So it's not a hundie, it's called a century. This weekend I joined a group of friend on MS150 City-to-Shore Multiple sclerosis fund raiser ride. It's set up as a 75 mile ride on Saturday from Philly area to Ocean City NJ, and 75 mile ride back on Sunday.
However, on Saturday there is an optional 25 mile loop, to make it a full century, and a 175 mile weekend.
Needless to say we did the 100 miles on Saturday (and it hurt) and 75 on Sunday back.
It was rather uneventful, but fun and entertaining in it's own way. Rolling with a groupd of good friends, having good time. Seven of us met up at the start, in the early dawn hours, and after waiting thru a long staging we got underway. Having started pretty late (yes, many riders were underway with lights in the dark at 6 am or so) we were moving pretty slowly thru the traffic. Lance had a flat, but after that it was pretty smooth sailing for a while.
On both days, we hooked up with "Brooklyn" branch of Team Jearney. A group of pretty strong well organized riders, that ride at least one of the days in the matching Brooklyn jerseys last year, and in black and white version this year. They seem to always have a very well organized and very fast paceline, moving past most traffic like a freight train. Jumping on their line of already 10-15 riders with our 6 made for an impressive long train, and many more riders jumped on, so on saturday we were rolling a Loooong line!
Dave and Adam, opted to do 75 miles, Brian, Lance, Chris, Fletcher and myself went on to the century loop. It turned out to be a good choice. Lance was checking his computer and for the first 42 miles our average speed was only 16 mph, at the end of the 25 mile loop it was 18. So in 25 miles we increased our pace enough to offset 42 miles of slow moving enough to raise it by 2 mph. That's something. Early in the extra loop we picked up Scott, and 6 of us worked well together in a neat pace line, that must've helped a lot.
Of note and "entertainment" was one incident. I was drafting Scott (a fast rider we picked up on the extra 25 mile loop) in our little 7 men pace line. Either I was rolling a little too fast, or he slowed down a little bit, I don't know, but I let my front overlap with his rear, figuring, i'll coast and drop back in few second. Unfortunately for me, my holding a straight line skills were lacking, and I touched his wheel, disengaged, and instead of touching the brakes to drop back, I froze, touched more, and harder, lost ballance and went sverving into the middle of the road. I was all off balance, and the bike was flying all over the place. I galnced down and braced for the inevitable meeting with harsh asphalt. Lucky for me, fear is stronger than physics! I did not want to hit the ground. Somehow my foot was out of the pedal and I "tripoded" sliding my foot on the ground with both tires sliding all over the place as well. Don't know how I managed to stabalize the twitching handlebars, but in the end I rode it out!
That's about it. I'm not sold on the road riding as "fun", but it can be entertaining with the right group and under right curcumstances!
Pictures are in my buddy Chris's album
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Hit the road jack...
So with the replacement bolt-on axle on my Tinbred sorted out, and a 10mm thru axle in the box awaiting a thru bolt, and only 4 days left before the MS150, I went for my second almost ever road ride with my buddy Chris borrowing his Airborne Zeppelin.
This time we actually hit some hills and managed 29 miles in about 1:40...
Well, road riding can hurt as much as off road! Funny thing was that I had to work REALLY hard to stay with him on the flats, constantly loosing his wheel and then straining to catch up. But on the inclines I seemed to be able to pull away. Oh yeah, and downhills... Forget it! I was a chicken sh$t and he completely disappeared in the distance!
The finniest thing, tho, happened about 50 yards from the house, slight incline, Chris went for a sprint. I tried to answer, but in the haste, lack of control, wrong gear, not knowing what the heck I was doing, my cumbersome jerky power spin resulted in the rear wheel coming up, what felt like 10", off the ground and scaring a living crap out of me!!!
This time we actually hit some hills and managed 29 miles in about 1:40...
