I Just Can't Help Myself

A beautiful spring day outside Ellijay

I just had to start this up again.  The urge to write something down, even if nobody but me reads it, was too strong to ignore.  I found myself composing blog material as things happened and realized I needed this to keep my own stuff straight.

So, anyhoo, I'm baaaack!

One big tree

Road Racing, Bicycle Style

The Kid on the line for the crit in Quincy Fl.

I'm just going to skip all the other cool things I've gotten to do over the past months that we've been apart. Like Mountain Bike Marathon Nationals, Dirty Pecan Clay Ride, and other assorted cycling adventures.

Dr. S Works and I contemplating 60 miles in the woods

The Kid is home from UF for the summer so we've been able to ride together quite a bit, whether he likes it or not.  He did the crit in Quincy Fl. this past weekend while a group of us rode over and watched.

The Kid heading into a Quincy corner

I had decided to try my hand at road racing on Sunday.  That crit business scares me.

Me in the orange helmet. No that's not the front of the pack.

Turns out road racing isn't my strong suit.  All the advice I got was "try to stay with the lead group", and "keep your nose out of the wind".  With about 1k to finish the first of 3 laps I failed at both.

It was kinda hot, oh, and windy also.  Making the next 33 miles somewhat unpleasant.  All by myself, long straight roads, and some fairly good hills.  I was going so slow on the climbs the horse flies could catch me.  Adding insult to whole affair every once in a while a small group would roll by me an holler "get on".  I'd call on the legs to go, but nothing happened.  I imagined they were like Scotty on Star Trek, "I'm givvin ya all they've got captain" (say it with an Irish brogue).  Yes, I had very much blown up.

I have been replaying what I might have done different.  I was in heart rate zone 5.7 when the pack started to drop me.  I don't have much more in me than that, and I certainly can't stay in that neighborhood very long.  Should I have backed off earlier?  Found a secondary group to stay with?  Who knows.  Unlike MTB racing road very much involves other riders to make it fun.  Off road you spend a lot of time by yourself but the ride is still engaging, not just grinding pedal strokes.

On the positive side I finished 18/21 so I wasn't last.  And it was a great workout.  

As I sat under the pop up in the middle of the pasture after the race.   I reflected on how many hot summer days I had swatted gnats and hoped for a breeze to blow after racing something with two wheels.  Enduros, hare scrambles, motocross, and now bicycles.  Big Jim had provided me with an ice cold brew and I got all melancholy remembering.  Hey, that's what old guys do.  I got to race bikes with my son, I didn't crash, and at 59 I'm still trying something new on two wheels. 

Hello, Yes, it's Been Awhile

Lets see, since we last spent quality time together much has happened.  I have so much to say, just so very little you really want to hear.

I'll by pass Thanksgiving and Christmas and start with New Years.

I need to by pass those holidays because it reminds me that I let myself off the leash as far as eating goes (and drinking).  You just can't do that once you pass a certain age.  But you can gain 4 pounds.

Anyhoo I enjoyed it I'm ashamed to say. Eating and drinking all you want has a certain freedom to it. Know what I mean?

Then I Moto

So a heavy but happy me went to the Tallahassee Trail Riders Hangover Hare Scramble on January 1, 2015, and got to ride some moto.  The track was on private property and open by invitation only.  If I had a place like that to ride I would have never sold my dirt bikes.  Hamp let me borrow his KTM 350 SX.  I'll admit to being more than a little nervous but once I got moving it all came back.  I was having such a blast they had to flag me off the track.  To be able to lean the bike into a soft berm, crank open the throttle, and feel it surge forward is such a rush.  No big jumps, and I took it easy in the rutted sections, but I felt like I could ride for hours.  Funny how that kind of thing can make you forget everything except what's happening at that exact moment.

Almost 5 Hours

That's how long it took us to finish the San Felasco mountain bike tour.  15 minutes longer than last year, but I have a good excuse.  Let me start by saying that I enjoyed the ride very much this year.  It seemed like we covered more single track (some of it twice).

