We Kick Ass. My co-workers and I swept the MTB race just outside of Starkville, MS.
Brennan kicked off the day by winning the 20-25 Beginner race with a 9 minute margin.
Patrick followed Brennan with a solid win in the Sport 19-29 Category.
I then out sprint my closest competitor for a win in the Expert 19-29 Category.
I have to offer Mad props to my co-workers/camping buddies because they really put out large efforts and attained great gains.
So I will say that we had a successful weekend. The terrain at the rock crusher challenge was very reminiscent of Clear Springs or Ruston. The course was kind of sandy at times with very fast open descents and two long 1 mile gradual uphill sections. This trail was great and really fast. My only complaint was that more people did not show up and support this excellent event. To all those that made it possible, Thank You. This was by far the best marked MTB race course I have EVER raced.
Well I guess this is a good result leading up to a few big events on my horizon. Bump-N-Grind is in a couple of weeks which is followed the following week by the Sugar Mtn NORBA NATIONAL.
Once again,
Congrats Brennan and Patrick.
LAE,
Jr
Monday, May 22, 2006
Thursday, May 18, 2006
Training Sucks
Today I managed to repeat my little 5 hour jaunt from Tuesday. I can officially say, "I HURT." Even though I am hurting I am starting to get stronger on the bike. I just have to remember to sleep and stay hydrated. Once again I cruise through and I had no cheering squad. Only freshly trimmed grass and a headwind for the first 57 miles of my journey.
I purchased some new music last night yet I still have to find time to put it onto my MPH player. I am so bored of the roughly 4,000 songs I have on it already.
So this weekend I have a MTB race in Mississippi I am thinking the legs will be a little lethargic but they will come around. And if my legs don't come around, I am FUKT.
So Keep The Rubber Side Down...
JR
I purchased some new music last night yet I still have to find time to put it onto my MPH player. I am so bored of the roughly 4,000 songs I have on it already.
So this weekend I have a MTB race in Mississippi I am thinking the legs will be a little lethargic but they will come around. And if my legs don't come around, I am FUKT.
So Keep The Rubber Side Down...
JR
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Logging Big Miles Again
Well I have been slacking in my training. However, now that I have a some extra time I am back on the bike logging the big miles. Yesterday was a long day on the bike.
I was out burning off a little steam and ended up cramping pretty bad. I sk8ed out of work at 2:00 pm and took off to explore the country side of EBR parish, Ascension Parish, and Ibberville Parish. Well, the prision loop is great if you are a guy. You have never seen so many chicks in orange as you do at the Elyan Hunt Women's Correctional Facility in St. Gabriel, LA. Yeah these are chicks you would never want to run into at a bar. I was a little dissapointed. I usually catch a crowd and you have never heard the cat calls or construction site behavior as a large group of women that are in prision. This loop was just under 53 miles from work. Then I promptly followed it with the training race which is a 32 mile jaunt on RR which traverses many of the same decrepit pavement. All in all I logged 100 miles or so with a really hard training race in the latter half.
It is looking like I am going to the trail this afternoon followed by a quick trip by my buds home, then sleep.
Noxubee Crest (Tombigbee National Forest) Rock Crusher Classic.
This will be a quick little 28.5 mile race with a fair amount of climbing. They are saying that there is a 4 minute climb per lap and with 5 laps that will be a solid 20 min of climbing. With Bump-N-Grind right around the corner climbing proficency comes at a premium. Bump has in store a 4 mile climb that I will have to pick my way up twice. While chasing the Cajun Rocket Jason Sager up Oak Mountain. Why do I do this again???
Well LAE crew,
Jr
I was out burning off a little steam and ended up cramping pretty bad. I sk8ed out of work at 2:00 pm and took off to explore the country side of EBR parish, Ascension Parish, and Ibberville Parish. Well, the prision loop is great if you are a guy. You have never seen so many chicks in orange as you do at the Elyan Hunt Women's Correctional Facility in St. Gabriel, LA. Yeah these are chicks you would never want to run into at a bar. I was a little dissapointed. I usually catch a crowd and you have never heard the cat calls or construction site behavior as a large group of women that are in prision. This loop was just under 53 miles from work. Then I promptly followed it with the training race which is a 32 mile jaunt on RR which traverses many of the same decrepit pavement. All in all I logged 100 miles or so with a really hard training race in the latter half.
