On The Move

Friday, October 21, 2011

Mountain Bike Race

No this is not where I raced!

It's been a LONG time since (2004?) I put a number on and raced a MTB. I wanted to try a race since there was one going on somewhat close (1-1/2 hours away) at Alafia State Park. to where I live. After some thought, I decided to race GM-3 (grand masters - base) or the old slow farts race. It would be one 10 mile loop. I left early in the morning to get there in time to do a pre-race lap - it's a tough techincal course depending on how they laid out the race course. I was going to race the only thing I had; my Ellsworth Enlightenment 29er SS. I got there (I had to leave Sadie at home) and got on the course at 8:25am....it was a tough/fun layout and I ended up falling 3 times just in the warm up lap. I watched the 1st wave go off and helped Tony, one of the team's expert racers with the feed area.

Tony is #105

It was soon my turn to line up at the start line....I think there was about 15 of us and I knew with my gearing (34/18) I wasn't going to be getting the hole shot against a bunch of geared bikes. To my surprise I still ended up 5th position at the start of the singletrack. Things were going well until my front wheel washed out going pretty fast and I bit it hard - knocking off the visor off my helmet! I lost about 4 places and got back on. Pretty soon I was catching some of the riders that went before my group and a couple in my catagory.

I stuck with then passed a guy in my class only to wipe out again and have him pass me. I kept him in sight and was thinking of when to pass again when we came up to 3 riders and he made a great pass where as I couldn't get around them for a long time. By the time I did I thought it wasn't going to happen and just kept going. Finally I saw the guy not far away (he had fallen he told me later) so I got back on him and was closing down on him ready to pass right before the finish line on a dogleg turn and he went down right in front of me....I couldn't get around him and he was able to hold me off and came over the line just in front of me.....5th place for me.

While I was dissapointed in 5th place....I did have "fun" (if it's lots of pain you looking for) and was happy but beat up after the race. I'd like to do some more of this race series if the location works out and hopefully I could bring Sadie with me. It looks like I'll be doing more CX races than MTB races though do to the format of the road trip racing over two days for cx instead of just one for MTB.

caio,
Rick

Sunday, September 25, 2011

What have I been up to?

It's been more than a month....with Face Book it seems that's how everyone keeps up to date with each other. With all the changes FB has had I'm thinking maybe it is just a big time suck, but that's a different subject matter for a different post. My training/riding had falling off to almost nothing and the motivation to train/race wasn't really there. What's happened during this time? - I got rid of the Honda Element.....the % was too high and I couldn't get it refi'd

- I purchased a Ocean Kayak Nalu 12.5 hybrid SUP/Kayak; I really like it and Sadie can ride on it with me.

- I'm starting to ramp up the miles (slowly) to get ready for 'cross season down here in FL....it's still 90'F during the day so it's kinda hard to get into the mood so far. - my company I work for is selling me (cheap) my company minivan with mucho (195K) miles on it but it should last another 6-10 months - Aaron came to visit during the Labor Day Holiday and we had a blast.

- the job is going well...it will be interesting when my lease is up here in March 2012. Ciao, Rick

Friday, August 12, 2011

F.U.CX. Cyclocross Race

FUCX - Florida Underground Cyclocross is something I have gotten involved with: we have done one practice race and just did a "real" race last Sunday.

I helped setup the course; yes that means getting up and on the road b/f 6AM. FUCX!

The course design was cool and we (3 of us) got it up and ready by 8:30am.

I was racing with the fast guys (As); we were going to do 1 hour plus two laps but with the heat at 90+ already we decided to make it 45 minutes plus two.

We did a parade lap so everyone would see the course and then started the race.
A ">video of the race was done by Jeb....

Because of the mixed fields and I wasn't sure who was still ahead of me...I had no idea of how I was doing other than I was deep in the hurt locker. I thought I was doing well and was catching people that were ahead of me; I caught one guy who said to me he had thought I was going to lap him...I wiped out in the deep sand turn and he caught and passed me...I thought no big deal...but wondered why he was putting in a big effort to get a big gap on me.

By that time it didn't matter and I was hurting pretty bad...I sucked it up and finally heard the 2 laps to go....idontknow about you but when I hear the bell go of, it means ONE to go. I used to 2nd to go to recover a bit and make sure nobody caught me and was only lapped by two people so I worked the last lap as hard as I could go....telling myself that I wouldn't have to do any of this stuff again!

Here's the Garmen data of my slow suffering.

With all of that said...I ended up in 4th! The bad news is that the guy that was acting like I was lapping him was actually in front of me and took 3rd! Damn.

It was good times regardless and it only took me 3 days to recover.....:-)

Rick

No More Bunny-Hopping Early in the morning

I normally do a Tuesday & Thursday EARLY (5:00AM) morning group training ride.

As anybody that knows me well knows I'm not a "morning person". I have worked hard at being able to wake up @ 4:15AM for these rides due to it's the only way I can get in 34 miles each of those mornings b/f I have to go to work.

The rides go like clockwork normally with warm up/attacks/regroup and then turn a round and head back hard.....

