gmo

I have to hand it to anyone who completes the Shenandoah 100. It is a BRU-TAL race. There are some STRONG riders out there. I knew coming off of Leadville that I was going to underestimate this race. I knew the course was slower, I knew it had a lot of climbing, and I knew that people with all different levels of training attempt this race. How do you qualify someone when they say, "this course is very rocky", or "it starts real fast." What's the frame of reference? Why is it that I hated nearly this entire race, yet I'm looking forward to doing it again?! So, the answer to the question is "Yes." Shenandoah 100 is a HARDER race than the Leadville 100. Leadville gives you pavement and fireroad and restful descents. While Shenandoah gives you some fireroad and road climbs, and rocky gnarly singletrack, and you can count on nearly every descent being a white knuckle, bone jarring, endo infested gnarlfest. Here's how I remember the race ...

What a great race it was this year. I loved the training. I loved being out in Colorado. I loved the comeraderie. I loved the race. My goal time this year was sub-10. I beat last year's time by a healthy hour and ten or so minutes, finishing 9:48. Reasons for the success? Great training help by CTS, a Gary Fisher Superfly , great weather and trail conditions, better nutrition, and better strategy. I did some preriding of the course and tested out the Powerline descent at a race pace to see how fast I can do this on race day. I tapped my breaks lightly to control my speed and went into a full skid, fishtail, and ultimate tailspin into a rut, biting it HARD. Conditions were really dry and sandy, and I was second guessing my ACX Jones front and XDX rear tire setup. Luckily, the night before the race were big storms, which I feared would plague us race day, but luckily did nothing but make for a tacky fast surface. No traction issues during the race. First, before I go into ...

Ok.. so here's the race report of the 12 Hours of Cranky Monkey. Brent, Dave, Neil, Larry, and I did this one solo. Intro First off, it was hot.. like.. rediculous.. it was a steamer right from lap 1. temps were in the mid 90s and humid. .. throughout the race, when you thought it couldn't get any hotter, it did. it unfortunately was really a very miserable uncomfortable experience. although it was really hot last year, none of us remember the heat feeling like such a factor.. maybe we've just gotten weaker.. Course This course is not easy.. 10.6 miles, not very flowy. not real technical, but pretty choppy, undulating hills. no climbs are very long or sustained, but they are all steep. nearly every climb will put you above LT. Riding hardtail i was off the saddle nearly the entire race, or with 3/4 weight on my legs, 1/4 on the saddle because of the constant bumping. Elevation gain according to Brent's GPS was 1250' per lap. Nutrition I premixed a couple of...

ok.. so here's the race report… in gory detail. Last night I had ridiculous sinus infection pains.  I took a Tylenol sinus, and this morning, I felt pretty good, for the first time in a couple of weeks.  I remained pretty good except the occasional bouts of hacking cough and wretching. This race is cool because it attracts great talent, pros like Chris Eatough, Harlan Price, Jeff Schalk, etc.  And some of the classes were qualifiers for Nationals.  I raced the Marathon class.  Marathon has no skill breakdowns, like sport, export, semi-pro, etc.  So, pretty much everyone doing it is tough... or.. it makes me feel good to think that. The beginner race is only one lap, so no beginner is signing up for 4 hours of this. In 2002 I raced this course as a beginner. I never raced again for 3 years. Actually, I think I discuss my first race in an earlier blog. The race results are at  http://www.prologsoftware.com/proracingtiming/results/r04...