Long Ride

3 hours on the Mountain Bike yesterday at Lock 4 just about killed me. The cramps are back. I don't know if I've gone soft, if all my running has left my legs ill-prepared for the SS or if this is just what happens now, but the last three times I've really put it down on the Mountain Bike, I've battle serious cramps. My intention was to do four laps at a 6 lap pace to determine if I could ride 8 laps in 6 hours for the inaugural 6hr race at Lock 4 on October 10. I did, missing the mark by only 1:35, but I battled some serious cramps early on that sent me to the car midway through lap 3. So, 6 hours of riding aren't necessarily the best preparation for 'cross season, but it came up on the calendar, on a weekend I'm home, and it's 45 minutes from the house and I don't know if I can do it, so I think I'll try, though, after yesterday I'm having my doubts. I'm going out again on Wednesday, the day before I leave for two weeks, to give it another go, hopefully do 5 laps at the same pace and see how I feel. David told me yesterday he's considering dropping the price to $50 for a week to encourage pre-registration. If he does that, he'll probably seal my fate. So three hours seems to be my limit right now, I'm praying I can do nearly 4 by next week. It shouldn't be so hard, Lock 4 has virtually no climbing, but I've got the runner's quads going on right now and there's not a whole lot I can do about it.

Bloggggg

So, it's been awhile. A long while. I've entered a few races this summer, had some success, some vast failure (my explosion at Stanky Creek for example) and now, as I return home from another long and beautiful tour, I greet the fall season. cyclocross. So the question then is, Can I keep this blog up? I've been blogging consistently for the band on our Tumblr blog, the Infamous Word and I dig the interface but the aesthetics blow so I suppose I'll stick with One Speed. For those of you who follow (both of you) this blog should indicate a return to blogging dominance. If I can figure out how to do this from my phone, you can count on some riveting content. If not, well, dear reader, you will still be bombarded with random thoughts and ride recounts... anyway, as I prepare for season two on the cross bike, it's time to go ride, then tear that old boy down and recable the entire apparatus. Headed out the door for another warm weather afternoon ride, but soon the air will crisp, the leaves will fall, and I'll line up for my 7-10 races before the glorious ski season begins. It's all cycles, people, and finding the balance is always difficult, but always rewarding. Until next time (or later today) adios.

Stanky Creek Part 2

The Backstory:
Last year the Dusters spent 5 weeks cooped up in a tiny van in Europe. On a day off in southern Germany we stayed at a super hip, tiki-themed hotel that had a fleet of mountain bikes. I'd been riding an old bike, a bike from high school, really (my racing bike had been stolen during a party in college) and the fire had been dying. The thrill was gone. With nothing better to do I set out on a ride and quickly lost myself in the hills.
Germany knows what is what and their network of paved trails is unparalleled and after 3 hours I limped back to the hotel exhausted but with a new resolve to get back on the bike.
As soon as I arrived home I started shopping and found my Bianchi on ebay in California for $1100. By mid June I was riding as much as possible and in August I wandered onto the TBRA website and signed up for the Stanky Creek XC and TT.
The race weekend was the start of a two week solo mountain bike pilgrimage and it started out with a bang. I placed 5th overall in the TT and won the XC (I must be honest here, there were only 4 single speed riders) and the hook was set. Cyclocross season followed with moderate success toward the end of the season and two XC victories this summer had me pretty confident that I would repeat the feat at this years Stanky Creek. Not so.
Stanky Recap:
4am, crawl out of bed, meet Nate at Waffle House, watch Nate eat Waffle, drive 3+ hours at 80-85mph, pass the competition (on the highway, this was the only time I would pass Adam all day) arrive an hour before start time, warm-up, pre-ride, forget excedrin, GO!! There were more people in the race this year, 11, maybe 15. I don't really know. I took the whole-shot. I always do, I don't know any better and I get anxious following on single track. I felt really good, at least pretty good considering (4 hours sleep, 3 days on bike in last month, mild heatstroke and soreness from kickball the day before, etc...). First half of the first lap I was really hammering. Second half involved about a mile and a half of fresh singletrack and that's where it started to unravel. My preparation caught up with me. Stomach was upset so I didn't eat, and I started to soft pedal to ease up on my legs. Just after the start of the second lap second place came around me. I went slower. Adam caught me right before the water station and soon after that I started getting chills (in 85 degree heat?) leg cramps and mild hallucinations. I stopped. It felt good. I stood on the side of the trail and ate stuff and chilled out for like 10 minutes. Watched 4 riders ride by, they said I had an unsettling smile on my face. I must have been hallucinating still. I was thinking of quiting. Got back on, kept riding, cramping got much much worse. I didn't know I even had that many different muscles in my legs. At one point, nearing the finish, I stood up on a little rise and first my left, then right legs completely locked out from the cramping and I nearly fell off the bike. I don't know what my split times were, but I bet my second lap was 15 or 20 minutes longer than my first.
Live and learn. Preparation has always been the cornerstone for me. Should have stayed in bed.

