knee is now swollen again.

i attended the 12hrs of pat's peak on saturday. signed up for the 12hr solo category. had my buckets packed with gear and nutrition. set up camp with some folks from the ridemonkey board. I was on the cover of the local paper on race day in a pic taken by splat last year of me coming into the finish!

bike was set up 32X21 with my new crossmarks. creaked like crazy, i lube the ebb halfway through the day, and that didn't help at all, i think now it might be the pedals, or could be the bb. i used a water bottle and carried tools in my jersey which i liked a lot not having to have a camelback on all day. and since the laps were 45mins and i passed my pit every lap i was able to refresh my bottle each lap and get a gel. i think i overdrank on the first couple of laps, and at the end of lap 3 had a mental block. kinda got the blahs and finally just got up and went out again, then i was good til my second to last lap. i just wasn't having much fun. the loop is hard, no easy parts, straight up, then straight down, which isn't too relaxing rigid. my upper arms and legs started cramping, and i started to worry about getting careless. so i finished up my 8th lap and called it a day after 8hours of riding.

totals
8 laps
8+hrs total time before i stopped.
@6-7hrs of actual on the bike time.
sore legs and back even 2days later
sore butt


http://www.patspeak.com/summer/bike_results.php

15th out of 16 finishers!

did another 1:45 or so today, tried to ride some of the hills in a high gear so i could stand and grind up em. felt pretty good.

rode the rollers last night for 45 mins, 5hard, 5easy. i'm going to try and do the pat's peak 12hr solo this saturday.

1:42 did my out and back plus fruit st and a loop in the toll house hood and back 28+miles. hit 41+mph on thhe downhill, finally just coasted but got down into a tuck and was definitely faster than last time pedalling, but not in a tight tuck. makes ya wonder how fast a group could do my laps.

did a lollipop loop on tuesday, i found out that it was a bird protecting it's nest that was attacking me because it did it again on monday, so i did the loop to avoid that part of 135.
no ride today due to rain.

broke 1,000 miles on my road bike today! of course that doesn't include the first month i had it, but it does include a whole lot of miles on the rollers. but i'll take it. did a little under 2hrs today.

sheww, monday and tuesday's rides wore me out. did a half loop on wednesday and a big fat nothing on thursday! but today did the half loop and felt pretty good actually. if i get to ride much next week i think i'll be at least back to normal fitness wise.

chh,chh,chh changes...

And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
Theyre quite aware of what theyre going through


alrighty, nothing so monumental as breakfast club, but we've made some changes since last post...

bike related, i couldn't move my right leg after my last ride on memorial day, so went to the doc and a week later had over 80cc's of fluid drained by my neighbor, and it would have been more only he ran out of containers. your knee is supposed to have 2! got some MRI's done, went back, he drained some more and told me my knee is fine, wait 10 days and ride like normal. knee probably has some damage on the back of the actual patella and the act of walking moves the patella enough to cause irritation, thus causing the fluid, so don't walk too much...

started riding yesterday my usual extended loop, man it was hard, but not too hard... did it again today and body realized what was going on and tried to shut me down! it hurt today, felt like i was barely moving.

BIG NEWS!!!

so, we decided to attempt to move back to NC, well since my last post, nicoa took a job with MISYS in raleigh, started work on monday, and we put the house on the market last week, had our open house and first showings sunday and signed a contract sunday night to sell the house! shake and bake baby! closing is aug 3rd, so we hope to be down in raleigh permanently by then... nicoa found a house next to the rose garden for us to renovate, probably make a conditional offer this weekend! wow, things moving fast.

rode a little under 2hrs in nam....

finally rode my mtb locally. i realized its been over a month since i've actually ridden in my own state. first doing longer road rides on the weekend, then spring break in pisgah, then nicoa travelled, then rain, then back to pisgah, then whatever, finally got out and rode around nam for 2+hours. going back tomorrow.

2:09 and change, 37.55 miles! added the toll house hill, and the elm/school rd loops. i'm pretty tired now too. first hot day of riding, not really too bad though, lots of shade, hardly any humidity, but there seemed to be more wind today.

good ride today, perfect weather, added a @3 mile loop to my 2hr ride, it made it almost exactly 2 hrs. of course today was early release for the kids at school and i could have ridden another half hour and added 2 other sections...

got my new hope headset and crossmarks yesterday i'll weigh the xmarks today(595 and 628), not sure if i'll install them yet.

rode today, even though it threatened to rain the whole time. tried to do an "easy" loop, still finished in under 2hrs. i'm going to add mileage i think next time. i never felt really good though, too much time off the bike.

rain delay

been raining for about 5 straight days now. knee still puffy, and now my calf hurts when i twist it, i think walking aggrevates it. i ordered some crossmark tires and a red hope headset last week, then got some new xtr cranks off ebay to replace my bent ones. hopefully all that stuff will show up this coming week.

sweet, did my loop in 1:49 today, despite having a huge puffy knee and starting out a bit slowly just to make sure the knee would warm up. after 20mins i felt pretty good and put it in the big ring and stayed there for the next 1:29! legs are a little sore now of course...but i feel pretty good.

did my 2hr loop. rain threatened so i did 1hr. 10mins or so...finished just before the rain hit.

first ride since pmbar. regular 2hr road loop...in 1:48, even had a van pull over to let me pass down lumber st!

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/2664927











we did it!

rode sunday 4/29 for an hour pretty hard.
rode monday 4/30 for almost an hour easy.
today is wednesday, only 3 more days til PMBAR! blair got my bike and i shipped my new BB and some tools and my shoes so i won't have to check any luggage. weather looks like it will rain some, so i'm gonna pack some warmer stuff.

rode rollers for 1 hr today.

back from pisgah, did 1hr road ride today.

pisgah rides.

saturday=clawhammer to black mtn to the car. it hailed on us too.

sunday=north slope and sycamore cove. rainy all morning, so quick ride between showers.

monday=big day at dupont. lots of blowdown and leaves on the trails. parked at corn shoals road.
rock quarry road
buck ridge road
micajah trail
wilkie trail
twixt trail
longside trail
pine tree trail
power lines
cedar rock trail
big rock trail
corn mill shoals trail
little river trail
to bridal veil falls(hiked across)
bridal overlook trail
corn mill shoals trail
laurel ridge trail
mine mountain trail
dirt road past parking
reasonover trail
lake view loop
camp summit road
airstrip

then we went separate ways

airstrip
mine mountain trail
laurel ridge trail
corn mill shoals trail

tuesday=clawhammer to buckhorn gap down laurel ridge to the bridge. and back. tons of blowdown, lots of hiking and i flatted and blair broke a spoke, rear derailler, cassette, hanger and bent the rear triangle...at the bridge, so we road all the way back veerry carefully.

wednesday=turkey pen parking lot.
road down to bradley creek trail
laurel creek trail
squirrel gap trail
south mills river

i crossed the river over 18 times. blair took a cut off and i was supposed to take the next one and meet him, but instead thought south mills would be flat and fast so i kept going to the bridge and blair waited over an hour for me, then headed to the car, almost another 30minutes of riding. it was @45degrees and we were both very wet from rain and creek crossing. bad call to split up.

thursday=back to charlotte, road an hour at white water center, it started lightening so we sprinted for the car.

saturday=hour and a half at beaver dam state park in raleigh.

time for some rest days. pmbar in 12 days!

last ride til pisgah!!! 2hr loop as usual. got my waltworks fork today! so i'll be tuning up the bike, putting on some light tubes and the fast traks, all this should drop 1.5lbs from my bike woohooo.

did my 2hr loop in...2hrs. windy today.

got to ride today. wet and cold. really wet. i found the new trail off the backside of the nemba board and guess what, it actually flows. when it's dry it will be pretty fast i think. rode for about 2.45hrs. felt pretty good, but after a couple of seated climbs my legs started to hurt. drank about 48oz heed and 2hammer gels.

