Racoon in the Rain

Went up to Raccoon for Mitch's weekend trip. We met at Cracker Barrel in Trussville and it was raining pretty hard on the way there. I was pretty worried it would rain out our ride, but when we got to Chattanooga it did not look too bad. We starter riding and went counter-clockwise from the visitor's center. It stated sprinkling on us, but only stayed a sprinkle the whole time we rode. I carried my camera, but it as so wet out I was afraid to get it out of the zip-lock bag. I had a pretty good ride as I didn't have any wrecks this trip and successfully dropped off the 3' rock on the one way section. I landed the slightest bit sideways and burped the air out of my tire. I was running pretty low pressure so I decided to put a bit more in it for the rest of the ride. I was shaking as I did this and it made me realize how I am still not completely comfortable jumping off stuff yet. I guess I will have to keep it up till it doesn't bother me anymore. We took a nice slow lap and stopped to play on a lot of stuff. We did swing by the log ride and rode across a few times, I rode across successfully and then started getting sloppy and had to jump off. I don't know what was wrong with me, but when I was trying to stop on the log and start back up again and locked the back tire and slid off and landed on my butt. I guess it was a little too wet to try that.

We then moved on the lower chunky section. This section was more difficult and being wet only made it more fun. I stopped to jump off one of the rocks a few times, but could not convince anyone else to try it. I thought for sure Jay would at least try it. We finished up this section and decided to lap the intestine section in the opposite direction we were going. This direction seemed to be much faster and have a better flow. I was scooting through pretty fast just trying to keep up with Jay and at one point came to a small drop with a stream going through it. I just jumped without thinking about it and cleared the water and almost cleared the whole dip. This is definitely something to look for next time I am there. Finally we finished out the loop with the climb up and then coasted down to the parking lot.

We headed to the hotel and after checking in and taking a nice cool shower we headed out to get dinner. We decided on Big River Brewery and sampled a few of their beers while waiting for our food. I ended up getting a steak and it was quite tasty after a long day of riding. We headed out, but stopped at Sticky Fingers for another beer before heading back to the hotel. I tried a Sweetwater Blue (it was a Blueberry beer) and thought it was pretty good.

Unfortunately, these are all the pictures I took.

Hot at Hurricane

We met at hurricane creek at 1:00 to check out the new stuff that they had built. It was only me, Tommy, Lee, and Monty. We started into the trail and I heard a terrible sound behind me. I knew someone had crashed and immediately turned around and went back. Monty was about 30 feet down the hill. I sat in shock as he got up and said he though the was ok. It appeared he only had some minor scratches. After a little time to recover we headed on and went to the mountain bike race course. We rode up around and found the new 5' drop that he had built. I was not feeling it this early into the ride and decided I might come back to it later. A short ride later we found the new structure right next to the wooden berm. It was pretty interesting to ride as it was pretty high even though it was plenty wide. We started off slow and finally after Lee rode the skinny I decided to try it. It is about 3' off the ground and is 12" wide. It is really intimidating just because of the height. I managed to make it even though I was really shakey. Another thing that made it difficult is that it is at a right angle off the wide part so you couldn't get lined up before going across. The second time I hit my helmet on the wood above it as I didn't duck enough. I still managed to make it without falling. I decided to ride around some and found a 3' drop on the course right up the trail. It had a ramp up and a short level section before ending. I jumped off the first time and came down on the front wheel a bit more than I wanted. It scared me a bit, but I didn't crash. I went back as there was a short gap jump that I really wanted to do. I looked at it quite a while before deciding to try it. I was told to be careful and not pull up to hard because the bike could kick out due to the angle of the ramp. I gathered my nerves and headed down the ramp. I didn't pull up at all and was not really going as fast as I should have been. Anyway my back tire came down right on the edge of the landing ramp. If I had come up a inch or two shorter it would have been bad, but I did land it and stay on the bike. I checked to see if John (the guy who runs the place) had gotten a good picture and he said he was waiting to get a picture of me crashing. I somehow felt insulted, but didn't mind that I had let him down. We finally headed on around the rest of the race course. I jumped off the 3' drop again and this time landed correctly. We circled on around and headed out to the top of the Gauntlet run. I went second as me and Lee wanted to ride the whole thing without dabbing. I made it all the way to the start of the woden section. I made it around the rock , but was going a bit fast and tried to hit the wood instead of hanging to the right. My front wheel dropped off the outside of the wood pathway and I had to put a foot down. I hiked back up to take pictures of everyone else coming down. We tried to stop at the dirt jump section. but it was soft dirt and we couldn't really play on it. We rode across the skinny bridge and hiked the bikes up to the short loop on the other side of the valley. I ran out of water at this point, so I knew I wasn't going to last for much longer. We rode a lap and headed back down the mountain. I passed the rock as I decided I was doing to well and didn't want to wreck now. I rode back across the bridge again. I actually made it both directions over this bridge. I was unable to make it last time I came. I think having Lee there to set the bar helped encourage me. I had to try after I saw him make it. Lastly we rode across the normal bridge (about 18-24" wide) and rested at the picnic area before trying the hill. We finally headed to the hill and I locked out my shocks as well as dialing my front down to 110. I went ahead and put it in a low gear and followed Lee up the hill. He made it about 3/4 of the way before wheelieing off the side of the trail. Somehow I made it to where he was and was so tired I was about to quit, but he was yelling encouragement and I managed to make it all the way to the top. It took me about 10m minutes to recover afterwards, but I actually made it. Lee went back down to the bottom to try again and I couldn't believe he had the energy to even try. He rode all the way to the top this time. I definately owe him a beer as I promised anyone who could ride it a beer. We went on back to the entrance and watched some helmet cam videos that some of the other riders took while we cooled off. After a nice beverage in the parking lot we headed back home. I don't know if I want to ride there again till it cools down a bit. Most of the time my clothes were so wet it looked like I had just gotten out of a pool. my clothes were so saturated they were dripping. I weighed when I got back home and I had lost over 5 pounds. Me and Steph decided to go to Longhorn and get a steak to help me recover.