On a more musical note, the band played the Opry this weekend. Vince Gill was on. That guy's really amazing. Cyclocross season is coming and this race was a serious wake-up call.
Run on sentences are cool.

Mountains

In Bozeman today after traveling up from Santa Fe, through Crested Butte and Carbondale, CO. When I'm on tour, running is the thing so I've embraced it. Short shorts and all. Ran 12 miles today, mostly unintentionally. Brains still a little mushy, so I may cut this short.

Here's a shot from the Racoon Mountain Race (I think this was before the cramping started).

The wife and I have initiated relocation sequence. Got to get closer to the mountains. May be 5 years, may be 9 months, hard to say at the moment but the wheels are in motion. I have dreams of moving into my fathers house, 1 minute from 100's of miles of world class singletrack and fire roads. I'd probably have to add a tooth or two to the SS...

We're in Bozeman for a couple days, then heading over to Idaho and Oregon, Washington and California. More running. Next race is the last of the SERC series over in N.C. I intend to be about 5 lbs. lighter with some high altitude lungs to try to keep my streak alive (3 entries, 3 victories in SS XC since my return.

Golf

I've fallen in love with the sport I used to hate the most. It happened a month ago on what was supposed to be a trip centered around music and mountain bikes. I worked on a course doing maintenace (operating mowers) for 4 summers but only played 2/3 of a round of golf. I got a chance to go play my old course and now I'm ruined. I love it. "Pick up golf bag, put down brain," we'd always say.

So, today, instead of riding, I'll be golfing...

Raccoon Mountain SERC #8

David and the rest of the Gone Riding crew have got their act together. Registration was a snap, everyone knew what was going on (nice lady at registration gave me a highly accurate 8 second description of course). I'd not ridden Raccoon Mountain, and I imagine it's a great ride (with some rest stops) but it was a very tough day of racing. Hot, Dry, Dusty and Relentless. I battled cramps in my quadriceps the entire second lap, when I stood, they cramped and I only had one gear so I stood, a lot. I've never experienced anything quite like that. Heat was rough, Tanner took a couple spills, seemed like there was a lot of mild carnage. Trail wasn't tacky at all; every corner involved one or both of the tires breaking free. It reminded me a lot of riding back home on the front range of Colorado. Only with humidity. I couldn't imagine going 3 laps. I'd have quit after one if I'd had two more to go.

I didn't take pictures, I was too busy trying to cram myself into my Biker's Choice Kit. It feels like it's two sized too small until it gets sweaty. Speaking of which, David, sorry I haven't made more races this season, but I've been busy. I contributed to Tanner falling again (in the pre-ride). Sorry about that.

Anyway, today made me happy. I even got to mow the yard, which was nice.

So much to say

It's been a long time. I've been neglecting my blogging, started seeing it less as a duty and more as a burden. I didn't think anyone was reading this thing and as such, I let it slide down the priority list. Of course, as soon as I stopped, I ran into person after person quoting from my blog or asking about my single speed exploits. As such, I will attempt to sum up the last month in a digestible manner with visual aides.