This one was much like any other one...'cept once we did the Sand Key bridge and heading behind the hotel row....they were bunching up/slowing down at usually one of the fastest places. I drifted into the center turning lane to see what was up and was looking over at the peloton when I looked in front of me (it's dark and early, right) and saw what looked like a curb. Instead of jamming on my brakes I thought (this happened real fast) I'd just bunny hop the "curb"; I did just that but when in mid-air noticed that there was a second curb behind it that I also needed to clear! "SHIT" I yelled and tried to continue to pull up on the bike to clear both.

My front cleared both but the back hit the second pretty (REAL HARD & A LOUD NOISE)hard and blew out the tire and trashed the rim. Sand Key Group Ride* by rickadams60 at Garmin Connect - Details">Here's the Garmen data on the ride.

Trent was nice enough to get his van, pick me up and drop me off at my house.

After looking at it in close to daylight....I don't think I could have escaped that well if I tried to.

I need to have my coffee before these rides and be more alert!

Rick

Thursday, July 21, 2011

12 Hours of St Pete Alleycat Race 7-9-2011

Jake & Sonny

That's me on the right....

I had wanted to do this race but the other part of my two person team couldn't get off work so it looked like I wasn't going to be racing.

Until Friday afternoon, Sonny contacted me and thought he might be able to expand his two person team into a 4 person team. At about 5-6PM I was on the team.

Sonny, Jake, Ben and I made up the team. I had some mad packing and organizing to do and although I wanted to ride the race on my fixie, I was going to bring my BMC geared bike as the backup.

We were Team Mullet....Ben was going to ride the first two laps, followed by Jake then Sonny with me last.

Ben had a great first lap while we rode the course but then had a crash on the 2nd lap and lost contact with the first (fast) group....which was going to make it tough getting back to the lead group. Jake went next and wanted to do 3-5 laps in a row. In hindsight that kinda sucked for the rest of us because Sonny & I didn't get to do a first lap until the heat of the day the day had set in around 2PM. We had thought each of us would do two laps at a shift but the mid day heat was too much for that so the 3 of us (Ben, Sonny & I) rotated every lap. Jake was done for the day it seemed. The ride with the fixie was fine, I just ended up doing it solo and in the wind the gearing was getting to me a bit. I thought I could shave some time off my laps (as did the rest of my team) by using the BMC. The first two laps I did I messed up 1-2 check points resulting in not so great times....the last two I nailed. It was pretty hot n humid...I ended up changing into a fresh kit for my final 2 laps and I think it helped.

We did OK and I ended up two two consecutive laps at the end so we could finish with 14.

3 yummy beers later after I rolled in with 5 minutes b/f the race was over I started feeling better.

Ciao,
Rick

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Le Tour De Dank 4 Alleycat

I wasn't feeling good about this; I was still getting over my cold with low/no miles under my belt but figured I'd give it a go. I had set up the fixie with brakes due to the bridges (hills). I had kayaked before the race but was feeling OK. I rode to the race and was there just as they were giving out maps. I wanted to go with what would be the lead group and try to get the hole shot. I was able to be in the top 5 at the start and we quickly got a gap b/t us and the 90 some odd people doing the race. I felt pretty good on Memorial and Sand Key bridge but got gapped on Belliare Bridge and right before the 5th check point lost sight of the lead group and got lost trying to find that check point. I was counting on staying on and didn't memorize the map...epic fail on my part. I ended up seeing Michael and he & I found it and started riding hard again. We got to the 6th check point with 7 guys in front of us and headed for the final check point and then the finish. Michael told me to go ahead and I was just trying to hold on to 8th when I took a wrong turn and by the time I got to the start/finish I ended up 11th OA. Pretty disappointing due to this being in my area and getting dropped at the final bridge....still a fun way to spend an afternoon. I didn't know where everyone was going to be so I ended up hanging out with Zach and the crew...and not being able to unlock Zach's lock until it was cut off by Heidi's friend, Mark.

I wasn't really too happy about dropping that many places......in my own neighborhood!

Ciao,
Rick

The Results:
Speed
Fixed – Male
1. Tyler Rose (1 hr)
2. Sean Lynch
3. Taylor Norton
4. Paul Rozelle
5. Mike Weimar
6. David Horst
7. Michael Davis
8. David Fitzgerald
9. Ben Pridgen
10. Rick Adams

Overall Finish
1. Tyler Rose (1 hr)
2. 2. Sean Lynch
3. Gabe Crisler
4. Taylor Norton
5. Paul Rozelle
6. Mike Weimar
7. David Horst
8. Michael Davis
9. David Fitzgerald
10. Ben Pridgen
11. Rick Adams
12. Geoffrey Holtman
13. Kirsten Johnson
14. Bryan McGuine
15. Travis Nolan
16. Mondo Mike Hall
17. TIII
18. Adam Vacha
19. James Mitchell
20. Sonny Kennedy

Here's the Garmen Data:
Tour De Dank AlleyCat race by rickadams60 at Garmin Connect - Details">

Kayaking at Caladesi and Weedon Island State Parks

John had invited us down to his place in St Pete to try kayaking at Weedon Island and had a Hobie kayak for me to use; the pedaling system in it is really cool...it's like pedaling a bicycle instead of paddling

We did get attached by about 5000 bugs when we went into the mangrove canopy! After a fast retreat we ended up doing 2.5 miles according to my Garmen. We went swimming in his pool afterwards and then to my race.

The Hobie was something that I would get if the $ was available.....

Ciao,
Rick