Marine Corps Half

Ran in the Marine Corps Half Marathon on Sunday (I'd say raced but I was lucky to finish) down in Fredericksburg, VA. Sunny day, 6,000 or so runners, and felt good most of the race. But around mile 10 there were a couple long, maybe quarter mile, hills and instead of a strong finish I just kind of slogged out the last few miles. Good event, lots of Marines in uniform helping out with water and food, live music every couple miles, plenty of port-o-johns, and free beer at the finish.

My Results

Winners ran it in boy-1:14:40 and girl-1:26:26.

Metric Century

Although, technically, not mountain biking and, technically, not a race- I rode in the "Sweat & Spring Century/Metric Century Road Race". This was a local road non-race/race put on by the same local race organizers that have been doing the mountain bike races. This type of ride was a first for me and I've been thinking of doing it for quite a while. My fitness is getting there, but not quite to a full century. I've been hitting around 35-ish miles on my road rides, in about 2-ish hours. I went for the metric- 62 miles total.

There were probably about 30-40 riders of all different abilities and I didn't feel like I stood out too much like a sore thumb. Except for the fact that I was happily donning my full MTB United kit (aside from wearing a long sleeve jersey at the beginning). I had more pre-race jitters than normal, mainly because I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I had ridden 50 some-odd miles with Stitz about a year ago and think I did okay. I stress the okay in that sentence. So, I knew I could do close to that many miles and then would just suck it up at the end if I needed to. Normal pre-race information meeting....

That'd be me to the right of the orange jersey, in black.

Race started and I was in the middle, in a pack of various riders. It reminded me of some MTB races, started out clustered and began to thin out. I picked my own pace, lanes and rode my own race. Ended up on some local roads I'm really familiar with at the beginning. My normal route for road riding, which was nice.

Kept going and it really thinned out, until I met up with a guy who rides the MTB races. Last race series we we're really neck and neck, but he is a much better rider than I am and he would always end up riding faster. We rode together and chatted for a bit, which really ate up the time quickly. He took off, chasing the lead pack and I stayed back knowing full well I could hang with him; but would blow out pretty quickly.

Great support on this race, every 15 miles there was an aid station with all kinds of goodies. All you could eat and drink, along with supplies. It was really comforting knowing that this support would be there and really helped track the mileage. I was yo-yo-ing back and forth with different riders/packs throughout the entire ride, until the end. After the last checkpoint I was feeling beat down pretty bad, with about 10 miles left. I knew this would be the breaking point for me. As a result, a pack of riders took off and I couldn't keep up. There was literally no one around me for miles and I missed a turn, got off track of the route - about 3 miles total. I figured it out pretty quickly and re-routed. By the time I was back on track, I got a brutal muscle cramp in my right thigh and had to really slow down. I was averaging 17 miles an hour and had to go down to 12-13. Still no one around, which was really debilitating.

Made it to the finish, leg killing me and really tired overall. I was happy to have it over and get off the saddle.

Overall, this was a great ride and I'm really happy I did it. I'm now gunning for the full century in the fall.

Total distance, with getting lost (65.7 miles):

Total time (3:57)

Following in the tradition of the Stitz brothers, here are some pics of food I ate- Post-ride grub:

The above pics were of dinner and I finished off my night with late-night snack:

I can honestly say I do not feel guilty at all about eating all of this.

MEGAPOST

Things have been pretty eventfull for me as of the last 4-5 months, new job, moved home, new gym, new riding season, new friends along with bein back with some of my old buds once again, starting to travel a bit for work, very fortunate dude. I must say that I’ve neglected posting up on goings on. I’ve got a few things written, but I’m thinking to just go for the bulk post. Let us begin.

RIDE

This past Saturday Chris and I did the Greensfelder Challenge. Greensfelder is a park located behind Six Flags St. Louis, you can hear/see the roller coasters on various points on the trail. The terrain is sweet, rolling, and very rocky. In fact, so jarring on a rigid bicycle that I called it quits after 1-10ish mile loop. No mas, when your grip is on the verge of failing on various downhils, you just don’t want to do it anymore. At least that was my case. Pussed out, not worried about it. Anyway, Chris pumped out 4 laps in the marathon class, a sweet feat for someone who has been out of town for work from last Sunday through later Friday night. Congrats to him, hopefully he can get this back issue sorted out, if he does he's gonna be scary on the bike.

