Hampshire 100, the aftermath

Here is the final installment of the thrilling Hampshire 100 trilogy.

Shortly after the race I started to get a knot in my stomach. Not knowing what to do but remembering how great soup has settled my stomach in the past I decided to have a can of chicken and stars. So I plopped my ass in a camp chair, grabbed a can of soup, popped the top and drank half of it straight from the can. Before you vomit on your computer you should try it sometime after a long race/ride, it actually tastes pretty good. I wouldn't recommend it on a daily basis because of the amount of sodium ingested in a span of 30 sec. though.

After a bit of sitting the stomach started to feel better to I got up and started to pack up camp. Bad move as the stomach cramps came roaring back quickly so it was back in the chair for me.

Over the course of the next few hours while I waited for the awards ceremony I would repeat this many times since I needed to get my shit together so I could roll out as soon as the awards were handed out. At some point I decide to try to be more social and made my way over to where Andy and his buds were hanging out need the free feed the promoter was providing (which I was to sick to take advantage of damnit!). Unfortunately, once there about all I could do was put my head down on the picnic table and will the stomach pains to go away. Eventually, after many announced delays, the awards were handed out and I hopped in the element and made tracks home.

Pic stolen from Andy's blog. Don't I look psyched?

Once on the road I hoped to make the three hour drive in one big chunck figuring that since I was siting I would be able to suffer through. Nice theory. Within an hour I was forced to pull over so I parked in the shade in a McD's and took a nap with the radio on to drown out the car and people noise. An hour and a half later I awoke to complete silence. F! It turns out I had my lights on so my battery was as dead as it gets. Could life possibly get any worse? At the moment, for me, it couldn't. Mercifully, the McDonald's manager had booster cables in her car and I was soon on my way and finally feeling much better.

By the time I got home I thought I had figured out what happened to cause the misery. During the race, because I wanted to keep my drafting partner, Adam Bradley, I skipped several of the feed stations where I planned on taking in more water than I was carrying and what was in my drop bags. At the time I didn't feel thirsty so I thought I was ok but since the race took me 5 3/4 hours and I only drank MAYBE 4 bottles worth of fluids I would guess I was mildly dehydrated. Just a hunch.

One more race, one more lesson.

Down for the count and the death of a hero

Well, I'm sick again. Must be the fifth time this summer. I'm not sure whats going on inside me this year but this is definitely the most I've been sick since I can remember. At least since B started daycare. Man, those days sucked!

It all started Wednesday. Marcy and I met up after work to check out a new place to ride just a few miles from where each of us work. It turned out to be a pretty kick ass trail system with some smooth/buff singletrack and some that is super technical with 30' drops down to the rocks lining the shore. Very good butt pucker riding. Marcy and I had a lot of fun but, unfortunately, during the ride I started to get a sore throat so instead of hitting the trails to get back home I decided ride home with Marcy and B to spend the evening with them. By the time I woke up my throat and head hurt so bad I wanted to kill myself. Unfortunately, (again) I'm so busy at work I was forced to head in anyway even though all I wanted to do was sleep on the couch.

Thankfully, I made it through the day, got some good sleep last night and this morning I feel like I'm on the mend. I hope so because we have an action packed weekend ahead of us. B's 2nd birthday party is Saturday, a race on Sunday and kayaking/picnicing on Monday.

And to top things off, I saw this pic of fellow Mainer Adam Craig over on Nick Martin's blog and I've gotta say, that dick broom (Nick's term) Adam is sporting is about as bad as it comes. Sure, this pic was taken during an 80's party but the Craigster has been growing that beastly thing for a month or so now. Like the glasses though.

H100 installment 2- this time its personal

What, its been a week since installment one? Well that’s just me trying to build the suspense sorta Harry Potter style.

Here goes...

