7.31.2005

07.31.05 - 5th at the 101 (short version)

5th place. eataugh won, some guy i didn't know got 2nd, rob l tied with 3rd, then the guy i beat at the 8 hour last week (visit PA guy), then me.

finishing time was just under 7 hours for chris - i came in around 50 minutes later. finished the day with one flat.

hendershot finished 6th, skip brown from seven was 7th riding a fully rigid single speed and cameron chambers DNF'd due to some mechanicals and fatigue.

talked to chris eataugh a lot after the race - pretty cool guy.

gotta run - sneaking in a short ride today.

sologoat out

7.29.2005

07.29.05 - final preparations

for the 101 are about to be complete.

it has been a very hard rest week as i have had to battle off the "lance armstrongs" of the bike trail whom find it their very mission to chase a guy down looking like a million bucks on his cool asylum 29r with their street shoes and their helmet on backwards and sounding like they are going to cough out their lung.

ah, what he has done is good for the sport - just an annoyance i guess.

so, i have figured out some of my food stuff for the 101 but i think i'll bounce it off of brett ont the way out to the 101. somthings that sound like a good idea really are not, so i want to get his two cents.

that's it - not too much exciting stuff going on. after this weekend, i'll rest up for the norba marathon at snowshoe and then two days later finish up the 6 hour series up in new york at the suicide six.

then - dah, dunta, dah - worlds.

gotta run - i still have to do a short ride before brett shows up and is yelling at me that i'm not ready.

oh - and check out JEFF KERKOVE's BLOG PAGE. he'll be out at 24 hours of nine mile this weekend, where last year he raced against mr. cameron chambers.

whom will race against mr. chambers? will he race at the 24 of nine mile, or make an appearance at the 101 where he'll race single speed worlds in the next few weeks.... hmmmmmm....

stay tuned - short recap will be posted sunday.

sologoat out!

7.27.2005

07.27.05 - my legs


07.25.05 - my legs
Originally uploaded by solo_goat.

causes of cuts on my legs:
1. jagger bushes on last weekends course
2. one of three crashes last weekend
3. training scars from my next job as an ultimate fighter. my special fighting skills include both tripping and an unknown forbidden form of attacking with compliments.

07.27.05 - my side


07.25.05 - my side
Originally uploaded by solo_goat.

causes of this wierd brusing:
1. bruise marks from muscle spasm in back
2. one of three crashes last weekend
3. my killer side crunch workout that i have never done.

07.27.05 - getting ready for the 101

ah.... just confirmed some reservations at my buddy bill a's place in state college for the 101 this saturday. meeting him and our old friend richie rich at his place, and bringing brett davis (look up the transiowa results - he finished!) along for the drive out. entry was somewhat steepish (in the $130 area) but splitting the cost on gas and a free place to stay should help out.

that's the only thing that kind of stinks about enduro racing - a lot of money goes into it and most times not a lot of money comes back. i look at it as "bettering" myself - get to see cool places, ride awesome trails, meet interesting people, see the bike industry, and hopefully have a good time. as with anything in life, if you don't have the passion for it, don't do it. i thought i lost the passion a few years back for racing, but enduro racing got me sucked back into it.

anyhoo, always good to get to a race at a cheapo rate. format is somewhat different than what i am used to - i like looped courses. you can somewhat plan out your feeds/food/etc.

this course has a bunch of neutral feeds (4 or 5 of them) and you are allowed to have stash bags of your own goodies place stragically at two of them. nobody is allowed to help you other than other people racing. i am thinking a camelback is probably a no-brainer, a large bottle of some magic potion on the bike and some more magic flasks in my back pockets. i have been contemplating food on this course for awhile now - just don't want to run out of calories.

looks like hendershot (santa cruz syndicate) will be there along with skip brown (seven cycles) and, of course, chris eatough (trek) - these will be the guys to watch, though i have a sneaky suspicion that nat ross and/or mr. cameron chambers (gary fisher) might show up as i know cameron is coming into state college for the sinlge speed world championships. and then, there are always a couple unknowns that you need to watch out for.

that's it for tonight - got to get my beauty sleep.

sologoat out.