Well, road riding can hurt as much as off road! Funny thing was that I had to work REALLY hard to stay with him on the flats, constantly loosing his wheel and then straining to catch up. But on the inclines I seemed to be able to pull away. Oh yeah, and downhills... Forget it! I was a chicken sh$t and he completely disappeared in the distance!
The finniest thing, tho, happened about 50 yards from the house, slight incline, Chris went for a sprint. I tried to answer, but in the haste, lack of control, wrong gear, not knowing what the heck I was doing, my cumbersome jerky power spin resulted in the rear wheel coming up, what felt like 10", off the ground and scaring a living crap out of me!!!
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Broken axle update
Industry Nine rocks! Sent them email last night with pictures around 8:30 PM. Was going to follow up with a phone call this morning, but by 8:50 I had an email from them.
The email said that it shouldn't have happened, and they suspect a bad grain structure in the metal of the axle. Asked for my shipping address, stating that the replacement is on it's way under warrantee.
That's customer service!
The email said that it shouldn't have happened, and they suspect a bad grain structure in the metal of the axle. Asked for my shipping address, stating that the replacement is on it's way under warrantee.
That's customer service!
When the tire rubs, it might be more than alignment
Went on a ride tonight. The weather was perfect, things were clicking, felt good to be on the bike. We were moving.
On one rooty step I heard distinct "brrrttt", I knew the tire rubbed on the chainstay. Stopped, looked down, yep, it's not centered in the drops. Strange, it hasn't slipped in ages. Oh well, 45 second stop: 8mm L-long-handle-hex wrench out, loosen, re-center, re-tughten. Done. On my way.
A little downhill, slight rise, and I hear "bbrrrrrttt". WTF?! Cannot slip again! Ok. Wrench out, loosen, re-center, re-tighten, really re-tighten. Make sure it's tight enough. 1 minute 15 seconds later, I'm on my way. 1 minute later "brrrrtttt".
Now, now, there is something DEFINITELY wrong! Stop, flip the bike over, inspect for ANY abnormalities. Even looked for cracks in stays, maybe the frame is out of wack. Take the wheel completely out of the drops.
Oh CRAP! This is what I see:
On one rooty step I heard distinct "brrrttt", I knew the tire rubbed on the chainstay. Stopped, looked down, yep, it's not centered in the drops. Strange, it hasn't slipped in ages. Oh well, 45 second stop: 8mm L-long-handle-hex wrench out, loosen, re-center, re-tughten. Done. On my way.
A little downhill, slight rise, and I hear "bbrrrrrttt". WTF?! Cannot slip again! Ok. Wrench out, loosen, re-center, re-tighten, really re-tighten. Make sure it's tight enough. 1 minute 15 seconds later, I'm on my way. 1 minute later "brrrrtttt".
Now, now, there is something DEFINITELY wrong! Stop, flip the bike over, inspect for ANY abnormalities. Even looked for cracks in stays, maybe the frame is out of wack. Take the wheel completely out of the drops.
Oh CRAP! This is what I see:
And this is what I had in my hand... Yeah, that's no good, and will not be fixed on the trail in 45 seconds. Ok, so I'm looking at a long, long walk home. Sucks!
Luckily, couple of guys who I was riding with live really close to the park. Nate, was nice enough to ride home, grab his car and give me a ride home. I was sweating trying to extract the broken piece. For some reason I thought I'd have to unscrew it out. But after reviewing Industry Nine on-line hub service pdf, I realized that the part that was screwed on and was holding the axle in place, was already nicely separated from it. Heh, lucky, I guess. Few gentle taps later I was looking at these nice pieces on my counter:
Already sent an email to Industry Nine. Will follow up with a phone call in the morning. I'm pretty confident, they will take care of me, and even if they do not deem this warrantable, it's only a $50 part. No biggie. Quick order and 2 day shipping and I will be back in the saddle by the weekend.
Stay tuned for the updates.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Hit the road...
So last night I finally got together with my buddy Chris, who's lending me his airborne for the MS150 ride in three weeks, for a first road ride. Well, technically, it's not my first, but, maybe 3rd, and the first two were far in between and at least 4 years ago! So yeah, for all practical purposes it was my first.
