Milliron's Race Journal

Early Bird Crit

2012-01-26T08:20:00.001-08:00

Did one of the Early Bird Training Crits on Sunday.

Focused on being smooth and moving around in the pack. Got some good tips on that from a team training camp the previous day and it paid off. Matching speed and "backing" into line rather then trying to find a big gap. Wasting a lot less energy.

Followed the crit with a sprint clinic and drills.

In my general training, have moved from only working on endurance to both endurance and FTP. Want to be in good form in April.

Also have given up on the Garmin Vector. Doesn't look like team Garmin is running them at their training camp or Tour Down Under. Ordered a Quarq power meter.

Rapha Festive 500 and the End of 2011

2012-01-04T10:38:00.000-08:00

Did the Rapha Festive 500. It's a challenge to ride 500km (310 miles) between Christmas weekend and the end of the year. Ended up doing 316 miles in 20 hours, five minutes of ride time. Weather was good but since I had to work that week, was forced to do a lot of riding at dusk and at night.

Was a great way to kick off my base training.

As for total 2011 stats:

I'm very pleased with the numbers!

Santa Barbara International Half Marathon

2011-11-17T08:17:00.000-08:00

Did the Santa Barbara International Half Marathon last Saturday with my mother and sister. Almost no running specific training. Goal was to run it at a nice easy 10 min/mile pace. Didn't want to hurt myself, since I hadn't worked up to this.

Started near the back of the field. Was passing a lot of people and my HR shot up to low 170s. Everything felt good so I held it there. Nice easy 10min pace went right out the window.

Ended up finishing in 1 hr 49 min and 33 sec. Avg pace of 8:20 and avg HR of 173. 452th overall, out of 2816 people.

Last mile or two, I could feel my calves cramping. Within an hour of finishing, after a cooldown walk and some stretching, I could barely walk. My legs were so knotted up. Kept up the stretching in the following days though and it seems I managed to avoid injuring myself.

In other news, I've been doing a strength and conditioning program. Twice a week, three weeks in now. Lot of front squats, dead lifts and some short, 4 to 10 minute, CrossFit style workouts. Good stuff. Trying to build some core stretch, flexibility and work on muscle balance.

Skeggs Everything Ride

2011-11-06T01:40:00.001-07:00

And I do mean EVERYTHING. Did this one last weekend with a group from MTBR/NorCal.

Stupid amount of climbing. Almost 10k ft in 42 miles. Out on the trail for nine hours. Did it w/ 32x11-34. Not wise. Lots of steep sustained sections that burnt matches.

Crazy trail map:

Last ride with my Lynskey:

Lunch:

Climbing:

Awesome 10 minute video of the ride by Bogden:

HD link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wRUyouf4Ts&hd=1

But yeah, this ride convinced me to sell the Lynskey and buy a complicated squishy bike with more gears. Yeti ASR5 Carbon, Sram X0 2x10, incoming.

Bay Area Super Prestige #1, Candlestick

2011-10-26T08:16:00.000-07:00

Raced BASP#1 on Sunday and good God was it brutal. Baking sun and suffocating dust!

What went right: I felt strong. My mounts/dismounts are smoother, didn't seem to loose time on the barriers. Big thanks here to a CX clinic put on by 4x Danish National Champion Joachim Parbo and Sterling Sports Group. Learned a lot about technique and racing smarter. Tried to put it all into practice at BASP.

Also hit the highest HR and highest avg HR I've seen in a race.

Was hot out there!

Not all was good though. One, with the dust and sun, I was dying for a little water by the 30 minute marker. Should have organized something before hand.

Also, over cooked a corner and got myself all tanged up in the tape. Whoops!

Ended up 45 out of 82 finishers. Not sure how many DNFed.

Also, here is some aerial footage from the race.

Badass!

Pentz Road Hill Climb

2011-10-18T20:45:00.000-07:00

Was up in Chico this last weekend and decided to do a casual hill climb ITT. Part of a local series.

5.8 mi - 997 ft gain - 15.0 mph avg - 182 bpm avg - 00:23:25

And that was good enough for 2nd place out of 29 people! Neat.

Chilling at the top.

And my lean, mean, 14lb hill climbing machine.

2011 Sac CX #2

2011-10-13T14:21:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday, raced Sacramento Cyclocross #2. Men's, class B. Poorly.

Flat and fast. Main feature of the course was a flat, straight and fast 1 mile stretch. Lot of drafting strategy. Then two sections of barriers and u-turns.

Ended up 15th of 35.

Could have done better if I'd been more aggressive at the start and established a better position. Oh, that and not crashed.

Also need to work on my dismounts and remounts. Lost ground on those.

2011 CCCX CX #2, Cyclocross at Fort Ord

2011-09-26T22:22:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, second race of the season. Instead of trying to stick to the leaders and dying like the previous race, I put my HR at the top of my threshold zone and held it there. Just raced my own race.

Placing was slightly better. 15/23 ("photo finish" with 14th) vs 13/19.

And my new Williams wheels and Challenge Grifo tubulars. They're fuckin awesome. Ran them 28,35. Plusher then the Conti clinchers at the same pressure and seemed to have more traction while climbing and cornering.

Now I just need to get some skills. My remounts are embarrassing. I'm slow as shit through the tight, flat, u-turn sections. And I need to figure out how to bunny hop logs. There were two on this course and I killed a lot of time running over them.

2011 CCCX CX #1, Cyclocross Season Starts!

2011-09-13T12:09:00.000-07:00

Kicked off the cyclocross season with CCCX CX #1 at Fort Ord, down by Monterey, CA.

Wasn't really ready for it. Saddle was too high, adjusted it in the parking lot. Hadn't practiced remounts at all. Was exhausted from the previous week of mountain biking and driving.

So, I didn't place well. 13th out of 21 I think. Open Men's B class.

Also went way too hard at the start. Tried to hold the leaders. Was tasting blood in my throat 15 minutes in! Totally blew.

Was good fun though. Nothing like diving into the deep end to kick off the season.

For the future; going to do more threshold work. Practice remounts. New crank, 34/50 to 36/42. New tubulars. In the processes of gluing them.

2011 Moab, UT Mountain Biking

2011-09-12T17:05:00.000-07:00

Five days of riding in Moab with some of my Georgia mountain biking friends! Great vacation.

Rode Sovereign, Amasa Back, Whole Enchilada (twice!), Pipe Dream and some of the Kokopelli loop trails around Fruita Colorado (including Horsetheif, Mary's and Troy Bilt).

In terms of fitness, it was a pretty laid back week for me. Probably gained a little endurance though, was out in the sun, on the trail, for well over 20 hours. Also made massive gains on my mountain biking skills. I started the week rusty and by the end, was cleaning technical trail that was well beyond anything I'd ever ridden before.

Some of the GPS:

2011 San Ardo Road Race

2011-08-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

Raced San Ardo, E4, with about six other teammates.

First lap, spent some time on the front closing down a break. Had a teammate who wanted to get some points from a field sprint finish. We were trying to keep things fairly together and fast. Unfortunately, a crash later in the lap took down the teammate we were racing for. He was later able to catch back up but burnt all his matches in the processes.

Second lap, pace was high and I was sitting second wheel. Guy in front looks back, sees just me, another person and a ~200 meter gap back to the pack. Asks the two of us if we want to give the break a shot. I confirm while the third guy declines and sits up.

Photo of the two of us going off the front and the third guy dropping back:

We took turns and eventually got the break up to almost 2 minutes. The other guy was a good bit bigger and stronger then me and did at least three-fourths the work. However, back in the pack, my Webcor/AV teamates were doing their best to disrupt and slow things down.

Unfortunately, when we hit 2 min, it apparently lit a fire in the pack and a number of people moved to the front and drove the pace up. We were caught on the third lap after being off the front for 22 miles (about an hour).

The remaining half a lap was fairly uneventful. My legs were trashed and I was unable to contest the uphill sprint. Finished 18th of 38 starters. Still, it was a ton of fun to get out there and put everything on the line. There was a few moments I thought I might be able to get second!

Patterson Pass Road Race

2011-08-07T19:36:00.000-07:00

Wind and sun! That was some good wholesome bicycle racing. I hung on for the first lap. Second, lost contact with the lead group near the top of the pass. Chase group, but couldn't get back on. Chase group disintegrated. Third lap, sat up and cruised.

Haven't done too much riding in the last two weeks as I've been having some back problems. So really, I was just happy that I hung on for a while and that my body felt great the entire race.

Santa Barbara Summer Vacation

2011-07-06T18:16:00.000-07:00

Three days of awesome riding in Santa Barbara.

Saturday

Sunday

Monday

Mid Season Slump

2011-06-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

Seem to have peaked about a month ago. Power is down about 10% for no reason I can discern. Oh well, I guess that's what I get for starting my season in January.

Was thinking I could take some time off and try to rebuild, peak for late season road racing and cyclocross. However, that doesn't really sound fun to me.

Instead, I'm going to keep riding, maybe with more of a focus on endurance and temp. Trying to build a good foundation for next season.

Out of curiosity, I went on Garmin Connect and pulled reports on the number of hours ridden since I got my Edge 305 and started doing this seriously.

(06/01/2007 - 05/30/2008) - 177 hr - Started riding seriously in October of 2007. Had to take a month off in spring of 2008 for an injury.
(06/01/2008 - 05/31/2009) - 368 hr - Good quality year of riding.
(06/01/2009 - 05/31/2010) - 274 hr - f***ed up my back in July of 09. Two months before I could ease back into cycling.
(06/01/2010 - 05/31/2011) - 537 hr - Good quality year of riding.

Eric and Ryan from Reality Bikes came out to visit from Georgia. Got a good ride with them, over the Golden Gate and out to Alpine Dam.

Also have started mountain biking again. Just to mix it up and get some dirt time before cross season. Good times.

Mt Hamilton Classic + CAAD10

2011-05-31T21:06:00.001-07:00

Mt Hamilton Classic Road Race. First race on my new Cannondale CAAD10.

What a SOB of a race.