7.26.2005

07.26.05 - more solo worlds news

for those whom are going to the event - here is a couple of things to take remember..

1. take a camera - and extra film/memory cards. the place is unbelievably beautiful.

2. get there early in the day. they close the road going to the venue at 10pm, so if you don't leave vancouver by 7'ish forget it. the 150% close the road due to blasting and they don't let a single car pass until 4am'ish. don't know if this is still the case, but don't say i didn't warn you.

3. whistler is expensive - there are some small towns on the left hand side of the road that have grocery stores. plan on stocking up BEFORE you get into town.

4. whistler also gets cold at night - pack accordingly.

5. whistler also doesn't have a ton of bike shops with cross country parts - they either have super low end stuff or silly downhill equipment.

6. i think you can ship your stuff out via UPS/FEDEX early to them - check the andrenaline site for details. this could save you mucho money.

7. 2 forms of identification - you'll be going through customs, pal.

8. if you are racing elite - you need to be there on friday. in the afternoon, they have a special sign in and meet the press deal thingy. i missed this last year and was bummed out.

hmmmm...

that's it..

oh and tip #9

9. race as hard as you can.

sologoat out.

07.26.05 - world solo newsletter post

hey all - here is an update from worlds i got today. thought i'd pass the info out...


WSC Newsletter #1 – 2005

Hello all 24 Hours of Adrenalin World Solo Participants,

With a little less than forty days until the big event, I am sure that you are training hard and efficiently. For those of you that traveled to the WSC over the past years you have a leg up on the rookies. However, we will be communicating with you every week until the event weekend with information to assist in your planning.

First, Jennifer Sheardown our past years coordinator has taken a full time job in Vancouver. I for one would like to thank Jenn for her dedication towards the 2004 WSC.

Our new coordinator can be reached on our customer service line at 416-275-5155 ext. 102 or at worldchampionships@twenty4sports.com

Membership Profile Area

In developing our new membership registration area last year, one of our goals was to make everything available for you within your profile. Not just the registration itself, but also other elements that last year were handled through phone calls and email. In 2005 you are able to;

1. Order tables, tents and chairs as needed
2. Order your “Awards Dinner” tickets
3. Extra ‘Pit Passes’ as needed… please note that each athlete receives their own pass included in the registration. Pit pass includes entrance into the solo pit area and unlimited gondola access from the base of Whistler Mountain to Base II.
4. World Solo Finisher Jersey

Host Hotel

For the last two years we have been treated to an amazing host hotel, the Westin Spa & Resort Whistler. The Westin provided a “one stop shopping” if you like experience. The Westin hosted the athlete registration, athlete press conference & mandatory meeting, secure bike storage on its main floor, the “Awards Dinner” and of course a special room rate, only for WSC athletes and their families. Again we are happy to provide WSC athletes the same rate as last year… $119.00 (in Canadian dollars). Information is online under host hotel.

Olympics

Did we say Olympics… many of you may know that Whistler/Vancouver is hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics and development is moving in a rapid fashion. Since our event is situated right on Whistler-Blackcomb part of our solo loop is now under development for the luge / bobsled run. We are currently finalizing the course for 2005, which will have a number of new course changes. The new profile will be posted very soon.

So athletes stay healthy and train right and have fun doing so.

Be well,

Stuart Dorland
Founder
24 Hours of Adrenalin™

7.25.2005

07.25.05 - ernesto at the roundtop


07.25.05 - ernesto at the roundtop
Originally uploaded by solo_goat.