It is looking like I am going to the trail this afternoon followed by a quick trip by my buds home, then sleep.
Noxubee Crest (Tombigbee National Forest) Rock Crusher Classic.
This will be a quick little 28.5 mile race with a fair amount of climbing. They are saying that there is a 4 minute climb per lap and with 5 laps that will be a solid 20 min of climbing. With Bump-N-Grind right around the corner climbing proficency comes at a premium. Bump has in store a 4 mile climb that I will have to pick my way up twice. While chasing the Cajun Rocket Jason Sager up Oak Mountain. Why do I do this again???
Well LAE crew,
Jr
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Furtune Cookies do not suck
You are the center of every groups attention.
Lucky # 8, 64, 51, 42, 7, 19
Learn Chinese: Want. Yao
This
Lucky # 8, 64, 51, 42, 7, 19
Learn Chinese: Want. Yao
This
Monday, May 01, 2006
I love my Chevy Pick Up Truck.
So on my way back to BR from Shreveport, LA I was happy as hell. I had just won a race and I am getting back to BR in time to go rent a movie to watch with a friend and sure enough, all Hell breaks loose.
Cruising down I-49 I make it seriously ~40 miles from the race when my speedometer starts to eff up on me. I could not quite figure out what was happening but I knew it was not good. Shortly there after I start to smell burning rubber or something of that sort. Now those of you that know me know that if I can smell it, it must be strong. So I am trying to make it to the next large town, Natchitoches, LA home of NWSU. I make it to the first exit ramp in that town and before I can even get the car off the exit ramp it dies on me. The smell of burning stuff made me pop my hood prematurely while on the interstate. Sure enough when I got under the hood my alternator was spewing fire all over the place. My only thought was FUCK my shit is about to catch on fire and blow the FUCK up. So I sprayed water out of one of my water bottles all into the alternator and put the fire out. Good I can work with this is what I was thinking. FUCK no I can’t, I didn’t have any tools not even an Allen wrench for my bike. So I knew I was in for hell. So I assemble my trusty mountain bike and use my ever-versatile timbuk2 bag and go off in-search of an auto parts store. The first one I come to is AZ. Now I am not a fan of Auto Zone and I had just replaced my alternator with one from there four months earlier. So I kept on to next door to O' Riley auto parts.
So I cruise over to O’ Riley and pick up $ 185 for tools and a new alternator. Damn, I was not expecting this to hit me for that much. $134.99 for the new alternator and $50 for tools. Now I am the biggest tool that I know but I am incapable of removing an alternator just by acting like an ass. So I toss all this stuff into my bag and ride back to my truck. So here I am on the side of the interstate fixing my truck. Sure nough, I get back to my ride remove the old alternator and go to install the new one and the battery cord stud is missing. Basically, I am screwed. So I hop onto my bike with the old alternator and the new alternator in the Timbuk2 ride back to O’ Riley and they credit me for the purchase. I kept the tools in anticipation of getting a new alternator next door at AZ. So I cruise over and they check their database and promptly hand over a new alternator for FREE. Follow that with 10 miles back to the car, 30 min of mechanic work and I am rolling back to BR covered from head to toe in Grease and dying of heat cause my AC still doesn’t work. I love LA.
So what is the moral of this story?
Fuck Cars. When they break down just go for the bike you are doing the environment a favor and it will keep you in shape also. If you do drive don't drive domestic they break too much. Riding 40 miles on pavement after racing 20 miles on dirt will trash a new pairof Knobby tires faster than any thing else known to man. Don't ever take advice from someone that knows less than you do, because if you alternator catches on fire your battery is not the problem. Ehh (that for you troll)
Keep the Rubber Side Down Crew,
Jr
Cruising down I-49 I make it seriously ~40 miles from the race when my speedometer starts to eff up on me. I could not quite figure out what was happening but I knew it was not good. Shortly there after I start to smell burning rubber or something of that sort. Now those of you that know me know that if I can smell it, it must be strong. So I am trying to make it to the next large town, Natchitoches, LA home of NWSU. I make it to the first exit ramp in that town and before I can even get the car off the exit ramp it dies on me. The smell of burning stuff made me pop my hood prematurely while on the interstate. Sure enough when I got under the hood my alternator was spewing fire all over the place. My only thought was FUCK my shit is about to catch on fire and blow the FUCK up. So I sprayed water out of one of my water bottles all into the alternator and put the fire out. Good I can work with this is what I was thinking. FUCK no I can’t, I didn’t have any tools not even an Allen wrench for my bike. So I knew I was in for hell. So I assemble my trusty mountain bike and use my ever-versatile timbuk2 bag and go off in-search of an auto parts store. The first one I come to is AZ. Now I am not a fan of Auto Zone and I had just replaced my alternator with one from there four months earlier. So I kept on to next door to O' Riley auto parts.
