I've been kind of lost since my last race. This year has not gone according to plan. Partly due to things out of my control and partly due things in my control.
Since my race schedule has been cleared, mostly because of the ridiculously wet spring, I am currently without a race to train for. So I'm taking the rest of June off, at least from any organized training. I'm going to ride when I feel like it and sit on my fat ass when I don't.
Once July rolls around, I'll get back to piling on base miles and speedwork to hopefully be ready for the fall DORBA XC MTB Series (that is cross country not cyclocross). I'll be shifting from long endurance races, too shorter balls out races. I guess like going from marathon to 5/10k races. These XC races hurt, FACE AND PUKE PACE for about 60-75 minutes depending on the course length.
The fall series hasn't been announced yet because only a handful of trails are even open right now. I'm assuming that later in the summer, when more trails are open something will be announced. The races are a big revenue generator for the DORBA (Dallas Off Road Bike Association) so they will probably put at least a handful of races on. Fingers crossed.
So for the rest of June I'm going relax and enjoy. And spend a week in northern Arizona. My bike is coming along this year!!! Woohoo, I get to fall on new dirt and rocks!
Yesterday evening I was actually able to get out and do a trail ride at a local trail. Due to overwhelming support on a local trail work day (that I couldn't attend due to a b-day party) the Northwest Community DORBA trail was able to open up way before the trail steward thought!
The trail steward posted many warnings about the roughness and condition of the trail. That it would be rough, loose, grassing, and multiple by-passes due to damage but was encouraging people to ride the trail. Riding helps the trail, it smooths and levels it out.
The Frisco trail is a fairly new trail and was only created a couple years ago. There is 8 miles of single track packed into a pretty small space out there. It can be a HOT place to ride during the summer because it's wide open in 70% of the trail. The steward has done a lot with the elevation he had to work with and got about 350ft of climbing pre-lap. It's comprised of an outer loop "Ranger" and three internal loops "Wolverine", "Coyote", and "Redhawk". With an additional look "Raccoon" to be finished soon. I think once "Raccoon" is done it will put the total mileage up near 10 miles. The best part of all it's only 20 minutes from my house!!!
So I got out to the trail at around 5:00pm. It was around 94 degrees but felt like 100+. Due to the heat and the trail conditions it was a slow ride. But I was able to get 20 miles and was out on the trails for about 2.5 hours. I went through about a gallon of fluids while out there.
There were quite a few critters out while we were riding. We found a 7 legged tarantula, saw a skunk running through the grass, and I ran over a cottonmouth snake that was quite pissed at the whole ordeal.
The trail crews have done some cool fixes to combat erosion. Here they armored a descent with bricks to protect it from the water.
Here are a couple of other videos from the ride, because MTB videos are cool!
The rain we received in North Texas this spring was just ridiculous and even though it's been a week since any rain has fallen we are still dealing with the after effects. Pretty much all the trails in the DFW area are closed and will need some major work. People keep posting pictures of the damage. They are saying it will take months of trail work before Erwin is ridable again:
The NW Frisco trail will need some armoring and a ton of trail work too:
Northshore will be underwater for a couple more months until lake levels get back down:
Parts of the Rowlett Creek trail were actually washed away into the creek and will require major re-routes.
The list just keeps going on and on like this. LB Houston, Knob Hills, Windmill Park, and Cedar Hill are all under water. There is one trail that has opened but they only have a 6 mile loop of fireroads open. The rest of the 20+ miles of single track are still shut down and will remain that way for a while. It just sucks that 1000s of hours of work that went into these trails was washed away in a coupe of months. It just sucks.
Here is the TLDR version (or executive summary for anyone over 35):
I raced my Single Speed MTB in the 12 hour Solo SS 35-49 race on Sunday. The 12 hour racers started at midnight and finished with the 24 hour racers at noon. I was able to finish 5 laps in 05:28:37.333 and decided not to continue after that. Cranking my fat ass up the hills and across the rocky terrain did a number my knees. I went into this race 30lbs heavy and payed for it dearly. However, those 5 laps still scored my 2nd place in my division. Laps: 5 Last Seen: 5:28:37.3 Split 1: 57:21.730 Split 2: 58:13.226 Split 3: 1:02:54.257 Split 4: 1:16:37.317 Split 5: 1:13:30.803
Here are the boring details:
My older brother (David), my nephew (Parker), and I all packed up and hit the road early Friday morning to head out to Palo Duro Canyon just east of Canyon, TX in the panhandle. It's about a 6 hour drive so we hit the road at 5am. After the longish and very boring drive we arrived at the park entrance to find that the trail was currently closed so we could not do our pre-ride. Our plan was to get out there around noon, setup our tent in the pit to save a spot (it's first come, first server), do a pre-ride, eat, then go to packet pick up.
Since we couldn't ride we setup the tent, ate, and then goofed around in the canyon for a while. Here is a time lapse from my GoPro from inside the canyon and driving out.