07.25.05 - round top recap (long version)

7.22 - friday
got a late start out of town due to me sleeping in as i was somewhat beat down from the day before coupled with the fact that my maid (myself) did not do any packing in the days leading up departure. gets super hard to get anything done during my long hour week of training other than the basic ride/work/eat/sleep combo as free time is something i don't have. so, i get to my parents place to meet up with dan the man around 1'ish.

the drive took forever and then some as the race was taking place in athens PA - which is about 10 miles south of elmira new york (exit 60 on route 86). lets just say it was an easy 2.5 hours past ellicottville where the 6 hours of power was.

get there and start riding the course which i believe was roughly 7-8 miles long. started with a lot of double track 4 wheeler trails that went gradually uphill, along with some smaller sections of single track thrown in. these sections had loose flat rocks all over and were dusty and rooty - all thanks to the 4 wheelers. nothing was majorly bad, but one had to constantly switch lines back and forth on the trail to avoid the deep ruts/roots/rocks.

and then you went down.

this was interesting - a super bermed switch backs backed down hill complete with super dug out ruts, lots o' dust, and rocks a plenty. this went on for awhile and was compelted by a super steep and short uphill section that went to a flattened out area.

this then transitioned into some cool little singletrack that was tight and turny that eventually led to a place where i could get feeds and time splits from dan the man as it came out of the woods near the start/finish line.

then back into more single track that was twisty/turny with lots of rocks and switch backs. nothing ever was straight - you were either dodging trees or going up short steep little climbs.

this eventually came out to a little down hill that led up to the longest climb of the day (maybe a 3-4 minute climb max) that led up to the start/finish.

pre-race lap time was right around an hour. race lap times would be TWENTY minutes faster.

7.23 - saturday/race day
get up at 6am to grab a bite to eat at some place like a denny's, then off for the 30 minute drive to the race. a "visitpa.com" guy was there whom was part of the duo team that took second at big bear - that was the only guy i knew of that would be of concern.

lemans start/lap 1:
we run through the woods and out into a field for the quarter mile run to our bikes. i am about the 10th guy in but due to my cross skills, i quickly grab my bike, run and leap in full cyclocross style into 3rd place. (it pays to have mad skillz, yo.

the start goes up a gravel road up a short little climb that immediately weeds everybody out. the visitpa guy is about 100 feet in front of me, a local is right behind him and i am sitting in third. at this point, my heart rate is flying around 187 and i am not feeling good - which may have to do with the fact that i had over 20 hours in my legs this week and that i took heavy narcotics the night before to ease the pain i had in my back from muscle spasms last week. so i decide at that point to race my own race, settle into my zone, and then pick them off at the 6 hour point.

lap 2:
going up the first gradual climb of the loop, i catch second - and he already has the tell tale signs of going out too hard - rolling shoulders, all over the trail, head down... i fly right by him. i get a time split at the end of the lap on first and find out he is about 2:30 minutes ahead of me.

lap 3:
I still haven't caught the visitpa guy and i am getting somewhat concerned. i am not feeling in my groove and by laps end, it still seems like i cannot find the right lines as i have crashed pretty good twice. at the end of the lap, i find out he has 3 minutes on me. grrr.....

lap 4:
i continue pushing on as hard as i can, finally feeling like i am finding the lines on the course. i am now in the zone at this point, where it feels like i can go as hard as i want and feel no lactic acid, where i almost get so concentrated on my objective that all i see is the trail in front of me - it feels euphoric. about half way through the lap, i catch the visitpa guy whom looks like he had a flat. i don't wait aroud to see what is going on, and push on. on the downhill before the final climb i hit a rock and my rear wheel starts having a very slow flat. so i lock out the front fork, unweight the rear wheel and power up the last climb with just enough air to get me safely to the top.

lap 5:
get a fresh bike while dan repairs the flat. by laps end, i find out he is 5 minutes back.

lap 6:
i now find out he is on a single speed bike, apparantly a victim of bad luck (later find out he lost the pin holding his rear brake pads in and had to ride a backup single speed bike for one lap). knowing that there was no possible way he could ride some sections with that bike, i go out as hard as i can. by laps end, he is now over 10 minutes back.

lap 7:
visitpa guy now back on a geared bike, but the damage is done. he tries to catch me, but i only put another 3 minutes into him uping my time gap to 13 minutes -- despite having a flat somewhere around lap 6.

now to hours: 6 hour point
i have now lapped the entire solo field and start to ride conservatively for i have to a little somethin' somethin' for the wilderness 101 this coming weekend.

