Went to visit Jeremy two weekends ago. We met in Pottsville, PA - home to Yuengling Brewery. Not far from Jeremy's house, it was the perfect idea (thanks Jeremy) to see this historic site and view where my favorite beer is brewed. We got a free tour and free samples of the goods.
This was near the hand-dug cave, where they used to store the beer before refrigeration. It maintained a steady cool temperature when the brewery was first built.
In the cave, there were brick walls put up during prohibition. They just knocked part of them down a few years ago to give tours of this area.
The first race of the season was this past weekend, the Bone Bender 3/6 Hour at the Smithville Lake Trails.
Saturday night Jess and I attended a wedding downtown on Washington. It was a great reception, congratulations to the happy couple. We left the reception just as the AMA Supercross event was getting out of the dome. Wow. What a show. Those folks were drunk, rowdy, and having a good time. The streets were packed. There was a guy two vehicles in front of us in a monster truck. He did burnouts the whole time that we sat in traffic, right on Washington in front of the dome. I have no idea how he wasn't approached by the police, but he definitely kept the crowd entertained. Too bad he probably burned through a grand worth of monster tires. We finally made it home around 11:30 and quickly went to bed.
The 4AM alarm went off and I was up and out the door. I picked up David in Columbia around 6 and we were off. David had steak and eggs for breakfast before he got in the car, almost as funny as an Arnold impersonation, or, or, but way more gross. We saw Busken and Jim and Wendy on the way out so we knew we'd have some friends on the trails, always nice.
We pulled in to the venue just before 9. It was packed, people buzzing around everywhere, getting ready for the beautiful day. ToddandKarenandCasey were there when we pulled up, more pals. Mitch was in line for registration. Schottler showed up. It was shaping up to be a great ride. 11.5 mile loop and perfect trail conditions.
Before I knew it we were standing down by the lake ready for the running start. There were a ton of people lined up. Off we went. The entire first lap was a bottleneck, things were slowly sorting out, but there was a lot of passing, grabbing the brakes, quick accelerations, crowded trail, you know.
I started the second lap with Mitch and Busken. The pace was high and eventually Mitch said he was going to slow down, then disappeared off of the front. Busken and I hooked on with some guy who was smooth and pushing a perfect pace. We followed him the whole way in to finish the second lap.
Third lap I dialed it back and tried to settle in for the long haul. My lower back had gotten pretty tight and that really needed to go away. Unfortunately, by the end of the third lap it had spread up to my neck and down my leg. That's new? I spent most of that lap thinking about how bad my back hurt and just doing whatever it took to make it hurt less. Finished up that lap and went to the tent for some rest and stretching. I tried for about 15 minutes to work the pain out and it seemed to work decently so I headed back out for lap 4.
Lap 4 = call the waaaaambulance. Pain came back almost immediately. I tried standing, I tried sitting, I tried spining, I tried mashing, ouch. Finished 4 and went to rest and stretch again to fix it. It didn't go away so I quit. Gimme a Natty.
Not sure what the deal is, but I know what I've been slacking on so I'll start there. I've been slacking the long ride time. Didn't do a road ride over 50 miles all winter. Probably did that 10 times last winter. Haven't been doing dedicated core/ab workouts, better get back to that. Haven't been doing yoga, better get back to that. All my slacker fault. Hopefully I can spend some time (aside from the long road rides, I'm tired of those and would rather do a long MTB ride or anything else really) addressing these issues and they'll make a difference next race. Oh yeah, that super intense lower back blaster workout on Friday may have compromised it a little bit. Hopefully that's what it was and I just won't do that next time. Either way I need to work on some things.
Some things that I noticed that I attribute to my Crossfit St. Charles workouts. Ability to up the heart rate and recover extremely quickly. My heart beats so hard and fast during those Crossfit workouts that it's getting used to it. Total body strength. I just felt strong on the bike, standing and climbing, cornering, slow tech, etc. I rode the Sultan and it's pushing 30 pounds. It feels light. Coordination. The Crossfit workouts involve all of your body working together. I really felt balanced and that I could direct the strength that I had where I needed it to go.
David did an awesome job on the rigid SS. He pulled out 3 laps in the 3 hour race with no problem. I'm sure he'll post up so I'll let him tell you about it.
Everyone else there did an awesome job, Schottler, Busken, Wendy, Mitch, ToddandKarenandCasey (coming off of a 24), Stephanie, everyone.
Jim Davis is the A#1 support crew handupper babysitter motivator picture taker. Thanks Jim.
Video from the start.
Pics (Thanks again Jim!) There should also be some on trail action pics coming out soon. I'll post those up when they come out.
After some issues with components, I finally was able to get everything together and get out for my first ride of the season. It was short, but sweet. Trails were still pretty wet here, but absolutely ridable. I still have a few minor issues to resolve with the bike. It's not 100%, but should be there soon. The adjustments and changes I've made have had a huge impact. More pics of the bike to come.
Sun was shining and trails were dry (well, not snowy) out at Michaux Forest, so took Vegas out for the first trail ride this year. Nothing epic, only about half of half of Stitz' 8 hours of ridin' (nice work by the way).
Rode near the AT
And over some pretty stuff (don't mean the bike)
Good to remember what beer tastes like after a solid ride.
The trails have come around. Got in a double and a half Chubb yesterday and a Trifecta today. Eight hours on the MTB in the past two days. Oh man I just pigged out. It's raining now but wow that spell we just had was nice. Various ride pics follow.