But alas, when we were within 5 miles of the finish, The Kid, Andy, and I, while moving along at a moderate pace, came to a patch of pine straw on a two track road corner.  Andy went through fine, I had no problem, but The Kid, well, he lost the front end.  This caused him to smash his family jewels into his carbon fiber top tube.  As you can imagine much screaming and rolling around ensued.  It took him quite a while to shake it off (no pun intended) before we could roll in.  And we did so very gingerly.

Everything turned out ok.  I am truly fortunate to get to ride bikes with my college age son.

Gorilla

Let me start by saying I don't like to ride my bike with a lot of people around me.  Especially people I don't know.  So why do I participate in this ride every year?  As Big Worm reminded me when I told him I was going to forgo the mass start at city hall "If you don't roll out with the crowd it's just another group ride".   Yea.

I guess I should give a brief description of what the Gorilla is.  It's a social ride put out on social media that starts at the Tallahassee City Hall and winds it's way through the urban streets and trails.   There is always some confusion as to the direction it goes when it hits the single track, plus there's different groups doing their own thing (me being one of them).  Add in 150 riders of all different skill levels and you can see my point right?

I had made (or thought I had) arrangements to meet the lead group in a parking lot along the route. The Kid and I rolled around in circles for 30 minutes until Big Worm called and said they had already changed the route and to meet him on the trail.  Off we went.

Once on single track we encountered riders going the wrong way (could have been us?), a loooong line of people walking a small climb, and crowds of people jockeying for position.  I'm sorry, I just don't have the patience for some of this foolishness.  As soon as we got to an open section, a group of riders I didn't know would form around me.  Lots of T-shirts and back packs, all cutting in front of me, then stopping.  Did I have a sign on me somewhere that said "I want to race you"?

Wait!  I just had an epiphany!  I was pigeon holing certain riders by what they were wearing.  What if, they were treating me the way they were because I look a little older than they do?  "This old guy can't be very fast, I better get in front of him before we get to _______."  Nah, they were doing it to The Kid too, and he sure doesn't look old.  They wouldn't pass and then ride on, they would pass and then settle in front or beside me.  It was like they didn't know where to go, just that they had to be in front or beside ME!

Whats the bid deal you say?  What's a little bumping and wheel overlap?  Do you know how much fitness you loose if you have to take a week off the bike due to an injury?  Now multiply that for every decade you are over 40.

Nope, the risk is too high.  Too many people who never race their bikes with the idea it's a race.  In the end it all worked out though.  Three of us rode the last 10 miles almost by ourselves.  So yea, it was just like a regular group ride.

Oh, and I think the word you're looking for is curmudgeon.

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/curmudgeon

Merriam‑Webster

a person (especially an old man) who is easily annoyed or angered and who often complains

Adrift

Cross is over for me, at least until after the first of the year.  It was sad to see Swamp Cross end last Sunday.  I look forward to this event and it was especially sweet since The Kid and the Gator Cycling Team attended.  But now I find myself without a specific goal as far as cycling is concerned.

Do I want to do XC in 2015?  How about the longer distance stuff again?  Or maybe just do whatever the mood strikes.  I took this week off to see how my internal rudder would react to not having some kind of plan.  I find that I miss it.  I am terrified of ending up like my friend Big Jim but I can see how that could happen.  Unlike moto, cycling requires that the motor stay tuned all year long, which makes taking any time off totaling longer than a week a potential problem.  I hope to start back on the base XC plan Monday, so we'll see how it goes.

VHS to DVD

I converted all my VHS tapes to DVD while I was off the week of Thanksgiving.  Aside from the usual family stuff I had some footage from old moto trips, both racing and a trip we took to Colorado. I have to admit it started a twinge of maybe getting back into moto again.  Not racing but dual sport or adventure riding.  I hate to get my mind going in that direction.  But moto (at least dual sport) is soooo much easier than cycling.  (See above)

Thanksgiving day, we had the course all to ourselves.

Some Race Stuff

At Dade City CX I got a stick stuck in by cassette on the first lap of the 55+ and ended up burning matches to get back on.  Eventually losing a sprint for 6th place.  Not quite what I had hoped for. Then for some reason I thought it would be fun to ride the 4/5's.  I was knackered at the end of the day.  On Sunday I had a better race but my legs had decided to take the day off.