7 hours 50 minutes:
the race organizer informs me that it is impossible for 2nd place to win and that i have won based on time and he will declare me the winner if i want to stop riding - but if i want to another lap, i can. thinking about this for about roughly one billionth of a second i tell him i'll stop. race over.

after:
speedgoat.com is awarded two prizes:

1rst place solo - sologoat/ernesto marenchin
1rst place best mechanic - dan the man

7:30pm'ish
start driving to ellicottville.

9:55pm'ish:
at a bar in ellicottville drinking a cold pint and ordering up a juicy burger. yummy.

sunday:
9am ride on the 6 hours of power course with dan. 2 laps at around a total time of 2.25 hours.

and by 5:30pm, up to see jennifer and her family. huge meal topped off with her famous triple choclate cake that i actually had visions of during my race the previous day. mmmmm.... choclate...

once again, dan the man came through with the support from speedgoat.com and asylum bikes. it is no doubt that i would never have had the chance to race at this level, with this type of support and with the quality of components to race with if it wasn't for them.

thanks speedgoat!

sologoat out.

7.24.2005

07.24.05 - round top recap (short version)

it's late, i am tired. here is the short recap.

race started, i was third in the woods.

we raced a ton of loops.

3 flats, 3 crashes.

i lapped the field in 6 hours and won at the 8 hour mark.

dan the man was also voted "best mechanic" of the race.

longer version tomorrow... must sleep...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

sologoat out.

7.20.2005

07.20.05 - gearing up for new york

hello enduro freak fan.

not much going on today, just wrapped up another long day in the saddle getting ready for the 8 hours at round top this weekend in PA then out to PA again next week for the wilderness 101. should be good to get in some more races and long mileage.

heading out friday with dan the man to PA to pre-ride the 8 hour course. nothing special with the bikes - just running normal setup, though i may be putting on some new tires for worlds. been running the schwable little alberts which seem to be working awesome, but they are a little soft and tend to wear out pretty quick. definetly great race tires, but i would go the more el cheapo route and get something else for day to day training.

speaking of which - been riding the vicious a lot lately (the one i rode at trans iowa). rode the k monkey a lot last year in my training, but the vicious is setup a little nicer for the long rides and the k monkey needs some TLC that i don't have time for.

the tour - pretty amazing. discovery with mutiple stage wins - really hoping lance pulls off the time trail win coming up in a few days.

speaking of time trail - i did a one hour time trail today on the vicious. she was flying. i have about a 20 mile'ish route that earlier this year before big bear that i beat my personal best time by over 6 minutes that i always do -- i was super pumped that day. well - today i just beat my personal best time again by 3 minutes. just pumped up that everything seems to be coming together really well this year.

and - did you see my fancy web page editing that i just did? added some more sponsor links and even the hammer link with an image. ewww.... i am so smrt. oops. i mean smart. ha, ha....

hammer stuff i use - heed, hammer gel, sustained energy, anti fatigue caps, endurolytes, race caps and mito-r caps. good stuff - gets me through the toughest of training days and races and doesn't upset this delicate flowers stomach.

gotta run - pretty beat down and i need some rest. one more post before round top and then the next post will be the race recap.

oh - and wanted to give a shout out to all my pals out at superweek -- may you have good legs, huge lungs and stay upright. pro/1/2 - jim b and paul martin, and in the 30+, tris hopkins and brian b. rage on with your bad 'selves.

sologout out.

