More action: Salmon Teriyaki & Asparagus. Potatoes getting ready for round two...
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Fat Chuck's Revenge 3/7/09
This was the last race in the TMBRA endurance series...and what a way to finish.
The course was tougher than I had expected. The race was held in Smithville at Rocky Hill Ranch which is a very familiar place for me. Typically, race laps are ridden in a counter-clockwise direction...but for this race they changed the course and laps were ridden clockwise. This added a lot of climbing over the 100K distance.
I rode as hard as I could. I probably went out a little faster than I would have liked to, but my efforts paid off because I finished the race in 4th place, and came in 3rd overall in the points series. Not too bad for my first round of real races!
I learned a lot in this series and I'm already looking forward to these races again next year.
The course was tougher than I had expected. The race was held in Smithville at Rocky Hill Ranch which is a very familiar place for me. Typically, race laps are ridden in a counter-clockwise direction...but for this race they changed the course and laps were ridden clockwise. This added a lot of climbing over the 100K distance.
I rode as hard as I could. I probably went out a little faster than I would have liked to, but my efforts paid off because I finished the race in 4th place, and came in 3rd overall in the points series. Not too bad for my first round of real races!
I learned a lot in this series and I'm already looking forward to these races again next year.
Monday, February 16, 2009
Mas O Menos 2/14/09
What a blast we had in Terlingua, TX during the fourth endurance event in the TMBRA series! The weather was perfect, (in the 80's), and there was little wind...which made camping a bit easier than years before so I'm told.
The area is beautiful and the course was amazing. It was a mixture of open desert single track and one long jeep road climb known as Tres Cuevas. (3600ft!)
We camped out on Friday night before the race and Saturday night after the race.
My race was 100K (62.5 miles), so I had to complete two laps around the course.
Believe me when I say that I had to dig deep on the second lap - especially on the climb.
Despite a crash on the 1st lap...I finished the race in great time. I came in 10th place in my class out of 70 starters in a time of 5hr 18min 56sec, and I was less than a half hour behind the fastest finisher in my group. The icing on the cake for me was receiving a check for $50 for all the suffering. Not bad!!
Can't wait for this race again next year!!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Miles of Dis-Comfort Marathon 1/24/09
This was the third endurance event in the TMBRA series...and like all of the others, it was named very appropriately. The race was held at Flat Rock Ranch, which is just outside of Comfort, TX. (South of Fredericksburg in the Texas Hill Country.)
FRR is a cattle ranch that has been owned by a single family for over 100 years. Several years ago, one of the owners hired a company to come in and cut single track trail throughout the ranch.
The race consisted of two laps around the ranch, and it was just over 52 miles in length. The trails are split into a lower and an upper loop and there was a lot of climbing. There are several peaks in the ranch that are around 2000ft high. The views are incredible...
There was a neutral feed/drop zone right in the middle by the start/finish line. I kept a cooler in the feed zone with bottles of HEED mix and the food that I typically like to eat: fig newtons and bananas.
It was cold to start and it was also windy. The temps came up later in the day - and all in all it was a great temperature to race.
I ended up coming in 9th place in this event. I was 45 minutes behind the fastest guy in my class. I was shooting for a 5-hour time...and I actually finished in 5hr03min. It was a great day...and I can't wait to ride out there again!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Excruciation Exam (E2) 1/3/09
E2 Race Summary 1/3/09
(Sorry - no pictures for this entry yet...)
The second event in the TMBRA Mountain Bike Marathon Championship Series is appropriately named the “Excruciation Exam” or E2. The length of the race this year was just over 81 miles and the distance was made up of single track and dirt/gravel/paved road sections between two mountain bike parks here in Central Texas. The parks are Bluff Creek Ranch in Warda, and Rocky Hill Ranch in Smithville.
The race started at 7:30am with a 7-mile loop within BCR before we hit the road towards Smithville. I had a mellow start and got caught up in some traffic on the single track. No big deal…as there was plenty of distance to make up some time.
I had a pretty good strategy for this race. I decided to change my tires to some that would roll well on the road sections and also work well in the dirt. (No full knobbies for this type of race!) I chose a WTB Vulpine 2.1 for the back tire and a WTB Nano 2.1 for the front. The Vulpine is a semi-slick with small knobs on the side that help with cornering in the dirt. The Nano is a great all purpose race tire with practically a solid bead that runs down the center of the tire. Again, great for the road sections and perfect in the dirt as well… This combination worked perfectly on my 29er.