Since we couldn't pre-ride we went back to the hotel to check in and relax until packet pick up at 3pm. When we went to pick up the packets we found out that they had open the trails so we hurried back to the hotel, got out gear ready, and drove back down into the canyon.
We were worried about the condition of the trail since there has been so much rain over the last several days but for the most part the trail was okay. It was soft in some places and really rough in others. The rain had washed over the rocks and exposed a lot of hard edges. My rigid single speed was punishing me on this terrain. I ended up going down in one section when I tried to make a turn with too much speed. You can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GseUdzwITQ
Once we got cleaned up and ate dinner, the long wait until 12:00am Sunday morning began. We tried to sleep on Saturday afternoon after wandering around in Canyon, TX but no one could get much if any sleep. We eventually decided to pack up and head down into Palo Duro around 8pm. We got down in the canyon and unpacked all the stuff we would need for a long night and morning on the bikes. Here was my setup.
The 24 hour guys started their race at noon so we watched them coming in and out of the pits while we waited for our start. We eventually got dressed, turned on our lights, and rode our bikes to the start line.
We started right at midnight and took the paved road up to the trail entrance and then jumped on the trail.
I would love to give you detailed lap by lap analysis but honestly I don't remember a whole lot from the race. It's like a dream with just bits and pieces that jump out.
David, Parker, and I stayed together on the 1st lap because we wanted to make sure everyone got at least one lap in. It was very different riding the course in the dark. Even with the fantastic lights (TrailLED) you can still only see so far and have little to no peripheral vision. The lights and shadows play jokes on your eyes too. The 1st lap was good. David and Parker pitted faster than I did so they went out without me and I was on my own. Even though there are a lot of people riding it's amazing how you really don't see anyone while riding these events. On my second lap I saw 3-4 other riders and even less on my 3rd lap. All the riders were super friendly and everyone had nice words for each other.
My legs felt good and I was moving along at a comfortable pace (at least one I thought I could hold for 12 hours) but I was having problems getting to a comfortable temperature. It was really chilly in the pit (50F with a breeze) so I put on a jacket for the start of the race but 10 minutes into my first lap I was burning up. So on lap 2 I took off the jacket and I was shivering by the end of lap 2. So I threw on a lighter jacket and about halfway through lap 3 I had to take the sleeves off the jacket and that seemed to be okay. I also had to change my bike shorts between lap 2 and 3 or lap 3 and 4. I ended up putting on the wrong pair to start and they kept falling down. So I was constantly having to pull my pants up while I was riding. The best part was when I was changing I was having a hard time getting the new shorts up because of my sweating legs and ass and I dropped my towel. So I am standing there with my ass hanging out for most of the other teams to see. Everyone was so tired no one cared. I did get a couple cat calls though.
Riding that late and night was hard and between 3-4am was the hardest. I swear I fell asleep on my bike a couple of times and that was scary as hell. Out there in the quiet and dark, it gets lonely even with the coyotes yipping just off the trail. Navigating a trail at night and while tired is hard at times. There were several wrong turns that sent me down some rough parts of the trail. One mistake sent me off a nice 16 inch ledge. It's always nice with the ground just disappears from beneath you. I might have screamed the f-work like a little girl.
When I started lap 4 my knee was starting to hurt and not the general ache that I get in my knees sometimes. This was a different hurt. I under estimated the roughness of the course and how fat I was. I was having to work really hard to crank my fat ass up the hills and it was hurting my knees. Especially my left knee. The downhills were really rough and that was just shaking the hell out of all of me. (Did I mention I ride a rigid single speed, NO SUSPENSION).
So during lap 5 I decided I had had enough.
So I stood there for a couple minutes, then I sat down refusing to press the "Save" button on my Garmin. That would mean I was really done. I stared at it for 30 minutes until I was shaking from sitting in the clothes. Then I pressed it and accepted my fate.
I rode 41.5 miles over 5 hours 28 minutes and 37.3 seconds and I felt like I had failed. I rode my bike for 5.5 hours over rough single track and I felt like a failure. What the fuck is wrong with me?!? My nephew couldn't continue after 6 laps (50+ miles) and he felt the same way.
As it turns out my 5 laps was enough to get my 2nd in my category. Mainly because there were only 2 of us. I know I'm not suppose to tell y'all that. I'm suppose to just brag about my trophy. But I am proud of myself. I worked damn hard on my 5 laps and no one else was there to take 2nd way from me.
The best part of the day was our entire group got on the podium.
After all of this we had been awake for 35+ hours. We got some food, cleaned up, and crashed for a couple hours before getting dinner and passing out for the night. No one was in shape to drive home that day so we stayed and extra night and drove home this morning.
I can't do this blog without a shout out to my trusty steed!!!
I really enjoyed this trip and it was great to actually ride my bike on dirt. I can't tell you how awesome that was but this will probably be my last race for a little while. I need to get my head on straight and get these 30lbs off if I am going to continue to race my single speed. I'm hoping that will light a fire under my ass to get my weight back under control. So tomorrow I will get on the scale to access the damage and then start chipping away.