Swamp Cross was a completely different type of course and I only entered the 55+ class, getting a third, for my first trip to the box (in a real race, Tallahassee doesn't count).  Sunday I ended up 4th but still managed to beat the guy who got second on Saturday.

I really love CX.  It's hard but it's always interesting.  Yea it's a lot of travel for two 45 minute races. But it's the whole experience of the weekend, eating dinner on Saturday night, watching the other classes race, and even the trip down and back, that all add up to a good time.

As I type this the RHCX team (Ric and Tim) are contesting state CX champs in Tampa.  I had made other plans and am a little bummed I didn't go.  This time of the year has so much going on.

Anyhoo, I'm looking forward to The kid coming home and The Lovely Wife being off for the holidays.  After all it's not all about me, or is it?

This Will Only Sting A Little

I want to warn you about a most vile creature that lurks in the woods of South Georgia and North Florida.  It has a mean bite, venom, plus it can fly faster than you (or I apparently) can run, will attack in waves of hundreds, and will not give up until you kill them, or they kill you.

Yellow Jackets

Yep, that's them, little bastards!  I've worked in the woods for 30 years and I'd rather see rattle snakes than these little demons from hell. And that's a good description!  After all, they come out of the ground like a ghost, quiet, waiting till the group assembles on a poor unsuspecting soul, who's only sin was just walking too close to their nest.  Then, they attack!

Minding My Own Business

I was just walking the woods, checking behind one of our logging crews, looking up at the tops of the remaining trees to make sure they had cut the weakest ones.  Minding my own business, thinking about how good the forest looked on this gray cool morning.  When I feel the first sting.  Right under my nose, I knew immediately what it was, so I took off running.

The Viscous Attack

And oh did I run.  Swinging my arms trying to dislodge them from my shirt I burst out onto the two track road that runs back to the area where the trees are being loaded onto the trucks.  I sprinted toward the loading deck, thinking that if I could make it to my truck I might be safe.  I didn't think about the fact that I was covered in the yellow messengers of death.  What would I have done when I jumped into my truck?

I stopped and looked down at my pants, they were covered in them.  Shit!  I took off at a sprint, that's when the operator of the loader hollered "What the hell you running for, oh shit there's yellow jackets behind you, RUN!" (he has a keen sense of the obvious).  About that time the older black gentleman yelled "Come over by da fire, we'll smoke'm off!"  I was in full panic mode by now, I'd never had them pursue me this far from the nest.  I headed for the fire.

I Wish I'd Had A Camera

So as I ran around and around the fire the guy took off his jacket and beat me with it as I came by. The devils spawn never touched him, they kept after me.  I tore at my shirt thinking if I could get it off maybe they'd stay with it but I couldn't stop to get the buttons undone.  All the while this guy wailed on me with his jacket.  I heard him say "I ain't tryin to be weird but theys crawlin down the back of your pants".  Oh, that's all I needed.  By this time, between the smoke and the jacket ass whip-pin, we had gotten most of them off.

Headed For The Truck

I thanked the crew profusely and sprinted for my truck.  I did think I heard some chuckling as I ran away.  I went home and gobbled some Benadryle (sp?), then headed to the emergency room just to make sure I didn't go into shock.  The TMH emergency room is a story by itself that I won't go into here. Suffice to say they were efficient and I had no reaction to the 13 stings I received.

Thinking Back

When I was retelling the event I got to thinking how funny it must have looked to that logging crew to see this old gray haired dude running up to them waving his arms and trying to pull his shirt off. Then me running around and around the fire while this guy pummels me with his smoky, grease stained jacket every time I went by.  It would have been a YouTube sensation.

Not exactly like this but it felt like it at the time

A Little Cross at Cross?

I was looking forward to Tallycross.  The weather was going to be cold and windy, The Kid was coming home from school, and I was going to get to race my bike.  All happy things in my world.