My first real effort came when we approached a relatively steep incline on the road. I noticed people were down shifting their bikes and slowing down as they got close to the hill. I am lucky to have some great hills where I live and I’ve been training on them all year, so I put that training to good use by up shifting my bike, standing up, and dropping the hammer. I cranked up the hill passed everyone that I saw. I kept up my tempo, and thought that I had my friend James with me…but when I looked back, I noticed that it was a guy on a cyclocross bike that I had passed. (It turns out that James didn’t see me take off…and I was too far ahead to make up the gap.) We separated at this point and I ended up riding the race 85-90% by myself.
We had one checkpoint to go through before we got to Rocky Hill Ranch. At the checkpoint, you could fill up on water or Gatoraid and they put a colored zip tie on your handlebar and recorded your number and time.
At RHR there was another checkpoint before you started one of the two laps on the course. They had a neutral feed zone setup there where they transported your drop bag. (The race is self supported with the use of the neutral zone for eating, drinking, and fixing your bike if needed.)
I knew the course at RHR pretty well – because despite a couple of changes and some re-routes, it was essentially the same track they used for the 24 hour race. The laps were ten miles in length.
I completed my laps in just under an hour each time. I was glad that I brought Fig Newtons, Bananas, and Nuun tablets with me in my feed bag.
One last zip tie, and I headed off to BCR again…
I had two riders leave with me from Rocky Hill Ranch. The route back started with a long paved climb. Again, I used the hill to my advantage and kept up a steady tempo. When I crossed the top of the hill I looked back and did not see either of the riders…
It was pretty windy at this point in the day. I seemed to pick up a good tailwind for a while, so I used it and maintained a fast pace. I was surprised to see that I could hold speeds between 20-25+ mph. Not bad for a mountain bike w/big tires!
There was only one check point on the way back to Bluff Creek Ranch. The park was about ten miles past the checkpoint. Once I made it back to the park, we still have another shorter single track loop to complete before crossing the finish line.
I felt great right up to the end of the race.
Here are my results:
There were 125 people that started the race. 42 people were entered in my class (40-49) and I came in 6th place and 17th overall with a time of 6hr, 6min, 42sec. The fastest pro rider came in at 4hr 51min – so I felt pretty good about my time and my place.
I’m already looking forward to the third race in this series called “Miles of Discomfort” on January 24th.
Stay tuned…
(Sorry - no pictures for this entry yet...)
The second event in the TMBRA Mountain Bike Marathon Championship Series is appropriately named the “Excruciation Exam” or E2. The length of the race this year was just over 81 miles and the distance was made up of single track and dirt/gravel/paved road sections between two mountain bike parks here in Central Texas. The parks are Bluff Creek Ranch in Warda, and Rocky Hill Ranch in Smithville.
The race started at 7:30am with a 7-mile loop within BCR before we hit the road towards Smithville. I had a mellow start and got caught up in some traffic on the single track. No big deal…as there was plenty of distance to make up some time.
I had a pretty good strategy for this race. I decided to change my tires to some that would roll well on the road sections and also work well in the dirt. (No full knobbies for this type of race!) I chose a WTB Vulpine 2.1 for the back tire and a WTB Nano 2.1 for the front. The Vulpine is a semi-slick with small knobs on the side that help with cornering in the dirt. The Nano is a great all purpose race tire with practically a solid bead that runs down the center of the tire. Again, great for the road sections and perfect in the dirt as well… This combination worked perfectly on my 29er.
My first real effort came when we approached a relatively steep incline on the road. I noticed people were down shifting their bikes and slowing down as they got close to the hill. I am lucky to have some great hills where I live and I’ve been training on them all year, so I put that training to good use by up shifting my bike, standing up, and dropping the hammer. I cranked up the hill passed everyone that I saw. I kept up my tempo, and thought that I had my friend James with me…but when I looked back, I noticed that it was a guy on a cyclocross bike that I had passed. (It turns out that James didn’t see me take off…and I was too far ahead to make up the gap.) We separated at this point and I ended up riding the race 85-90% by myself.
We had one checkpoint to go through before we got to Rocky Hill Ranch. At the checkpoint, you could fill up on water or Gatoraid and they put a colored zip tie on your handlebar and recorded your number and time.
At RHR there was another checkpoint before you started one of the two laps on the course. They had a neutral feed zone setup there where they transported your drop bag. (The race is self supported with the use of the neutral zone for eating, drinking, and fixing your bike if needed.)
I knew the course at RHR pretty well – because despite a couple of changes and some re-routes, it was essentially the same track they used for the 24 hour race. The laps were ten miles in length.
I completed my laps in just under an hour each time. I was glad that I brought Fig Newtons, Bananas, and Nuun tablets with me in my feed bag.
