I raced mountain bikes in the Mid-Atlantic
Super Series again, but
this time with the Bean's Bikes shop
team.
Besides the team, there were a lot of differences in
racing for me this year. First of all I actually trained for the
2004 race season. Training began the first week of January. I
started riding 8 low intensity hours a week for the
first month. The second month (February) I increased the number
of hours to 10 - 12. In March I increased the
number
of hours (around 16) and the intensity (basically go all out). Two
weeks before the first race I dropped
back to 8 hours at an easy rate.
The second big
difference was I raced a single speed. It's a mt. bike, but has only
1 gear. It's a lot like the
simple bikes we rode as a kid, but
mine has disk brakes and sometimes suspension (depending on the
course).
Single speeds have advantages and
disadvantages to geared mt. bikes. Mostly it's just more fun to ride
for me.
The first race was Camp
Mack April 10, 04. All the training apparently payed off. I got
5th. I almost had 4th, but
the last stretch to the finish was an
uphill and I had nothing left to beat the guy I was trailing. The
race was 11.75
miles long. I finished 5th out of 35 in
1:23:36. Two minutes and 41 seconds off the lead. My max heart rate
was
192bpm
with an average of
181bpm. I ran 34x18
gearing (I can change the gearing before a ride or race).
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The second race I did was the
Neshaminy, PA race May 9, 2004. It was really hot this day and I
don't do well in
the heat. I had ridden Neshaminy before (my
first race ever), so I had an idea of what the course was like.
Basically it winds its way down into a flood plain, then winds
its way back up, so there's a lot of climbing. I spent
the day
before scrambling to put together what I thought was the right
gearing. I ended up with a 36x20. It didn't
really
help, though I think it was the heat and the uniform that hurt me
most.
The race
was 15 miles long. I finished 11th out of 19 in 1:58:04. Sixteen
minutes off the lead. My max heart rate
was 203bpm with an
average of 186bpm. I didn't get any pictures from this
race, but here's one from when I did
the race in 2002.
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The third race was
French Creek State Park, PA May 23, 2003. It was another
hot day. I had two cracked
ribs. I didn't do so well. I had just
gotten my new bike the Wednesday before the race. On the ride that
Wednesday night I slipped on my pedal (but didn't
crash) and cracked two ribs, but I didn't officially know
the ribs
were cracked until a few days after the race.
French Creek is the last place you want to ride with cracked ribs.
It's
the rockiest course on the schedule. You take a constant
beating. I finished 20 out of 27 in 2:14:33. Twenty
eight
minutes off the lead. My max heart rate was 195bpm with an
average of 178bpm. The race was 18.96 miles long.
I ran 34x18
gearing.
After this race I stopped wearing my camelback
hydration pack and used water bottles instead. Makes the bike
a
little heavier, but stops the pack from trapping heat against my back.
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With the cracked ribs
and time off between jobs, I took it easy to relax and heal. I went
to my parent's house in TN
and did some easy training rides. I
also had my sister alter my jersey to make it breath better. She
added
perforated panels to the sides and rear. She also added a
full zip down the front, so I could completely open the
jersey
and let flap in the breeze to completely cool me off.
The
first race back and trial of the new setup was Hershey, PA June
19, 2003. Hershey is usually a slime fest. The
mud
is real slimy and sticks to everything. It's the worst
kind of mud to ride in. This year wasn't so bad. It was
slippery, but not awful. It was bad enough to make it horrible
for most, but I like those kinds of conditions. Between
the new
setup (jersey and water bottle) and the conditions, I did pretty
well in this race. The race was 13.93 miles
long. I
finished 6 out of 25 in 1:45:44. Four minutes and 30
seconds off the lead. My max heart rate was 199bpm
with an
average of 185bpm.
Gearing was difficult to figure out for
this race. The course is very hilly and usually slimey. That would
mean using
an easier gear setup, but the finish is a long
downhill sprint through a field. With easy gearing, you could
never
chase or stay ahead of someone with gears at the finish. I
decided on 34x18 (kind of in the middle), but afterwords
decided
easier gearing would be better. With easier gearing you could make
more of the hills and obstacles on the
course, hopefully getting
far enough ahead to not have to deal with anyone at the downhill
finish. Next year I might
run 32x18.
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The next race was
the Sewell, NJ race June 27, 2004. This race was apart of the
Classic Series and the Classic
Series has an
actual class devoted to single speeds. The only problem is there is
no distinction of age or level,
so it's basically an expert
level race - same length same level of skill. I wasn't keeping
points in the Classic series,
so I did the single speed race for
training basically. The Sewell course is pretty flat and fast.