biggest road ride to date. 3.20 hours, 49.91 miles...and i'm hurting now!

did my 2hr loop in 2.01, i felt like i was going faster today though, almost not wind and i tried pushing it a bit on some of the rollers..but i guess 3 days in a row has caused some fatigue. i used my heed today for the first time though..

did my 2hr loop in 2.05! 40degrees out and winds gusting in the 25-35mph range made it really hard going, even pedalling down hill in some places was hard.

just checked out walt's website and it looks like he made my fork the day after i ordered it and took it to the painter's the day after! woot.

did my 2hr loop in 1.56! and theres a pretty hefty gusting wind too! i spent the first hour coughing up phlegm though, and felt pretty nasty, but it all cleared up and the second hr i actually felt pretty good, like maybe i wasn't even pushing that hard! maybe rest days are worthwhile.

nicoa got a place in bald head for 2 weeks in the middle of summer!!!! she and the girls will go for the entire time and i'll bike for the entire time! since the flights aren't too expensive they might fly and that would really leave me wide open to go just about anywhere! maybe joey and judy's place to ride the oakridge and mckenzie stuff!!!!!! ooooo good idea.

blah. saturday it was 60+ outside and i didn't ride. got a new front wheel on the road bike, other one was really badly out of tension and i pulled a spoke head and cracked the rim...at least i wasn't crazy when i thought it felt flexy and off! lbs replaced it straight out with a mavic akysium race, entry level, a bit heavy, but gets great reviews for stiffness and smooth spin. got sick saturday night and was up and miserable all night. had a headache and cold fevers and of course was really tired all day sunday. got some medicine and was able to sleep pretty well and monday felt ok all day, still taking medicine though. today i feel almost 100%, but i'm not gonna ride...maybe tomorrow.

spent the day researching differnet brands of sports drinks, gu's etc...

2hrs outside again. roads all wet, felt better today, but don't think i rode any faster. taking the bike in for its 30 day tune up.


43 days til PMBAR!!!!

1hr easy on the rollers. back and legs are really sore from wednesdays outdoor ride. i also realized i rode with about 100psi on wednesday...rack it up as a tough training session! tires are back up to 120 today.

2hrs outside today, almost gave myself frost bite though. didn't seem too cold, but it's definitely below freezing and i started with only my riding gloves, not the windblockers and no overmitts either, fortunately i had the overmitts with me and was able to put them on after about 10 minutes otherwise i would have come home.

1 hr easy on the rollers. watched shrek 2. i'm not sure whether it's harder to ride the rollers easily or interval style.

well, i just ordered a fork from walt! 480a-c, 38mm rake, disc only, black!

somthing like this..

1 hr. big ring 2on 3off. sweating to shrek.

2hrs big ring on the rollers. 6inches of crusty snow fresh snow this morning...looks like i'll be riding the rollers most of the week.

1.5hrs on the rollers, mostly small ring.

i've been checking out the latest tires that seem like they will hook up and still be lightish. i have the fast tracs, but the new kenda sb8's are available now, and there might be a maxxis xc tire out soon, that i want to wait and see about. it was just about dry enough to ride outside this week and now its snowing again, then freezing rain...no riding outside for a few more days now. i'm getting in more hours per week than ever in my life, but have ridden my mtb less than at just about any time in the last 10 years. so we'll see what the trade off is going to be. i really think the finess will pay off for the pmbar because i expect to do a lot of gravel road riding.

1hr easy on the rollers, small ring. saddle adjusted and fit seems pretty good right now.

contacted walt at waltworks to see about a new fork!

2hrs on the road today, i'm kinda enjoying this road riding a bit. first ride without a jacket, nice to be out.

MOM AND DAD BOUGHT A NEW HOUSE!!! they signed the paperwork tonight, moving into town finally. i really think their lives will be more satisfying. look for city bikes for them!


i did 1.5hrs on the rollers today, 5min big ring, 5small....

