Saturday ride in the rain.

The strange weather keeps coming here in Arizona. We have been getting rained on from Thursday night all the way until mid day Saturday. It wasn’t torrential but enough so that at the end of a 4 hour ride yesterday the bike and my self where completely muddy and wet. I went up and over the McDowell Mountains three times with Dan and Lane from the shop. In the local verbiage we call this a “triple bypass” I have to admit that after all my cross training last week as well as some lifting two days I was way behind the other two which isn’t so fun. It sucks to be going from the fast guy to being the boat anchor. Again though I am regretting not having my camera because there were some great pictures with the clouds cutting through the mountain tops.
With the weather conditions the trails where just smoking fast. Typically by this time of the year we haven’t got any rain for a few weeks so the trails are dried out and loss. Everything is decomposed granite up there so when it gets wet it firms up and you feel like you can take any corner at full speed. There are few sounds as great as the sound tires make hooking into solid terraferma, that low growl telling you to give the speed a little more through the corners. The one problem I was having is that I have a slow leak in my back tire that I had to stop pump up every few miles so by the end of the ride I was practically riding on the rim which took away from the fun on the last descent.
Right before we got back to the car though everyone felt a little burst of energy so we all took of racing down the 4x4 trail leading us to the cars. I could hear Lane coming up on my left side when I heard the tell tail sounds of him going down. I hit my brakes and as I did I looked to my left and saw him literally sliding on the ground on his stomach along side of me. By the time I stopped and looked back his bike was a good twenty feet back there on my side of the road and he was laid out. A number of larger rocks embedded in the trail where turned up by his body as he slid over and he had some series bruises on his belly to show for it. It was one of those wrecks where you look back and say “what the heck happened” because there was nothing that should have sent him over the bars. He rode away from it though and the bike looked alright as well.

I pulled out my Kona for its first ride sense being rebuilt so that was a bit of a change as well. I found myself over leveraging the front through corners and switch backs but other then that there wasn’t much of a change from the 29er. My Cannondale actually weighs less then this as well mostly due to the heavy wheels I have on here. The change in pace was fun though as right now I am feeling pretty burned out.

Mixing it up.

So I know a few months ago a referred to people who run as primitives but……I bought a pair of trail running shoes and actually “cross trained” this week by starting to run a little. There are a couple reasons for this which I will list in order of importance.

#1 I have done nothing but ride a bike for the last 10 months and I need a little break and while looking for a new athletic endeavor one that includes revealing clothing is high on my list. Runners shorts are short, I mean really short and I love it. Don’t worry I will be getting a Speedo soon as well.

#2 Shonny V runs in Xterra events so in an effort to look like a real pro I should do what they do.

#3 I need to do some weight bearing activity. I have noticed in hikes that my joints have gotten weaker and weaker over the last few years and so I need to build it back up.

#4 I am an “athlete” I should be able to run. The few times I have attempted it over the last few years it has been embarrassing. I used to run cross country in high school and was actually pretty good at it. My running over the last few years was limited to running into MacDonald’s before they shut down breakfast for the mornings. When I would do this my wife would mock me saying I looked like I ran like I was riding a bike.

When I bought my new shoes though I was loyal to a company that makes cycling clothing and went with these sweet Pearl Izumi’s. So far they feel great; I just wish I could say the same for my newly pulled groin.

What I was doing when I should have been racing.