What can I say about it?... Not a fan. But there is no big surprise there. It was mildly amusing and entertaining, for the novelty of it all, playing with it, some semi-sprints, hill pulls, etc. Especially, after I figured out the bike and got a little more comfortable on it and was able to actually stand up and crank up the hills, SS-style! heh
We did just over an hour ride at average speed of just under 19 mph, for a 22 mile loop.
I can see the training benefits tho. Big time. I was thinking about it since last night, but the full irony of it didn't occur to me till this morning. Most people get on SS in the winter in the off season for training to improve their racing/riding on geared bikes. I'm considering getting more often, or dare I say, regularly, on the road geared bike to improve my SSing!!!
At least for me SSing is a lot akin to interval riding, bursts of effort and power up the hills, some hard short spins on the flats, but a lot of coasting on the downhills and on the flats once certain speed/cadence are reached. Thus effort followed by rest and recovery, followed by more effort, then more rest and so it goes. On the road, especially with gears, it's not so. The effort is a lot more constant, even on the flats and downhills, it's still pedaling and working the legs, so it definitely should improve the endurance and stamina. While I still did not like the concept of the road, cars, bike, somewhat boredom, etc... I can and do appreciate the benefits and will try to make it a habit over this winter.
What can I say about it?... Not a fan. But there is no big surprise there. It was mildly amusing and entertaining, for the novelty of it all, playing with it, some semi-sprints, hill pulls, etc. Especially, after I figured out the bike and got a little more comfortable on it and was able to actually stand up and crank up the hills, SS-style! heh
We did just over an hour ride at average speed of just under 19 mph, for a 22 mile loop.
I can see the training benefits tho. Big time. I was thinking about it since last night, but the full irony of it didn't occur to me till this morning. Most people get on SS in the winter in the off season for training to improve their racing/riding on geared bikes. I'm considering getting more often, or dare I say, regularly, on the road geared bike to improve my SSing!!!
At least for me SSing is a lot akin to interval riding, bursts of effort and power up the hills, some hard short spins on the flats, but a lot of coasting on the downhills and on the flats once certain speed/cadence are reached. Thus effort followed by rest and recovery, followed by more effort, then more rest and so it goes. On the road, especially with gears, it's not so. The effort is a lot more constant, even on the flats and downhills, it's still pedaling and working the legs, so it definitely should improve the endurance and stamina. While I still did not like the concept of the road, cars, bike, somewhat boredom, etc... I can and do appreciate the benefits and will try to make it a habit over this winter.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
More detailed report from SM100
The start was even more chaotic than last year. I heard that last year there were just over 300 riders and this there were 530... Wow. So we finally rolled off, and continued up the first long dirt road climb, at the top there was the usual bunch up at the beginning of the slightly technical single track. So many people didn't know how to ride dirt.
First aid station came and went very quickly at mile 10.
I was told that second station was around low 20's, and was wondering what was taking so long, but it turned out it was at the mile 31, which explained that. We were still feeling decent and rolled on pretty quickly.
Somewhere between station #2 and #3, which was mile 48, I started loosing power and Max was occasionally opening slight gaps on me. Thankfully there were some walking jams and other delays, so I was able to keep him in sight.