Halloween

But first I had to survive Halloween on Friday night.  We've been putting on a show at our house for at least 10 years and the locals look forward to it.  They start lining up before sundown with the little ones.  We are pretty G rated until it gets dark then we let the zombies out.  One of the older kids told me "man I want to come work for ya'll next year".  Fun times.

I think I'll start dyeing my hair

Saturday CX

The race venue is in a great spot, easy access, lots of parking (which turned out not to be a problem) and really good terrain to work with.  Unfortunately very few riders and almost no spectators were there to enjoy it.  Why? I don't know the answer to that.  Very little shop participation, no vendors, and no food truck.  All were there last year, so what happened?  We even had a keg of beer last year, sadly, none this year.

From a racers perspective the event was well run, and the course well marked.  I have a few niggling complaints about not cleaning the corners of sticks and limbs but that's just me.  A small group of us lined up for the 35, 45, 55 class, with only me and one more in the 55s.  I had fun riding, just not much racing went on.  The faster riders were way ahead and the slower were way behind.  For my $25 I got a $.25 medal.  The Kid had a good race though, finishing 2nd in cat 3, we waited in the cold for podiums but got tired and headed home before they were held.

Tragedy Strikes

I won't go into detail about it.  I don't usually post sad things here but it happened and it had a bearing on my weekend.  Our beautiful, loving cat of 8 years, Frodo, was killed Saturday evening.  It left our family in shock and sadness.  He was a great cat and will be missed.  This event seemed to send me on a downward spiral that I still haven't fully pulled out of, and that's not really like me.

Sunday CX

Nobody ever takes pictures of me.

The racing was much the same as Saturday, at least from my perspective.  I lost interest about three quarters of the way through.  Riding by myself, it was just like a training ride, only it cost me another $25.  Today however, I had brought beer, so we found a sunny corner, cranked the boom box up, and had a small party.

The Kid had a good race though and managed to finish 3rd.  He enjoys CX and was happy with his ride.

Opinion Time

This event won't last.  No payout for the elites, no goodies for the rest of us, no local involvement, and a long way to travel for the majority of riders, will spell the end of our little race.  At least on the FLCX calendar.  I know the riders are out there, just last week we had 50+ show up for a trail ride.  I know, I know, that was low pressure and no cost, plus they had beer.  Tallahassee is just that way, lots of riders, not many racers.  That's not a bad thing, but it doesn't bode well for promoters trying to put on races.

This was the scene last year, nothing like that this year.

Cross is hard, plus you're out there where everybody can see you.  No place to hide, no drafting, so I get it, it's not for everyone.  I was just hoping a few more would give it a try.  Somethings going to need to change if we're going to do this again next year. 

This year, fun but lonely.  

But that's just my opinion.  And you know what they say about those.

A Little Break

I took some time off from blogging.  Mostly due to a lack of motivation on my part.  I am surprised I didn't get any requests wanting to know what had happened.  All five of you must have had plenty to read lately.

Keeping Cross Weird

Silk and I got up eeeeeearly on a cool Sunday morning to make it to the Macon Octoberfest CX race. He insisted on driving, which was nice, but I will admit to my confidence being shattered when the first thing he says as I get in his truck is: "In the interest of full disclosure my check engine light came on yesterday.  It's probably nothing though."  And it wasn't, but it added to my pre race jitters.

Silk drives like it's a race so we made it to the venue with a whole 20 minutes to spare.  I raced first and since it was in the mid 40's I had a bit of a hard time warming up.  Plus there were the digestive issues of getting up early and riding in a truck for 3 hours.  I won't go into detail, those of you who have experienced this get it.

Muddy bike, they ran us back and forth across a ditch

Anyhoo, the track was fast with some great flow, and mostly flat.  I got 8/22 in the cat 4/5 35+ which didn't disappoint me too much.  Silk got 2nd in the cat 1 35+ after an exciting race.  He says he has some things he needs to work on but I don't know about that.  We hung around and watched the rest of the races, even doing some polite heckling.  It sounded like we were the only ones, it was a calm crowd.

We hit a Moe's on the way home and since Silk was driving I decided to get some extra beer at a Jr. store.  It was a good day.

