here is my crappy ride report, rife with failure and shame....haven't ridden in about a month due to the perfect combination of sickness, crap weather, and work. today i was off, weather was perfect, and i'm feeling ok, so i decided to do a big, all day, 6 hour, 35 mile ride. made it to mile 12, and my legs seized up, i cramped like a total ****. my arm actually cramped. it wasn't particularly hot, i was hydrated and eating, lungs were good, whole body felt good, but my thighs just....stopped. i'm frustrated at my weakness. it was a great ride, floating over rocks and through tight sweet singletrack, overlooking the river, the earth rolling by underneath me, me and the bike riding the earth. it was wonderful. right until i couldn't physically move anymore. stupid thigh muscles.
ok, rant over.

(you can't say 5paz? really?)

I went out to the second XC race at Riverside and met dminor and sscyco, and had an OK race. After hanging with the lead group for about 20 minutes, I got gapped and couldn't get back on, so I did end up by myself for the last part of my race, but those are some very strong racers (pro, semi-pro, and not sure about the third guy) so I'm not ashamed of 4th place if that's what I get.

Sorry I miss it. I had planned on racing yesterday but I ended up filling 400 sand bags and worked 11 hours. We're trying to prevent the Centennial Trail in the valley at Barker Rd from washing away.

I had a great time - been a while since I raced in the dirt. I managed to come in behind mechBgon for 5th - I figured not bad on a borrowed bike, 2011 Specialized Epic 29er. I found out I don't mind 29ers - but I doubt I would race one again, did not like the way it climbed.

30 min before the race about 3 miles from the start, I pinch flatted, at 40 psi!! I don't own a 29er, so I did not have a tube. Luckily my son had a patch kit and pump. I had snake bite flat, so two holes = overlapping patches - not confidence inspiring. I made it back to the car 5 min before the race and pumped my tire to 60 psi as insurance against another pinch flat. It held, but was squirrelly - until the drive home when the patch failed in the back of the car.

Fun night - - glad I didn't ride the Dirt Jumper :D. I like your style plowing the baby-heads, mech - - visisble how it helps carry speed and pulls you up on the traffic. I had a similar experience on Devil's Down - - I can always close distance there, especially carrying more speed off the bottom; but last night just didn't have the legs at that point to sustain it across the whole flat. I need a llighter bike . . . and more leg. It was good to finally meet you.

Both you and sscyco are animals, I tell ya.


Sorry you missed but sure glad for your efforts in a noble cause.

Wednesday: gave a Huntington tour to a buddy who'd not been there. New bike + new trails for him = he kept things mostly ground-ward while dialing things in.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...-27rides11.jpg
I prefer the other line here. Also not being used to my camera, got me juuuuust touching down.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...-27rides10.jpg

Thursday: Gave the same buddy a tour of Trumbull.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...-27rides12.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...-27rides15.jpg

Friday: Nice strong group @ Millers Pond. Cross stuntry and log ride heaven.

Dallas was the only one of us to hit this one. Not the best run in, and the landing needs work.
It's super soft, likely due to not many people hitting it. :)
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...5-27rides2.jpg

One of the many, many skinnies.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...-27rides29.jpg

My near-enough-to-that-it-may-as-well-be-dead-sailor.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...8b8a03b7_z.jpg

Dallas off the same rock, a bit more steeze.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...-27rides32.jpg

Three days in a row of three plus hour rides in the 80F and humidity in the mid-80's and i took today off. Ugh.
Mowed the lawn (with beer!) and hung out with the pooch.

No ride tomorrow, as spousal unit and I are heading to day #2 of this.

nice pictures. portugal, the man is really good. Also I really like man man. have fun!

I was in a team in the 24-hour race this weekend. We raced in the 10-person corporate division, but started with only six riders, one of whom could only be there for two laps due to time commitments. So it ended up being five of us. My training wasn't that great, so my third and fourth laps were slow (plus I had to do them back-to-back since the next rider had serious stomach cramps). Just not a very fun experience... I don't think I'll do any more 24hr races. We did squeak into 2nd place, six minutes up on 3rd.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...s/IMG_0302.jpg

Still Tom you did a great job. Our 10 person ended up with 8 riders. It was the first time the Rangers put a team together and we did have a good time even though we all had to work too! Most of the team doesn't ride regularly and one girl never had a chance to preride the course. Her first lap was after dark so it was a challenge but she pulled through fine. I did one day lap at one hour even (Tom passed me and I couldn't hang with him) and two back to back night laps at 1:10 and 1:15. The only thing I would change is a little better lighting system would be nice. I've noticed in my advancing age is takes longer to recover from these long hard efforts so no racing next week. As long as we're still employed next year we'll do it again.

Forgot to add that yes we did finish last in out catagory. I don't know what the final lap count was but it was all for fun anyway.

