Trail Riding

Andrea

Early Memphis

Last night, I was feeling down, so I figured this morning I’d join Matt and Joel for a ride in Overton Park, which is prettymuch on the outskirts of Midtown Memphis. This meant that most of my riding would be on city streets that are rarely seen by visitors to the city, so I took the camera along to catch a few shots of the morning light on the road.

At 6:00am, I headed out on the road for a few miles to get to the greenline…

I decided somewhere along the greenline that I’m very fond of pre-dawn rides, and since I’ve got the badass Trail LED light that I want to do them more often now that the weather is nice. Once I was off of the greenline, I realized that I was going to be early to our meet-up spot, so I rode backwards on Matt’s route to meet up with him.

Matt and I soon met up and went to the corner of East Parkway (which runs north & south) and Avery to wait for Joel. Joel was running a few minutes late, so we hung around in someone’s front yard, ate Gu Chomps, and discussed life as well as how much more awesome the ghetto smells in the morning than the fancy parts of town.

Once Joel arrived, we rode up the middle of East Parkway to Overton Park, which is incredibly cool because it’s a few miles of twisty trail through an old forest in the middle of the city. Matt bent a wheel on the log ride. I took more photos…

I made it home just in time to clean up and eat breakfast before work. The ride ended up being nearly 2.5 hours rolling time and 35 miles. It was somewhat over what was on my schedule, but my brain needed the saddle time. On tap for the weekend- Trinity Ride/aka Weekend World Championships followed by another Sunday Solo Century. Next week’s taper for Ouachita is gonna feel gooooood.

Andrea

Spring!

Hopefully, at least.

The forecast for the next 7 days- sunny w/highs near 70- seems like a dream after the cold/damp/snowy misery that’s been hanging around lately. With that, I can resume my short pre-work rides that I’ve been neglecting out of avoidance of frostbitten body parts.

This morning, I took the geared A9C out for a spin around the Tour de Wolf trail near my house. I’d forgotten just how freaking amazing that bike is- I fall in love again every time I ride, and I’m itching to race it! I’d also forgotten how beautiful it is to cruise singletrack faster than traffic can move on Walnut Grove Road (a major artery for traffic in/out of the suburbs). It’s a mix of happy and content that makes me feel very, very lucky…

Andrea

F*#KYEAHWEEKEND

Ever have an epic-ly great series of days?

Friday- rode and fixed bikes in the morning, then I started cleaning the shop.
I realized that the floor was coated in years of grease, tire sealant, and dirt. It took a bottle of White Lightning Clean Streak, a scrub brush, and 5 water changes in the mop bucket, but by the time I was finished, the floor was freakin’ gorgeous. I went to Wal-Mart for a new trash can (the old one looked like a bike shop had puked in it). Once I was back, we didn’t have much of a chance to sit around and stare at the awesomeness of the clean shop because a young couple came in looking for two mountain bikes. They left with a Cannondale Trail Sl Women’s bike and the last of our Gary Fishers- the (carbon) Superfly Singlespeed. Somewhere along the way, the UPS guy delivered my missing rear brake. Hell. Yes.

After work, Ryan and I met up with some friends at Half Shell- The Warthogs. WTF is a Warthog? Quick history lesson:
I asked the same thing more than 5 years ago when I saw people in “Warthog” running jerseys at a local trail run. Then, I was introduced to the friendliest group of people you could possibly imagine. They were great company on the trail, and would eventually invite me out on my first bike ride. With their encouragement, I kept at it, and, well, the rest is, for the most part, in the pages of this blog. They’re the type of people that, no matter what you do with your life, they’re always happy to hang out and catch up over a couple of beers.

Saturday- The “implied consent” 2-a-day.
I could not make up my mind as to which workout to do, so I did both. The first was trainer/circuit insanity, much like the previous one, but this time, 100Kj intervals and no rest. After a shower and 2nd breakfast, I put the rear brake on A9C#2 and headed for a couple of hot laps at Herb Parson’s Lake.  I rode a little with co-worker Kenny and a couple of his friends, but had to put the pedal down a few miles into the first lap. The geared bike is a freaking ROCKET. I made it around 2x in exactly 90 minutes.
On the trip back, my mom called. She was making tacos for dinner, and Ryan & I were invited. Hell. Yes. (again) Nothing like not having to cook after a hard day of training… especially when you can fall asleep at the table, only to be awakened by the thump of a bowl of strawberry shortcake next to your head.