We roll out to a staggered start around 7 am. I really wish they had started everyone together, with about 10 miles of dirt roads to sort things out I think it would have been fine and would have allowed for more racing. They didn’t though, sending everyone out in waves every couple of minutes. Expert SII ended up being the first on the road followed by the rest of the experts and somewhere back there were the elites. For about 10 minutes we rolled along at a brisk but manageable pace. Soon, though, Andy made his first dig of the day and broke out from the front of the bunch. I was feeling comfortable and knew that to hop on at his pace I’d be putting myself at risk of going too hard too early so I watched as he disappeared in the distance. Soon after the eventual winner, Michael Broderick (who I later heard came in third in the pro field at mount snow this year!) motored by us with a small caravan in tow. Me and a couple of others jumped on as well and tried to keep the pace for as long as we could. Before long, Broderick had pulled the group up to Andy. Soon after we hit a section of “trail” that took us along the edge of railroad tracks that in areas was so tight because of encroaching bushes that riders had to be especially attentive. At one point, with Andy right on my wheel, I heard the sound of branches hitting metal behind me and thought Andy had brushed too close to the edge. After a couple of minutes of no more sound behind me, I looked back to see no-one there despite the fact that we had had a nice train going. It turns out Andy had clipped a railroad tie, did some aerobatics and ended up down the embankment. Andy was later able to bridge back up and passed my group despite taking a serious hit to the melon during the fall.

After losing contact with the lead group of four I settled in with a group of similar pace and ground out the remainder of the semi-flat opening miles. At one point Adam Bradley, who I kind of sort of knew from racing against each other a few times, took a monster pull of about 20 minutes through the worst section of the day, a sandy rail trail. That was to become the theme of the race, Adam would pull me along on the fast sections, he gap me slightly on the climbs and then I’d frantically try to pull him back on the technical downhill sections so that I could get a good pull again for the many dirt road pieces. Adam and I would stay together that way until about 10 miles to go doing our best to reel people in, dodging angry dogs along the way.

With 10 or 15 miles to go I was able to open a gap on Adam on a tech descent and ensuing tech singletrack (he was probably cooked from pulling me the whole day too I’m sure) and with a few minutes he was no longer in sight. I continued to put the hammer down and ran like a scared dog whenever I’d come to a fast open section that he was so good on. At some point around this time I finally succumbed to the urge to piss I’d had since before the race started. I had hoped to get through the race without stopping but it was no use and by the time I had finished the job, Adam and one other had bridged back up. We again formed a small group until I was, once again, able to open up a gap and slowly extended it over the next few miles.

Soon after, while on a particularly tough climb, I heard the tell tale signs from behind and looked back to see Skip Brown closing in on me pushing his massive gear. From then on til the end Skip and I would swap spots back and forth until the last few miles when I was able to get away a bit and open a tiny gap of about a minute to roll across the line in 5:43. Unfortunately, Skip had started two minutes behind me so his final time was 5:42 and 5th overall which pushed me to 6th and first in expert SII.

About 10 minutes later, Andy rolled in and I did a double take since he had passed me about three hours prior never to be seen again but it turns out he and one other took a costly wrong turn down a long hill and lost 10-ish minutes backtracking. Suckfest

That’s it for today. Next time “THE AFTERMATH!”

I'm still alive

but you wouldn't know it from looking at (or smelling) me right now. Very busy week ahead.

Recap installment 1

Today I’m going to take a stab at a better race report from this weekend’s Hampshire 100. To do this race justice, I may even do it in two or three installments. Here is installment number one.