So I cruise over to O’ Riley and pick up $ 185 for tools and a new alternator. Damn, I was not expecting this to hit me for that much. $134.99 for the new alternator and $50 for tools. Now I am the biggest tool that I know but I am incapable of removing an alternator just by acting like an ass. So I toss all this stuff into my bag and ride back to my truck. So here I am on the side of the interstate fixing my truck. Sure nough, I get back to my ride remove the old alternator and go to install the new one and the battery cord stud is missing. Basically, I am screwed. So I hop onto my bike with the old alternator and the new alternator in the Timbuk2 ride back to O’ Riley and they credit me for the purchase. I kept the tools in anticipation of getting a new alternator next door at AZ. So I cruise over and they check their database and promptly hand over a new alternator for FREE. Follow that with 10 miles back to the car, 30 min of mechanic work and I am rolling back to BR covered from head to toe in Grease and dying of heat cause my AC still doesn’t work. I love LA.
So what is the moral of this story?
Fuck Cars. When they break down just go for the bike you are doing the environment a favor and it will keep you in shape also. If you do drive don't drive domestic they break too much. Riding 40 miles on pavement after racing 20 miles on dirt will trash a new pairof Knobby tires faster than any thing else known to man. Don't ever take advice from someone that knows less than you do, because if you alternator catches on fire your battery is not the problem. Ehh (that for you troll)
Keep the Rubber Side Down Crew,
Jr
So I had a Good Race.
Place Bib Number Name Time
1 11 Joshua Rosby 1:56:22
2 7 Eric Simolke 2:15:24
3 16 Leonard Service 2:17:27
4 8 Ronald Leazer 2:19:33
5 5 David Hollowell 2:22:13
6 12 Cary Beene 2:22:47
7 1 Andrew Neilson 2:25:27
8 15 Paul Eveleigh 2:25:31
9 47 Scott Hargrove 2:35:16
10 27 John Stout DNF
11 37 Brian Frise… DNF
12 49 Jason Ham DNF
13 69 Vaughn Cavanaugh DNF
1 48 Adrieane Anthony 3:17:25
The results say it all. What is not told is all the pain that was involved in this race. I know it was not a sanctioned event I also know that the really big Whigs did not come out. However, it has been a while since I have had a really convincing win. This race was not as hard as I would have hoped off the line. It was slow in-fact. Vaughn C launched off the line and quickly opened up a gap on the field that I was stuck in. These guys had no idea whom I was so they were not very friendly. I must admit that I did not really go out of my way to be extroverted in their presence.
Well Vaughn is their local or should I say formerly local bad ass. He is on the TREK VW regional team and I have to hand it to him he is tough. So to me I felt like everyone off the line just knew they could not keep up with him so they effectively were blocking for him (i.e. stopping me from advancing my position.) Well after powering around a few racers Vaughn was out front followed by Jason Ham. I have to had it to Jason this guy is a great all-around cyclist. He is fast on the dirt and also fast on the road. He wanted to close the gap to Vaughn but he was not on his own machine and also had not had the opportunity to touch his MTB this year. I think I supprised him when I went around him. He did not hear me behind him on the course. So I was in second place around 1/4 into the race.
I was having a few technical difficulties in that I realized that I had too much air in my tires. So at that point I had a couple choices 1) I could continue to race on over-inflated tires, 2) I could stop and let some air out of my tires, which would allow me to traverse the trail faster and deal with the time loss by putting out a large effort. I chose the latter. When I had just finished letting air out of my tires Jason was bearing down on me hard so I had to attack every corner and every straight and the entirety of the trail to drop him and catch Vaughn. I managed to catch up to V ~ 2 miles from the finish of the first lap.
So heading into lap #2 I knew I was running low on fuel. I missed breakfast and dinner was nothing to speak of. I forgot my bag with my jersey and energy gels at home along with my salt capsules. So I had one shot to win. I had to attack hard because I would not have the energy to fight off counter attacks later in the race. I attacked the first 6 miles of lap 2 as strong as I was capable of. I was railing the corners and attacking the straight. I needed a good time buffer to second place so that I might mentally weaken who ever it might be. Heading into the last 3-mile techy section I was starting to feel the effects of a hard effort early that lap. I some how managed to get through that section just fine. I slowed down cause when you are in the lead with a good buffer it is stupid to take unnecessary risk railing sketchy corners for nothing. So I rode very conservative and crossed the line in first.
Unknown to me Jason flatted on the second lap I think I had a 10 min gap on him when that happened; Vaughn dropped out after the first lap, he crashed and shook himself really hard. So there I was winner of my first race of the year. Damn it felt good.
JR
1 11 Joshua Rosby 1:56:22
2 7 Eric Simolke 2:15:24
3 16 Leonard Service 2:17:27
4 8 Ronald Leazer 2:19:33
5 5 David Hollowell 2:22:13
6 12 Cary Beene 2:22:47
7 1 Andrew Neilson 2:25:27
8 15 Paul Eveleigh 2:25:31
9 47 Scott Hargrove 2:35:16
10 27 John Stout DNF
11 37 Brian Frise… DNF
12 49 Jason Ham DNF
13 69 Vaughn Cavanaugh DNF
1 48 Adrieane Anthony 3:17:25
The results say it all. What is not told is all the pain that was involved in this race. I know it was not a sanctioned event I also know that the really big Whigs did not come out. However, it has been a while since I have had a really convincing win. This race was not as hard as I would have hoped off the line. It was slow in-fact. Vaughn C launched off the line and quickly opened up a gap on the field that I was stuck in. These guys had no idea whom I was so they were not very friendly. I must admit that I did not really go out of my way to be extroverted in their presence.
Well Vaughn is their local or should I say formerly local bad ass. He is on the TREK VW regional team and I have to hand it to him he is tough. So to me I felt like everyone off the line just knew they could not keep up with him so they effectively were blocking for him (i.e. stopping me from advancing my position.) Well after powering around a few racers Vaughn was out front followed by Jason Ham. I have to had it to Jason this guy is a great all-around cyclist. He is fast on the dirt and also fast on the road. He wanted to close the gap to Vaughn but he was not on his own machine and also had not had the opportunity to touch his MTB this year. I think I supprised him when I went around him. He did not hear me behind him on the course. So I was in second place around 1/4 into the race.
I was having a few technical difficulties in that I realized that I had too much air in my tires. So at that point I had a couple choices 1) I could continue to race on over-inflated tires, 2) I could stop and let some air out of my tires, which would allow me to traverse the trail faster and deal with the time loss by putting out a large effort. I chose the latter. When I had just finished letting air out of my tires Jason was bearing down on me hard so I had to attack every corner and every straight and the entirety of the trail to drop him and catch Vaughn. I managed to catch up to V ~ 2 miles from the finish of the first lap.
So heading into lap #2 I knew I was running low on fuel. I missed breakfast and dinner was nothing to speak of. I forgot my bag with my jersey and energy gels at home along with my salt capsules. So I had one shot to win. I had to attack hard because I would not have the energy to fight off counter attacks later in the race. I attacked the first 6 miles of lap 2 as strong as I was capable of. I was railing the corners and attacking the straight. I needed a good time buffer to second place so that I might mentally weaken who ever it might be. Heading into the last 3-mile techy section I was starting to feel the effects of a hard effort early that lap. I some how managed to get through that section just fine. I slowed down cause when you are in the lead with a good buffer it is stupid to take unnecessary risk railing sketchy corners for nothing. So I rode very conservative and crossed the line in first.
Unknown to me Jason flatted on the second lap I think I had a 10 min gap on him when that happened; Vaughn dropped out after the first lap, he crashed and shook himself really hard. So there I was winner of my first race of the year. Damn it felt good.
JR
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