Normally I would have
run my rigid fork, but I was still healing
my ribs. Gearing I should have run 34x17 (2:1), but ran my usual
34x18
instead. There's one
hill called hecklers hill where spectators gather to heckle riders
trying to climb the twisted
and water barred hill. We did four five miles laps to total a 20
mile race. I don't have the exact results, but I think I
finished something like 6th out of 7 in 1:42. My max heart rate
was 194bpm while my average was 182bpm. This
was the start of the race. That's me on the left pulling ahead
of
my team mate
Ben.
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This is me in the Sewell
race riding over one of their log
obstacles.
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The next MASS race was the
Marysville Mt. Bike weekend July 9 - 11, 2004. In celebratin of the
Tour De France,
they held a 3 day event starting with a night
time time trial Friday night. This of course required lights. It
was
a 4 mile course through the woods. They started everyone in 2
minute intervals. The goal was to sprint your ass off
and be the
fastest. My start time was something like 10:02pm. I did the course
in 22 minutes and crashed twice.
My team as a whole did reall
well in the time trial. Ben was second fastest in our class. I was
third, Mark fourth
and Ryan fifth. Overall all (including
experts) I think we were 10th - 13th. My max heart rate for the time
trial was
195bpm with an average of 184bpm. I ran
34x17 (2:1) gearing the entire weekend with a rigid fork.
The following
day was a short track event. This involved a 20 minute sprint around
a .4 mile loop. We got 12
laps in the 20 minutes. I didn't do so
well in this event. I got 11th out of 26. My max heart rate was 193
bpm with
an average of
184bpm. This is the start of the race.
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Here's a picture of our
campsite. The cross country course actually went through the middle
of our camp site.
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This was the first or second
lap with Ben leading me over a log obstacle.
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Saturday night they had a hill climb
event, but we decided to skip it in favor of resting for the cross
country event
on Sunday. Good thing we did. The cross country
race was the longest most grueling race yet this season. It was
three seven mile laps. That's the usual length of an expert
race. Surprisingly I did really well in this race. I finished
in
2:19:29, 6th out of 17 and 13 minutes off the lead. My max heart
rate was only 189bpm with an average of
179bpm.
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The next race was
Iron Hill, De August 1, 2004. This was another Classic Series race,
so it was a single speed
only expert race. It had rained
all night and most of the morning. I was hoping they'd just
cancel the race, but
they held it anyway. It was delayed
a few hours and shortened to a sport level length. It was
an awful race. I had
slacked off severly on my training
and the mud was insane. The race ended up being only 11.5 miles
long. I think
I finished dead last (in all groups). My
max heart rate was 199 with an average of 180bpm. I flatted near the
end of
the race, but with my tubless tires/wheels was able to
finish without repairng the flat. This picture was taken near
the
beginning of the race - near the very
beginning.
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This was taken a lap or so later at Iron Hill. It was a
complete mess.
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The next race was the Endless Encounter in New
MIlford, PA August 8, 2004. It was something like a 3 hour
drive north to get to this race, yet it only lasted an hour and
a half for me. The course wound it's way through a
private
campground, and old industrial land (logging, quary etc.). I had an
exciting finish in this one. The finish was
an uphill climb of significant length. At the bottom of the hill I
saw a guy in my class coming up on me, but wasn't
sure he saw
me. Regardless I started cranking it out to finish ahead. As the
hill leveled off to the finish he caught
up and we sprinted to
the finish. At the line a spectator stepped into our line while we
came up on a slower
oblivious rider. We crashed into each other
and summersaulted across the finish line. Luckily i was thrown
across
across the line first. I got banged up pretty good and
destroyed one of my gloves, but I got the finish. That put me
5th
out of 11. The race was 15.5 miles long. I finished 1:35:53. Six
minutes off the lead. My max heart rate was
194bpm with an
average of 178bpm. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures
from this race.
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next race was in Harve De Grace, MD August 22, 2004. This race
destroyed me. I had almost given up on my
training at this point.
I was simply tired of having to ride my bike. The race was 18.26
miles long. I finished 16th out
of 17 in 2:14:10 fourtyeight
minutes off the lead. My max heart rate was 194bpm with an average
of 177bpm. I
should have used my suspension fork or at least
bigger tires as this was a very tecnical course with lots of water
bars and log overs.
At least Jen had a good time at this
race. She was there to hand me water bottles between laps. In the
meantime
she would go off by herself with her iPod and dance
between laps. I think there was also some beer
involved.
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The last race was the Spring Mt. race September
12, 2004. By this time I had completely given up on racing. I
was
totally burned out. Spring Mt. is a difficult place to race.
It's a ski mt. so you're basically going up or coming down.
I
resolved before the race to simply finish and try to make most of
the obstacles (hills, rocks, logs). I did prety well
in that
respect, but I finished horribly at 14 out of 15. The guy that
finished 3rd in the race and 1st for the series
actually did
this race on a fixed gear bike. I finished 1:53:59. Nineteen minutes
off the lead. The race was 13.5
miles long. My max heart rate
was 193bpm with an average of 181bpm. I don't have any pictures from
this race
either.
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