During the two weeks preceding the race I found myself battling some inner demons I was left with after a somewhat disappointing Wilderness 101. I knew going into the 101 that it would be a learning experience considering it was my first “hundie” but I still had set pretty high goals for myself as I usually do. Unfortunately, between the unfamiliar territory and riding conditions and my lack of proper on bike nutrition those plans were unceremoniously kicked to the curb shortly after the halfway point and I found myself steadily falling back as I watched in despair as rider after rider passed me with ease. During those two weeks I gave plenty of thought to how to be sure I wouldn’t make the same mistakes during the H100. I figured the terrain would be a little more to my liking since NH and Maine riding is pretty similar even though the climbing likely would be tough, the feel of the course would be close enough to what I was used to make it ok and the nutrition thing seemed pretty easy to deal with. I could put my own Heed mix in my two drop bags (I prefer a much stronger concentration than what you typically get from aid stations thus allowing me more calories), I would force myself to eat more Clif Bars and I would also carry one bottle of Perpetuem. Despite the horror stories I’ve heard of people getting really sick while racing on Perpetuem I’ve had good results myself during hard and long road rides so I figured I’d give it a shot and the calories would really help.

With a course length of 62 (actually 63) miles and six aid stations available I decided to forgo the camelback. I really can’t stand the things and with so many aid stations I figured I’d have plenty of opportunity for replenishing my water (foreshadow, foreshadow).

Finally, on Saturday I made the four hour drive over to New Hampster and quickly set up camp which, because I was planning on sleeping in the Element, only consisted of setting up the Bikeman.com pop-up, my bike repair stand and pulling out my camp chair. Pretty easy. I then tooled around, got in a quick pre-ride to loosen the legs and generally killed time until Andy and Skip showed up since they would be the only folks I knew in the race. That night it got down to about 50 degrees and I slept like a log in the toaster. It was damn comfy.

At 5 am my alarm went off and my back-up alarm (Marcy calling from back home) called literally 10 seconds later to be sure I was up. I had breakfast and readied myself for the race to come at 6:45. One other change I made after my 101 experience was that I applied about 1000% of the recommended daily allowance of Assos to my arse so that I would be sure I wouldn’t have ass skin falling off in a few days time.

Yikes, I went a bit overboard on this first installment so I guess I’ll get to the actual race next time.

Hampshire 100

The first annual Hampshire 100 was this weekend and it kicked ass. The weather was perfect in the high 60's, the course rocked and I had a blast. I managed 6th overall and 1st in expert SII. Despite a horrendous fall and getting lost, Andy pulled off a solid 2nd in SII. Nice job but his bike has seen better days. As usual, I don't have time for a proper race report so here's an abbreviated version.

Camp Nelson. The rolling toaster makes a fine tent. I slept like a log.

The expert podium. Check out my triumphant hands jambed in pants.

A much better heart rate over the course of the event compared to the Wilderness 101.

The course.

More course info can be found on my page at Motion Based. Check it.

busy?

If you had asked me last week if I could get any busier at work I would have said probably not. I would have been wrong, three 12 hours days prove it. Work, work, work, no ride, no ride, no ride. I did manage to squeeze in one commute and a group ride but thats it. With this weekend being the Hampshire 100 I'll either be extremely rested (legs at least) and ready to go or extremely de-trained (not really a word, I know) after close to a month of very low ride totals and therefore in for a world of pain. I'm hoping for the well rested option.

Thats all I've got. Back to the grind. See some of you chaps tomorrow.

why bother?

Wow, why do I bother trying to post these days? I'm so f'ing busy at work and home that I don't have a creative thought left in my brain at the end of the day. Makes for super reading I'm sure. As much as my blogging sucks donkey dick these days I still can't bring myself to ditch it. Maybe its because of the cool people I meet as a result of blogging, maybe its because I get to post silly pictures of myself occasionally, maybe its for the chicks. Who knows really but the one thing I do know is that I'll keep plugging away until the ole hit counter starts reading zero for the day because when even Marcy stops reading I know I'm in trouble.

This week is a prep week for the Hampshire 100k on Sunday. It should be a pretty good time and so far the weather looks pretty sweet. Hopefully I'll be able to put everything I learned at the Wilderness 101 to good use and have a good ride. One thing I do know for sure is that Andy is a marked man. After his 101 performance I won't be leaving his wheel. Until I chuck a stick in it anyway.

couple of w101 photos

Pre-race happy bikes.




