Grizzly Peak Century - Sunday

That is all, wish me luck.

Napa Valley Dirt Classic

I will just start off by saying that was a really wet and muddy race! It reminded me when I did the Cool Race near Auburn, Ca back in high school riding my Schwinn hardtail with full v-brakes. I just completed the Napa Valley Dirt classic (NVDC for short) for the second year in a row. Last year (weather was sunny and warm btw), I competed in the Cat 3 19-34 Men division with a time of 2 hours 14 minutes which placed me 14th out of 30th. That's pretty crappy! Midpack for beginner category? Last year, the NVDC had to be my 6th race into my first race season and now with a race season under my belt and a lot of riding, I have moved to Cat 2. My time this go around was 2 hours 19 minutes due to weather (everyones times suffered, Pro's times were 12 minutes slower than last year) but that placed me 8th out of 25!! Sweeeeeet! GO ME!

I need to buy a canopy or something to change under for next race season, especially for the early season races when it's still raining. I had to cram in my car and slowly but surely change inside since outside was pouring down rain and I wanted to stay dry as possible before the race. I finally got changed but just sat in my car where it was warm and dry and finally got out with 10 minutes before start.

As usual, I started out slow, pacing myself but once we got past the hike a bike section and onto wide fireroad I let my road biking power take over and I took off, once we got to our first climb I was warmed up and hammering up the singletrack, passing a lot of people as they struggled up the hill, a lot of them losing traction or just going slow :)

I ripped down the hills pretty good, I think a lot faster than if I was still on my Schwinn. I felt confident and comfortable going down the hills with less braking due to my full suspension and hydraulic disc brakes. My brakes performed great, although loud, but everyones brakes were loud as they squealed from the water. I managed to go down and up 2 out of the 3 "swoops." I think last year, I didn't make it up any of them? These "swoops" are these 3 roller coaster type hills all in a row. So you go down really fast and then you have to pedal up the steep opposite side and get to the top where you find yourself going down again shortly and repeat!

After meandering through the woods for a while, I got down to Pope Valley and started the hill climb from hell. My goal was to climb most if not all of the hill this year but that was soon over as I suffered from chain suck in my granny gear and the wet & muddy conditions made it near impossible to get traction on the steeper sections. I'm sure some of the pro's got up the hill! So I joined my fellow racers as we walked up the hill for the next 15 minutes, but once at the top, I got on my bike and took off, passing a few more.

By now most (& hardest) of the climbing was done and I was approaching the airport where I would then have a quick descent back to the finish line. I decided to chase this other Cat 2 racer, who was in a different age category, to the finish line. I kept on his tail all the way till we got to the track field where we make one full lap around it before finishing. He had the inside line around the final 2 corners and I wasn't feeling comfortable to step on it fully with wet slick asphalt so I let him come in before me :p

I quickly pedaled to my car but half way there I realized my front wheel was not spinning correctly with the brake rotors rubbing! The front quick release had come loose and I started to wonder how long has it been loose? 2 miles? 200 ft? I'm sure it was only a short distance, perhaps only the last couple 100 yards of dirt before the track, but who knows. Close one! I will make sure to double/triple check the QR skewers more often and lock them down really tight. SO I ran to my car and quickly undressed in the pouring rain, since I didn't have a canopy to change under and I didn't want to change in my car this time, since I was wet and muddy now. I got down to my bibshorts and threw everything in the back and grabbed a blanket to cover my front seat and quickly jumped in the car and started the heater on full blast to allow my body and more importantly my feet to defrost so I could put on my shoes and leave. After 10-15 minutes my feet warmed up enough to put my shoes on and I headed to Santa Rosa with the heater on full the whole time, switching between defrost and feet. I then enjoyed a nice hot shower and deli sandwich & chocolate milk from Raley's, YUM!

Yeah, it was worth it! NEXT UP: Sea Otter Classic, the biggest bike event I will be attending this year. It's an international event and I got 5th last year in the Cat 3 category which qualified me for Nationals in Colorado in July? Hopefully I will place within the top 10 in Cat 2 and qualify again and maybe this time I will go.

