Settling For Less

Less miles, less races. That's the way the past few weeks have been. I changed my mind and only did loop two of the Manzanita Mountain Epic, skipped the Delores 100, and have been putting in fewer miles every week. On the flip side I've done two cyclocross practice races which were a blast and that got me interested in doing some cross races in the future. There's still the Zuni Mountain on the table in less than two weeks and I have negotiated with my brain and legs that there will be no bowing out and no shorter course option for me.

Little Manzanita rundown: Small pack of us start at 7 am. First trail up is the Cedro singletrack. I try to get settled in. I'm not really awake yet. I over anticipate the climb at the end and give up to walking too early. Probably could have cleaned it if I had been paying attention. I do the hike a bike on the meadow singletrack and that's the last time I get a glimpse of Mark up at the top. At this point I'm following a couple of guys on geared full suspension bikes. I catch up on the little climbs and then they get away from me on everything in between. I have no desire to attack, just hang on for now. They miss a turn on Mahogany and I get ahead momentarily. They catch back up and we all ride Bear Scat together. Once we hit Harry's trail they are gone again. I stop to piss and use it as an excuse to walk. I'm not attacking the hills hard enough to clean anything, but on the other hand I'm not bonking or blowing up. We all get lost for close to half an hour and trace the trail back and forth until we pick up the GPS track again. GPS is being a PITA today, its constantly freezing and not showing the course ahead. Logan takes off and the other geared guys get ahead. I ride alone for awhile and have a minor wreck at the bottom of Lower Pine. I pass two guys I haven't seen since the start while climbing up the 462 dirt road and then catch the two geared guys I've been following all day at the turnoff for 12. We ride together over to Mighty Mule and then I try and drop the hammer on all of the rolling short climbs. I get to FS13 and they are still close behind me. I don't even attempt to ride the five hills of death, but just try to walk each one quickly. I pause at the intersection of middle? trail wondering if I'm supposed to take it back to the finish. The directions are not helpful and the GPS is still showing some extra trail. What the hell? The geared guys are mere yards behind me as I get to the intersection with cedro peak road. I make a dumbass decision to follow what the the GPS track appears to show and continue up towards the towers, enduring another short climb. The trail basically ends so I turn around with one of the geared guys in tow and we blast down the other dirt road to the finish. The second geared rider skipped our little detour and had already signed out on the clipboard. Damn. Five hours of effort blemished by a mistake in the last minute. C'est is racing I suppose, and I've earned myself a tie for second place. Mark however, has been back for almost a full hour already. There was no chance of catching him.

Yesterday I took Jay out to Tijeras so he could experience some good ole baby heads. We rode: Ranger station>Tunnel>Otero>Gnasty>Blue Ribbon>FS106>Drop In>Cajun Pine>Wild Turkey?>Turkey Trot>David Canyon Rd>Drop In>Blue Ribbon>Gnasty>West Ridge>Birdhouse>End.

Late Summer Blues

Since this is my first real "season" of racing, I've had a blast and have even surprised myself a couple of times. I've definitely made some progress and I'm faster than last year, no doubt. I haven't exactly met my goal of 400 miles a month, but I'm still working towards it. I'm glad to say that probably 70% of my miles this year have been dirt miles (mountain biking is still the best!) This year is starting to wind down and I'm glad: I think my legs need some good rest and I'm ready to focus on rock climbing for a couple of months. However, its not really over until late October:

Manzanita Epic (~80 miles). 9/27/14
Delores 100. 10/4/14
Zuni Mountain (82 miles). 10/18/14

Sunday I took the geared bike out to Tijeras (since I destroyed a tire on the SS) and wound up bending my derailleur hanger about thirty miles into my ride. I didn't have a single gear that was really working right so I bailed on my original route and ended up with 42 miles. Still, its always good to spend six hours in the woods on a beautiful Sunday.

2014 Kona Unit Review

First three rides on my new Kona Unit frame. Bike setup is almost identical to what I had on the Canfield Nimble 9. I never thought I'd say this but I think I found a frame that I like better than a Canfield.

Me: I'm 5'7", 145 lbs. I'm into endurance XC racing and all day epics. I try to build my bikes so they are a jack-of-all-trades do anything bike, with a focus on "trail" riding if you must call it that. Location: Albuquerque, NM and the surrounding areas

2014 17" Kona Unit frame (5.77 lbs with sliders and hardware)
Manitou Tower Pro 120mm fork with 20mm thru-axle
Flows with Hope hubs (rear SS bolt on)
Maxxis Ardent 2.4 F/Maxxis Ikon 2.2 R - Tubeless
Cane Creek 40 Series Zero-Stack
Thomson Elite X4 Stem - 50mm
Easton Monkey Lite Carbon Riser Bars
ESI Chunky Grips
Cane Creek Bar Ends
Shimano XT Icetech Brakes
Thomson Seatpost
Fizik Saddle
Truvativ Stylo 1.1 OCT Cranks
RaceFace Single Ring - 34T
Endless Cog - 19T
Total Weight: Not yet weighed.