I think I somehow rolled into #4 somewhere around low 60's mile marker, ahead of Max, not sure what happened there, might've been some safety issues with his bike or something. I waited a little bit, but didn't see him, so I rolled on. That's where my legs basically fell off my body, then jumped up and beat me over my head and in my face saying "that's it, you stupid son of the bitch, we will get back at you and you won't finish". I was getting passed left and right. Max caught up to me. Out of stupid stubbornness I kept moving, knowing that I just had to get to the #5 at 75 and I would have a real second wind, because it was "only" 25 miles home stretch from there. Plus I wanted to get to #5 before 4:20, which was lights cut off. That section also had some longest stretches of flat, or false flat gravel roads, or at least they felt very very very long. I think the worst were ever so slight declined sections, not steep enough to gather enough momentum and coast, but too fast to maintain any sort of spin with my 32X20 gearing... It was mentally exhausting! I was trying to do some mental math to see if I had a chance of making the 4:20 cut off. I was trying to just stay on the bike as much as possible and walk as little as possible, even if my "gravity climbing", basically standing up and using solely my body weight to push the pedals down was all I could master on some of the climbs, and it was painfully slow, but a hear faster than walking and seemed to take less out of me and keep my mental state more focused. Somewhere in that suffer-fest, after downing tons of electrolytes and hammer gel, I started coming around a little and my head was clearing up and getting more focused.
Rolling into #5 I asked for time and, to my amazement, it was 3:24, almost an hour before the cut off and more than an hour ahead of last year's pace! Wow. As I downed some flat coke, had some fruit, got my gel flasks refilled, Max rolled in, he looked good and strong, I knew he'd catch me soon, so I told him that I'm going ahead and will see him soon.
Next stretch was painful but filled with purpose. There were only 13 miles to the #6, and we were on the finishing stretch. I just tried to keep moving, keep drinking and downing the gel periodically and walk as little as possible. And sure enough, #6 showed up pretty soon.
I was going to get my camelback topped off again, but a volunteer told me that it was few rolling miles on the road, followed by 3 miles climb and basically 6 miles downhill to the finish, so if I had half of the camelback, I should have enough water, plus would have less weight to carry. So I just got more gel in my flask. Before I started moving I peeked at someone's watch and it was 5:23... Damn. 12 miles, more than half of it downhill, only one long climb and few miles on the road before it, and just over an hour to sub 12 hour time. "Was it possible?..." What the hell, I went for it. Started off on the road. Managed to stay on the bike and climb slowly the entire 3 miles climb. Was passing several people walking or grannying up the hill, most of those people were the same guys who passed me so recently between stations #4 and #5, on the flat gravel roads, when I had nothing left in my tank. Now they were blowing up and I somehow managed to continue moving at my snail pace, which was enough to catch up to them.
When I saw the top of the climb and the down hill started, I just wanted to roll roll roll into the finish. I think three guys passed me on the first more technical singletrack downhill. Front or full susp were paying off for them. But then it flattened up and rolled up and adown for maybe 1/2 a mile on the old logging road and I was able to get them back. When that road pointed down for the final fast 2 mile decent, I caught up to two more of them, tried to encourage them to not give up and keep the speed going, and few moment later rolled thru the finish line.
Asked for time and was told it was 6:20... That would be 11:50 time! Still waiting for the final confirmation. My name wasn't on the board last time I checked, with the results "as of 6:20", there were times up to 11:42 on the lists, and my name wasn't on it yet. I think there were just around 300 finishers by that time.
Oficial results are up.
11:50:44, 271st out of 510 starters and 436 finishers. What always astounded me was the attrition rate... 114 people DNF'd... that is almost 1 out of every 5 starters!!!
1:20 improvement over the last year. I bet in big part it's due to no mechanicals, last year Max and I stopped twice to repair flats, and I think this year we were a little bit more efficient in and out of the aid stations.
First aid station came and went very quickly at mile 10.
I was told that second station was around low 20's, and was wondering what was taking so long, but it turned out it was at the mile 31, which explained that. We were still feeling decent and rolled on pretty quickly.
Somewhere between station #2 and #3, which was mile 48, I started loosing power and Max was occasionally opening slight gaps on me. Thankfully there were some walking jams and other delays, so I was able to keep him in sight.
