Just Puggin' Away

Last night I went for my first real ride on the Pugsley, tons of fun. I rode up Waterton Canyon to the dam and back, ~13 miles, 20 °F. The main road was pretty packed down, but I made sure to try out some of the deeper stuff on some little side jaunts. I was the only one out there around sunset and finished after dark. 15 psi in both tires worked good for the conditions, but I think I would try the 10-12 range for a climb in similar snow.

Those Endomorphs certainly have a bigger footprint than me.

At the intermediate dam 3 miles up.

I guess I should have drank just a little more on the ride.

Paralyzed by Choices

Per my usual, I am paralyzed by choices. I always do this. I need something, so I research the crap out of it and I'm usually paralyzed by the fact that I have many choices and different compromises with each.

The latest is an "insignificant" mini pump for the Pugsley. I know I want something other than I already have, the requirements are to not be a rigid connection to the pump and high volume (I don't want to be pumping those massive tires for 30 minutes).

The candidates:
Canondale Airspeed Maximum
Axiom Enforce Air XL
GT Mini Typhoon 1800 Deluxe
Cyclaire (the most intriguing design of the bunch)
Lezyne Alloy Drive XL
Serfas Grifter
Serfas 2n1
Planet Bike Mini Versair
Topeak Mountain Morph

I will continue to spend too much time researching a $25 accessory and finally breakdown and get something, though I might just get the GT pump to try right off the bat as it is only $10 at Pricepoint right now.

2008 is going to be good!

So here's a look at possible events for me next year. Several things aren't on there yet, like Primal Quest, Winter Park MTB Series, Mountain States Cup MTB Series, BC Vert. Challenge, Vail Trail Running Series. These are all just possibilities though.

16-Feb			24 Hours in the Old Pueblo
15-Mar			America's Uphill
29-Mar			Rim Ride
5-Apr			Moab 12 hour AR
18-Apr			AZT 300
19-Apr			Grizzly Man Sprint AR
2-May			18 Hours of Fruita
10-May			Buena Vista 12 Hour AR
17-May			USARA Sprint Nationals - Boulder, CO
4-Jun to 8-Jun			Teva Mountain Games
14-Jun			Durango 24 Hour AR
4-Jul			Firecracker 50
19-Jul			Breck 100
19-Jul			Silver Rush 50
26-Jul			Laramie Enduro (date tentative)
9-Aug			Leadville 100 MTB
16-Aug			24 Hours in the Sage
16-Aug to 17-Aug			LT100 Run (probably just volunteering)
6-Sep			Vail 12 hour AR
6-Sep			Imogene Pass Run
25-Sep to 28-Sep			Moab Expedition AR
11-Oct			24 Hours of Moab

Spinervals Virgin No More.

So last night I set up the new (to me) trainer and did a quick Spinervals workout.

It was just a short 30 minute technique workout, but it was nice with me still needing another day to recover from the Vegas Half.

It was a quality workout and I'm glad I've got a variety of them.

Las Vegas Half Marathon Race Report

Vegas Baby! (is there any other way to open this post?)

Andie and I flew to Vegas for the Marathon and Half Marathon this last weekend. I was running the half, she was running the full. That'll be the last time that happens, you wouldn't believe the amount of crap I got for it.

I wasn't expecting much since this was a B race for me and I was only running twice a week in training. I figured about a 1:40. My time, 1:40:06, hows that for guessing. I was 272nd out of 8172 finishers.

Andie ran the full in 3:53 and change, her fist time under 4 and only 13 minutes from boston qualifying.

Andie has now bested my best time from Vegas 2 years ago by 5 minutes, I guess I need to do another full and set a new PR.

New Member in the Family

Some people buy a snowblower after the 4 weeks of blizzards we had last year, I bought the Surly Pugsley. I've been eying it for about 18 months now, and this weekend I found a deal that I deemed good enough. Alpha Bicycle Company was having an end of the season sale so I went to check it out. I knew they had a few Pugsleys (very rare for a shop to carry them) and I told myself that if they had my size and it was a certain price I would do it (new they run about $2200 built up).

100mm wide Bottom bracket to clear the 4 inch tires, oof!

I test rode the Puglsey around the lot and it fit well, it even had grip shift, what I had wanted to try out on a snow bike and possibly for a winter commuter. I asked him how much it was going for and they hit my "buy it" price right on the head. I got them to throw in a shimano freewheel for the front tire and I was out the door.

I really like that shop and was tempted by some good deals on Mary bars and Fleegle bars (to try out), but didn;t pull the trigger. They really have a lot more of the niche stuff in biking, 29ers, Pugsleys, non-standard bars, a sweet geared Spot, Danger Boy levers and much more.

Standard bike pose, for you Cody.

I can't wait for it to snow!

USARA 24 hr Nationals Race Report

Missouri is just not my place for good luck I guess. Here's the quick and sweet, about halfway into the course we were disqualified because I lost our passport. Bummer, out on a technicality and it was my fault too. Long version below.