My goal was to make it over Hamilton with some sort of a lead group. Figured I, at all costs, needed to be in the main group for the remaining 40 miles or it's Good Game.

Started out with a quality 50 minute warmup. Then we were off up the 20 mile climb that's the front side of Mt Hamilton. 15-20 minutes into the climb, the person in front of me veered into the person next to him. They both went down hard. WTF GUYS. We are climbing at 13 miles an hour. I wish I could send you back to Cat 5.

Group came back together. Everything was going fine until about 40 minutes into the climb. Attacks off the front. Faster pace. Pain. About 50 minutes in, I cracked and fell off the lead group. Most others in the 60 person field already had at that point.

Suffered up the remaining 82 minutes it would take me to climb Hamilton. A number of E4s passed me.

Railed the 5 mile descent on the other side in less then 9 minutes. Almost made top ten on Strava for the segment.

Suffered for a good 15 miles or so, mostly solo, before being caught by a guy I knew from some other races. We worked together for the remaining 20 miles. Passed a lot of people.

Ended up 23rd out of 60.

As for the CAAD, it's pretty spectacular. 15.2 lbs with race wheels. Super stiff bottom bracket. Super stiff front end. Begs to be ridden in anger.

Speaking of weight, I'm down to 150lbs at 6'1". Race weight for sure. Just need a little better form.

2011 Cat's Hill Classic

2011-05-16T10:13:00.000-07:00

Cat's Hill Classic. AKA; someone put a 23% grade in my crit!

First few laps hurt.

Middle laps, pace slowed up a bit. Made the mistake of just sitting in the pack and not worrying about positioning myself.

Last few laps, paced, predictably, ratcheted up a few notches. Had trouble moving up. Sprint finish. Ended up mid pack, not contesting anything.

I can't go into hotly contested crits like this with the goal of not getting dropped and expect to place. Need to be more aggressive then that. Need to put more on the line.

Fun course, glad I got up this morning and raced it.

http://app.strava.com/rides/564153

Quick note on the status of my road bicycles:
- 2011 Scott Addict R1: cracked FD mount. Frame is going in for warranty.
- 2009 Ridley Damocles: BB is coming apart. The aluminum part that the BB cups screw into is coming apart from the carbon BB area. Result: sloppy cranks. Trying to figure out the warranty situation.
- 2011 Cannandale CAAD10 4: ordered. Will replace my Ridley as my backup/crit/rain bike.

2011 Devil Mountain Double

2011-05-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

First double century for me. First time on a bike for over eight hours in one day. First time riding any of the roads on the route.

Started at 5am. First ~90 miles, I rode with AV teammate Chris Evans. He set a strong pace and did most of the pulling. Was awesome for the windy sections. We were with the first couple riders over Diablo (240w, 1hr 7min). Dawn while climbing was spectacular.

Was nice to be in front of everyone as the sags were fully stocked and service was super quick.

Lunch I had to let Chris go, he is a good bit stronger then me and my stomach wasn't doing well. On the way out to Hamilton, was passed by a few 6am people, couldn't hold either one on the rollers though. Motored up Hamilton by myself at a nice reasonable 200w.

Mile 140, coming down the other side, I started to bonk. Feet, shoulders, neck hurt. Chapped lips. Headache. Stomach issues. Hadn't seen any other DMD riders in almost 2 hours. Was thinking there was no way I could finish when a Davis rider caught up to me. I held his wheel until the mile 150 sag.

The mile 150 sag at the house was fantastic. I sat on the cool cement in the garage, drank a mountain dew and slowly ate a bunch of food. In 23 min, I was almost 100% rejuvenated.

Cruising through San Jose, almost had a big issue. Picked up a screw in my rear tire. It pierced into one side and out the other, through the top part of the tire. But, somehow, didn't puncture the protective belt. No flat. I'd say that used up whatever good karam I had.

Motored up Sierra with no problem. 36:30, 210w. Felt fantastic.

Got to the pet the goat stop at a little before six PM. Wanted to get back before dark so I skipped picking up my lights, got aero and put down some power. The road along Calaveras Resevoir was an absolute blast. So was hauling down Palomares.

Only problem I had for the last 60 miles were super chapped lips and occasional hot spots in my feet that would come and go. They weren't bad though and didn't slow me down, more of a minor annoyance.

Finished in 14 hours, 13 minutes. Ride time was 13:20 with 53 minutes stopped.

GPS:
http://app.strava.com/rides/496493

Copperopolis Road Race

2011-04-25T11:54:00.000-07:00

Copperopolis RR. E4. Woke up a 4am. Drank coffee. Drove two hours out to the race start.

This is a storied NorCal road race. Rough patched pavement, pot holes, flat road with wind and a bit of climbing.

Strava: http://app.strava.com/rides/464493

First lap, had no problem hanging with the group on the main climb. Half way through the lap though, cut my rear tire and flatted. Fortunately, I had decided to run my clincher training wheels rather then my tubulars. Fixed it and rode the rest of the race mostly solo. 3 laps, 64 miles.

(photo by Allan Armstrong)

Guess I should have opted for GP4000s over the lighter Conti Force rear tire. When I was riding with the pack, was forced to blast through a lot of potholes, broken asphalt and shit like that. Guess you can't really do much other then follow the person in front of you.

At least it was a nice day and a good training effort. That and I wasn't DFL out of the people that actually finished. Lot of DNPs. Ended up 30/46.

In other news, my new race transportation worked out well:

Mazda MX-5 w/ Hard Dog hitch and Kuat Sherpa bike rack.

2011 Chico Stage Race

2011-04-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

2011 Chico Stage Race was an awesome weekend of racing. Perfect weather. Had a nice solid little Elite 4 group of 28.

Stage 1, Saturday, Paskenta Road Race:
http://app.strava.com/rides/436821
45 miles. First 20 were pretty calm and flat. Then came some good rollers. Then 4 miles of nasty gravel on a rolling road which blew the pack apart. This was not hard packed dirt. Rear wheel was all over the place. Then another few miles with more rollers. Hooked up with another guy for the last section. Worked together to minimize our losses. Ended up 13th out of 28.

Stage 2, Sunday, Steve Harrison Downtown Crit:
http://app.strava.com/rides/442530
Really fun course. Each lap was 6 turns in 0.6 miles. Stayed up near the front for a good portion of the race. Went for two primes. Had the legs for it but couldn't position myself correctly. It's all good though. Had some family and friends out, since I grew up in the area, and they enjoyed it. Didn't contest the finish. Got Same Time.

Stage 3, Sunday, Aguas Frias Time Trial:
http://app.strava.com/rides/442527
This sucked. I'd never done a non-hill climb TT before. For all the times I've killed myself on the local climbs, my body wasn't at all used to putting out threshold effort in an aero position for this long. Arms hurt and by the end, I could tell I was using some different muscles then usual. Good headwind on the way out, tailwind on the way back.

On top of this, I started out the TT very poorly. Slipped clipping in and smacked my shin with the pedal. Hard. Good job noob. Very helpfully, my wife captured a photo of it. Guess what word I'm saying!

Needless to say, I lost a ton of time on GC with the TT. Dropped me from 13th to 20th out of 28.

Take away: buy aero gear and practice with it. Learn how to use clipless pedals.

Bariani Road Race

2011-03-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

Last Sunday I did the Bariani Road Race, E4, over by Woodland, CA. Oh dear God, it hurt. Flat, fast, exposed, one little climb and one stretch of really bad pavement. The wind was absolutely wicked the entire time.

Five 10 mile laps.

First lap started off super fast. Back stretch of the course had super crosswind going on and I had to turn myself inside out to barely hang on.

Second lap was much easier but by this point, we had apparently lost about 1/3 of the pack.

Third lap was a little faster until the last mile. There was a break away and the pace was back on.

Starting the fourth lap, there split and I couldn't bridge up. Worked with some guys to try and get back on. Had the peloton in our sights for most of the lap but couldn't make it happen.

Fifth lap, I went ahead alone. Rode most of it solo.

Finished 29th out of 61. 30 people DNF'ed.

Good training race for me. I put in a huge effort. Need to work on better pack positioning so I can do less work though. I think that's what doomed me.

Bonny Doon loop - DMD 2011 training

2011-03-06T08:23:00.000-08:00

Took Friday off work and put in a big training ride with teammate Chis Evens and coworker Chris O'Keefe. Trying to get ready for Devil Mountain Double (DMD). We did a loop out to Bonny Doon and back for 108 miles and almost 10,000 ft of climbing. DMD is something like 200 miles with 20k ft of climbing. Ouch.

http://app.strava.com/rides/330939

Bike fit and fitness feel good but I'm still going to need to build up a little endurance before DMD.

Central Coast Circuit Race #2 & Early Bird Crit #5

2011-02-16T20:28:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday, Kristen and I went down to Fort Ord near Monterey and I raced the second Central Coast Circuit Race (CCCX) of the year.

E5. Ended up 7th out of 35.

Five, 4.3 mile laps on a closed course. Nice little 200ft climb on each lap really got me anaerobic and split up the pack. Then, a very fun 40mph descent into two turns before a short climb to the start/finish line.

GPS: http://app.strava.com/rides/301590

Oh and my new Scott Addict R1 was fantastic. Loving it.

Sunday, I hit up the last Early Bird crit. Number 5 (though only the 3rd for me).

It was way sketchy. Two guys next to me crashed during the clinic before the race. No crashes during the actual race, but a few close calls. Last lap, things got real dicey so I dropped to the back and gave myself some room.

Finished with the pack and ended up 25 out of 45.

http://app.strava.com/rides/303682

That gave me enough points to upgrade to 4 but I'm already registered as a 5 for Snelling Road Race in a few weeks, so I'm going to hold off on upgrading.

2011 Scott Addict R1

2011-02-13T22:18:00.000-08:00

Took delivery of my new road bike on Jan 19th.