So, in mid-May, the Dusters went on an epic Mid-Atlantic Tour through West Virginia, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Virginia, ending at DelFest in MD. It was on this tour that I hit a personal low point, which was just what I needed to find what I can only describe as a rebirth. It's interesting, as soon as I admitted that I couldn't just go it alone, like I'd tried for so many years, things started getting better. They actually got better immediately. Thanks to Julie and Sarah for your prayers, Jordan for your wisdom, and Eckhart Tolle and W.P. Young for putting words and ideas to paper. I see now. I don't know exactly what I was looking at before, but I see it now, and it's beautiful. The last two nights of that tour, in Charlottesville and at DelFest were amongst the most enjoyable of my life to that point.

Tour ended and I was home for 18 hours before I headed out again, this time on the most ambitious tour of my young career. I took two days to get to Albuquerque, stopping along the way in Oklahoma in Red Rock State Park and outside Tucumcari
to watch the sun set. There are times when things hit you just right and time and time again on this drive that evening it happened. At one point I fired up the iPod, random style (like opening a book and reading whatever is on the page in front of me, I occasionally will spin the iPod dial and listen to whatever comes up) and Mason Jennings song Be Here Now came up. Never has a song captured the moment so beautifully for me. I was racing across the desert, pumping my arms in the air, singing along and crying uncontrollably. This was the theme song for my moment. After that I listened to my wife's record, Say It Louder and really heard it for the first time. Kite is the most honest song ever written.

I picked Anders up at the ALB airport at 10pm, then busted out the nearly 4 hour drive to Durango in just over three and went to bed. We rehearsed for three days in preparation for our duo tour, sliding a ride, a round of golf (at Dalton Ranch the course I worked maintenance on for 4 summers between 2001 and 2004) two radio shows and a dinner party. The Book & Beck duo tour kicked off in Durango on the 28th with a song I'd just finished that day. Friends and family really know how to make a couple guys feel comfortable. Greg Andrulis and Robin Davis joined us a different times turning our duo into a trio. The second set was peppered with guests like Rob Brophy, Mark Epstein, Cindy Trautman, David Smith
(spontaneous tenor on a song we co-wrote via email) and the incredible Jimmy Largent. Truly one of the best nights of my life, capped off with a midnight Spades session with the old crew back at my mothers house.

Anders and I did three more shows, but that was the highlight. I dropped Anders off on Monday morning at DIA and headed to Palmer Lake to meet up with one of my mentors, Tim Watkins. Tim took me out for a single speed ride on some old turf punctuated by a detour over a trail he and another mentor Tom Allen built. I spent the next few days sleeping, reading and riding in Salida, Buena Vista and Palmer Lake. The Stringdusters Tour kicked off in Ft. Collins, routed through Steamboat and stopped off in Pagosa for the festival. Love that place. They say you can't come home again, but when your home is the top of the crest in the campground on Reservoir Hill, you CAN come home, twice a year, actually.

The band played two more Colorado shows, allowing me the opportunity to do another ride following a trail that I half built in high school. Locals have latched onto and finished this ambitious 4-7 miler and it's now completely rideable from front to back. Now it just needs a name...

Last few days of the tour I got in another epic ride with Missouri locals George and Kevin. They've built a 13.5 mile singletrack loop on George's family spread overlooking the Meremac River. We rode it one way, and I couldn't get enough so we turned around and rode it the other way. Truly some of the best riding I've ever done. Thanks to Kevin and George for keeping on me about coming out. Saying yes rarely gets me in trouble and usually leads me to discoveries like that day. Beautiful. Drove home through the rain and arrived safely in Nashville, with 4700 more miles on my Toyota and a whole bunch of dirt splayed across my car, bike and all my gear. Truly an epic road trip.

So, I'm home for a couple days. The band's working on new music and having a band meeting or two. The weather's nice, I got in a good ride through Percy Warner on the Cross bike yesterday, will likely get in another before this weekend. It'll be all running after that leading up to the next mountain bike race at Raccoon Mountain June 28.

I must say, in closing, that it has been wonderful to see and meet so many amazing people on my travels. It was also a blessing to get to play my own music, nearly 15 compositions, on the duo tour. Anders was a good sport about learning my tunes and playing them those four nights. This next Dusters project is going to be great and I hope to record my own record on the heels of that. The sun is shining, the sky is blue and it is what it is, and that's all that it is.