Purty ride

Here are a couple of pics from one of my favorite places to ride, the Camden Snow Bowl. Currently they have anough trails to keep one happy for 2-3 hours but are in the process of working with adjoining landowners to expand and improve the trail system. They even have the IMBA trail crew coming in September to help them meet their goals. Good times are a-comin.

Anyway, no matter how you approach it, the only way to get to the trails is to go up, right from the gun. The initial climb takes about 20'ish minutes to complete, is super steep, technical and downright brutal, especially since you aren't yet warmed up. After suffering in an oh-so-good way for 20 mins you are rewarded with sweeping views of Penopscot bay to the south and the other "mountains" around. It's nice enough that you almost forget you're coughing up blood.

That is until you look down and see the profile of that initial climb.
The total elevation gain isn't all that great (I did one climb while in NC that was 1300 ft in 30 minutes) but the technical aspect really takes it out of you. In the picture below you see that my average speed was only 4.68mph for that first climb, barely fast enough to stay upright.

In the end though, it's great training and you are rewarded to a sweet descent and miles of beautiful, technical singletrack.

Yowzer!

This am after jogging with the pooch I chose to bring the mountain bike into work and wander around the trails behind the office for a while to try to find a way to connect directly to the parking lot. I came close, after getting back and uploading to MotionBased.com and Google Earth I can see that I was within 500' of connecting in three different spots but of course I had no way of telling that in the woods at the time and since the trails ended I decided to turn around as opposed to becoming mosquito and coyote food.

So close!

Armed with my new information though, I'm certain that very soon I'll have a good way to get directly from our parking lot into the trails so I can bring Mr. Pants along with me once in a while.

During the wandering session I fell victim to a pretty serious blunt force trauma incident to the groinage region. Not a direct hit to the Ballagio but right next door (speaking of Ballagio, have you seen the new tower they have erected next door? Quite popular with female and San Franciscan tourists I hear.) leaving me with some nice bruising and scraping. I was forced to walk my bike for about five minutes because it hurt so bad. After about a half hour though it wasn't so bad and I was only left with a dull ache that worked as a gentle, throbbing reminder that handlebar end to groin encounters aren't for everyone.

Thats all for today, have a great weekend and I apologize for the potty humor but Jason likes it.

Fork, me, done.

Did the group ride with a 24 mile warm up and cool down tonight.
Here are the stats:

4:38
85 miles (39 miles with the group)
18.3 mph average
~6000 ft climbing
number of times above 180 bpm: 4 (on group ride alone)
number of times above 170 bpm: 21 (on group ride alone)
2 bottles HEED
1 bottle Perpetuem
1 sugar free red-bull
1 flask Hammer Gel
1 Cliff Bar
2 sore ass cheeks
1 sore neck
1 excellent ride

Its now 10 pm and just for fun I'm back at the office to work for another hour or so. Sleep, who needs it?

Don't you hate it when...

1. You ride in to work only to find you left your underwear and belt at home? Just call me "commando saggy drawers" today.

2. The fifteen times you checked to be sure you road tires were still aired up during the day they were fine right up until you leave at the end of the day and sure enough, rubber pancake. Frig, this happens to me so much it doesn't even suprise me anymore. I think one of the construction guys may be playing a prank on the skinny, pasty white, shaved leg, lycra wearing pansy. Just a thought.

There is good news though if you're a bike commuter. Check it here. Up to $110/month to ride your bike to work. Works for me especially if you consider all of the coin you'll save on gas and wear-n-tear on your car. Of course, as much as I love cycling I could never do it every day with family and work obligations but if this prompts even a modest number of people to get off their asses and onto bikes it'll have done its job. Lets hope it passes this time.

This is how ricky rolls

This weekend I gave Brynna her first lesson on how to roll down a grassy hill (you remember those days don't you?) and what t-shirt did I just so happen to be sporting? You got it, Twin-Six's "This is how I roll" tee. Fitting I think and thankfully its green so no grass stains showed up.

spank you very much

Wednesday night I made it out on the group road ride for the first time in about a month and boy did it show. I got out of work a bit late (or should I say, I wasn't able to sneak out as early as I had hoped) so I had to drive part way there. I parked in the ghetto of Waldoboro, mounted up and spun the 18 miles in at a comfortable pace and rolling into the Maine Sport parking lot with 5 minutes to spare for the 5:30 start time. After a very short neutral roll out I stupidly (I would find out later at least) went to the front and started to push the pace taking several hard pulls and playing around by shooting off the front on occasion, dropping back and then going again. In short, I was feeling great.

The start. Check out the guy in the yellow jersey. He had his jersey tucked into his shorts (on purpose). I wanted to smack him up side the head but I didn't cause I'm a pus.

Before long, though, I started to notice some cramping signs in my calves. Uh-oh. So I dialed it back a bit and hoped to come out of it. Unfortunately, when the next gradual climb came (I did 4000 feet of climbing total during the ride) the calf cramped and I shot out the back as I watched the lead group disappear over the hill.

Off the back.

I wanted to cry but I figured I couldn't afford to lose the electrolytes. I figured my best course of action was to guzzle some heed and perpetuem and hope it would pass. After about 30 mins (felt more like 90) of sheer suffering in the land of bonk I noticed my head beginning to clear and my legs starting to turn over more quickly. Together, myself and another co-bonker worked our way back to the front and regained contact with the lead group.

Once with the lead group I told myself not to do anything stupid like take a pull, make an attack etc, just sit in for a bit and wait for the strength to really come back. Unfortunately, as always happens when I ride in a group, I couldn't stick it and before long I was feeling anxious and heading to the front. After a few pulls and a couple of attacks I was feeling great again.

Soon after, we were pulling back into Maine Sport's parking lot at the end of the ride. I now had a choice to make, ride the 18 miles back to Waldoboro and potentially suffer like a dog or take a ride from Mad Mike and hang my head in shame. I chose to suck it up and ride back to the car. After heading out I realized the energy levels were getting low again so I had some more heed and perpetuem and settled into a nice easy pace-one that could get me back even within the worst of bonks. An hour fifteen later I suffered up the final climb and descended to the car with 3:47 and 68 miles in. It wasn't my best ride of the season but I figure it was very good training for the longer races coming up over the next couple of months.

photo blog

Dupont State Forest. Talk about some gorgeous singletrack!


Up and up...


...and up.

how not to take video

Every once in a while (usually when riding with Marcy) I'll get the bright idea to take a video with my point and shoot camera while riding. I always figure its only a matter of time before I eat it hard and get a pine cone shoved up my ass. Well, while on vaca down in North Caroliner' I decided to take some move video. Here is one of the gems. Somehow I managed to stop the recording and get the bike to stop before I ate it (talk about multi-tasking!) but just barely. My time is coming.



damn video doesn't seem to be working. Check it out here.

woops

I may or may not have caused this little, itty-bitty bruise on Marcy's arm while we were mountain biking inNorth Carolina.

Ergon short term report

Last Saturday as we were making final preps for our trip south to Brevard North Carolina I was suprised to find that the care package from Ergon consisting of one set of team green (Marcy thinks its more like team vomit but what does she know??? :) ) P1 grips for my El Mariachi, just in time for me to mount them up before hitting the primo southern single track. My initial shake down ride at my parent's place was positive but at only about 45 minutes it could hardly be considered a true test. I was hoping to get in enough time on the grips while in NC to get a true feel for what they had to offer.

It turns out that my initial thoughts still hold true. After a very quick 'get to know ya' phase of about 5 minutes I found myself forgetting that I was even using new grips until later in the ride when I realized my hands didn't hurt as much as usual. The standard grips on the El Mariachi (salsa something or others) did not work well with my hands and the hard rubber nubs just seemed to iritate them. Other Salsa grips have worked better for me but these just weren't cutting it. Anyway, the Ergon's have a nice soft-ish but still firm feel with a very light grippy texture. The platform is padded just enough to take the harshness out without being too squishy and gives a nice place to rest the hands.

After about 10 hours on them this past week on some sweet flowy singletrack I can now safely say that I love them, neon green and all. Now its just a matter of getting a set to put on the dos niner.

we're back

phew, we're back finally. After 23-ish hours driving back including one major construction area and one nasty traffic jamb go-around gone awry we finally arrived back in Damariscotta at 3:40 am this morning. To say the least we're tired. There is lots to talk about but like I said, I'm tired and don't feel like writing. Instead, I'll point you to a website that did coverage of Maine's first mountainbike race of the season. You get to see yours truly in print and pics. Like I've always said, I just like to see myself on the internet.

Read more here, and check out the pic titled "Bikeman.com was out in full force" or just look at it below. Your choice. :)

road trip

Sunday afternoon, the DamFam hopped in the car and headed to more humid pastures. Asheville N.C. to be exact.

View from the backseat.

Twenty three hours later (we had to make several extended toddler layovers) we rolled into picturesque Asheville ready for a serious shower and a nap. Unfortunately, there was no time for a nap before dinner but we were able to grab a quick shower before heading out. Of course, if we had known about the major dirty hippie population of the town we could have skipped the shower, got the nap instead and noone would have been the wiser. Our stench would have fit right in.

We ended up having kick ass pizza and beer at Mellow Mushroom (thanks for the tip Leslie!). We followed that up with a stroll around town marvelling at the amount of dreds in town and then headed back to the lovely Bates Motel, I mean, Days Inn to call it a night. Overnight, Marcy booted all of her Mellow Mushroom. She says she's sick, I think she's just making sure she can fit in her bathing suit! Women.

Today we check into our cabin where we'll be for the rest of the week and from there, who knows, maybe a ride, maybe a hike, maybe we'll have too many beers and pass out. The options are limitless when you have no plans.

wiggling south

I told you this past weekend's race course was a squiggly one. Well, I finally downloaded the gps info so here it is in all of its glory. I wasn't lying.

This weekend, the fam is heading out for a weeks vaca to the great smokey mountains of western North Carolina. If I had known it would be 90 degrees here in Maine when we scheduled the trip, we probably could have saved ourselves some money and stayed put but I'm sure its going to be a great time regardless of the temps. We've rented a cool cabin in the mountains which will be a perfect launching pad for some biking, hiking, kayaking, as well as your typical touristy crap. With time to relax I might even have time enough to make an actual good post. Don't hold your breath though.

Get a grip

Yesterday after leaving a comment on Jason's blog about Ergon grips I received an e-mail from Mr. 24 offering up a set of grips to test out. I'm stoked! I've been seeing these grips around (mostly on the internet since few people seem to be using them in Maine) for the last few years and have wanted to give them a try. I don't have a real problem with the current lock-on grips on my Dos Niner but the grips on the El leave a lot to be desired comfort wise. I'm not one to need a cushy grip but those just don't seem to work with my hands.

Hopefully the P1's will work better for me. As an added bonus, it will be easier to convert the El back and forth from single to geared with the Ergons than it would be with conventional grips.

Hopefully, when their new pack becomes available I'll be able to check it out as well. Looks killer.

Big thanks

A big thanks goes out to Marcy and Brynna for supporting me during the race this weekend despite the nasty conditions. Brynn was a trooper and Marcy did everything necessary to keep her happy and still managing to help with hand-ups. Because of her mommy duties, Marcy wasn't even able to use her shiny, new, fancy, schmancy camera like she had hoped and had to look on in dismay as a friend took all of the pictures. Next time babe, I promise!

Thanks also go out to my parents who helped with hand-ups throughout the race which on a course like this with no real good hand up spots was quite a job.

A few more race pics

Here are a few more race day pics. If you look closely, it looks like I'm smiling in all of these pictures but believe me, those aren't smiles. According to Marcy, I just like to ride with my mouth agape gasping for air during races. Judging by these photos, I'd say she's right.

A clean bike is a happy bike

Follow daddy's lead.

Thats my girl

Touch the mud

MMBA race number one is under our belts and it was a muddy one. A week prior to the race the trail conditions were primo. Unfortunately, though, the five days leading up to the race it rained pretty much non-stop leading to a serious sloppy sufferfest. Because of the conditions I decided to race the rigid el-mariachi to avoid potential mechanical issues due to suspension. I figured the less that could go wrong the better.

Hand up from pops. Check out the fatty Panaracer Rampage front tire. Packed with mud its really giant.

My game plan for the day was pretty similar to last year's race here; get a good start (hole shot perferably) so that I wouldn't get stuck behind slower riders in the super tight/twisty singletrack. I rolled up to the starting line third so I was able to get a primo starting spot and when the gun went off, I trecked across the field and entered the woods in second right behind my nemesis Matt Boobar. Matt, of course, is so fast that he never had a chance to slow me down and quickly gapped me. If Matt is having an average to good day there is no way for me to hang with him so I let him go and settled into my pace. Soon I was passed by teammate Andrew Frye and John Bernhardt (both pros) so no harm there. I had hoped to hold them off sooner but it was only a matter of time so I didn't waste any mental energy on it. A few minutes later (probably 1/2 way into the first of four laps) a new bikeman teammate and U23 pro passed me as well. Thankfully, within another 1/2 mile I rode back up to his wheel and passed him. That would be the last of the passing/getting passed for me on the day.

The rest of the day saw me trying to reel in John B. and holding off anyone from behind. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that catching John wasn't possible so my focus turned to protecting my position. Towards the end of the second lap a buddy of mine, Nick Corson, made a hard charge and quickly started to close the gap on me and put the fear of god in me. Nick forced me to dig a little deeper to maintain my spot. Thankfully, after a lengthy running section (because of the massive amounts of mud) I was able to gain another good gap and never saw Nick again.

The rest of lap three was pretty uneventful with me just trying to stay upright in all of the mud and trying not to brain myself on all of the muddy roots. 3/4 of the way through the lap I noticed some thumping around in my front end. I immediately thought my headset had loosened up but at the end of the lap I checked my front quick release and sure enough, it had loosened up significantly. Phew, glad I noticed it before the front wheel came out and I augered in.

On lap four, I decided to put in one last hard effort to try to reel in John B. He had a big gap by this point but I figured it was worth a shot and you never know, if he were bonking it just might work. I didn't succeed in bringing him back but I did manage to almost make my legs cramp.

The El Mariachi performed beautifully throughout the race. There were only a couple of occasions where I wished I had some suspension. The combination of 29'er wheels and the big, fat Panaracer Rampage 2.35 at 30psi in the front took enough of the edge off to make it work. I may be using the El more than I anticipated this year. Time will tell.

yikes

Something interesting will be happening in the Nelson household tonight. I won't tell you exactly what but here is a hint:

blingy

The new schnazzy race only wheels. Enjoy.

The red hope quick releases match the sram lockring and spider perfectly which matches the Stans gaudy stickers very well which matches the Salsa Dos Niner's pinstripping. Some of this was planned, some not.