West Hill / Grafton Pond: Free speed!

Initially this race wasn't part of my "program", but after Domnarski Farm I really didn't want to wait until July to try and redeem myself.

I was a little put off by the venue change; I enjoyed the brutality of the old Putney course.  But upon pre-riding I started to think maybe change was good.  The Grafton Pond course is the most fun course I have ridden.  It gives you a decent amount of climbing, but broken up in bite size pieces connected by flowing ribbons of singletrack with just enough open section to afford passing.

At the start there were the usual suspects, but also a man wearing a full faced helmet.  Let's call him Zorro.

The whistle blows and Zorro takes off like a bat out of hell.  I guess he didn't get the memo about me getting the holeshot?

Who is this masked man?

His gap is holding but it's not growing.

After about a 1/4 of a lap it is apparent Zorro has shot his wad and on a technical singletrack climb I make my move.

Royce and Jake are close behind.

When there is a switch back I can see what gap I have on them is not growing.  Fortunately there is more climbing so I start throwing more coal on the fire to try and get out of sight.

It seems to be working, but I've also almost finished my first bottle.  I made a choice before the race to put 1 bottle in Fearless Leader's bottle stand instead of setting up Bottlestand 2000 with 2 bottles for myself.  This might come back and bite me on the assos.

Nearing the end of the first lap we come out into a field.  I feel my rear tire start to rumble and vibrate.  Oh fook!  

Am I flatting again?

Should I stop and check it out?

I decide to keep riding it until I can't ride it anymore.

Second lap is more efforts to get out and stay out of sight.  I'm starting to reel in age groupers which helps me keep my pace going.  Near the end of the lap I start feeling sort of clumsy.  I finish my bottle and look forward to picking up a fresh one. I also realize my tire is fine; I'm riding in tractor tire tracks!

The bottle is going down quickly.  I'm starting to get chills and I figure the best way to deal with this is to hydrate.

I start looking for free speed.  I try and take advantage of anywhere I can get speed with out actually working for it.  "Can I make it through these rocks without braking?  Well let just see shall we?"  I try and pump the woops, preserving every mph possible.

Start of the forth lap my second bottle is almost gone.  I take a plastic cup of water hand-up to try and stretch my resources, but 10 minutes in I'm completely out.

Now I'm getting chills and tunnel vision.  This song is running through my head.  Have I done enough to not get caught?  It's only about 20 minutes more of riding, can I keep it going that long?

Yes.

It's been a long time.

I needed that.

Race Weight

It's just a number, and as a metric to performance means very little in my opinion*.  If you mess around over at Analytic Cycling you'll see a couple pounds this way or that isn't going to make that much difference.  If I were really hung up on weight I'd probably sacrifice ride quality and ride a different frame.

But there is a psychological boost.  Ego epo.

Historically when I weigh 135-137 pounds I race well.
Usually I'll be in that range from Mid May to December (I don't always race well from May-Dec).  Then the holidays come, and the opportunities to ride become scarcer and I'll put on my Winter weight.  Around April I'll start freaking out that I'm still a few pounds over race weight, but not enough to limit the calories I'm shoving down my pie hole.

So this morning on the eve of a race with some climbing, being on the lower end of the race weight range is a happy thing.

Ironically as I began to type this there was a story about women in their 50s with eating disorders.



*Within reason, I'm talking about a pound or few, not a stone's weight.

Scale

I really wanted to ride to work today, but I'd been putting off replacing my truck's rotor / bearing for too long, and I've got some extended driving to do.

Ford got the bright idea they should start pressing their bearings into their brake rotors, and I guess since when ever you get your brakes done they tell you you need to replace your rotors (you don't), maybe it is pretty smart.

On a side note if the local small guy does your brakes, says he replaced your rotors and then you have a wheel bearing go within a month he has screwed you.

Anyways it cost me $125 for the rotor and special lock nut.

Which got me thinking; that's a lot of metal.
Precision machined metal with a bearing pressed into it and a big ass gear cut into the back of it for the ABS.

A Shimano XT rotor is over $50.
Lot less metal and machining there (way more than 50%).

Never ceases to amaze me the economy of scale.

Needles

I've been loving the Nass as of late.

One thing that strike me about it is it's diversity.
Pine needles is one aspect of that.

