Saturday, December 29, 2007

Lurleen




I wanted to ride somewhere besides Oak mountain today and asked Tommy if he wanted to go to Lake Lurleen instead. He agreed so I picked him up and we headed down to Tuscaloosa. We got to the park and hit the trail heading clockwise as that was the way I went last time. The first part was down near the lake and the roots were angled toward the water. I think Tommy almost went in the water on this section. We stopped at the dam to adjust the bikes and get Tommy's helmet cam aimed correctly. Continuing on we we both fighting poorly shifting rear deraillers. I finally got frustrated, stopped, flipped the bike over and adjusted it. I could not seem t get it adjusted while riding. We stopped shortly after and did the same to Tommy's and he started enjoying the ride much more. We took our time and enjoyed the day. There were a few nice downhills that I was able to get a little air, but it seemed like the opposite direction would be better for downhills. Next time we will have to go counterclockwise. Finally after finishing the trail, we were heading back on the road and stopped to play on the camp sites.

They had little walls that we could jump off the side. I started on the one that was about a 1.5 foot drop and got comfortable. The goal was one that was a 1.5 foot drop and very quickly sloped down from there. My first attempt I was going pretty slow and ended up nosing over and landed a few feet from the wall. After going over the first time, I was feeling better. Getting up the nerve to do it the first time is always the hardest. I slowly got faster and faster untill I was landing on the flat section at the bottom. I must have jumped off the wall about 10 times. I was very pleased as the bike performed beautifully and landed very solidly and more gently than I thought. I walked down and stood where I was landing and it was almost shoulder high. I was extremely happy and finally feel like I am using the suspension. Once I get a little more comfortable maybe I can add more style to my jumps.

Please Hold: I will add pictures and possibly movies in the next day or so.
Took me a little longer than I thought but pictures are finally up.
Remainder of Pictures:

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Legs failing on me

Rode Oak again today. Met BUMP at 10:00 and we did a lap CCW. It was a fun ride and I played around a bit riding the logs and practicing jumping things. I got to lead from Chimney rock down through the "Northern Shire" I was cruising through this singletrack at a good pace. However near the end I lost my line and ended up having to brush a tree with my shoulder. I think Monty was following my line exactly because he hit the tree pretty good. We paused at the BMX track road and waited for everyone and that is when I found out he hit it. He said he saw me bump it and next thing he knew he was bouncing off multiple trees. Finished on up and I hit my chainring pretty good as I completely missed the large log with my front tire as I tried to hop it. Got back to the parking lot and Gavin wanted to do a second lap. I wanted to do a second lap also so I got ready and we headed out again.

We went Clockwise and were moving at a pretty good pace. I had heard Gavin could ride, but I didn't know what to expect. I was actually feeling pretty but my thighs were burning on the climbs a bit. I thought it was just me getting into the faster pace. We made it to the North Trailhead and headed up the Jeep climb. It began misting on us at this point, but was not bad, so we kept going. I don't know what was wrong with me, but I was struggling on the really steep climbs. I actually had to downshift to Granny in the front. I hardly ever use this gear and my heartrate was still low, so I don't know what the problem was but I couldn't keep up. Rarely do my legs fail before I get out of breath so it may have been nutritional. Anyway, we cruised on up and finished out the lap. Hitting the downhill after Blood rock, the ground was nice an tacky from the light mist and I was able to navigate this quite easly and had to keep on the brakes to stay back from catching Gavin. The rocky downhills were the only place where I may have had a slight advantage (or he was was waiting on me to make sure he would know if I crashed :-) ). We still finished up in about 1:36 of riding, we stopped for a few minutes to check bikes twice, but I was really hoping to get in the 1:20's on this lap.

I really enjoyed today as the weather was really nice. I had to wear long sleves and my leggings, but I stayed comfortable the whole day without getting to sweaty or cold. Traded numbers with Gavin as I think by riding with him more often I might can get my lap time down to where I want it to be.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Rain, Rain, Go away

Met at Swayback for the nedurance training ride. After missing a turn on the way there I ended up getting there about 10 minutes late. Instead of holding everyone up, I agreed to just meet them at a point near the parking lot after they had ridden about 3 miles. I quickly got ready and rode over to the power line road. They were not there yet, so I rode around on the trails trying to warm up. It was not particularly cold, but was a bit chilly and I did not want to overdress because I knew I would get hot once riding.
After meeting everyone we went a couple of miles and one of the guys got a flat. I hung back with him while he fixed the flat and we started back. About a mile later he broke his chain and decided to head back to the parking lot. I picked the pace up a bit and managed to finally catch the group. We made it back to the parking lot and I refilled my water and ate a bit and we headed back out.
This lap it started raining on us. It stoppped shortly after, but we could all tell this was only the beginning. It made it just a little slick so I had to be a bit more careful which made it a bit more challenging and fun. After finishing this lap a good number of people decided to bail. About 5 of us (originally closer to 10) headed back out for another lap.
This lap it started and stopped raining a few times during the ride. The roots were pretty slick which slowed us down a little, but we were all pretty drenched by this point. We kept at it and finished the lap. Right as we were getting back to the parking lot, it started raining (not just sprinkling. We stood around and then moved under the small cover of the map structure. It started pouring pretty hard and showed no sign of stopping so we decided to call it. I went back to my truck packed up my bike and started changing and it slacked off to a light mist (which was nice so i could dry off a bit before getting in the truck.

On the drive back once I got into Clanton it started clearing up and was sunny by the time I got home. I was a little mad as we could have gotten in the miles we wanted anywhere but swayback, but it was too late.