You will have to follow me on this one because I still don’t have a new camera to make up for the one I lost last week. Funny, I'm not made out of money so I didn’t run right out and buy a new one. The pumpkin is orange kind of like me so it can be a fair representation of what I was doing during the state race.
So Saturday was the state championship for Arizona, I was 6th overall in the marathon class having won one race, placed 5th in one and then had not raced the third because I was sick. The final race is worth double points and everyone ahead of me was going to drop one race per series rules your worst race drops. So all things considered I was sitting in a good position to get at least top three. I was feeling good all week, my legs felt great and I was sure to stay on top of hydration and nutrition. Then the bottom feel out.
The wife and I drove up to Flagstaff Friday night and rented a hotel room at out favorite place up there. I ate at home so I was sure that I didn’t eat anything out of the norm but then Saturday morning around 2:30 I woke up and had to barf. I ran to the bathroom and pretty much stayed there for the rest of the morning. Race time came and went but there I sat until checkout time.
So much for a state series of racing, all down the drain for this year. It’s crazy that all the preparation and training in the world gets taken away in one morning and from one little case of food poisoning.
No worries though, there are always more races and I will be back next year. I don’t have another race for a few months though so it is time for a little time off the bike and some mixing up of the training routine, some lifting, a little wrestling, maybe some Bad Mitten?

I want my global warming!

Ok I am getting tired of freaking Al Gore and his claims of emanate world destruction due to man made global warming. I was ok with when he said he invented the internet, he’s a politician, he is supposed to say stupid crap and take credit for other peoples work. I didn’t get my panties in a bunch in the 80’s when he and his wife lead the charge to take explicit lyrics off of modern music. Mostly all I remember was Dee Snider getting up there and putting him in his place. (What I love is that noone remembers that it was Al who led the charge to put parental advisory stickers on albums.)

But when he said the world was heating up due to our cars I listened. Mostly because I cant stand the freaking cold. I even went out and bought the most gas guzzling vehicle I could find to speed the process up. Hell I would drive a tank if I could afford it.

Now however he has gone too far, he promised more heat but no it’s snowing in Flagstaff this week. O yea did I say that I race there this weekend? Yea that’s right I can hear the cash register at the bike shop going higher and higher with all the parts I will replace from riding in the mud. Here is the photo graphic proof provided to me by one of my friends up there.

I know all you global warming cultist will say “but Clint this is a result of global warming, snow in may who but man could have caused this?” I got a news flash for you all; weather is always changing, especially when I have a mountain bike race. You can’t have it both ways, a couple years ago everyone said it was getting hotter but then when it didn’t they switched the “global warming” to “climate change” again, when hasn’t the world changed? On second thought maybe if we blame everything on climate change and Bush I can have two extra excuses for why I didn’t win the race.

I digress. Its snowed 7-11 inches yesterday. I hope the warming kicks in so they are dry for me on Saturday because I don’t what this to be a couple hounded dollar race.

Team Hosman in action.

So Saturday was Sarah’s first full triathlon solo. It was held at Tempe town lake which isn’t much more then an overgrown pound but whatever the ladies didn’t seem to mind because there where like 500 women for this ladies only event. I made the comment to my friend Andrew who’s wife was also in it that there where a lot of men out there along the side lines cheering on their wife’s and that there where never this many women out at mountain bike races cheering on their husbands. He had the astute observation that it’s most likely because the men are all too happy to cheer their wife’s on as long as it involved exercise. I agreed because I am a man.

Sarah has put in a lot of training and the goal for the day was to finish. She does have arthritis and so physical exercise can rely go either way for her but she really wanted to get out there and do it.

It was a sprint distance starting with the open water swim of 400 meters, a 14 mile bike ride and then a 5K run. Never havening done an open water swim I have a lot of admiration for her to get out there and do it. The swim wasn’t her best leg but she was able to make some time up on the bike which is the event she loves the most.

Her second transition was fast and she headed out on the run. Her friend and training partner Rechel suffered a double flat and got pushed into a storm drain causing her to go over the bars giving her some series road rash on the chin and arms. She didn’t stop though and rode the remainder on the flats. I wasn’t surprised that she got pushed off the road though; I was nerves just watching the women navigate the bike course. Most of them could hardly hold a line and there were a lot of corners for a tri course so there was ample opportunity to push others over.

Sarah completed the run though coming in with a grand total time of 2:05. She allowed as how the swim was the hardest part as she did get swam over by a couple chicks. But despite the bike wreck and getting swum over they are both planning on going out again soon.

The one bad part about the race was that somewhere along the line I lost my camera. Now I am out $300, do you know where my stimulus check is going? It was also a little strange being on the cheering side instead of the racing side.

Refill on why I ride.

Some times I forget how much fun it is to ride a bike, even a road bike if you have no better options (I.E. a mountain bike) I have been locked in the house after work Monday and Tuesday doing finales work for my current classes and just couldn't get out and ride. Typically I get a little crazy with the jimmy legs if I don't get some miles in but this week with my mind preoccupied it didn't happen. Last night though I got out for a couple hours and within the first 30 minutes I had the hugest smile on my face. It feels so great to have the wind in your face and the feeling of speed caused by your action. I think some times I forget why I started racing in the first place, its a freaking blast to get out there on a bike.

Looking out though I only have one more race this season, that came up fast. I was on Justin's the other day and in Wisconsin they are just starting their season there. My question to him was "how do you guys in the wood lands pass each other?" Out here in AZ there is plenty of open space to make moves as long as you are willing to risk running over a cactus and flatting out. I will risk the cactus over running head long into a tree. The season is so different here, when we are finishing up for a few months the rest of the world is just getting started. A couple months off will be good though as I have been going pretty much non stop from last October.

As a side note, I have picked Todd Wells as my Olympic hopeful pick. I don't have anything against the others in the running but the fact that Velo News is always kiss A#% to the other two makes me want Todd to pull off the pick. When does Todd get to start writing race reports on their site?

Regulate Mountain Biking?

I brought this over from BT at Evomo because it pissed me off so much. I am so sick of rich people trying to keep everyone else out of their play grounds by claiming they cant go or come to such and such a place because you need a permit, or to plan ahead, or bikes have oil on their chains and some how this messes up the environment. And yet their overgrown horse with steel shoes walk up and down wilderness trails leaving them in run and crapping every ware. it's crap I tell you.
Clint


No I am not talking about Warren G. and Nate Dogg… I am talking about an article I read in the Santa Barbara Independent by Ray Ford. He talks, or rather attempts to talk, about how mountain biking needs to be regulated on trails in Santa Barbara. Note, he does not say that there trails should be completely closed from mountain biking… just regulated.

Why?

He never really explains why and give no supporting facts in his argument. From what I can tell its a misguided attempt to try to preserve the open spaces in all their natural glory. Which I am all for preserving open spaces, but a what expense?

“As such, I am wary of uses that tend to mechanize or depersonalize the experience. For this reason I would suggest by its very nature that mechanized use of the trails ought to be regulated.

Mountain bikers may howl at this concept but there are bigger issues at stake. The mountain trails serve to reconnect us to things that are being lost at a staggering pace. They provide something that we cannot afford to lose more of, if for no other reason than our children need a place to go where they can experience first hand what many of us did when we were children.”

The above is an excerpt from his story… which you need to read:
Why Mountain Bikes Need Regulating
[Please don’t leave any rude comments]

How does regulation of mountain biking help preserve open spaces exactly?

Since he never really makes a valid explaination as to why we should regulate mountain biking, I can tell you this. County, State and National Parks have set up designated spaces with trails for ALL to enjoy the open spaces and natural wonders of our planet. In some parks I have rode, there are trail systems in place that have specific trails marked for hiking/horses only and some (few) are even marked as mountain biking only trails. I think thats smart. Everyone gets access to the same open space in different yet overlapping ways.

In my opinion, there is only one reason to close or regulate trail use to mountain bikers: Abuse of the trails including, littering, not staying on designated trails and not properly yielding to other trail users; hikers and horses.

If you are so concerned with the effect mountain bikes are having on the environment then the real solution here is education. IMBA is the ideal organization for this. They work hand in hand with agency’s to help mediate and preserve trail access to all as well as the creation of even more trails. Like they say… What would we do without trails?

I think this energy of trying to regulate mountain bikes should be focused on regulation of construction. Aren’t property developers the ones who are really destroying our open spaces?