!NOT GREENSFELDER!

CROSSFIT

I’ve definitely shifted gears toward this stuff, been following the regime for 4-5 years on an off. Well, its on now and its been on for a while for me since I moved back to St. Chuck. I’ve gone from looking at CF as a great way to train for riding, to seeing riding as a great way to cross train for CF. The neat thing about Crossfit is that I get the chance to compete in it, its actually pretty big, at least relative to the community. I spent last Thursday through this past Monday in Castle Rock, Colorado, competing in the North Central Regional Crossfit Team Competition. Myself and 4 other athletes from the my gym flew/drove out there, competed against 31 other teams from 10 states in the region, 3 workouts on Friday, and if we made the top 16 on Friday then we would compete again on Sunday, top 8 on Sunday go out to California in July for nationals. First workout, Team Suicide Sprints, we were in 29th after that.

Workout 2, Team Snatch (hehehahaha), Olympic barbell lift for max weight in 1 rep. After this one we bumped up to 22nd place. As best as I can show the movement

1

2

3

!NOT COLORADO!

Third Workout, Team Triplet, as a team row 3000 meters on a rower, perform 200 overhead squats(95 lb for men, 65 for women), and do 50 muscle ups(its like a pullup into a dip on gymnastic rings). We executed our plan/sequence perfectly, ended up 4th overall in that workout which bumped us up to 13th for Friday overall, moving us into Sunday.

Not Comfortable

Glad

Saturday we watched some insanely strong men and women compete in the individual competition. Sunday workout went well for our team, but not as well as we would’ve liked, we didn’t make the top 8, so no California. There is next year, and who knows, maybe I’ll feel up to competing individually.

JOB

I got the chance to go to Seattle a few weeks ago. We put in long hours at the plant but got finished early one day and drove around the city a bit, Space Needle, coffee at the first Starbucks, Mount Rainier. Seattle is beautiful. No complaints from this guy. This past week I flew into Baltimore on Wednesday, long day on Thursday, drove to Philly for work on Friday, ate 2 cheese steaks at 2 different ‘joints’ within about an hour. We've got Jim’s, based on the suggestion of the desk attendant at my hotel. A bit pricey, but the beef was perfect, Cheez Whiz, and sautéed sweet peppers. Black Cherry cola. 8.5/10.

Mouth waterin yet?

I walked down the street in search of Rick’s, based on a friends suggestion, but found Steve’s, King of Steaks first. Dude’s the king of steaks, done. A bit more of a traditional diner feel, store bought bread (Jim’s was homemade), meat wasn’t as good, about 7 bucks w/ fries and water. 5/10. Then the next day I got my work done and had time to grab some food before headin to the airport. Upon the suggestion of plant management I grabbed a sandwich at Tony Lukes, which is really close to the airport. Went with the pork, this sandwich had AWESOME potential, it felt truly Philly. But they put spinach on it instead of broccoli rabe, and I didn’t have time to get it fixed, it was good, but I think it would’ve been great otherwise. 6.5-9.5/10. Pictures of sandwiches and mountaneous scenery make any post a great post.

!JUST OUTSIDE MOUNT RAINIER!

Greensfelder Challenge Tool

Greensfelder Challenge. Ten mile course. Fun as hell. Plenty of rocks and tech thrown in with a bit of everything else. The GORC boys have done a FANTASTIC job with this place and it sure seems to have a ton of potential. DRJ Racing put on the race and laid out the supreme course.

I raced marathon class which in this series is a three hour cutoff. Completed four laps in about three and a half hours. Lap one was crowded as I didn't get a good start but eventually I made my way clear. Probably a good thing as I just relaxed for the first half of the lap, figured there was plenty of time. Lap two brought the pain with my back doing the cool new thing of sucking ass. Lap three it worked it's way out a bit. Lap four I was able to push here and there. Rode most of the race myself again, that allows me to race my race, but it makes it hard to push when I don't see anything to chase.

I may sound indifferent but that was a really fun race, mainly due to the course. I love that stuff. I'm ready for some more racing.

Skip the next two paragraphs.

I took the opposite approach to the whole back issue this time. Went out of town Sunday morning, returned 11:30 Friday night just before the race. Didn't do anything while away except eat fat and drink beer and sit in a chair. My back wasn't good, it still tightened up enough to cause me to have to stop and stretch a number of times, but it was better than last time.

I think I need a better warm up followed by an extensive stretch, and also a look in to fit on the bike. My seat may be a bit too far forward, causing me to pull hard with my hamstrings. They may be pulling on my back. Who knows. Blah blah.

Results

Helmet Cam Vid (Great Music)

One of my favorite parts in any song of the Tool catalog starts at 4:05. And builds. And holy shit that guitar at 4:44 gives me the willys every time. Then at 5:05 I sing like my name is Maynard, feeling like I am made of pure adrenaline.

See my shadow changing,
Stretching up and over me.
Soften this old armor.
Hoping I can clear the way by
stepping through my shadow,
Coming out the other side.
Step into the shadow.
Forty six and two are just ahead of me.

Holy shit I fucking love Tool.

I wonder if the creator Bob knew that Tool is coming to St. Charles and tickets went on sale that day at 10 AM, the same time that my race started. I considered skipping the race to get some good tickets but didn't. We still ended up with some decent seats.

What just happened?.......

Oh right.

Pics

Pics

Pics


Vids

No Training Wheels Here

Guess who.

If you have good speakers and a subwoofer turn them all on and up, but it still won't do justice.

And try to ignore my dorky ass voice.

Michaux Maximus

Partook in the first Michaux Endurance Series race of 2010, Maximus, this past Sunday. Been riding fairly keen singletrack on the other side of Michaux State Forest this spring, so the coupled facts that the race would take place near my newly assumed stomping grounds and that it was ‘bout time to anty up and clip in for my first race this year led me to fix on doing the race rain or shine, race fit or not.

I knew I wasn’t in ripe racing form, so I attempted two pre-rides last week. Neither of them were successful…race-prep wise. The first was a group ride with fellas from Gettysburg Cycle and others, for the first few miles at least, but I fell off the back of the pack on a long rocky downhill and guessed incorrectly at a crosstrails, bringing another unlucky rider with me down the wrong trail and out to a highway. Neither of us knew anything about the systems in that part of the woods, so we settled with peddling back to the cars and calling it a quasi-fitness ride. I tried to ride the loop another day, and missed a wholly different turn somewhere and ended up riding a ridgetop for 10 miles. Beautiful view, but not part of the race course.

Thank the gods for me the course was superbly well-marked on race day. The venue was great too, and the race was well-organized and handled professionally throughout the day. I registered for the 10-miler (there were 10, 20, and 40 mile options) pledging to myself to do the 20-miler for the next race and the 40-miler the following. As I suited up, I could see the 40-milers take off from the fire road start adjacent to the parking lot. The lot was packed and an organizer had said 230 registered. Good mix of sponsor-clad jerseys and thick-bearded single speeders were milling around prior to the 10 and 20 mile start. As I went through my pre-ride routine, I decided that this was one of my favorite parts of race events. The riding is good, of course, but not always the best depending on how things transpire. The brew and grub are undoubtedly nice after the race too. But that pre-race excitement and methodical preparation sells me on racing. Anyway, short pre-race brief and then staging at the start. 20-milers left about two minutes prior to the 10s and everyone had been staged by age group and whatnot, however, the first few miles of the course were fire road and by the time I turned into the woods I had no idea who was racing what and how far. I knew there were people in front of me and people behind me, so I just tried to ride my pace.

