Update coming, may be delayed for at least a day. Sorry, lots of video taken though.

Race hurt, but that was to be expected.

Making stuff up

That's about all I can do right now. Not much happening, still mourning the death of the legendary NRS.

Made my way to Hardwood Ski And Bike first thing this morning before the swarms showed. Put 2.5 laps in of the Canada Cup course. Why only 2.5 laps you may ask? Because I crashed on my second time down boneshaker. Not a hard crash more of a the bike stopped and I didn't while in slow motion. Of course it didn't go unnoticed. The cheerleaders with the pom poms, Watson and Stu Alp made sure I knew they say me bail.

The bike did take a little damage from it though and popped two spokes out. Got love Mavic SLR's for quick repairs. Quick stop in the service and I was back out for another tour around. This one was clean. My legs also started to feel good on the last lap. I'm becoming like a diesel in the winter. I'm a pain in the ass to get started, move a little sluggish for the first bit but once I get up to speed I can maintain. That's exactly what I want for the 24 hour.

Wheel to true, grass to cut, car to clean, dog to walk then it's couch to sit. Pictures, video, and a bunch of words tomorrow. I hope.

Later

Taken out to pasture

What a great week to be on recovery. The weather has been crap. Rain, cold, blah blah blah. Forced to the rollers last night, it was a good movie at least. Tonight was a little bit better. Managed to spend some time outside on the Anthem to make sure everything is perfect with the new cable setup. Of course it started to rain half way through the ride. Not hard but enough to get both me and the bike dirty.

So what do I do with all this time on my hands. I wreak havoc in my basement, first was a better layout of the work area. This lead to a test. I've started to run out of space lately and this was something that would give me more room. I had to do it. It was time.

I'm not sure what would have been more humane, stripping the shit out of it or talking it out to the back field and shooting it while turned the other way. This was the bike that really got me started in the endurance racing. It's seen beyond it's fair share of abuse and just kept going. I did my first 8 hour on this bike, my first 24 hour, my first podium finish, my first win. tear

My thoughts on selling it kinda went to the way side. I'm a little sentimental about it so I thing the frame may find a permanent spot on the wall.

I think I heard it whimper when I pulled the cables off.

Gotta run and clean up the blood on the floor.

Later

Days of rest? Are you sure??

I'm in a recovery week but I swear it almost feels like a train block. Last nights single speed ride was pretty sane. Luckily, my legs felt pretty trashed so any intensity would have had me curled over at the side of the trail whining. With Canada Cup at Hardwood this weekend there are lots of crazy fast guys in the area. One just happens to be staying at Jeremy's. Check out Setfan's site.

Unfortunately we finished up before we needed lights, not that I'm complaining on how light it is at 9 pm but I would love to get a little bit more time playing in the dark before Solstice. I just really want to play with my lights.

Tonight was spent cleaning up the disaster's of the weekend. Both Anthem's looked like hell. I have realized that there is different dirty and the clean dramatically different. Mansfield dirt, which was about 5.5 hours deep was everywhere. Hard to clean, lots of scrubbing. Now, Hardwood ski and bike if fine pine tree dirty that just a light sprinkle of water rinsed away like it never was there.

The Mansfield dirty lead to a strip down of the shifting, new cables, housing etc. Running Jagwire Ripcord enclosed setup up now. One bike is done, tuned, cleaned and ready to roll for tomorrow's ride. I'll finish up the second Anthem tomorrow. This was a delayed thing that should have been done well before the first race.

Crash and burn time, tomorrow a little pedal time.

Later

The Sunday Morning After

After shovelling an excessive amount of food into my mouth Saturday night I figured I can kill a couple things at once. One those to huge grease covered pizza slices that I picked up in New Lowell on my way home Saturday after the race. I'm lactose intolerant but I was hungry enough that I would chance it that their cheese was not real cheese. MMMMM it was good.

The second was to head to Hardwood and get a few laps in on the Canada Cup course that's happening next weekend. Plan was to meet up with Jeremy Simmons of the Trek Store Race team and find those perfect lines. I was late, I have no good excuse, he gave me a dirty look. Actually I stopped in to check out the inter club road race that was just down the road. Dr. Bill was playing in that and I found out after that he finished in the top 12. Not bad at all.

So the course. All I can say is sweet. It's a mountain biker course. Roadies may want to stay home. Lots of technical stuff with a couple split lines. One has this huge boulder that you can smoke over or you take the safe slow line. The infamous boneshaker is in again for us. It's actually getting easier. I think over the years of people crashing on it has worn down some of the mean rocks that used to bring you do a stop way to quickly. The climbing side of the course is more sustained but nothing really that long.

We ran a couple 31 minutes laps with no major exertion. Aww did I mention that coffee run is in also. Great fast lines, this is a course that if you can stay off your brakes as you enter the singletrack you can really hold a high speed and put some distance on a rider who has even the remote bit of hesitation. I'll be out again at least once this week to get a few more laps in.

Heading out to play with the boys on our single speed ride. Hopefully this stays mellow. Hopefully. Gotta run.