The race was in Potosi, MO; a very pretty area. We arrived and checked in the night before, there were a lot of big guns out there and Robyn Benincasa was there as a USARA rep and was cheering on the teams, cool, she's a lot smaller than I thought she would be.

The race start was at 7 a.m. at the Trout Lodge, it was cold, temps were in the 20's. We had to split up for the first section of the course, Jim ran up the road to get our passport and then back down to the lake and Sara and I would paddle the canoe across the lake and pick up Jim.

The gun goes off and we quickly split, Sara and I reach the canoes and the madness ensues; canoes falling everywhere (they were stacked three high), people arguing and yelling at each other over who had right to that canoe. Somehow in the madness I ended up snagging a canoe and Sara and I were in the water in 6th place, out of 80. Not bad.

We paddled into the fog on the lake, visually this made for great photos, but it was sooooooo cold out there. Any water that splashed onto the canoe quickly froze. We reached the meeting area just as the front runners were arriving. Jim took a little longer than anticipated, but we still were in the top 20 when we gathered him in and left. This is where the race organizers could've done a better job, we had a two seat canoe for a three person team.

We paddled to the island and quickly nabbed the next CP and continued on. Jim was having trouble getting comfortable without a seat and was constantly changing positions. My hands were starting to feel warm, finally, though I still had ice on the outside of my gloves. We reach the next CP just as the bottleneck started, we were third inline to punch the CP and the line was at least 10 boats long when we left. We finished the paddle and we were in 15th place coming out of the water, doing ok.

Now we implemented our strategy for the start of the race; look at the map, but basically follow the front runners for a while to keep them in our sights. I was a little slow at the start of the orienteering section because my hands were thawing (the previous warming sensation was completely false) and were so painful that I couldn't run fast. Our strategy was working great for teh first 3 CPs, in fact we were catching more and more people. Then we made a small snafu going off trail and lost a few minutes. Then we encountered a trail map with a "You Are Here" on it, that cost us 15 more minutes; who'd have figured that knowing our exact location would throw us off so bad.

Soon we were settled in and one of the teams near us was very familiar, Team Monster Energy was Team Pain Syndicate at the MAR; we were faster then and I knew we could be faster now. We flew through the last few check points and reached the bike transition placed somewhere in the teens. The best exchange of the day was when Robyn Benincasa came over while we transitioned and said,
"What team are you guys?"
"Team Seek Adventure"
"Do you guys have a sponsor?"
"No, not really."
"Man, you guys are scrappy!"

On to the bike, awesome, time to reel in some more teams. We were cruising as usually and within 10 minutes we've already passed a team. We are hitting checkpoints without hesitation and everything is going great. Next thing I know we're passing Team Yoga Slackers, they were quite fast at the MAR and this means we were now cracking into the top 10. The 4th bike CP had a twist, we get there and there's a sign giving us coordinates to the real CP, interesting. We don't pick the best route to get there, but we lose only about 5 minutes. CP 5 is quick and we're blazing towards CP6, right on the heels of another team. We reach and intersection and the other team is there talking to a hiker. He says he came from the right and he started at the campground, that was all we needed, we headed right towards the campground. Well it was the wrong campground and we were then lost for 1.5 hours. Talk about a bummer. We get to the CP in 33rd place (it was only 100 yards to the left when we made the wrong turn).

We keep our pace steady and methodical, we didn't want to blow through any intersections we needed. We were clawing our way back up through the field. The biking was very nice here, mostly singletrack, but it made it difficult to pass. We arrive at the next transition area and we're in 30th place, with several teams there as well. We change over to our trekking stuff and head out, hoping to get to the canoes before it gets dark (and really cold on the water). I was carrying the passport and I switched it over to a pocket in my pack, because carrying it in my short legs didn't seem secure enough for a trek.

Three miles into the trek we're tangled up with the teams in front of us and I decide to do a sanity check on the passport. I reach in the pocket, it's not there. I try some other pockets, still not there. I quickly tell the team to stop (seconds before we were about to splash across a 20 foot stream crossing) and let them know. we check my pockets again and then realize we have to backtrack.

Reluctantly and disappointingly we retrace our steps looking for the passport. We make it all the way back to the previous CP without a trace. We ask if anyone turned one in and the said no, and then they said without it we were DQed. We theorized that some other team might have picked it up or that it blew away with some wind, either way we were out.

The only highlights of this part of the race were when we got back to the transition area the other racers were dumbfounded, they though we had finished the trek and canoe already. The other thing that made us feel ok was that at the same time Team Nike Beaver Creek was pulling out (due to one team mate hurting himself), they were only minutes ahead of us.

So we rode back to the lodge, had a great meal and went to bed early. We heard the next day that everyone was coming off the water freezing and borderline hypothermic, I was glad to miss out on that.

A disappointing end to the season, but it'll serve as good motivation for next year.

I want to thank my teammates Jim and Sara for not making me feel like a schmuck for losing the passport, thanks for understanding.