I think I somehow rolled into #4 somewhere around low 60's mile marker, ahead of Max, not sure what happened there, might've been some safety issues with his bike or something. I waited a little bit, but didn't see him, so I rolled on. That's where my legs basically fell off my body, then jumped up and beat me over my head and in my face saying "that's it, you stupid son of the bitch, we will get back at you and you won't finish". I was getting passed left and right. Max caught up to me. Out of stupid stubbornness I kept moving, knowing that I just had to get to the #5 at 75 and I would have a real second wind, because it was "only" 25 miles home stretch from there. Plus I wanted to get to #5 before 4:20, which was lights cut off. That section also had some longest stretches of flat, or false flat gravel roads, or at least they felt very very very long. I think the worst were ever so slight declined sections, not steep enough to gather enough momentum and coast, but too fast to maintain any sort of spin with my 32X20 gearing... It was mentally exhausting! I was trying to do some mental math to see if I had a chance of making the 4:20 cut off. I was trying to just stay on the bike as much as possible and walk as little as possible, even if my "gravity climbing", basically standing up and using solely my body weight to push the pedals down was all I could master on some of the climbs, and it was painfully slow, but a hear faster than walking and seemed to take less out of me and keep my mental state more focused. Somewhere in that suffer-fest, after downing tons of electrolytes and hammer gel, I started coming around a little and my head was clearing up and getting more focused.
Rolling into #5 I asked for time and, to my amazement, it was 3:24, almost an hour before the cut off and more than an hour ahead of last year's pace! Wow. As I downed some flat coke, had some fruit, got my gel flasks refilled, Max rolled in, he looked good and strong, I knew he'd catch me soon, so I told him that I'm going ahead and will see him soon.
Next stretch was painful but filled with purpose. There were only 13 miles to the #6, and we were on the finishing stretch. I just tried to keep moving, keep drinking and downing the gel periodically and walk as little as possible. And sure enough, #6 showed up pretty soon.
I was going to get my camelback topped off again, but a volunteer told me that it was few rolling miles on the road, followed by 3 miles climb and basically 6 miles downhill to the finish, so if I had half of the camelback, I should have enough water, plus would have less weight to carry. So I just got more gel in my flask. Before I started moving I peeked at someone's watch and it was 5:23... Damn. 12 miles, more than half of it downhill, only one long climb and few miles on the road before it, and just over an hour to sub 12 hour time. "Was it possible?..." What the hell, I went for it. Started off on the road. Managed to stay on the bike and climb slowly the entire 3 miles climb. Was passing several people walking or grannying up the hill, most of those people were the same guys who passed me so recently between stations #4 and #5, on the flat gravel roads, when I had nothing left in my tank. Now they were blowing up and I somehow managed to continue moving at my snail pace, which was enough to catch up to them.
When I saw the top of the climb and the down hill started, I just wanted to roll roll roll into the finish. I think three guys passed me on the first more technical singletrack downhill. Front or full susp were paying off for them. But then it flattened up and rolled up and adown for maybe 1/2 a mile on the old logging road and I was able to get them back. When that road pointed down for the final fast 2 mile decent, I caught up to two more of them, tried to encourage them to not give up and keep the speed going, and few moment later rolled thru the finish line.
Asked for time and was told it was 6:20... That would be 11:50 time! Still waiting for the final confirmation. My name wasn't on the board last time I checked, with the results "as of 6:20", there were times up to 11:42 on the lists, and my name wasn't on it yet. I think there were just around 300 finishers by that time.
Oficial results are up.
11:50:44, 271st out of 510 starters and 436 finishers. What always astounded me was the attrition rate... 114 people DNF'd... that is almost 1 out of every 5 starters!!!
1:20 improvement over the last year. I bet in big part it's due to no mechanicals, last year Max and I stopped twice to repair flats, and I think this year we were a little bit more efficient in and out of the aid stations.
SM100 Part Duex, 2008 edition...
So the circle is complete, a year had passed, and I was back at SM100 in '08.
I came into the race feeling less then prepared, the legs were tired and feeling very achy and I just generally did not feel strong or ready. A week of camping and hiking in Shenadoah national park right before the race didn't help.
But I started, I suffered, I finished. That's about it. After about 35 miles I had nothing left in the tank and was barelly moving, unable to maintain any sort of cadence or pace even on relatively level paved roads.
Somewhere after 60 miles, just like in W101, some sort of second win... no, not wind, morel ike a whiff, came thru, and I started moving again. Mind you, not fast, not great, but at least moving again. And I pressed on with single purpose to get to the station #5 before 4:20, which was the lights cut off. Max and I managed to do that, rolling in at somewhere between 3:25 and 3:30. That gave me a little moral boost, considering that last year we missed the cut off by 10-15 minutes and had to carry the lights.
After station 5 at 75 miles, it felt like a home stretch. By the time I got to the station #6 at 88 miles, all I was thinking was about finishing SOON! I caught a climps at someone's watch and it it was 5:23... 12 miles left, more than half of them down hill, and over an hour till the 12 hour time... Is it possible?... What the hell, I went for it, and somehow succeeded, finishing at unofficila time of about 11:50, which is over an hour improvement from last year's 13:10!
However, thruout the the race, whenever I was alone and had mental ability and presence to think, I was pondering why am I doing these races? I'm not really racing, I'm not competetive with my times, I'm not in enough shape or form to finish them in style or strong. It's a simple exercise in stuborness and persevirence. For what? Bragging rights of riding MTB for 100 miles in one day? But can I really claim even that? In the end all the sections I end up walking probably add up to good 10-15 miles. Out of remaining 85-90, 60 or so are paved, gravel or at most dirt fire roads. So that leaves really just about 25, MAYBE 30 miles of single track. So what? Anyone can ride 20-30 miles off road in one day. And sad part I don't even get to fully enjoy these trails because I'm so darn tired from all the riding... So why?...
I think the circle has been completed, I started at SM100 in '07, I came back, I improved, I started in 4 100-milers in one year, I finished in 3. I believe this is the end of this road for me. Time to ride more just for fun and pleasure.
I came into the race feeling less then prepared, the legs were tired and feeling very achy and I just generally did not feel strong or ready. A week of camping and hiking in Shenadoah national park right before the race didn't help.
But I started, I suffered, I finished. That's about it. After about 35 miles I had nothing left in the tank and was barelly moving, unable to maintain any sort of cadence or pace even on relatively level paved roads.
Somewhere after 60 miles, just like in W101, some sort of second win... no, not wind, morel ike a whiff, came thru, and I started moving again. Mind you, not fast, not great, but at least moving again. And I pressed on with single purpose to get to the station #5 before 4:20, which was the lights cut off. Max and I managed to do that, rolling in at somewhere between 3:25 and 3:30. That gave me a little moral boost, considering that last year we missed the cut off by 10-15 minutes and had to carry the lights.
After station 5 at 75 miles, it felt like a home stretch. By the time I got to the station #6 at 88 miles, all I was thinking was about finishing SOON! I caught a climps at someone's watch and it it was 5:23... 12 miles left, more than half of them down hill, and over an hour till the 12 hour time... Is it possible?... What the hell, I went for it, and somehow succeeded, finishing at unofficila time of about 11:50, which is over an hour improvement from last year's 13:10!
However, thruout the the race, whenever I was alone and had mental ability and presence to think, I was pondering why am I doing these races? I'm not really racing, I'm not competetive with my times, I'm not in enough shape or form to finish them in style or strong. It's a simple exercise in stuborness and persevirence. For what? Bragging rights of riding MTB for 100 miles in one day? But can I really claim even that? In the end all the sections I end up walking probably add up to good 10-15 miles. Out of remaining 85-90, 60 or so are paved, gravel or at most dirt fire roads. So that leaves really just about 25, MAYBE 30 miles of single track. So what? Anyone can ride 20-30 miles off road in one day. And sad part I don't even get to fully enjoy these trails because I'm so darn tired from all the riding... So why?...
I think the circle has been completed, I started at SM100 in '07, I came back, I improved, I started in 4 100-milers in one year, I finished in 3. I believe this is the end of this road for me. Time to ride more just for fun and pleasure.
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