One last zip tie, and I headed off to BCR again…
I had two riders leave with me from Rocky Hill Ranch. The route back started with a long paved climb. Again, I used the hill to my advantage and kept up a steady tempo. When I crossed the top of the hill I looked back and did not see either of the riders…
It was pretty windy at this point in the day. I seemed to pick up a good tailwind for a while, so I used it and maintained a fast pace. I was surprised to see that I could hold speeds between 20-25+ mph. Not bad for a mountain bike w/big tires!
There was only one check point on the way back to Bluff Creek Ranch. The park was about ten miles past the checkpoint. Once I made it back to the park, we still have another shorter single track loop to complete before crossing the finish line.
I felt great right up to the end of the race.
Here are my results:
There were 125 people that started the race. 42 people were entered in my class (40-49) and I came in 6th place and 17th overall with a time of 6hr, 6min, 42sec. The fastest pro rider came in at 4hr 51min – so I felt pretty good about my time and my place.
I’m already looking forward to the third race in this series called “Miles of Discomfort” on January 24th.
Stay tuned…
Monday, December 8, 2008
Holidaze Marathon - Camp Eagle, December 6th 2008
Wow - what an event!
This is the furthest that I've ventured outside of Austin. Camp Eagle is located in a town called Rocksprings which is a little over three hours from home. (Rocksprings is about an hour and a half past Fredericksburg in the heart of Hill Country.) Camp Eagle is also a Christian-based adventure camp. The Holidaze Marathon is part of the TMBRA (Texas Mountain Bike Racing Association) Mountain Bike Marathon Championship Series. Camp Eagle hosts this event every year.
Well, I did not get a chance to ride out there before the race. If I had, then I may have considered setting my 29er up with a suspension fork. The course was relentless! It was very rocky and pretty technical in most sections. There were long, winding switchback climbs with fast descents. The full marathon (3 laps) covered a distance of 43 miles. Each lap had about 2000 ft of climbing. There were a lot of people that signed up for three laps and ended up quitting after two.
The dirt road out to Camp Eagle is eight miles long.
I spent Friday night in a screened cabin in the area above the main lodge. My R32 is pretty low to the ground, so I had to be careful getting up to the cabin. The AWD definitely helped though!
I felt at home once I saw my name on the door...
It got very cold on Friday night. Some people reported that the weather actually dropped into the 20's. I can verify this because the water that I had setup for coffee use was partially frozen when I woke up @ 6am!
It took my friend James and me just over six hours to finish the race. It honestly felt like my body had been rattled for six hours straight. We were glad when the race was over - and feel that it was quite an accomplishment. We ended up coming in 11/12th place out of 28 that were entered in our age group.
Part of the course ran parallel to a river that runs through the camp.
There are all sorts of adventure related activities along the river. I thought that my brother's kids and my daughter would have fun on this one when they are a little older. The water was crystal clear...
All in all it was a great time! I look forward to the next marathon event...and returning to Camp Eagle soon. (I was eating a PB&J in the 'feed zone' after the 1st lap in this picture...)
This is the furthest that I've ventured outside of Austin. Camp Eagle is located in a town called Rocksprings which is a little over three hours from home. (Rocksprings is about an hour and a half past Fredericksburg in the heart of Hill Country.) Camp Eagle is also a Christian-based adventure camp. The Holidaze Marathon is part of the TMBRA (Texas Mountain Bike Racing Association) Mountain Bike Marathon Championship Series. Camp Eagle hosts this event every year.
Well, I did not get a chance to ride out there before the race. If I had, then I may have considered setting my 29er up with a suspension fork. The course was relentless! It was very rocky and pretty technical in most sections. There were long, winding switchback climbs with fast descents. The full marathon (3 laps) covered a distance of 43 miles. Each lap had about 2000 ft of climbing. There were a lot of people that signed up for three laps and ended up quitting after two.
The dirt road out to Camp Eagle is eight miles long.
I spent Friday night in a screened cabin in the area above the main lodge. My R32 is pretty low to the ground, so I had to be careful getting up to the cabin. The AWD definitely helped though!
I felt at home once I saw my name on the door...
It got very cold on Friday night. Some people reported that the weather actually dropped into the 20's. I can verify this because the water that I had setup for coffee use was partially frozen when I woke up @ 6am!
It took my friend James and me just over six hours to finish the race. It honestly felt like my body had been rattled for six hours straight. We were glad when the race was over - and feel that it was quite an accomplishment. We ended up coming in 11/12th place out of 28 that were entered in our age group.
Part of the course ran parallel to a river that runs through the camp.
There are all sorts of adventure related activities along the river. I thought that my brother's kids and my daughter would have fun on this one when they are a little older. The water was crystal clear...
All in all it was a great time! I look forward to the next marathon event...and returning to Camp Eagle soon. (I was eating a PB&J in the 'feed zone' after the 1st lap in this picture...)
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