24 Hour Solo MTB Race

24 Hours, one complete day, not sure why anyone would want to ride their bike for 24 straight hours, why would I want to ride my bike 24 straight hours? I wanted a challenge, I wanted to see if I could, what it would be like. I had done a few of these events with teams in years past, had an awesome time and watched others demolish themselves for 24 hours solo. For the past few years since I had not been racing I started to make goals to do some big events, Summit Mt. Rainier, ride the Cascade Cream Puff 100 mile MTB race on a single speed, and this year the 24 hour solo race presented itself and I jumped at the chance. I had ridden my bike more than years past and I was actually feeling pretty good on the bike, I had no idea if I could make it the full 24, I had made it 12 hours at the Cream Puff and if I just paced myself I could make it a full 24 hours, right? Fast forward to race day...

Camp was rustling by 8 am, 4 hours till go time, we had a good buzz around camp, team Shredded Bits and the Funky Junk was getting prepared and Camp Bitch and Camp Bitch's Bitch (the names were in good fun and they wore aprons with their names on it, don't worry they wore them with pride) had made us an amazing breakfast THANK YOU Camille and Karen. That morning went by way faster then I could have imagined and before I new it start time was upon me. Everything was going according to plan, I had everything I needed, Clarissa had everything organized and was ready for anything. Standing there on the start line I wasn't nervous, I really had no feelings at all, I was just ready for a small jog then a bike ride, something I had done 100 times before. The gun went off and I started jogging, I didn't get more than 10 steps until I was brought back to remember I was racing (unfortunately) by some guy who was elbowing people trying to get through... really dude... we have 1439 minutes left in this thing and your throwing elbows now.... but I digress. The 3/4 mile jog up the hill and through camp went well and I got on the bike without a problem and the race was on, the race to not over cook yourself on the first lap.

The entire 1st lap my goal was to talk to whom ever I could to talk back, because if I was talking I was going slow enough to talk which meant I was going the right speed. As I came to the finish line the first lap the crowd was cheering and I felt great! I came into camp and Riss was there with everything I needed, more water, more food and off to lap #2.

Lap Time: 1:10
Miles Ridden: 14.7

Lap 2: My first goal on this lab was cool my jets and bring down my adrenaline so that I didn't waste anymore energy. It was really hard for me to go so chill, I had people passing me that would never pass me in a normal race and I had to keep reminding myself that they could go sit down and relax after their 1 hour of pain and I had to go back out and do another lap. Before the race I had done a reconnaissance lap and made notes on where I needed to be each lap to do 1 hr 15 min laps, I knew where I would be at all times, and I was right where I wanted to be, if I could do 1:15 lap time I could do 19 laps and be in the running for the win. I hit my last marker faster then I needed to and only had 15 min left in the lap when I had my first mechanical, I got my chain stuck in my frame between 3 spots that weren't big enough to fit a chain, I know it makes no sense and if you saw it it wouldn't make sense either, weird. Oh well, I fixed it, it took a while but I fixed it, and got back finished the lap.

Lap 2 Time: 1:16
Miles Ridden: 29.4


Lap 3: This was the time where I started getting worried about the race, I was not having a good day on the bike, I wasn't digesting the food I was eating, my heart rate wasn't doing what it should have been and I just generally wasn't feeling right. For those reading this that aren't riders or daily runners or anything like that, when I say I wasn't having a good day on the bike take it as: I was having a bad day, like this thing that I do daily and have done for many years daily has become one of the hardest things to do. Like something is holding you back and every pedal stroke takes every once of concentration to complete it... not good. When doing these endurance events you get into this "zone" where your body goes into auto drive and you don't have to think about riding, you just pedal, this is something that must happen for me to keep sane, and it wasn't! This was my fastest lap of the race but it was way harder mentally then it should have been. I took a small break after this lap to try and get my stomach in order and get some food digested.

Lap 3 Time: 1:09
Miles Ridden: 44.1

Lap 4: Wow this lap was not good from the start, within 2 min I flatted and had to go back to camp to get a new wheel and thankfully Derik and Koder fixed the flat for me while I was out on the lap. Thanks Guys! The rest of the lap was more like a death march then riding. I made it around the course, just barley...

Lap 4 Time 1:16
Miles Ridden: 58.8

Lap 5: Another death march, I made it again, just barley. Just Keep Riding!!