I hope something works out for the park funding. They mentioned it at the awards, but I didn't get a clear grip on what happened. They could make some quick money by ticketing all the people with dogs running loose... ;) If they gripe and moan, show them a photo of a dog that got its head smashed in after rushing some horseback riders.

Anyway yeah, my team did an amazing job considering we didn't have as many sets of fresh legs to work with. Also, one rider had his lights run out on the ~2AM lap!

Was on a corporate team as well - had only 6 riders vs. the 4 we had last year. This was my second year at the race with limited mountain bike experience. I was able to run a 1:03 the first lap. Crashed twice on the night lap - washed out in some gravel and went over on Devil's Down cracking my helmet on a rock - that lap cost me at over 1:20. Still had an absolute blast and hope to do it again.

Sure wish I could have been there. My flaking out brought our 10 down to 9. I will yet do the 24-Hour. Glad you guys all had a good time.



You guys all make my 1:11 lap last Wed. look like a snail crawl :o.

Last night was race #3 of our local Wed. night series. The loop was somewhere a touch over 8 miles and, for a change, I decided to ride an actual cross-country-race-worthy bike (got the hardtail put back together as a 1x8).

I got off the line at the back of the pack because I decided at the last minute (dumb move) that my chain was a bit too long for the new single-ring setup. Fortunately it's chip timing so my count didn't start until I'd actually crossed the sensor; but it meant a lot of slower traffic to thread through and around without being rude and/or annoying. I'm finding I like this 1x stuff - - since the front derailleur was pretty worn out, it removed the frustration of worrying about it not shifting when it supposed to anyway. There were a couple climbs that I had to finish with a dismount and jog but I always tell myself that it's useful duathlon training (:)) and there were two high-speed stretches where I finally spun out of my 32T ring; but overall, for that venue at least, I was very happy with how the combination worked.

My choice of bike paid off - - I got 3rd in the 40+ one-lappers and 7th overall out of all the one-lappers. There were just 3 seconds separating first from third. Made me feel like not quite such a slow putz for a change. Among the two-lapper men, mechBgon was there again and turned in a solid 5th. A good evening all-in-all, especially with the looming storm cell holding off until all the racers got in.

Good job dminor! :beer:

I'm going to make a race video tonight. Once some weirdness in the results got sorted out, I actually was 3rd in 2-lapper behind JT and Doug K, who I haven't been able to keep up with. I did spend a lot of the race by myself, seems to be my fate. Anyway, video late tonight maybe :)

I came down with a touch of the crud and had to sit this one out - actually even missing work today - feel like crap....

The usual stuff the last two days.
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...e/IMG_0014.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...e/IMG_0005.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f1...e/IMG_0036.jpg

A bit smoother, but still working on it.

Entered in my first race today. About a 9-mile loop, very technical, with a massive climb. Will be competing with a $250 bike that's 3 inches too big for me, as mine is still in the assembly process. Will post results next Thursday

rain rain and more rain. And the forecast says for the next few days... more rain. This is killin me. Just found a bad ass new trail 5 minutes from my house that ive been itchin to shred too. Could of sworn my calender said it was June. :(

Some basic rides.. nothing overly technical but a lot of fun. Getting back in the swing of things with riding..

Did hit an old favorite trail with some fun root sections and a sweet downhill section. The girl I was riding with appreciated the tips and ripped the section apart.

I sure have missed it all haha

Ahhhhh . . . Trespasser :D?

25 mile out and back on the backup Scott Comp Racing (primary ride has a wheel/spoke issue that's driving me nuts). Beautiful day for a ride even if I had to dodge 4 crazies on atv's at one point as I was coming down a hill. Primarily forest/fire roads, a couple of jeep trails. Some really nice smooth stuff as seen in the photos and some really rough areas with lots of rocks across the entire road. It was harder to navigate the rocks going up than coming back down. Got into some elk when I took a side road on the way back out. All told there was probably close to 2000 feet of elevation changed from the start to the turnaround point - makes coming back a lot of fun.

Sorry - lots of photos:

Naneum State Forest:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/IMGP5849.jpg

One of the early hills - doesn't look so bad in a photo:
http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/IMGP5850.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/IMGP5851.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/IMGP5852.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/IMGP5853.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/IMGP5854.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/IMGP5855.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/IMGP5858.jpg

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/IMGP5857.jpg

Only a minor amount of mud today - most of the snow is gone except for the real high elevations (above 5000 ft)

http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m...s/IMGP5859.jpg

Nice. I spent a lot of time in and around Wenatchee in the summers as a kid. Beautiful stuff up there.

took some folks from out of town on Holy Cross, they took some pictures of me. i love that trail, it's a non-stop cavalcade of fast flowy techy fun. good times overall. i'm not making stupid faces while i ride, that is my face, it always looks stupid.

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y244/squeeeb/me4.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y244/squeeeb/me2.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y244/squeeeb/me3.jpg
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y244/squeeeb/me-1.jpg