You are currently browsing the monthly archive for September, 2008.
Cannondale has the Brad Blog. It’s a great way for people to ask questions about their bikes and/or about the company. Brad is a pretty awesome guy and has a pretty sweet kick ass name. I had to comment. Even though I didn’t ask a question… Brad responded.
After watching the presidential debate on Friday night, I snuggled up in bed at 11 so that I would receive ample rest for spending the day at Highland. I ran into a horrible problem though… I was at college. It’s hard to go to bed on weekend nights when there are parties right outside your window. So I laid in bed. I couldn’t sleep. Soon it was 12 and then it was 1. At that point I gave up on sleeping. I went to my computer and did something. Around 2 some of my roommates and their friends came back… awesome. More noise and now it was right outside my door. By 2:30 there was a fight right outside my townhouse with some kid named “C-Murder” and his tough crew against one of my roommates and his friends… Since my roommate is a kung-fu-ninja and his buddy is 230 pounds of meathead…they won.
I eventually got to bed at 3:30.
With 3 and a half hours of sleep I awoke at 7, took a shower, and went off to meet Matt and Quentin, who were my riding partners of the day. After a quick stop and Dunkin Donuts we were off. Now, we had no clue if they would be open or not. They closed because of the rain on Friday… so we were hoping that the rain would hold off and they would be open when we were there…
When we arrived there were only two other riders there and the staff informed us that they will not open unless there were at least 20 riders. So we waited. In just 30 min they informed us that despite not having 20, they would open and shut down when the weather got worse. Awesome. Maddd props to Highland especially since they were clearly taking a loss for the day.
We soon got our gear and then hit the trails. Check out the pics… but I swear this stuff was wayyy awesomer than it looks.
Awesome.
***Just added because Steve said Bedford was muddier. This is after 3 runs.***
More later…
Pretty cool pic from the 12 hr race (yea its not working for whatever reason… stoopid wordpress… click the link below though). There were lots of bridges. Some long. Some Short. Some wide and some narrow. This one just so happened to be a high, wide, and long one. More here.
Highland tomorrow? Still planning on it as long as they are open. Stay tuned. Get excited.
Ok, where to begin…
I left Bryant mid afternoon and made my way up to Kennebunkport, ME. The 12 hr on Saturday started at 8, so staying just an hour from the venue was way better than waking up at 3am in RI and driving up. I arrived in Maine, made two bologna sandwiches, wolfed them down, chugged a bunch of water, and then got into bed at 7. It was great.
But, I wasn’t even close to tired. So I made a playlist for the race (I usually don’t ride with headphones in… but this is a 12 hr race and half the time you’re riding alone… and I cut one of the buds off so only one ear was grooving… and yea). I stuffed my music machine with great tunes by Sons & Daughters, Queen, The Offspring, Gang of Four, and even Black Kids. As the mileage and suckfest of the day increased it was great to have some solid beats to groove to.
My alarm went off at 5. I reasoned with myself that there was no way that I needed to be up at 5. If I had to get to the race at 7 and it’s only an hour away… I could sleep until 5:45am. So that’s what I did. All my race gear was in the car so I ate two bowls of Honey Bunches of Oates and was on my way.
I arrived at Bradbury Mountain with plenty of time to spare. The only downside to the race was that the parking was a little out of the way … unless you were camping… in that case you were right at the check-in station. No biggie though. I wasn’t planning on being at my car too much… so I packed a bag with food and other race necessities which I would need and stashed it at the start/finish area.
Ok, so how did the race go? I lined up and began making small talk with the people around me. “So who do you think will get the hole-shot?” I joked with the guy next to me. He replied, “It’s not going to be me. It’s a long enough race as it is.” Very true and it was exactly what I was thinking. My plan for the day was to go slowww and long. Keep the heart rate as low as possible and don’t be stupid.
The gun goes off and sure enough, the guy I was chatting with takes off like a bat out of hell. I laugh and enter the woods about 4th wheel in. The first 150 yards of the course were a blast. It was a fast twisty fire road which had lots of ruts, loose gravel, and fast swoopy jumps. It was awesome. The course then takes you through some of the nicest single track I have ever ridden. It was super tight, twisty, and rooty. It is the kind of riding that if you start to day dream or take your mind off of where you want to go… you will surely end up crashing and getting a stick impaled through your kidney. That would not be good.
