the beginning of the season, can it? Hopefully I can hang in there and at least finish in the middle of the pack. It could very well be an ass-kicking for me though. Oh joy.

Time For Some Booty

Okay, I’m not really talking about pirates or their vast amounts of plundered treasure, am I? Nope, I’m talking about another kind of booty. A 24 hour booty party, if you will, complete with food, drinks, and tons of people. Are you still with me? Well, check this out:




Okay, okay, not that kind of booty either. Please, let me explain. Yesterday I mentioned that I might try to squeeze in some roadie action during my ever-so-busy upcoming race season. Well, instead of trying to be a pretend roadie racer, I was hoping to do some more charity-type roadie rides, similar to the Tour de Tots ride I did back in September. I wasn’t actively looking for another ride per se, but I think one may have found me. You see, da udda day I received an e-mail from the corporate big-wigs at my place of employment telling me about the 24 Hours of Booty here in Charlotte. My employer has a team for the event, and I am seriously considering it. When I mentioned it to Little Miss Sunshine, she also showed some interest. What is the 24 Hours of Booty? Well, if you are too lazy to click on the two previous links I just gave you, then you’re in luck. I “borrowed” a paragraph from the official site:

24 Hours of Booty is the official 24-hour ride of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which brings cyclists of all abilities together to raise vital funds for cancer research and survivorship. The event unites people who are passionate about fighting cancer. By benefiting both The Lance Armstrong Foundation and local, life-changing beneficiaries, the 24 Hours of Booty experience represents hope, challenge, remembrance and celebration.


While the riding is not exclusively “roadie” in nature, I would most likely ride my road bike. There are all kinds of people on all kinds of bikes though, doing their part to raise money for various organizations for cancer reasearch. A lot of people have their own stories of how they were personally touched by cancer and whatnot, but the ride is much bigger than that. I am thinking of doing this just for the cause of course, and also to help promote cycling in our local community. I think it would be a great experience. The problem is, I haven’t really decided for sure if I want to do it, and registration is filling up fast. The event is not until July, and that is one reason why I am having such a hard time committing to it. It’s difficult to plan something that far ahead, at least for me. Stay tuned and you’ll have my final answer next week.


"I need your final answer now, numbnuts!"

As far as this weekend goes, I have nothing (riding-wise) set in stone yet. It’s going to be colder than Santa’s underbritches the next few days, so what ever I do I will probably freeze to death. I have a little work to do on the Greatest Short Track Bike on Earth, but I can do that in the warm confines of the B-43 Shop. I have a new stem that should be here today when I get home, and I also need to change the fork to one that actually works. I’m hoping to get that done so that I can actually ride the thing before the 2010 Winter Short Track Series kicks off next weekend. I’m not used to riding a hardtail (let alone one with v-brakes), so I had better get to riding it…and soon.

What to Do

Well, here’s what’s going on. The other night I was thinking about stuff on the way home from work (as opposed to actually paying attention to the road), and I started to think about my upcoming race schedule. When I got home, I mentioned a few of my thoughts to Little Miss Sunshine. I told her that I had been thinking about putting the triathlon stuff on hiatus for a season and just concentrate on mountain bike racing. Hell, I would even throw in a few 5K runs now and again since they are easy enough. She actually agreed with me, but also made her own point (she’s quite good at it too.) She said, “Don’t spread yourself too thin.” Did that mean that my racing plan for this season was a little too ambitious? Probably so. She also said that I should concentrate more on building up my local chapter of the National Mountain Bike Patrol, The Trailblazers Bike Patrol. Maybe she was onto something.


As far as the patrol goes, there has actually been quite a bit of interest, especially as of late. I’ve received a few e-mails from members of our local riding community, and I’m happy about that. Actually, building up the patrol was a goal I set for myself for this year. I plan on contacting the other two patrols in North Carolina so that I can gain some knowledge about how they operate. I haven’t done that yet, but I will soon. The time commitment for the patrol isn’t much, but there is a little cost to the patroller at first. That could scare of some potential members. As we grow as a club, I’m hoping to be able to offset some of the costs, but I’m not sure how to do that yet. I guess that’s where meeting with other patrol groups will come in handy.