Boggs V 8 Hr - Report

I'm alive! Just completed my first 8 hour race event and boy that was a lot of fun with some pain. Conditions were wet and COLD, we started at 8:15 with temperatures hovering around 30 degrees and patches of snow still on the ground. To start things out, I got a late start since I parked my car too far u pthe road and had to carry my ice chest, pump and bike bag down to the pit area then go back up and get my bike. Next year I'm unloading my crap near the pit area and then parking! I ended up beginning around 8:21, that's about 5-6 late start, but I kept it cool and just started pedaling, I soon began to catch people and caught up with my buddy Wade and just chatted most of the 1st lap. I felt good, strong and energetic and felt like I could do this for hours haha. As soon as we hit the final climb (a long fireroad climb) I parted ways with Wade and took off only to see him after completing my 5th lap where I received a kind gesture (middle finger to be exact) from him as he was about to start his 5th lap.

My feet, fingers, and face were numb before even completely the first lap, especially after going through the muddle puddles on the fireroad leading up to the climb and they would stay that way for another 6-7 hours! My best lap was my 2nd lap, I felt strong and knocked 6 minutes off my previous lap but then I had to make a pitstop at the end of my 2nd lap for the bathroom. I guess my dinner from the night before finally caught up (Spaghetti/ w Meatballs, Slices of Pizza, 2-3 hours of Wii Sports) :)

I continued to stop each lap to swap water bottles (since I only carried one on me at a time) and eat something. I ended up going through 2 PBj's, 1 Clif Bar, 1-2 packets of Clif Shot Bloks and raisins. The "Pro's" caught me as I was climbing the fireroad climb on my 3rd lap, dang, those guys are fast. I just kept it together and kept pedaling. By the end of the 4th lap I was feeling it but I knew I needed at least 2 more laps to podium so I went out again, being passed more frequently this time but I kept my speed up on the downhills and fireroad climb. I even went up the fireroad climb on Lap 4 and 6 in the middle ring due to chain suck issues. I could feel every bump more on lap #5 and #6 as I got tired and I started to get sloppy with the control of my bike. Instead of using my arms or legs to maneuver my bike I just let the bike hit the object and roll over it and even hit a tree with my shoulder.

I was pretty certain I was done after completely my 6th lap, my chain suck issues were getting worse and I wasn't getting any better and I know I needed my granny gear to do another lap. I also felt like I maybe ate too much? My stomach felt like it had a minor cramp (or ache). My chain was so dry after this race due to all the mud, water and debris, the lube was probably totally gone after 4 laps but I cleaned up my drivetrain after lap #4 and that helped for a while. I finished my 6th lap at 3:05pm so I had time to do a 7th lap but ultimately decided I'm done and I ended up in 2nd place! Not bad!

I'm now kicking myself in the ass for not doing another lap since that would probably have placed me 1st place since my average lap times were faster than the guy who won since he did another lap than me, but congrats to him, but next time I will do 7!

I think I'm going to do a couple more 50 miler and/or 8 hr races later this season like the Kirkwood 9-5 #1 & #2 by Team Big Foot, Tahoe 50/100 Miler and maybe the next Boggs 8hr Race put on by Global Biorhythm Events. All these take place in Summer or early Fall so the course conditions will be dry and the temperatures will be great! Definately more willing to do those. Overall, I had a great time and I enjoyed the atmosphere of the place, I believe there were about 500 racers with probably another 300-500 spectators/event staff. We were treated to a great pasta dinner afterwards and some lucky poeple won some cool prizes in the raffle. The food wasn't enough for me, since I hauled back to Santa Rosa to meet my girlfriend and her parents for a "Macho Burrito" at Santa Rosa Taqueria, yum :)

My bike and me took a beating. My new bike did well beside the chain suck issues but what do you expect after going through mud and water for 7 hours? No one's bike is immune to chain suck unless you are a single speeder or maybe one of those lucky guys with the new SRAM XX drivetrains (2x10)! I'm still in the process of cleaning my bike actually :)

How am I doing you ask? I'm sore today, but I feel better than I thought I would, so onto my weekly routine of hitting the gym and commuting home twice a week and I look forward to the Napa Valley Dirt Classic, which is this Sunday April 11th! I hope for no rain like last year (crosses fingers).

First 8hr Race coming up

Been a while since I posted last. Yes, I have been partying it up with my girlfriend. We went to Santa Barbara for our anniversary over the weekend and had a good time so I haven't been to a race in 2 weeks! But I'm returning to the scene in a big way. It will be my first SOLO 8 hour endurance race this Saturday. The event is called Boggs V and it should be a lot of fun and painful.

It will take place at Boggs National Forest near the town of Cobb, CA, which is about 30 minutes north of Napa. I will pedal around on my bike trying to complete the most of amount of laps in the smallest amount of time in 8 hours (8am-4pm) with no breaks! I plan on stopping after every couple laps to replenish on food (fuel) and hydration (water and gatorade) to keep me going, since I will not be using my Camelbak.

It has been raining here and even more in Cobb this past week, with more rain tomorrow, so the course is going to be wet and it's going to be cold! Forecast say it will be mid 40's. I was hoping it would be around the average temperature, which is 67, and a dry course for my first 8 hour but I guess I'm getting everything thrown at me. I just hope the bike and myself are up for it :) I'm expecting to be numb within 2 hours. The promise of a good dinner and beer afterwards will keep me going! Oh yeah and the feeling that I accomplished something I haven't done before.

I'm aiming to do 7 laps which would put me at 73.5 miles and almost 10k of climbing. Each lap is 10.5 miles with ~1400ft of climbing. I'm sure the Pro's will do 10-11 laps, I just forgot if I signed up for beginner or sport class! Well, wish me luck!

What else is new? I got my Shimano Yumeya (think gold bling for your bike, I will post pictures later) in the mail and installed the other day and I'm still undecided on my choice of stems since the Syntace F109 110mm at 15 degrees I want seems impossible to find (WTF?!) and still waiting for my new fork decals but no worries there. I haven't been riding this week since I'm taking it easy and conserving energy for my big race this weekend and the weather has been crap as well.

April will be pretty busy with Boggs V this weekend, then Napa Valley Dirt Classic followed by the world famous Sea Otter Classic and then finishing it up at the Shasta Lemurian Classic April 24th! All 4 races are well known and epic so it will be a busy yet fun month! I think I have a race every weekend till June 20th? Thank god for google calendar to keep me on track.

I'll post a Boggs V report on Sunday! PEACE

CCCX XC #3 Race Report

Yesterday, I had a great time out at Fort Ord competing in CCCX's Cross Country Series. This was race #3 out of 8 so we got a ways to go till we are finished sometime in June. I missed race #2 and I will probably miss race #4 due to my 6th anniversary (No, Natalie I'm not complaining :) ) and race #5 because I will be participating in my first ever 8 hour endurance race on April 3rd!! I'll post about that later.

I got a late start due to day light savings (lost 1 hour of sleep) and I just got up late haha. I still arrived with a good amount of time to register, piss and stretch and get all my gear together but unfortunately didn't have enough time to pre-ride the course, which is a good idea. I usually do this at a reasonable pace just to get a feel of what to expect around the corners and see how the course is in general and it's a good way to get your HR up and muscles loose. Since I didn't do this I felt a little off when we lined up to start the race.

The race got to a late start AGAIN. I have no where to be but just comparing to the beginner start time of 9am we have been starting close to 10-15 minutes after 11am. It was a huge turnout and it was a longer course than normal,so that probably had to do with the delay, no biggie, just curious to why so disorganized this year?

As usual, I start out "slow" and work my way up. One of these days I'm just going to have to bolt out and deal with it. If I want to win the race, this is definately what I'm going to have to do! I did this a couple races ago and toward the end of the race, I just felt tired and beat. Last year at CCCX XC #2 (first race in a long time for me) I did bolt out and I ended up so overworked I just crashed in front of everyone and almost got hit LOL!

There were 3 steep climbs per lap and we had 4 full laps with one shorter lap to begin with so we had a ways to go so I didn't want to use up all my energy right away. There were 15 racers in my category and I probably started out 10th or so. I paced behind one guy, Matt, for half the race and finally on 2nd to last lap I took off and started to play catchup. By then I was probably 7th or 8th. I had to stop once on my second lap because I felt like my front quick release skewer was loose and I didn't want my wheel falling off. It ended up being fine, nice and tight, that probably cost me 30 seconds if not more. A bunch of people passed me that I just passed, so I had to work again to get past them, which isn't the easiest sometimes since the trail can be narrow and no room to pass at times.

On the final climb I caught up with #6 in my category and we both hit the base of the hill with a woman racer about 10ft from us, with him in front of me but making no movement to go around the lady, I took charge and passed both of them on the right. He soon then passed me near the top of the hill and I gave it all I could to stick with him. We came flying down the descent and around the final corner but by then it was clear he was going to win. He ended up beating me by 7 seconds, but if I had another lap or even 1 more mile I could have passed him! I didn't see him all this time and I managed to catch up to him? Obviously I was a) getting faster and/or b) he was slowing down. I congratulated him on a good race and hurried over to grab some water and socialize with the other racers.

I ended up 7th out of 15th, again middle of the pack, so not bad! Here are the full results: http://cccxcycling.com/2010xc3resultspage.html I'm under Sport Men 19-34 with a time just shy of 1 hour 45 minutes.

Here is the GPS data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/27029390

1 hour 45 minutes over a distance of 22.37 miles and 2.8k of climbing! That's a long one for CCCX, they are usually maybe 20 miles and 2.2k of climbing.

New Grips & Shifter Clamps are in! Ordered More Stuff!

I posted yesterday some pictures of the stuff I got in, well now I have some pictures of that "stuff" actually on the bike. Sorry for the photos, I had crappy lighting and was using a point and shoot camera since my camera needs batteries.

The new grips are white as can be, that will change after my first race with them on Sunday but they look sick! I know they will get dirty but the white will still shine through and looks better than black.

My other item is the Hope Matchmakers, which match Hope's X2 Race Disc Brake with Shimano's XTR Shifters. As you can see there is only one clamp (black) on the handlebar, instead of two. Normally there is a clamp for the brake levers and then another clamp for the shifters. This cleaned up my hand

lebar and it also enabled me to move my shifters more out closer to where my hands are positioned on the handlebar so I get a better position for changing gears. It also saved some weight! See the pictures from yesterdays post for weight. They were $27.50 from Hope and the grips were only about $15 with tax and shipping.
I also got my new rear disc brake hose so now that is properly routed and good to go.

I placed an order with CRC (Chain Reaction Cycles) in the UK for some Shimano Yumeya items. See picture below but pretty much it adds "bling" to my bike in the form of gold colored bolts etc... I got the shifter barrel adjusters (top part of picture, farthest thing to the right that's gold), front & rear derailleur ti bolt kit (you can see gold ti bolt in bottom part of picture right below "xtr" on the rear derailleur) and I got the crank arm bolt (pictured separately). This is it for now. LOL! I will get the chain when my "regular" XTR chain needs to be replaced since the Yumeya XTR one looks cooler and is a little bit lighter for only a couple bucks more. So hopefully after I get my stem, $100,and service policy, which is another $120, I will be done spending shit on my bike! Oh yeah, $20 for decal kit. Time to start paying this crap off :)

Commute Home - Spring is coming!

Today, I had a fun ride home, I just felt strong and the day was really nice. My ride on Tuesday I felt slow and it was in the low 40's and windy up in the East Bay Hills, I ended up with an average speed of 16.2mph that day, boo! I could just tell today was going to be faster as I looked down at my GPS and saw my speed and HR were a lot better than Tuesday.

The temperature in the hills was 10-12 degrees warmer than Tuesday and hardly any wind with sunny skies! I didn't have to wear my shoe covers, jacket or heavy duty gloves, which usually make me sweat more than I would like. This was definately a sneak preview of spring, too bad it is going to rain tomorrow. I also had my new bike stuff and burgers waiting for me at home which (obviously) motivated me to go faster :) I ended up with an average speed of 17.3mph!! I also didn't have many issues with slow cars on the road which typcially slow me down, especially in the 25mph residential zones. Once again, Prius drivers never fail to piss me off, idiots. Other than that the ride was pretty smooth with little traffic and stops.

I got my Hope rear disc brake hose and Hope matchmakers for my XTR shifters and some new white grips! Woohoo! Should be done tomorrow or Saturday, I'll take pictures of the bike with white grips and new shifter/brake setup. So now the only thing I need to get is the stem which I will do Sunday and then wait for the SID decals to be ready.


Finally, I mentioned in my last post how I had issues with my new wheelset and the spokes detensioning on them. Kevin, from Mike's Bikes, took a look at them today and tighten them up and came to the conclusion that it wasn't anything bad and hopefully I won't have this issue again. If I do, I'm definately calling Speedgoat and possibly returning them and getting the same wheels built up by Universal Cycles or maybe even Mike's if the price is right. I'll keep you posted how the wheels hold up after the race on Sunday.

Here is the the link to the GPS of today's ride: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/26746351