I ran for 43 minutes yesterday and holy smokes my legs are super sore today. Talk about over doing it. I think 20 minutes would have been sufficient when you havn’t run in 7 months. I enjoyed every minute of it, but should have been more patient.

I finally got around to taking my number plate off the Anthem and checking the bike over for race damage. The bottom bracket was kinda siezed up. I’m not sure what that’s about. That never happened to the old school shimano UN-71 BB’s. I don’t have an ISIS tool so I guess the bike’s out of commission for a while. That is why running the race through that creek 4 times was stupid. Frickin’ drivetrain damage. My OCD kicks in when I know something’s broke and there’s nothing I can do about it. I guess I’ll drink a beer.

I enjoyed my time off the bike last week. Life is so much easier when you don’t have a hobby. I just hung out with the kids, ate food and drank beer. Erin went riding/running whenever the mood struck her, no need to synchonize schedules.

I knew I was ready to jump back on the saddle when I finally got around to tinkering with my bike. Not wanting to do bike maintenance is a sure sign of burnout. Yeah, if you find yourself getting cranky about putting lube on your chain it’s time to take a break. I don’t fight it though…. just roll with it. So I did an easy hour on the road bike this afternoon. No training, just for pure bike riding enjoyment.

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Here’s a funny story about a guy who got so tired of hearing another guys “hoots and grunts” in a spin class that he “walked over to the bike, lifted it into the air and flipped it over”. Of course the hooter is sueing.

I can relate. I don’t really like riding with hooters, whistlers and the like. Is it just me or is someone riding along on your wheel whistling or hooting annoying as hell?

It was a great day for racing on the best race course Tom Brown Park has ever seen (except for the creek crossing). Fields were big and competitive which made for good racing all around. I watched some of the beginner racing and have to wonder, was there a competition at Higher Ground to see how many fast roadies could sandbag in the beginner races?

An informal Bike Posse meeting at the creek crossing.

My starts are pure poo.

The speed of the Ex 30-39 start caught me by surprise. It was fast. Going up the double track on the Cadillac trail I was 2nd to last with nobody in sight. It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever experienced. Never once have I completely lost touch with the whole field in the first 5 minutes of a race. I knew I couldn’t ride that pace without blowing sky high and ruining my race so I just kept the pace even and rode all by myself until about halfway back on the Cadillac single track when I caught the first racer… blown. Then another… blown. Another… etc. etc. They were blowing up Kent W style and leaving scorch marks on the trail. A look at the lap times confirmed that all but a few riders significantly slowed down on their second laps. Total carnage.

Finding my rhythm on Lap 1. Those $3 Walgreens glasses Dave let me borrow were sweet. I need to get some of those.

Honestly dropping off the back at the start made for a fun race. I had carrots dangling in front of me the entire time. By the end of the first lap I had ridden into 14th place. I rode the 2nd lap a little faster but kept my efforts honest. All the guy were real nice about letting me pass. I had one guy in my class insinuate that I had only caught him because he wasn’t so good in the single track and that he didn’t want to let me by because he would just catch me when it opened back up. I said, “ok, so can I get by please?”. He ended up finishing 13 minutes behind me. Pretty funny.

Plugging away on Lap 2.

By the end of the second lap I had worked into 7th. Still feeling good so I bump up the pace again. I had caught several 19-29 riders on the 2nd lap but the beginning of the 3rd is when lapped riders really started to become a factor. At first it was easy because you’re catching the riders who know they’re going slow and let you by without much fuss but as time goes on you get to the sport riders who think they’re still going fast so they don’t want to let you by. Here’s a good time to post a reminder.

Rule 2A3. Lapped riders must yield to overtaking riders. Riders
should voice the command “Track” when overtaking another.
It is the responsibility of the challenging rider to overtake
safely. You must yield to the passing rider on the first
command.

That rule is so easily forgotten.

By the end of the third lap I was sitting 6th and had caught 5th (eventual 3rd) on the BMX track but an unplanned stop allowed him another 10 - 15 second gap. He was riding good but I was slowly bringing him back.

Half way through the last lap I’m on the hunt.

When we hit the open climbs we passed the blown 3rd and 4th place riders. I caught 3rd right as we entered the single track behind the animal shelter. In hindsight I should have gone by him right there, but I didn’t. That was mistake one. So he soft pedaled and blocked all the way to the BMX track. I tried going inside on him once, but he gased it a little and stuffed me. I started to worry 5th and 6th might catch us we were going so slow. I guess he was playing the best cards he had but I wasn’t to happy about it. Like I told him after the race though, that’s racing no hard feelings. I guess I could have shot inside and thrown an elbow, but that’s not really my style. Besides he was a lot bigger than me. I went by him on the BMX track but mistake 2 for me was not starting my sprint immediately after coming out of the BMX track which allowed him to come by me and be first to the final right hander after which I wasn’t able to come around him.

I’m unhappy with 4th place but happy with my ride overall. I had juice left at the end, each lap was faster than the lap before and the only rider to go faster on the last lap was the winner. I don’t think anyone from Tallahassee went faster so I’ve got bragging rights for a year.

I’m retired until spring. Looking forward to racing some GSC events.

I need lessons from Mark W on how to look good on the podium. All I could manage was a goofy face.

All the photos in this post were taken by John Kalin. If you raced Sunday there’s probably some of you too. I went through his photos and fished out some photos of known bike posse members, they are here.

John Kalin’s site.

We rode Tom Brown on Sunday. It was getting grooved and fast. Unfortunately some heavy rain has been moving through and I’m sure the trails have been de-grooved and re-rooted.

The weather man says rain Saturday. I guess the good thing about being in the yellow taggers is the white taggers can ride in some lines for us. Just hope their lines don’t lead you into trees.

A couple months ago I forced myself off ebay cold turkey. This morning I wandered back in with the legit reason of finding some cheap UST tires to put on the Anthem. Something I don’t mind getting ground down by the asphalt commute to the trailheads. Somehow I started browsing bikes and now I’m lusting for for that new carbon 29′r from Fisher called the Superfly. I saw Larry at Tom Brown Sunday and he says they have one on order and should arrive in November. I’m definitely going to check it out.

I also thought it would be fun to have one of those “all mountain” bikes. Like a Giant Trance. Just for flying through all the rooty single track around here.

Must…. resist…..