On the subject of the race season, I may very well pull the plug on my budding triathlon career, at least for now. I only had one event on the calendar anyway, with possibly two more if I felt like traveling a bit. The 5K race thing is a small time commitment, so I can easily do a couple of those this year, if for anything just to get a t-shirt. My local mountain biking race calendar is set though, so I will be doing those (barring any injury or illness of course.) I also still want to travel out of the area a bit to do some bigger races. I’ll play those by ear I guess. Maybe I’ll do more roadie action if I have time. I’ll talk more about that possibility tomorrow. Maybe I'll just ride my bike everywhere:

Still Frozen

With no end in sight for the cold temperatures, I questioned my sanity in wanting to ride again on Sunday. I woke up early to find that all of our local trails were still open, but it was as cold as a polar bear’s ass outside. Where would I go? I briefly considered the U.S. National Whitewater Center, because it offers challenges not found anywhere around here, unless of course I drive to the mountains. I invited Little Miss Sunshine to ride, even offering to hit up North Meck in Huntersville, NC. She politely declined. Actually she said, “Are you CRAZY?” I guess it was too cold for her, even though she hails from somewhere near the Arctic Circle. I decided on something close by, the always fun Sherman Branch. I waited for Lunchbox to awaken from his teenage slumber to find that even he thought it was too cold. I thought for sure that he would want to go, especially since he received some extra warm riding gear for Christmas.


With no other crazy people in the house to take me up on my offer to ride, I loaded up the truck and headed to Sherman, Branch that is. Swimming pools, movie stars, no wait, that’s not right. I was going to a mountain bike trail. I grabbed even more cold weather gear and headed out the door.


When I hopped in the truck, I saw that the temps were just as unpleasant as the day before. My onboard temperature supercomputer gave me the lowdown:



Great, another freezing day. At least I was prepared this time. I grabbed some items I normally reserve for the ski slopes:



Now I would be ready. When I arrived at the trail, I slapped two of those bad boys in my gloves, and two in my shoes (between two pairs of socks.) While I was getting ready to ride, I ran into local race promoter extraordinaire, Neal Boyd, who had just finished his ride. After a brief chat about trail conditions, he was on his way. Before he left he said, “See you in two weeks!” Shit. Two weeks? He meant that the 2010 Winter Short Track Series was kicking off soon. I guess that meant that I should push it a little harder on the ride, because two weeks will be here before I know it. As I finished getting ready, I ran into a couple of guys I knew from the Summer Series.


They had just finished a lap, and their bikes were covered with mud. I asked about which part was the worst, and one of them replied, “All of it.” Well, I would press on anyway, since I needed this ride. The trail was open after all, so off I went.


They left a few minutes before me, and I saw them every once in a while. Those two are pretty fast, so I made it my goal to keep them in my sights, or even catch up with them. All went according to plan, even thought I had some issues keeping my traction. The trail had several frozen muddy spots, but it was definitely rideable. I kept my speed up as fast as I could, and I actually never went down. I came real close though. I was cold again, but not nearly as cold as I was the day before. I could tolerate the cold, but the mud was a different story.


After each mile, I could see the mud piling up on my frame and back wheel. It wasn’t the kind of mud that slings all over the place and gets you dirty, but rather the kind that gunks up your drivetrain. Good ole Goose still shifted fine though, but the miles were becoming increasingly difficult. By the time I hit the last mile, the mud was caked on so bad that the wheel hardly moved when I spun it by hand. When I finished the ride, here’s how it looked:






It was a great ride, and I had a lot of fun. My lungs even seemed to have recovered from the adventure I had the day before. I was happy that my “training ride” was successful. I never did catch those two guys though. Almost.

Training Mode

With the start of the race season rapidly approaching, I’ve had to step up my training to be ready. I’ve tried my best to keep up with my cycling fitness, but the bad weather (and other factors) has impeded my progress just a bit. I’m still plugging away on the ever-so-lovely X-Bike during the week, but as I told y’all before, it just doesn’t cut the mustard. I will continue to ride that silly machine, but actual “on the trail” mileage is the only way I’ll truly be ready.

Although it’s been bitterly cold lately, I’ve been able to get out on the trail the past two weekends. This past Saturday it was time to get out and ride the lovely trails at Lake Norman State Park. The Dirty Party Cycle sent me a text message at around noon on Saturday, inquiring about riding the aforementioned trail. I replied back that I was game, so I hurried home and packed up Goose and all of my riding accessories. The high temperature for the day was to be around 32 degrees, so I packed more clothing than usual. This was going to be an arctic ride, so I had to be prepared.

I hit the parking lot at Lake Norman State Park at around 2:45 p.m., hoping that the temperature was at its peak. I guess 32 degrees was all I would get. I arrived a lot earlier than the DPC (since I left before he did), so I changed into my riding attire in the comfy warm confines of my truck. I sent him a text to let him know that I was there, and also to inform him of what I saw on the ground when I got to the parking lot.