The tight sliver between the pines is carpeted with needles.  Gives the ride a little cushin' for the pushin'.
If you weight your front end going into a corner and apply POWER you can effectively kick the rear around.
If you only have small power a tap on the rear brake will do the steering.

Kind of like riding when it's wet, but with traction.

Today was rather warm.  While you urban suckas were sweltering in 90+ *F the Nass was in the Mid 80s.  But rubbing the Nass in your face wasn't the point.  The point was the heat and needles made NW CT feel much like coastal New England.

We'll continue to celebrate diversity more in the coming weeks.

Why do I always get lost at the Nass?
I think it has to do with trails like this:

twisty bench cut made by trail runners who have the Summer off (i.e. teachers, thank GOD for education!).

Just mesmerizing.

But I always manage to find my way out.



Ironically, MTB J, a local, a teammate, rode in as I was pulling out.

Next time I'd better call if I'm poaching in his hood.
(no KOM's were captured or harmed on this ride)

Father's Day

If I am half the father my Dad is, my kids will be doing okay.

My "sacrifice" for my children today was to start my ride before 6:30 AM and be home before 10:00 AM.
The plan was a TdT (there's a shocker).  The TdT has become something of a Father's Day tradition.  More times than not it has been raining (sometime the Father's Day ride isn't on Father's Day).  I guess last week's TdT could have been classified as the Father's Day ride, but as long as I started early enough I could probably squeeze one in.

After 7 miles I suffered a first "F"; seem to be happening a lot of those this year.  Some kind of karmic payback?

Routes were recalculated.

I'm back to riding rigid again.  Picking my way down the descent from the Heublein fireroad to Rt 185 I was thinking I'm getting too old for this shiitake.  But as the ride wore on, and I got to a HC Ultra Fun descent I started to get the hang of it again.

When I got to Wintonbury Rd I chose to do the sensible thing and cut the ride short.  I could probably make it to the chimney and be home 10ish, but a "F" or some other mechanical, and we'd miss the Miracle League Field opening ceremony.

Turns out I was making pretty good time, and suffered no other "inconveniences", so I throw the Rt44 fun park (seeing as I was alone and no one was whining about how it isn't fun.  Of course it's fun; that's why it's the fun park!) and the Antler Trail in.

I was feeling so at home on the rigid I thought I'd make a run at Tig's East Side Descent KOM.  I might have had it but I stopped to talk to Paul and Mary at the water towers.

Made it home just in time to be showered in chocolate and socks.

Special Sauce

After Domnarski Farm I was running low on sealant.  It seems I'm always running low on sealant.
I saw a thread on the MTBR about making your own "tubeless brew".
Being a tinkering DIY kinda guy I thought this might be the way to go.

1 part Mold Builder
1part Slime for tires
1part anti freeze
2 parts water
glitter (optional)



My first attempt was a big failure; who knew Jerry's Artarama closes at 7:00 PM on Tuesday?

Yesterday, I was passing a craft store, and on a whim I decided to go see if they had any of my needed ingredients.

Score!  On the bottom shelf across from the Bob Ross gesso the last 16 oz tub of Mold Builder in the store.

On my first shopping expedition I had stopped at a couple of department stores to look for Slime with no success, but now with Mold Builder in hand a quick stop at a proper auto parts store and I was done buying all the supplies I needed (I had an open bottle of anti freeze, water comes out of the tap, and if I really wanted we've got glitter galore around here).

Looks like a Shamrock Shake!

How does it work?
Hard to tell.  I swapped a tire from the wheel I fubar'd yesterday to another wheel.  The tire had a good amount of store bought sealant in it, so I only topped it off with one scoop of special sauce.

BUT...I've never had a tire seal so easy using my wimpy home compressor, so I'll take that as a good sign.

Now the cost analysis

Mold Builder.........................................................................................$18.00
Slime.....................................................................................................$ 9.00
anti freeze (I had it, but let's say I had to buy it).....................................$ 7.00
water......................................................................................................FREE!!
glitter.........................................................................................................N/A
______________________________________________________________
Total                                                                                                     $34.00

$34 for 80oz of sealant or $.425 per once compared to store bought @ $25 for 32 oz or $.8125 an ounce. That's a savings of almost 50%.

If this stuff works we might be on to something...