My mug about 20 minutes after the race. I look like I want to curl up under a rock and die. Question: when did my beak get so crooked?



Question #2: what the f is up with blogger putting all of my paragraphs together? It makes reading the blog even more painful than usual.


Question #3: for you experienced ultra dudes. Is it normal to have slabs of skin peeling off your ass after a 100 mile race? Hypothetically of course.

yet another quickie

sorry about the crappy w101 recaps. It was such a cool race and there are so many things to talk about including race details, meeting some of my blogging peeps etc but I've been so f'ing busy with work/home/sick kid/and a non-profit fundraiser I'm working on that there just hasn't been time to write. There hadn't even been any time to ride.

This morning I did get to ride into work which felt great. The ass is pretty much healed up and the legs felt pretty good. Hopefully I'll be able to get in some good, intense rides before next weekends 100k in New Hampster (right next to New Gerbil).

To the grind.

(slightly) better W101 recap

1. 4:45 awake in comfy condo. make mental thanks to cristi for letting us stay at her place.

2. arrive at venue, drop bags and get ready for start.

3. roll out with about 200 others in a neutral start.

4. not sure when the race became non-neutral but was we were still in a large-ish group heading into the first feed station at mile 20 at this point I'm guessing I'm in about 75th place or so. the original game plan was to start off easy and then pick people off as the race wears on. at this point all was going well and I was picking off small groups of people while I traded work with several others being careful not to redline. too early for that.

5. grab a sandwich and other munchies at aid station #2.

6. pull out of aid station to find I can't clip into my right pedal. as I struggle with it I hear the tell-tale sound of a cleat hitting pavement. F!

7. turn around and retreive cleat and thank my lucky stars I had thought to bring along a spare set of cleats and bolts. reattach cleat and continue on.


8. Having lost my drafting partners, I must now soldier on my own.


9. Things are still going fairly well through to aid station 3 but am starting to get tired. I hadn't been able to eat anything since aid station 2 and it was beginning to show.


10. See Jeff W has abandoned with a broken seatpost. Chat with him for a few minutes until he essentially pushes me out of the aid station. "The hard work is done" he says. Liar.


11. Leaving aid station 3 it became apparent that my lack of eating was catching up to me. My reserves were gone and I began to suffer immensely. This is also when I briefly considered removing my seat post, beating it on a rock to break it and then have to abandon the race. Thankfully, I thought better of it and continued on.

12. I suffered immensely over the next few hours. The legs no longer had any power. I could spin up the climbs but thats about it. Standing and hammering even for short periods was out of the question. I was so spent that I couldn't even get my pace up enough to create lactic acid. The technical descents were brutally rough and here I was running 5-7 psi more air than usual. I wanted to let air out but feared the extra rolling resistance on the dirt road climbs. I'm still not sure which would have been worse, the pinball like action my tires were taking on the descents or slightly more rolling resistance. I'm betting the pinballing was worse.

13. Watch as many of the people I passed earlier in the day pass me at what looks like double my speed. I have no will to fight and just let them go.

14. Finally arrive at aid station #5 expecting them to have cold coke to get me over the last hump. Not only did they not have coke but they didn't really have cold water either. I wanted to throw a hissy fit but didn't have the energy.

15. Suffered on. Couldn't stand in the tech sections because my hands hurt so much (must get ergons, seriously this time) but sitting was even worse since it felt like I'd been sitting on a cheese grater for 9 hours. On the smoother downhills I'd actually sit with the back of my thigh on the seat to protect the arse.