Check out Tommy's blog as I know he has some video's up of a few things. I am going to have to see if he got any other videos. I wil have to get picture up later as this is the first chance I have even got to Blog about it.

Pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/grundcm/HurricaneCreek2008_7_20

Like a kid again

The day started out nice as I was able to get up early enough to meet some of the other BUMP folks at Oak mountain. I got there only a few minutes after 7 and they waited on me to get started. We rode a lap clockwise and I was feeling pretty good. We got back to the parking lot a little late and missed the group that was meeting at 9. I talked them into going the reverse direction for the second lap (counter-clockwise). We headed up johnson's mountain and I could feel the heat getting to me a little. I actually noticed a bit of difference as I came to the rocky section leading up to Blood rock. I climbed this in a bigger gear than I have in a while. I don't know if this was just due to not riding Oak in a while, or the road biking making a slight difference. Once again I tried to climb blood rock. I am going to try Joe's method some day of getting enough speed to carry you up the first section, but today I just tried to use technique to climb it. I almost got to the tree, but once again I got stuck. We got to the top of the mountain and met up with the 9:00 riders. After a short rest we headed down the hill and finished out the lap. I was slightly debating doing a third as I was feeling ok. I didn't really want to ride by myself so I sat and had a tasty beverage out of a plastic cup in the parking lot. Joe pulled up and was going to ride a lap, but I knew I would just slow him down so I headed to McAlisters to get some food. I sat outside as I was pretty sweaty so as not to disgust any of their other customers.

I talked to Joel and decided to meet him at his house to head to Bottle Tree. I had never been to his house before and he lives on the mountain beside downtown Bham. He collects old bicycles and I spent a good bit of time just looking at all the bikes he had. He also gave me some of the beer he made and it was really good. The only other person I know who made beer was in college and it was not the best. We waited for one of his friends and headed down to the bar. I took the IndyFab and I have to say I was not very comfortable. They would haul ass down the hills and through the intersection and I was so busy trying to pick a line to avoid the bad road I kept falling behind. I was still a little uncomfortable on the road bike. We got there and had a beer and ate. I was really impressed by how good the food was. they had Cajun sweet potato fries that were really good. I will probably go back just for those. We hung around for a few give aways (they were giving away shirts, and bike stuff) before deciding to head out. It was pretty late(for me that is past 10) and we put the lights on the bikes. I wanted to ride around some and everyone else wanted to also. We followed Joel around downtown and just had fun. He took us on a tour of some of the art as well as riding up a ramp and through a parking deck. I started feeling much more comfortable on the bike and started hopping on and off the curb (this sounds crazy as 3' drops don't bother me on the mountain bike). We finally headed up 20th street to Vulcan. This was a pretty steep hill and I used granny gear on my bike for the first time. We rode down Vulcan trail that is on the edge of the mountain overlooking the city. It was awesome and the moon was near full, so I turned my light out and rode for a short time by moonlight. We headed back to Joel's house and I headed home. I really enjoyed this ride and would definitely do it again.

Never going to be fast

After a few really rough weeks at work I finally was able to start commuting again. Today I only had to work an 11 hour day, so I got to ride to and was "forced" to leave early enough si I wouldn't be in the dark on the way home. I was feeling pretty rough after the ride in, but after riding home I am feeling much better. It has been about 2 weeks since I have been on the bike. I think I am just going to have to give up on ever getting faster. I just can't seem to get on the bike enough to improve.

On a sidenote: We went to Charleston SC the weekend of the 4th to visit some of Stephanie's friends. I have been there before, but I have not really noticed how much bikes are respected there. As you drive down the streets, almost every porch has a bike on it as well as every bar, grocery store, or pretty much any store has a bike rack, an if not there were a few bikes chained to a nearby fence or pole. I watched and motorists seemed to actually not completely despise the cyclists and gave them equal use of the road. I thought it was pretty cool.

I am going to try to get in a few more rides this week while the weather is nice.

Slow Lap

Went to Oak Mountain with Moran and ran a lap. I just did not feel great today. Moran had a hard time keeping his heart rate down and we stopped to rest a few times which was fine with me. I don't think I successfully rode any of the log rides but we did make the whole loop without any flats (lately my biggest problem). I recently put some Panracer Fire UST tires on (I just wanted to try something different than the Nevegals) and have been relatively pleased. I rode with them at Lurleen last weekend and now at Oak Mountain. I am not sure they are better, especially in the sand, but they seem to do well everywhere else. I just need to try them in the wet to see how they do, but they are less expensive and I was going through the old ones too fast.

Also, Tommy had mentioned the Gnomes had been multiplying. I managed to snap a picture of them and will try to get it up soon.

After our ride we went to McAlisters. It has been a little while since I have gone since being introduced to Chipotle. It was nice sitting outside in the shade and drinking the sweet tea. I really like people watching there, but not many people came to eat that day. My only complaint is that the little blond that looks like Elisha Cuthbert (I have no idea how to spell her name) was not working that day.

I looked back and only made about 93 miles this week. I had about 95 last week, so I am very close, but unfortunately my hundred mile week will have to be later. I am hoping all this road riding is going to help my mountain biking, but currently it is just making me too tired to ride hard.

First case of road rage (unfortunately not me)

Rode to and from work today and it was very enjoyable except for a lady in a white SUV laid on the horn as she passed me (as well as not moving over). Of course she was speeding as the speed limit is only 30 and 45 on these roads. I can only imagine it is such a nusiance to have to wait a maximum of 30 seconds to find a break in the cars to go around me. I ride on or over the line when a car is coming so most people only have to touch the far line with their wheel to give me a couple feet clearance. I know I have seen this car around Montevallo and next time I find a "I heart bikers" sticker or something similar I am going to buy it. I am pretty sure I will recognize the car and next time I see it, they are getting a sticker on their rear window.



The ride home was a bit of a gamble as Stephanie took the truck home at 4 and I knew I would have to work late. It started raining around 5, but cleared up a bit by the time I was ready to leave. I was afraid I would get caught in the rain, but other than getting a few sprinkles while in downtown Montevallo, the rain held off. It was nice and cool and smelled like rain (I hope everyone knows what I mean as I love that smell). This was probably one of the most enjoyable rides yet.

Good Start, but can I follow through?

I started this week pretty well by commuting both Monday and Tuesday to and from work. Yesterday before the ride home, I was thinking that I could get in a 100 mile week. Looking back, I don't think I have ever ridden that much in a single week before. However; after I got home last night my legs were aching a bit, but I assumed it would be better by the morning. (I don't know if I have mentioned, but the ride is 12.25 miles and for some reason is much easier to ride to work than riding back home from the office.) I was planning on going to Oak Mountain this afternoon, however Wednesdays are leg day at the gym and I was struggling there (even though I have dropped weight and do sets of 20 reps). I got back to the office and realized that if I rode; it would not be pretty. I was supposed to meet someone there and I felt bad cancelling, but I think I am going to have to work my way up to riding so much. I am going to see how I feel tomorrow and try to ride again. But by skipping today, I am going to have to ride two laps of Oak this weekend to make the 100 mark if I can make the ride to and from tomorrow.

On a good note (for me): it is thundering and cloudy outside. I need a better excuse than me being lazy.