Let's not forget about Fontana

Being that he's a refugee from the mountains, I don't have a known birthdate for Fontana. When he went for his first checkup on 6/1/05, my vet estimated him at 6 months, judging from the formation of his teeth. From that point, his birthday would be 12/1/04. Happy 4th birthday, you little wingbat!



We'll call this past weekend a combined birthday party for Fontana and Max. I was at Santos by 2:00 Friday, setting up camp for the weekend. The boys ran 9 miles Friday, 16 miles Saturday and 11 miles Sunday. The rest of the time was spent charming treats out of the hands of fellow campers. After their run Saturday, I went back out in the afternoon for a 30-mile jaunt. That ride, combined with the morning ride with the dogs, was my first 4+ hour ride since I was in the mountains for Halloween. It's time for long days in the saddle again.

About this time last year when I got Max, I wrote about the fact that Fontana had gotten a bit chunky. He was a portly 52 pounds then. Now he's down to a svelte 44 pounds. The haunches are back. So are the ribs. And he can run with the best of them. I doubt the difference can be seen at interweb resolution, but here's some before and after shots:

Summer 2007

A couple of weeks ago at Boyette

Now, thanks to Namrita, I have to come up with 6 things people don't know about me and write about them. Ugh. Thanks, Nam. ;-)

Happy Birthday Max

He turns 3 today. If I were to ask him what he wants, I'm sure it would be some of this:


or this:


followed by this:


Happy birthday, my dear friend.

Pics from Mulberry Gap

I'm gonna go against the grain to start my account of Halloween weekend and let some pictures do the talking. Pictures never do nature justice and the pictures are really good. Words will follow, but for the time being Eddie has a good account of the weekend and Saturday's epic.

Random thoughts on XC racing

It hurts like hell when you're doing it. Just when it starts hurting really bad, it's over. My legs were tired Monday, but when Tuesday rolled around I was fine. No cankles! No feeling retarded for days!

Flying through the woods at XC speed is just plain fun.

The Florida XC crowd is a great bunch that I've missed being around the past 2 years.

When you haven't gone anaerobic for a loooooong time, going anaerobic and staying there for a while really freaking hurts.

This was my first time lining up with the fastest guys in Florida since upgrading to semipro in 2006. Knowing how long it had been since I've done a "sprint" race, the plan was to start conservatively and up the effort as the race progressed, munching carrots along the way. That's pretty much how it went. I was 2nd to DFL at the end of the first lap, but the thing that got me was the top 2 guys in 30+ expert, who started 2 minutes behind me, were breathing down my neck by the end of that lap. Am I really that slow? It turned out that those 2 guys posted the 2nd and 3rd fastest times of the day and nobody else from that group caught (or virtually beat) me.

As was the plan, I munched lots of carrots on the last lap when I discovered that I could actually stay anaerobic for a long time. I started feeling twinges of cramps in the last 5 minutes, which prevented me from munching one last carrot. With the way I drilled that last lap, I was wondering whether I went hard enough the first 3 laps. The cramps answered that question.

My 10th place finish out of 15 starters might not look that impressive, but my time would've put me 3rd in 30+ expert behind 2 guys who probably should be racing pro/semi, and I would've won in my 40+ age group. Given that I'd rather challenge myself against better riders vs. a guaranteed podium spot, I'm right where I need to be. That answers the question of whether to upgrade or downgrade next year, as long as I don't have to pay a silly amount of money for a pro license.

The Bent's Cycling team is one of the best groups of people around. Leroy offered to give me feeds, which he did flawlessly, and Ali volunteered to watch my dogs while I was racing. Thanks. You guys rock.

I'm looking forward to doing it again on home turf next weekend.

Deposits

Long road rides, riding out my door, have been putting me waaaay on the positive side of the "1 hour driving per 1 hour of riding" rule. If I'm gonna drive to ride, I'm gonna drive to a trail. If I'm gonna ride the road, I'm gonna ride out my door. 2 weeks ago I rode 105 miles without using a drop of gas. That was one of my "Tour de Tampa Bay" rides. I left my house, rode into Pinellas using my commute route then over to the coast. I used combinations of road and the Pinellas Trail to get to downtown St. Pete, then headed back home across the Friendship Trailbridge. Last weekend I was a bit less ambitious, but still ended up with a nice 80+ miles with no driving.

That being said, Tallahassee is calling my name. The FSC hits Tom Brown Park next weekend. I love riding there and am in need of a diversion. 2 weeks later the FSC will be in my back yard. I know I said in my last post that I had no interest in XC and that my "season" is over, but I have a nice bit of fitness built up and need to do something with it.

I've spent the last couple of weeks "tapering" and seeing what kind of explosive power I have in my legs. Let's just say that it'll be good entertainment for the spectators watching a guy who's focused on endurance for the past 2 years try to sprint off the line against the fastest guys in the state. It'll look like I'm pedaling backwards. I think I'll just start in the back and see how many guys I can pick off as they blow up.

It's over

Right after I re-opened it, I'm closing up my 2008 "season". The only thing going on in Florida is the state XC series and I've all but lost interest in short races. It's too much travel for too little riding. I could hit a few late-season endurance races sprinkled around the southeast, but again, it's too much travel for too little riding. See a recurring theme here? Travel costs are ridiculous. I'm even limiting my local dirt rides to no more than 2 hours round-trip and usually only do that once a weekend. Anything further away (Santos) requires an overnighter to make it worth the gas. Summer is finally releasing its death grip on Florida, so I'm sure some weekend camping trips will pop up.