1.15 on the rollers, big ring out on the deck...ordered my brake pads, and rear red blinky light for pmbar.

oooooh, lusting after this black sheep ti fork! alas, not to be, won't come down on price and he's the second owner...i'll pass.


planning a longer ride today as it's finally warmish. mid 40's! never thought i'd consider that warmish.

did 2.5hrs, 41+ miles! biggest road ride to date!

an hour on the rollers in the big ring. got my computer on the bike and my new 100mm 12* stem. had to rotate the handlebars a couple of mm's during the ride, but felt pretty good, and the seat seemed all right too. also got my new pedals and cleats installed.

1hr 15mins. stayed in big ring whole time...seat/bar setup still doesn't feel quite right. went by the bike shop today and they gave me a 100mm 12* stem to try out. i'm using 90mm 24*... and ordered some fancy pants new shorts finally.

still lusting after that pereira...but struggling with the fact that i just don't ride enough to have something that exotic/cool maybe? it's just too cold/snowy here for me to want to ride in the winter and so i've only been offroad about 5 times since jan 1. as it gets warmer i'll have more opportunity, but right now want to really ride the road bike for training purposes since in my limited time i can get more out of a road ride. and i'll actually ride a bit less in the summer til school starts back up, then i'll have a month or so to ride a lot, then winter, then next spring i'll be out a lot again... so, do i need a custom frame that is badass or spend half the amount for some sweet wheels, maybe ti bars/seatpost/fork...

1 hr. med spin on rollers. spent a lot of time adjusting seat back and forth and up and down, and finally levelled it and then aimed bars down a touch, maybe 2mm. try again tomorrow.

1 hr easy spin on rollers.

2 more road hrs. actually flurried a bunch on my today and my fingers got a bit cold. i tried to ride with only my glove liners.



check out this artist. jose parla. great video of him creating his stuff.


http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2007/03/jos_parl.php

2hrs on the road, i keep on thinking that for the first time i'll be climbing the fireroads at a pretty good clip. ordered my pedals, tubes, chain, computer. wooo.

spent a few hours yesterday and today looking at pics of the handmade bike show... lots of good stuff, but the "I gotta have it" bike out of all the pictures is the Pereira "roaring 29er" ....

saturday...

went to new hampshire for lunch...no workout. ate a lot.

friday workout

started with a 1.45hr. ride on the rollers. then spent 4-5hrs digging a trench in ice so the water could flow away from our house. then spent an hour cleaning out the basement and drying it.

list of stuff to bring to pmbar

stuff in my pack.

*extra tube
gu gels (6-8)
*multi-tool
*zip ties
*pump
flat repair kit
*duct tape(around seat post)
*emergency blanket
first aid kit
*raincoat
*bike light
mini flashlight(get target $30 led flashhlight)
powdered energy drink mix
food?! trail mix?

STUFF TO GET
*bike computer
new pack
get battery for suunto watch.
*new pedals
*new brakes(fancy brake cables=new)
new bake pads
*sram powerlink
new tires



also rode 1hr on the rollers

actually rode outside today.

weather was good. did 1hr. 45mins. believe it or not, longest road ride in almost 16years! it was hard too. i tried out a new shell from rei, nylon, tight fitting and with super long pit zips...i still had to wring out my shirts when i took it off, and had to actually shake the water off the inside of the shell...i'll be taking that back. PMBAR in 66 days!

back to riding indoors

got in a little over an hour on the rollers. first day back after a 4 day layoff.

it's snowing!

just when the roads started to dry out and the shoulders became visible...oh, well, got in 45 mins of level 2 cardio shovelling the driveway today. i'm gonna count it.

booked my plane tickets for PMBAR in May!

that about sums it up. its a balmy 40degrees today and the roads are full of melting snow and sand and salt, so this is my life..and yeah i'm wearing a headband

looking bad ass in my mini van

post one...test.

ok, its my first blog post...at least i did this before my kids.