calamarichris

P.S. This downhill stretch on Artist's Road was my favorite--almost more fun than riding a motorcycle on Palomar:

jmX

Nice meeting you guys. What a great ride that was. So much easier than last month. I placed 40th of 119, so I did much better than my goal to beat 1/3rd of the field. Next year I'll shoot for top 25% Chris, nice finish at 14th!

idoru2005

You guys were looking pretty strong at Rhyolite. Great meeting all of you, while you were in your element. Nice pic of Artist's Palette Chris! Three of us rode Artist's Palette this morning and you are right, that descent was like a roller-coaster. How do you like that hairpin turn on the descent that becomes surprise climb? I made the mistake of entering that turn in a pretty tall gear, and then not being in the right gear all at the end of the turn. Pretty brutal. After AP, Yoana and I rode to Badwater, then back to Furnace Creek. Got there with just enough time to pack the car and check out.

idoru2005

Yep, that was her.

calamarichris

Lessons Learned for Next Year's HGH:

~Bring the arm warmers & knee warmers and maybe also a jacket, even if the forecasted high for Death Valley on the day of the ride is 83.

~25 teeth isn't enough--bring the 12-27. Gmaps street view is a poor method of judging a hill's grade.

~Reserve a room or campsite at the resort. Driving an hour to and from Pahrump to stay in an overpriced room in a foul, 2nd-hand-smokey Nevada casino and fueling up on repulsive McDonald's hash-browns will definitely detract from your Death Valley experience and your performance.

~Have the resort restaurant's date-nut bread with prickly-pear butter again. YUM!

thenomad

Looks like I got 45 out of 120 on the Montana timing site.
I wish I hadn't flatted and also did some research on my food intakes. The Hammer Perpetum made my stomach upset. Next time it's less stopping and hopefully less pain.
My knee blew up and am still trying to get the swelling to go away. Guess I may be in for some scoping soon.

https://www.montanatiming.com/wp-cont...or-website.txt

Waiting for them to post the "suffering up the hill" pics.

jmX

I think we placed better than the preliminary text file shows. If you look, 9 or 10 of the people ahead of us have no Rhyolite time. Some of them probably had signed up for the century, but ended up turning around and doing the metric

It took 4-5 days for them to finalize the results from last months event. This is probably also why they havent been posted on the AC website yet.

calamarichris

Bummer, I'm sorry Nomad. Before you get your surgery scar, consider getting a professional fitting.
A little more than 3 years ago, I was sure I was due for knee surgery. The pain was almost constant; it limited my miles, and I dreaded walking down stairs.
I'd gotten the MRI done and they'd noted that I had some residual fibers and scar-detritus from the partial ACL & PCL tear I suffered about 3 years before that. BUT there was a 4-month wait to get the surgeon that I wanted. So I figured in the meantime, I'd get a fitting done.

Zombie-robot-jayzus! I felt like a clod for paying Nate Loyal $180 to shift my seat and my cleats less than a centimeter in any direction, but that two hours completely transformed my riding! I now ride as much as I like (well, as much as freetime will allow) and walk down dozens of consecutive flights of stairs with impunity. I still don't trust the knee enough to run marathons again at possible hazard to my riding, but every ride is sex after you've gone through something like this. The fitting admittedly might not work for you as well as it did for me, but then again... 180 bucks is pretty cheap compared to surgery, drugs, therapy...

Good luck and keep us abreast!

P.S. Forgot to mention: I canceled that appointment and still haven't gotten the surgery, and am still pain free (at least when I'm not feeding chunks of that same knee to the jagged boulders around here when mountain biking with my nephew.)

thenomad

Yeah, I've not had this happen much before so I attribute it to not enough real climbing in my training regiment and I also did some training rides on a different, unfitted, bike the week of the race which was a dumb move on my part and may have started it off. Oh well.
I definitely don;t want something coming between me and riding though so I've been meaning to tweak fit.

calamarichris

I don't get any discounts or kick-backs from Nate, nor is he a friend, but what 'feels right' doesn't cut it.
I was positive that my cleat placement was perfect, but I was nearly a full centimeter off!
See a trustworthy bike-fitter. Doesn't have to be Nate. It seems ridiculous to pay someone that much dosh to slide your seat & cleats a tiny amount, but consider how many pedal revolutions you made during HGH--80rpm x 60 minutes per hour x 8 hours = 38,400 pedal strokes.
Just being off by half a centimeter becomes substantial when multiplied by such numbers.

calamarichris

HGH photos are up. (Clicky.)

They got a swell photo of me. (First time I've ever had to pee THREE times in one century.)

GP

What happened to the clown shoes?

calamarichris

Usurped by the Pimp Liberace Ergos that went on clearance right after I bought the clown shoes.



They're seriously pimp and this was my first time wearing them out in public. They inspire me to ride faster so the shriek of wind in my ears drowns out the ridicule and chuckling.




Good eye, by the way. Are you coming to Mount Laguna?

GP

My natural reaction when I see a picture of a toilet and a guy in bike shorts - look down, don't fixate on the crotch.

6 am start. No.

calamarichris

Thanks, I and my horribly disfiguring circumcision scar appreciate your self-restraint.

v70cat

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hell_Gate