7.19.2005

07.19.05 - back muscle spasms suck

saturday night - enjoying a nice relaxing evening of watching "life aquatic" with bill murray. brilliant movie. and if you haven't seen him in "lost in the translation" go out and rent it. i'm a huge indy type movie buff - both are excellent choices.

anyhoo...

was putting away some laundry and there was a sharp pain in my mid back area. i said to jennifer, "wow, that kind of hurt". well, it hurt like hell two minutes later as my muscle spasmed out of control swelling up to the size of my hand and was about an inch high. i was getting light headed, having trouble breathing and the pain was out of this world. i sat up and asked jennifer how it looked and she had this face on her like an alien was about to pop out of my back.

well, three hours later after the doctor (whom name was brian adams - no joke) said "i've never seen anything like that" and a shot of valium in me, along with some ibuprofen and two types of heavy medication, i was on my way home with what was classified as a major muscle spasm. the doc said he had seen spasms before but not like this one because i have no fat on me -- and it made it look really bad. he said with most people, you can't even really tell the muscle is all tweaked.

freaky.

so, sunday i was all doped up on narcotics and took the day off. i'm off of them aleady because i hate taking stuff that strong. it took away the pain - but it also took away any type of feelings (in general) as well. i just hate sitting around feeling nothing, so i'm not taking them and now i am strictly on ibuprofen.

sooooooooo...

yesterday was back on my schedeule and today i am about to head out on the second part of double ride for the day. fun, fun.

this weekend - off to the 8 hours of roundtop with dan the man. should be a good time - race on saturday, then head back over to ellicottville saturday night to stay at my sisters condo. ride there in the AM, then back to the lovely town of kent ohio later in the day. good training weekend - hopefully this training/racing will pay off in september at whistler, but i think i have been reaping some race win benefits gettting there, so it isn't so bad.

gotta run - sologoat out.

7.15.2005

07.15.05 - 6 hours of power race pic


07.15.05 - 6 hours of power race pic
Originally uploaded by solo_goat.

one of my favorites from the local yocal photographer.

all his pics can be seen at the "6 hours of power pics" below.

07.15.05 - 6 hours of power pic


07.15.05 - 6 hours of power #1
Originally uploaded by solo_goat.

pic from my pre-ride last saturday.

07.15.05 - tinkers 12 hour and a nut case

tinkers 12 hour:
found an event on his blog referencing a 12 hour on october first. hmm... google found me here:

http://www.tmr-unlimited.com/events.html

looks to be an event at bootleg canyon (home of interbikes demo days and one cool little mountain bike park). race info not up yet as they had to switch venues to bootleg canyon due to some wildfires destroying some of the original venues trails. looks interestingly convenient as i will be out there for interbike anyway, dan the man will be there too, and all my sponsors will be in town as well to maybe help with support. but - i have to think of georgia too on october 15th and the nevada heat as well....

regarding a nut case, got this from beth at the shop:

..... I thought of you and wanted to kid you about your training when I saw this article in VeloNews about the Slovenian soldier who won RAAM in 9 days/8 hours. There is this quote from him about how the training must be suffering and the hardest part is the sleep deprevation, so part of his training is doing a 24 hour race, not sleeping and then riding the next day and not sleeping and then riding the NEXT day and not sleeping -- 3 days of riding with no sleep.

so for all you enduro freaks out there - we have just been topped by a RAAM freakazoid. (maybe he should try RED BULL!)

and..

my mistake on the 101 - yes, there is neutral support at designated areas. what i meant to say was that you could not have your own support giving handups, helping you in any way, etc. support will be at the stops with at least water and some assortment of goodies.

gotta run - microsoft SQL reading to do! fun, fun.

sologoat out.

7.14.2005

07.14.05 - 6 hours of power pics

can be seen here:

6 hours of power - sologoat pics

upcoming races:

7.23.05 - 8 hours of round top

7.30.05 - wilderness 101

both are new venues for me. round top is a looped race (think the distance is around 9 miles), should be pretty much the standard 'thang. lap, bottle, lap, bottle... just like the 6 hours of power - but only different. dah.

the 101 - one friggin' huge gigantic mega super duper 100 mile loop with 5 food stops. and to note - NO NUETRAL support. yep, you send bags ahead and they have them at the stops. all refueling done via yourself. don't know about this type of format for me as i tend to flip out very easily during races and if i can't find my bags i will go ballistic. should be interesting none-the-less. oh, and all the big guns will be there too getting in a warm-up for worlds and possibly the NORBA enduro coming up next month.

that's it - gotta roll. big ride today - 4 hours'ish.

rain, rain, stay away. i need to listen to my ipod today.

ride your brains out. sologoat out.

7.13.2005

07.13.05 - night ride

just got back from a night ride. had to work in dayton for the past couple of days, which sucks, but it gave me an opportunity to sharpen the technical skills with some riding down in the columbus area. it's a pretty short trail down there (only takes about 35-40 minutes), so i do that three times and i am pretty beat up.

well, yesterday i rode there in the early AM for two hours and then came back for another two because i don't know where to ride at down in dayton. traffic was a nightmare both ways so it made for a long day. after riding, showering and eating, i looked at the clock and it was 11:30pm. and i had been up since 5am. yucko.

sort of a long riding week for me, so i should be nice and tired come sunday evening. had a couple of emails/messages from people asking me if they could tag along on a ride and/or meet up for one.

email me at solo_goat(at)yahoo.com.

replace the (at) with an @ and send me off an email - i usually check that account about twice a week, so give me a few days to respond. and - if you do want to tag along, that is cool - but i usually don't travel to go out for a ride and i can't promise the most exciting of rides, but i can promise no traffic. just letting ya know.

hmmmmmmmmm....

got some pics from the 6 hour last week - i promise to have them up before friday evening...

wilderness 101 coming up - 101 miles of pure fun. 5 feed zones/areas. should be interesting as i hear it is an awesome place to ride. but - everybody tells me to bring extra tubes. i wonder what that could mean? (subliminal hint - ROCKS!)

and - one other race coming up. 8 hours of roundtop out in PA should fit in nicely with my summer of fun.

that's it - it is midnight and i need to crash out.

sologoat out. zzzzzzzzzzzz......

7.11.2005

07.11.05 - another race, another victory

finally - a win at the 6 hours of power. been wanting this one for a few years.

got to the venue at ellicottville on friday and ran into the race organizer and a local rider pat (sorry, don't know your last name) whom was marking the course over some new sections they had just cut in. the new sections were somewhat fresh and a little soft, with lots of rocks and roots. instead of bombing straight down hill after the last climb on the course, the sections meandered back and forth their way do the bottom.

got out of the woods at dark. ate and then slept.

saturday, awoke at 10am to rain. waited it out and then rode the course two times for a total riding time of two hours. the course was fast.

sunday, race day.

started at 10am with the typical running start. ligned up on the starting line with my eye on a few of the fellow racers, most noteably skip brown of seven cycles. gun goes off and my plan to go out hard was in full effect. got to the top of the first climb with the leaders and with some other solo guys in tow. towards the end of the first lap, it was apparant that i had two companions with me, along with three other solo riders. we finish lap one.

lap two:
i continue putting the hammer down and the only solo riders with me are two other riders as i had dropped everybody else. we stay together the entire lap, going as hard as we can.

lap three:
going up the climb, i start feeling the heat and the effects of going out hard. i drop back to take a look at the other riders. they look like they are suffering, but overall are looking OK. it's about this time they both throw down. i chase them, and catch them. i look at my heart rate monitor - it reads 192. i think that this is waaaaaaaaaaaay too high for only an hour and half in the race and back off to the 180'ish heart rate area. they slowly ride away and out of site. i think they are going too hard.