2011 Scott Addict R1 (gray, matte) - 870g w/ hanger
Addict R1 fork - 318g (uncut)

Build list:
SRAM Red group (compact crank)
Selle Italia Flite Kit Carbonio saddle
3T Rotundo Team carbon bars
3T Dorico LTD carbon seatpost
3T AXR Pro stem
Look Ti Blade pedals
KCNC Ti QR Skewers
Arundel Mandible carbon bottle cages

Training wheels: (15.6 lbs)
DT Swiss 240s/Mavic Open Pro front wheel
PowerTap PRO+/Mavic Open Pro rear wheel
Michelin Pro3 Race tires
Michelin latex tubes
Shimano 105 12-27

Race wheels: (13.9 lbs)
2010 Reynolds Assault Tubulars
Vittoria Evo Corsa CX tires
SRAM OG-1090 (Red) 11-25

And I love it. Over a pound lighter then my Ridley Damocles frame set, more aggressive geometry and stiffer. Also descends more confidently. Probably a mix of stiffer, lower center of gravity and better weight distribution.

Damocles was a little more comfortable though.

2011 Early Bird Crit #3

2011-01-26T14:49:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday's Early Bird was great. I had to do a lot more work then the previous one. Rode safe, took a few pulls and had to bridge up a couple of times. Saw lots of people that got shelled jumping back in. (Allowed since it's a training race).

Three man breakaway that wasn't caught. I finished near the front of the chase group.

GPS: http://app.strava.com/rides/272870

Pre-race clinic was on sprinting. Did a half dozen 100 meter and 200 meter drills. Power meter says I had a 5sec PR. Was over 1000 avg watts.

2011 Early Bird Crit #1

2011-01-11T15:14:00.001-08:00

First crit was a lot of fun. Ended up being slower and less sketchy then I was expecting. Think the 45 minute training clinic before hand helped a lot. Didn't really learn anything from it but it was a good refersher. And, after seeing some people's riding skills during the clinic, I'm glad they had it.

During the actual race, I just kept my head up and chilled near the back. Felt good. Might have to put a little more work into positioning next time.

GPS: http://app.strava.com/rides/258097

Guys in orange vests were mentors. They floated around, giving pointers.

Looking forward to doing a few more of these. One and a half points each towards my Cat 4 upgrade. Should be at 6.5 out of 10 right now.

2010 review & 2011 goals

2011-01-09T15:54:00.000-08:00

6,800 miles
460 hours
And no injuries!

Very happy with the year. Got a great mix of road racing, mountain bike racing and cyclocross in.

For 2011 I have three general goals:

One, no injuries.

Two, I'm going to focus more on intensity then miles. I need to be doing the fast PenVelo Tuesday/Thursday rides plus the long and if I'm not racing, the fast Alto Velo rides on the weekends.

Three, upgrade to Cat 4 ASAP and maybe get a few points towards 3.

Oh and for 2011 I've joined Webcor/Alto Velo. Looking forward to my fancy AV kit and racing with the E4 group!

Winter riding in California is rough!

BPSA #5 Cross Race

2010-12-08T09:26:00.000-08:00

Bay Area Super Prestige, race number 5 at Coyote Point Park.

http://app.strava.com/rides/234968

19th out of 60 for Mens, U35, Class C.

Didn't place as well as last week but I sure felt a hundred times better after the race was over. Which, isn't to say I didn't suffer. Just didn't push myself over the line.

Note the sweet kit from the fine folks at Bike198.

Probably doing one more cross race this season. January, I'm planning hitting the local "Early Bird" crits. Need the points for my Cat 4 upgrade.

Did a 20 minute power test yesterday and ended up with a 270 average. Felt fine at the end though and my HR was a little low. Going to try again Friday, shooting for 285. Still a bit off from my September peak of 300, but I guess that's to be expected.

BPSA #4 Cross Race & Misc

2010-11-28T20:52:00.000-08:00

BPSA #4 cross race at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco.

http://app.strava.com/rides/230108

15th out of 60 for Mens, U35, Class C.

I didn't leave much out there and thought my technical skills were fine. Probably didn't pre-hydrate enough though. Bonked a few minutes after the the race and spent a while dry heaving. Whoops!

And here are a few other photos I've taken during recent rides:

Sacramento River.

Rollin.

West OLH.

Kings.

Surf City #1 Cross Race

2010-11-07T08:20:00.000-08:00

Last weekend (2010-10-31, Halloween) I did Surf City CX race #1 in Santa Cruz CA.

http://app.strava.com/rides/212602

8th out of 40 in Mens, class C.

A lap was about two miles with half being flat and half being hilly. Did four laps. Need to work on my technical bike handling skills. Got some ideas from watching the A race.

And, since it was Halloween, there was a costume class race.

BASP #1 Cross Race

2010-10-18T09:05:00.000-07:00

First cross race down!

35 minutes, 6 laps of about 1.2 miles at 177 avg HR. Course was dusty with lots of loose gravel and sharp, shale like rocks. There was a lot of carnage out there but I managed to keep the rubber side down and not flat.

One set of three barriers.
Two run ups.
Two longish straight aways.
Lots of sharp turns.

GPS: http://www.strava.com/rides/204934

Need to work on my remounts!

Portola Low-Key Hill Climb

2010-10-16T15:16:00.000-07:00

Did a 5 mile, 1760 ft hill climb today. Plus, 60 miles of riding to and from the race.

9.3 mph
175 hr
271 watts
30:34
http://www.strava.com/rides/204401#2928979

Probably could have pushed it a little harder at the end and done 280 avg watts/180 avg hr and gotten closer to 30 minutes even. Though, at the end, it was nice to not feel like I was going to throw up.

Few photos of riding to the start:

Racers coming down to the start of the hill climb:

Tomorrow, my first cross race.

UPDATE; photo of me suffering during the TT.

New Cross Bike: '09 Ridley Crossbow

2010-10-08T10:44:00.000-07:00

2009 Ridley Crossbow with SRAM Rival. Looking forward to using it as a commuter bike and to dabble in cyclocross racing.

In fact, did my first practice race last Wednesday:

gps: http://www.strava.com/rides/197850

As per Strava:
Baylands CX Practice Lap, 0.9 miles, 31 ft gain
warmup - 10.4 mph, 00:05:02
lap 1 - 12.6 mph, 00:04:10
lap 2 - 12.9 mph, 00:04:04
lap 3 - 13.2 mph, 00:03:59
lap 4 - 13.2 mph, 00:03:59

Unfortunately my HR monitor freaked out so I don't have those numbers. I'm sure I hit my max a few times. Dismounts and remounts felt fast. Corners, not so much.

Already looking forward to next Wednesday. First real race is in Oakland on the 17th. Also have a hill climb the day before, on the 16th.

Mt Tam Hill Climb and Goals

2010-09-19T09:37:00.000-07:00

I love Strava. Here is a hill climb race I did yesterday morning (Mt Tam) broken down:

http://www.strava.com/rides/185994 (ignore elevation graph, it was foggy and raining. Garmin doesn't like that)

section 1 - flat and fast with the pack.
Stinson to base of BoFax (Tam Course)
* 4.3 mi
* -0.1%
* 00:10:52
* 24.0 mph
* 147 bpm
* 160 watts

section 2 - climb to the top of the ridge
Bolinas-Fairfax f/ Hwy1 to Ridgecrest
* 4.5 mi
* 6.3%
* 00:25:19
* 10.6 mph
* 180 bpm
* 275 watts

section 3 - rolling hills along the top of the ridge
Seven Sisters to Mt Tam Parking Lot
* 3.7 mi
* 2.5% (deceiving)
* 00:15:18
* 14.6 mph
* 176 bpm
* 249 watts

I didn't warm up enough and was really hurting on the first five minutes of the climb (section 2). I need to buy a trainer to use before races. I should have been able to do at least 285 avg watts up that climb.

Ended up 23 out of 46 for 5E.

Goals

Bronchitis killed the middle of my season, so I'm not burnt out yet. Guess I'm going to do the Low-Key hill climbs until Thanksgiving. Take Dec off. Start getting miles in, but not strict base, a week or two into January.

Challenge Challenge RR & FTP Test

2010-09-12T08:35:00.000-07:00

Challenge RR
Saturday, September 04, 2010
Cat 5 - 8th of 15
64 miles and 6,400 ft of climbing

http://www.strava.com/rides/175359

The first long climb after the neutral start, group split up. Seven, four (the group I was in) then some stragglers I think. The four of us worked together on the back, rolling side of the course.

At the second feed zone, guy in front of me went down. Barely missed him. 3rd person went off the front from there, I never saw him again. Down to me and other guy.

Second lap backside, we caught another person and were caught by the guy that went down in the feed zone. Stuck together until the second feedzone when I kicked it up a little and left them.

No problems with cramps or anything. Drank my water, ate my gels, watched my PM and put in a (for me) hard ride.

Highlights: "The road from nowhere"
Probably a road from the 50s that has only seen occasional patching even though it gets snow and ice in the winter. It was all potholes. I'm not exaggerating. Descending that thing, was bouncing around so much it made my eyes hurt.

Climb up from the backside of the course. Much of it was exposed and it was hotter then hell.

Took most of the last week easy, after Challenge road race. Did an FTP test yesterday morning.

300 watts for 20 minutes. I'm at 70kg so that's 4.3 right now. Very happy with this. My previous FTP test on the same road got me 275 at 71kg so that's a huge gain.

http://www.strava.com/rides/181108

Compare this to my Nov benchmark where my power was 212/71=3
2009/11/power-benchmark

Winters Road Race

2010-08-28T21:40:00.000-07:00

49 miles in 2:14.

So, today I learned that despite my efforts thus far, I'm not a climber. :saddowns:

Got dropped off the lead group on the climb on the second lap. Around mile 38 on the above graph. My powertap tap says there wasn't much I could do about it. 281 avg power for the 12 minutes it took me to climb it. That's the best I've done for the time period.

Ended up 18th out of 45.

(last)

(4th)

(2nd)

Strava:
http://www.strava.com/rides/169673

San Ardo Road Race

2010-08-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

Cat 5. 46 miles at 21.7 mph.

http://www.strava.com/rides/162806

(840)

Stayed up near or at the front most of this race. Focused on being comfortable, calm and efficient. No physical or mechanical issues this time. Ended up 7th out of 33.