Also, I hit 7,000 blog views for the month of January- a new record. At the time of this posting, I’m at 7,103.

Sunday- 4 hours of endurance.
I wasn’t sure how the ride would go after the previous day’s rides, but it was spot-on. Ryan and I made 76 miles (he actually detoured near the end for a few extra miles/intensity) in a little over 4 hours. Power numbers for my endurance rides are steadily increasing. I’m starting to feel like it’s going to be a good season. Hell. Yes. x 11ty billion

Andrea

Air 9 Carbon Version 2.0

Here are the photos… unfortunately, the trails are soaked here, so I just rode it through the Shelby Farms dog park and on the surrounding gravel/pavement. Once I have a rear brake and opportunities to really ride, the brake lines and steertube will get trimmed up:

Andrea

Training Camp 2011: Day 5

Wednesday morning was cloudy (still) and cold. I saw my guests off (they’re headed to Sedona, AZ), then prepped everything for my “reverse revenge” plan (ride the entire trail system in reverse race direction).

I headed up the hill and parked at the middle trailhead. From that spot, I could ride the yellow/red trails, then loop back to the car to refill water before moving on to the blue/orange/green/orange/blue (look at a trail map, and that will make much more sense). The “backwards” yellow trail is a booger. You’re headed towards a higher elevation trailhead, so there’s more steep stuff going that way. My legs were tired, as was my brain. As a result, I ended up walking a few spots that I’d probably ride if I were able to react and get on top of the pedals a little faster. By the time I made it to the red trail, I could tell that the previous days of singlespeeding were catching up to me. I was zoned out & had no snap (At least I was more relaxed than the previous day…) An hour later, I was back at the car.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to leave the car when your feet are numb with cold and your body numb from fatigue?

As easy as it would have been to load up and head home, I convinced myself that the worst was over and pushed on to the blue trail. The descent down from the trailhead to Hwy 5 (the one we’d been up the day before) is pretty fun in a slightly dangerous sort of way. I did muster the courage to ride down the Stairway on my rigid fork (too bad no one was there with a camera to catch the “OMG, I’M GONNA DIE” face that I’m reasonably certain I was making on the way down). The short section on the other side of the highway was a lot harder than I remembered…

After a quick snack at the Hwy 5 trailhead, I forged on. The climb back up from highway level to the orange trail is a bear. It’s super rocky, and very steep. I ended up getting off to walk. Then I wandered off of the trail when it switchbacked right and I kept pushing my bike straight with my head down. When I realized that I wasn’t on the trail, my initial reaction was panic. For a brief few seconds, my heart raced, and I had thoughts of impending doom. Then, I realized that I was only about 15 feet from the trail.

Wandering and panic? Really?

It was at that point that I realized that sticking to my original plan and pushing through the fatigue was probably a dumb idea from a personal safety standpoint. I continued up the orange trail (and up a couple more climbs), but when it finally reached Green Mountain Road, I abandoned the course and climbed back to my car.

Failure? Eh, not really. I still ended up with 5 hours of (mostly) saddle time, and obtained my training camp goal of “dig yourself into a hole, then go a little deeper.” I was happy to return to the cabin, eat no fewer than two dinners, and watch the sunset in the process (something that had eluded me the other nights because of the constant cloudiness). Fifteen and a half hours of rigid singlespeeding in 5 days will make you feel sore in places you were previously unaware of. I can’t remember the last time I slept as hard as last night (though tonight could come in a close 2nd).

Andrea

Training Camp: Day 4

A little rain moved through overnight Tuesday night, so we killed some time getting breakfast and shopping at the flea market in Downtown Mountain View. Once we were back and changed, we headed out to the trails. Everyone enjoyed the rocky stuff the day before, so I figured I’d show them the Blue Trail.

I quickly realized that I was going to have somewhat of a rough day. It was one of those days where I was staring down every rock and tree with two handfuls of brake. Not really sure why, but I just couldn’t get into a rhythm. I ended up settling in behind the group for most of the ride. Since we had a little more daylight to work with, we ended up stopping at some of the rock features for a few rock-hopping sessions.