lap four:
i am feeling it. i am not feeling good, but push on wondering if i went out too hot. i try not to think about it and continue to ride. one of the lead solo guys has a technical near the end of the lap. i pass him and he never catches back up to me.

lap five:
with only one solo rider ahead of me by two minutes, i get a report from my pit crew that he is not looking good and keeps turning around to see if i am coming. i am - and i catch him about half way through the lap.

lap six:
trying to stay consistant, i keep riding hard. the red bull is keeping me going and reports that skip is chasing me has me doing faster lap times.

lap seven:
now taking in two flasks of red bull per lap, i am buzzing with energy. i rip off another fast lap and skip is nowhere in sight. at the end of the lap, i find out that i have an eight minute gap on him and the time clock reads total elapsed time at 5:53. time for another lap.

lap eight:
i am still going on hard, not wanting skip to catch me and i did not find out until after i crossed the line that he missed the 6 hour cut off by one minute. none-the-less, i continued on with the lap going hard on the climbs and flats, and riding fast and safe on the techinical. finished up around the 6:47 time mark, first solo. (and had i entered as a duo team, i would of placed top 5)

afterwards, felt good to the monkey off my back of not winning the race in previous years. it may not be a major event, but i have been wanting to win this race ever since i started doing racing this event about 6 years back.

paid out well for me, was a good course with great weather. bikes worked good and food was right on. perfect.

now, off to do some work. have some pics to post later in the week.

gotta run.

sologoat out.

7.08.2005

07.08.05 - i'm going to love new york

not much going on the past couple of weeks, just easy/moderate riding to recover from big bear and then off today to:

6 HOURS OF POWER

great race for me to do - somewhat shorter distance, el cheapo to race and the big benefit was my sister and brother-in-law's condo right at the venue. sweet.

course starts off with a decent climb (oh, darn!) and then is mostly tight rocky/off camber twisty turny single track, with a couple of shorter single track climbs thrown in. lap times should be around 50 minutes'ish. this year i'll be coming into the race in better conidtion overall (not beatup, not tired, etc) so i am hoping for some good legs this weekend.

after that, i am heading out to the wilderness 101 near the penn state area in my home state of pennsylvania. been wanting to do this race for years, but i never went out because of one silly reason or another. the big guns will more than likely be out there as usual. course is rocky, has a lot of single track, is one big massive loop and should run about 10 hours'ish. ton's o fun. as a side note, this race is being put on by chris scott, which, if you look back in the granny gear days back at snowshoe and canaan, was a fellow enduro freak -- before being an enduro freak was cool.

his race can be found here:
WILDERNESS 101

then...

i actually found another race to do this month - inbetween the 101 and the 6 hour. should fit in nicely with my schedule and looks to be a decent course in length and is not a killer 24 hour. check back for more info in the weeks to come, though i can tell you i will race it as i have made all the plans to be there...

hmmmmmmmmm.....

been considering purchasing a little trailer/3rd wheel called a scamp. there's a local yocal with one for sale. small enough to pull using my subaru outback, but i don't know if it is worth it or not. would be interested to here from any riders out there whom has a little trailer on the pro's/con's of it. the trailer i am looking at is 16 feet long.

the trailer web site is here:
SCAMP TRAILER

that's about it - out to new york to study the course today, more tomorrow, and then race on sunday. i have ridden/raced on this course at least 5 times in the past - now it is time to really study my lines.

gotta run - more microsoft SQL training... fun, fun.

see you in new york.

sologoat out.