Lap 5 Time: 1:19
Miles Ridden: 73.5

Lap 6: Lights on and sun down, I finally start feeling better but that's only because I have nothing left in my stomach, I was half delirious and a riding zombie! After the lap I was done, it got to the point my entire body was shutting down and I wasn't interested in pushing myself too far, the race wasn't worth crashing and hurting myself or pushing me to the point where I pass out on course. This was game over for the night for me. I made it close to 10 hours and I struggled with the decision all night. I knew it was the right decision when I started getting cold sweats and all my joints started locking up.I was finally able to get to sleep for a couple hours, and when I woke up I knew I had made the right decision to stop, it was even hard to walk, my knees were sore, and I still had a hard time thinking. I went to the start finish for the pancake breakfast and watched all the riders who made it through the night come in and saw how tired they were and started to feel bad for stopping, even if i knew I had made the right decision for me.

Lap 6 Time: 13:49 ok so I rode only 1:22 of it.
Miles Ridden: 88.2

Lap 7: I decided to get back on the bike after Pete and Nina showed up at the race, the sun came out and it got warmer, oh and Koder bragging that he beat me... that I hadn't done any laps faster than him. Ok so the challenge was on, sort of, it was in the back of my head to try and beat his fastest time of 57 min. but I really didn't know what I could do, if I could do a lap time of 57 or 1:57. I started out chill enough just being efficient and I just started ramping up the speed faster and faster until I was full throttle. It must have been funny to watch this guy with solo tags on his bike ripping through everyone on course and going so fast. I felt like I should be wearing a sign that said "I haven't ridden since yesterday!" I popped off a sub hour lap at 59 min 6 sec. fast enough for the fastest solo lap time of the race, but it wasn't easy the only reason I was able to do this lap was because I tricked my body to think I had stopped and before it realized that I was trying to ride again I was done, because after it realized what I was trying to do it got really mad and completely shut down and the last lap I had to complete was incredibly slow, really hard and slow and there was nothing I could do about it. One other thing about this lap that I have to give credit where credit is due, the guy who had the fastest lap time before me was the man who won the entire race and did a 59:37 lap on the second lap of the race, yup I am impressed!

Lap 7: 0:59
Miles Ridden: 102.9

Lap 8 1:25
Miles Ridden: 117.6

So that was my 24 Hour Solo adventure and before I finish I have to say a couple more things:

THANK YOU!!! to Karen and Camille (Camp Bitch and Camp Bitch's Bitch), Team Shredded Bits and the Funky Junk, Dale King, Jason Casebolt, Jim Brown, everyone at Rad Racing, and all the cheering people on course for all your support!

To my lovely wife!!! My biggest supporter who encouraged me when I was going well, kept my spirits up when I wasn't, and supported me when I decided to stop. I owe her a huge thank you, I couldn't do it without her!

To my Shinobi! yes I can thank my bike, she was there with me the whole way as well! Wow what an amazing rig, when I told people I was riding a 5 inch travel 29er dual suspension on this course they called me mad. This thing kicks ass! It pedals better than any other bike I have ever ridden (that's a lot!) and floats over the rocks and roots like nothing. I have got her down to 26 lbs and I would take on any race with her XC, Super D, anything! the 1 bike that covers everything! a bike that can truly be ridden all day! Thanks Norco for the amazing rig! it made a huge difference.

Ok I think that is all, I don't plan on doing another 24 hour solo event soon, not that I would put it out of reach to ever try again, but let me recover from this one first. Oh and I think Derik and I decided we were going to do 24 hours of Bend in September... at least this time it'll be on a team!

Buying a house is so full of ups and downs, today is an up.... I wonder what tomorrow will bring.........

What up! I can blog from my phone now! I wonder if this means I will update my blog more now....

Oly is the Champion!

The Olympia Composite High School Mountain Bike Team took the first ever Washington High School MTB Championships in dominating fashion, I am proud to be their coach (more like race helper). We took 3 individual wins with David, Andrea and Shannon and great finishes by Kevin and Kyle in 6th and 7th respectively, on our small team it really shows how strong every one of the kids were to take home the overall title against teams twice our size. Congratulations guys! and thanks for letting me ride around with you and share in your glory!

Sweet Weekend

I just had an awesome 3 day weekend it even started a few hours early when I hit the Thursday night team ride... and got throttled! Wow those guys are going fast right now, now given they started training in January to do well in this early season but still those guys are going really good right now and with everyone riding that strong Olympia is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the up coming races!

Next came the an awesome sunny day which i took full advantage of to do something I have not done in a long while and that is hit the links for a game of golf. What an amazing day sunny and 60 deg. not to mention I was striking the ball incredibly well, I shot a soft 83 (meaning there were just a couple of mulligans but less than 5) it was just awesome to get outside all day on one of the nicest days of the year.

Saturday we hung out at the beach and oh how nice it was to just relax on a sunny ice cold beach in the middle of April...

Tomorrow we are going riding with Pukesh from Norco which is always a good time, plus just another chance to rock the Shinobi! Yeah baby!

Back to the Race Course

The last of the budu races was last weekend and she was a fun one! It has been really nice showing up to races and not worrying about whether or not I had good legs and knowing I was going to have fun. Plus for an extra bonus we got the new GL6 kits for the race! SWEET! Thanks Kerry! The race was well attended in every class except mine where I was the only one... Oh well, I started with the jrs. We caught the group ahead of us within the first min and a half and I worked my way through the group but there was absolutely no passing on this course, even less than on the first BD course. There were many points during the race where it was pretty much neutralized racing because there was no where to move or pass on course... So i just had fun with it. It was a really nice day and the course had some really fun parts. It was to be out on the Shinobi, that thing is awesome! I love passing people on super lightweight carbon hardtails up hill and them looking at my 5" travel bike w/ a dropper post going "why is he racing that" then figuring it out when I am having way more fun on the way back down.

I also need to send out a huge thank you to Jonathan and Dustin from Norco for stopping on their way back from Sea Otter to show us there new cool toys! And boy where they cool! Norco as a company just can't miss right now, all the new bikes that are coming down the line have a feel like nothing else I have ever ridden, they are simple, cleaver and smart. The entire company really cares and understands the product, not to mention what riding means to all people not just the Tour de France racer (but believe you me their race bikes still kick ass). Thank you guys again for stopping by we really appreciate it.

Thank you Brian for the photos!

1 Wet one and 1 Muddy one

One road race and one MTB race, back to back days plus getting to see my best friend = AWESOME WEEKEND!

First I had the Independence Valley Road Race, my first road race of the season and one of the toughest courses on the calendar. First off I want to thank Eric for putting on an awesome race. It was a short lived race for me, after making it over the first climb with relative ease coming down the sketchy decent we hit the flats and Chipchase comes along side me and then promptly flats. Being optimistic I fell back to help only to find a crazy slow fix! Bummer! We chased as hard as we could for about 20 min worked back though a couple of groups but never made it back to the main group. It's really hard to chase something you can't see. We finished up the lap and I made it up Michigan hill again, then bagged it and saved it for the MTB race the next day. It was still a great workout, hindsight is 20/20 I should have stayed in the pack but I'd rather help out a teammate and give them the chance to finish the race then sit in the pack any day!

Day 2! Sandy Ridge Super D! I was pretty stoked for this one! It was the first time I hadn't ridden at Sandy Ridge before but heard great things about it and it didn't disappoint. It was an awesome course and crazy muddy! We made the 2.5 hr trek down south and it rained harder and harder all the way down we made it to the race and it was just pouring! Registered and headed up for a preride. We made the 30 min trip to the top and headed down the race course, two things came to mind straight away, wow what a cool trail and wow how slow I am I riding this cool trail... I was hoping the fact that I had a number plate on and someone said "GO" would make me go faster... Well it did... sorta, in some places. The gun went off and within the first 3 corners I had already blown one of them really bad. Not to long after that I managed to hit one root wrong which sent me into hitting the next 3 roots wrong and launching myself off the front of my bike. After getting up and trying to get back into the race I was clean for the next while and at times felt really fast and really good, other times it was like: Rock.... Front Wheel.... Rear Wheel... Turn... slowly. Other times I felt like I was super smooth, so I guess that's a start I have maybe one or two true descents since the first of the year so I can't really expect to much.

That's the weekend! Thanks for reading!

Killer Ride!

Training for a 24 hour solo race really hurts! Especially when your out of shape! I had the option of doing a couple races today yet thought better of it after thinking about the fact that I have very little training since the last race and racing without training just leads to dissapointment. So I did a 4 hour ride today and rode hard for most of it. I started from my house and rode to the forest all the way up to the new trail and hit that (Awesome!). Then down to the fall creek trailhead and up Mima 8 across 50 and down 6, then back home. Why when I say that is sounds so easy... Anyway 4 hours in the saddle and I was back, totally exhausted! It was an awesome ride though, got spinkled on just once, it was windy up there but not bad, and the trails were in mint condition! As long as you stay low, 50 had snow piles off the side of the trail.

OK really tired today was short but better than nothing.

Rider Profile!

Thurston Talk did a profile of me for their web site. Thanks Stacee! It turned out great!

http://www.thurstontalk.com/2011/03/18/local-mountain-bike-rider-finds-balance-between-work-and-play/

First Race of the Year!!!

Oh man it feels good to strap a number on the front of my bike and get back on the race course! Not only that but I am on a rad new bike and that always gives a little extra motivation. The race was out at Black Diamond, which is the most twisty, bumpy and technical race we do all year and I was glad for all 5 inches of travel on the Shinobi.

Not sure what the thought process was on the start... but the fastest guys started at the back of the feild... about 2 min behind the SS and all the other age catagories and there is very little passing on this course to say the least. Can anyone say passing clinic! To all of those who let us get by without hesitation I'd like to send out a big THANK YOU! There weren't many of us racing in my cat. but those who showed up were quick, I was able to stay with Spencer while we were trying to work our way through the group but once we hit open trail he was gone. Spencer's a world class rider so I definetly didn't feel too bad when he was gone, at that point I was in second and was just hoping to stay there. Tim started to bring me back lap 2 and I was getting a little worried becasue my back started to bug me. At the end of lap 2 on the only road section I opened it up a little bit and streched out my back, I must have been going pretty fast becasue there was a train of guys behind me that I was passing on the road and they all looked to be hurting... sweet! We hit the singletrack and opened up the gap. The cool part about this course is that it twists back on itself a lot! So you can see where the guys are behind and in front of you, sometimes its hard to tell how far back they are but at least you can see them. I had opened the gap on third to about 45 sec to a min and felt pretty comfortable with that knowing I was going faster in the technical stuff. Towards the end I could definetly feel myself getting tired and making more mistakes, I dumped it once but was able to hold off a charging Tim and take 2nd! Sweet if that's not motivaiton for the coming year I am not sure what is.

Thats all for now! Late!

New Bike!!!!

Awesome ride on the new Norco Shinobi 29er dual suspension yesterday. Built her up Friday night and had to check it out asap! I was blown away... again by this bike. There is a ton of snow here in oly so I had to go scope out trails up north. Ended up at black diamond and the conditions were great. Compact snow and ice with just enough traction to make it fun! Keep your eyes out for a in-depth look at the Shinobi soon!

Unmotivation

Super unmotivated to do anything with my day off today. I slept in, made myself a good breakfast, and sat my butt on the couch... I had great plans of doing an epic MTB ride in the forest today 3+ hours of muddy goodness but just had no motivation to do it. About 12 pm I finally get some motivation to get out. I get the bright idea to grab every camera I have and set out to make some videos, and take some photos. Load up, Gas up, and coffee up, off to the forest still no motivaiton but I am at least out of the house. Get to the forest and camera up start the climb and get to the descent, to bad I used up all of my memory on the camera on the way up... DOH! That's ok I brought the Flip so I get to the log jump and set up hit record and set back up the hill to hit the jump. It was a beautiful jump, threw some english on it and no one will ever know... I didn't check the batteries on the flip.. nope today was not my day with electronics acutally it wasn't really my day for anything. I did get some sweet photos though. Check these out.

Two of My Best Friends

Better but not perfect...

Ok so I was doing better at the blog thing. Let me fill you in on what has gone down since we last talked.

Ris and I took our first road trip as a married couple! We went down to visit my family down in California. It was an awesome trip! I got to see my grandparents from the Brechwald side which I haven't seen in a long while and Ris got to meet my Grandfather for the first time. After a great visit with them we got to go to Disneyland! Ris had never been there before and she had a great time, 2 days were great. The second day was nuts, Brit came with us on day 2 and it was nice becasue we got to get the inside scoop on what to do when the park was packed! They SOLD OUT! really Disneyland selling out... can you imagine... you don't want to. But it wasn't that bad, we got to do some really cool things like, drive the Mark Twain and eat Monte Carlo's we had a great day even if it was packed!

Next was off to Santa Barbra and San Luis Obispo to spend some time with my Aunts and Uncles. First a short stop in Santa Barbra to see Jayne and Gary's amazing home watch the sun set over the ocean. After that short stop we headed north to Brad and Jane's new home in SLO which was awesome as well, especially the theater room.... all I can say is WOW! Jane and Jason got new bikes for X-mas so I went riding with Jason and Brad, had an awesome ride little wet and muddy but that just felt like home! Thank you to all for all of your hospitality!

Then we made the long trek home... we took the long way for half the trip up hwy 1 and it was so worth it! an amazing day and an amzing trip.

Ok I am done typing hopefully more tomorrow.