Fireball 50

I didn't decide to go to this event until the day before.  We had planned to race in Atlanta but that fell through, and as it turned out, that was a good thing.

The ride was billed as a 50 mile MTB ride in the ANF.  The hook that got me interested in going was the fact that there was going to be a keg in the woods about 10 miles from the finish.  Silk and Shank had also decided to go so off we went on a clear 48 degree October morning.

Someone had done a bunch of work, the bushy sections I had ridden during the summer had been trimmed, logs had been ramped, and turns were marked with ribbon.  As I've said before, I love riding the ANF, and this day was turning out to be one of the best.  Our group pace was steady without much testosterone and we found the keg almost untouched. 

There's something about a beer before lunch out in the woods, on a clear fall day.  To say the least, the 10 mile ride back to the truck was interesting.

Now I've promoted events before and I know how hard it is to get something like this to work.  I estimate there were at least 50 riders that started the ride and I'm willing to bet not one of them had a bad time.  It was a no pressure, fun day, and I hope to do something like it again.

Tallycross

Is this weekend.  Two days of cross without any travel.  I'm pumped.  The Kid is coming home and plans to race both days.  The weather is going to be cold (for us).  Plus Halloween is Friday night. 

Does it really get any better?

There's No Fool Like A Gold Fool

But before I could get to the Fools Gold 50 Mile Mountain Bike Race I had a cross country bike race to do.  Sunday a week ago was the Tallahassee round of the Florida State Championship Series.  I love this race.  It signals the beginning of fall (even though it was 93 degrees), plus it's on my home trails.

There were quite a few familiar faces on the line in the 50+ expert class.  I lined up next to Mark who usually finishes way ahead of me (and will today).  Hammy was on the other end of the row, he and I have been racing against each other since we both started in base and my strategy was to hang with him.  Mark and I decided who would go to which side of the trees about half way down the start, then the whistle blew.

I fell in behind Hammy and we passed a few riders going out the multiuse.  He seemed to be struggling so when he took one of the alternate lines on the single track I passed him.  Much to my surprise I could just see Mark up ahead so I managed to get on his wheel, where I stayed, until the last quarter of the last lap.

I (mistakenly) thought I had saved some for the climb up the gun range.  Mark, being the savvy racer he is, had figured that was what I was doing.  So as soon as we hit the climb he stood up and was gone.  And like Wiley Coyote in the old Road Runner cartoons I just watched him ride away.

But I wasn't disappointed, no, not in the least.  I was glad to have gotten to race with someone and had a really good time doing it.  I finished 8/15.

The Kid managed 7th in a very competitive 19-29 sport class while smoking my lap times.  It was a great day.

Fools Gold

Four of us loaded up Friday morning headed to Dahlonega Ga.  After some very poor navigating by Big Jim we finally got to the trails and unloaded.  The first couple of pedal strokes in the mountains, after a summer in Florida, are pure bliss.

We rode the last 10 miles of single track that would be in the race the next day and had a blast.  Until Tim blew out his tire.  Fortunately we weren't far from the truck and he was able to locate a new one for the race.

Saturday morning was cool with a slight breeze.  In the past the roll out has been medium paced behind a car, so I didn't warm up much (first time that day I didn't follow my OMTP instructions).  I lined up in the second half of the start group (didn't follow instructions again).  The gun went off and the car gunned it.  So much for the neutral roll out.

It took a couple of miles for me to loosen up the legs and start to pass groups of riders.  I hit the long road climb later than I had planned but not much I could do about it at that time.  I settled in for the grind.

I ate when I was supposed to, drank when the alarm on my Garmin went off, stopped at the sags I had planned on stopping at, and kept my efforts within what I had trained for.  I had the best Fools Gold ride I'd ever had.  I actually had fun and didn't feel like complete dog crap at the finish plus, I only suffered 2 small cramps which worked themselves out.

In the end I managed to shave 40 minutes off my 2012 time, finishing 12th in the 50 plus class.

That night we hit the same little restaurant in downtown Dahlonega that we'd eaten at Friday night. Pitchers of beer were poured, much food was eaten, and some football watched.  It was truly a great weekend.