4 Hours of Gears

Saturday has come and gone and it did not go so well. Along with carbo loading I decided to electrolyte load as well. This put me in a world of hurt known as Hypertonic (aka, too much electrolytes in the body, thanks for that info Sugardaddy). I don't want to be there again.

I can look at both positives and negatives of the race.

First the negatives:

-I got to the race with just enough time to set up and throw on my jersey as the people were lining up for the start.
-No prerace stretch, no prerace warm up.
-At the start of the race I had a huge headache and REALLY bad legs. (Symptom of hypertonic)
-My stomach was going haywire. (Symptom of hypertonic)
-The headache got worse and worse until it literally brought me to my knees 4 hours into the race. (Symptom of hypertonic).


Now the positives:

-I fought through all the pain in my head and legs for 4 hours. It was a good fight between me and my body.
-I was within 3 minutes of 1st at the time despite everything going wrong and stopping to stretch 3 hours into it.
-Food and hydration needs were dialed (except those damn electrolytes).
-I learned a lesson
-I am pissed and plan to take it out in 2 weeks at the next 12 hour.

Changes?
-Electrolytes are a replenish as you need them sort of thing. Do that.
-Get there earlier
-Kick some ass?
-Don't wait 2 days to write about the damn race.
-Take pictures.

Work?

One More Time!

Paragon you ready?
Supercal you ready?

Repeat?

All packed and ready to go. No pit crew this time, going striaght gangsta.

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Gotta go order some windows at Home Depot and then go to work.

Fearsome foursome? Not yet.

This weekend marked my return to the expert ranks. You see, I have been racing since I was 15, expert since I was 18. Then I took a several year break from racing regularly to "find" myself (read get fat). 2005 saw me try a race in the newly formed Comp division, DNF. 2006 saw me try Comp again, but with much better results. This year I returned to expert, although races like the MNSCS series are low on the season's priority list (Just lining up my excuses now).

Harmon park is a lot of FAST singletrack packed into a small area. There is not much of anything for elevation change or trees. This set up the race for drafting and plenty of opportunity to see the other racers. At the start I was able to hit the singletrack in 11th position. I spent that 1st lap behind 2 Penn guys with local hot shot Matt Kurke behind me. Matt and I couldn't help but be frustrated with the fact we were only seconds behind the lead group of 8. Matt went to the front at the second lap to bridge and I tried to go with him, but the legs were feeling the road and mountain TT's from this week. The second lap saw Matt seconds in front of me and the Penn riders, and the front group just 15 seconds farther. After the second lap my race didn't go so well. I slipped out in a corner and permanently lost the wheel of Matt and the Penn guys. The Accelgel, while fine in training, was to thick in the race and I threw it up (gotta get some more Hammergel). I had to ride the race on water alone. 4th and 5th laps saw Matt and the Penn duo not far off the front, but I was slowly dropping. The lack of calories was getting to me, but hadn't hit me hard enough to harvest the local vegetation. A Salsa rider caught me and towed me around for much of the 5th and final lap. I was getting ready to shoot out of the singletrack and set up for the sprint when "bam". I slid out on my fourth corner (I was leaning my bike over too much given that these corners were hard packed with light sand on top). Well, Salsa dude had only a little way to go, so I came in the finish area without whipping it out (the sprint that is).

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13th place overall was were I ended up. I am very happy with that considering it was my first expert race in years and my body is fairly beat down with training. Gotta beat it down to build it up. By the way, I said "beat it". He, he.

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Chris and Brendan were 2nd and 3rd in the 3 up sprint for the win. Ben was 7th, just seconds behind. They constitute the "Fearsome Threesome" of the Velorochester riders. Together they will do some damage to the team competition in that category. I consider myself the alternate. Just in case one of them has a bad day. The "Fearsome Foursome"? No, I am not there yet, and my appearances on the MNSCS circuit will be few.

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Sugardaddy and I shared a car on the way up. He won a 4 up sprint in comp to roll across the line in 10th, but he rolled across the "lap" gate line and not the "finish". Those silly road riders. He ended with 13th in his category as well.

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The sport riders out on the unique course. Thanks Skinnyski.

A pick of the "Fearsome Foursome". Not sure who is who.

In other big news....one of my homies that is a true OG got his woman knocked up. Congratulations Cory!! Hopefully we will see nothing but good times and not you on Maury Povich yelling, "I am not the baby's daddy"!

Get to work.

Tuesday's mountain TT

Yeah, that is how I felt/rode last night.

Dreaming to dream

I just figured out how I can have a banner year.

I could have really cool race recaps like someone I know: "So I went to a race, blah, blah, blah. I got bored so I hung up my cell phone and attacked, blah, blah, blah. I gapped the field by 10 minutes, blah, blah, blah. I almost didn't realize I was about to cross the finish line, so I stopped e-mailing on my Blackberry and raised my hands in dominance, blah, blah, blah. My brother and my other teammates(Part of the The Empire) cleaned up the rest of the top spots, blah, blah, blah. After the race I saved 14 kids from a burning building, blah, blah, blah. Ok, ok, I saved them DURING the race, but I did not want to brag."

Note: My race recaps would not include my brother, or saving kids from a burning building, as my brothers don't race and I burn easily.

Oh to dream, to dream.

Alright, time to stop dreaming and go to work.

TT's, Dandelions, and Nina is crazy

TT's

For the 2 people that read my crap you may be interested in the MTB TT series at Steeplechase the next 4 weeks. If you don't come then you are a slacker. Yeah, that is right, slacker.

Dandelions

Headed out on a road ride last week that would last a meek 2 hours. Wind was in the 30 mph hour range and I headed straight into it with some sustained intervals planned. I reached Eyota a little over one hour, 2 sets of intervals, 2 gu packs and a 15 mph pace later. I was actually impressed with the pace because the wind was a bitch (speaking of bitch, did you hear about Paris Hilton? Ha, ha). Well, things were turning ugly quick as I had brought 2 gu's with the understanding that I MIGHT need 1 of them. At the turn around my body was STARVING, but the tailwind made things bearable. 30mph light spinning into town was much appreciated. Just on the edge of town I was going cross eyed and checked the seat bag for cash. Nada, but with a field full of dandelions in front of me, a knowledge of those weeds being edible, and a stomach that was so sad, I threw down a handful and sputtered back into town. So there you go, a new source for riding fuel.

Nina is Crazy

Yesterday we tore up the ground to make our own garden. Mean while Nina decided to spend the whole time freaking out about a 7 foot stick in the back yard. Literally obsessed. She kept banging that thing into us, so I put it in a place that would keep her out of our hair.

My baby's momma destroying our environment.

Nina says, "Dad, I'll still get that stick, dumbass."

She's got mad hops.

And strong jaws.

What are you looking at?

Monday morning...got to go back to work, maybe you would care to do the same?