16. Get to finish, throw down bike and plant self in camp chair.

17. Sit in cold stream and scream like a little girl as the bacteria leaden water touches my chewed up ass.

18. Drank 5 or 6 beers and had three dinners.

19. Slept like crap because of lumpy ground and drunken yahoos.

20. Pack up camp and hit road at 6:45 for 9 hour ride home.

21. On the ride home I have plenty of time to reflect and figure if I had been able to force myself to eat earlier on in the event that I'd have been able to knock close to an hour off my time.

more 101

I've uploaded my GPS info from Saturday's race. You can check it out HERE. Definitely check out the charts section where you can find stuff like this:

I especially like those itty bitty climbs of close to 1500 ft over the course of 3-ish miles mid race. Fun fun.

This next one is especially fun. It shows quite clearly that I essentially turned back into a pumpkin around the 60 mile mark.

W101 quickie

52 out of 222

I don't have time for a real post re: this past weekend's Wilderness 101 but since most of the people who read the feeble blog were either there or have already heard about it from me I'll just give you some interesting tidbits that have happened since the race.

Sunday, after meager sleep JMo and I packed up camp and went our seperate ways. After 9 hours of 80 mph driving (seriously, I averaged close to 80 for the entire trip. thank god there weren't many cops out) on a VERY sore and tender ass I got home, unpacked and spent some much needed quality time with Marcy and B.

The day after a 9.5 hour race, what is the very last thing you would want to do? Besides maybe taking one up the poop shoot I'd venture to guess most people would not be caught dead on a bike the day after. Unfortunately for me that is exactly what happened. I'm not one to deny Brynna a ride in here trailer if she asks for one but when she requested a ride yesterday my sphincter involuntarilly clenched tight enough to form diamonds. But since I'm a sucker dad who does whatever my daughter wants, I dutifully hooked up the trailer and the entire family went out for a quick 30 minute jaunt. I tried on several occasions to sit because my legs were tired but would promptly scream in pain and jump back out of the saddle. A thirty minute ride totally out of the saddle with a 50 lb trailer in tow the day after a race like that is brutal, trust me.

Today the legs feel suprisingly good and besides for a butt-load (quite literally) of antibiotic cream where the sun doesn't shine I'm feeling pretty good.

t-minus 3

W101 is quickly approaching and I'm not ready! Last night I finally decided to cut down the Ergon P1's from the Mariachi to put on the Dos but it turns out they won't work. Because of the Dos' narrow handlebars I'd have to cut so much off the P1's that I'd be cutting into the flared section. Not good. Thankfully, I noticed this before I started hacking away. So back on the Mariachi they do and I'm stuck with the Lock-ons for this weekend. Oh well, must learn to love blisters...

Tonight is yet another rest night since the legs still feel dead from the race this weekend. I tried to open them up yesterday on the ride home but for the most part they just didn't want to go so I took it easy and spun most of the way back. That is until I got to town in Damariscotta and had an old volvo wagon with a couple of kayaks stop in front of me. It seemed like the perfect moto pace vehicle. When they started back up I jumped on their bumper and worked my butt off keeping with them on the hill out of town. I noticed the female in the passanger seat smiling from the side view mirror so I figured for once I actually had a willing participant to pace me. Turns out they were not only willing but they did a very nice job of gradually picking up speed so I could stay on their bumper (at one point almost hitting my head on one of the kayaks on the roof!). When I couldn't hold it any longer, I peeled off and waved. They waved back and went on their way. Good fun and I was finally able to get the heart rate up into the zone 5 range.

Tomorrow will be a very quick (and hopefully intense) ride and packing for my Friday 6am departure. Can't wait.

ouchie mamma

Damn, two days since the Bradbury race and my legs and body feel like I was beaten for hours by a wiffle ball bat, not really damaged but certainly tenderized. I managed to squeeze in a 45 min recovery ride last night but my commute in this morning was still veeeeerrrrry slow. I had planned on a longer ride home tonight but I'm going to have to play it by ear, if the legs are still lead it'll be short because the last thing I need for the W101 is to have tired legs.