The trails were a bit moist, but fun (think Chubb a day after a thunderstorm). Some nice smooth singletrack and rolly downhills, but most of the trail was rocky and boggy (or maybe these are just the parts I recall best as this is where I spent most of my time.) The course was paraded up until about mile 5, where I turned a bend after a downhill and witnessed firsthand the carnage a slippy rock garden can create. There were probably 10 riders all stopped off trail making repairs within a half mile of each other. Everybody gave the okay as I passed and me and a guy who I’d been trading positions with rolled on through. We rode past the first aid station of the 20/ 40 milers almost in tandem, but he hit a wall on the a muddy climb and we parted ways. I was huffing pretty good but knew there was a group of four not far behind me. About two miles out from the finish, I started thinking a bit, and realized I’d passed a lot of riders but remembered a lot of speedy-looking guys at the start who I hadn’t seen since the fire roads. That’s about as far as I got though before I nipped that thinking shit in the bud. I just tried to keep spinning to the end and finish without anything left. Closed a couple hundred meters on the rider in front of me in the last mile but he sensed me coming and powered out to the finish ahead of me. I felt good coming through the finish chute regardless. I shook hands and jaw-jacked with the guys coming in around the same time as me, then de-kitted, had a burger and fries with cold beer, took some pics and met the guy I’d spent most of the race trading spots with, and then headed home. Good day.

Results

Schenectady Race Pics

Just found these pics...

Schenectady Race

I rode my first race of the season yesterday. Race format was a little different, two laps; fastest time wins. Each lap is 5 miles, with an added extension that I haven't been riding as much. To preface, I wasn't feeling that confident about my riding skills the past few weeks. I went out for a few rides and felt twitchy, with no rhythm on the trails. I went on a pre-race loop the day before the race, took it really easy and felt a lot better. But, still wasn't 100% confident I'd do that great. I figured I'd go out, see how everything feels (me and bike) and just ride - no pressure.

Showed up morning of and about 25 racers where there. It looked like a good field, but mostly Sport class, very few Pro and a couple Beginners. I felt good, but jittery and nervous; so I rode around the trails trying to get rid of it. We lined up at the start and go, I was about 6-8 guys back from front. Oddly, started to feel really good and really enjoying myself. Through the first few technical sections, a few guys dismounted and ran their bikes alongside. I took the technical sections (mostly skinnies and planks) and passed about 3-4 of them. Then, right after that, one guy had a mechanical in front of me and I passed him. From my calculations I knew I was near the front and started pumping hard to get some distance. I was by myself for a while, with a pack of guys tailing me (the ones I passed) about 10 seconds behind me. I kept my pace through the next couple of sections until I got towards the end of the first lap. I started really sucking air and sucking riding on the bike. I had to dismount at two technical sections that I wasn't feeling too confident about clearing and lost a little time. I was fatigued and realized I pushed too hard at the beginning. I wasn't clearing anything very well and got out of rhythm. I came into the pit and the race organizers were flagging everyone down to stop.

Apparently, a guy had hit a jump in a weird way and lost control of his bike on his landing, hit a tree with his face and got knocked out. They called the ambulance and fire department. The race was postponed for about 20 minutes. Felt really bad for that guy, but it seemed no major injuries.

We ended up lining up in the positions we had finished the first lap. We go and I know that I'm near the front, but realize that there aren't as many guys in front of me as what I thought. I guess two guys (one Pro and one Sport) had to leave because of the accident. I know that puts me near the top three, but probably not in the top three. I get excited and just try to keep a good pace, no wrecks, etc. One guy passed me halfway through, but I notice that he is a race organizer, just out for a lap - no big deal. I feel a little better through that next lap, since we had a 20 minute break. Finish and complete both laps in exactly 33 minutes. Not bad. When I pull through I hear "Ben, 33 minutes, second place". I pull over, dismount and say "What?". Is that second place for weenies who had to dismount at two technical sections part way through the race? No, I got second place in Sport. Now, I don't feel I fully deserve it - without the accident, 20 minute break and two guys bowing out; I'm not sure I would have done that well. But, I'll take it I guess.

I brought home a new saddle (the irony is that I just bought one). This one is a Specialized Rival. But, it would be a nice addition for my road bike, or I'll sell it on Ebay. No pics, except for this one: