Laziness

I had planned on getting out to put in some long road miles today, but instead, I went back to sleep after eating some breakfast! It turned out being a little bit of a bike maintenance day. I put a new front tire on the mountain bike. Opted to put a set of Maxxis Raze 35's on the cross bike in preparation for the "Carrera de los Muertos" race in MoTown this weekend. Went out for a little Frick 'n Schenley ride for about 15 miles, just to test them out. Didn't feel too bad, but the riding was a little tricky with all of the new wet leaves covering everything.

Swung by the shop and hung out for a bit, and Steve pretty much saved my life. I accidentally left my front skewer a little loose after changing the tires, and it had vibrated REALLY loose. Just wanted to give a little thanks to Steve for helping me to keep this season going. THANKS STEVE!!

Got one day of work tomorrow, racin' Saturday, fun mountain ride Sunday, and hopefully some good riding on Monday and Tuesday. Hope the weather holds up!!

Weekend of Racing

Had a really nice, painful weekend of racing. Hit up the Murrysville Cyclocross Race on Saturday. It was my second cross race of the year, and I got a call up! Sweet!! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do too much with it. Was hanging in around the top 5 for the first couple of laps, and then I ran out of steam, and slowly slipped back through the ranks until I ended up in 15th. Still, I am ok with the result, as I do still have a lot to learn.

On Sunday, I had a choice between another cross race at Raccoon Township, or going to Moraine State Park for the last Month of Mud race of the year. Despite not being able to ride the rocks to save my life, I ended up finishing 3rd single speed, behind JPok and Montana, right about where I felt I should have been. Good times.

Got out this afternoon for a little spin around Frick Park, and it felt pretty good. Such a nice day out!!! Now I have to ride into work tonight...

Iron Cross

Iron Cross VII was last weekend, and it was a blast. Beautiful scenery, 40mph fire road descents, a 5 mile detour after missing a turn, it had everything that you could ask for!




Cloud in the road on the way to the start.

Before the race, I was unsure of how to dress. Temps were in the mid 40's, and it was expected to hit the low 60's around 1pm. Decided to go with a short sleeve jersey, wool armwarmers, and my normal bib shorts. This turns out to have been perfect for me, as the armwarmers never came off, they just got rolled down, and back up, a couple of times.




Another steaming lake. It was cold!

We missed the pre race meeting, but from what we gathered, they were lining people up by their estimated finishing time, which seemed to work out well, at least for me. I lined up just behind the really fast guys, in the second group. I had set my goal to be under 4:30, hoping for 4:15. We seemed to stand there forever, and I risked a quick jog to the woods to relieve myself one more time, and as I was headed back to my bike, heard "go!" Didn't lose my position, and did a flying mount onto my bike. Jake, however, was not quite so lucky, and was caught with his pants down!!

We did a shortened version of the IC Lite course, including the spiral of death, and then it was off into the woods along the rail trail. Fell into the paceline, pushing at about 25 or so, gradually moving up, to my surprise. Pop out into a little park, through about a 20 yard sandpit, barely sustaining my momentum without falling, despite having to dodge 2 falling racers.

After this, we had a long, gradual double track climb, where I was somehow able to pass about 10 or so more racers. I was worried that I might have been pushing a little too hard, but my fuel from Dunkin Donuts before the race had me feeling pretty damn good.

Continued up, into some singletrack, more climbing, and then finally hit the infamous powerline hike a bike. I didn't realize that it would be a seriously steep, rocky hiking trail! It was kind of slow going, and noone around me really seemed to be trying to go super fast up it, so I just settled in and worked my way to the top. Someone reminded us to take a look back at the top, and it was a pretty amazing view.

Get up to the aid station, and then more fireroad. Manage to catch up with some pretty fast guys, and worked with them for a bit. Two of us break away, and a third catches us. We make a right turn, the road curves around, and we start hammering the rollers. See another guy that is wondering if we are going the wrong way. Uh oh. He could be wrong, so 2 of us keep going, and then we hit a stop sign. Time to turn around. Apparently, if I would have gone to the pre race meeting, I would have known that there is one turn that is marked on the pavement, instead if the little black arrows on yellow paper that mark out the rest of the course. Yea, that was the turn. Get back on the course, a little upset that I just wasted probably 15 mins, and keep moving.

The rest is a bit of a blur, just kept moving along. Ended up getting passed on the last climb by the 2nd place female finisher, but got ahead of her again on the screaming fast road finish. 4:34, 22nd senior men, 42nd over all. Meh. Next year at least. I'll know better. At least I still beat Jake!!

Not bad for my first weekend of racin' on the 'cross bike!!

Laurel Ridge Painfest

Yesterday, I thought that it might be a good idea to go out and put some serious miles in. The last time that I went up to Laurel Mountain to ride the mountain bike trails, I couldn't believe that they had re-paved route 30 going up the mountain. It was making me wish that I had my road bike to try bombing down it. It is about a 4 mile downhill, with most of it being about an 8% grade (at least that's what the sign says.) It seemed like it was supposed to be a nice day, so what the hell, might as well ride up there!

Left from home, riding my old commuting route out following 993 out to and past Irwin, (made it in record time btw, 51 minutes!!) and went out through Jeannette. Hopped on 130 through Greensburg, and kept going through Stahlstown. Made it to the magical water spring on Lynn Run Road, and this is where things get a little weird.

For some reason, somebody thought that it would be a good idea to cover up the pavement, albeit crumbling pavement, with crushed limestone. Ya know, the stuff that rail trails are made of. But two lanes wide. Needless to say, this was not a good time on the road bike with 23's on it.

Needless to say it was a rough climb. Took me a bit, and it took a lot out of me, but I made it. After riding around a bulldozer and a grader. Get up top, and the dirt/gravel road was actually pretty smooth. Ran into a few friends that were out on their mountain bikes, stopped to put my armwarmers back on, cause it was chilly up there, and took lots of pictures of fall stuff...

After riding across the top, tried to bomb down route 30. Well, too bad there was a serious head wind. I couldn't even break 45 mph. Boo. The nice smooth new pavement was pretty awesome though, railing through the turns. Rode into Ligonier, and stopped for a sugary snack. As soon as I started rolling again, noticed that I had a flat on my rear tire, crap. Changed that, and kept rolling.

Rode past Keystone State Park, Loyalhanna, and kept got on 286, and wasn't feeling well. Stopped and sucked down a can of mountain dew, and as I started to move again, started to realize that I was going to be pushing it getting home in daylight. This was a problem for me, as I didn't bring any lights with me at all, and it was going to be close. I was trying to decide which way that I should go, the longer and flatter way, or the shorter hillier way. Ended up taking my chances with the hills.

Ended up making it back through Penn Hills, in the nick of time....

Made it home in time to shower, and get my butt to wing night at Fatheads!!!

Total for the day 130 miles, 7:56 ride time. Wow, mapmyride says only 6400 feet of climbing. Lame.