Yep, there was still snow on the ground in some spots. We were in for a really cold ride. I aired up all of the parts on Goose that needed air, and waited for the arrival of the DPC. He showed up ready to ride, but he also knew that we were in for a freeze-fest. Our only hope was to ride fast enough to get at least a little warm, and hopefully that would dull the pain of the frosty temps. The DPC prepared to ride:



We were getting cold fast, so we hurried out on the trail. The first loop was speedy, with tight twisty turns and plenty of climbing and downhill action. While my pedaling did warm me up a bit, the high speeds we attained still kept us on the chilly side. After about the first mile or so, I could no longer feel my fingers. We stopped for a moment to warm up, and then it was back to the chill-fest. My lungs were in pain from the frozen air, so you can imagine how hard it was to climb. We commented about how crazy we must be to be out riding on a day like this. I think I mumbled something like, “We must really like this mountain biking stuff.” Yes my friends, we are addicts. Just like anyone with an addiction, we suffered just to get our fix.


After the ~ 6 miles of fast and flowy singletrack, we headed back to the parking lot. We stopped to warm up for a moment and to decide where to ride next. I never once wanted to quit, which further proves how I am addicted to pain. My feet felt like they were strapped to two cinderblocks, well what little bit I could feel of them. We decided to hit the next section of trail, but the DPC wanted to play in the snow for a moment.



While there was plenty of snow all around the park, the trails were completely snow-free. I imagine we would have had an even more difficult time riding if that was the case. We headed over to the newest section of trail, the Laurel Loop. Since it was brand-new (this was the first day it was open), the trail conditions were a little less than ideal. It wasn’t packed in yet like everything else out there, and we were immediately faced with some frozen muddy slop. The very first climb was difficult, and we had a hard time maintaining traction. The downhill sections were nice though, and most of the trail was covered in pine needles after the beginning section (which helped tremendously with traction.) My lungs were even feeling better, although my frozen feet were starting to protest a little.


You may notice that this post is lacking the usual amount of photographs. That’s because we didn’t stop enough to take any pictures. We didn’t want to lose the little bit of heat that we generated, since the temperatures were slowly dropping. We did however take a couple of trail photos at a nice little creek crossing.







Since we were rapidly losing light, the photos didn’t come out so well. It’s not in our budget to have a professional photographer along for our rides. I guess we’re not big-time after all. We made it through the 4.5 mile trail and headed back to the parking lot. The time was about 5:25 p.m., and darkness was fast approaching. The park closes at 6:00 p.m., so we had to load up our crap and get the hell out before we were locked in. After warming the trucks up, I noticed that my temperature gauge said 27 degrees.


Wow, what the hell was I thinking? Well, we had a great time, and neither of us froze to death. I guess that’s all you can ask for. I chalked it up as training for the upcoming race season, and with that I took one step closer to racing superstardom (yes, I have a long way to go.) The first frigid ride of the New Year was in the books, and hopefully there would be many more to come. Now, where can I get a hot cup of coffee?

New Beginnings

Wow. Another year has come and gone. As I look back on 2009, I realize that it was a pretty good year for cycling (for me anyway.) I accomplished some things that I never thought I would do. I did the Tree Shaker 12 Hour Mountain Bike Race (which was my first foray into endurance racing), the Catawba Riverfront Classic (which I actually won), and I even did my first off-road triathlon, the XTERRA Uwharrie. I did another off-road tri over the summer, placing third. I finished tenth overall in the Summer Series, even gaining an actual sponsor in the process. I bought a road bike and rode in a half-metric century charity ride, and I found that I actually enjoyed riding on the road. I did all of these things without any major injuries, save a dislocated shoulder I suffered a few weeks before last year’s Winter Short Track Series.

Something else I accomplished was starting a chapter of the National Mountain Bike Patrol, and that has been going pretty well. It has allowed me to provide services to our local trail users that was missing before. I hope it can grow and flourish in 2010. I’ve also been handed the reins to our weekly Tarheel Trailblazers Kids Rides, and that has been a great experience. It’s really nice to see more people getting on bikes. I am proud to have been a part of our local mountain biking community here in Charlotte, and I hope to build upon that in the years to come. I doesn’t take much to make a difference. All you have to do is get off your ass and do something. Enough of me patting myself on the back though; it’s just sickening.

I have a few goals for this year, starting with the upcoming 2010 Winter Short Track Series, which starts in less than two weeks. I’ve been trying like hell to get more time on the bike, and the weather has been cooperating (sort of.) While we’ve been spared some precipitation during the last few weekends, it’s now really cold outside. That does not make for prime training weather. I did however get outside this past weekend to ride, so I am happy about that. Join me tomorrow for a recap. Pretty please?