Ridiculous

I thought it was ridiculous that I was driving 4.5 hours to race 30 minutes at the STXC race series. Well I finished that series and started the Southern Oregon Championship Thursday Night series. The other day I drove 4.5 hours to race 11.5 minutes. It was a time trial at the drag strip in Medford. Drag strips are flat, right? Wrong. The portion of the track that they race on is flat but then it goes uphill so they can slow down. It goes really uphill.
The race course was a loop up the drag strip and back the return road which was about half way up the hill at the end. The finish line was at the top of the hill. It was only three laps, about 3.3 miles but it was a killer. I was last place. Even the kids beat me.

Next week it's a road race. I guess it's called a circuit race. Mass start, 10 laps, same course without the hill at the end.

Alma

I got a new frame for my mountain bike. An Orbea Alma 29er. I swapped all the components off my Orbea Lanza. Isn't it pretty? I'll eventually upgrade the components to match the bling level of the frame. I'm going to race the single speed again next week but I'll take this one along to show off.

Spring Thaw and STXC

Friday afternoon we hooked up the trailer and drove to Ashland. Frank and Sally hooked up their Casita trailer and came with us. We stayed in an RV park out by Emigrant Lake. It is a nice park and we had spots next to the creek. I raced the Spring Thaw race on Saturday morning and we went out to dinner Saturday night to New Sammy's Cowboy Bistro. Excellent food. Google it and read the articles.





The race started in Lithia Park and climbed up the hill, and climbed, and climbed some more. I raced the beginner category so I only had to go part way up the hill and only one lap. I don't know if I could have done more. I probably could have. My chain came off the big sprocket on the rear wheel and jammed up against the spokes on the first hill out of the park. It took me several minutes to get it loose. The guy riding sweep helped me. That tells you what place I was in. It didn't happen again and I couldn't get it to happen later in the repair stand. Once I got to the top of the hill it was mostly fun single track all the way back down. There is one section that is pretty technical and I crashed once. I actually just fell over because I was being cautious and going too slow.
Here's a chart from Motion Based showing elevation and heart rate. It was pretty difficult. Motion Based says the average ascent grade was 10.7% and the average descent grade -7.4%. Total elevation gain, and loss, 1,930 feet.









The short track cross country series in Jacksonville, Oregon started Monday evening. I raced it. The big news is that I raced my single speed. The course is perfect for this bike. It starts with a climb up a gravel road for about 1/2 mile and then single track back down to the start. The single track is a little rocky but generally pretty fast. Two steep, short uphills. One I rode each lap that someone wasn't stuck walking up in front of me and one I coasted up until I slowed enough to have to walk. I think next week I'm going to attempt to ride them both. There is also a fast creek crossing. Big splash. Lots of fun. It's a four race series. I think I'll do better next week. It's kind of crazy, though, that I drive over two hours each way to race for thirty minutes. I'm racing the sport class now.
On a sad note, our beagle, Buddy, got run over while I was away racing in Jacksonville. Even though we live basically on a gravel driveway with only one house beyond us there is some traffic. He chased cars and that was his demise. Rest in peace Buddy. Drive all your neighbors crazy with your howling up in doggy heaven.

More Mudslinger

I forgot to load the Google Earth map of the course. We staged at the school, near the road at the top of the picture, and rode as a group to the start where the loop connects. The finish was back at the school.









I found some more pictures too. This one shows the mud a little better, with me walking again.

















This isn't my bike but it's representative of what my bike looked like.

Mudslinger

What the f***?
This is April 20 not January 20.












This is the Northwest not the Midwest.

I raced my mountain bike at Mudslinger west of Corvallis Oregon on Sunday. As you can see, it snowed. Actually the snow wasn't a problem. It was muddy though. A lot of the course was logging road which was hard gravel. Some of the course was single track which was deep mud. I just pushed my bike on the muddy single track. I figured that the up hill was too much effort to try to ride and the downhill was too dangerous. I would have wasted a lot of energy crashing and getting up. Overall it was fun.

This was a steep section on the road called the stair steps. I hadn't reached the mud yet.











You can't really tell how muddy it was from this picture. I am walking though. I should have taken a picture of my bike at the end. When I got back to the road there was so much mud on my tires that I couldn't tell if they were flat or holding air. I didn't care. As long as they stayed on the rims I was going to ride on them. By the way, I'm running them tubeless which seems to be working out ok.

The locals are doing their stage race this weekend. Two time trials, a road race and a hill climb. I don't think I'm going to do it. The hill defeated me last year. Gardner Ridge Road. I've never made it to the top.

I'm racing my mountain bike again on May 3. Spring Thaw in Ashland. Susan and I are taking the trailer and Frank and Sally are coming with their trailer. We have reservations at New Sammy's Cowboy Bistro on Saturday night.

Ride on the South Fork

Sunday I rode up the South Fork of the Smith River. It was a beautiful Spring day. 27 1/2 miles, 2650 feet of climb. It's a good work out.











I went with Susan Roberts, Don Hartley, and Darren McElfresh. Darren used to be a pro bike racer. It's been a long time since he's raced but he's still a strong rider and it just blows me away how he can ride. We'd be blasting down a hill at 30+ mph with me hanging on for dear life and I'd look ahead and see him riding with both hands above his head stretching his shoulders out, he's recently had surgery to fuse a vertebrae.





It really was a nice day and it's always pretty on the South Fork.

Well I've signed up for Mudslinger next weekend and made a motel reservation. The race is west of Corvallis. It's the same day as the Albany Triathlon so I'll be staying in Albany with my Tri friends and then leaving them and going in a different direction on Sunday morning.

Horning's Hustle

Well, I raced my mountain bike this weekend. If you can call it racing, that is. I took my trailer and my dog, Jake, and drove to Portland. North Plains to be more exact. It was raining. I did this race last year and it was muddy. It didn't rain earlier this week so I was hoping for something better than last year. It was worse. Way worse. I did have a pleasant weekend though. I camped on the race course. Right on the course. The grass you see in the picture is not representative of most of the course. It was deep, sticky mud. The race was multiple loops of approximately 4.5 miles. I raced the beginner category and was supposed to do two laps. At about 3/4 through the first lap I looked at my watch and saw that it had been over an hour since I started. I decided that no way was I going to do two laps. I had pushed my bike more than half the time. I was pushing up and down hills. My bike probably weighed 50 pounds and the wheels just barely were turning. When I got to the finish line I said I don't want to do another lap but I don't want to DNF. They told me that if I quit I would DNF so I kept going, up to my trailer to have a beer. I returned later and finished. By that time the leader had finished and they were waving racers off the course. I didn't cheat. I told them I only finished one lap. It was okay. I felt like a sissy but I didn't want to go through another lap. There was a group of three young guys camping across from me with their families and they all quit after one lap too. They all finished behind me so I didn't feel so bad.

Here's the course. The part on the upper left side of the picture was all new. It was carved in by a Cat last summer. It was the worst mud, about 5 inches thick. All up or down. Nothing level.

I might race again in two weeks but the race is called Mudslinger. I've had enough mud. I'll probably forget how hard it was by then and do the race. I know that races are supposed to be hard but this one was more than hard.

I'm in third place in the OBRA BAR Age Graded 60 to 64 category. I'm a long way behind first place but a long way ahead of fourth place. When I start racing cyclocross I should get closer to first. It's fun.