Speaking of the 101, I'm getting close to getting set up with a condo for Friday night in State College (just a short skip from the course) so it looks like JMo and I will be getting a decent nights sleep at least. With the expected temps hovering just below 90 during the day and high sixties during the evening it sure will be nice to sleep in climate controlled comfort instead of sweating my ass off in a tent on the hard ground with a bunch of drunken goobers wandering around. Then again, Jason will be there so it might be a toss up which is worse! I'm sure he'll be spouting lots of fat girl/humidity analogies.

All registered riders also got an e-mail update from the promoters today and it looks like we're going to have a pretty stacked field with Chris Etough, Jeremiah Bishop and many others making the trip to put the smack down. Looks like I'll be serious pack fodder.

one more down, five to go

One more race for 2007 in the books and five to go. Yesterday was the Bradbury Mountain Enduro, a 30 mile xc race with a good bit of climbing and more continuous singletrack than you can shake a saddle sore encrusted ass at. The race started off a bit differently this year than in years past heading straight up the mountain instead of across the street to the singletrack. This was good and bad, good that it got the major climbing out of the way early while you're fresh but bad because you hit some very fresh (read: soft and energy sapping) single track climbing right off the gun before you're properly warmed up.

My plan for the race was to get a good jump on the le'mans start and settle into a my rhythm and try not to get too caught up with the crazy fast pros taking off on the front. The starting run went perfectly with me to my bike in about 5th (out of what had to be 100+ expert/pro riders). Upon reaching my bike though I saw that I forgot to reset my computer so like the bonehead that I am, I spent the first five minutes trying to find 5 seconds of smooth area to get it reset and running properly instead of concentrating on holding my position which meant I lost a few spots by the end of the first climb. It was one of those things I kept telling myself to just forget about it and deal with it later but the ole fingers had a mind of their own. Oh well, I'd better just remember to reset the durn thing before the race next time! Despite the fresh, soft trails I was feeling pretty good and by the end of the first 14-ish miles (when we cross the road to get to the sweet, well worn singletrack sections) I was sitting somewhere around 10th (including pros). This is where things started to get ugly.

The first singletrack across the road is the "O" trail. I'm not completely sure why it's called that, it's certainly not orgasmic by any stretch with the way it twists and turns and has very poorly positioned roots and rocks in most of the corners. Maybe its called that because of all of the "oh, shits!" that can be heard yelled by racers eating shit on those nasty corners. I, myself, had two "oh, shits!" once banging up both knees and one ankle and the second face planting pretty nicely after a nasty endo. Who was it who says 29'ers never endo? Let me know who it was and I'll kick 'em square in the nuts. In the process of my falling (and screaming like a girl b.t.w.) I was passed by three or four other experts including Big Al and my cornering confidence took a nose dive. With only about 15 miles done and another 15 of all tight, twisty singletrack to come it looked like I was in for a long day.

For the most part, I held it together from there on in following closely on Al's heels most of the way. We'd occasionally trade spots, me going faster on the open sections and Al making me work hard to hold his wheel in the twisties. With about five miles to go, while diving through some super tight single track I hooked my handlebars on a tree and went flying for the third time of the day, this time only hitting my head on a tree so the damage was minimal (!). Somehow, in the fall, I did manage to bend my water bottle cage but nothing else. Interesting. Al was totally out of sight at this point and I had a moment of internal turmoil, should I just play it safe and cruise the rest of the way and hope not to get caught by anybody else or dig deep and try to reel Al back in. I chose option two and hammered whenever I could and rode careful when I had to and in 20 tough minutes had brought him back. From there we swapped back and forth many times and in the process picking off a couple of people ahead of us.

With about a mile to go, I started to hear rider(s?) coming up from behind so in the last fast sections I got by Al one last time and hammered it the rest of the way using up what energy I had left and finished with a time of 2:58 and Al rolling in 30-ish seconds after. With such a big field it was hard to tell where we actually finished but when all was said and done I got 1st in expert senior II (I think 3rd exper overall) and Al got ended up with 2nd in vet I. Decent finishes on a pretty tough day.

My brother, in his first xc type race in three years, ended up racing in the sport race and despite having to change two flat tires, soldiered on to finish in just under 4 hours. A brutal first race back I would think but it didn't seem to deter him from doing the 12 hr race there in September. Us Nelson's aren't very bright.

its on

How's this for a race course? This is a map for this weekends Bradbury Enduro. I lap, 30 miles. At times, you spend upwards of 40 minutes straight in twisty turny single track. Should be killer.

How do I train for a race like this? Two ways, Sunday morning I rode to my parents (40 miles via road) had 1/2 hr for a shower, lunch and change then head out to the hay fields for 6 hours of hay bale chucking fun. The plan had been to then ride back home but the daylight escaped me so I was forced to drive home. It would have made for one heck of a cross training day. I did, however, get a killer farmer's tan and a nice red neck.

The view from Rancho De-Nelson

1500 bales of fun to be had. You're seeing only about half of the field, maybe less.

The second way to get ready is by heading to the group road ride on Wednesday. 4.5 hours and 85 miles later the legs were spent buy VERY happy and feeling great. Typically I wouldn't do a ride like this the week of a big race but my hours have been so slim recently that I need anything I can get. I'd never do it the day before a race but with 4 days to recover I figured it was worth it with the Wilderness 101 coming up.

craigster and old photos

Mainer, Adam Craig kicked some arse this weekend at Mt. Snowe taking the xc, super d and second in the short track.

short blurb HERE.

Also, my mother gave me a pant load of photos over the weekend of the season's first three races. As a result, I'll be sprinkling all of my posts with various shots. Here is the first set.


The start of the Rockport race with that dude Matt Boobar (I think I've mentioned him before, not sure) right in front of me.

B working the crowd.

Me taking one of the sweet banked turns at Rockport.

Sorry, no autographs please.

over and over

Have you ever had a song stuck in your head while riding? I think most of us have. Fortunately, most people know most of (if not all of) the words to the songs that get lodged in their brains. Me, on the other hand, will always get a song stuck in in there that I've only heard a couple of times and only kinda sorta know the main verse. It annoyes the hell out of me to know about 10 words (usually not even the right words but words that closely resemble the correct ones) of a song and have it run through my head for hours. I will always try to think of another song that I actually know to drive the unwanted song out of my head but that is when I remember, I don't know more than 10 words to ANY song.

The other night I had this happen with the worst possible song ever. I don't even know the real name of it but its from a kids show called the Wiggles and has something to do with fruit salad being yummy. I know this because the four words that ran through my head for 2 1/2 hours straight on Tuesday nights ride were "fruit salad, yummy, yummy". Thats it, four frickin words for over two hours. If I ever find those stupid australian wankers I'm going to strangle them.

feel the burn

another quickie here

Yesterday I decided to head to the group road ride despite a day of light rain and more predicted through the ride. With the Wilderness 101 coming in a few weeks (!) I decided I'd better head out anyway and get in some suffering and suffer I did. I got a total of 76 miles over 4.5 hours (4 hours moving) including 40 miles with a solid group of eight brave souls. It rained lightly just about the whole time but at 65 degrees it was just warm enough that you didn't freeze. During the group ride the lactic acid built up so much in my quads that I thought for sure it was going to eat through the tissue and start to pour out of my thighs just above my kneecaps. Thankfully that didn't actually happen but if it had at least I would have had an excuse to call it a night.

During the whole ride I only had two bottles of HEED and one of Perpetuem because I had forgotten to bring any money to buy goodies before the trek home. By the time I got back to the car I was so hungry that I immediately launched into my banana and goldfish I had stashed and then upon arriving home quickly polished off three tuna melts and a plum. I felt a little guilty eating that much right before bed but damn was I hungry!