Oh, and I like this power graph of the last few miles:

Dunnigan Hills Road Race

2010-08-17T19:46:00.001-07:00

Cat 5 (first road bike race)
42 miles at 23mph avg.

http://www.strava.com/rides/158291

Cat 5 wasn't what I expected. It was a smoother and more predictable group then most fast group rides that I've done. Wasn't really all that fast either. Except for a few brave souls going off the front near the beginning, the whole class pretty much stuck together and put down a consistent pace. I was never at red line. Though, on the flip side, the finish did sneak up on me and I never even tried to get into position for the sprint. Results had me finishing 21st of 50.

Playing on my phone before the start.

Had a few mechanical type issues that I need to address ASAP:
1) lost a water bottle out of my seat tube cage on the first rough bit of road. Way annoying and dangerous. New cages incoming.
2) For some reason, my Garmin wasn't picking up my PowerTap. I think when I turned it on, it grabbed someone else PM. Not that I had time to look at my power during the race but I would very much like to go over it now.
3) Saddle got uncomfortable after an hour. Odd because I've done many hours at a time on it without problem. I guess it was the rough road. That and I'm using to standing up and doing more climbing. At least every once in a while. Long flat rides are foreign to me. Might swap my Thomson Masterpiece out for a carbon post.

Anyway. Good times. Looking forward to doing more.

Ridley Damocles goes Red

2010-08-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

Went through and did a major overhaul of my road bike. Took over two pounds off her to bring the total down to 16.5 lbs. And that's with a more comfortable saddle.

large Ridley Damocles frame & fork
* Full SRAM Red group (except for a Dura Ace chain)
DT Swiss 240s/Mavic Open Pro front wheel
PowerTap PRO+/Mavic Open Pro rear wheel (heavy!)
* Michelin Pro 3 tires
Maxxis Ultralight tubes
Thomson Masterpiece seatpost
Thomson Elite X2 stem
* Selle Italia Flite Kit Carbonio saddle
* T3 Rotundo Team bars
* Look Blade pedals
* KCNC Ti QR Skewers
RavX Arrow X cages

* = new part

Loving the SRAM Red shifting over the Ultegra 6600. Very snappy. Also moved from 53/39x12-27 to 50/34x11-25. Gives me a bit more range, is lighter and opens up the ability to toss a 11-28 on there for truly epic rides. No problem with the change in ratios.

As an added bonus, I love that all the routing goes under the bar tape. Very clean and way more aero.

And the weight loss has already paid off. Got a new PR on my benchmark climb at almost the same power.

http://www.strava.com/segment_efforts/1882426
Distance: 3.2 mi
Avg Grade: 7.8%
Elevation Gain: 1,300 ft

Previous PR: Mon, Jul 19, 2010 - 268 avg power, time - 22:23
Current PR: Tue, Aug 3, 2010 - 270 avg power, time - 21:41

So, it looks like I cut off 40 seconds by taking off:
3 lbs from my body (6', 158 to 155 lbs)
2 lbs from my bike
1.5 lbs doing it without extra water

Californication

2010-07-26T07:24:00.000-07:00

So yeah, turns out cycling on the San Francisco Peninsula is kick ass. Climbs, descents, rolling roads, flat roads, redwoods, oceans and lots of other cyclists.

Also excited about Strava. It's like Garmin Connect but it parses out notable segments (climbs, sprints, descents, etc) of your ride and gives you stats on them. Also has social networking type features. Ranks you against other users on the given segment.

My account: http://www.strava.com/athletes/6527

A segment: http://www.strava.com/segment_efforts/1657571

The above is the climb, "Old La Honda (front of bridge, to stop sign)". Used as a benchmark by a lot of people around here. My current PR is 22:29. The goal is sub 20.

2010 - The Half Way Point

2010-07-04T14:16:00.000-07:00

Well, I've made it half way through 2010 and things have gone differently then planned.

I've put in a very healthy number of road miles since my last update. Typically been doing the Lifetime Fitness ride, Reality ride and Roswell ride during the week and then at least one bigger ride on the weekend. My power output/fitness is definitely improving. I've seen gains in the 5 second to 5 minute range and my recovery speed seems to be going down.

I think this is a pretty cool graph:

Couple of the above dips were mountain bike races or sickness.

Speaking of mountain bike races, they haven't really worked out the last few months. Either work or weather has been getting in the way. A little disappointing.

Though, the real big news is that I'm moving from Georgia. Will be living in the Bay Area (Redwood City, CA) by the end of the week. Have some road races lined up:

2010 California Cup

Low-Key Hillclimbs

Goodbye Georgia.

2010 Yargo 6hr race

2010-05-06T09:48:00.000-07:00

Got in from California late Friday night. Pulled all my stuff together and got five hours of sleep. Was initially shooting for 5 laps but bumped that up 6 after my first two laps. Crashed half way through my third lap. Bit of "road" rash on my arm and a huge bruise on my right calf. That took a lot out of me. Ended up with 5 laps in 5:11. Last season I always came in middle of Sport class but this gave me 6 of 35 so that was cool.

(Photo Daniel Topley)

Had done a ton of road ride the last two weeks while I was in California but my legs felt fine. For sure was more slowed down by my lack of mountain bicycle skills then anything else. Lots of people rode away from me in the twisty sections, only to get caught on the next climb. Tried to push any distractions out of my mind and focus on reading the trail. Felt I was riding better by the last lap, even if I was slower overall.

Also reaffirmed that I shouldn't eat solid food during races. It doesn't mess up my stomach but it does make me supper tired. I hate the way gels taste but I'm going to stick to only those from now on.

GPS: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31890469

2010 Chico Wildflower Century

2010-04-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

Did the Chico Wildflower Century while out in California, visiting my parents. Huge ride, awesome weather, excellent food and support. Lots of fun.

As you can see from the above profile, there were three major climbs and then about 30 miles of flatness.

In addition to the century, they offered a few shorter routes including 64 mile, 30 mile and 15 mile. Total, there was over 4,000 people registered. Since there were so many riders, there was no mass start. They just asked that you got onto the route starting from 6am to 8am and finished by 5pm. I rolled out about 7:30.

This worried me since I didn't really feel like doing the whole thing solo. Ended up doing most of the climbing solo and drafting people on the flatter sections between the main climbs. On the 30 miles of flatness at the end, I got into a fast group that ran a double pace line most of the way. Cruising along at 24 mph or so. It hurt but I made up a lot of time.

Took about 5:30 to finish.

GPS: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/31270861

Set a 20 minute power PR (ie; critical power or functional threshold power) on the second climb. Moved up my best from 220 avg watts to 255 avg watts. Huge increase considering I then went on to ride hard for over three more hours. A little curious what I can do with a full rest week followed by a dedicated power test.

Cruising up the first climb.

Second climb. Spent a lot of time passing people that were doing the 64 mile route (they skipped the first and third climbs) and people that started the route earlier then I did.

Me on the second climb with my fancy new Reality Bikes kit. Can see some blue wildflowers along the road, in the background.

Between the second and third climbs.

A look behind me as I was ascending the 3rd climb.

These raspberry bars at the SAG on top of the 3rd climb were probably one of the better things I've ever tasted.

Rolling along the top of the 3rd climb (Table Mountain).

On the way down from the last climb, I hooked up with a fast group for the last 30 miles of flatness, pain and suffering.

Post ride beers and pizza at Sierra Nevada with my father.

More photos here:
http://milliron.org/photo/20100425_wildflower/

Tour of the Ouachita Challenge

2010-03-29T16:36:00.000-07:00

Did the Ouachita Challenge out of Oden, Arkansas a few days ago. Took me a little over seven hours to do the almost 70 mile course. Lots of fun single track and fast service roads. Good change of scenery from north Georgia.

No bicycle issues. No nutrition or pacing issues. I mean, I could have pushed it slightly harder, but that's all right.

GPS: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/28314957

Mass start. Registration was capped at 300 people. Seemed like about that many were there.

Service road climb.

I think my mountain bicycle is hot and I take a lot of photos of it.

A single track climb.

I may have pushed my bike up that.

Bio break.

The colored zip ties. One for each of the five checkpoints.

I have mud on my face.

Ride to the Georgia Capitol

2010-03-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

Went big today. Over 6 hours on the road bike. 87 miles, 6000 ft of elevation gain. Rode from Reality Bikes in Cumming, GA to the state capitol in Atlanta, GA for the 2010 Georgia Rides to the Capitol event. Then back.

Power profile is kind of cool.

0-80 minutes is from Reality Bikes to Roswell City Hall. Had to kill it due to starting late.
80-190 was the ride form City Hall to the Capitol.
220-320 ride back to the City Hall. Much harder then the way down seemed to drop a lot of people.
320-370 ride to lunch on Windward parkway. That Greek place by Mellow mushroom.
410-460 back to the shop.

Good day on the bike.

Most of the group leaving from Roswell. Probably about 1/10th the number of people that ended up at the capitol.

Street in front of the capitol.

My hotness.

Not so hotness.

Capitol.

Me trying to do as little work as possible.

2010 Snake Creek Gap TT #3

2010-03-08T15:36:00.000-08:00

Blah. Perfect weather. Good trail conditions. Didn't make the time I was shooting for though.

January time trial, I road fairly conservatively and it took me 5:34. I wanted sub four for March. Took me 4:40. Had a bunch of little issues, mostly related to not having my bike properly tested and dialed in. Then, I lost a lot of motivation when I saw I had fallen well off the sub 4 target and slowed even further.

Oh well, it was still a good ride and I learned a lot. Mainly need to get my new Maxxis Aspen tires dialed in. Was having issues with tubeless so I tossed tubes in them. Then, I overinflated them a bit, to insure I didn't pinch flat. During the race, they processed to beat me up pretty bad. About 20 miles in, I let a bunch of air out. The bike came alive and I picked up steam again! Several miles later, I pinched the rear. That took a lot out of me.

GPS Track: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/26266368

Time: 04:41:52
Distance: 31.70 mi
Elevation Gain: 6,219 ft

In other news, I vacationed in Savannah with my wife, the previous weekend. Got my hungover ass out to an 8am roadie ride. Riding out where it's all flat is actually kind of hard. The pace was always on. I mean sure, climbing hurts, but at least you get to rest on the descent!