7.05.2005

07.05.05 - he posts again

hey all...

been hella busy lately - sorry for the lack of posts in the past few days...

been on a rampage trying to find some more races that are not 1000 miles away and that have some type of payout. seriously - they are hard to find. rest of the year looks like:

6 hours of power
wilderness 101 (though, i can't find a flyer on this one....)
norba snowshoe enduro
suicide six
solo worlds - 24 hour
(filler race here between worlds and georgia - maybe another 24?)
conyers - 24 hour
(and maybe a few more races, if i can find any!)

then, i am finishing off the season with the cleveland cross series that starts the week AFTER conyers (oh joy!). should get an early cross race somewhere in september, as there is a cool little cross race up near the lake up in cleveland. last year, i ended up second overall in the cleveland cross series and even ended up winning one as well - beating out mr. paul martin himself whom was having a bad day of crashes and mechanicals. was going well throughout the series because of my 24 hour fitness, but kind of died on the last race and nearly lost my second place as i finished a horrible 9th place (or something close to that).

so....

anyhoo...

the santa cruz sold (yahoo!) and will be shipping out tomorrow.

got the asylums back - new chainrings, cable all adjusted, frame polished, new pads... my babies are ready to roll up in new york.

check out jeff's page - he got the new cateye light systems unveiled!

hmmmm... that's it for tonight.

maybe a post or two before new york - where my arch nemisis skip brown from seven has beaten me a few times there. grrrrr....... (that is the sound i make when i am mad with fury....)

time to hit the hay...
sologoat out.

7.01.2005

07.01.05 - looking forward to a long weekend..

hey sologoat fan, word up.

sorry for not posting too much lately - been studying for a micrsoft sql certification (exam #70-228, to be exact). been taking practice exams like crazy, and reviewing/reading a few exam books i have. it is so much fun that i will spare you the details. for blog posting fun, tomorrow i will quiz you with a random practice test question. something dealing with microsoft security, maybe using mixed mode authentication in an established domain. you will need to verify the security role and establish/change the role using a transaction SQL statement.

study up or give bill gates a call.

tomorrow, off to the 'goat. hope to get there super early, ride and then meet up with chris and some of the guys from the shop. ride around a little, maybe do some climbing, then down to the shop to look over the magic dan the man has worked on bike #2 and then hand over bike #1 for some minor adjustments including a little cut off the steerer tube. that should be about it for bike adjustment stuff. been maybe thinking about that new SRAM trigger shifter for the rear, but i don't know if they are out or not.

oh - and if anybody is running the 29'r REBA, DOUBLE CHECK YOUR POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE AIR! why? because dan the man told me that rock shock shipped some of the 29r forks with silly 26r STICKERS (the REBA is also available in a 26 inch version). soooooooooooo... the air settings you see on your fork may actually be for the wrong fork - double check your manual, or download one off their site.

how did i find this out? i mentioned to dan the night before big bear that the fork just seemed to be riding rough and not too plush. that made him think.... then we downloaded the manual via my laptop. his hunch was correct - i had the wrong sticker on my fork. we adjusted in the morning, i rode it down pit row about 100 feet and turned around and said it felt good. that was about 15 minutes before the start of the race.

hmmmmmmm....

next race - the 6 hours of power in new york. this race is driving me nuts - i have come in 2nd something like 3 times and last year i got third, but it was two weeks after snowshoe - so i was a little cooked. this year - all i can is that i am 100% recovered so i am fresh going into it. should have better results. course has a nice steady climb right at the begining, tight twisty single track all over the place. nice course, about a 50 minute lap. last year, i was just about to catch second, but i missed the cut off by about 3 minutes. first and second were within 10 minutes of me. what's nice about this race is, my sister has a condo right at the venue - and i am only about 4 hour drive away. very economical....

for those needing a frame - my old santa cruz is about to go on ebay. i think sunday is the day it will end. right now, i have a solo 300 bid on the frame and old fork -- little bit of sologoat history being sold off. this frame actually won snowshoe in 2004, and i believe also took a second place there in 2003. ah, the memories.

gotta go - need to pack up for tomorrow - looks like it is going to be nice riding weather.

sologoat out.