The Unit came with a rigid fork, making the equivalent suspension fork somewhere between 80-100mm. I already had the 120mm Tower handy and am addicted to the plush ride I get with the Mars Air spring combo. I knew this was going to raise the front of the bike up and change the HTA to the neighborhood of 68 degrees. I helped to counter this additional height by using a zero-stack headset and reducing the spacers under the stem to about 4mm. I was also able to save about 11mm in the headtube/headset stack height compared with the previous setup (Nimble 9 with a standard headtube). By also using a 50mm stem (stock Unit build is 60mm), I feel I was able to counter any effects on the steering that the extra 20mm of fork generated. I immediately noticed that the Unit is stiffer than the Canfield was, while still having some compliance when things get really choppy. Switchbacks, which had me worried, feel easier despite the longer stays. The bike climbs SOOOO much better. When I hammer on the pedals the bike just takes off! I'd have to attribute this change to the geometry, stiffness, and stem all working together.

Broken Frame

Well, I broke the Canfield:

It happened about two weeks ago during an evening Foothills ride with Mark, Mike, Bill, and Tim. I was pedaling out of the saddle on a climb and heard a sort of loud pop. I stopped, thinking I had sheared a chainring bolt or broken the chain. I scanned over the bike and didn't see anything wrong so I hopped back on and pedaled another 10 feet or so. I could still hear/feel it. I stopped again and started looking over the frame. That's when I noticed the frame! Holy Shit! Walked the couple of miles back to the car and finished the evening with beer/chips/burger.

I wasn't too keen on the new N9 frame that was over a pound heavier and would require a new rear axle setup, headset, and seat post collar? So I ordered a Kona Unit frameset and am riding the Vassago until it shows up.

Broke the frame on 7/29. Rode around the mountain + placitas trails + ski area trails + south and north foothills totaling 97 miles and about 9400 ft of climbing last Sunday. Rode to work on Wednesday. South foothills ride with Tim last Thursday. Rode about 34 miles today in the foothills starting from the house. I was going to add in North Foothills too but I felt too tired. Only got in about 65 miles for the week. Meh.

I'm on the verge of getting burned out and my legs feel dead. I think I need to take a week off the bike and go climbing or running.

I'm going to skip the watermelon beatdown race and just chill.

Losing Weight

Managed to get in 100 miles last week but no super long rides. I did ride to work and then rode S Foothills>N Foothills>home in the evening, netting me 40 miles for the day. I took Tim out to Tijeras for the first time Friday afternoon and we looped up: Tunnel>Otero>Gnasty>Blue Ribbon>Otero>West Ridge>Birdhouse.

Saturday I got my new XT brakes set up on the Vassago. Bye-bye BB7's and hello responsive brakes! And I lost a little bit of weight while I was at it, about 190 grams total:

Early Sunday I headed back out to try and get some miles in but just wasn't feeling it. I had two slow motion wrecks going up Birdhouse and by the time I got over to West Boundary I bailed on heading towards Mars Court and finished up on Drop In>FS106>Blue Ribbon>Tunnel. Made it home before noon and before the storms hit. Two weeks until the watermelon beatdown, gotta get in shape!

Redneck Epic

Well, it is amazing how fast a month can fly by. Not a ton of riding to report, but some nonetheless. Mark C and I did a 50 mile South Boundary loop in Taos, 20 hard miles were ridden on the Sandia Crest trails, I made it back to North Carolina for a visit and did a Laurel>Pilot>South Mills>Buckhorn>Black point to point, and yesterday was the Chama Redneck Epic. First, a little photo dump and then a race report:

As for the race: 8am start for the 50, only about four other guys start at the same time. Everyone is worried about the trails being wet and a lot of people do a modified 46 mile loop to skip some muddy roads. Less than a mile in I'm by myself. After some tight switchbacks I'm at an overlook and I can see a lake and and elk herd far below. The valley is gorgeous. The first 6 miles are rough climbing and I push a little to hard trying to ride everything. I hear crashing in the woods around me and I find myself in the middle of an elk herd. They run along the ridge and disappear but I stumble upon them a second time a few minutes later. A woodpecker sounds out louder than a hammer driving nails and it's efforts ring through the aspens. There are wildflowers everywhere and plants I've never seen before. I pop out on a road and get a little relief. A right onto an old overgrown roadbed is a workout. I miss a turn for the CDT because the trail is so overgrown. I alternate between rutted forest roads and overgrown trail; I'm up high, there are hardly any trees. I miss another turn for the CDT and ride around for a good 20 minutes trying to figure out where the course is. I meet up with another SSer doing the 101 mile course and follow him for a bit until we reach the campground and the water drop. My stomach is not feeling hot and I'm not drinking enough tailwind or getting enough calories. Not really any point in standing around so I fill up a bottle and start the gravel climb on 87. I'm feeling ok for a bit and then the shorter steep pitches start to get to me. I walk a few. I come across Dylan in need of a tube. I give him the one on my seat post and take off knowing he will catch me. We ride together for a while just in case one of us flats. I wipe out in a loose gravel turn doing about 20 and tear a hole in my brand new (first ride) bibs. We turn onto the last gravel road section and Dylan pedals off. I'm feeling bonked but manage to pedal most of it. Hang a right on the singletrack I started on and race the incoming storm back to camp. Each little hill feels harder than the last and I walk more and more of them. Finally hit the overlook and its all downhill from there...

Taking Care of Business!

Finally managed to link together the big Tijeras loop that I've bailed on twice now. Nothing much to say except Tailwind is amazing and even carrying 112 oz of liquid I still managed to run out with about 1.5 hours to go. I tried two different spigots around the Cedro campground but neither worked. I managed to keep it together but I was definitely starting to feel dehydrated at the end. Didn't take the time to snap any pictures.