GPS Track: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/25646663

Time: 02:28:42
Distance: 44.97 mi

Winter Fitness

2010-02-08T05:40:00.000-08:00

Been a really wet winter here. Puts a damper on mountain biking and road riding. Haven't gotten the riding I wanted in.

I came up with the bright idea of exercising every single day and making a log of it. Some days will be epic rides and races, others recover days and the rest, something in between. Been doing mountain biking, cycling, riding inside on the rollers, CrossFit (strength and conditioning) and a little running. Lots of options makes it easy to work around my schedule, mood and the weather.

This is what I've got so far:

Here is my roller setup:

Chill inside and watch entertainment on the big plasma display. TV doesn't work too well with the noise from the rollers, bike and fan so I've been watching Blu-Ray movies with subtitles. Go Netflix.

Been having fun doing a lot of strength and conditioning work at the CF affiliate CrossFit North Fulton. Even got the wife coming with me and doing it. It's a fun way to suffer with others.

Hit a big CrossFit milestone last month and got my first muscle up:

As for running? I've got a 2 mile loop around my subdivision with a little over 300 ft of climbing. Usually do it twice for a nice easy 4 miles in 40 minutes. I can run a lot faster then that but it's hard for me to push it when I'm by myself.

Broken Lynskey Ridgeline

2010-01-30T11:45:00.000-08:00

Was Just Riding Along night before last and *POP*. My frame cracked.

Bummer! Fortunately Lynskey has been very responsive in getting this resolved. Any frame can break so it's good knowing they stand behind their warranty.

Really haven't been having very good luck with bicycles. I managed to do this to my road bike while on a solo ride, five days ago:

Went to go around a stick that was laying in the road. Barely clipped it which flipped the damn thing up and into my drive train. Fortunately Reality Bikes was able to swap the hanger and get me a new rear derailleur in short order.

2010 Snake Creek Gap TT #1

2010-01-05T07:11:00.000-08:00

Rode the 34 mile (it's really 32) Snake Creek Gap Time Trial this last Saturday. Note; I said rode, not raced! Very, very cold out. Started at 19f and stayed in the low 20s for the majority of the race. Legs never warmed up. Feet where frozen numb. I took it easy. Stopped a number of times to mess around with those chemical foot warmer packs. Never warmed up my shoes enough to thaw out my toes.

Crashed once. My bicycle stopped moving, specifically the front wheel, while I kept going. Over the handle bars. Hit the ground and rolled. Fortunately, no damage to the body or the bicycle.

Time ended up being 5:34. Avg HR was 147. Compare to the 3rd TT in March of last year when the conditions and weather where perfect and I really tried hard. 4:14, 165 avg HR. But yeah, I guess 5:34 is fine for January. I really just wanted to get the miles in.

Also put in a solid 2hr road ride the previous day and an easy 2hr on the rollers the following day. Nine hours of riding over the weekend.

2009 review, 2010 goals

2010-01-04T07:11:00.000-08:00

A few days late. My goals from 2009:

- Snake Creek Gap 6 Mountain Time Trials. At least one of the three TTs.
Success; did two.
- Georgia State Championship series. Series of eight cross country races.
Success; did three. Would have done more except for work and being injured.
- Fool's Gold. Going to do the 50 again but this time, single speed.
Success; did this SS on a preride. Didn't do the actual race as I was injured.
- Black Bear Rampage. Missed it in 2008.
Fail; injured.
- Six Gap Century. Road bike century with some great climbing. Have a score to settle with Wolf Pen Gap.
Fail; was still recovering from my injury. However, I did two other centuries.
- A few 6 and maybe 12 hour endurance races that fit into the schedule and sound fun.
Success; did Yargo and Unicoi.
- in the fall? Georgia Cross Series?
Fail; nope.

2010 goals:
- Not get injured.
- 4hr or less on the 34 mile Snake Creek Gap Time Trial.
- Hit all the endurance and XC mountain bike races I can. Probably putting an emphasis on endurance this year, the XC races (specifically GSC) didn't seem to well attended last year. Bigger races are fun.
- Move up to doing the Reality Wednesday night A group ride.
- Start doing the Tuesday night Crit training ride over in Marietta.
- Do at least one road race or crit.
- Do Six Gaps Century.
- Cyclocross!

Asheville Boxing Day Ramble

2009-12-28T07:26:00.000-08:00

Found myself up in Asheville on Saturday. Got a nice 41 mile ride in. Snow all over the place but the roads where mostly clear. No issues with ice!

GPS & data: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/21054349

Whole Parkway was closed to cars, but about 10 miles of it was clear and ridable. Wanted to do the Town Mountain loop but the climb up there was closed down. Maybe next time!

And the end of the road:

Was my first time in Asheville. Glad the weather cooperated because a few hours on the road bike turned out to be a good way to see the town.

New Powertab Pro+ Wheelset

2009-12-20T14:27:00.000-08:00

Reality Bikes built me up a sweet new rear wheel. PowerTap Pro+ hub, DT Comp spokes and 28h Mavic Open Pro rim. Skipped the PowerTap head unit and am using it when my Garmin Edge 705. Too cheap to spend $130 for TrainingPeaks WKO+ so I'm using Golden Cheetah for analysis on the computer. Seems to work real well for me.

Found a decent place to do a 20 min TT (Campground Rd) that's within riding distance of my house. For around here, it's fairly flat and straight. Unfortunately, has one 4-way stop that I have to slow down for.

213 avg watts. Guess that's a decent baseline. I was a little hungover and probably didn't warm up enough. Should be easy to beat.

And while we are at it, here are a few other recent roadie photos.

Looking forward to doing Snake Creek Gap Time Trial #1 on January 2nd. Shooting for 5hr, plus or minus a little, depending on the weather. Treating it more as a group ride. Last year I did the January TT in 5 hr 29 min.

The March TT, which is the 3rd in the series, will be a different story. Last year I did it in 4 hr 14 min. I'd really like to do it in 4hr or less.

California Trip

2009-11-30T18:20:00.000-08:00

Just got back from northern California, visiting family for the Thanksgiving week. Hopefully I managed to work off everything I gained from all the great food and beer!

Main event was a 56 mile road ride on my rented Specialized Allez. From Chico, I went up to Paradise via Honey Run road, through Paradise, down to Durham via Pentz rd, over to the community of Dalton and then back through Chico to my starting location. Got a some good climbing and descending in as well as some windy flatland riding. The flat stuff was a big change of pace for me. Riding 20 miles of almost perfectly flat road where you could really put out a consistent effort was new. Everything is rolling hills where I live in Georgia.

GPS track is here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/19513850

Other big event was a Thanksgiving morning 5k (Run for Food). I'm not much of a runner and dispite not being in anything near peak fitness, managed to get a 5k PR. No doubt, this was due to my brother pushing the pace, he was trying to beat me.

distance 3.05 miles, time 23:14, pace 7:36, avg HR 181
GPS track is here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/19642606

Also did a second 4 mile run, another ~70 miles of casual cycling and a yoga class.

Some riding pics:

My rented Specialized.

Honey Run Covered Bridge, at the base of Honey Run Road.

Honey Run road. A nice climb with lots of reading to do along the way.

Back in the valley, here is some of the agriculture that sheltered me from the wind.

My Father's sweet Motobécane that I rescued from a corner of the garage.

Quiet Chico streets. Perfect for cycling.

Post 5k. This was also the first 5k where Kristen ran the entire thing.

And here is some of the fun stuff:

Coffee and apple strudel at the Upper Crust Bakery.

Beer at Sierra Nevada Brewery.

Wine at New Clairvaux Vineyard.

Power Benchmark

2009-11-19T18:22:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to The Sport Factory and did some power testing. My bike, their PowerTap wheel, a trainer and a guy yelling at me to dig deeper. Did the test during one of their spin classes. Riding with other people helped keep me motivated. Warmed up for quite a while then did a 20 min time trial.

Stats for the TT:
Weight - 157lbs
Avg HR - 183
Avg Power - 211
Avg Cad - 91
Power/Weight - 2.96

Hope to do another benchmark in a few months. Looking forward to improving on that power to weight ratio.

Spin for Kids Century

2009-10-29T04:59:00.000-07:00

Knocked out the Spin for Kids Century last Sunday.

Time: 06:12:25
Distance: 101.27 mi
Elevation Gain: 4,679 ft
Calories: 5,762 C
Avg Speed: 16.3 mph
Avg HR: 145 bpm
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/17092369

Excellent fall weather. Maybe slightly on the cooler side, I think we started in the high 50s. Worked its way up to the high 60s by the end of the ride. Not a big field since the ride had a suggested donation of $100. Less then 100 people for the century. However, a team from Atlanta was there, Pacesetter Steel, and they did a pretty good job of keeping a group together with a nice easy off season pace.

Did one thing before the century that you should *never* do before a big ride. Went in and had Eric at Reality make some fairly major tweaks to my bike fit. Fortunately that gamble paid off and I was 100% comfortable through the entire ride.

The route had both its good and not so good points. It was completely scenic and had just enough climbing to keep you awake. Rolling through historic Rutledge and Madison, Georgia where the highlights. A lot of old school Southern Charm. Sags and volunteers where also fantastic. Unfortunately, to make it easier on them, there was a bit of re-riding the same ground. I don't really like that on such a long ride. A minor complaint overall.

And now I'm working through the pig flu. Didn't even get a chance to get a recovery ride in!

Dirty Spokes Unicoi Endurance Race

2009-10-12T10:03:00.000-07:00

Did the Dirty Spokes Unicoi endurance mountain bike race on Saturday. Ran my single speed in the six hour solo division. Finished 5, 8 mile laps in just about 5 hours and 14 min. Each lap had around 1,200 ft climbing. Came in 6th out of 11 in the single speed class.

Felt decent enough the first 3 laps. Thought I was putting down a reasonable pace. My legs quickly lost power on the forth lap. Didn't feel bad or anything, just no energy. Hit some sports beans and did better on my 5th lap. 32x20 might have been too hard of a gear for me to push up all those climbs with my current level of fitness.

Rode with or within a few minutes of Dave Muse most of the time. Just like Yargo. Saw a lot of other people in passing. Cody from Addictive Cycles was nice enough to let me toss my water and food in the Addictive Cycles neutral support pavilion.

Back felt good the whole time. Did lots of stretching before the race and a minute or two between each lap. Seemed to work out well.

Pretty light showing since it had rained a bit the previous few days and the weather report indicated there would be more. Ended up being nice though. Pleasant cool weather and very little mud. Nice and tacky conditions.

Next up, Spin for Kids Century. And then Swank 65 mountain bike race up in Pisgah.

2009 Ridley Damocles

2009-10-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

Broke down and bought a fancy new road bike a little over a week ago. 2009 Ridley Damocles frame and fork, season end sale. Wanted something lighter and more aggressive. Guess I've been watching too much pro cycling on TV.

(Don't worry, I'll get the steer tube cut soon. Been too busy riding!)

I love it. It's light, stiff and comfortable. Over three pounds less then my previous setup. It may all be in my head but it seems to fly up the climbs. My road bike is no longer all dinged up, different colors and heavier then my rigid single speed 29er mountain bike.

The quest to recover fitness from two months of drinking beer, playing Warcraft and letting my back heal is going well. Been doing PT and ramping up my road riding. In fact, the last week has seen a few milestones. First mountain bike ride in almost three months and I hung with both the Reality Bikes Wednesday ride and Roswell Bikes Thursday ride B groups.

Big Creek
Wed Reality Ride
Thur Bike Roswell

Have two big events coming up this month. October 10th is Dirty Spokes Unicoi mountain bike endurance race. Doing 6 hour solo, single speed. October 25th is the Spin For Kids road century. Raising money to send kids with medical conditions to a local summer camp.

Dirty Spokes Unicoi Endurance Race
Jason Milliron's Spin For Kids Donation Page

Back on the bike

2009-09-05T10:21:00.001-07:00

Officially back on the bike. Well, at least the road bike. Have done two easy rides around the neighborhood plus finished a nice, slow pace, 32 mile ride this morning.

Back is doing good. Physical therapist has me doing a bunch of stretches and exercises every day. Seems to be helping. Had zero discomfort on today's ride.

Also finally broke down and got myself some new shoes and pedals for the road bicycle:

Feel like a real roadie now. Unfortunately, have three more weeks until I'm supposed to start hitting the mountain bike and weights (CrossFit).

Update 9/8/2009:
Finished off the long weekend with a total of 130 road miles. Capped things off with a nice 56 miles, 3k ft ride on Monday. Feeling good.

Broken

2009-07-14T10:45:00.001-07:00

The mountain bike season is at an end for my dumbass.

Jacked up my back last week. Compression fracture in my L2 vertebra. Had locked myself out of the house. Tried to climb up onto the second story deck. Part of the railing broke, I fell back. Fortunately, had my cell on me and I was able to call 911 as I lay in the grass behind my house.

Legs and everything else still work. Wearing a back brace and taking Hydrocodone for the pain. On the positive side, I can do my job from home so I'm not out of work or anything. It's going to be at least another six weeks before I can get on the road bike. Longer for the mountain bike.

fml

GSC #6 - Rock Hawk Effigy and Fool's Gold pre-ride

2009-07-06T08:22:00.000-07:00

Big three day weekend of riding. About 13 hours on the mountain bike.

Firday, pre-rode Fool's Gold course with a great group of folks. We where out there for almost eight hours but our ride time was closer to six hours. Ran it 32x20 on the single speed.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/7933948
Time: 07:06:18 (not including lunch but including a few mechanical issues and stops to regroup)
Distance: 48.05 mi
Elevation Gain: 6,728 ft
Avg Heart Rate: 140 bpm

Photos by Mark D. More here.

Saturday, went down to Rock Hawk Effigy trails in middle Georgia. Got an easy two hour recovery ride in with Kristen. We started off trying to pre-ride the race course but it was way too technical for her. We then cruised around on the road for a while until finding some easier single and double track. Then grilled and camped out by the lake.

Sunday, I raced. Lots of rake and ride. Tight and twisty with a surprising amount of climbing. Then a number of long straight and fast sections. It was all pretty brutal on a SS.

I felt great and had a solid, consistent race. Even felt good in the tight sections. Still placed the same in relation to everyone else in the SS class but it was a little closer this time!

Two laps on the single speed.
First - 00:57:11
Second - 01:00:12

Total
Time: 01:57:24
Distance: 18.12 mi
Elevation Gain: 1,944 ft
Avg Speed: 9.3 mph
Avg Heart Rate: 165 bpm

GSC #5 - Dauset

2009-06-22T06:25:00.000-07:00

Good God, yesterday was a hot one down in central Georgia. 95 degree Fahrenheit plus a stupid amount of humidity. Felt like it was way over 100.

Two laps on the single speed.
First - 00:54:48
Second - 01:00:10
Total:
01:54:59
18.17 mi
1,582 ft
9.5 mph (avg)
172 bpm (avg)

GPS: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/7400686

As you can see from the elevation profile, lots of sharp little climbs and descents.

Legs felt great.

Heat didn't hurt me that bad. No cramps, no bonk.

Damn roots where bad though. Fingers where killing me part way through the second lap. Need to check my fork, switch out my gloves and switch out my grips. For the grips, I'm mainly thinking of swapping my ESI chunkies for Ergon grips. Again. I hate the way the Ergons look but they are oh so comfortable.

Oh and I need to get some technical riding skills. I've been spending too much time on the roadie.

More photos here:
http://milliron.org/photo/20090621_gsc_dauset/

St John, USVI Vacation

2009-06-14T11:10:00.001-07:00

Just got back from a week of hiking and snorkeling at the island of St John (USVI). An absolutely beautiful place. The island is about 75% National Park and no big cruise ships dock there. Gives the place a good vibe.

Was there with my wife, her parents, her sister and her sister's husband. Here are some photos of the villa we rented:

Kristen and I at the pool. It overlooked Reef Bay, on the south side of the island.

Villa from the driveway. Three buildings, two had two bedrooms each and the third, the living room and kitchen.

The pool, covered area and kitchen/living room building. Solar panel for hot water heater. Drains from the roof go to a filtration system. The rain water is then stored under the house for all household use. I drank it the whole week without issue.

Living area.

Pool during one of the frequent rains. I loved it. Warm and brief, as you would expect from a tropical island.

Snacks while chilling in the pool! Rum and OJ was my default drink for the trip. The rum is ridiculously cheap down there.

And, the view from the master bedroom.

One of the hikes we did from the villa:

5.20 miles with about 1,000 ft elevation gain. That's walking down to the beach, along Reef Bay for a while, up to the sugar mill, up to the petroglyphs, over to the Great House then back to the villa. GPS on Garmin Connect. Here are some photos:

Reef Bay. South side of the island and quite rocky.

Crab dude on the side of the trail. These guys were every where.

Detail from the sugar mill ruins.

Bats inside the sugar mill. Was startled when I hear something, looked up and saw them all chilling above me.

Petroglyphs are at the bottom right. Click here for a closeup.

Climbed up to the top of the waterfall. This is looking back down.

Jungle path.

Bit of a hike up to the Great House ruins but the view was rewarding.

Here is another hike I did.

6.25 miles, over 1,300 feet elevation gain. Solo hike from the villa, across the island to Cinnamon bay. GPS data at Garmin Connect. Here are some photos from this hike.

Most of the path was an old Jeep trail that was pretty well overgrown.

Some water that crossed the trail.

A grave at one of the ruins that the trail passed.

Inside more ruins.

This spider was a lot larger then the photo suggests. I'm sure of it!

Cinnamon Bay.

Also did two other hikes and went snorkeling three times. Best snorkeling was around Waterlemon Cay. Saw four sea turtles, a huge and very full grown barracuda and a ton of other colorful stuff. Maho Bay was also pretty good, saw two stingrays. Cinnamon bay was very nice but didn't see anything there except colorful fish.

Me with Waterlemon Cay in the background.

A small barracuda as seen from the shore on Waterlemon Bay.

And a bunch of other misc photos:

Donkeys at Waterlemon.

A local beer. It was very good!

Maho Bay.

My badass Chrome messenger bag + snorkeling gear.

More ruins.

Taxi in the rain.

Cruz Bay.

Coral Bay.

And, goodnight.

More photos here

Bull Mountain Solo Ride

2009-05-25T06:31:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, I headed up to Bull Mountain for an afternoon solo ride. Perfect spring weather.

Little over 20 miles. Lots of stops to take photos. Still got a good workout though, was mashing 32x18 on the single speed. Not exactly a mountain gear!

Supplies

My mountain bicycle, ready to rock and roll.

Beautiful. Only saw four people the whole time I was out there.

The start of the actual Bull Mountain trail, if you're going CW.

Old truck at the top of the mountain.

Bling

I didn't make it all the way up that.

Some hand held slower shutter speed action.

Chilling by the creek.

GPS for the ride:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/5812733

In other news, built me up a fancy new computer. My old one was mostly from late 2005 and was getting to be a real dog.

CPU; Intel Core i7 920
Board; GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD4P
RAM; G.SKILL 6GB (3 x 2GB) DDR3
Video; EVGA GeForce GTX 285 SC Edition 1GB
Storage; Intel X25-M 80GB SSD
Storage; 2x WD 1TB 7200 RPM
Storage; LG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner
Case; SILVERSTONE FT01-BW
Power; CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W

Loaded up the 64 bit version of the Windows 7 Release Candidate. Actually been a very good experience. No issues and everything is extremely snappy. Surprising for being pre-release Microsoft software.

Love playing games (CoD 5, Fallout 3, etc) at native res with all video options maxed out while still logged into work in the background.

Georgia Single Speed Championship

2009-05-18T13:38:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, the weather report for the weekend forecasted lots of rain. Both my brakes where barely functioning and needed to be bled. My bottom bracket, clicking. Aftermath from racing in the mud at Yargo a few weeks back. Racing in the mud is not a lot of fun.

Fortunately was able to get my bike all fixed up (thanks Shawn!) and decided, at the last minute, to head up Saturday night and camp. There was already a bunch of folks up there and a few free kegs of Terrapin beer. I figured at the worst, I'd have a good time hanging out and could bail on the race if it was raining before the start.

Scott Hodge lit his chain on fire. That is a cool party trick.

Fortunately, the rain held off for the race.

Race was four laps of about 5.70 miles (according to my GPS). About a mile of the course was open field without a whole lot of elevation change. The rest, tight, twisting single track. Lots of steep little climbs and drops. The ground was well saturated from all the rain we've gotten the last few weeks. Oh and the roots. Lots and lots of wet, slippery, treacherous, roots. Saw a number of people crash and saw even more on the side of the trail, fixing pinch flats.

Race started with a mass start and a short parade lap.

Lap 1 - 40 minutes 47 seconds - I wasn't very aggressive off the break and found myself near the back as we entered the single track. Took a few minutes for my heart rate to come down and my legs to finish warming up. Then, I started passing people when I could. After a while, ended up behind Matt Smith. He was putting down a good pace so I settled onto his wheel and followed his line.

Lap 2 - 42 minutes 11 seconds - Dropped Matt off at the start of the lap, he had a mechanical issue. Opened the pace up for a while until I caught up with Ursula. She was riding well so I hung onto her wheel for a bit. Embarrassingly enough, she pulled away from me at just about all the real technical spots but I caught back up on the climbs or when the trail opened up.

Lap 3 - 42 minutes 58 seconds - Lap three was exactly the same as lap 2. I just followed Ursula's lead and tried to ride smart.

Lap 4 - 43 minutes 37 seconds - Ursula slowed down a bit so I dropped her off at the start of the lap. I took it easy on the technical spots, was getting fatigued and didn't want to go down to a root or tear open a sidewall. At this point I was running up most of the short and steep climbs, that was faster and easier for me. Also tried to pick up speed in the open areas.

Ended up getting lucky with the attendance in my age category and snagging second place. Got some cool t-shirts, pint glass, carbon handlebars and a few other things. Guess the threat of rain, which hit hard about 10 minutes after I finished, scared a lot of people off.

Total time, 02:49:35
Distance, 22.52 mi
Average speed, 8.0 mph
Average HR, 161
Elevation gain, 2,924 ft

GPS: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/5625028 (minus the parade lap, I didn't think to start the GPS until the first lap)

Go here for more photos and stuff.

Up The Creek Century

2009-05-11T08:48:00.000-07:00

Saturday I completed my first century, Up the Creek Without a Pedal.

As you can see above, the loop started at the north end of Rome, GA. Course had very little traffic on it. Roads where nice and rolling the whole time. No huge climbs but still managed to accumulate over 4,000 ft of elevation gain. Weather was absolutely perfect. Cloudy and in the mid 70s. Few scattered showers. Not enough to soak you but enough to cool you off. SAG stops where great (though I only hit one) and the route was well marked.

Huge thanks chocolate girl, Roger and Greg for showing me the ropes. CG convinced me to go all out and stay with the lead pack. Overall average speed was high 23 mph when my legs where toasted and I dropped out the back, 55 miles in.

From there I sat up and did a nice easy spin to the next rest stop. Stretched, reloaded and jumped in with a group of three North Atlanta Riding Club guys. Had some more opportunities to take photos as I wasn't riding WFO like before.

At mile 85, I caught back up to Roger as he was coming out of a SAG. Jumped in behind him and we finished off the ride.

More photos and stuff:
http://sorba.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=26934

Stats:
Time: 04:49:02
Distance: 99.10 mi
Elevation Gain: 4,064 ft
Avg Speed: 20.6 mph
Avg Heart Rate: 152 bpm

GPS: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/5119831

In other news, my White Industries stuff came in and now I've finally got my Lynskey Ridgeline how I wanted. Took it for a nice recovery paced ride at Blankets Creek on Sunday. Hit all three loops.

She weighs in at just a hair over 23lbs with the following build:

Lynskey Ridgeline (large frame)
Chris King hubs on Flow rims (built by Scott at Addictive Cycles)
Hutchinson Python (tubeless)
Fox F29 (80mm)
Avid Elixir CR (185mm rotors)
White Industries ENO cranks (180mm)
White Industries ti axle BB
White Industries 32t chain ring
Chris King headset
Chris King 18t cog
Thompson seat post and stem
Selle Italia SLR saddle
Crank Brothers Eggbeater SL
Salsa bars
ESI grips
SRAM 850 chain
8mm x 1.25mm x 16mm stainless steel hex bolts for the slider

More info in this thread:
http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=517827

Dirty Spokes at Fort Yargo

2009-05-03T18:09:00.000-07:00

Saturday I completed the 6 hr Dirty Spokes Productions mountain bike race at Fork Yargo State Park. First time I've done one of their races and also my first ride on my fancy new Lynskey Ridgeline frame.

Pre race, showing off my sweet new ride:

(Photo credit Mark D)

My pit crew, setting up:

Map:

My goal was to do 5 laps of the 12 mile course before the 6 hour cutoff. Unfortunately, conditions made that impossible for me.

Lap one, 01:09:56 - took a nice half hour for an easy warm up. Then broke free and started passing people. Caught up to and starting riding with David Muse.

Lap two, 01:07:20 - put down a solid place, on track for five laps!

Lap three, 01:14:56 - Got dropped by David, he is a bit faster on the twisty stuff. Was still putting down a good pace though so I listened to my legs and settled in. Half way through the lap, the they sky opened up and the trail became a river. Absolutely literally. It was riding a mountain bike up stream. Near the end of the lap, someone involuntarily dismounted in front of me and I slammed on my rear brake. Moved the sliding dropout slightly and caused my rear brake to rub

Lap four, 01:27:08 - Took five minutes to have Scott Hodge fix my rear brake while I fueled up for the next lap. Then, I put my head down and hit the mud. It was brutal. Was wearing down until I caught up with David again, two thirds of the way into the lap. That apparently gave him new found energy in addition to giving me something tangible to chase. So, we kicked up the pace a bit and finished together.

Total, four laps in 4 hours, 59 minutes. Ended up being 46.27 miles with about 4,000 ft of climbing on the GPS. Avg speed for the first three laps was 10 mph. The fourth lap dropped the total average speed down to 9.3 mph.

GPS - http://connect.garmin.com/activity/4558538
Laps - http://connect.garmin.com/splits/4558538

Post ride recovery beer:

What worked:
Minus my little sliding dropout issue, which I hear I can resolve with some burlier bolts, my new Lynskey frame was excellent. Light, responsive and fantastic handling. The bike just went where I wanted it to. Point and shoot.

Tires. I was really worried about running the Hutchinson Python tires in potentially muddy conditions. I was wrong to worry, they where absolutely fantastic. I seems to have better traction then people around me and they rolled fast, even in the mud.

Nutrition was great. Drank a 24 oz bottle of CytoMax each lap. Ate a protein bar whenever I got hungry. Think I had 3 total.

Only thing that didn't work where my gloves. They don't have any padding and for some reason, I started getting blisters on each of my palms. Them being wet might have had something to do with it. I'm going to try some new gloves with more palm padding next.

More photos here:
Yargo Aftermath

Sunday, I knocked out a nice pleasant 33 mile recovery road ride.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/4586780

The sky opened up and poured on me for 5 minutes during the ride but I was fine with it. Was warm out and there was no mud to be found on the road!

100 Mile Weekend

2009-04-15T08:08:00.000-07:00

Was feeling like I haven't been getting enough ride time in so I knocked out 106 miles on the road bike last weekend. Just over 7 hours of riding solo.

Saturday, April 11th

50 miles in 3 hours and 28 minutes. Rode out from the house, up through Cumming, GA and did the Reality Bikes Wednesday night loop. Windy and cloudy!

GPS: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/3431489

Sunday, April 12th

56 miles in 3 hours and 38 minutes. Rode out from the house and hit the Rose Pedal 45 mile loop. Beautiful Easter day. Barely a cloud in the sky and not nearly as windy as the previous day.

GPS: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/3518264

Some photos from Saturday:

In other news, my Jeep got rear ended. Squished my bike rack and Vassago. This puts my blossoming race career (hah!) on hold while I search for a replacement frame.

:(

GSC #1 - East Macon Park

2009-03-23T03:52:00.000-07:00

First race of the Georgia State Championship cross country mountain bike series, done.

Start: Sun, Mar 22, 2009 9:38 AM Eastern Time
Distance: 17.23 mi

Series Website

GPS data on Garmin Connect

Can see from the HR monitor, I started to slow down some on the 3rd lap. My legs where a bit toasted. No cramping though. Need to do more 1 hr 30 min solid rides on the mountain bike to get a good idea of exactly how far I can push them. Lungs and everything else felt fantastic.

Bike was fantastic. Nutrition/water where perfect. Though, I ran a 50oz CamelBak since I'm not good at drinking out of bottles. That's not going to be sufficient when it starts getting hotter.

Finished 10th out of 14 in the Single Speed Open Class. Kind of regret not tearing it up in Base/Beginner class for just one race. This will make me faster though. Beginner is two laps vs three laps for the open classes and Sport.

First mile was a flat cross style course, then it ran through a BMX track, then it dumped into five or so miles of tight single track. Short and steep climbs, nothing sustained. Sandy and some roots. Pretty typical central Georgia setup. Not what a usually ride but lots of fun.

Next race will be April 19th in Columbus, GA (Flat Rock Park).

Grant B's photos. Very good work.

More photos in this SORBA forum thread.

Bootleg Canyon Vacation Ride

2009-03-17T06:18:00.000-07:00

Was out in Las Vegas this last weekend. Wanted to get a little riding in so I conned a few of the folks I was with into doing a tour of Bootleg Canyon with me. This the same trail system they use for the Interbike dirt demo last year.

The tour was through a shop right by the trail system, All Mountain Cyclery. I just brought my bike cloths, pedals, shoes and Garmin in my carry on bag. They picked us up from our hotel on the strip and provided everything else. We had a great experience, highly recommended outfit.

Happened to be there during Brent Thomson memorial festive/race. Normally I guess they wouldn't have run a tour with a race going on, but I registered before that came about. Very accommodating considering how much was going on.

More info on Brent Thomson:
http://www.mtbtrailreview.com/blog/brands/brent-thomson-medical-fund/
http://www.mtbtrailreview.com/blog/brands/brent-thomson-rip/

Topo & GPS track of our ride:

Rode out from the shop. Stopped my gps before riding back though since we hung out at the festival for a bit.

In relation to Vegas.

Speed & HR. Ended up being more of an interval training ride for me. The guide and I would hammer for a bit, get to an intersection and then wait for my people to catch up. Worked out pretty well.

GPS: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2565538

We rode the XC trails out there. Very fast and great flow with lots of awesome technical stuff tossed in.

Squishy bike with gears and little wheels. Fun change of pace.

Our guide.

Whoops! Getting unclipped is serious business.

Me apparently taking a nap before dropping in on fast section. You can barely see Vegas in the background of that photo.

Group shot.

Some people racing:

Here is a video of someone running one of the DH runs:
http://vholdr.com/video/cameron-mccaul-killing-boot-leg-canyon

Anyway. All Mountain Cyclery. Highly recommended if you find yourself out in Vegas. Great equipment and service. Our guide, name was Knight I believe, was awesome. It was fun to be out with a good rider that knew all the trails.

Snake Creek Gap Time Trial #3

2009-03-08T05:32:00.001-07:00

Finished the third Snake Creek Time Trial yesterday! Note; missed the second one due to work.

Summary:
Activity Type: Mountain Biking
Event Type: Race
Start: Sat, Mar 7, 2009 9:59 AM Eastern Time
Total Time: 04:14:02 (vs 05:29:40 for Snake #1)
Average Speed: 7.5 mph (vs 5.8 mph for Snake #1)
Max Speed: 40.3 mph
Distance: 31.97 mi
Elevation Gain/Loss: 5,237 ft / 4,981 ft
Min/Max Elevation: 804 ft / 1,812 ft
Heart Rate Average: 165 bpm (vs 151 bpm for Snake #1)
Heart Rate Max: 190 bpm

GPS track link:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/2408209

Official website:
http://www.nwgasorba.org/the_snake.html

Camped out with some folks Friday night before the race and tried not to drink too much beer. Lots of fun people there. Scott Hodge, Matt Kicklighter, Bruce Dickman, Yazoo Brewing Race Team and some of the local folks.

Starting out Sat morning, body felt fantastic. Bike worked flawlessly. Weather was pleasant. Trail conditions where excellent. Nice and tacky with none of the muddy climbs that sapped my energy the first time!

Killed my previous time. Cut 1hr, 15min off of it. 4:14 vs 5:29.

Changes from previous Snake in January:

Better fitness. Put in some long mountain bike rides with Polly, Roger, 198, B, T & that crew. Also was good about hitting the night rides at Big Creek during the week, CrossFit, watching TV on the rollers and running.
Faster bike setup. Easier gear ratio for the climbs. Lighter tires. Hydrolic brakes vs mecanical disk. Suspension fork vs rigid (though I kept it locked out most the time). Lighter & smaller CamelBak. In additon to running Cytomax in my water, I took four SportLegs before starting.
Better trail conditions. No muddy climbs to suffer through.

Houston Studios Photography

I did make one big mistake. Skipped filling my water bottle at the second SAG. Was feeling great and thought I had enough to finish the race with. Unfortunately, the last 1/3 is the most difficult and the sun had just burned through the fog. Ran out of water a few miles from the end and started to get some twinges in my left calf. Slowed it down a bit. Also paid dearly after finishing. Had to drink water and lay down in the shade of my Jeep for almost an hour before I felt well enough to eat.

Me, trying not to be sick but happy to have finished. Photo Mark D.

Stanley Gap Group Ride

2009-01-25T16:45:00.000-08:00

Stanley Gap. A nice, slower group paced ride over some really serious terrain. The 22 and a quarter mile ride length totally don't do it justice. The sustained 2-3 mile single track climbs are what it's about. Some of it quite technical. The descents are what make the suffering worth it.

Summary:
Activity Type: Mountain Biking
Event Type: Recreation
Total Time: 05:12:28
Moving Time: 04:36:34
Average Speed: 4.3 mph
Max Speed: 30.5 mph
Distance: 22.35 mi
Elevation Gain/Loss: 4,743 ft / 4,780 ft
Min/Max Elevation: 1,813 ft / 3,371 ft
Average: 142 bpm
Max: 188 bpm

GPS Track Link:

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1915941

I took loads of photos on the climbs while I waited for my HR to recover. Can't really take it easy on the climbs with a single speed since your limited to standing up and hammering with the one gear. Here are a few photos:

Rolling out. Nice 0.9 mile FS road climb to the trail head.

My current climbing setup. New since the Snake: 32x22 and Fox F29 suspension fork.

Taking a break before attacking the next section of climbing.

At the top! Well, one of the tops.

Regrouping at the bottom of "Flat" Creek. Nothing out there is actually flat.

Some nasty stuff that I had to push up. It was sure a blast coming down this though. Love my new fork.

Recovery beer!

More photos here:
http://milliron.org/photo/stanley/

Up coming changes to my mountain bike:

Front and rear Maxxis Ardent tires (2.25). Already ordered. Should be a little faster then my current Rampages (2.35) but shouldn't be giving up much comfort and traction should still be awesome. Also, right now, my rear tire is a bit worn.
185mm Avid Elixir CR hydraulic disk brakes for the front and rear. My 160mm Avid BB7 mechanical disk brakes suck. I need to use two fingers to control them. I'm thinking with the bigger more powerful Elixirs, I'll only need one finger, leaving more for my handle bars.
Also ordered a 18t rear cog for the in town trails. Now I'll have 18, 20 and 22 to pick from before a ride.

Snake Creek Gap Time Trial #1

2009-01-03T17:46:00.000-08:00

Finished the first run of the Snake Creek Gap Time Trial (of three). Did the 34 mile option. Mud, rocks and fog! The race is along part of the Pinhoti Trail. This is real north Georgia mountain biking.

Summary:
Activity Type: Mountain Biking
Event Type: Race
Start: Sat, Jan 3 '09 10:14 AM Eastern Time
Total Time: 05:29:40
Moving Time: 05:05:41
Average Speed: 5.8 mph
Max Speed: 34.2 mph
Distance: 31.93 mi
Elevation Gain/Loss: 4,544 ft / 3,891 ft
Min/Max Elevation: 838 ft / 1,841 ft
Heart Rate Average: 151 bpm
Heart Rate Max: 189 bpm

GPS track link:
http://connect.garmin.com/player/1692263

Official website:
http://www.nwgasorba.org/the_snake.html

Finish was at the red arrow.

Topo.

Registration

Sweet swag. Love the pint glass.

Race start. They let six or seven people go at a time.

Race started out with a decent forest service road warm up.

Single track! Most of it was muddy. Very muddy.

Muddy. Glasses quickly became totally useless. My front brake also got hosed up and stopped working. Fortunately the rear was solid and stayed that way.

One of the many creek crossings.

Climbing in the fog.

Mud and blood! This photo is from the rest area at the half way point.

About 2/3 of the way into the race, it starts getting rocky. Was warn out so I began taking more photos.

Mud, rocks and fog! I didn't even attempt that little climb. Just pushed my bike right up it.

Looking back at a climb I cleaned. This next photo is the rest of the climb... that I walked:

Yeah. Damn rocks take full focus and are a lot of extra work.

Scott Hodge of Addictive Cycles! He was in a real nasty motorcycle accident back in October. Fractured vertebrae and whatnot. Talk about a fast recovery!

Cleared the section in this photo plus some. Was then wiped out and had to walk for a while.

Finished! Tired and happy.

Chili, beer and fire!

Closing thoughs: I had a great time. Absolutely love riding in the fog like that, especially when it's that warm. Very well run and well organized race. I'm a sucker for pint glasses.

However, it took me forever to finish. 5:28 where the fast racer types where coming in well over an hour faster then that. Think I was running too hard of a gear. 32x20. Which, was fine when it was dry, but the mud on the first section took a lot out of me. Was worn out by the time I got to the rocks. All the rocks proceeded to beat the shit out of me. Lot of people I talked to where running 32x22.

Felt fine, nothing hurt. Just had no power. Ended up simply taking my sweet time. Stopped and took photos. Stopped too long at the SAGs.

Fenders for the mud would have also been nice.

Next time I will be using the bad boy pictured below and my goal will be to knock 30 min off my time.

Got the Fox F29 fork in on Friday but didn't feel comfortible just tossing it on my bike and then going for a five plus hour race. Needed time to test and dial it in.

Next two time trials are:

February 7, 2009
March 7, 2009

2009 is Coming

2008-12-30T05:52:00.000-08:00

Mission statement: this is an online journal of my race reports and related photos.

Background: I've been mountain biking since Aug 2007. Since then I've also picked up a little cycling, running and CrossFit. Completed three mountain bike races in 2008.

August 16, 2008 - Fools Gold 50 mile, geared bike. GPS.
September 7, 2008 - Georgia Single Speed championship, SS. GPS.
November 15, 2008 - Dauset Dirty Duathlon, trail running & SS. Running section GPS. Riding section GPS.

Agenda for 2009:

Snake Creek Gap 6 Mountain Time Trials. At least one of the three TTs.
Georgia State Championship series. Series of eight cross country races.
Fool's Gold. Going to do the 50 again but this time, single speed.
Black Bear Rampage. Missed it in 2008.
Six Gap Century. Road bike century with some great climbing. Have a score to settle with Wolf Pen Gap.
A few 6 and maybe 12 hour endurance races that fit into the schedule and sound fun.
Cyclocross in the fall? Georgia Cross Series?
Maybe something I haven't even thought of before?