As the day went on you would start to notice more and more notches taken out of the sides of trees… clearly from someone slamming their bars into them. It was awesome.
So lap 1 went well. I got passed, I passed people, and soon enough I had no clue where I was in the sea of racers. I was doing my own thing though, so it was cool. I completed lap 1 in just under an hour. It would be my fastest lap of the 10 mile loop for the day. Lap 2 was roughly an hour and 5 min and lap 3 an hour and 10. After 3 + hours / 30 miles of riding I was tired and wanted to eat fooood. I could feel my stomach wanting something during the end of lap 2. Being the idiot that I am I forgot to put my lunch in the bag I brought to the line… so I had to go wayyy out of my way and go to my car. I ate a banana and a manwich (a manly sandwich).
OK, back on the bike.
This is the portion of the race where I begin to hate life. About half way through my 4th lap something (I say something because I have no clue what it was) caused me to fly over my bars and land dead flat onto my back. Lets breifly go back into history for a second… somewhere along lap 2 I decided to take off my sunglasses and tuck them into my back pocket… So if you are following what I am saying… I destroyed my Rudys. Crap. They now have a solid cracked frame… I’m hoping that super glue and an Exacto Knife will be able to aid in their recovery.
I also started cramping on this lap. Oh yea. I love em. Cramps and I go together like ice cream and jimmies (I’m not a huge fan of jimmies because they don’t taste and are pointless…like cramps). My left quad was doing all sorts of things it shouldn’t have been and it was starting to concern me for the rest of the day. I did the only thing I could do… drank more mix, slammed a couple pills, and rubbed it a bunch. I don’t think any of those remedies provided any aid because on the next lap, it completely seized up, locked it straight out, and made me start thinking that I have no legs.
Awesome. My upper body was also taking a beating. My hands and forearms were hurting like nuts, my lower back was on the verge of killing itself, and my neck was in desperate need of a massage.
Lap 5 sucked too.
Lap 6 was just silly.
Lap 7 was just pitiful. It took me 2 hours to get around the loop. Everything was cramping and despite my excessive use of chamois cream my butt was getting tender. It hurt to sit so I stood on the pedals… which in turn caused my legs to cramp more. It was horrible. I was in the pain cave and I wasn’t even working hard. My body was failing and at the rate I was going my next lap would have taken me 3 hours.
I pulled the plug. I was done. I rationalized with myself that I was doing more harm than good. Harm is not what we want. Harm = bad. I was 70 miles into it anyway.
I will be back next year. You get a free t-shirt too!
After 35 miles I was crying.
More later. I have to drive back to RI from ME now.
I am in desperate need of a hot tub too.
I have the cutest mouse pad ever.
Oh yea. I have a bike closet at school. I still have one in my car though… putting 4 in the fort would just be disastrous. My friends think I’m nuts. I think I’m badass.
I got lots of riding in last week… not much mileage… but lots of riding none the less. Friday I took of with diesel and rode up at Foxborough. I can’t remember if I have been there before… some stuff looked oddly familiar. Who knows? Woods are woods and rocks are rocks. After a while your bound to get some Déjà Vu. The borough of foxes is filled with some great technical riding and some faster sections that you can flow on a bit. It will definitly not be my last time there… and its right by the MRC Wrentham course… so I could potentially see a long riding day in the near future by combining the two.
shopping list | eric | carnage | party hook-up
This weekend was rather interesting. Here at Bryant it was Alumni Weekend which meant lots of Alumni came back (duh). This also meant that there were lots of drunk alumni and lots of drunk Bryant students. Super. I on the other hand spent the better part of Saturday and Sunday in the library being a geek.
On saturday I snuck out to Lincoln Woods with my suitemate Eric. He was a mt bike virgin. Within seconds he was dropping off of some of the biggest dropps and riding the roller coaster like a pro… OK I may be exagerating a bit… but he showed that he had balls by crashing and getting right back up and going again.
I went food shopping this AM to get the essentials… Salsa (can be used on everything), chips (can be used with the salsa), bacon (I eat it everyday), cheese (can also be used on everything), pasta sauce (used for pasta.. and you have to get Newmans… duh), something to drink (I’m not a fan of being parched), bread (to make sandwiches), Spam (for desert), and love (who doesn’t want to get some lovin’ at Stop and Shop?).
12 hrs of Bradbury this weekend… Highland the week after… ohh yeaaa