I'm getting pretty strict about the "1 hour of riding per 1 hour of driving" rule. If I break the rule, there has to be some major fun factor involved to balance the equation. This event (scroll down the the September 3 post) fits into the equation perfectly. 4 days of riding, fall mountain weather, a dog-friendly host and lots of cool people and libations will be good for the soul.

Priority #1 is still getting my life in order. It's coming along slowly. There's also the Ridgeline project at Boyette to keep me busy. Lately it's been all we can do to keep on top of the summer growth and erosion on the existing trails, but come fall we should be able to start knocking it out. I'm really motivated to get this done because Lauren's Overlook sits in the middle of it. It's built and almost ready for the dedication. We just have to be able to get out there without crawling through the brush. I have a really special dedication ceremony in mind. It will be a beautiful tribute to a beautiful person.

The tentative plan for 2009 is to be race all the winter/spring enduros in Florida, then spend the spring and summer hitting select enduros in the southeast. I don't see myself travelling all over the U.S. chasing pack fodder glory anymore, except (hopefully) for the SM100. Man, I missed that race this year.

There was a little race last weekend

To say that the last 6 months have been a rollercoaster ride is an understatement. Riding obviously took a back seat for a while and became what it was years ago: Simply a way to get away from life's stresses. Structured training went out the window, replaced with a "ride however I feel" philosophy. I got back to regular riding in May and the hours have steadily gone up, but the new philosophy has stayed. Long rides have been few, but I have gotten in at least one long ride per week for a while now. I've also felt like I've been building some form again.

Roll back to about two weeks ago. The 8 Hours of San Felasco was on the horizon and I asked Kurt if he wanted to race it on a duo team. It seemed like a safe way to jump back into racing. A week went by and I started getting the solo itch. I got Kurt and Greg DeRosa to join me at Croom for a running of the Croom 50 course. We rolled it in a solid 4 hours in stifling heat, leaving Kurt to the vultures in the process. Based on this, racing for 4 hours was very doable. Racing for 8 hours would be a challenge. I needed a challenge.

It was good to have a goal for a week. I tapered, did some intervals, obsessed over lap times and fueling strategy, just like old times.

Fast-forward to Sunday, August 31. I had done as much prep work as I could, or at least I thought so. I'm standing on the line, chatting with old friends, the countdown starts and my heartrate starts to climb with that feeling I hadn't felt in a long time: Nervous anticipation. The horn goes off, we run a short distance to our bikes and we're off. I find myself with Greg and Jay Ulloa. Neither Greg or I had ridden the course yet, so we let Jay lead for most of the first lap. He attacked a few times, but came back quickly once he realized we were having no part of it - yet.

I had some mechanical issues to sort out during the 1st lap. My shifting was a bit wacky and a few turns of the barrel adjusters sorted it out. I had some skipping problems in the big ring that I couldn't sort out. After I finished prepping the bike Saturday, I looked at the big ring and thought it looked kind of worn, then I hung it up on the wall. It was worn out. Every time I tried to push up a climb in the big ring, it would skip. I just kept things in middle ring and I was fine.

The 3 of us stayed together until the end of the 2nd lap, when I pitted and they didn't. I ate the only solid food I'd eat all day. That half-bar sat in my stomach like a rock and I knew I'd have to rely on liquids and gels to get through a day that saw temps in the mid 90s all day. My pitting gave Greg and Jay a gap which allowed me to settle into my own rhythm. I ended up catching Jay at the end of the 3rd lap, but Greg was gone. Jay fell off the back and I was on my own.

You enduro freaks out there know that your mind has a lot of time to wander over the course of a day in the saddle. My mind started wandering to Lauren. San Felasco is one of those places that I visited with her more often than without. She had ridden every Tour de Felasco since the beginning. I thought about buying two entries for it next year and riding the course twice - once for me and once for her. I thought about how this would have been the kind of race she would've loved to race with a team of girlfriends. I thought about how if she didn't race, she'd be pitting for me, giving me invaluable support and encouragement. I was on the verge of tears at least 5 times out there. It would take me off my game and I'd think about how she'd want me to push through the adversity, to keep going. I thought about doing this for her, and keeping riding strong for her.

Lap 6 was my toughest. I was mired in a bonk and in a real funk. I decided that when I finished the lap I would take a short break, try to eat some food, get my head adjusted and go out for two more laps at a more "enjoyable" pace. On the way to scoring I saw Eddie. "Eddie! Got any Burn?" He just happened to have half a can in his hand that he'd just given to Namrita. He told me I was in 2nd place and not too far back from 1st. So much for the break. The racer took over, I grabbed 2 bottles and headed out for a much faster lap. Eddie was there again at the end with another Burn, this time a full can, to ensure I was bouncing around the trails like a pinball. I could make it back before cutoff if I really pegged it, but I ran the risk of making it and having nothing left for another lap. I kept the tempo high, but not so high that I left it all out there. I missed the cutoff by a few minutes and wasn't exactly bummed that I did.


Thank you Marcel for the pic. The effort was good for 2nd overall, which I was very happy with. Greg has been working his ass off this year and it shows.

It was good to feel butterflies while standing on the line again. It was good to push through adversity and come out of it stronger. It was good to see lots of old friends. It was good to hear the cheers of the crowd every time I rode through the pits.

It was good to be racing again.