Sue rode some of the tougher parts of the ascent from Hwy 5 that I don’t think I’ve even considered riding in the past (really want to go back & try it with a granny gear at some point).  Collin was rolling down parts of the trail at “Party Pace,” then, Tim rode up the Stairway to Heaven. I got video, and I’ll upload & link it once I figure that out at home.

We finished off the Blue trail climb and called it a day. It’s a lot of fun (and inspiration) to see new people rip on my favorite trails. Once we were back at the cabin, we cleaned up and went to dinner at Tommy’s Famous Pizza (highly recommended), then settled in for a little video-watching and bike-building…

Andrea

Training Camp 2011: Day 3

Yesterday morning, I rolled in to town to make a WalMart run and to meet up with Nate, Sue, Tim, and Collin, who had been driving all night from Virginia. They made it in sometime around 9:00, and we stopped at the Country Time restaurant for some breakfast before heading up to the cabin.

Since everyone was prettymuch a  road zombie, they unpacked a little and took a nap.

I figured that the orange and green trails were a good sampling of Syllamo terrain, so we hit those for a late afternoon ride (as you can see in the photos, the light is pretty low by the time we reached the green trail overlook). Amazingly enough, even after yesterday’s 5 hours of trail time, I felt really good (with the exception of one slip/fall on a slick rock at the end of the green loop. OW)

P.S. The top of the Cedar Scrappy climb on the orange trail is no longer to be considered “hike-a-bike”… at least by anyone with a granny gear.

Andrea

Training Camp 2011: Days 1 and 2

Day 1 was relatively easy. Since Matt didn’t have to work this weekend, he followed me up for a couple of days of riding.  We got on the trail around 1:30 and rode the orange loop. My prescribed workout for the day was 2 hours with various intensities, so we headed up Green Mountain Road for a little more climbing & saddle time. Afterward, some friends came over & hung out for a couple of sunset beers at the cabin.

This morning, we planned to meet up with Memphis friend Forrest Owens and ride almost all of the Syllamo’s Revenge course. However, Forrest had to get home earlier than previously thought, so we re-tooled our plan to just the yellow and blue trails from Blanchard Springs. I quickly realized, though, that I wasn’t feeling the pace that the guys were pushing, so when I caught up to them, I offered to let them go so I could ride longer, and at my own pace. They ended up with 2.5 hours, and I rode the remainder of the trail solo. Matt was nice enough to meet me at the Hwy 5 trailhead with water then pick me up on Green Mountain Road once I was around the loop. Final ride time was 4 hours, 56 minutes (including various food/photo breaks).

I try to ride at least one more technical section every time I’m on the trail. Today was no exception, though I did manage to wreck a few extra times (all were generally slow-speed, but left me with some extra bruises). Riding in solitude gives you a lot of quality time with your own self doubt and personal fears. Singletrack therapy is your friend…


Andrea

2010 Stuff that Sucked

This is actually a kinda hard list to make, because I generally have a good handle on what I like as far as equipment goes. However, disappointments do happen…

Sidi Shoes: Ok, this should really be last year, but it’s worth mentioning that the tread on SIDI shoes is much akin to plastic. Sure, they are high quality, rebuildable, etc, but if you ride on rocky stuff like Syllamo, then these shoes fail the hike-a-bike test. Unless you’re a baller who never walks (like Dicky), look elsewhere.

Quarq Powermeter: I hate to bash on a company with great customer service, but this thing has done nothing but bother me since I got it. The calibration is really sensitive to temperature, so any time you’re riding in a rapidly changing environment (spring/fall/trainer room), you have to stop and re-calibrate often. And yes, I tried the auto-cal feature in that situation, and it wasn’t effective. I sent it back twice (both times, the turnaround was SUPER fast- like I said… great customer service), and it seems to generally work OK now (outside of the aforementioned temp swings), but I just don’t feel like I can trust it like I did my SRM. This is confirmed by the computrainer that we just got. Its readings are always right on with Ryan’s SRM, but always 10-30 watts over what the Quarq readings are.