That is all I rode this weekend as I couldn't convince anyone to ride on Sunday. I did get to meet Xray Ed on this trip and he worked on convincing me to try an endurance race. I think I may try one this next year.

Sunday, December 9, 2007

Soft Hands

Well I started the weekend with a Saturday ride with Tommy. We did a lap of Oak Mountain clockwise but the more interesting thing is that Tommy bought him a helmet cam. It is a Tony Hawk cam that was very inexpensive, so I was not expecting much. We ate at McAlisters after our ride and watched the video he recorded. The camera only came with a 32meg card so I think it would only record 2 minutes of footage but we got a few videos. Hopefully Tommy will get them up on his blog (see to the right under links).





Sunday I met Bump for the first time for trail work. I knew they intended to re-plank one of the bridges and I figured I would also rake some leaves. Well, we had to dolly in all the wood (which was probably the most difficult part) and about 3 of us stayed and worked on the bridge while the others headed elsewhere to work since there was only so many people that could help. I was nailing the new planks on and my sad self ended up with some pretty good blisters. I had no idea I had gotten so soft by sitting at my computer all day. We then went over to remove a bridge and replcae with rocks. By the time we got there the bridge was already removed and we were searching for suitable rocks. I found one that weighed close to 100 pounds so I had to get the dolly and wheel it about 1/8 mile to the place it was to go. After hauling this and many other rocks (the later ones we found were not as far) I was huffing and puffing. I helped place a few rocks then started raking the tail since they didn't need my help there. I only got a couple hundred yards done before it was time for lunch.



It helped me respect how much work goes into little things on the trail. I am glad I joined BUMP and am really looking forward to the expansion of the Oak Mountain trail.



After lunch we rode a lap and really enjoyed the sections of the trail that were improved. I ended up pretty tired after the day, but just being in the woods away from cell phones and work made it a great day.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Stairs Suck!

Headed to Oak Mountain again to try to practice for the Day at Sway on the 15th. I had intended to try to get three laps in this weekend. Mal from BUMP wanted to do two laps starting at 9:00. Tommy and Moran were going to start at 10-10:30 and try for their second lap when I was starting my third. We hit the trail heading clockwise. The BUMP guys seem to only like riding clockwise, I don't quite understand. Anyway, I just rode with Mal and really didn't try anything on this lap but just rode. We got back and managed a 1:35 lap time (not counting the time we stopped to wait for stragglers a few miles in. I got back to the parking lot and ate a sandwich, energy bar, and refilled my water bottle.
A few more people had arrived to join us for our second lap so we headed out (Clockwise again). Gavin (I hope this is his name) joined us and I enjoyed tring to follow him as he was hitting all the log jumps and log rides as we rode. He actually cleared the large log before camp road so I decided to try it. I cleared it with my back tire, but landed on my front. It was definately not pretty, but I made it over. We rode for a while and Monty was having shifting problems and basically had to use the large chainring only. Shortly after he ran over a needle (like you air up a ball with and how this got on the trail I will never know) and had to chage his tire. He was having terrible luck. I stuck around to make sure he got it repaired (I would feel terrible if he had to walk out). We rode on to the North trail head and he decided to head back. I couldn't figure out why he didn't want to climb the hill in the large chainring only on the second lap :-). At this point I was 5-10 minutes behind everyone else so I decided to see if I could catch them. I tried to not kill myself but pushed pretty hard up the hill. I actually saw 201bpm on my heartrate monitor. According to the built in charts for my age that is about 107% of my max. Just call me an overachiever. I finally caught half the group at the top of the BUMP trail. I headed on down tring to catch the leaders. I finally caught a glimpse of them across the valley of Johnson's mountain. I was still a minute or two behind but kept pressing on. Finally I was getting close near the end of Mr. Toads, but could not do it. I got back to the cars about 5 seconds behind them. I looked at me time and was extremely supprised to see a 1:31. I did however stop for about 15 minutes for the shifting and tire change that would have bumped the time to what I thought I would have ridden.

I was not hungry, but I tried to force down a little food and refilled my camelback once again. I was able to talk Tommy and Moran into heading CCW as I needed a change for the last lap. Even though they rode this diection for their first lap, they graciously agreed. Gavin joined us as he wanted to also get 2 laps in even though he had gone road riding tat moring. We headed out and rode at a welcome slower pace. I was regretting pushing so hard on the second lap as I figured I would have to walk some of the hils according to how I felt on my last climb of the jeep trail. Supprisingly I made it to blood rock okay. I decided to once again try to ride up (even though I had already admitted defeat because I was so tired) and did better than I thought. I had to take a few steps at the tree as I was spinnign my tire and dabbed a few more time, but actually did better than usual. We continued on around and stopped at ditch #3 to take pictures of Tommy's jumping skills. Tommy tried to take the road back once we got to the North Tailhead, btu we conviced him that he was so close to getting two laps he had better not give up now. We stopped at the top of the first climb (everthing seemed like a climb at this point). Tomm wanted to rest, so me and Moran traded bikes (we swapped pedals) as Gavin headed on back due to time constraints. I rode the Stumpy the rest of the way and decided I HATE Specialized seats. I was doing fine till this and now my butt was killing me. I should have done something, but I just sucked it up and dealt with it. I am probably going to regret this decision tomorrow. We finished it out in 2:05 riding time and 55 minutes of resting. After a beer in the parking lot we headed home to get ready to go to Texas Roadhouse. I had a tasty New york strip and felt much better.

I just found out Charles and Charlie are going to Swayback tomorrow to ride. I think I could work the soreness out of my legs, but I am really saddle sore. I will have to see if I can even sit on the seat tomorrow morning. If I can, I may go join them. After all, I only get to ride on the weekends, it would be terible to waste a day.