Hayes Brakes: I haven’t used these, but Ryan has a pair that came on his Felt 9Solo. The brake pads fall out when the wheel isn’t on the bike. Also, I’ve talked to a pro (who shall remain nameless) that had a major problem with Hers at one of the last big, humongous races of the year. Luckily, when you’re that much of a badass, you don’t have to rely on little things like brakes to still destroy everyone.

Giordana Shorts: I blew the seams out in 2 pair this season. Nothing like riding 72 miles of the Breck 100 with your inner thighs hanging out and rubbing your saddle.

VALIC Investment company: Yeah, it seems random, but it’s who was “in charge” of my retirement account from the University of Memphis. Apparently, once you get over a certain amount of money in your account, you can’t withdraw it to move it to another investment company. I’m trying to move my retirement funds to Vanguard. VALIC has some of my money invested in a Vanguard fund, but since it’s not a company that’s “approved” by U of M/VALIC, I can only get half of it. The remainder will be moved in small monthly installments so that VALIC can keep making money off if it. It’s a bunch of bureaucratic bullsh*t, and I let them know that the last time I talked to them, and I’m telling everyone I know… including the internets.

The iPad: Ryan is obsessed with it, and it probably gets handled by him more than I do.

Chamois Butt’r: It dissolves within half an hour of riding. Sure, it’s nice to be able to wash it out of a chamois, but let’s take a look at basic chemistry here- chamois butt’r (as well as a lot of other “chamois” products) is water soluble. Sweat is made out of water. When you ride, you sweat… hopefully you can figure out the rest.

Motobecane Bikes: Once again, I haven’t ridden one, but I’ve worked on them. Just a word of advice if you’re thinking about buying one- when you unbox one, there will be missing parts, parts that are incredible heavy/sketchy, wheels that aren’t true… you get the idea. Go to a bike shop and get a real bike that wasn’t assembled in a sweatshop.

Trek Madone: Too light for its own good. Scott and Cannondale can make super-light rides that are stiff and lively… what happened to the Madone?? After riding it and the BH back-to-back, I realized that it had no soul (even moreso than I).

This is all I can think of right now… I generally focus on the things I love, so trying to remember the ones I don’t is kinda difficult. I’ll keep adding, though.

Andrea

Air 9 Carbon- Day 2

Today’s terrain was much more challenging (in both surface and elevation). For those of you that know the trails, I started at the Blue (Scrappy Mountain) trailhead and rode a counter-clockwise loop of the Blue, Orange (Bald Scrappy), Green (White River Bluff), Orange (again), and Blue (again).

It gave me an opportunity to get a real idea of what it’s like to ride a rigid bike on some pretty technical stuff. The verdict?

Nice. Very Nice.

A lot of people have asked for my thoughts on the rigid fork and how it compares to a suspension fork. Well, the best way I can describe it is to compare it to the difference between a surgeon’s scalpel and a chef’s knife. Both are sharp objects designed for precision cutting. If you want to carve your Christmas turkey, the knife cuts straight through the skin, grain of the meat, and joints. The scalpel, on the other hand, is not so good at “straight through” as it is at disecting the meat from the bones in a very precise manner (ok, so I know that’s an odd situation, but humor me here). In either case, the end product is the same- you get your turkey meat off of the bone.

Same with the rigid fork- rather than unweighting the front wheel and letting suspension absorb most of a bump from a rock or other solid object, the rigid fork is so light and fast handling that it skirts over/around the rock with very little effort. The result for me? After I figured this out (it took a good hour of riding on some tech-y stuff), I found that I was actually cleaning MORE of the tough sections of trail- including (near the end of the ride) the entire length of the Blue trail from the Stairway to Heaven (pictured in the gallery below) to the logging road (steep and rocky- I don’t think I’ve ever managed the entire thing before because of some tricky switchbacks and steep kickers with small rock ledges.

How much will I ride/race it? I’m honestly not sure yet. I’m definitely not as fast going downhill without suspension. However, I definitely climb better… which edges itself out in “importance” when racing. Then again, the trail chatter can get tiring to the upper body. I’ll likely switch depending on the situation.

The frame itself is still amazing. It’s so damn stiff- you get the sense that every ounce of effort that you’re putting into pedaling is being transferred directly into moving you forward. I’m in love.

So, here are some photos from the journey: